Chapter 216
How To Draw The Eye of a Dragon (1)
Minjoon’s eyes burned as he looked at the system screen. They looked unbelievably energetic for someone who was supposed to be sick. Almost terrifyingly so. Anderson decided against asking the man if he was alright, and put his hand off of the doorknob.
‘That bastard… He thought of something again, didn’t he.’
He’d seen Minjoon like this several times. Every time this happened, Minjoon managed to come up with something spectacular. Anderson looked at Minjoon with a complicated look.
Minjoon’s eyes wandered the air aimlessly, seemingly looking at something with great focus. His body was almost paralyzed with anxiousness, and he seemed like he wasn’t even breathing. After quite some time, Minjoon finally turned to look at Anderson with a tired face. He spoke up with an exhausted voice.
“Yo, Anderson.”
“Done? Let’s go.”
Anderson opened the door without saying anything else. He felt like he was burning up with something inside every time this happened to Minjoon. It could’ve been jealousy. After all, Anderson didn’t have this power of focus that Minjoon had.
Every time he saw Minjoon display feats of a genius, Anderson felt a strange wave of powerlessness wash over him. But it wasn’t exactly caused by something like jealousy. Anderson wasn’t that low of a person.
“How did it go? Did it work out well?”
“Yeah. I think I can satisfy Rachel with this.”
“That’s good. This is an especially important moment for you, after all.”
“I think that’s why I could focus. Since I had a clear motivation this time.”
Anderson thought to himself for a second. Motivation. It’s true. At some point, everyone in the kitchen lost a clear goal that they used to have. Of course, they all still wanted to make good food, but that was… too general. What would be a good motivation for him? As he thought this, he looked at Minjoon. Minjoon looked back at Anderson confusedly.
“What’s up?”
“I was thinking you might end up becoming my motivation to cook.”
“Well, that’d be an honor,”
“Oh, you guys are back?”
Kaya stood up from the sofa she was laying on. She walked over to Minjoon and put a hand over his forehead.
“Do you still have a fever? I can’t tell.”
“Don’t think so, I took some meds. I’m not tired either.”
“Told you you’d get sick.”
“Hey, you were pretty clingy too when you were looking after me.”
“Why don’t you get me sick as well if you feel so annoyed about it?”
Kaya cocked her head backwards a bit to invite a challenge. Minjoon just laughed it off, and flopped down on the sofa. Anderson sighed in annoyance.
“Stop it with being so sick all the time. I can’t afford to get sick either.”
“No worries, it won’t happen.”
“Who knows, you might already be infected already?”
Kaya teased Anderson with a playful voice. Minjoon proudly opened his mouth towards her.
“I thought of a recipe.”
“Thought of? But it didn’t get passed or anything?”
“It will. It’s a great recipe.”
“…You’re really confident, aren’t you? What is it?”
“Not telling. It’s going to be a surprise for you. You’ll find out on the day.”
“You’re really, really confident about this, aren’t you?”
Minjoon nodded.
“There’s absolutely no way this is going to get a fail.”
€
Even if one had a great recipe didn’t mean the dish was going to turn out great as well. Minjoon realized only after trying to make the pomegranate candy that his recipe was far more difficult than he imagined.
“….The shape looks off, too.”
The other aspects of the dish weren’t that difficult. But shaping the pomegranate toffee into an actual pomegranate was far too difficult. He had to insert air into the candy to shape it, but it wasn’t going as well as he had hoped. Maya sighed next to him.
“Chef, do you think I’d actually be able to make this?”
“Forget about that, it might actually be too hard for me as well.”
Minjoon stepped back with a sigh after messing up yet another attempt. This was the most annoying part of molecular gastronomy he had experienced to date. Of course, it wasn’t like the flavor was going to be ruined, but the fun of the dish was in the shape of it. He couldn’t ruin that experience for the customers.
“Give me that.”
In the end, Raphael stepped in. And a pomegranate formed in his hands in an instant. Raphael shrugged towards the astounded couple in front of him.
“Do you know what you two are doing wrong?”
“What?”
“The beginning. This right here.”
Raphael held the toffee in his hand. He carefully took off a piece to shape it into a ball, and pressed the center with his finger. It looked a little off, but it still came out quite nicely.
“This is where the result gets decided, right here. You were getting the first step wrong, so it was inevitable that you’d get everything else wrong, too.”
“What’s so different about your piece of candy?”
“Look at how even it is.”
Raphael pointed to his work as he said this. Minjoon observed it carefully, and became rather amazed. It was just like he said. Every part of the candy was even.
“How did you make it like this?”
“Just the way I make the rest of my dishes. I focused. Put all of your focus into that one piece of toffee. Your work can only get better the more you focus. It’s just like how you can get your finger cut if you rely too much on your muscle memory as you cut. That’s why all great cooks become incredibly cautious when they grab a knife.”
“…You’re saying I wasn’t focused enough?”
“Are you going to tell me you were?”
Raphael quietly looked back at Minjoon. Minjoon asked himself the question. Was he lazy? Was he not focused at work? Perhaps. This was different from his time at the competition. It wasn’t like he was being tested daily, and his job here was just following Rachel’s orders.
There was no way he’d feel too pressured by that. He was being paid well for his work, and that work wasn’t all that taxing, either. There were only two people, Rachel and Raphael, working as his bosses, so there wasn’t any need to feel stress either.
‘I guess I really might’ve gotten a little dull.’
Perhaps Minjoon had been too taken in trying to enjoy the moment, rather than trying to improve himself. He needed to feel more pressured to get better.
“Would you like to try again?”
“Of course.”
Minjoon took his gloved hands to touch the toffee. The piece he took off was quite a bit stiffer than it actually looked. It was candy, after all. Due to this, controlling his strength when molding it was more difficult than he thought. He had to put more strength into it compared to kneading flour dough. That alone made it far easier to break it.
‘Focus, focus, focus…’
Minjoon chanted the word in his head as he worked the dough. Funnily enough, the candy became visibly more even as time went on. Minjoon didn’t let go of his focus even after flattening the candy completely. He slowly shaped it into a tulip, before beginning to blow air into it.
This step, to him, was even more difficult than shaping the candy itself. After all, it was very difficult to judge the state of the candy when it was getting pumped full of air.
Raphael quietly observed Minjoon. He didn’t show it, but he was rather surprised at what was going on.
‘To think a person would change this much after just one advice…’
He did expect Minjoon to improve after the advice, but he didn’t think it would happen so instantly. He had thought the improvements would come after one or two more failures.
But Minjoon was different. He was someone who could enter the zone almost willingly. This made Raphael feel almost jealous.
‘Focus and patience. What more would a cook need in his career? No… Really, if a person has those two things, it’s inevitable that they’d succeed in anything.’
Raphael watched as Minjoon pumped the candy with air. This was different from shaping the candy by hand. Making mistakes here would ruin the candy completely.
Was it because of that? Minjoon’s speed in blowing air into the candy was incredibly slow. If this was happening during service time, he would’ve gotten tens of different complaints from the customers. But Raphael didn’t bother to tell him that. This was just the beginning. Success was more important here than speed.
The candy began to turn into a beautiful sphere as it became more and more full. After some time, Minjoon put a torch next to the blower, and took the machine off once the candy had melted enough.
Then, after reshaping the molten part of the candy a little bit, he began to pour the pomegranate ice cream into the hole. Only after closing the hole with the pomegranate cream did Minjoon step back with a smile. He turned to look at Raphael, who shook his head in mock disgust.
“You really did it, didn’t you? First try, too. You’re too impatient.”
“I didn’t think I could do it.”
“…I can’t do it.”
Maya made a depressed face as she handled the uneven candy in her hands. Minjoon quickly put his work on top of some dry ice to chill it. Raphael looked a bit confused by this.
“Why put it there? It should do fine in the freezer.”
“I want to show it to Rachel as fast as possible.”
“Oh, how nice of you.”
Raphael couldn’t help but smile at this childish side to Minjoon. Minjoon looked at the clock anxiously for a few minutes, before grabbing a plate and the pomegranate jam.
“I’ll be off to serve this real quick.”
“Alright. good luck.”
Minjoon looked at his candy. It was 8 points so far. Still 1 point off from the expected score. But it was fine. The dish wasn’t completed just yet. Only when it got the jam on it would it really be complete…
He knocked on the office door with the dish on one hand. He heard Rachel’s voice coming from the office.
“Come in.”
Rachel’s eyes shone a little when she noticed Minjoon. Seeing from the dish in his hand, it seemed to her that he had already made a dish for her. She smiled.
“So, did it go well?”
“Yes. It’s perfect.”
“Alright. Bring it over, then.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Minjoon looked visibly excited. Rachel looked at him with warm eyes. Minjoon put the dish in front of her, and gave her a knife and fork.
“Would you try breaking this for me?”
Rachel gave the candy a few small taps. It wasn’t as hard as she thought. The candy broke a little after one tap, then fell apart after the next. Rachel gave an exclamation of surprise when she saw the ice cream pour over like a waterfall.
“You made this with the pomegranate, huh?”
“Yes. Ah, please don’t eat it just yet. There’s still more to be done.”
Minjoon picked up the teapot as he said this. It was about time. Rachel had been giving it a few curious glances all this time. When Minjoon tilted the pot over the dish, the warm jam poured out over onto the powdered ice cream. At the same time, a screen popped up in front of Minjoon.
[The final score of this dish is 9 points!] [You’ve managed to complete every step of the dish by yourself!] [Your skill in molecular gastronomy has increased!] [Your skill in plating has increased!]
Numerous screens of congratulations exploded in Minjoon’s eyes. But the one compliment Minjoon looked forward to the most was one from Rachel. Rachel laughed to herself as she looked at the dish in surprise.
“Justin’s going to be annoyed at you for giving him extra dishes to clean.”
“We can think about that later. How is it?”
“It looks good. The plating was done well as well. What’s important is the taste, though. Let’s see…”
Rachel put a spoonful of the ice cream into her mouth, and smiled. Minjoon nervously asked his question when Rachel turned to him.
“Do you think it’s possible? To… put this on the menu on Christmas?”
Rachel answered.
“No, it’s not.”
End.