God of Cooking

“It’s really hard. Seriously.”

“Let’s stop chatting here and get back to the main topic. If you think it’s not an irreversible choice, wouldn’t you feel a little less burdensome to decide?”

Min-joon nodded. In fact, he found it hard to make a decision because he felt sorry that one of them could not be the new head of Rose Island even if he knew who was better. But it was different now. Putting aside his personal feelings, he could evaluate them by focusing on their dishes alone. And he reached the conclusion on that very day.

At the competition venue.

“Wow, that’s amazing.”

South Korean correspondent Yujin Nah was stunned to look at the many reporters covering the Rose Island competition that would decide on its next leader. When she was assigned to cover the selection process of the new head of Rose Island, she wondered deep down if it was a newsworthy event at all because she thought Rose Island was just a restaurant, no matter how big it was in America. Of course, she thought so because she visited America to cover this event only several days ago. But she could not easily understand why people here were so crazy about Rose Island. To be honest, she even wondered why people were so enthusiastic about Min-joon. She also had a sense of her mission as a journalist. When she was told to cover him, she did some research about him. She surfed over the internet to google about him.

At first, she gathered information about him on various Korean websites. She took a quick look at his biography and got to know about his perfect palate, somewhat unfamiliar to her. She soon discovered that anybody involved in the cooking business thought the world of him.

She felt strange about it. When she thought about lots of chefs in Korea, he wasn’t such a well-known celebrity. At most, he was known only to those around him, or more precisely, a celebrity or an entertainer for them only, not the general public who hardly knew him.

But she was shocked to realize how little he was known in his home country Korea when he was such a celebrity chef in America. And she became more convinced that he was really a fantastic chef after checking people’s perceptions of him on American websites. His popularity in Korea was nothing, compared with his recognition and reputation in America.

Min-joon was not just a talented chef, but one of the chefs that came to ordinary Americans’ minds when they heard the word “chef.” Maybe that was why he could be one of the judges of the Grand Chef competition next season.

A cameraman at the venue, who knew about him very well because he lived in America for a long time unlike her, said, “You must know world musician star Psy or TV star Jisung. Min-joon is such a celebrity here in America right now.”

“Oh, that reminds me of an article about him before. Its title was something like, ‘Korean-American chef Cho Min-joon loves kimchi and pork.’ Anyway, these internet reporters…”

She shook her head as if she didn’t want to mingle with them. The cameraman noticed her confidence hidden in her words then smiled, thinking that she was a correspondent with a prestigious paper for her age. Obviously, she might think she was an elite. So, the cameraman thought she was cute.

Yujin Nah looked around the auditorium again where the competition took place, making a stunned expression after noticing the hundreds of chefs there. She heard that Rose Island was the best restaurant in America, but she wondered if it was the biggest one, given such a huge number of chefs.

‘So, he is now serving as a judge of this competition…’

She heard that even if they were the head chefs of Rose Island branches, some of them received Michelin Guide stars. Among them were chefs who were quite well known in their communities. In terms of cooking experience, Min-joon was only a demi chef, compared with these veteran chefs. Nonetheless, as a judge of this competition, he was supposed to evaluate their cooking and dishes and decide on the next leader of Rose Island.

At that time, Min-joon was looking at the head chefs with a heavy heart while he felt so happy to get such a load of stress off his chest. He knew who was the winner of this competition. He was supposed to announce the results. Aside from the results, he felt reluctant to announce that the new head of Rose Island would only serve for four years.

When he told June that he and Rachel made the final decision on the winner, she didn’t prod him to inform her about the results quickly. She might have taken into account his position or she might have wanted to put off knowing about the results as much as possible.

“We have decided who is the winner of this competition.”

Finally, he opened his mouth with a dry voice. The head chefs looked at him with nervous expressions. Of course, they were not nervous because one of them could be the winner other than June or Dave. They were just curious about who would be the next leader of Rose Island after Rachel. They knew Dave and June had a different personality in all aspects, which would influence the operation of Rose Island a lot in the future.

“Well, I can delay the announcement for broadcasting fun, but I won’t do that. But before I announce the winner, there is one thing I have to announce to all of you.”

They looked puzzled at his words, wondering if there was anything else to announce in this situation other than the final results. Min-joon looked at Rachel, then requested that he, not she, announce that the new head position of Rose Island would be temporary, not permanent because June would be shocked more if she heard it from Rachel in person.

Then he looked at June, who was also looking at him at that moment.

The moment their eyes met, he made a bombshell announcement without further delay.

“The winner of this competition isn’t actually the permanent head of Rose Island. The winner will serve as Rose Island chief only for four years, and this competition to choose the new head will be held every four years. In other words, Rose Island will have a new leader every four years.”

There was a heavy silence in the auditorium. He couldn’t bring himself to look at June’s face. So he looked at Dave. Dave also seemed surprised, but he didn’t seem concerned about that because he wasn’t interested in being the head of Rose Island from the beginning.

“Don’t talk bullsh*t!”

At that moment, June shouted. Min-joon slowly turned his head. June was looking at him with a pale expression. She was looking at Rachel. The way she shouted was rough, but her voice was pitifully weak and feeble. Consumed by embarrassment and frustration, she murmured this time, holding back her scream.

“Don’t talk bullsh*t…”

This was a public place where lots of people were watching them and the competition. June was the type of woman who paid a lot of attention to the way people looked at and rated her. That was why she didn’t do anything that could harm her reputation and worth unless she was sure her action would not benefit her.

So Min-joon could not help but feel sorry for June’s anger.

“Why? Why? Why now? Rachel, why did you do that only now? Why now? Rachel!”

Those who didn’t know much about the situation might be puzzled. They found it hard to understand that June had the right to be angry with the next chief of Rose Island.

But those who knew her and how hard she made efforts to achieve her goal of becoming the next chief of Rose Island after Rachel fully understood why she was so upset now. Every time they saw her, they said she was really a tough cookie. And there were a few head chefs who didn’t know why she led such a tough and determined life until now.

Of course, Rachel knew her story well. Watching her tough life for a long time, Rachel had never actively tried to stop her from pursuing such a life. Rather, she told June she understood it. She even told June that she also devoted everything to cooking and led a life, filling the gap in the cooking talent and skills that she lacked.

So it was natural that she felt her life was totally denied by Rachel’s decision to have the new head of Rose Island serve only four years.

Min-joon cast a glance at her hands. He noticed her clenching her fists so hard that they looked so pale. It seemed that Dave wanted to run and hug her even now. But he couldn’t because her anger was legitimate. So he thought it better to let her vent out her legitimate anger as much as she could, rather than helping her calm down.

“Don’t get angry, June. You can still get what you want, though you have to have your qualifications verified every four years. If you can overcome it, there is no problem you can keep maintaining the head position.”

“Do you think that makes sense? How can you call it the head position? How can you call it the top position of Rose Island when I have to pay attention to other chefs’ evaluations all the time? I really can’t understand.”

“You are mistaken, June,” Rachel replied in a cold voice.