God of Cooking Chapter 18:

Those were words that didn’t need to be long . There wasn’t other magic word like ‘delicious’ . At that short word, Jo Minjoon could once again feel his heart beating . The judges didn’t keep wasting words and went past Jo Minjoon . Then continued judging .

Jo Minjoon looked at the catfish meatball stew . There were no mistakes .

[Catfish Meatball Stew]
Freshness: 93%
Origins: (Too many ingredients to know)
Quality: High (Average ingredients)
Cooking Score: 7/10

Jo Minjoon turned his head and looked at the judges . Kaya’s turn was near .

Kaya’s dish was catfish tangsuyuk with red sauce . The judges took a bite, and said that it was delicious without thinking it twice, and then left her . Even Kaya couldn’t make them stay . Because there were still a lot of people to evaluate .

Jo Minjoon looked at Kaya’s catfish tangsuyuk . It showed that it was a 7 points dish . When he noticed that her cooking level was 7, he could tell that her dishes would probably also be 7 .

However at that moment, Jo Minjoon felt the strongest of the temptations . The temptation to go and try Kaya’s dish .

Jo Minjoon even tried a 9 points dish in a Michelin restaurant . He didn’t have the need to **** over that 7 point dish . In the first place, wasn’t it a dish he could make if he didn’t do any mistakes? But even so, the catfish tangsuyuk was really charming . Because it was Kaya’s cooking .

What chefs put on a plate wasn’t only the cooking . The brand they had was put on the plate . Jo Minjoon wondered, what kind of flavor could the name of Kaya add?

However, he couldn’t just run to her and try her cooking in the middle of judging . The atmosphere on the place was serious . Because, even at that moment were people being disqualified . Those who heard that their dishes weren’t delicious left the room without any strength .

The judges that finished their evaluation went up to the platform . Emily smiled and said with a calm voice as if nothing had happened .

“Congratulations . Earlier was a qualification phase, but now you got to the real qualification phase . From the elected people, you were once again elected . ”

Jo Minjoon calmly checked his surroundings . There weren’t many people left . Thirty, maybe there weren’t even that much . With just one judging, this much people were disqualified . Joseph that was next to Emily, opened his mouth .

“The reason you survived today is simple . You know how to handle the ingredients, and give it flavor . It’s the most important quality for a chef . You have your foundations and are indeed a chef . ”

Jo Minjoon thought that Joseph was a really good speaker . Just when he thought that his beating heart calmed down a little, him saying that he was a chef made his heart beat again . It was as if he became a high schooler that fell in love .

“There’s a huge difference between people who cook and chefs . Now you have to hold that responsibility on the tip of your knives . The responsibility to make things delicious . The responsibility to not ruin the ingredients . I hope that you will be able to keep that until the end . ”

The silence filled the atmosphere . Jo Minjoon was biting his lips and looking at the judges . Alan opened his mouth .

“The next mission will be in two days . During that time, you are free to stay in the rooms of Grand Chef’s building . Of course, you can use all of the ingredients in the kitchen before you get disqualified . Let’s hope that time to be meaningful . ”

As the judges finished their words, they left the place . And so did the participants . They would be really exhausted whatever they did . Because it would be quite burdensome for so many cameras to be installed on the countertops .

However Jo Minjoon didn’t leave the place . There was still some catfish meatball stew left . He didn’t even fail it, so he didn’t want to throw his dish on the bin . Jo Minjoon poured the stew on another plate . There were still 6 more meatballs . After pouring the soup and putting the meatballs, he placed the fried skin .

He took that and went to Kaya . She was one of the participants that didn’t leave the countertop . And Jo Minjoon thought that she was thinking the same thing as him . A good cook wouldn’t be able to throw their own dishes easily .

As Jo Minjoon got close, Kaya opened her eyes sharply and stared at Jo Minjoon . She was lower than 170cms . She was even wearing high heels but she was at least a hand shorter than Jo Minjoon . Jo Minjoon opened his mouth .

“Do you know about bartering?”
“…… . . What’s that?”
“The manners of our ancestors . I want to experience it . How about it?”

Jo Minjoon said that and pointed her catfish tangsuyuk and his catfish meatball stew with his eyes . Kaya laughed awkwardly .

“You want to trade?”
“I mean that it’s okay to share . ”
“What if your dish is not delicious?”
“But even the judges said that it was . ”

Kaya opened her eyes rebelliously . However the words that came out of her mouth were different to her expression .

“Fine . ”

Kaya said that and lifted her fingers . She said with a provocative voice .

“One meatball for one tangsuyuk . ”

Of course, what she had just said didn’t match with her expression . Jo Minjoon laughed brightly and replied .

“It’s a rational deal . ”

Jo Minjoon stood next to her and ate the tangsuyuk with a fork . It was certainly a 7 points dish . He got a feeling of something exploding in his head but was not disgusting . A dish which bases were perfect .

The sauce was strong . The aroma roamed around his mouth as if a kind of herb was put, and the catfish meat was perfectly cooked, so it was moist and soft . He thought that the meat was going to crumble because of it’s weak characteristic that broke like tofu, but it didn’t . Naturally, the crunchy fried coating that was combined with the sauce, and the bland flavor of the meat mixed well with the sauce’s sweet flavor .

Jo Minjoon looked at the recipe . There wasn’t anything different with a normal tangsuyuk recipe . It was a recipe that immediately popped out of the internet if you searched . The fishy smell was held with lemon, and a sweet potato dough was mixed with potato dough on a 7-3 ratio . Now the point here was to control the amount of cooking oil used .

The next step was like usual . You fried it, and you boiled vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and dough water thickly . And after that, if you put vegetables and pepper powder in that sauce, and cooked it a little was the end .

To get 7 points on a sauce that wasn’t special meant that she cooked with her senses that much . Jo Minjoon savored the tangsuyuk and opened his mouth .

“It’s delicious . ”
“……Your’s too . ”

Maybe she wasn’t accustomed to compliments, but Kaya replied with an awkward voice . Jo Minjoon couldn’t help but find it strange . The person he used to watch on TV was now saying that his dish was delicious .

The feeling you got when you felt something that changed could be described as right now . It seemed as if he was a step closer to his dream . But suddenly, Jo Minjoon started thinking . What was his dream? To make a delicious dish? Or to be a famous chef?

He didn’t keep worrying any longer . Kaya was saying with a flushed face .

“I’m eating one more . ”
“What?”
“I’m going to eat one more . Your meatball . So you too, eat one of my tangsuyuk . ”

Right . It was bartering . Jo Minjoon laughed and gripped his fork . Right . Even if he made a delicious dish, or became a famous chef, if he could keep cooking with the same heart as he had right now……

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