God of Cooking – Chapter 49: Unexpected fame (6)

 

“Know what?”

The one who replied wasn’t Chloe, but Kaya . They didn’t know when the interview had ended, but Kaya approached them and asked bluntly . Chloe glanced at Jo Minjoon . He pointed at his handphone and said .

“My parents called . It seems like they know that I came to this competition . ”
“Huh? Did I mishear? Is that really serious?”
“It’s not something serious, but things got messier . Because I still didn’t tell them that I wanted to become a chef . ”

At those words Kaya she rested her chin in her hands . She frowned for quite a while looking at the floor and opened her mouth as if she didn’t understand .

“I don’t get it at all . Not telling them is not telling them, and if they know, they know . Why, are they opposed to it?”
“Not until now . But if I tell them so, they will . And that’s not the problem . Because regardless of what they say, I’m still planning to walk this path . What I’m worrying about are my parents . Because they will worry be distressed because their son dreams something beyond what he can reach . ”
“They aren’t even children, but aren’t they being to harsh? It seems like they are overprotective . ”
“It’s good to avoid all the trouble you can . And it’s also tiresome . ”
“Evading like that must be more tiresome . At least in my eyes, it seems stupid . Because only you end up having it difficult . ”

At Kaya’s words he couldn’t reply back . Saying the truth, calling it stupid was also right . Maybe it was better to collide with his parents head on and beat them . However Jo Minjoon already had done so . That he liked cooking, that he could do it . He yelled like that and left his job . But what were the results? In the end, nobody could make their parents to feel assured . Everytime he saw his parents, he saw their worry and anxiety behind their smiles .

He didn’t want to repeat that . So he wanted to show them good results and at the same time convince them . That their son had this much talent, skills and potential . But it was too late for him to say something . Because getting to know through the internet, and listening to their son himself was two different things . Chloe patted his back and said .

“First, go and make them a call . You also make me worry right now . ”
“Yeah . You go on ahead . I will go later . ”
“…… . Good luck . ”

With Kaya’s transparent cheer, the two walked towards the kitchen . Jo Minjoon sat on a sofa that was on the side of the hall, and placed his handphone on his ear . Riiiiiing, riiiiiiiing . The tone stopped . But there were no voices . Jo Minjoon opened his mouth first under that silence .

“It’s me . ”
[…… . I have been watching your broadcast until now . Why didn’t you tell me? ]
“I’m sorry . I wanted to tell you after I achieved good results . ”
[ These few months you have been cooking so suddenly… . . Honestly, I can only say that it was unexpected . ]
“How did you know?”
[ News about you appeared . They weren’t big, but in small letters . ‘Jo Minjoon that is representing Korea in Grand Chef . ’ was the title . Ara got surprised and told me, but honestly, I thought that it wasn’t you . I don’t know the reason why you had to hide it from us and go and participate in that competition……Did we do something wrong? ]
“What wrong could you have done? Just… . . I wanted to tell you after I got some results . Mom . ”

Jo Minjoon gulped . His nervousness was felt even through his handphone . Jo Minjoon said in a determined voice and broke the ice .

“I am going to become a chef . ”

It wasn’t that he wanted to become one, or was planning to . He was confirming it right now . That voice was filled with passion and affection towards cooking, so Lee Hyeseon couldn’t say anything .

Jo Minjoon didn’t prolong the talk . Because those words were the only things he had wanted to say . And Lee Hyeseon understood that . Her voice rang through his phone . She seemed to be as calm as possible .

[ It’s difficult for me to say something right now . Minjoon, you too should have thought about it a lot . I will also think along with you . The only thing I want to say is that…… . . Mom and Dad are always cheering for you . Of course, we are worrying for you as much as we are cheering . ]
“………I know . ”
[ The broadcast . I enjoyed it . Now that I think about it, I get the feeling that you practiced a lot without us noticing . Did you? ]
“Yes . ”
He could only reply like that . Because it would be weird for him to have those skills without having practiced . Lee Hyeseon continued .

[ What I can say right now…… Do well and come back . I’m sorry . ]
“Why are you sorry? Don’t say those things . ”
[ Do well . And don’t get while cooking . And if you have already gone, just win it . Understand? ]
“……… . Yes . ”

His voice was held back . And Lee Hyeson also noticed that . She hurried and wrapped up the conversation .

[ Ah, thinking about it, I forgot that I had an appointment . I will hang up . Minjoon . You know that I love you right? Love you! ]
“Yes, me too……”

Even before he could reply back, the call ended . Jo Minjoon bit his lips and looked at his handphone . Her reaction was a bit different to what he had thought . But of course, it was obvious that she was worried . However, Lee Hyeseon didn’t think of his dream to be thoughtless . Maybe she would be thinking like that for herself, but at least she wasn’t stopping him in his path .

Why could that be? But he didn’t need to think long . Right . The results already showed . The results where he relieved his parents . But they got to sloppily know about it through a news . Saying that he was getting fame overseas and that he was focused on his dreams were just too heavy .

Jo Minjoon looked at the ceiling for a moment . It was different than before . His skills were such that he could relieve his parents . And thinking about that burnt his chest . Jo Minjoon lifted his head . Because if he didn’t do so, he would be crying right now .

After calming down himself in the hallway, Jo Minjoon entered the kitchen . As he got to the 2nd floor, Chloe approached him as if she was waiting .

“Did you do well?”
“Yeah . Better than expected . ”
“…… . . What a relief . ”

Chloe was putting a more nervous face than Jo Minjoon . She calmed down and let out a sigh of relief . Looking at her acting like that made him feel grateful and moved him . He scratched the narrow part of the nose and turned his head . The members of the red team were finishing the interview and getting in the kitchen .

Jo Minjoon made eye contact with Marco . Maybe if he wasn’t black, his face would be frightened pale . It could clearly be seen that he was putting that kind of face .

It was understandable . Because the disqualifying missions were mixed with themes you couldn’t just win with cooking skill . Kaya’s and Jo Minjoon’s tag mission demanded teamplay, and guessing the contents of the fried pocked also required an outstanding sense of taste .

What kind of mission would be? Jo Minjoon tried to remember . But he couldn’t . He could only do so . Because what Jo Minjoon remembered were mostly missions related to Kaya . And in this mission, she wasn’t included .

“Anderson seems rather calm . ”

Chloe mumbled as if he was amazing . Just like she had said, Anderson didn’t seem to be nervous at all . His confidence on being able to beat any kind of mission was shown on his face . Kaya grumbled and said .

“He’s got a disdainful face . ”
“…… . . Did you still not reconcile?”
“Aside from reconciling, I just don’t like him . ”
“I understand what you are trying to say……”

Jo Minjoon laughed bitterly . She seemed to still hold a grudge because of the previous three course mission . Because she was the one who was in more danger for having prepared the appetizer .

“Shh, it’s started . ”

Chloe lifted her finger . Just like she said, Joseph came and was raising his voice .

“We will start the disqualifying mission . ”

–

The theme of this mission was omelette . And the standard of the evaluation was simple . To make a pretty omelette . It was simple but even the pro chefs found it difficult to do so . Because if you don’t usually make omelette, even if you were a pro, it was difficult to give it proper shape .

And they had to cook it in the same way . Using cooking oil and butter, and cooking beaten eggs without using milk or cream .

However, the difficult point in cooking omelette was right here . You needed quite a bit of experience to know when to stop cooking the egg when it starts to scramble, and to roll the scrambled egg little by little was also difficult to do . And the most difficult part was on the use of fire . If you put the fire a little stronger than necessary, the exterior won’t cook properly and get roasted . And omelette didn’t need the exterior to be seared .

And the things omelette demanded didn’t end there . When you sliced omelette, the inside had to be soft . On top of that, you had to use the sides of the frying pan to give it a round shape . To take into account all of these things and make it in 5 minutes, made people pale when they were not used to make it .

There were no miracles . The people who were confident made omelette based on that attitude, and those who weren’t made a mess . Anderson was the former . He kept a confident attitude from the start, and made a perfect omelette with no mistakes . His omelette that was yellow a little chick didn’t have any mistakes to point out, and the exterior was made just like pudding . It was an omelette nobody could point the mistakes .

However Marco was the contrary . He had a nervous face since the start and in the end, made an omelette that was ripped in various places . At least the exterior was yellow, but in the end it couldn’t be called a success .

Jo Minjoon looked seriously at him . It wouldn’t be weird for him to get disqualified . Although the other participants weren’t much better than him, they also didn’t make it better than Marco .

And 5 minutes passed like that . Alan raised his voice .

“Everybody stop and bring your dishes . ”

In front of the judges, there were 9 dishes placed in the countertop . Alan approached with a casual face, and pushed the dishes . But it wasn’t the he pushed all of the dishes . It was only for the omelettes that were perfectly cooked and weren’t ripped . And those omelettes numbered only 3 .

Alan grabbed the knife and sliced the omelette . Two were softly made and the remaining one was lumped together like gyeran jjim . Alan let out a sigh .

“There are only 2 omelettes from 9 that are worthy to be called as omelettes . Who are the owners of these dishes?”

At Alan’s question, Jacob and Anderson raised their hands . Joseph that was next to them opened his mouth .

“I get the feeling that you make omelette usually . I didn’t have anything to point out . You two can go upstairs . You passed . ”
“Thank you . ”

The two of them replied in a low voice and moved . They couldn’t jump out of joy for consideration of their previous teammates .

Emily looked at the remaining 7 omelettes . And then let out a sigh .

“To pick the worst three from these . It’s hard . Can you do it? Honestly, it doesn’t make me want to eat them . The only good point is that the exterior got cooked well . Excluding that the seasoning feels a bit heavy, it is basically an omelette . However, if inside of the omelette is a raw egg or a sloppy jjim, I wouldn’t be able to handle it . I think that it’s profaning the egg . ”

For the person to be saying all of these things to be Emily, those were really harsh words . Because she was the type to normally say good things . Jo Minjoon bit his lips and looked at Marco . The one who was the kindest and gentle was Marco . He didn’t want to see getting disqualified like this .

‘…… . . Marco, please . ’

And his feelings weren’t different to Chloe or Kaya . They received much consideration from Marco, and they knew well about his skills . For him to have made the best dish, but get disqualified for his team, was a really unfortunate thing . It was at that moment .

“Marco! If you pass I will present you a girl!”

Jo Minjoon let out a laugh and turned his head . It was Kaya . She opened her eyes sharply as if saying what was he looking at and said .

“But of course, it’s not Chloe . Don’t worry Chloe . ”
“Ye, yeah . ”
“…… . Is there something to worry about meeting me?”
“Of course . Think about your big body . ”

Marco’s face sulked . Emily, that was looking at them, let out a sigh . Did she have to get angry at this or laugh? Alan who was blunt, also didn’t know how to react at this .

Emily opened her mouth .

“Marco . Looking that you have the interest of the females, I’ll announce first your dish . Your omelette is ripped all over the place . It’s obviously not a good thing to look at . Do you agree?”
“…… . . Yes . ”
“It’s a relief that you do . Right . The appearance is certainly not good . Then, how well is it cooked?”

Emily sliced Marco’s omelette with her fork . As soon as it split, the soft eggs inside of it flowed out . Emily smiled brightly . It didn’t seem very different than Anderson’s or Jacob’s omelette .

“It’s just like you see . It’s perfectly cooked . It’s not excessive, nor lacking . Even if you can’t present it in a restaurant, it’s good to eat it in your house . What would this mean?”

At those words, Marco said cautiously . He was rubbing his fingers .

“Uh……Did I……pass?”
“Wrong . The answer is ‘lose fat’ . ”

Emily replied bluntly . Marco’s face became weird . He didn’t understand at all what Emily was trying to say . Looking at Marco being like that, Emily smiled .

“If you want to meet a woman you have to first lose fat . ”

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