Jo Minjoon’s hands moved to the system’s window. But of course, he couldn’t touch it. The recipe was a fusion. After smoking the mackerel, you apply apple juice and soy sauce and caramelize it so it becomes crispy. After applying wasabi in its insides, you place it on the rice that was cooked with apple peel.
It was quite different to the normal way of making sushi. However Jo Minjoon didn’t dislike that recipe of his. He had thought a long time. Where was he going to place the nationality in his cooking. However it was already too late. Regardless of cooking food of any country, compared to the ones that had eaten and enjoyed food of that country for all their lives, he lacked too much comprehension.
Jo Minjoon’s specialty was on influencing the flavor with things like pure, sauce, etc. And the method he preferred the most was saving the flavor of the main ingredient. Be it on sauces and on fishes. And if it was the method he had thought right now, he would be able to mix in the fruit and the fish.
But of course, it may be difficult on the point that you would have to slice the sushi to a suitable size. Although the system didn’t tell him what would be the most ideal shape, applying that to his hands was another problem.
“…..Are you okay?”
Although it was rare for the staff to talk, they could only get worried. He was looking at the air and mumbling alone, but soon his frown melted down to become a smile.
Absolute taste. Although they knew that he was a person with a talent that could remain in history, it was the first time they felt it to be so unfamiliar and distant. Jo Minjoon slowly turned his head. The staff that spoke to Jo Minjoon flinched momentarily and trembled. You could see joy inside his brown eyes.
“Really fine………!”
Jo Minjoon answered with a trembling voice and soon entered the kitchen. Rachel was already standing up as if she had finished speaking. Jo Minjoon spoke with a regretful voice.
“Ah, are we leaving now?”
“We have to. We also have other things to try.”
“Then wait a moment please. I have something I want to tell to mr. Yamamoto.”
“Are you talking about me?”
“Yes. Do you have something to write?”
Yamamoto gave Jo Minjoon a paper and a pen. Jo Minjoon wrote down the recipes he thought of just now. Rachel looked at that Jo Minjoon. Had he composed those recipes in that short time? Rachel got amazed inwardly.
‘His taste is one thing……But for his head to spin this quickly is also amazing.’
Actually, even in the kitchen, talent wasn’t any different. How good was their heads. Calculating the movements of the people in the kitchen, taking care of the orders that got accumulated, and composing a new dish….. If you were intelligent in all of those aspects, the more intelligent you were the more favorable it became.
While Martin turned his camera to the recipe, Yamamoto slowly read that and opened his eyes abruptly while looking at Jo Minjoon.
“Isn’t this……..a recipe?”
“It’s a recipe I got inspired while eating your sushi. I think that rather than having it in my head, it would be better if one day you cook it.”
“Apple tree with apple juices……I don’t know how it will become, but I’m expecting the flavor.”
“I think that it may be the best recipe I have thought in all my life.”
“Originally, the workpiece people make in the current day tends to be of a higher level than something they made the day before. Thank you for entrusting this kid to me.”
Yamamoto smiled brightly and then folded up the paper gently and placed it in his pocket. Rachel turned to look at Jo Minjoon and said.
“You thought of that recipe in that short while?”
“Uh……..Originally you think of it in an instant. Yamamoto’s sushi stimulated me a lot. If I had to make it alone i would have been difficult.”
“There’s no need to speak humbly. You did well. Make all of the inspiration you receive from the places we go, yours. Perhaps, that may be deeper and bigger than what your teacher teaches you.”
“Yes.”
Jo Minjoon was in a good mood. It was when they were about to leave. Yamamoto opened his mouth.
“Did you decide somewhere to go?”
“No. We are about to enter a place that seemed to be fine while walking. We also came here like that.”
“If it’s fine with you, I would like to recommend you a store……”
“What kind of store?”
“………It’s a store that’s really difficult to say what kind of store it is.You could look at it as a japanese restaurant, but the range of it is too wide to only call it japanese……..You will really be able to see many dishes. Originally, it’s somewhere I want to keep it by myself…..but the person there will welcome you.”
Honestly speaking, Jo Minjoon didn’t hear Yamamoto’s proposal to be that sweet. The reason was simple. ‘Many dishes.’ It was right after he got excited after eating Yamamoto’s sushi. He was curious about other masters that poured all their time in one field just like udon and ramen. If it wasn’t even a restaurant but cooked several dishes…….He wondered how deep that level would be. Jo Minjoon took the rough map that was drawn by Yamamoto and smiled brightly.
“If the situation permits us, that will also be fine. Thanks for the recommendation. And also, thank you for the sushi. It was the best I have tried in all my life.”
“I’m still lacking. If you come again one day, I will show you a better sushi.”
At Yamamoto’s humble answer, Jo Minjoon smiled brightly and turned back. When Jo Minjoon followed Rachel and got out, the youngest PD Robert said.
“Did you get good scenes?”
“Obviously. Think about it. Who do you think the hottest member in our program is?”
“……I wonder. Minjoon is also quite popular, but thinking about the overall famousness isn’t it certainly Rachel?”
“See? The members you are wondering about who is the hottest are all here. And think a bit more. It’s only been half a year since Minjoon appeared on TV. But even so, his existence became comparable to that of Rachel’s.”
Martin looked at Rachel that was smiling and conversing with Jo Minjoon. Although he had let it pass as they were always together, thinking about the real worth that man had…..he got goosebumps. Martin said.
“Don’t you feel dread? If his first step is this much, what kind of meaning will that man have later on the cooking world.”
“Well, he will become a legend. There are always legends.”
“Legends are only a memory. But he won’t end with just being a memory.”
“Then what will happen.”
“Everyone will want to catch Minjoon. They would want to resemble his imagination and philosophy. Righ! He…..”
Martin’s mouth trembled. It wasn’t even his job, but thinking about the day that would soon come, his chest melted down in fluster.
“He will become an order.”
–
Although there were no eternal things, it didn’t take that long for the emotions the sushi Yamamoto gave him to disappear. Because an amazing dish that made him forget about Yamamoto’s sushi was placed in front of Jo Minjoon. The unfortunate thing was that it didn’t have a positive meaning but a negative one.
‘Do I eat it all or not?’
Jo Minjoon glared at the plate in front of him. The place Jo Minjoon and Rachel were seated at was at a covered cart bar. Although there were no customers, it wasn’t strange as the place was small. Although he couldn’t see the cooking score Rachel wanted to come here after feeling the faint romantic feeling the cart bar gave her on the street…..And Jo Minjoon couldn’t decline her. And this was the situation.
“Is it fine?”
“………You know what kind of answer I will give. I’m sorry. I think I brought you for nothing.”
Different from yamamoto, the owner of the store wasn’t fluent in english.Could they say that it was fortunate that they could express the disappointment as much as they wished. Jo Minjoon looked at the ramen without any words. Cooking score of 4. He wondered that that much wasn’t to the point he couldn’t eat it. Because the noodle was certainly edible. Although it had a strong industrial feeling, it wasn’t to the point that it was disgusting to eat.
But the moment he ate a char siu meat, he couldn’t control his expression anymore. It had a strong fishy feeling. The freshness was only 57%, and he didn’t even expect anything for the quality…….But for his mouth that had only eaten good food for a while, it was a really terrible quality.
“What do you have to do at times like this? It’s really uncomfortable that she serves this to a customer, speaking as someone with the same job. The problem is……..”
Jo Minjoon glanced at the owner standing at the other side. It was a grandmother that had more age than Rachel. And just like everyone is like this, Jo Minjoon was also weak at the elderly. Rachel said with an astringent voice.
“We can’t even communicate, so for what will you even argue? And……. For some, a flavor like this may be something they grief for.”
“I thought that old people would all cook well…….But it seems like this was a preconception of mine in the end.”
“Age shines when you invest time on a work.”
In the first place, this store gave the feeling that it was ramen to earn money however she could rather than a specialty store. It was when Jo Minjoon didn’t even touch the char siu and was about to gulp the noodles. The store old lady looked at Jo Minjoon and smiled softly.
“Is it tasty?”
Although she spoke in japanese, Jo Minjoon could understand that much. Jo Minjoon answered in an awkward japanese.
“Yes. It is.”
Although he didn’t think like that at all, how was it that he could answer this naturally while smiling. On top of that, the result of his smile was that the lady gave one more lump of noodles to Jo Minjoon.
It was difficult to decline when she was showing that much goodwill. In the end, when Jo Minjoon got out of the store while grabbing his stomach and walking unnaturally, Rachel patted his back with a worried expression.
“You should have stopped eating. Why did you eat it all?”
“She smiled at me as if she was looking at her grandson, I couldn’t stop eating.”
“You are gentle at useless parts.”
Rachel smiled as if she couldn’t hate him. Martin looked at Jo Minjoon and said.
“You are not full to the point you can’t eat anything else, right?”
“……Honestly speaking, I am. But I will digest some of it while walking.”
“That’s why I was saying, the two of you……How about going to the place you got recommended?”
“The place mr. Yamamoto recommended?”
“Yes. Personally speaking, as a PD, it’s quite interesting. A store with a lot of variety of foods to the point you can’t decide the theme, and somewhere that was recognized by a master like mr. Yamamoto…….Isn’t that amazing?”
“……….Thinking about it, the point that mr. Yamamoto recommended it was kind of amazing. Normally, those kind of stores tend to be lousy.”
He only focused on what food they served when they got the recommendation from mr. Yamamoto. But thinking about it there was no way that someone like Yamamoto would have a low tasting level. And in the first place his tasting level was at level 8.
‘Is it a special store?’
Jo Minjoon looked at Rachel. Rachel seemed to have read his sight and then nodded.
“Let’s go. It’s not that we are particularly busy, and it’s close anyways so we don’t lose anything by going.”
“……..Well, at least it will be better than that ramen.”
Rachel smiled bitterly. She thought how much more he was suffering as he that that sensitive taste.
Jo Minjoon kept looking at his surroundings for a fine store even while leaving. But of course, he could only check the ones that had windows so he wasn’t certain about everywhere……..at least, he didn’t find anywhere they could enter among the ones he checked.
‘Good stores are hard to find wherever you go.’
There were many places that kept the tradition for a long time, but compared to the culture you could say that their grades were rather low. Thinking about it, food that followed tradition also meant that it was a dish that didn’t progress.
Although there was some meaning on the point that they replicated the flavor of a long time ago, that was just a cultural meaning. Because it was obvious that rather than medieval dishes old dishes were more delicious, and rather than old dishes contemporary dishes were more delicious. Cooking and people’s tastes for food always evolves, so if you don’t match yourself with that flow called culture, it was obvious that it would fall back.
As they went to the restaurant Yamamoto recommended, the number of restaurants seemed to lessen and houses started to appear more frequently. It was to the point that they wondered if this was the right path.
“It seems like this is the place?”
The place Jo Minjoon and Rachel stopped at was in front of a tile roofed house. There were lamps hanging on the eaves, and there was something written in chinese below that. Rachel looked at Jo Minjoon and asked.
“Can you read that?”
“Ah, yes. It’s 식본.”
“식본?”
“The basics for food, root…….It seems like it was written with this meaning. Do you want to go in?”
“Yeah. Let’s.”
They carefully entered. The restaurant wasn’t that wide. And the structure wasn’t that different to Yamamoto’s sushi store. There were some tables in the corner and there was a structure of a bar in front of the kitchen with tables and chairs without backrest. It was when he looked at the kitchen. Jo Minjoon’s feet stopped, and his eyes shook in shock. Rachel turned to look at Jo Minjoon with a weird face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah, nothing.”
Jo Minjoon even replied with a pale face, maybe because he was too surprised. His two eyes were looking at the people in the kitchen, the faces…….and also at the system window.
[Higashino Haruki]
Cooking Level : 9
Baking Level : 3
Tasting Level : 9
Decoration Level : 8
< The hands of a master (4) > End
TL : A late chapter for the week..
Translator : Subak
Proofreader : Saihikawa