God of Cooking

Honestly, Jamie couldn’t give a perfect answer to that question. But there was only one thing in his mind, which was that he should always serve the best dishes to his customers. It was secondary whether he made the dish or not. Even if he already figured out how to make a certain dish even more delicious but just stuck to his cooking method because he could not actually bring it out, his stubbornness would only disappoint the customers.

At last, he answered, “Well, I think I have to change the way I cook.”

It was inevitable that he had to give up his stubbornness. June looked at him with a bit of surprised expression. Of course, it might be natural for him to come up with this kind of answer if he cared about customers, but chefs had their own stubbornness and pride, generally speaking.

June thought his priority on customers over his pride was beautiful.

So, she said with a gentle smile, “You’re kind, Chef Jamie.”

“…”

Jamie seemed to know vaguely what that kindness meant. So instead of answering, he looked at her with a bitter smile, then opened his mouth, looking at Min-joon and Kaya.

“It’s amazing. Even when Min-joon mentioned my restaurant during Grand Chef, I thought what a coincidence it was. But I never thought our bond back then could continue until today.”

“The same is with me. At that time, I wasn’t even sure if I could be a chef at all.”

When Min-joon attended the Grand Chef competition, he felt so miserable that he could not tell his dream to his parents, which he could not easily forget even today. Back then, he even envied the chef of a restaurant in his neighborhood who looked so great. But he was now advising and evaluating Jamie, whose dish he once admired so much.

When Jamie said he would be willing to change his cooking method, even Min-joon was surprised. Jamie was aware that Min-joon didn’t have a long experience as a chef. He was only a rookie chef several years ago with no proper sense of cooking, but he was now far ahead of other chefs. It was natural that Jamie must have felt frustrated and distressed to know that.

In fact, because of that, Min-joon and Kaya pondered deeply over whether to give their advice along with their ratings in Choters Guide, for advice would be welcome only when the other party was ready to accept it. If the other party felt displeased with their advice, it would only bring about the enmity between them.

But Min-joon could not give up giving advice because of such worries because he felt his advice was the prime part of Choters Guide. In that respect, Michelin Guide was not that friendly to the chefs because they don’t point out all the shortcomings of their restaurants. Because of that, the chefs often hit some kind of slump without knowing what went wrong when Michelin dropped the stars of their restaurants. Min-joon never wanted to commit such a mistake. He wanted to avoid hurting the kitchen members of the restaurants even if he could not give good ratings to them.

What Min-joon wanted was to introduce good restaurants to people, and at the same time, he wanted to invigorate more restaurants whose business was in a slump. He didn’t want to do anything like damaging any restaurant by giving undue ratings. That was not what he wanted at all.

He wanted Choters Guide to be a guide that could help all the chefs make customers visit their restaurants. He wanted to make Choters Guide respected and admired by the chefs, not the subject of their hatred or fear. Above all, Min-joon and Kaya themselves had to be such chefs.

‘But this job won’t be that easy.’

June sipped the coffee that was served with the dessert in his mouth. It tasted savory and sour, but quite attractive. In any case, people’s hearts weren’t always so pure. And, at the same time, they weren’t so humble either. Could these people easily understand Min-joon’s ratings? How would they react if his ratings were not as good as they thought?

In that respect, Jamie was a pretty good restaurant owner. He did not make any complaint against Min-joon’s ratings. Rather, he admired Min-joon’s scores of his dish, which made him a bit disappointed, but he understood fully. And that was, in fact, the best way to use Choters’ Guide.

There were some people who receive thousands or tens of thousands of dollars of tuition fees from those who wanted to start a restaurant business by giving them tips about the side dishes or the recipes of the main menu that everybody might want to like.

Compared to those people, how about Min-joon?

‘Absolutely Min-joon is better!’

In fact, even if Min-joon asked for money for tuition or consultation fees from Jamie right now and he paid for it, this would be quite a profitable transaction for Jamie. Of course, it needed to be taken into account that Jamie’s restaurant would not always serve the same menu, but even so, Min-joon’s advice was worth it in itself because Jamie could glean new insight into cooking from his advice. It was not just new insight that any veteran could give, but Min-joon and Kaya’s insight that was full of their overwhelmingly talented perspective.

At that moment, June looked at Min-joon and Kaya. He wondered how these young and inexperienced chefs could have such a fabulous talent. So much so that he just loved the two chefs’ remarkable boldness and initiative.

‘Perhaps…’

***

Jamie posted his own review immediately after he received the Choters Guide ratings, including the detailed information about what kind of scores or advice he got from them. And his review instantly drew lots of reaction from lots of chefs because Choters Guide evaluation and advice weighed so heavily on their minds that they could not simply pass.

Yohei Koyama: The East Rabbit Garden scored only 7.4? Aren’t the scores too low than we think?

└ Cess Palacios: Well, the restaurant has only two, not three Michelin stars, right? No, they have got only one star now. Don’t you think the score is still generous for such a restaurant?

└ Yohei Koyama: @Cess Palacios Well, a lot of people think that a one-star restaurant is not good enough, but even such a restaurant has been officially given a star by Michelin, right? Don’t you know there are so many restaurants that are anxious to be included in the Michelin Guide’s recommendation list?

└ Cess Palacios: @ Yohei Koyama Really?

Jazmin Zepeda Farias: Yeah. By the way, aside from the score, what’s really important is Kaya and Min-joon’s advice. In fact, there are many chefs who are willing to pay for such advice and the famed chefs’ advice at that.

└ Mark Belster: Well, I hear that East Rabbit Garden will frame the notes they left behind and hang them on the wall.

└ Jazmin Zepeda Farias: @Mark Belster Definitely. But when I think about it, I don’t think they might not feel necessarily happy because such advice might hurt the pride of the chef concerned.

└ Mark Belster: @Jazmin Zepeda Farias Well, what’s the point of mentioning their pride when their dishes would improve because of the advice? Of course, there are chefs who think their pride is more important, but the two chefs mean well when they give their advice, so it’s better for the chefs to accept it.

Hyun Kim: Well, I liked the way Choters Guide broke down their evaluation criteria, such as taste, fun, and cooking method.

└ Mark Belster: Yeah, that’s very fresh. The two chefs explain how they felt about the dishes for evaluation, and why they gave them such a score.

└ Cess Palacias: @Mark Belster That’s not all, Choters Guide even showed all the details of the conversation of the two about the strength and weakness of the dishes they tried at the restaurant. I felt like I was listening to a radio while reading their comments.

└ Mark Belster: @Cess Palacias No matter what others say, I’m sure Choters Guide will be the best guide ever. At least, while Min-joon and Kaya are alive, Choters Guide might beat even Michelin.

└ Hyun Kim: @Mark Belster Oh, man, you’re going too far! If Choters Guide beats Michelin, it means Choters Guide will be the best restaurant guide. Even if Michelin Guide is a bit sluggish these days, it has a long history and tradition. I wonder how Min-joon and Kaya can overshadow the Michelin people.

└ Mark Belster: @Hyun Kim Well, the sales of Choters Guide were higher than that of Michelin Guide in New York. Of course, since Choters Guide was new, people might have bought it out of curiosity while people already bought Michelin Guide. Nonetheless, Choters Guide enjoyed record sales that outperformed any other restaurant guide in New York. Maybe the two chefs can make the money with Choters Guide alone enough to sustain them for the rest of their lives.

└ Hyun Kim: @Mark Belster Really? That’s crazy.

Jean-baptiste Verges: What’s more interesting is how the chefs will react in the future. In the case of Michelin, they rate not only food but also interior and service, operating on three stars, unlike Choters Guide. So, even veteran chefs could not protest to Michelin Guide against such rating methods. Then, what about Choters Guide?

└ Chase Seo: Do you mean veteran chefs can raise an objection to Min-joon and Kaya for their ratings in Choters Guide?

└ Jean-baptiste Verges: @Chase Seo Actually, there is one who has already taken issue with their rating. You know that three-star restaurant in New York, right? Japanese restaurant “Wasabi.” That restaurant was given a bad rating by Min-joon this time.

└ Chase Seo: @Jean-baptiste Verges Really? What happened?

└ Jean-baptiste Verges: They got 7 points. As you know, they have three Michelin stars, so 7 points were quite shocking.

At that moment, Min-joon turned off his cell phone.

He looked out the window of the hotel. A snowstorm predicted by the Meteorological Agency was coming to New York in late April.

And finally, such a storm also came into his daily life.