God of Cooking

When Kaya teased her like that, Chloe looked at her with a crying expression.

She barely held back the urge to embrace and soothe Chole, then laughed, watching Kevin making a puzzled expression as if he could not understand

“I was just kidding. Anyway, I don’t hate it. Hot potato. There are as many disadvantages as advantages, but that’s what I have to endure.”

“Even if you think of it as a shortcoming, it is not as if you will think about it over the long run. Controversy can bring about a big publicity effect as long as the person involved can withstand it, And I believe that both of you will endure it. I hope my conviction can pay off.”

Kaya felt like what he said was a bit complicated. She shrugged at that and turned to Chloe.

“Hey, can you respond, Chloe?”

“Well, I’m so shy that I can’t speak properly.”

“Why? What happened?”

Chloe blamed her deep down. Her cheeks blushed, which looked pretty, too. Kevin was almost enthralled by her beauty. As the editor of the cooking magazine, he didn’t want to show he could not manage his facial expression just because she was too pretty.

‘There are rumors that Chloe has a crush on Min-joon.’

In fact, it was rather vague to define it as rumors because the two seemed on more intimate relations, not just friends, according to the reporter who interviewed them.

But Kevin was convinced that the rumors were false. If the rumors had been true, Min-joon would clearly have fallen in love with her. Of course, it was true that Kaya was also an attractive woman, but Chloe was in a different league. Kaya was a pretty ordinary woman while Chloe was like a pretty actress.

‘Well, if that’s true, Kaya and Chloe couldn’t be so close like this.’

Which woman in the world would try to get close to another woman who was trying to woo over her lover?

Clearing his throat, Kevin opened his mouth.

“What time are you available for an interview?”

“How long does it take?”

“Well, it depends on the person, but it won’t last longer than three hours.”

“Three hours…” Kaya shrugged.

“It’s enough time for a potato to cook.”

***

“Kaya, you are so mean!”

In the bedroom.

Chloe muttered in a somber voice while sitting on her bed. In fact, Chloe was trying to control her feelings very much on behalf of Kaya, but she felt disappointed at Kaya’s teasing by calling her a potato. She felt frustrated she was upset about things like this for her age, but the older one grew, the more childish one became, as they said.

Though she thought Kaya was too mean, Chloe envied her so much. She didn’t envy Kaya just because she was his lover.

Kaya was a chef.

It didn’t mean Chloe was not a chef. Obviously, Chloe was also excellent as a chef. But Kaya’s case was different. She was inexperienced and had no particular cooking training. Despite that, it seemed Kaya was a genius chef who received special education for the gifted when she was young.

For example, Tomatoed Burger was the typical case that showed Kaya’s genius, which also impressed Kevin very much. How did Chloe influence Kaya while she was devising it? Almost nothing. It was Kaya who came up with the whole idea, and what Chloe did was simply advise her on choosing a herb, the degree of saltiness, and the types of buns.

Of course, it couldn’t be said that such advice didn’t affect her at all. Choosing such a detailed material might seem simple, but it wasn’t. It required a sophisticated sense and long experience.

But that wasn’t what Chloe wanted.

“I want to have my own cooking style, too,” Chloe muttered in a desperate voice.

The star of Irregular Lab was definitely Kaya, no matter what. Each of her plates reflected her vitality, uniqueness, and youthfulness that she had suppressed for long. There were dishes that showed what kind of cooking conception she had and how wide and detailed her vision was.

she had no choice but to feel what kind of perspective she had on her dishes, and how wide and detailed her vision was.

Compared to Kaya, what could Chloe express in her dishes? Was there her own style in her dishes? Something like the charm of Americanized Chinese food? Such food was common in any neighborhood restaurant. It couldn’t represent her own style.

Chloe felt like her mouth was blocked. She buried her face in the pillow and kicked the bed over and over with her feet.

And she got out of bed with a moan.

‘I can’t improve at all with my current mindset.’

She felt compelled to cook something. She thought she had to do something right by planning first, but she didn’t come up with any ideas when she wasn’t doing anything.

When she stepped into the kitchen, she found Min-joon there.

“Ah, Min-joon!”

Chloe looked at him with a strange expression. She didn’t smile or look embarrassed.

As a matter of fact, Kaya, Chloe, and Min-joon planned to find a new apartment in New York after staying at Delia’s hotel only briefly, but at some point, they didn’t try to find one.

Of course, they had several reasons. They were much busier than they thought. But to be honest, they even wondered if it was wise to get out of Delia’s hotel because they were not sure how long they would stay in New York. Above all, Delia treated them so well.

In fact, if they paid the bill for their stay in this hotel with their salaries, they would have to spend it all, or their pay would not be enough to cover their stay. So, they were rather surprised and uncomfortable about Delia’s good will at first, but it was true that they got quite accustomed to it by now.

‘And Delia isn’t as bad as I think.’

Delia did her best to make them feel affectionate for her hotel. For example, she secretly delivered ingredients to the restaurant in person, asking them if they needed any special food, or she allowed them to use room service free. Besides, housemaids cleaned their room several times a day, so they had never laid on the same sheet for two days in a row.

Anyway, because of that, Chloe liked, but at the same time, disliked the current situation where she was in. She was now living with Min-joon! Of course, she would be lying if she had never dreamed of such a life, but she had never thought of living in the same living space uncomfortably like this.

Fortunately, Min-joon did not feel uncomfortable with this situation like her. Maybe he was sophisticated enough not to express his feelings, but she was grateful to him anyway.

“You weren’t sleeping?”

“I can’t sleep. How about Kaya? Is she asleep?”

“Yes, she seems to be tired.”

“What are you doing?”

Smiling at him brightly, she approached him. Although she was trying not to, Chloe found herself pretending to act like a lady whenever she stood before him. It was natural that a woman wanted to look pretty to the man she liked, but she felt sorry for her instinct like that.

“I’m working on a recipe, using potatoes, cheese, and buttercream.”

“Ooops!”

When she saw the potatoes, her painful memories in the past came to her mind. But he looked at her casually as if there was something wrong about him. Checking his expression, it seemed that Kaya didn’t tell him about what happened last night, but she blushed at the thought that he might have heard about it.

“What’s wrong with you, Chloe?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. So, how are you going to make it?”

“Well, if you look at the menu of a high-end restaurant, some dishes are new, but you can feel a different taste with a little twist in the taste you’re familiar with. For example, you always have french fries by dipping them in ketchup, but you can bring out a different taste if you put tomato puree between potatoes and cook it in the oven again.”

Chloe seemed to understand his point. She watched him cooking very curiously. She was anxious to know what kind of potato dish he could make. But he did not move for some time.

When she looked at the kitchen table, he didn’t trim anything yet.

“Why are you doing nothing like that?”

“I’m agonizing over whether to peel potatoes or not.”

At that moment, Chloe was surprised. She wondered what he was thinking about so seriously, but it was only potatoes that he was pondering over. But he was serious.

He let out a sigh as if he was tired of thinking.

“I would like to take advantage of the unique bitter taste of the potato, but it might dilute the taste of butter or cheese because they don’t match well. That bitter taste may make you feel sour. If I do without peeling, it will make the dish taste greasy. You can bring out the soft and fluffy taste of potatoes, but the bitter taste is still there.”

“Amazing.”

“Uh? Why is it amazing?”

“I mean what you are thinking, not what you said. I really can’t analyze cooking like you. When I watch you approach cooking, I feel like some idea comes to my mind, but when I stand before the island, I just tend to cook the way I have been doing. Cooking by inertia…”

When she said that, he groaned for a moment. He understood what she was talking about. But he couldn’t figure out what kind of advice he should give.

“You guys already know what you want to cook. But I still don’t know.”

“Is it true you really don’t know?” he asked. “When I eat your dishes, I often think your dishes reflect your own style.”

“Don’t you think so only when you just eat Americanized Chinese food?”

“If that’s the case, I’ll have to think of you every time I go to Chinatown. But that’s not the case.

Your dishes have your own cooking style, and I can see it.”

She didn’t answer.

He continued, “You may not know what your own dish is, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have your own dish. So, don’t be too nervous. You’re doing fine. I liked your menu at Irregular Lab, and still do.”

“Really?”

“I don’t lie about cooking. You know.”

Chloe nodded at that quietly. She could testify confidently that nobody could beat him as far as passion about cooking was concerned.

“I made up my mind that I wanted to cook because of you,” she said as if it was not a big deal.

At that moment, he stopped moving his hands, but he maintained a casual look.

Looking at his hands and face, she said, “If you recognize me, I’ll probably be able to keep running in the future. Can you do that? When I’m in trouble, just give me advice like this. That’s enough for me. It may not be enough, but I think I’ll be happy.”

Why did her words sound like her confession?

He looked at her quietly, so did she. Quietly and silently without doing anything.

Amid their silence, only the unpeeled potatoes were seen lying on the cutting board.