God of Cooking

Though the ice cream was cold when he put it in his mouth, it was wrapped in a cone that tasted a bit bitter. But the cone itself wasn’t thick, nor was it hard. The moment she wondered how ice cream felt bitter like that, the cone already began to crumble and melt in her mouth, revealing the white ice cream inside.

In that soft and smooth ice cream, like the skin of a baby, there was a lot of freshness and sweetness. It wasn’t just the taste of lime. She was touched by the light sweetness in the leek. She usually forgot it, not to mention feeling even its sweetness. But right now she could feel it so vividly.

“How do you know this kind of taste?” Karin asked with a blank expression.

She didn’t ask the question for the purpose of an interview, or she didn’t overreact for the purpose of the TV show. To be honest, she had never thought of the taste of leeks from such an angle, nor did she know that the leek had such taste. More precisely, she was aware of it, but she just took it for granted like she didn’t know the taste of air or the taste of water clearly. Since she always lived with air and water, she didn’t pay any attention to it or know their taste at all.

Min-joon expressed the taste of the air and the taste of water. And she could feel it by borrowing his senses. Yes, she borrowed his senses.

“Did you put some drugs here?”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t.”

“Oh, nonsense! I just can’t even believe my senses now. I just can’t figure out if what I think is right or if I just express what you think. How can you say this is an ordinary dish?”

“Of course, it’s far from an ordinary dish,” he replied with a calm voice. “It’s a dish I made.”

“Wow…” As if to groan with admiration, Karin muttered.

Only now could she understand why PD Scott told her Min-joon was a terrific guest. And she could why he gained considerable recognition as a chef comparable to that of a celebrity. It would be rather strange if he didn’t become famous when he could make such a fantastic dish.

In short, he deserved to be a celebrity, or he had to be because if this kind of chef didn’t become a celebrity or if he didn’t become known to everybody, it would be a big loss for society as a whole.

It was not that the sherbet made by Min-joon was so delicious that she couldn’t even compare it to the sherbets made by other chefs in her life. When it came to the degree of its taste itself, she didn’t want to give it a high score.

Despite this, she now considered him as the most special chef she had ever met. Although the chefs she met could make delicious dishes, they could not thrill her with their dishes. But he made it.

‘Well, I wondered if I could make this interview interesting enough, but he is enjoying it the most right now,’ Scott thought with a happy smile.

Fortunately, Karin did not show any pretense or typical reaction that she used to usually.

She didn’t cheer for joy, or she didn’t keep praising his dish, beaming on him overly.

However, Scott knew that she refrained from showing such a reaction because his dish didn’t taste delicious. He knew she really enjoyed his dish. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have looked at him and his sherbet dish so eagerly as if he was possessed by something.

And Scott’s prediction was exactly right. While enjoying his sherbet dish, she recalled all the memories of the dishes she enjoyed until now and broke her existing perceptions of cuisine. For example, thanks to her newly found senses of the leeks in his dish, she changed the images and memories of all the dishes with leeks she had enjoyed until now.

She suddenly got curious about Min-joon’s world and his cuisine. When she thought about how beautiful each of his dishes would be, she was so envious of him as to clench her fists unwittingly.

But what was more shocking and happy about it was that there were still some more dishes she would try.

“Now, the next one.”

What he brought next was deep-fried Atka mackerel. After she tried Ossobuco cooked with soy sauce and fish sauce and grain syrup banana souffle, she had a completely different perception of cooking than when she first came into June’s restaurant a little while ago.

‘I have never realized this is the essence of cooking!’

She felt like the dishes she had enjoyed until now were fakes. Min-joon’s cooking was a far more valuable cooking lesson to her than other chefs’ thousands of hours of lectures. Basically, he taught her how to eat and enjoy food. This was something she could learn only when she was with him.

Often when one watched movies, they could see somebody like a villain who was overwhelmed by the chef’s perfect dish. But Karin had never shared such a feeling while watching such a movie. In her eyes, it was possible that food could be delicious, but she could not agree how one could be overwhelmed by the delicious taste of food.

But she could now understand those who were overwhelmed by the taste of food. She now knew that if she looked into the fountain of cooking, it could be really deep. Her perceptions of Min-joon began to change completely now. She could feel how great and respectful he was.

The way she spoke to him now was much more softer and polite than before. It seemed that she was jealous and even affectionate for him.

“You really are a great chef! I want to even get close to you.”

Actually, the way she looked at him clearly showed she had good feelings toward him.

With June casting a significant smile, Min-joon replied with a cool expression, “Thank you for saying so.”

“Well, I have changed my perceptions of cooking so much that I even want to eat three meals with you, Min-joon.”

“Of course, that’s impossible.”

“Oh, the biggest dream of my life has collapsed now,” she said with a long sigh as if she was ready to risk everything to lead such a life.

Min-joon understood her because it was one of his dishes with which he wanted everybody to feel the same way as she. And that was a new talent he came to have found recently.

In other words, when he was working on a recipe, he thought about how it could affect people, and how they could feel from the taste. He could look at his new dish from a comprehensive perspective. And Karin’s reaction now was what he aimed at.

‘I wish our viewers could feel this taste,’ she thought.

She even bit her lips, feeling sorry they could not now. She was afraid that the way she looked so touched by his dish might look overreacting in the eyes of the viewers. Obviously, this taste was something that should be shared with others. His real worth was too big and beautiful for her to appreciate alone.

But it was only Karin who was worried about it. When he noticed her restless and uncontrollable thrill, Scott already came up with thousands of ideas on how to make his genius talent appeal to the viewers. June was thinking of how to make Min-joon appear on a TV program like this continuously. In that respect, today’s show was the start of a long series of documentaries about Chef Min-joon’s genius talent as a cook, so she could promote his real worth and have fantasy about him.

‘Should I feel honored to spearhead the efforts to promote Min-joon?’ Scott thought deep down.

He thought that today’s broadcast was not just a matter of audience figures, but a TV show that would be repeated on everybody’s lips in the future. He wondered if today’s show would be the first stage where they could watch Min-joon’s remarkable progress.

In the meantime, Min-joon noticed their shock and expectations calmly. He didn’t have to be thrilled for now because this was just the beginning.

His warm-up exercise was over, and it was time for him to start the game.

─ Show them your bubble, what kind of bubble you have, what would happen when they fell into it. Show them its looks, scent, and color. Don’t exaggerate. Just tell them honestly because your bubble itself is already great enough.

Min-joon remembered what Kaya had told him, and he would listen to her. Fortunately, it was not difficult for him to show people his bubble, or who he was because all he had to do was to concentrate on cooking. Of course, he would lie if he didn’t covet the fruits on the tree, content with only watering it when he could have them all. But he was not satisfied at this stage. He couldn’t fill his stomach with these fruits alone.

Min-joon seemed to be able to understand what kind of desire he had. The reason he was able to focus all his attention on cooking alone because he was just a pure chef. He wasn’t even a purist who only loved cooking. He just could not be satisfied with what he was.

When he took his eyes off cooking, he was not satisfied with the world he was facing, or what he could achieve in the past.

Then, was he different now?

“Absolutely! A lot!”

His cooking skills, people’s gaze at him, his achievements, and what he could achieve were all different from before. Now, the world as reflected in his eyes was so magnificent and dazzling that it could not even be compared to what it used to be.