Chapter 401 - New in Various Ways (2)

“I’m just so dumbfounded that I am speechless…” Sophie muttered with a perplexed expression. What Kaya and Min-joon were making now was actually the right answer because even if they made the dish with the snails without understanding their taste properly, the finished dish would be far from perfect.

But knowing how to cook a snail dish and actually cooking it was completely different.

This was a competition. And the judges also heard the rumors that when Rose Island’s participants had good results, Rachel Rose promised to give the best achiever the sous chef position.

Considering that the Min-joon and Kaya pair overwhelmed the contest up to now, they already achieved the results that were as good as winning this competition, but that wouldn’t be the reason they wouldn’t be nervous. Even if nothing was at stake, their desire to win the competition would never make them slack off.

‘But they are so relaxed to sample the roasted snails like that?’

Maybe it was because they were cool-headed enough not to be swayed by any situation rather than being relaxed.

If that was the case, surely the owner with that cool-headedness would be a good head chef, for being an unshakable pillar in any situation was one of the head chef’s biggest tasks.

However, it was also questionable if the Min-joon and Kaya pair would be able to cook the snail dish successfully even if what they were doing was the right way to do it. In fact, in this situation, whatever they did, it would be overwhelmingly unfavorable for them because if they didn’t know much about Escargot cuisine when today’s theme was Escargot, it was like someone who came to a cooking contest without knowing how to cook.

“Can they do it? Even if they roast several Escargots like that, can they properly understand its taste?”

“It’s not just about understanding Escargot. They should know what kind of sauce it goes with, and how it works when they overheat or boil it with sauce. If they try to cook it without knowing that…”

“Well, they could ruin the snail dish completely.”

“The problem is how they can come up with the recipe in a short time.”

“It looks like they have already devised how to cook it,” Bastien said in a low voice.

When he said that, the other judges began to closely watch the pair cooking the snails.

They soon found Min-joon boiling black tea with lemon zest, lemon juice, and some salt.

They opened their mouths, groaning a bit.

“I wonder if they are making a black tea-based sauce in advance and trying to find a snail that goes well with that sauce.”

“It’s a great adventure. I wonder what they are going to do next if they think they can’t find any sauce for it.”

“Well, I guess they’re confident when they have decided to do it.”

At that moment, Min-joon and Kaya started steaming the snails in a steamer. What they did was not the usual way of steaming. They steamed one in plain water, another one in black tea, and the third one in black tea with mushrooms. After that, they sampled the steamed snails again. Watching them quietly, the judges were at a loss on how to express their surprise.

They muttered as if they were just dumbfounded at their way of cooking.

“They’ve got only 90 minutes to go …”

“No, only 70 minutes left. It’s time. They have to hurry up. If they don’t, they might drop out of the quarterfinals because they run out of time.”

Now, the judges were more concerned about the possibility of the pair being excluded from the quarterfinals. However, the pair didn’t make any distressed expressions at all. They exchanged opinions in a refreshing atmosphere like college students doing a group assignment.

“Wouldn’t it be better to steam it than to grill it?”

“I think the helix pomatia or Burgundy snail is the best. Its size is just right. How about steaming it and making it a snail meatball?”

“Snail meatball?”

“As you know, we haven’t fully grasped the deep taste of snails yet. Even if we can bring out the unique taste of snails, we aren’t competent enough to compete with other chefs over the taste of snails itself.”

“If I try some more, I think I can find out…”

“It’s the judges, not you, who will sample this. Don’t make any useless adventure.”

“That’s why you want to make this something like a snail meatball, right?”

After she was persuaded, Kaya nodded. When he suggested they make snail meatballs, it was not because he wanted to get rid of the taste of the snail itself. When they cook the snail itself, they should focus on the snail itself. However, if they use it as an ingredient for meatballs, it was going to be a dish with the trait of a snail.

Kaya opened her mouth as if she was a little worried.

“But will the judges really accept that?”

“Why are you saying that? Because it’s not Escargot anymore?”

“I guess so.”

“Therefore, we should bring out the taste of Escargot as much as we can. In other words, the taste of Escargot that we do not know, but the taste of Escargot that we really know. You remember that fresh and pungent smell and taste that we felt after steaming it, right? If we can show the judges how that taste can influence the taste of snail meatballs, the judges have no choice but to admit it.”

“Got it. Let’s do it.”

Kaya’s eyes finally got serious. Her real challenge would begin from now on. She now grasped how she should cook, and she would soon find out whether it was right or not.

Compared with her, Min-joon was relatively less worried because he could rely on the power of the system. Even if he dealt with any ingredient for the first time, he could find out immediately whether he made a mistake or not. If he used the wrong cooking method, the estimated cooking score shown on the system dropped a lot.

Besides, Min-joon had a solid knowledge of the cooking basics of anything, so there was little possibility that he would cook Escargot wrong with a wrong cooking method. So, what he had to do now was how to match the other ingredients with the snail meatballs.

‘The expected cooking score is 8 points.’

Since he was not sure about the Escargot dish, he wanted to receive a higher cooking score, but for now, that was the best they could come up with. Come to think of it, they already achieved something great, considering it was the first time they tried cooking snails in their lives. In fact, there were quite a few French chefs who found it difficult to get a cooking score of 7, let alone 8 when it came to cooking snail dishes.

Min-joon rolled up his sleeves. He could not yet give up just because the theme of today’s contest was not favorable to him.

‘Let me show him I’m not a guy that can be treated lightly.’

He wanted to make Dobby think twice about his relaxed stance in this quarterfinals.

He immediately placed Escargot on the steamer. The way Min-joon and Kaya decided to do it was to use pure black tea. Adding mushrooms tended to dilute the taste of Escargot too much. But when he steamed the snails in black tea, he could bring out the most luxurious taste while keeping its unique taste as well as the aroma of black tea.

But what came next was more difficult. He chopped the Escargot he steamed for 10 minutes. It was a pretty big piece. He could use large pieces and finely chopped pieces together, but if the judges could feel the taste of Escargot in the whole plate, he couldn’t bring out its unique taste he was aiming for, for he wanted them to enjoy its unique taste and the aroma of black tea when they were chewing the cooked snails. Otherwise, they might not be able to get its fresh taste.

In the meantime, Kaya was preparing other ingredients to use for the meatball. The judges were quite curious when they watched the pair trying to make snail meatballs, but she didn’t care.

The ingredients in the snail meatballs were simple. Mushrooms and dill boiled in hot water, moderately spicy pepper, salt, sugar, and red pepper powder. They chose chicken to hold the ingredients together instead of pork because the peculiar scent of the pig, which couldn’t be helped even when used a bit of it, could break all the balance of the ingredients. Chicken basically had little smell. Since the pair had to emphasize the taste of Escargot, the chicken was a much better choice than a pig.

In no time, Kaya began to make round meatballs. Then, they were piled up on the lemongrass leaves and put into the steamer. The water in the steamer this time was just plain water.

After putting all the meatballs in the steamer, they now turned to sauce. It was a black tea-based sauce. This was the essence of this dish. Although it was called a black tea sauce, it contained various ingredients such as lemon zest and sugar, so it had a flavor similar to that of Southeast Asian cuisine. When this sauce was blended with the meatballs, it would bring out the most overwhelming taste of Escargot with a mix of the diluted taste of black tea and the Escargot inside the meatball when they chewed it. That was what the pair had in mind.

Now, there was nothing they could do. They just wanted the snail meatballs in the steamer to be cooked ideally. Kaya sighed and put her hand on the countertop. Whether she did it by accident or on purpose, she put her hand on his little finger. He slightly turned his gaze at her. He could feel her hand trembling a bit.

Kaya muttered, “Gosh, why am I so nervous?”

“You should be, Kaya.”

“Well, I wouldn’t lose anything even if we lost, but not you.”

“Don’t you remember you mentioned the one million dollars as the cash prize for the winner of this contest?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Aside from that…”

Min-joon looked around, so did Kaya. She swallowed unwittingly when she discovered that lots of people were watching them now. She made eye contact with some of them. At that moment, she could notice mixed feelings in their eyes such as their expectations, jealousy, cheering, and booing altogether. What was certain was that all of them were conscious of them.

“We’re still the center of their attention today…”

“You bet. We can’t lose our face today. I know you have a lot of pride, and so do I. So, you and I don’t want to see our pride being hurt before them for good or bad reasons.”

When he said that, she hardened her expression then nodded.

The allotted time for cooking was almost over. The water vapor leaking out of the steamer was also getting bigger and bigger. He lifted his hand after stepping away from the kitchen counter.

“Confirm the meatballs.”

“Sure,” Kaya replied in a tense voice.

She looked pretty nervous, but he did not because he knew that the meatballs were well cooked just as he thought. A cooking score for this was 7 points even without any sauce.

That meant that even if they ate it as it was, it would taste delicious.

“Let’s sample it first before plating.”

“Sure. I’m so curious about it right now.”

Min-joon put the sauce on a small plate. He put one meatball on it before handing it to her.

She carefully cut it in half and put the other half in her mouth. She looked at her finger.

Then she looked at the snail meatball and ate it.

By the time the sauce on the surface of the meatball stimulated his tongue, he looked at her eyes. He checked the “taste” in her eyes. He saw her confidence in the taste.

At that moment, he could confirm the best of its taste they could bring out.