Chapter 510 - Choters (2)

Jamie could continue to talk with them, but he thought chefs like Min-joon and Kaya would rather want a definite result rather than an idle conversation. If so, it would be better for him to go back to the kitchen and supervise his staff preparing each dish.

‘I must not miss this opportunity.’

As a matter of fact, Michelin Guild has recently dropped one star from his restaurant, so he needed to make the best use of this opportunity because Choters’ Guide was drawing the attention of the cuisine industry that was comparable to Michelin Guide. Perhaps because it has just started, Chapters Guide seemed to draw more attention and expectations from gourmets and restaurants.

It was difficult for Choters Guide to go big because Min-joon and Kaya had to move in person, and they couldn’t focus on gastronomy alone. So, the two announced that they would go and evaluate first those restaurants within the distance they could cover.

However, from the standpoint of the restaurant selected for their evaluation, their visit itself served as something like a big favor, for those restaurants selected by Michelin Guide were located all around the world, which prevented only a few select restaurants from monopolizing customers’ attention.

Compared with that, Choters Guide certainly had a perfect advantage. Since there were not many restaurants up for their evaluation, Min-joon and Kaya could evaluate each of the restaurants more carefully. compared to him.

Jamie thought, ‘As far as my dishes here are concerned, they are as good as they get.’

He felt it was a little funny when I thought about it. Min-joon was only a young chef who once admired his dish, but Min-joon is now in a position to evaluate his dish! However, Jamie didn’t have any objection to it. Actually he saw an increase in the revenue of his restaurant thanks to Min-joon’s mention of his restaurant in his interview. So, he had no reason not to welcome Min-joon’s visit for the evaluation.

So, Jamie wanted to satisfy Min-joon’s taste today. Aside from his desire to get a better rating from Choters Guide, he was Min-joon’s fan. So, he wanted to prove that the chef he liked was worth his attention and liking. He didn’t have to be ashamed of what he liked.

“We need three courses for chefs’ sample tests. Everybody, move quickly!”

Jamie shouted to his kitchen staff. He clenched her fist, watching them go back to their position, startled by his yelling.

He, or nobody in the kitchen, didn’t know how weird it was for a chef like him to be nervous about the evaluation by another chef like this. It looked like a veteran chef was trying to curry favor with a junior chef.

But this kind of situation was a firm evidence that Min-joon was clearly in a different league, leaving behind his footprints in the cuisine industry that no other chefs would dare to imagine.

‘Man, it’s been a while since Chef Jamie looks so excited.’

Julien, the kitchen’s youngest chef, looked at Jamie with a shocked expression.

Since Michelin Guild dropped one star from his restaurant, Jamie has been very depressed.

However, it seemed Jamie completely forgot Michelin Guid’s rating right now. Was it because he felt ‘Choters Guid’ could give him a big opportunity to regain the reputation and rating of his restaurant? Or was it because he liked Min-joon?’

Julien was also aware that Jamie liked Min-joon. As a matter of fact, it was thanks to Min-joon that he got to know East Rabbit Garden and submitted the job application. East Rabbit Garden was a great restaurant that got cooking level 9 from Min-joon. Some people might think it funny that he applied to the restaurant, but he decided to become a chef only after watching the Grand Chef competition that Min-joon attended.

‘In the end, he’s reached the position where he can evaluate other chefs!’

So, Julien was envious of Min-joon. He thought Min-joon was cool. He felt satisfied, but at the same time he felt alienated because being somebody’s fan meant he or she should be able to stand right beside the star. However, the moment you feel that the star is in a completely different world from you, you can feel frustrated while still admiring the star. The fact that the star is not in a different league from him is painful to his fans.

So he was rather envious of Jamie because Jamie was certainly at the same level as Min-joon in everybody’s eyes. In some respects, it was strange that Jamie that Min-joon said he respected when he was an amateur was now on a par with him. Besides, considering his recognition among people, it was not too much to say that Min-joon was higher level than him.

‘Let me just do what I can.’

Julien focused on preparing the ingredients more carefully, neatly and skillfully, while praying that Min-joon could feel satisfied when he tried the dish.

The peas he peeled were soon finely ground into a paste, which he changed into sabayon when he added egg yolk, white wine, and sugar to it. Sabayon, with a creamy soup-like texture, was put in an egg shell with lightly boiled celery and morel mushrooms before being presented to June.

“Oh, this dish has an Asian touch!” Min-joon muttered.

On top of a square-shaped wooden bowl that was suitable enough to fit into the egg base was the egg shell shining in gold as if it was covered with something.

Each of them was given a spoon that was small enough to fit in an egg shell.

Min-joon lifted the spoon and cautiously scooped sabayon. The celery that was finely chopped and the mushrooms that could barely be scooped with the spoon made him feel how much attention the kitchen staff paid to the whole process of making this dish, starting off with the cutting.

Min-jun looked at the dish seriously. If it was certain that they made the dish as best as they could, he wanted to feel and enjoy it as best as he could, for he wasn’t here as an ordinary customer, but as the chief of Choters Guide for evaluation. He wanted to feel and touch what they could not at their level.

He put sabayon in his mouth. While touching the soft and chewy texture of the mushroom, he chewed it. Some celery was lumpy, and some were crushed relatively a lot. And the taste of sabayon warmed his stomach and tickled his tongue softly and fragrantly.

It was literally a sweet taste. Rather than arousing a special stimulus, it gave him the feeling that would relax him right before cooking. This kind of taste was hard to find in a typical high-end restaurant. Today’s restaurants tended to overwhelm customers with impeccable service, dignity, and quality so much that customers felt uncomfortable.

“What do you think?” Min-joon asked Kaya.

She slightly frowned her eyebrows, then said, “It’s delicious.”

“Then why are you frowning?”

“Well, it’s a bit ambiguous how to evaluate this.”

“Because of the score?”

She nodded with an annoyed expression, then asked, “Should we really introduce a score system in our ratings?”

“Yeah, we have to.”

It was June, not Min-jun, who gave the answer.

As Kaya turned to her. June responded, looking at her with a relaxed expression, “Min-joon was notorious for rating the dishes for a long time. Aside from his absolute standard, people are still interested in the score of his rating. Why do you want to get rid of their interest?”

“Because it’s annoying.”

“Even if it’s annoying, you can’t help it. You always see the numbers in the evaluation, as you know. People want to know exactly what level the restaurant or chef is, no matter who they are. If you look at the cuisine community, they just sort out the restaurants and chefs by taking into account the number of their stars, right?”

As always, June was right. Kaya knew he could not win her with words, so she turned her gaze back to the empty egg shell.

“First of all, its cooking score is 7 points.”

Min-joon opened his mouth first. Kaya rolled her eyes for a moment, then nodded as if she roughly agreed with him.

She said, “I feel like I know the standard of your cooking score these days. You take into account the degree of difficulty or harmony in terms of cooking rather than the excellence of the dish itself, right?”

“Yeah, I would say I’m looking into the technical side of the dish for evaluation. And that’s why Choters Guide has to give the score of not only cooking, but also other areas.”

Choters Guide had three criteria for evaluation, namely cooking score, fun in food, and taste. Except for the cooking score based on the power of the system, rating them totally depended on the evaluator’s subject opinion alone. But Min-joon didn’t care. He had a gastronomic level of 9, and Kaya’s was 10. He was with Kaya whose feel for taste was more perfect than anyone else in the world.

Min-joon and Kaya thought that it would not be that bad even if their subjective opinion would establish itself as the universal standard that people believed in. They were rather greedy about it because making people in the world accustomed to their gastronomic thoughts and ideas would mean making them their fans.

“As for the cooking score, I’m on the same page, but as for fun, it’s not that interesting. So, I would give it 6. As for its taste, I can give 8.”

“Your scores are exactly the same as mine.”

“Yeah, like husband, like wife.”

“Are we already a couple?”

“Well, a couple-to-be. You are going to propose to me someday, right? Wait a minute, you have done it already?”