Chapter 381: Taste of Blank (5)
Everyone looked at the judges with nervous expressions. There were a total of five judges—Bastien, Sophie, Asher, Parnella, and Norris.
Except for Norris, all of them received three stars from Michelin. Even Norris didn’t receive the three stars because he was not competent. Actually, he was a chef who refused to receive stars from Michelin.
Those who knew Norris could understand him because he was notorious for being fastidious not only in France but also around the world. So, such a fastidious chef couldn’t be pleased to see somebody else rating the dishes he made by himself. Even if the evaluator was a Michelin, he wouldn’t care.
So it was quite surprising that a judge like Norris who would most likely criticize somebody else’s dishes harshly presented his opinion prudently this time.
“Langostino with red onion cream is good. To be honest with you, I want to ask, ‘is this all?’ I’m not saying that a simple taste is bad, but considering that this is a compet.i.tion, I don’t think your dish is not attractive enough. Do you have any other motivations that I don’t know in your dish?”
“There’s nothing big in this dish. I just wanted to show that langostino and onion can produce a very attractive combination because cream maximizes its contrasting taste.”
“Well, average customers might not know it, but none of the judges here can feel the freshness of what the combination brings. I’m sorry. It’s a good dish, but it’s not suitable for the compet.i.tion.”
That was the kind of feedback that Norris gave to some finalists. Of course, other judges asked for the finalist’s opinion, but Norris went too far. He even pointed out what the finalist had not noticed at all. In some respects, he was like a tutor who made his students grow by pointing out his or her problems.
Now the judges stood before Dobby and Eva. At that moment, Norris looked at the dish they made with serious expressions.
“Is it ravioli?”
“Yes, this is pineapple ravioli with coffee caviar.”
At first glance, it might sound like a ravioli stuffed with pineapple inside. But it wasn’t.
It was pineapple with the ravioli wrapper. And what was filled inside was ricotta cheese.
Norris groaned when he saw the juice made from a mixture of pineapple and syrup moisturizing ravioli under it.
‘This is very complicated cooking.’
Obviously, the Dobby pair wanted to show through this plating that they were from Rose Island. Making ravioli wrapper with pineapple? Come to think of it, it wasn’t that difficult. Any difference between the real and the fake was always made by a trifling thing.
To find out if it was real or fake, the best was to put it into one’s mouth and try it.
Norris picked up a spoonful of ravioli and coffee caviar and put it in his mouth.
‘It doesn’t taste that good.’
The combination itself was fresh. Coffee and pineapple, plus syrup, which was far from a common combination. But the thing was it didn’t taste surprising at all. He didn’t feel any eye-opening feelings when he tasted it. To be honest, he just felt Dobby’s dish was creative. That was all.
“Oh…”
But if that was all Dobby’s dish could show, other judges wouldn’t have uttered such exclamation.
Bastien opened his mouth without hiding admiration.
“The syrup is really appropriate here. It diminished the light taste of the pineapple and brought out its heavy and thick taste. So when it goes with ricotta cheese, they don’t disturb each other at all. I’m going to give you 9 points.”
“It was a dish that showed your skill and confidence rather than creativity. Certainly, the Rose Island staff who came this time is more skilled than usual. Let me give you 8 points.”
After that, the other two finished judging, and now the only judge who had to give his judgment was Norris. He looked at Dobby for a while. He coveted Dobby. He was just amazed at how a sous chef like him could show such fantastic cooking skills.
But Norris did not score his dish. He simply said what he liked and disliked about Dobby’s dish. Actually, he refused to accept Michelin’s stars because he didn’t want his dish rated by others, so it would be ridiculous if he rated somebody else’s dish.
“It’s a good dish. I enjoyed it.”
Norris, who asked other partic.i.p.ants long questions, ended his rating with such short comments. But Dobby understood his point well.
With a big smile, Dobby said with a nod, “Thank you.”
“See you in the second round of the finals.”
Having said that, Norris left the place. French chefs watched Norris chatting with Dobby and commenting about his dish very carefully. They didn’t feel jealous about the good marks that the judges gave him. What made them nervous was that the judges might hurt French men’s pride by showing their ugly sides.
Right now, the judges’ rating of Dobby’s dish was 9 on average. Even though all the French partic.i.p.ants didn’t get as high marks as Dobby, at least one of them needed to because they didn’t want to be pushed and shoved by their foreign counterparts.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for someone who got a cooking score 9 to appear.
“Please save the pride of France, Enzo.”
“Don’t flatter me so much. It’s my son who came up with this recipe. I just kept pace with him.”
Enzo looked back at Theo with proud expressions.
Smiling at them, Bastien said with a nod, “You raised your son very well. He’s become a great cook.”
“Thank you,” Theo replied with a smile.
What the Enzo pair made was foie gras wrapped in chocolate, added with banana and yuja cream. Its only shortcoming was it tasted very fatty, but it was the most luxurious and satisfying fatty dish in the world.
Enzo’s skills as shown in the dish could be obviously called the pride of France.
At last, Norris opened his mouth.
“I hope you can keep the pride of France, Enzo.”
“Sure, I will. France’s pride is my pride.”
Watching Norris nod, Enzo remained silent with an expressionless look. What Norris commented about their dish was just ‘Good!’ And the judges’ rating of his dish was 9.25 on average, which was higher than the Dobby and Eva pair.
There were cheers from the French spectators present at the venue. As they say, men were blind in their own causes. The French crowds blindly cheered for their partic.i.p.ants whenever they received good scores.
Anderson and Chloe were the next members of Rose Island to stand in front of the judges. Looking at them, Eva whispered to Dobby, “You must be upset because you lost the 1st place.”
“It’s not the 1st place that matters. What it really matters is whether you can move to the next round of the finals.”
“It’s good if you become famous. Nowadays, they think you are capable if you’re famous.”
“Don’t worry. If I win the compet.i.tion here, they will recognize my name, after all. So, this kind of trivial process is not important now.”
“Are you confident of winning this contest?”
“Why should I be scared when my wonderful Chef Eva a.s.sists me?”
“Yeah, I hope you can be independent from Rose Islan as soon as possible.”
Eva shook her head with a sigh, as if she felt it bothersome to respond.
In the meantime, the judges were done trying their dish.
Looking at each other, they opened their mouths.
“Has anyone been to the Rose Island main restaurant recently?”
“I could not because I was busy. I think you did, too.”
“Why don’t we make a reservation there sooner or later? I think a group reservation would be cheaper.”
“Man, given that the demi chefs there are so competent…”
It was natural that they expressed such administration, for a demi chef was not supposed to create their own dishes, but just do as instructed by the head chef or sous chef. But the demi chefs of the Rose Island main restaurant had exceptional cooking skills without any exception, and all of them succeeded in advancing into the finals.
‘I guess the status of Rose Island may be greater than in the past.’
Maybe “the best” would be reserved for the Rose Island team.
The t.i.tle of the dish that Anderson and Chloe created was fake mozzarella. The way to make it was very complicated. They made mousse with mascarpone cheese then mixed yogurt and ice cream to make yogurt ice cream. After that, they boiled milk to coagulate its fat and then made thin skins with the coagulated fat. Then they applied mascarpone mousse between the skins, putting yogurt ice cream on it, and then covering it with mousse and skins again.
As for plating, they put cherry syrup and glucose on the bottom, and then put a cherry sauce under, and put the basil caramelized with syrup and xanthan gum here and there in the sauce, which was red, white, and blue.
It was a beautiful plating. And that was entirely done by Chloe, not Anderson. Since she was always making pretty and good-looking dishes on a TV cuisine show, her plating was much better than any decent food coordinator.
It was also Chloe who came up with a basic concept of the recipe. Chloe couldn’t work in the field so far, so she searched for recipes from more famous restaurants around the world. While she was doing it, she could become more familiar with those recipes that were too c.u.mbersome for the chefs to make in restaurants.
And her familiarity with such recipes was a great help to her in this contest because it was not a big problem in the compet.i.tion where they were supposed to make only a few dishes.
“Where did you get your inspiration? This dish is pretty impressive.”
“Well, from the internet.”
“Pardon?”
At the moment, Judge Parnella looked strange. She heard there were many geeks from the Rose Island restaurants, but she never expected she would see a partic.i.p.ant like Chloe who said she learned cooking from the internet. Oh, she could see them in the qualifying round, but they were now competing in the final rounds at the moment. Besides, Chloe’s dish was so good as to impress all the judges!
Chloe read his expression.
She said, looking awkward, “To be honest with you, I have to mention not only the internet but also my friends. Min-joon was helpful because he sometimes told me about molecular cooking, and I learned a lot from him.”
“Oh, you said you were not cooking in the field…”
“Yes, I was doing a TV cuisine program for some time.”
Parnella’s feelings were mixed. The French chefs partic.i.p.ating in this contest had been devoting themselves to cooking for the rest of their lives, but their dishes were not better than those made by the Rose Island chefs. Nonetheless, to her surprise, this excellent partic.i.p.ant casually mentioned something like, ‘I learned it from my friend, and I also learned it on the Internet.’
She seriously asked herself, ‘Is there anything wrong with the French cuisine today?’
It was not unreasonable for her to ask such a question.
Eventually, she revealed the score with mixed feelings. Chloe and Anderson’s final average score was 9. Other chefs and crowds watching them uttered exclamations again.
“Wow, I just can’t believe how fantastic Rose Island chefs are. Why are they serving as demi chefs there with such great skills?”
When their expectations and shock were at their peak, the next and last Rose Island pair stood before the judges.
They were Min-joon and Kaya, and they were from America.