God of Cooking
God of Cooking - Chapter 503: Self-Awareness (3)

Chapter 503: Self-Awareness (3)

June said, 鈥淚鈥檇 like to hear why you used chicken broth. Can you tell me?鈥?/p>

鈥淚 could have used a different broth, but to get the best flavor of chili out of the broth, I thought it would be better to use chicken broth because there鈥檚 nothing as good as the clean taste of chicken broth to bring out the spicy taste. 鈥?/p>

鈥淏ut that鈥檚 not all, right?鈥?/p>

鈥淲ell, the taste of the shrimp and chicken broth is overlapping. It鈥檚 not because the chicken broth goes well with any ingredient. I feel there is a strange link between the taste of the shrimp and that of the chicken. So, I focused on that link. And that was the most impressive thing I felt while watching Daisy鈥檚 and other chefs鈥?dishes.鈥?/p>

She smiled at his explanation. As a matter of fact, what Min-joon just said was something only a head chef like her could feel. It had nothing to do with a chef鈥檚 talent, or she thought so. Of course, it was possible for a chef to find the link between the plates, but to fully understand the correlation between the various tastes, the chef needed some experience in devising all kinds of recipes from start to finish while running a restaurant directly.

But Min-joon grasped that know-how simply by visiting the restaurants ran by Rose Island head chefs. June had no choice but to admit he was indeed a genius chef.

鈥淵ou look like a monster!鈥?/p>

鈥淎re you flattering me now?鈥?/p>

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know. I just said that because I was annoyed, but I think I praised you.鈥?/p>

She sighed with a weary look. There was also a reason why she recalled Dave whenever she looked at Min-joon because only he could be compared with Dave in cooking talent among all the chefs she had seen so far.

She suddenly recalled what the chefs in the Rose Island local branches complained about. Some of them even questioned her whether she gave out all the information about them to him, and others asked her why she decided to have a chef like him as her sous chef. The way they asked was pretty cynical, something like 鈥淐an you really handle him?鈥?And her answer was yes, of course.

Maybe one day, Min-joon would surpass her. But she was certain that he could, but not now. Obviously, he had such a possibility, but he could not yet surpass her for now. In other words, he needed more time to gain more experience. And that was why she could handle him because she could lead him. It didn鈥檛 necessarily mean cooking only.

She asked suggestively, 鈥淲hat do you think of this dish, compared with Cho Reggiano?鈥?/p>

鈥淲ell, it鈥檚 not as good as that.鈥?/p>

鈥淲hy?鈥?/p>

鈥淏ecause nobody has ever tried making the dessert with the concept of Cho Reggiano.鈥?/p>

Not many chefs have tried to bring out two or three flavors from one single ingredient. Furthermore, it was really impossible for him to bring about as many as five flavors from one dish through different aging periods and recipes unless he had talent and luck. The fact that he couldn鈥檛 recreate something like Cho Reggiano right now was another evidence.

Some had already begun to say that Cho Reggiano would be the best recipe in his life, and even he thought it could be.

鈥淲hy do you think Cho Reggiano hit the jackpot?鈥?/p>

鈥淲asn鈥檛 it attractive enough to be popular?鈥?/p>

鈥淣ope, I don鈥檛 think so. It鈥檚 because Chloe Chung spread your recipe to her celebrity friends.鈥?/p>

鈥淥h, that makes sense鈥︹€?/p>

鈥淵ou owe her quite a bit more than you think. You have earned lots of recognition and fame thanks to Cho Reggiano more than anything else. I don鈥檛 think Chloe or you had appreciated it yet.鈥?/p>

When she pointed it out, he came to think about Cho Reggiano again. Come to think of it, it was just amazing that Cho Reggiano was just a dessert that all Americans know. He wondered whether he had made light of it too much,

June opened her mouth.

鈥淵ou told me that you didn鈥檛 regret you decided to work for me, not Dave, because you could learn my sense of cooking calculations, while you could not learn his intuition.鈥?/p>

鈥淵es, I did.鈥?/p>

鈥淏ut you know that? What I can give you is not just calculations or human networking.鈥?/p>

She put the fork down, then started tapping the desk with her finger.

Looking askance at her finger, he said, 鈥淲hat else can you give me?鈥?/p>

鈥淚鈥檓 thinking of making you a star chef.鈥?/p>

鈥淪tar chef?鈥?/p>

鈥淗ow many people recognize you when you are walking down the street? Yeah, several people may recognize and greet you per hour. Maybe more people have recognized you, but they might have bothered to speak to you. But are you content with being treated like that?鈥?/p>

He scratched his head with a foolish expression as if he wasn鈥檛 sure.

She continued, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to make everybody who has a TV set at home recognize you.鈥?/p>

鈥淚鈥檓 only a chef, not a celebrity.鈥?/p>

鈥淲ell, there was a chef who got such wide recognition. You know her, right?鈥?/p>

鈥淚 heard that Chef Rachel was such a chef.鈥?/p>

鈥淓veryone looked for Rachel鈥檚 recipe book. When it was her airtime, everybody gathered before the TV set to watch her program. And the next day, they could find the ingredients for the dish she made. These days, it鈥檚 easy to get access to the recipes, and there are so many chefs that her influence is not as powerful as before. But鈥︹€?/p>

She looked at him and asked, 鈥淚sn鈥檛 it our specialty to walk a difficult road?鈥?/p>

He did not answer that for a long time. He didn鈥檛 say a chef only needed to be faithful to his cooking, and that gaining popularity was not important because he had never thought about it from the beginning. As a matter of fact, popularity was inseparable from the chef because of the fact that the more regular customers a chef had, the more popular the chef was.

If only she could make every American his regular and his fan.

鈥淏ut what would you get by making me a star chef?鈥?/p>

鈥淒o you remember I asked you the same thing before? I asked you why you wanted me to be the head of Rose Island? And you quoted me when you gave me the reply. You said the fastest way to get what you want was to support the person around you who had the most potential to do so. Well, I鈥檓 now telling you the same logic. Why shouldn鈥檛 I?鈥?/p>

She put her hand on his shoulder and said, 鈥淏y the time I have Rose Island, you have America.鈥?/p>

鈥淎merica?鈥?/p>

鈥淵ep,鈥?she replied, chuckling at him. 鈥淏ecause you are my chef.鈥?/p>

Without finding the right words to say back to her, he just looked at her blankly.

Of course, he once thought he wanted to become the best chef in the world as well as in the United States. However, he felt his ambitions were more unrealistic and stupid than the dream of becoming a US president, for he didn鈥檛 know what the best chef in the world meant. In fact, no one knew it because everybody had a different opinion on who the world chef was. That was the same case with the question of who the best American chef was.

June certainly knew it. But she just told him she would make him a star chef. She said she would help him have America. The chef who had America, namely the best American chef.

Did she really know what it meant?

鈥淲ell, aside from the fact that I鈥檓 your chef, how are you going to give me America?鈥?/p>

鈥淲ell, all you have to do is to be the best chef in America.鈥?/p>

鈥淚鈥檓 asking you because I鈥檓 not sure what that best chef means.鈥?/p>

鈥淒o you know that Abraham Lincoln is America鈥檚 most respected president?鈥?/p>

鈥淵es, I鈥檝e heard it a few times.鈥?/p>

鈥淲hat do you think is the criteria for that?鈥?/p>

鈥淲ell, something like how many people think so?鈥?/p>

鈥淵eah, that鈥檚 the answer,鈥?she said, smiling at him.

Her smile was fresh like a girl and pure like wild flowers, sparkling with expectations of happiness.

鈥淚鈥檓 going to make everybody believe you are the best.鈥?/p>

鈥淚s that easy?鈥?/p>

鈥淚f it were me, it wouldn鈥檛 be easy. But if it were you, it would be a different story.鈥?/p>

鈥淲hy?鈥?/p>

鈥淵ou probably know why to some extent.鈥?/p>

She gave him a naughty glance because she thought his intentions were childish but cute when he asked that knowingly. He blushed a bit with an embarrassed expression because he thought she read his mind. In some respects, he knew what it was. He had something that she didn鈥檛, something only he had.

鈥淚s it because of my perfect palate?鈥?/p>

鈥淲ell, more precisely, your perfect palate, Cho Reggiano, your brilliant performance at the Grand Chef and Rose Island, your victory at the Paris International Culinary Competition, and the people鈥檚 perceptions and fantasy about you. Also, their expectations that I will help you move on further, not just stay where you are.鈥?/p>