Chapter 250 – A Chef’s Greed Has No End (3)

“How greedy.”

Deborah clicked her tongue in shock. Minjoon scratched the back of his head embarrassed.

“You know. Do I really have to give up on one thing to get the other?”

“I’m not telling you to give up. I’m telling you to focus.”

It sounded weird in his head, but he got the gist of it. Coming up with a specialty was different from giving up.

It made him think of Rachel. She must’ve experienced something similar to this at one point. Thinking about it just made him feel more conflicted.

“What do you feel like you’re most talented in? You must have something, right? Soup, pasta, molecular gastronomy, plating, knife work, fire, etc.”

“Mm… I’m bad at plating for sure.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. I think you’re actually pretty great at plating.”

“What?”

Minjoon turned to Deborah with an astonished face. His decor level was just 6. Sure, decent plating didn’t require anything monstrous like a carrot sculpture, but that didn’t mean he was good.

Deborah didn’t seem to be joking, though. She opened his mouth when Minjoon just stared incredulously.

“What do you think plating’s about?”

“I don’t know…?”

“It’s all about looking good in front of the customer. There’s nothing more subjective than ‘looking good’, though. To some, an ugly kid might be a lover, or even their lovely child.”

“That’s because the relationship exists between those people.”

“You think a relationship between a person and the plate doesn’t exist?”

Minjoon just stared. Deborah sighed.

“Sorry. I keep saying weird stuff, don’t I? I’ll be direct. I don’t think a dish is just ‘food’ after it’s been plated. I also think that it’s just wrong to try to compete purely with flavor.”

“…Why not?”

“People always think before eating. Who made the dish, how the dish was made, how it was plated… It all matters. Do you think a person would find a dish made by a killer tasty?”

“They wouldn’t even be able to eat it.”

“That’s exactly it. Your customers would think about you first before eating anything. No matter how good you are, that’s just inevitable. You yourself becomes a part of decor for the food.”

Minjoon felt a little complicated about that.

“Anyone can get that fame if you work hard, though. That’s not really talent or anything, is it?”

“Are you serious? If you are, can I hit you?”

“…Let’s call it a joke. I don’t really want to get hit.”

“Okay. If I were to respond seriously to that joke, I’d like to tell you to think about your position a little more. No matter how good a chef is, not many people can incite excitement from the audience on television. But look at you. You’ve gotten the attention of the entire world in just a single year. The entire world practically knows who Minjoon is.”

Deborah wondered for a second. Did the man really know how jealous everyone was of him? Even she was jealous of him as a head chef of a michelin-starred restaurant.

That was just how shockingly abrupt Minjoon’s rise to fame was. People never took their eyes off of him. He just became a demi chef, and immediately became a star chef.

“…Man you’re making me jealous of your life again. Do you want to switch lives with me?”

“You’ll have to marry Kaya if you do. Are you alright with that?”

“I’ll just get a divorce.”

“Then it’s a no.”

“Hah, you sound like you’d have said yes if I told you I’d keep her.”

Deborah smiled. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. She leaned against the wall with a saddened face.

“Honestly, despite talking like this… I still haven’t found what I want to focus on. It’s annoying.”

“…Aren’t you a michelin one star? Should you be talking about that?”

“Right. I’m a one star. Not two stars or three stars, just one. Just an owner of a restaurant who keeps worrying if her stars would disappear.”

She sounded incredibly tired and defeated. Minjoon thought for a second before opening his mouth again.

“Is there something wrong with the restaurant?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t even know.”

“Could you cook for me?”

“…For you?”

“If you need my advice, that is. I should at least be able to think about it with you. Wasn’t that the reason why you came here?”

“…Right, Rachel’s not even here anyway. Then… What to do. Do you like a cuisine in particular?”

“Just give me something you came up with recently. I’d like to see where you are in the restaurant right now.”

Deborah looked away awkwardly. When Minjoon looked at her confusedly, she opened her mouth with some hesitation.

“To be honest, the dish was made around 5 months ago now. I’ll just tell you that now.”

“Five… months, huh.”

She tried to sound normal about it, but her voice trembled a little at the end. She couldn’t help it. Nothing in her restaurant really advanced after 5 months.

She looked down nervously.

“Yeah. Insane, isn’t it.”

“…Why couldn’t you make anything for five months?”

“Who knows? At the very least… I don’t have that inspiration anymore. It’s like a writer’s block. I’ve forgotten how to cook. I’ve forgotten how I cooked.”

Deborah smiled. It almost looked like the very definition of a bitter smile right then.

“That’s why I ran. With the excuse of a renovation. I was hoping I’d get something out of Rachel.”

“How did you lose inspiration?”

“Dunno. I think I might’ve… Thought a little too much? Too shallow?”

“What do you mean by shallow?”

“I’m going to blame someone else for that. It’s Michelin. You’ve always seen me walk around victoriously, right?”

“Can’t really say always. I haven’t seen you many times.”

“Alright, fine. Actually, that’s pretty funny. Can’t believe I’m talking about this to someone I barely know.”

Minjoon smiled lightly. Deborah wasn’t the only person who talked about their life story to him. Pretty much everyone, ranging from Justin, Anderson, and even some of the customers had told him about their life stories at least once.

Minjoon didn’t dislike it. Kaya made fun of him for it, but he thought different. Not many people would talk about their lives to a person that hated his.

The people who talked to Minjoon about their life stories, then, would have acknowledged that Minjoon lived a life worth living. Minjoon didn’t hate that at all.

“You can stop if you don’t want to talk about it.”

“No. Consider this payment for your advice. It’s a simple story. I was just thinking about Michelin too much.”

“That sounds normal for anyone that wants a star.”

“Yeah. But I went too far with it. I kept dishes the critics raved about on the menu, and I just cut off dishes that didn’t get decent reviews right away. I always did that. In the end… My menu didn’t become ‘my’ menu. It became Michelin’s menu.”

“…That’s a sad story.”

“You ever get dead skin on your arm?”

Minjoon nodded. Deborah looked at her arm with a smirk. Her arm was beautifully clean, but it looked like it was covered in white bits.

“It starts off small. But as you keep trying to get rid of it, it just gets bigger and bigger. That’s what happened for me. I tried to fit myself according to their tastes a little… And then I ended up becoming their slave. You know what’s funny about this, actually?”

“…I don’t think it’ll sound funny, but go on.”

“You’re right about that. It’s not funny at all. Dave, who didn’t care about a thing, unlike me, only ended up doing better than me. He has three stars now!”

“Nothing feels worse than falling behind.”

“You know that feeling? You look like a total winner, not gonna lie.”

“Things are going well now, but I haven’t succeeded all the time.”

“If you say so.”

“Could you cook for me now? I think I get the situation.”

“…Alright. Mind if I use the stove here?”

“Of course.”

She spoke as if she would finish fast, but the actual cooking took a full hour. She finished about when break time was almost over.

“Here. This one got raving reviews. Try it.”

“It looks… Interesting.”

Minjoon was astonished for sure. Deborah had arranged pork belly like noodles and served it with some yellow cream, black sauce, and honeyed ginger sauce. Deborah spoke as she dolloped some ice cream on the meat.

“This is an ice cream I made with ginger and beer. I braised pork in Indian spices and wine, and the cream was made with ginger and potato. The black sauce is made with beans and soy sauce. Try it.”

“…Sounds exciting.”

Minjoon put the dish in his mouth with a smile. Deborah looked at him excitedly. He was the most famous demi chef in the world after all. She couldn’t wait to hear what he thought.

“It’s tasty.”

That was the only thing Minjoon managed to say after the bite. Deborah smiled, but it faded as she realized that Minjoon was frowning.

“What’s up with the face, then?”

“Well…”

“Just tell me. I’m ready to hear anything.”

“If everything on the menu is like this…”

Minjoon swallowed a sigh. He had to say it though.

“I don’t think I’d want to be a regular in your restaurant.”

End.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep