Chapter 305: Step by Step (2)
When Min-joon moved, Anderson as well as other demi chefs followed him one after another.
The cooks also wanted to follow him, but the kitchen would be crowded when they went in, so they didn’t. After exchanging greetings with the kitchen staff briefly, he watched them cooking.
In no time, Havier whispered to Min-joon in a small voice, “Can you feel any difference?”
“What difference?”
“I mean the difference between Rachel’s control and Denorah’s. Do you know what’s different?”
“I’m focused on their cooking now.”
Min-joon responded quickly then carefully took note of everything in the kitchen, such as where they put the plates, how much they prepare food ingredients and trim them, what the demi chefs were instructing the cooks, how the sous chef was controlling the demi chef, and how Head chef Deborah was checking and controlling them, etc.
‘He said only those with smartphone know-how could read the structure of a smartphone…’ Min-joon recalled what Raphael had told him.
Although his cooking career was not long enough, Min-joon thought he had the ability to discern something like that. Rather, he should have had it by now. If he hadn’t felt it while spending such a long time with Rachel, he would have wasted his time. That was what he thought.
In other words, it was a question of him becoming a part or a technician who made the part. Although he could not predict the timing, he had to get out of his position as just a ‘part.’
No matter how good it was, a part was just a part, after all.
p.r.i.c.king his ears, Min-joon checked not only Deborah’s voice but also all the sounds in the kitchen. He tried to understand not only the workflow of the kitchen but also how they dealt with the systemic information in the kitchen. He had never been more focused than now.
[You’ve obtained a clue to the first condition for reaching cooking level 9!]
Finally, he began to see the chance.
‘Clue?’
A bit confused, he read the notification window. He felt it strange that the notification window appeared just because he got the clue. In fact, what he just found out while watching the kitchen staff working was the importance of how to control the kitchen staff and how it differed from one head chef to another.
Actually, he always felt he needed to master that factor. In fact, the biggest difference between Min-joon and Rachel was not only their basic skills but also Rachel’s controlling her kitchen staff, which made her managerial skills stand out the best in the restaurant world. It was something she had that no chef could surpa.s.s with only fresh and sophisticated recipes. In other words, her unique strength was her ability to lead the kitchen staff so well.
“Hey, Anderson.”
“Why.”
“Can you feel it? I mean the air in this kitchen. How is it different from our kitchen?”
It was a difficult question, but Anderson wasn’t embarra.s.sed because Min-joon often asked such questions out of the blue. At first, Anderson thought he might have asked like that because it was hard for him to select and compose sentences as a foreigner. But as time pa.s.sed by, he came to realize that it was the typical way Min-joon asked questions. And that was his talent at the same time.
‘Air in this kitchen?’
At that moment, Anderson began to sniff. It seemed that even the air here and in Rose Island was different. In fact, the air was different, depending on how they prepared recipes in the Rose Island kitchen. But what if what Min-joon meant was the atmosphere of the kitchen?
Anderson looked at Deborah. Just by looking at her face, he realized that this place was completely different from Rachel’s kitchen. If Rachel looked like a commander going out to the battlefield when she was controlling her kitchen staff, Deborah looked like a soldier, full of fear and tension because of the upcoming war.
And such a difference was felt in her voice as well as every instruction Deborah gave the kitchen staff. She constantly questioned her chefs, such as whether they cooked the meat well, whether they stirred the soup right, whether they burnt any dish, how elastic the jelly was or how well they kneaded the dough, etc.
In some respects, such instructions were what the head chef was supposed to do as part of her duty. However, the difference between Rachel and Deborah was that the former could check it out without asking them. However, it was natural that Deborah didn’t have the same ability as Rachel. No matter how competent Deborah was, she was still no match for Rachel.
Anderson finally answered, “It looks like they are rather disorganized, given Rachel is here.”
“Yeah. I feel that Deborah is very nervous at the moment. She might be nervous because Rachel is here, but if this is what she is doing to her staff usually, I think that’s rather… Oops! As a demi chef I think I am going too far now,” said Min-joon.
“Let’s go. They are going to dine pretty soon.”
Anderson stepped off first. With Min-joon and Havier walking after him, Janet hesitated for a while and turned to the kitchen. She was pondering over what Deborah said to her. She said she was aware of how hard it was for a woman to work as a chef in the kitchen and appreciated her efforts to overcome the difficulties.
“You can overcome it, too, Deborah.”
***
“So, how was Deborah’s kitchen?” Rachel asked.
“It was good,” said Min-joon.
“I don’t like that kind of standard reply. Tell me what you observed precisely and in detail,” she snapped.
Then she took a lobster salad with a lot of radish on her fork. Lobster flesh chopped like sliced cuc.u.mber, avocado and a salad seasoned with a sauce made by mixing apple champagne vinegar with honey.
He also put the salad in his mouth instead of replying to her question.
‘It’s delicious.’
What was certain was that Deborah was a really good chef. Of course, if she had not been good at cooking, she wouldn’t have been in charge of this restaurant from the beginning. He clearly felt that the dishes served here were definitely delicious, compared with those served at general restaurants.
He said, “If I may leave feedback about the dishes here before reviewing the kitchen, I really like them.”
The salad’s score was 8. For a salad, it was the best score that any chef could get. With a salad score as high as 8, it would be meaningless to talk about her cooking skills here.
This place is a branch of Rose Island. In the world of fine dining or in the gastronomic world where the chef’s individuality was the most important of all, Deborah also felt a grave sense of responsibility for doing business with the sign of Rose Island in Las Vegas. Accordingly, it would be really strange if anybody called her a mediocre chef.
In fact, upon close examination, descriptions such as ‘a luxurious restaurant’ might sound unusual. What made a restaurant luxurious or cheap? And which restaurant owner would think they are running a cheap or intermediate-level restaurant?
“How was the kitchen?”
“The kitchen was…”
Min-joon felt he needed to save his breath at her question.
Honestly, he found Deborah’s kitchen had a lot of shortcomings compared with Rachel’s.
When he hesitated, Anderson opened his mouth.
“I guess Deborah lacks leaders.h.i.+p experience.”
“Why are you saying that?”
“Well, I can see her kitchen staff feel pressed down by the atmosphere of the kitchen.”
Rachel looked at him with an interesting expression. She nodded at him, asking him to continue. Anderson added without hesitation, “Maybe it’s not the atmosphere of the kitchen, but the way people are looking at them that the kitchen staff may feel suffocated. That isn’t important, of course. I think Deborah feels so oppressed by people’s expectations, which I think is making it hard for her to fully bring out her skills. Of course, the salad here is excellent…”
“Did you feel frustrated by anything?”
“Well, not really. But I don’t feel that there’s something unique to her dishes. This is just a salad. It’s a product made by mixing the ingredients people love. Most people will love it. It’ll taste delicious. The question is if they can feel fun and art in this salad.”
As if he was a bit surprised, Min-joon looked at him. In fact, Anderson always had a neutral att.i.tude toward cooking. Min-joon didn’t think or even expect the day would come when he would describe Deborah’s cooking like that because what Anderson always valued was the taste and splendor of the dish. Something abstract, like fun or art, was a secondary issue to him.
‘Anderson is also changing…’
Maybe Anderson was learning it from Rachel, Raphael, his colleagues, and friends.
Min-joon reflected on himself. What did he change? How did he change? And how would such changes affect his cooking? Would he change to someone like Rachel with strength in leaders.h.i.+p and decoration? Or would he change to a chef who bets everything on developing original recipes? Or would he bet his success on the deep authentic taste of the food?
As it was the case of one’s future, the more one thought about it, the more expectations one would have, but at the same time, the more frustrated one would become because of the unpredictability of one’s future. The more glamorously one would imagine one’s future, the more distant one felt from it.
‘Let’s not rush. Let me move step by step and focus on every step,’ Min-joon thought to himself.
And there was still a lot of time for him to step on.
While he was lost in thought, Min-joon emptied the lobster salad plate. Servers approached, took their plates, then put down new plates on the table.
Min-joon groaned after seeing the new dish.
“Is it scallop?”
“Yes, that’s right. After frying it in a pan, they seasoned it with Jus de veau sauce and potato-based mousseline.”
“Jus de veau sauce and mousseline…”
Both weren’t an ordinary combination. First of all, Jus de veau sauce made from veal was unusual. How could it be mixed with mousseline made with egg white and fresh cream? Basically, mousseline sauce was used a lot by combining it with other sauces, but it was not common to use it together with Jus de veau to serve scallops.
‘Cooking score is 9.’
It was excellent. If the score was as high as this for a combination that didn’t take too long to cook, it meant that the combination itself was great. Min-joon cut the scallops and dipped them in a sauce made from a mixture of Jus de veau and mousseline then put it in his mouth.
Like most foods with sauce, it was mainly mousseline when he tasted it first. To put it more accurately, it was Jus de veau mousseline.
‘Man, it doesn’t taste good…’