Chapter 609: Two Sides of the Same Coin (1)
Min-joon once told Kaya that what he had in mind was two types of restaurants. One of them was the kind of restaurant where he could make what customers wanted to eat, and the other one was the kind of restaurant where he could make the luxurious dishes with the best ingredients, best chefs, and best care, which they could not enjoy anywhere else in the world.
Kaya was already fulfilling that kind of dream to some extent by running Irregular Lab. Because of that, she had no particular desire to make her dream come true through Lotus Bridge. Even though Kaya and Chloe left Irregular Lab, somebody else was still running it. Of course, Kaya and Chloe still maintained the owners.h.i.+p of the restaurant, so the recipes they had made were selling under their names.
Irregular Lab was to have a nationwide franchise, too. And it was at that moment when Kaya’s dream began to come true, which was to popularize high-end dishes that ordinary people could enjoy at affordable prices. Of course, she would face difficulties because low prices would put a lot of pressure on the small number of chefs running the Irregular Lab. Besides, it would be difficult to accept only high-level chefs among the job seekers, and even if they were hired, some of them might quit because of the excessive workload.
The success of Irregular was still uncertain. Actually, she was more concerned about failure than the expectation of its success. However, the important thing was that Kaya did not have to try to accomplish the contradictory task of popularizing high-end cuisine at Lotus Bridge.
“We must succeed,” Kaya said in a determined voice.
The brand of a product affects people more than one thought. The higher the name value of Kaya a.s.sociated with Irregular Lab was, the higher the value of Irregular Lap they felt.
“I don’t think we have to pay too much attention to the nationality of our cuisine. Well, considering that we dabble in the cuisine of all countries, that won’t help us run the restaurant.”
“It’s only natural if we take molecular and fusion cuisine as our basic cooking. But if we want to do so, we have to have more cooking sections, and more kitchen staff.”
“I think four or five demi-chefs are enough. By the way, I have to decide on one thing before that.”
He looked at her. If he could, he didn’t really want to mention it, but he couldn’t.
“We have to figure out which position we have to take at our restaurant.”
“It doesn’t matter if I’m a sous chef,” she said right away.
To be honest, he fully understood the situation. She still lacked a lot in terms of serving as the head chef. She already experienced it while she was leading her team at the recent Grand Chef compet.i.tion. So she was too lacking in kitchen leaders.h.i.+p to claim the head chef position because of her pride.
But Min-joon shook his head and said, “You must be the head chef unconditionally.”
“Are you serious?”
Kaya looked at him curiously as if his reply was unexpected.
He used to turn into a wallflower in front of her, which was nothing new to those who know him.
But that didn’t just rationalize his action just because she was Kaya. He pointed out something about her that he had to. For example, if she was lacking in certain qualities, he said so. Obviously, she had no qualifications as the head chef.
So Kaya said quietly, “You know I don’t have qualifications for the head chef.”
That was not something she could confide in anybody and Min-joon at that.
But he replied firmly, “What do you think people are expecting from Lotus Bridge?”
“Well delicious food.”
“It’s not just food they want. We’re chefs, but we’re stars at the same time. Among our guests, there may be some who want to see our faces more than our dishes. And they will have a strong impression that we are a chef couple on an equal footing. What if you are the sous chef, and I am the head chef?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Our customers will question why you are the sous chef. They might wonder if you are not competent enough to be the head chef. Of course, that’s reasonable doubt because they want to understand our situation correctly. But we can’t show them the truth even if they think so. The truth is different from the fact. And the facts we show them should be the same thing as what they want.”
If they start to doubt Kaya, they would soon suspect Min-joon as well. Just like Kaya didn’t have the skills they hoped for, they might think Min-joon was no exception. Of course, their suspicion would not last long, but their perfect image among the people would inevitably be tainted to some extent.
She looked at him while he was explaining to her. Suddenly, she thought the way he spoke to her was rather unfamiliar. She even wondered if he had ever spoken to her like that before. She thought he must have been influenced by June a lot.
“So you want me to be the head chef?”
“It doesn’t matter even if you are doing a sous chef’s work despite your t.i.tle of the head chef. But your position should be the same as mine. Over time, you can have all the qualities to be the head chef anyway.”
She sighed at his words. Running a restaurant was more tiring than she thought. When she ran Irregular Lab, she just started it without almost ever caring about strategy, so there was more criticism than praise for the restaurant.
So she was not in a position to reject his suggestion.
“Okay, let me try then,” she said in a diffident voice. It seemed that she could not catch up with him. He wanted to comfort her by saying something, but he held her hand instead.
A lot had changed since Min-joon and Kaya announced the opening of Lotus Bridge.
However, the most obvious thing they could change was the att.i.tude of the Grand Chef partic.i.p.ants. More precisely, some partic.i.p.ants like Ken, Jacqueline, Alvin, and Tom were enthusiastic about joining the new restaurant.
“Well, it seems they are thinking of job interviews with you,” said Joseph, as if he thought they were cute.
As soon as Min-joon and Kaya arrived at the Grand Chef’s House, they greeted the two enthusiastically as if a puppy was wagging her tail at her owner. Watching his eyes full of expectations, they seemed to think that Min-joon could hire them if they were lucky.
‘Well…’
To be honest, Min-joon had no intention of living up to their expectations. Given that they have survived up to now, it was clear that they have a great sense of cooking and they were as competent as the demi chefs at most high-end restaurants.
But that didn’t mean that they could easily adapt to the restaurant. In fact, the reason why Min-joon could become a demi chef after landing a job at Rose Island was partly because Rachel favored him.
But he had no reason to go to the trouble of hiring and patronizing them at his new restaurant. Rachel was already a giant chef who didn’t have to enhance her skills, but he was still too busy to focus on improving his cooking skills. Of course, he couldn’t tell them about it
‘But…’
Min-joon looked at Hugo for a moment. Hugo would do a great job as a sous chef or a demi-chef because he had actual experience working at a restaurant, and he had good skills. So he wondered if Hugo could accept his offer because of his high pride.
‘Man, let me focus on my work first.’
He caught his breath and climbed onto the podium. He felt it no longer awkward to come to the podium now.
“Today, the two of you will be eliminated from the compet.i.tion.”
When he said that, the partic.i.p.ants looked more nervous than usual.
Two out of eight partic.i.p.ants would be eliminated.
“I’ve been telling you this all the time. I hope you don’t hate yourself for not winning the Grand Chef compet.i.tion. As you know, I myself didn’t even win or advance to the finals, but I’ve come to this position at the end of the day. I didn’t ruin my career because of that.”
They gently smiled at his words. Obviously, his presence itself was a big comfort to them. As he said, winning the compet.i.tion was not all they should pursue, for there were countless opportunities for their real challenge after that. But only one of them didn’t think so.
‘Well, he didn’t need to win the Grand Chef anyway.’
Gwen thought so. It was after he already attracted global attention with his perfect palate. Among those who noticed him was Rachel Rose. Would she have reached out to Gwen if she had watched her at this Grand Chef season just like she did to Min-joon?
Gwen thought she would have a better chance of winning the lottery than Rachel would do so, for she would not make such a worthless investment if she were Rachel.
‘That’s why I should win by all means.’