God of Cooking

Translator:EnsjEditor: Arocks141

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Everyone"s Story (1)

Rachel Rose"s Rose Island in Venice had finally opened. I recalled the number of times I"ve visited the restaurant just trying to land myself a spot on the opening date. Just thinking about being able to taste the food from the old days… made my heart leap in joy.

To be quite honest, the food at the new Rose Island was very different from the one in my memories. Ah, I"m not saying it wasn"t bad. Quite the contrary, in fact. Rose Island still managed to charm me the way it did years ago. Ah, I still feel that the food from my memories was a little better than the one I had on the opening day, but it really couldn"t be helped. Nothing tastes better than food that"s been seasoned with fond memories after all. The food I had this time too, would get seasoned like so after a few days.

Getting back to the topic at hand, if I had to pick out the food that stood out to me the most, I"d invariably have to turn to the food made with molecular gastronomy. After all, molecular gastronomy was something that only took off when the main store of Rose Island closed down. But the dish they showed off with it… was nothing short of perfection.

I had heard that Raphael Yoon, a master when it comes to molecular gastronomy, had joined their team, but was a dish of this quality something really possible? Could it be that Rachel had disappeared for ten years to study the craft of molecular gastronomy? It sounds stupid, but the food I had there was nothing short of perfection.

If I had to pick a food that was the most memorable, I"d have to pick the potato soup with bacon foam. That soup blew away me and my friend"s expectations of the restaurant completely.

When I put a spoonful of soup with a tiny amount of the foam on top, I almost thought that I was chewing on bits of bacon in my mouth, not mushroom. The soup had such a strong amount of bacon flavor on it that almost seemed impossible to create with just foam. Frankly, I was shocked. That tiny bit of foam was able to both show me something unique and textural to the restaurant, and also take me back to my childhood years.

(skip)

By the time our meal was about to end, chef Rachel came out into the hall to give her thanks to us. She didn"t talk much, and I don"t quite remember much of what she said due to my old age. The reason why I still chose to talk about this is because her words still struck a chord within my heart. After all, there is no meaning to words at all if they ultimately fail to reach a person"s heart.

In that sense, her short speech was one of absolute perfection. She talked of her happiness, her sadness, and of her love. How she conveyed her feelings didn"t matter.

Afterwards, she came to talk at our table for a few minutes. Now this bit of the conversation, I do remember. I told her that the ten years of my life without her at Rose Island were like being deprived of food for ten years. Rachel told me, "You haven"t matured at all in the last decade, huh, Juan? You really should learn to stop being so picky." Right. The only reason why I was writing this much for this blog post was because of this one sentence she said. Rachel still remembered my name after ten years!

That made me incredibly happy. When I learned that she treasured her regulars just as much as the regulars treasured Rose Island, I felt my heart get filled up with absolute joy.

Rose Island. That name would most definitely stay with me for the rest of my life. I just wish that I"d be able to live long enough to witness their legacy for a while longer.

"He really didn"t have anything bad to say about the restaurant?"

Gerrick grinned proudly, and Maya shrugged right next to him.

"Of course he didn"t have anything bad to say. The food was perfect."

"Why are you acting like you own the place now? You aren"t in a position to even start acting proud, not to mention the demi chefs here to begin with."

"Hmph, I"d reckon chef Minjoon has all the right to act all haughty, though. He"s a great teacher and an amazing cook. He never got a single complaint from the head chef, even!"

"Hah, look at you covering for your demi chef now. Chef Anderson barely got any complaints either, you know?"

"Barely and none at all are completely different terms. You should really know the difference by now."

As the pressure between Antonio and Maya began to rise, Fred jumped in to try to take the two apart.

"Stop it. It"s pointless fighting each other. Don"t you know how friendly chef Minjoon and chef Anderson are with each other?"

"They"re complete opposites, but they"re still weirdly on good terms with each other."

"I think it"s because chef Minjoon"s kind of, you know… Has that aura about him…"

"Casanova?"

"… I didn"t mean it like that."

Gerrick sighed as he watched Maya deflate a little.

"Anyway, you two must be really having a good time about now. Chef Janet"s super scary. If I make one mistake, she"ll just glare at me and say "What did you just do?", "Did you think you did something right there?", "So you did this knowing you were doing something wrong?", "A mistake? So you weren"t even paying attention?" She keeps hounding me down like that… I can"t take it."

"I didn"t know I was that bad."

"That"s righ….t?!"

Gerrick"s face contorted a little when he turned around. It was Janet and Javier, both in the room with them. Janet was glaring at Gerrick coldly.

"You"re saying all this as you clean up the soup stock properly, yes?"

"I-I"ll go check on it."

"Let me speak a little before you go. What is your problem with me? I"d just like to know."

"Eh… Eh… Well…"

Gerrick paled without being able to come up with an answer. Javier seemed to have felt a little sorry for Gerrick, seeing as he put a hand on Janet"s shoulder to stop her.

"Gerrick, it"s fine. Go check on the stock."

"What are you on about? He has a problem with me."

"Stop it, you. You"re going to make him cry."

"… The kid is way too cowardly to be a chef."

Janet looked angrily at Gerrick"s back before sighing tiredly.

"I wish I got a pretty good chef to have my back."

"Maybe you should stop acting like such a perfectionist."

"What, you really think I"m one? I was just pointing out mistakes."

"I"m telling you to be a little softer when you do that. Hey, Fred. Am I as hard on you as hard Janet is on Gerrick?"

"Rather than that… You look a little more surprised. After all, my mistakes end up becoming yours."

"… Haha, you make me sound really spineless."

Javier awkwardly scratched the back of his head. Janet smiled mockingly at him.

"And you made yourself sound like a big lad all along."

"d.a.m.n it, fine. I"m spineless. But it"s fine having someone like me around. Wouldn"t the kitchen become too intense with people like you, Minjoon or Anderson."

"Did I say anything?"

"You didn"t, but…"

Javier trailed off quietly. Janet turned to look around.

"Maya, Fred."

"Y-yes!"

"Where"s Minjoon and Anderson?"

"Ah, chef Anderson is out to meet the guy who makes our noodles."

"Minjoon, then?"

"I heard he"s coming in late today. Today’s Sunday, so I guess it"s understandable."

"… What? Minjoon"s not the type to be late. Is there a reason?"

Janet frowned, which caused Maya"s response to be quieter than usual.

"I don"t know much… But I heard someone was sick."

€

"Yes, mom. Don"t worry too much. My temperature"s gone down a lot now."

"I"m her boyfriend, so of course I would be. Please don"t worry too much. It"s not that serious."

Minjoon could hear the pain in Grace"s voice on the other side. He suppressed his feelings of sympathy, and tried to muster the kindest voice he could make.

"Grace, you"re a good mother. You didn"t give up on Kaya no matter what. There are so many people out there who can"t even do that. You need to be strong. That"s the only way Kaya can recover quickly."

"Thank you for calling, Grace. I"ll call you later."

Minjoon stared quietly at his screen after finis.h.i.+ng the call. As a person who had come from a rather well-off family, Minjoon couldn"t really understand the pain and hurt Kaya"s family had to go through. But he could still understand. After all, he could see it. The family was still clearly in pain even after getting out of poverty.

"What can I do?"

He couldn"t really think of much. Right now, the best he could do was to make the potato soup next to him perfectly. It wasn"t much worse, since it was something he snagged from the kitchen. All he really had to do was make that bacon foam. He"d done this several times every day, though, so even that wasn"t much at all.

When he took the soup into the bedroom, he could feel the warmth of the room hit his face. Minjoon took the wet towel off of Kaya"s forehead, and put his hand on it instead. It was hot. Kaya smiled weakly.

"Sorry… I got sick again."

"It"s not your fault you got sick. Sit up for a bit. Try some soup."

"… Can"t I just lie down for a bit more? I don"t want to eat."

"No. If you don"t eat, you"re going to stay sick. The soup is good. Try it."

Minjoon put his arms around Kaya"s back. Her clothes were wet from her sweat, but the fact that Minjoon didn"t care just went to show how much he loved her. Kaya leaned on Minjoon"s arms and smiled.

"Your muscles got firmer."

"You told me to work out, didn"t you? Till I became like the terminator."

"To be honest… that"s a bit too much."

"Good."

Minjoon took a spoonful of the soup. Kaya took it like a baby bird and smiled faintly.

"I can see why you were so confident of its taste. What"s up with the bacon flavor? I didn"t think it"d have any."

"I put bacon foam up top."

"Oh, so it wasn"t just normal foam, huh? I like this. I"m surprised you managed to make potato soup this tasty."

"Aren"t you surprised that a patient"s meal can be this tasty as well?"

"Sure, sure. You"re going to make me crave being sick, now."

"Don"t say that now. How"s your body so weak? You"ve even survived the market before."

"But I work more now than back then. It"s also hard trying to get used to different time zones as I travel. Anyway, give me some more. It"s really good."

"You said you weren"t hungry."

Minjoon took another spoonful with a smile. Kaya took a bite out of it, and put her head against Minjoon"s chest. She opened up with a nervous voice.

"You aren"t going to say anything about me not was.h.i.+ng my hair, are you?"

"You think I"m that stupid?"

"You usually are."

Minjoon kissed Kaya with a ma.s.sive grin. This time, he took a bite of his own soup. Kaya raised her voice in anxiousness.

"Hey! No! You"re gonna get sick!"

"It"s fine, it"s fine. I didn"t get sick last time."

"Doesn"t mean you won"t get sick this time. You have to take care of yourself, silly."

"You getting worried for me?"

"Of course I am! You have a problem with that?"

"No, I like it."

As soon as Kaya opened her mouth to speak, Minjoon shoved more soup into it. Her eyes shone with annoyance as she swallowed the soup. Minjoon kissed her forehead shortly before shuddering in disgust.

"Salty. Tastes like sweat."

"You wanna die?"

"Do you even have the strength to try to kill me?"

"I don"t need strength to kill your future kids."

"… Sorry. I won"t do it again."

Minjoon retreated quickly. Kaya pinched Minjoon"s cheeks.

"You called my mom earlier, right?"

"Yeah. She was worried."

"She said she was sorry again, didn"t she? She keeps acting like a sinner all the time. Just what does she think she did wrong?"

"That"s just what parents are like. They always regret never having been perfect."

"But she was perfect. And she always will be."

"Of course."

Minjoon rubbed Kaya"s cheek with his hand. Kaya"s eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"You act like you"re treating me like a child sometimes."

"Well, you are one. You"re still in your teens, you know?"

"Bah, whatever. Let"s just talk about mom. When she comes to LA, I"ll have to… make her meet dad. I don"t know what"s going to happen."

"She must feel complicated about it. Just like you."

"It"s fine if I feel this way. I just have to pretend not to be feeling any of it. I just hope my mom understand that we weren"t thrown away. It"d be better if we ended up not actually becoming people who were thrown away."

"I don"t think he was lying. I don"t want to judge a person"s character after just one meeting, but he didn"t seem like the type to lie about stuff like this."

Minjoon felt saying something like this would help comfort Kaya more. Kaya sighed before looking at Minjoon.

"What I"m really worried about is where I"m going to have them meet."

"The restaurant?"

"That restaurant is the problem. I was thinking of taking them to my place at first, but I wanted them to meet somewhere even better. After all, this is going to be the highlight of my life."

"Even better? Do you mean…"

"Yeah."

Kaya nodded.

"Rose Island. The most famous restaurant in the world. And… The place where my family worked as chefs. There isn"t any other place for a broken family like mine to meet up at."

End.

Translator:EnsjEditor: Arocks141

Support us by turning off ad-block! Join Yado Inn"s to join the community!

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator"s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry ?

< Everyone"s Story (2) >

It was a long sentence, at least, by Kaya"s standards. The restaurant her family"s worked at…

Minjoon looked into Kaya"s face. She didn"t even seem to feel anything from what she just said. That just made her look even cuter.

"Can I kiss you?"

"I told you that you can"t. Stop saying stuff like that."

"This is still better than not saying anything though, isn’t it?"

"Whatever. Anyway, are you fine with my family coming to the restaurant?"

"There"s no better place. Plus, like you said, it"s important to your faaa~mily."

"What"s up with your way of saying family?"

Only then did Kaya pout a little bit. Minjoon responded by poking her lips. Kaya tried to say something, but Minjoon cut her off.

"Are you tired? Not because of your sickness, but because of work."

"What kind of work doesn"t make you tired?"

"Does it at least feel good doing it?"

Kaya looked up to Minjoon. Minjoon thought that face of hers looked more beautiful than anything else in the world. Almost otherworldly, in fact.

The shadows on her nose, her eyelids that"s swollen a tiny bit from tiredness, and even the little freckles accentuated by her red cheeks. They all looked incredible on her. Kaya opened her mouth.

"I did at first. I felt like I was actually doing something. But after I became a little puppet after coming to LA, I felt powerless again. Your encouragement helped, though, and I ended up getting a dish of mine on the menu. After that, I"ve started enjoying things again."

"Same as me, huh. I"ve always felt encouraged by you, too."

"If you did, why don"t you try cleaning and making breakfast too, huh?"

"You said you"d do those things yourself, though? Saying that you didn"t want to be a moocher?"

"Help me out even if I hate it. Hug me even if I try to look strong. Even if I say I"m fine, I"m not fine a lot of the time. I"m not that strong, either. You said so yourself, didn"t you? I"m still in my teens, no matter what I say."

"Yeah, I forget that a lot because of how cool you look."

"Stop it."

Kaya b.u.mped her head into Minjoon"s shoulders. Minjoon put down the now-empty soup bowl, and carefully hugged Kaya. Her wet, sweaty clothing almost stuck to his skin and clothes.

"Sorry for being such a useless boyfriend."

"What did I say about insulting my stuff again?"

"…I"m your stuff?"

"Of course you are. So watch out what you say about yourself. You can"t just keep…"

Kaya extended a finger to touch the burn mark on Minjoon"s neck. Her face became colored with sadness for a split second.

"… Hurting yourself like that. This is all private property, you know. Destroying private property is illegal."

"I"m just damaging it."

"Same thing."

Kaya rubbed her face on Minjoon"s scar.

"And you were just talking about trying not to get me infected, too…"

"It"s fine as long as we don"t kiss, right?"

"… Even breathing in the same room is risky."

"Want me to hold my breath?"

"Whatever. Just sleep. I"m gonna go to work after I see you sleep."

"I don"t really want to…"

Kaya tried to be rebellious, but the effect of a full stomach and Minjoon"s warm body was too much on her. In just a few minutes, she was sound asleep.

Minjoon put a blanket over Kaya, then paced around the room for a minute before placing a mug of water and some medicine next to her. He considered turning off the lights for a bit, but decided to head out with the lights on.

Since Anderson wasn"t here this time, he had to use the bus to get to work this time. After getting to the restaurant with some effort, he stumbled upon a very troubled Maya.

"Ah, chef, finally. I was dying measuring all this stuff by myself."

"Sorry. Are the ingredients all ok?"

"Yeah. I think so."

Minjoon took a look over the ingredients from the kitchen. He had to pay extra attention to his ingredients here. After all, there was no saving jelly once it"s been fully made. Minjoon took a little bit of the jelly in his mouth. As always, the system screen showed up in front of his eyes.

Source: (There are too many ingredients, so this has been hidden)

Quality: High

Cooking Score: 6/10

Minjoon took a little sample of the fruit jellies and some of the ice cream before giving it all a satisfactory nod.

"…Mm, it"s alright. It"s still developing in flavor, but it should all be good by tomorrow. Good work, Maya. You"ve gotten a lot better."

"Hehe, thanks."

Maya finally seemed a little more relaxed. She then asked a question with a curious voice.

"How do you taste literally everything just like that, even with an absolute tongue?"

"This isn"t about me having a good tongue. Any other chef can roughly see what state a food is in after tasting it. This is just the basics."

"But it"s super hard trying to figure out how good the jellies are."

"It"s hard, not impossible. You"ll be able to do it too."

"Alright. I"ll work harder."

Maya pumped her fists in the hair. As Minjoon let off a small smile, Janet came up behind him.

"Yo, I heard your girlfriend was sick?"

"Yeah, she"s going through a lot at such a young age. Her body can"t take it."

"You nursed her?"

"Pretty much. Ah, where"s Isaac? I need to ask him something."

"Probably in the office. But going out of the kitchen again so soon?"

"I"ll be right back. Maya, you really did a tremendous job on the jellies. Thanks for coming out on a rest day of all things. You can go rest now."

"Wow."

The one who responded to Minjoon wasn"t Maya, but Gerrick. Janet slowly turned her head to give Gerrick a short glare.

"What, you jealous that she gets to rest?"

"N-no! Not at all!"

"Be honest here. It"s tiring, isn"t it? We decided that Sunday would be a rest day, but some of us still need to come out to prep. The appetizers are mostly stuff that require aging as well. It"s super annoying, isn"t it? Go rest. I"ll do eee~verything else by myself. You don"t want to work all day under me, don"t you?"

"I love my job. I"ve never felt better."

"Then go make more lime juice. You think we can make all the ceviche by today at this rate?"

"Yes, ma"am!"

Gerrick scuttled off to the fridge without another word. Maya looked at the man with a sympathetic face. Minjoon let out a small laughter before turning to Maya.

"You did really well winning against Gerrick, huh? What do you think your job would"ve been like if you went to Janet instead of me?"

"…Thanks for treating me so well, chef. Ah, and I"ll leave a little later. I want to practice one or two things back in the kitchen."

"Sure, go for it."

"Yessir."

Maya took off with a grin. Janet let out a big sigh.

"You got a good chef, huh? Gerrick"s seriously…"

"You need to be kind to him. He"ll get better eventually."

"Stop talking like a textbook. I"m not interested."

"Anyway, I"m off to meet Isaac. Work hard."

Minjoon took off from the kitchen. Even as a demi chef, he wasn"t a big fan of having to work on a Sunday. It was pretty tiring, even for him. It was a relatively short visit in the kitchen, but… It still ate away at him a tiny bit.

"They said the Rose Island from ten years back didn"t have any rest days."

It made sense that Daniel Rose collapsed from overwork. Rachel probably made a rest day for the staff to prevent another Daniel Rose from happening.

When Minjoon entered the office, he was greeted not only by Isaac, but also Rachel. Minjoon let out an awkward smile.

"You"re all here."

"Yup. Do you need something?"

"Ah, I wanted to ask Isaac something."

"Me?"

"Mm… I don"t feel too good saying this in front of teacher and Jack, but I need to make a reservation for four on Christmas Eve."

"The reservations then should be… Completely full."

"Yeah, I"d appreciate it if you could push it in when there"s a cancellation."

"Is there something up?"

Rachel asked a question. Minjoon paused for a bit before answering.

"Kaya"s family"s going to meet up again for the first time, and they wanted to come here. I think being able to cook food for Kaya"s family… would be special for all of us."

"…Yes. That does sound good. Isaac, do we happen to have any cancellations at all?"

"There might be a few on other days, but Christmas Eve is… there might not even be a single one."

"It"s simple, then. We might as well just put in another table. We can just get four more seats. Put it next to the kitchen, so that Minjoon can see them as well."

It was a very sudden decision, but it was to be expected from Rachel. Instead of being surprised, Isaac decided to just go with it.

"Circular, or square?"

"Minjoon?"

"…Ah, a circular table should be good. I don"t think they"d do well sitting so close to each other on a square one… But can you really put in a new table just like that?"

"My restaurant, my kitchen. I can do whatever I want."

"Thank you, teacher."

Minjoon let out a big smile. He smiled quite often at work, but not even Rachel had seen Minjoon smile this big. Was he really that happy about having those people meet up again? That he would be the one to serve them food?

"What a nice person he is."

At first, Rachel was only drawn to Minjoon by his tongue. But now, she was beginning to see more charm in Minjoon than she initially thought. He was a good student. He was a good person as well. Jack let out a small complaint.

"You have too good of a personality for someone like Rachel."

"Thank you. But Rachel"s still the best teacher I"ve ever had. Her personality, too…"

"Personality my a.s.s."

Jack wouldn"t even hear it. And he had the right to do so. Minjoon looked around the room once more before continuing.

"Should I go out? It seems you two have a lot to talk about."

"I"d like to ask you for something before you leave."

"Me?"

"As you know, the restaurant changes its menu every ten days. By the time your customers come, we"d have a new menu. So, I want you to make a dish, any type of dish, to put on our menu on that day."

"… What?"

Minjoon couldn"t even respond properly. It wasn"t like he didn"t understand what Rachel said. But what she just said seemed almost too good to be true.

"They"re your precious customers. Don"t you want to serve them something you made completely from scratch, all by yourself?"

"Can I… Do it? No, I can"t. I"d just end up damaging your menu."

"Don"t worry about it. I"m not planning on putting up a bad dish up on our menu. So just go ahead and try it. Think about what you want to serve them."

"Even then…. Do you think I could make a recipe good enough for Rose Island in just a month?"

Rachel shook her head.

"Chefs are adventurers. They get on the boat not knowing that there"d be an island on the other side, but believing there would. Minjoon, I trust you. Don"t you trust yourself?"

Minjoon"s lips trembled. He let go of all the pride and humility he carried with himself, and answered.

"I…"

End.