Chapter 337 - If You Don’t Have It, You Can Make It (3)
Chapter 337: If You Don’t Have It, You Can Make It (3)
Watching Min-joon directing the participants, Jaden was so impressed that he felt like he was possessed by ghosts. He had experience working in the restaurant kitchen. It was not a famous restaurant where he worked, but he worked there, grabbing a knife and being upbraided by an Italian head chef who often yelled at him.
But Min-joon didn’t yell, nor did he cast a fierce glance at the participants helping him. He just pointed it out whenever Jaden was about to make a mistake as if he shared both Jaden’s eyes and senses.
The way Min-joon directed the participants helping him was something new that Jaden had never experienced even when he worked with his former head chef. He would never find Min-joon’s direction style in other chefs in the future. It was easy to blame somebody when he made a mistake, but it was a different story to notice the mistake and point it out before somebody made a mistake.
“Wow, I’ve never realized how fun cooking is!” Mario, a Brazilian, who was standing next to Jaden, said with a gentle smile.
He felt cooking with Min-joon was completely different from what he used to. Basically, the recipe that Min-joon made was fun. What he was making right now was the duck meat dish that would be served as the main. He chopped duck tenderloin into pieces, put duck legs to it, and roasted them properly before wrapping them in duck skin and lightly Caramelizing it.
What impressed him for the second time was the uniqueness of the source. Min-joon made a puree by boiling garlic, onions, and other vegetables in the broth. He then added red wine, beef broth, and Lavender and Thyme in that order. After simmering a little more, he added butter last. Then, after baking the buttered peaches on the grill, he put the finishing touch on it by seasoning it with salted turnips and sauteed Pak Choi before plating them.
‘It’s amazing he can make such a complicated recipe…’
It meant that Min-joon could figure out how each of those complex processes affected the ingredients. And that proved how skillful he was in cooking. To figure out what to do with the ingredients and how to bring out the best taste of the ingredients was the key strength of a competent chef. After all, it largely distinguished the real pro chef from the amateur chef.
“Done!”
After he was done plating the last plate, Min-joon wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. He looked at the judges and smiled. It wasn’t long ago when he stood here.
But at this moment, he could stand in the same place with a different dish in a completely different mood. That made him smile in satisfaction. He was more satisfied and happy than anybody else.
He looked at the participants with a smile and said, “Can you help me with plating?”
“Of course, just tell us,” Jaden said first.
Jaden, notorious for being unruly, began to carry the plates to the table gently like a sheep in front of a wolf. It wasn’t just Jaden who came to help out. Other participants who helped him cook also started carrying the plates one by one. And other participants who didn’t help him looked quite embarrassed. Some of them were too kind to refuse such a request by nature, but some were unruly and stubborn like Jaden.
‘How could Min-joon make them so obedient and loyal?”
Although they had such doubts, the participants who helped Min-joon could not get around to thinking like that. The Grand Chef competition was going on at the moment. Some of them have served as head chefs themselves, and they have been even supervised by other amateur head chefs. So, they could understand how cool and perfect Min-joon’s direction was.
Just like Min-joon was moved when he first cooked under Rachel’s direction, they felt the same way now.
“I feel like I’m watching a general who has won a war without sacrificing his troops.”
Takeshi muttered in a low voice. If Joseph had been there, he would not have impressed them as much as Minj-joon. Anyone like Joseph could impress them easily, so Takeshi was shocked to know it was Min-joon, not Joseph, who impressed the participants so much.
‘If Chef Rachel handed down all her cooking knowledge and skills to Min-joon…’
He suddenly felt a strong regret. What might have happened if Min-joon had been Japanese, not Korean, and specialized in Japanese food, not Western food? He regretted he could not see how Min-joon could cook Japanese food as a Japanese.
Takeshi gave an intense glance at Min-joon, so much so that he bared his heart, “Man, he cooked such a damn good dish so easily…”
After realizing belatedly that he was muttering unwittingly, Takeshi hurriedly shut up, but the people around him already heard it all.
Laura said with a nod, “If he cooks the main dish with the kitchen staff who go hand in hand with him, I think he is already fully qualified as a head chef. You shouldn’t treat him lightly just because he has only got one year of experience. He’s become a perfect chef that nobody can find fault with thoughtlessly.”
Having heard that, Kaya looked elsewhere as if she was rather embarrassed. But her indifferent attitude drew the attention of other judges. She looked at Laura and those judges watching her and said, clearing her throat, “Well, I know how you think even when you don’t say anything.”
Laura smiled awkwardly as if she was dumbfounded. Kaya headed to the table, with her earlobes blushing. No matter how good chefs they were, they were not considerate enough to serve all the plates at the right time. Besides, this place was not what they called a restaurant, nor was the Grand Chef competition in full swing.
Kaya looked at Min-joon with a slightly confused expression.
“Hey, what are you doing now?” she asked.
“Don’t you know? I’m saving your face,” Min-joon replied.
“Man, you are really making me so embarrassed here…” she said.
Min-joon smiled quietly without a word. When he sat down, shaking her hands, he also sat next to her. At that moment, the other judges sat around them, as if on cue.
Joseph opened his mouth with a smile, “You don’t have to take the chairs out for us, so can you explain the menu?”
“Of course. Actually, I don’t have to explain… But as you can see, the appetizer is an anchovy dish.”
“Oh, It’s molecular cooking…” Takeshi said, rather surprised.
Molecular cuisine had already been widely introduced in modern restaurants.
Even in France, Italy, and Spain, the birthplaces of Western gastronomy, it was hard to find any restaurants that didn’t serve molecular cuisine. But Takeshi was an old-fashioned and stubborn chef who stuck with only authentic dishes. Someone like him was hard to find in the top gourmet circles.
Because of that, the anchovy dish made by Min-joon seemed stimulating and dazzling to him. First of all, its beautiful shape was impressive. When he first saw it, he even suspected it wasn’t anchovy, but Tiramisu or Oreo cake. However, it looked quite delicious at first glance, with black dots stuck on the white ice cream.
Min-joon opened his mouth, nodding at him.
“Olive oil and Glyce… Oh, Chef Takeshi, do you also cook molecular food?”
“I don’t, but I know a little about it. Isn’t Glyce a monoglyceride product name?”
“Yes, I mixed olive oil and Glyce, and I added gelatin and Sucrose instead of lecithin. They are ingredients used relatively stable and hard foam, compared with lecithin. And I put it in a siphon gun and matured at 4 degrees then chopped anchovy into a fillet, aged it in extra virgin olive oil, garlic-flavored, and basil then mixed them in a siphon and extracted the foam.”
“I think you also made the bread seasoned with this…”
Takeshi picked up the flatbread on the plate. It was flat and white bread that put him in mind of an Indian egg.
Min-joon nodded and said, “The bread itself doesn’t taste great. So, I used a siphon gun to make a small hole for a soft texture. I didn’t want to lose the taste and texture of the anchovy foam because of the bread.”
While listening to Min-joon, Emily looked perplexed, as if she couldn’t make head or tail of what he was talking about. She was a gourmet and had good cooking skills, but she didn’t know about molecular cooking well. And it wasn’t just Emily alone. Even the participants who helped Min-joon did not understand his explanation because most of the molecular cooking was done by Min-joon.
Min-joon was done explaining. He picked the bread and put a creamy anchovy foam on it. The moment he took a bite, others also opened their mouths the same way and put anchovy foam and bread in their mouths.
At that moment, Kaya said, “Are you sure it’s anchovy?”
She looked down at the bread and anchovy as if she couldn’t believe it. Min-joon smiled at her.
In fact, the main focus of today’s three-course menu was the anchovy appetizer. Its cooking score was 9 when he didn’t use too many ingredients. If he had enriched the taste with a little more ingredients, he would have even attained a cooking score of 10.
‘Well, this is my hidden card that I originally planned to show to Rachel.’
Min-joon looked at Kaya. When he found her perplexed at the fantastic taste of anchovy, he felt his release this time was worthwhile. Takeshi slowly put his hand holding the knife down on the table.
“Is this the recipe Rachel has taught you? Or…” Joseph asked, with mixed feelings.
“I made it.”
“You have really improved a lot.”
When he saw Min-joon cooking just before, he already felt that Min-joon improved. But his growth that Joseph just mentioned was really significant. After all was said and done, the moment when a person could evaluate the competence of a chef was his or her finished dish. And Min-joon’s dish that he enjoyed was no more the subject of his evaluation. It was rather a dish that he should enjoy and smile as the same chef.
Min-joon’s anchovy foam clearly showed why the cooking method called foam was loved by many people. It also showed how his name Min-joon became a household name that anyone in the American gastronomic world must know. It was an appetizer that convinced Joseph how Cho Reggiano, a dessert that fascinated Americans, was created at his fingertips.