Chapter 398 - What Has Changed? (4)

Was it the power of language? Or was it the power of the system? After seeing that short phrase, it seemed that Cho Min-joon realized something that he had not been properly conscious of so far.

‘Sensual dish…’

When he thought of sensual dishes, the first thing that came to mind was Kaya’s cuisine.

She was the one who cooked more sensually than anyone he knew. The fact that she could cook such a fine dish even when she had never learned to cook properly was enough to prove her competence in sensual dishes.

So, he recalled all the dishes he had seen so far—Rachel’s dishes, Kaya’s cuisine, Dave’s dishes, Raphael’s cuisine, and Anderson’s dishes. The dishes of all kinds of people flashed through his head, and in the end, the dishes he had made so far slowly came to mind one by one then disappeared again.

‘I have to find my own senses.’

He delicately moved the knife in his hand. He felt the weight of the knife and the touch of its handle in his palm. But that wasn’t the sensation he really should feel. Cooking didn’t end with good cutting. Trimming the ingredients was just the beginning.

“Okay, let me make puree,” he said.

“Okay.”

Kaya responded briefly. He roasted the chopped shallots for a minute on a pan and soon began to boil them with peas, salt, and milk. In the tournament, he tended to have her take care of the puree, but he wanted to finish it on his own this time.

‘People used to tell me that making sauce was my primary specialty.’

He agreed with them. To be honest, it was difficult to say that his cooking was superior to that of Anderson, Chloe, or Kaya. Besides, his grilling skill was behind Kaya’s.

As far as making the sauce was concerned, it was a different story. He could make the dish requiring delicate boiling better than anybody else, for he could devise its recipe perfectly before cooking. Most chefs usually went through trial and error while making their own dish to find the best recipe, but he could figure out the most appropriate combination even before starting cooking. So it was only natural that he stood out among other chefs.

But just because chefs had the recipe, it didn’t mean that they could bring out the same taste. Cho Reggiano, his signature dessert. Lots of coffee shops and cafeterias in America were dealing with the dessert, but it was very rare that they reproduced the taste that Min-joon pursued.

Min-joon was competent in boiling, freezing, or aging something over a long period of time. To put it precisely, he could make the kind of dish very well that required a long wait, patience, and delicacy.

To analyze it, it might be necessary to go into the system to check the condition of his cooking every moment, but he originally had a talent for that. It was because he had a calm and easy temper, or it was because he was grown up in Korea, the leader of slow food. What was important was the nature of his senses. If Kaya was more sensitive to dealing with the heat than anyone else, he was really excellent in feeling the quiet and secret changes in the dishes he made.

While stirring the spatula, he felt the texture of the crushed peas touching the spatula and felt the water and milk getting mixed and solidified. He usually didn’t think deeply about it, but he came to find it really fresh that he could even feel the condition of cooking through the spatula, not his fingers.

It didn’t take long for him to finish the pea puree. The same was true of Kaya who roasted chicken leg patties, foie gras, chicken skins, and sprigs. Soon, they put the finished dishes on the plate. Kaya ate some pea puree and nodded.

“Well, we’ve put in more efforts this time, and it tastes definitely better than the one last time.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. The chewing texture of this one is softer than before. I can feel the taste of a good mix of milk and peas.”

He smiled brightly at her response like a child. When he thought about its recipe, he thought it was obviously perfect, but he was glad to know that the recipe had still room for further improvement only with the difference in concentration. And he was proud he made it.

Although there was no change in the cooking score, he did not care.

‘Well, it’s inevitable to have many different scores within the same score band.’

Even now, the two had lots of differences in their cooking style even if their cooking level was the same, 8. He slowly got down to plating with the finished dishes. Actually, the two finished first among other demi chefs. Of course, it was nothing new. When they were done, the way they used their hands was much faster than before. In particular, Kaya was much faster with her hands than other chefs.

“I really wanted to try this once.”

“Min-joon, can we try it first?”

“Sure. Anyway, when they bring out their dishes, you have to eat them again, so you can eat mine, so our process today will be faster.”

Min-joon nodded happily when Adrian and the other demi chefs at the Paris branch asked desperately. The demi-chefs hurriedly came to the table with the pair’s dishes and enjoyed trying them with forks and knives.

What they tried first were the scallops that the two had displayed the other day because they knew well which one between foie gras and scallops was better suited as an appetizer. They put the pea puree, cumin foam, greens, and slightly opened scallops in their mouths.

“Oh, it tastes good.”

“The scent of cumin foam is very peculiar.”

“Stop admiring it. Point out what’s wrong with it.”

“Well, if I have to, I think it lacks some crunchy feeling.”

“But if you think it’s an appetizer, it doesn’t matter even if you don’t feel a variety of texture here. Don’t you think so?”

“Yeah, I guess so. The variety of textures isn’t bad, but that matters when the taste alone isn’t enough.”

“Adding a lot of things doesn’t always result in better results, but if you had done it, it might have been better than this, right?”

“That’s right. I admit it.”

Min-joon did not bother to disagree. He was the one who offered the feedback idea first, so it would be embarrassing for him to be stubborn and argue with them over what they commented. It didn’t take long for other demi-chefs to participate in the debate. They didn’t give any particular feedback on the scallops, but when they tried his foie gras, they groaned at once.

“Didn’t you make something similar to this one last time?”

“At that time, I think I made foie gras with the meat with less fat. So this time, I refined my recipe a bit to make this one more sophisticated.”

“I remember the judges said they didn’t give you a perfect score because there was room for further improvement.”

“Well, I don’t like their feedback like that. Where can you find the dishes that have no room for further improvement? According to their logic, there is no dish they can give 10 points,” Kaya grunted.

Her complaint was reasonable to some extent. But she began to stop complaining in no time.

When she tried other demi chefs’ dishes, she began to comment, trying to be more strict and stern than the judges. What she was judging now was the scallops dish made by Anderson and Chloe. It was an appetizer seasoned with the sauce made with charred and peeled green onions and fish broth, grilled scallops and green onion puree, and purslane herbs.

“It’s okay to add scallops to the grilled green onions. Even with purslane sprouts, the scent is good. I can say that it’s quite a good combination. It tastes good. But the broth is a little disappointing.”

“What’s wrong with the broth?”

“This is a boiled broth sauce made with fish broth. It’s hard to say that it doesn’t match the taste of the scallops because it brings out the scent of the sea that the scallops couldn’t. It’s definitely a good sensual choice, and I admit it.”

“But you don’t like something here, right? What is it?”

“It seems like you think I’ve chosen the wrong taste to save here.”

Before Kaya could even answer Anderson’s question, Min-joon opened his mouth first. Anderson looked at Min-joon. He then looked back at Kaya to check if he was right.

She nodded and glanced at Min-joon with a subtle expression as if she felt angry but felt good about it at the same time.

“Yeah. In this case, you should have brought out the light taste of the scallops instead of saving the sea scent of the scallops.”

“Do you mean it would have tasted better if I had used other broth?”

“Yeah, chicken broth here is a bit insufficient. Vegetable broth, oh, that onion broth is the most appropriate. The onion puree and the green onion puree are also a good match, let alone bringing out the bland taste of the scallops.”

Min-joon imagined Kaya’s recipe in his head. He cooked it and put it in his mouth. It was only a virtual taste, but just imagining it made him feel it tasted more delicious than now.

Anderson and Chloe nodded convincingly, then said “Yeah, I certainly think that would have produced better results. Then…”

The two glanced at Dobby and Eva’s dishes. The one among the dishes Dobby and Eva made based on the theme of reinterpretation was Cappelletti. It was pasta like small dumplings similar to Ravioli. It was a dish of cappelletti made with rabbit meat boiled for nearly an hour in vegetable broth then served with a foam made of Rasquera cheese cream and mushrooms.

“Hmm.”

Kaya cleared her throat for no reason and ate the Cappelletti. Since Dobby boasted of his dish so often, she really wanted to check how well he could make it. However, the moment she put that Cappelletti in her mouth, she made a serious expression in no time, and other demi chefs who tasted it showed the same expression.

“This…”

Min-joon muttered with a blank expression because he was so impressed. He felt the same thing when he first tasted the potato soup Rachel made with bacon foam. The taste of Dobby’s cappelletti today was like a different form of that taste that impressed all the chefs in all the branches of Rose Island.

Dobby’s dish got rid of the unique strong scent of rabbit meat but didn’t kill its taste while bringing out the subtle scent of vegetable broth from the stuffing, the savory flavor of cheese cream, and the overwhelming flavor of the mushroom foam.

“You haven’t used the mushrooms as they are. You made this foam with dried mushrooms, right?”

“Yes. That way, you can compress its rich flavor more deeply.”

“You made the Rasquera cheese with a mixture of goat’s milk. So, it tastes lighter than normal cheese. I guess you made sure the taste of rabbit meat was buried. And I think you decided to use mushrooms as a foam sauce to emphasize that intense scent…” Min-joon muttered blankly.

However, Dobby made a hollow smile in his heart, watching him.

Min-joon was admiring his dish, but at the same time, his admiration made Dobby impressed.

Dobby asked himself, ‘Oh my God! Have you already figured out my recipe?’