Min-joon and Kaya Reuters will become the judges of the Grand Chef competition’s new season. That news shocked lots of chefs and people in many ways. This time their response exceeded their enthusiastic response to Kaya’s Six Meat and Min-joon’s victory at the Paris International Culinary Competition. It was natural that they showed such a passionate reaction because the Grand Chef competition was at stake, compared with Six Meat and the Paris International Culinary Competition that only concerned the two chefs.
Naturally people’s reactions were inevitably mixed. First of all, many people responded favorably to that news. Honestly, it didn’t matter to them whether Min-joon and Kaya were qualified as judges or not. They only remembered that Season 3 that the two chefs attended had a great fun, compared with other seasons, so they looked forward to the new season where the two chefs would be working as the new judges. However, there were some people who questioned the chefs’ cooking skills. They argued that the two chefs were participants in the Grand Chef competition only two years ago, so it’s unlikely that they improved their cooking skills a lot since then. But their prejudices were destined to collapse when they found out how many achievements the two chefs made until now.
In the first place, Min-joon and Kaya could not be treated like regular participants. Season 3 saw so many talented and competent participants that it was called the best of all seasons. In fact, the participants of the Grand Chef competitions after Season 3 had to witness how much disappointed the viewers were with them when they were compared with Min-joon and Kaya.
There were numerous debates about the two chefs’ qualifications as the judges of the upcoming Grand Chef competition. After all, their debate ended only after the famous chefs made the firm conclusions such as, Min-joon and Kaya were not just ordinary chefs, they had tremendous potential that could not be compared with that of no other chefs, which they were proving very fast now, and they would be much greater than now by the time they would come back as the Grand Chef judges. The famed chefs also explained to them how great each of the chefs’ achievements were, so the general public, who were not even amateur chefs, could not balk at the selection of the two chefs as the judges. As a matter of fact, most of them didn’t even understand the importance and authority of the Paris International Culinary Competition.
The moment they understood the significance of that international competition, they could no longer find fault with the two chefs’ qualifications because Min-joon’s victory of the Paris International Culinary Contest made him stand tall before any head chef even though he was still a sous chef.
Time passed quickly. Autumn passed, and winter came. Finally December came when people would end the year on a good note. The selection of the executive general of Rose Island to replace Rachel was around the corner.
“Oh, thank you very much for the files you sent last time. See you next time.”
The phone was hung up. June, who was thinking hard about something for a while with a pen in her mouth, spit out the pen and looked at Min-joon.
“Is it Lisa?”
“Ah, yes.”
“When I first said she had lung cancer, I was really afraid something bad might happen to her, but she seems to be enduring it well.”
“Well, she has a reason to endure.”
“If I can do something because I have a reason to do so, I wouldn’t even have a headache like this,” she said with a sigh.
Min-joon understood what she said. It took her one year. During that time she devoted herself to making the perfect full course at Rachel’s request.
However, if she had shown it by investing so much time and energy like that, her restaurant would have been back to what it’s supposed to look like. But she could not. The reason she could not make the full course attractive enough to win the competition was not because she didn’t pay much attention. As a matter of fact, she failed to meet Rachel’s expectations and lagged behind Dave.
‘…Can she win?’
Min-joon agonized over it for a moment. He told Dave that June would easily lose to him as long as he participated in the competition. As time went by, however, Min-joon had no choice but to be skeptical about her because she didn’t overcome her limit with the final dish she made. In some respects, it was natural that she didn’t overcome it because she didn’t hear anything from Rachel since Choters rated her restaurant recently. Maybe the atmosphere of her restaurant might have changed by now, but he could not afford to visit there. As the sous chef of June’s restaurant, it would be inappropriate for him to be absent from the restaurant too often. In fact, it was very considerate for June to allow him to go and visit Rachel and other restaurants for Choters Guide rating.
“Can I make it?”
As if she had the same agony as his, June asked, which didn’t befit her at all. It showed her weakness that belied her strong personality.
As if she also realized it, she shook her head with a bitter smile.
“No, don’t answer my question. It was a useless question.”
“You can’t make it as things stand now.”
“Well, I like your honest answer instead of lying to me,” she said, letting out a heavy sigh.
But what Min-joon said was true. If she could not improve, there was no way for her to beat Dave.
She said, rolling her eyes, “Should I compete with him in terms of plating and restaurant service?”
“Well, Chef Rachel won’t like it anyway. She made the same choice as yours a long time ago, and regrets it more than anybody else even now.”
“That’s right. So, your conclusion is I should beat Dave purely with my cooking skills…Shit!”
She spat out curses at that moment. Obviously it didn’t befit her, but Min-joon did not bother to point it out. As a matter of fact, she looked very nervous these days because with the judges’ evaluation of her dishes around the corner, she knew her dishes were far from perfect.
“I wish I had more cooking talent,” she lamented.
“I think you have talent. Of course, You put a lot of effort into it, so if you had not been backed up by your talent, you would not have reached this level.”
“Stop it. When I hear about talent from you, I just feel upset without reason.”
When she said that, he made a bitter expression. In fact, He wanted to say that he wasn’t the type that relied on talent either. At least he thought he was not such a type, but a clumsy genius who owed more to his efforts than his talent.
But even if he said that, June would obviously think he was now making fun of her because there was no question that his name was synonymous with talent in the cooking world.
“Have I been distracted by something else too much?” she asked.
“Well, it’s true that you were pretty much active outside the restaurant, but it didn’t mean you neglected your cooking.”
“But now that I see it, I just feel sorry for the time I invested in engaging lots of figures in society. Chef Rache won’t care about my efforts like that at all.”
Rachel was basically a chef who totally focused on cooking. So, it didn’t matter to her how capable June was politically. So, when June thought about the efforts she put into socializing with political heavyweights until now, she had no choice but to feel empty about such efforts. As a matter of fact, she invested such a huge amount of time in meeting them to achieve the only goal of taking over the main restaurant of Rose Island as Rachel’s successor. Was all her effort just a waste of time at this point?
“Isn’t it funny? Everyone in the world has recognized me, but Rachel doesn’t recognize me as much as them.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t recognize you, Chef June. But she doesn’t rate you as highly as Dave in terms of cooking.”
“After all, doesn’t it mean she doesn’t see me as her successor, right?”
When she replied like that, he scratched his head with an awkward expression. Even though he wanted to comfort her in one way or another, he couldn’t when he examined the exact situation where she was in. It was almost certain that she had little chance of beating Dave to be chosen as Rachel’s successor.
“Maybe your direction might be a problem.”
“My direction?”
“As you know, Chef June, you have been only thinking about the dishes that will help you win the competition. Actually you have been like that all the time. You have always been focused on the recipes with which you could subdue and beat chefs, gourmets, and even customers around you. It may be fun and rewarding to you, but while I was observing you up close, I often wondered whether you were really enjoying cooking or enjoying achieving something through cooking…”
“Honestly, it’s hard for me to deny that I’ve tried to enjoy achieving my goal or ambition through cooking. And I admit I’m greedy about it, too.”
“How about enjoying cooking this time?”