Chapter 373 - Cooking Contest in Paris (3)

When Bastien announced it, Min-joon and Kaya leisurely headed to him. A loaf of white bread, double cream with unsalted butter, raisins, and milk fat, milk and refined sugar, vanilla berries and eggs, powdered sugar and apricot jam, apricot compote, and coagulated cream.

The first thing Min-joon did was to cut the rim of the bread and get only its white bread inside.

After putting a layer of white bread on the plate, Min-joon put raisins on it. Then he was putting the remaining four layers of bread on top of the raisins, and Kaya was making pudding ingredients on one side.

Kaya mixed double cream, milk, and sugar on a pan. When she poured the seeds from the vanilla fruit and boiled them slowly, Min-joon, who set the bread in advance, split three eggs into the bowl. And at that moment, she poured the liquid she boiled carefully over it, and he quickly stirred it with a whisk.

Then he poured the mixture onto the bread, and put the plate with the bread and the mixture in a double pot before putting it again in the oven. After that, the two had to rest for 30 minutes, for there was nothing they could do while it was in the oven.

As a result, the two were more relaxed than anyone else in the place. It was not strange at all that other participants looked at them strangely.

Kaya said while giggling, “If we lose after we’re done so early like this, what a humiliation!”

“We won’t lose.”

“How come you are so convinced?”

“Your skills and mine. Our skills are superb, as you know.”

“You make me feel ashamed.”

She looked around, as if she felt embarrassed.

After 30 minutes passed, Min-joon took the contents out of the oven, sprinkled refined sugar on it again, and glazed it lightly with a torch. The charred sugar made the bread butter pudding shinier.

And what he did next was simple. He spread lots of apricot jam over the pudding then served it with clotted cream, along with candied apricots and apricot compote. Now their dish was complete.

[Bread and Butter Pudding with Apricot Compote and Clotted Cream]

Freshness: 96%

Country of origin: (Hidden because of several ingredients)

Quality: High

Cooking score: 8/10

There was no miracle like cooking score 9. But Min-joon was confident enough with this score. This was a good dish. He could not be sure if he could bring out a better taste even if he got a better cooking score.

When they finished cooking, they had still one minute left. They didn’t run out of time. In fact, if they wanted to finish it quickly, they could have done it about 15 minutes ago. But they didn’t. Even if they had made it earlier, the dish must have gotten cold by now.

At that moment, Bastien came to the two. He sniffed slightly then opened his mouth.

“It looks like you cooked it well. What do you think?”

Min-joon replied, “I think I’m going to be the star of this qualifying round. I’m positive.”

When he said that, Kaya looked at Min-joon with a ridiculous expression.

“Hey, we have made it together. Don’t take away my credit.”

Min-joon looked down and said, “Well, I’m sure the two of us are going to be the star pair.”

The young, genius cook, who was full of confidence until a moment ago, quickly found himself humiliated by his girlfriend all of a sudden. Bastien did not hide his uncontrollable laughter at his funny look. Min-joon cleared his throat in embarrassment.

“Hmm, I’m sure it’s well made anyway.”

“Okay, I look forward to it.”

Bastien left, smiling at him.

Min-joon looked back at Kaya with a slightly resentful look.

“Hey, why did you point out something like that?”

“You should not brag about yourself.”

“I’m sorry for that…”

“Then shut up and stay relaxed. Don’t look timid before the camera.”

Min-joon sighed and slowly managed his expression. Then he looked around. Most of the chefs finished cooking, but there were some pairs who were embarrassed because they couldn’t finish cooking properly even after more than one hour passed. .

However, no matter how much they regretted it, they could not help it. They could not cook any longer within the given time. For a chef not to be able to finish cooking on time would be a big problem for the restaurant. They could keep the customers waiting, but aside from making the customers feel bad, it could disrupt the flow of cooking if the chef didn’t finish cooking on time.

Kaya asked, “Do you think the other guys cooked well?”

“There aren’t as many people as I think who are looking confident.”

“It’s only natural they are so nervous since one out of ten participants here will drop out of the race anyway. It’s funny that we’re not nervous from the beginning.”

While saying so, she also felt somewhat embarrassed with an awkward smile. Many of the participants here could be called elite chefs. Some of them started learning to cook in earnest in restaurants when they were young, and others even went right to a professional cooking school to be a chef.

So, it was very strange that the two were not nervous when they didn’t learn cooking properly or go to a cooking school. It was also unfair because this contest showed how unfair results one’s cooking talent could bring about in the case of the two.

Min-joon looked toward Dobby and Eva. What they made was a tart with blue cheese.

If there was no system window, Min-joon would have been a little curious about the results. It took about 30 minutes to ripen tart dough, and it took another 30 minutes to cook it in the oven.

Given that they had to knead the dough and trim the ingredients, it was very hard for them to finish it in an hour. Nevertheless, the cooking score of the tart that Dobby made was 8 out of 10.

‘Is it blue cheese and blueberry sauce? This is a complete blue tart.’

Was it because of that? The name Min-joon saw on the system window was Blue Tart.

The moment he felt he wanted to try it, Dobby turned his head quickly. And his eyes met his, he just smiled at him. Min-joon also turned his eyes away hurriedly.

‘That blue tart really looks delicious.’

Thinking like that, he looked down at the bread and butter pudding. No matter how delicious Dobby’s dish was, it wouldn’t surpass his dish in terms of the sophistication of its taste, he thought.

And the judge’s rating began. Was it because there were as many participants from other countries as those from France? Bastien spoke more in English than French.

As a result, Min-joon could hear how harshly he was evaluating the participants’ dishes.

“It’s delicious, but I’ve tasted it somewhere. It means this dish has no creativity. It doesn’t matter if you want to open a small restaurant in your neighborhood, but you shouldn’t make this kind of dish for this competition.”

“Isn’t it too much to call this with some bread crumbs on it a dish that you applied bread?”

“Basically, the chef’s cooking skills are lacking. Of course, you don’t want to admit it. But I would point out the chef’s lack of basic skills. This is not caramelizing, but it’s almost burned.”

Min-joon felt like he was seeing Joseph now when Bastien, the judge, poured out such critical comments with a polite and kind expression.

Kaya muttered, “Gosh, it reminds me of the Grand Chef competition last year.”

“Yeah, you hear it in any competition.”

Of course, not everyone got bad feedback from the judge. There were some who got his good review with a caveat that they lacked some skills, and there were some who really got good feedback from him.

And it was Chloe and Anderson who were the first to be evaluated among the demi chefs from Rose Island. What they made was a dish made by putting rose pasta in whole wheat bread.

At a glance, it looked like a common dish everywhere, but the rose sauce was not common.

“Did you mix the sauce with spice ‘doubanjang’?”

“Yes. Not much, but just enough to have a moderate fragrance. We put some clove there. Thanks to that, the fresh taste of the rose sauce was more vivid,” Chloe replied with a smile, which would make anybody facing her eat it deliciously.

Thinking that the customers visited the kind of restaurant run by her, they could enjoy the dishes in a happy mood, Bastien said, “I saw you making pasta from raw noodles a little while ago. It seems like you are making a lot of pasta as a rule.”

“Yes, I’m in charge of the pasta section at the restaurant,” Anderson said.

“Then, which section is this lady here in charge of?”

“Oh, I’m not a chef yet.”

When Chloe said that, Bastien opened his eyes wide. In fact, all the chefs here were not just ordinary chefs, but extraordinary ones who had a good name. Then, how could this lady make pasta like this?

Bastien asked with a surprised look, “You’re not a chef?”

“No, I’m not. I’m thinking of getting a job soon, but I haven’t decided yet.”

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m a broadcaster on a TV cooking show. I quit, though.”

Bastien could not figure out how to react to her unexpected response. He just thought that she was also a chef because she belonged to the chefs of Rose Island.

But he felt she was competent enough as a chef despite her denial. For the one-hour cooking time, he just didn’t sit idle. He carefully watched the Anderson and Chloe pair making the dish carefully. And he knew she was responsible for controlling the formulation of the sauce among other things. As a result, the rosé farfalle pasta they made had a taste that could earn the universal praise of any gourmets.

‘Yeah, that’s why they praise Rachel Rose so much. How come she is hiding this kind of talented chef until now?’ Bastien thought to himself.

In fact, Chloe was not that close to Rachel, but Bastien didn’t know that.

Watching him speaking to her with patience, Anderson finally asked because he couldn’t stand it any more, “This is not for a broadcasting show, so you don’t have to delay the announcement. So, have we passed the test or not?”

“Well, the only praise I can give you now is yes, you have passed.”

“Thank you.”

Anderson nodded with a calm expression in a sharp contrast with Chloe who was smiling from ear to ear.

Bastien asked with a puzzled look, “Aren’t you happy?”

“I’m happy.”

“But you don’t look happy.”

“Well, I can’t afford to get excited right now. I’ve a long way to go, as you know.”

Anderson wasn’t pretending to be conceited. Rather, he was trying to participate in this qualifying round more seriously than anyone else right now. He knew he had been losing until now. So, he was hungry for victory. His rivals were so competent that he could not be content with being happy he just passed the qualifying round.