God of Cooking – Chapter 147: The hands of a master (4)

Posted on March 6, 2017 by bsubak — 4 Comments ↓

 

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