Chapter 462: Knowing One’s Place and Limit (3)
Willard tried to get up from his seat, then just sat back as if he felt dizzy. Startled, his secretary shouted his name, but he could hardly hear it.
“Dropped from their recommendation list?”
It might not be a big deal for a restaurant to be missing from the recommendation list of cooking magazines. In fact, it was common for restaurants to run well without being mentioned in the recommendation list. But it wasn’t that simple for Willard. Not just one cooking magazine, but also several ones boycotted his restaurant.
In other words, the local cooking magazines turned their backs against him. Losing customers was one thing, but the biggest problem was that they could do more harm to him in the future.
“They can’t do this to me. I’ve really tried hard to please the editors and executives lots of …”
He was trembling with a sense of betrayal. He felt like all his efforts to win over their hearts over the years were totally denied. Actually, that was true.
Willard kept screaming for some time, even forgetting his secretary was in front of him. After shouting and raging enough, he was suddenly stricken with fear that he couldn’t dare face.
June immediately pitted his allies or his alleged allies against him. Could she stop pressuring him at this point? If she didn’t, what would happen next?
***
“Have you ever heard the expression that talent s.h.i.+nes like a jewel?” June said in a quiet voice. Although she didn’t say it in an angry tone, Willard felt more pressured because of that.
He rescinded feebly as if he was put off by her jeering tone.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“It’s not just talent that s.h.i.+nes like a jewel. Sometimes one’s hard work also looks quite like a pretty jewel. Or I can call it an artificial jewel.”
“…”
“Min-joon is like a jewel. Best craftsmen scrambled for this best gemstone. You never know how much I tried to put a knife on this gemstone. Then a man of naught suddenly has begun to covet it. Of course, I’m not sure if he wants to have it or break it.”
Obviously, she was referring to Willard, but he did not refute her. It was true that he actually tried to win over Min-joon’s heart, but he already realized that he had too little power to react to her humiliation of him.
“Who do you think you are?”
“Maybe an artificial jewel.”
“Don’t you think your self-evaluation is too generous?”
June smiled, jeering at him. At that moment, he was roused to anger because he didn’t lead a carefree life. He did the best he could and got the reward for his diligent life.
“Are you saying I didn’t try hard?” he asked.
“Well, you have made a lazy effort.”
She defined his life neatly without any trace of thinking hard.
And she continued even before he replied, “So, what did you do? You were busy currying favor with influential guys. Your cooking level was only this much, but what you wanted was much higher. Then you began to say all dishes were more of the same at the end of the day because it’s the individual taste that really mattered.”
This time, she spoke in a sweet and gentle voice in a break with her hang-tough att.i.tude a moment ago. She stood up, then met his eyes, who was sitting in a chair, bending over.
Then she shouted in a fit of anger, “You don’t deserve it!”
“I don’t deserve it?”
“Of course not. It’s arrogant of you to talk about somebody’s taste or personality, given your cooking level. Of all the dishes you make, how many do you think can get better scores than mine or Min-joon? Do you think your dishes can bring out better responses from people?”
“Well, you guys are different from me in terms of recognition and popularity…”
“That’s a good excuse. Then, shall I try a blind test?” she asked right away.
But he just kept tight-lipped without responding. In this situation, other chefs would have strongly refuted her, but he didn’t. Perhaps he knew deep down that he lost.
“You must have always led a life like that, lying to everybody that a chef’s cooking level was all the same at the end of the day. But I think you also knew it was not true while you had been lying like that. Otherwise, you don’t have to feel embarra.s.sed like this.”
“Well, I just did my best…”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m kindly explaining to you right now. This is the best you can do.”
Having said that, she laughed scornfully enough that he also noticed she was deliberately ignoring him. He felt pressured so intensely.
She continued, “You’ve obtained everything by begging so far. Whether you’re better than them or not, you just bowed to them and got their sympathy and favor. That’s how you’ve gotten here. You should have kept doing so. Why did you suddenly raise your head? Now you have a good house and good clothes with the money you made by begging, you feel you are no longer a beggar? You think you have become somebody?”
Willard bowed his head, feeling humiliated.
But she said harshly as if growling, “How vulgar you are!”
Her voice was full of contempt to the point that not only Willard but also the kitchen staff overhearing their conversation were startled.
“You should have decided whether you wanted to stop begging and live quietly, or still bow politely. Because you were not on either side, you ended up being such a c.r.a.p like this. People liked you when you bowed to them because they didn’t find you attractive when you tried to be on par with them.”
“So, what do you want from me?”
“You might want something from me, right? You might want to beg me for your life, or ask me to give you another chance.”
Willard bit his lips because that was true. It was not just the magazine people that June contacted with respect to Willard’s dirty trick. She had all the merchants who supplied him with high-quality materials stop supplying him anymore. His occasional invitation to a broadcast program was also stopped.
He quietly opened his mouth.
“Can you forgive me if I do that?”
***
Willard looked so miserable when he left June’s restaurant. June looked back at the kitchen staff. Since they were overhearing her conversation with Willard, they realized again what kind of personality she had. In other words, they realized how cruel and ruthless she could be when she dealt with her enemy.
“You’ve made a good choice,” Downey, who was always blunt to Min-joon, said, looking at him.
Min-joon glanced back at him quickly.
Downey, who just watched the whole scene of June giving Willard a piece of her mind, said in an excited voice, “Because I can’t even imagine someone other than Chef June rising to the top.”
Min-joon understood his feelings and his thrill. When he saw June’s charisma a little while ago, Min-joon even felt overwhelmed by the fact that he was now in compet.i.tion with her over the position of Rachel Rose’s successor.
At that moment, June started walking toward them. With everybody looking at her nervously, she said in a tired voice, “Remember how miserable he was when he left this place. That’s the tragedy of a man who has gotten what he wanted not by his real abilities but by all kinds of shallow tricks. And that’s why you have to hone your cooking skills endlessly.”
“…”
“Compromise is always right when you do it with others, but not with yourself. The moment you begin to compromise with yourself…”
There was a brief silence among them.
She resumed, “That’s the moment you begin to fall.”
***
“Hey, don’t you stay alert? Are you happy you seem to have achieved everything because you landed a job at Rose Island? Doug, I told you clearly that you should not make me repeat the same advice. Answer me. How many times have I told you? I clearly told you to cook confit for only 40 minutes.”
“Uh… I’m sorry. I often forget it.”
“Yeah. I doubt if you can remember it when you just forget my simple instructions,” quipped Janet coldly.
When Doug bowed his head with a gloomy expression, Havier stopped her with a smile.
“Calm down, Janet. I think Doug must have gotten your point. Don’t be too hard on him.”
“Nope, I doubt. I’m nagging him because I know he’s going to repeat the same mistake tomorrow.”
“You can punish him tomorrow. He missed it only once today.”
“Well, Doug can make just one mistake, but the customer may leave with a bad memory when he might have visited us once in a lifetime. How can you say that carelessly?”
When she harshly reproached Havier, Doug’s face turned even gloomier.
At that moment, Rachel came over and said, “That’s enough. Doug, you’re definitely wrong today. Even a head chef or sous chef can’t cook confit perfectly, so you should have adjusted the heat perfectly. And I hired you as a demi chef because I thought you could do it easily. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yes, Chef.”
“I was disappointed today, but don’t let me down tomorrow. Then I won’t stop her even if Janet will give you a hard time. Go and take a rest for now.”
Doug left the kitchen cautiously. Rachel smiled at Janet, who was still in a sullen mood.
“Well, we’ve got lots of orders messed up today. Just give him a pa.s.s this time.”
“But if he keeps making mistakes like that, you won’t be able to control him later.”
“That’s why we should make sure it should not happen again. I was a little careless today. Normally, I would have checked the heat of each stove, but I was out of sorts today….”
“Are you okay? You seem to be so inert these days.”
“Well, what’s the point of being energetic at my age? I’m just squeezing my energy until I collapse.”
Janet didn’t mean it, but the mood turned awkward, so she was thinking of how to brighten the atmosphere when Havier opened his mouth as if something came to his mind.
“Oh, did you hear about Min-joon? He had a big quarrel with that notorious chef.”
“Yeah, I heard it. I know how that guy tried to get Min-joon into trouble but ended up finding himself into trouble instead,” said Rachel casually as if she was not worried at all.
As a matter of fact, Min-joon was too powerful to care about such a small fry. His biggest advantage was that he was not only widely known to the public, but he was also very popular among them. An ordinary university student who was from Korea, the United States, he was growing into a star chef with the biggest impact on the American restaurant industry.
Besides, he had the strong backing of June. Since she knew the way June conducted business so well, Rachel didn’t worry too much unless he was picked up as a terrorist’s target.
“Well, Min-joon will know how he is accepted and how powerful he is in the restaurant industry.”
Usually, a chef with Min-joon’s abilities and fame will surely get carried away with his power, but Rachel didn’t think Min-joon would. As far as she knew, Min-joon was the type of man who would get carried with good cooking, not power.
‘Hm. June will gain more prestige after this incident.’
Thinking about it, Rachel tapped on the table. As a matter of fact, June had hardly anything that people could find fault with, so when she added Min-joon’s talent and recognition to her charisma, she became much more powerful in the New York restaurant world. So, if anybody lost favor with her, they would feel like they would be hated by New York.
“Ooops!”
The moment Rachel tried to say something, Janet covered her mouth all of a sudden, then ran to the sink. Then she began to have dry heaves.
Patting her back, Havier asked anxiously, “Are you okay? Did you drink a lot of alcohol yesterday?”
“No… I’ve been feeling an upset stomach these days, so I don’t drink… Ooops!”
Janet vomited again. Rather exhausted, she leaned over the sink.
Hair covering her sweaty face moved whenever she breathed with her facial muscles twitching.
“I just feel under the weather…”