Chapter 166

God of Cooking – Chapter 166: The Friendly Judge (2)

Posted on October 7, 2017 by miraclerifle — Leave a reply

Ben stared at Jo Minjoon with a disgruntled expression before taking off his apron and quickly turning around . As he walked out of the restaurant, anyone could see that his steps were full of anger . Jo Minjoon watched Ben leave with a cold expression . Javier, who watched what Jo Minjoon did, spoke as if he was in disbelief .

“……I thought he was an angel, but he was actually a ghost . ”
“He’s not a ghost . He’s a fairy . ”

An irritated voice suddenly interjected . Javier jumped up in surprise and looked around him . However, the only person sitting at his table was Janet . Javier looked towards Janet with a concerned expression .

“He’s like a fairy? Are you one of Minjoon’s fans?”
“What the heck are you talking about?”
“You said it just now . He’s a fairy, not a ghost . You even said it in such an irritated voice . ”
“I never said anything like that . What are you talking about?”

Janet looked at Javier like he was crazy . Javier just shut his mouth with a confused expression . He was sure that he heard a voice . As he was thinking about it, a small head popped out from underneath the loose tablecloth .

“……!”

Javier wanted to scream but held it in as his body started to shake . Ella looked towards the shivering Javier with a smirk on her face .

“My uncle is not a ghost . ”
“……Uuhh, uncle? Are you talking about Minjoon? Wait, more importantly, who are you?”
“My name is Ella . ”

Ella smugly responded before going and sitting down next to Janet . As Janet watched her with a nervous expression, Ella just laid down on the table and turned her head to look at Jo Minjoon . Javier tried to talk to her once more .

“Do you know Minjoon?”
“Yes . He’s my uncle . ”
“……Uncle?”

Janet looked at Ella in confusion . No matter how you looked at her, she showed no signs of being Asian . All sorts of complicated family trees went through her mind . However, Javier quickly caught on that it was just being used as a sign of their closeness . Javier looked towards Ella and asked .

“Your uncle must be good to you . ”
“Yes . He plays a lot with me, he cooks tasty food when I’m hungry, and … . . hmm……”

Ella twisted lips as she fell deep into thought . However, there wasn’t a need to listen any further . Javier quietly looked at Jo Minjoon as he thought to himself that if a child could give such positive evaluations of him, he must usually be a pretty gentle person .

‘Then why is he so harsh right now?’

Jo Minjoon’s evaluation was not only harsh to Ben who just left . He had to do it . His eyes kept seeing many people who were not ready . Of course, they applied to be apprentices because they were not ready, but there were only three people who seemed like they had spent a lot of effort practicing on their own .

Jo Minjoon walked in front of a thin Black man and looked at his garlic . All of the garlic slices were cut in even thickness . If he really wanted to find some faults he could, but that would not make a difference . Jo Minjoon looked towards the man . The man looked at Jo Minjoon and the others with an extremely nervous expression .

“……Mr . Justin . You said you taught yourself how to cook, yes?”
“Yes…yes!”

Anderson lifted up a slice of garlic to compare before starting to speak .

“Your application said that you were a truck driver . I know truck drivers work for long hours, how did you study?”
“I did what I can to sleep one minute less and cook for even a short amount of time . When I could, the meals I ate on the road were food that I cooked myself . ”

It sounded like what Jo Minjoon had told Ben had left quite a deep impression . Jo Minjoon let out a fake cough with an awkward expression as Rachel gently smiled and started to speak .

“A truck driver . I guess it would be fine for you to take the wheel whenever we go grocery shopping . ”
“Thank you!”
“Don’t get too excited . That’s only if you end up being selected . ”

Jo Minjoon spoke in a cold voice . Justin’s face became disappointed, but it couldn’t be helped . There was one more test left for apprentices . Minjoon was worried that Justin would get extremely excited and be unable to show his true skills in the next test .

‘I can finally understand why Alan had to be so tough on us . ’

Knife skills . After Ben, four more people were also eliminated . There were only four applicants remaining . Internally, Jo Minjoon was rooting for Justin . He was the only applicant with a cooking level of 5, and Jo Minjoon wanted skilled people to be a part of their family . You can’t really judge a person’s character in one day, but based on what he had seen so far, he did not seem to be too bad .

The ingredient for the next test was also garlic . The last test was focused on their precision and skills . This test was focused on how quickly they could peel a container of garlic . As Rachel announced the details of the next test, Jo Minjoon interjected .

“Just so you know, you cannot put it in the container and shake it . The only thing you can use is your knife . Since we are testing how fast your hands are, you cannot take the easy way out . ”

There was also a time when Jo Minjoon was an apprentice and stupidly peeled one garlic at a time with his knife . Later, he learned that the garlic peels itself if you put it in a container and shake it ……but that was after he had already suffered for about a month .

However, when you want to test someone’s hand speed, making them handle ingredients, especially small ingredients like garlic, was a good way to do it .

Anderson blew the whistle loudly . The applicants got surprised and quickly started to use the butt of the knife to hit the garlic and split the pieces . Then, they used the point of the knife to remove the peel one by one .

The results were not as expected . Justin was the third to finish peeling the garlic out of the four people . At first glance, he seemed to be at a disadvantage, but Jo Minjoon calmly took a look at the status of the applicants’ garlics . Then, he made a final decision in his mind .

The judges spent some time to discuss their thoughts . All of their decisions were the same . Rachel finally started to speak .

“At first, we debated sharing the results with you all later, but there is nothing more painful than hopefully waiting . The judges made an unanimous decision . I will not prolong this more than I need to . It’s not like this is a broadcast or anything . ”

Saying that, Rachel headed in front of Justin, whose lips were shaking with anxiety . Rachel patted Justin on the shoulder and started to smile .

“Welcome . We are now one family . ”
“Thank you……THANK YOU!”

Justin’s eyes became red as he shouted in a shaking voice . Jo Minjoon looked around at the other three . The slowest peeler had an understanding look that he knew he wouldn’t get it, but there was a lot of disappointment in the other two . Jo Minjoon headed towards them and asked .

“Do you know why you were eliminated?”
“……No . I’m not sure . ”
“Look at this . ”

Jo Minjoon placed some garlic on the cutting board . It was the garlic that they had peeled, as well as one that Justin had peeled . Jo Minjoon lifted up the garlic as he spoke .

“The difference in your levels, can you feel it?”

They quietly looked at the garlic . Around the time they finally realized the difference and let out an ‘Ah,’ Anderson started to chime in from the side .

“Just because we asked you to do it quickly, doesn’t mean you can half-ass it . I’m sure you were all nervous . It made you focus on the time and made your hand move faster . However, under no circumstances can you let an ingredient go bad . Ingredients are the foundation of any cooking, and the apprentice will be in charge of that foundation . ”

Justin’s garlic was clean without a single cut on the garlic . However, the others’ garlic did not look the same . Their garlic were cut on the side by the blade or had pain marks remaining, and because of that, the sap spilled out and made the garlic sticky as well . Jo Minjoon spoke in a soft voice .

“I understand that you were feeling rushed . However, there is only one reason for a chef to rush . A customer . When a customer is waiting . However, you still cannot use damaged ingredients just because a customer is waiting . If you keep that in mind, I am confident you will be able to be selected at any restaurant in the future . ”

Although he did not have any real experience working as a chef, his words still held some weight . The reason was simple . Every time Jo Minjoon cooked, he thought about the people who will be eating it . His heart came across with each and every one of his words .

One of the eliminated applicants came up to Jo Minjoon . She was a white woman who seemed to be a bit younger than Jo Minjoon . She was looking up at him with sparkling eyes .

“Thank you for saying such kind words . It must be kind of funny for me to say this, but I started to dream of becoming a chef after watching you cook . You were the one who showed me how fancy cooking can be and how stylish it can be . Today, I feel like I learned something else from you . A chef’s heart . I will make sure to remember that . ”
“……Thank you for looking at me in such good light . Let’s work hard together . For both of us, we still have a long way to go . ”

The woman smiled with a disappointed expression before slowly turning around and starting to walk . Rachel watched the leaving applicants and started to speak .

“Do not let this bring you down . There is no failure in challenge unless you give up . ”

She said this to cheer them up, but the person that this impacted the most was actually Anderson . There is no failure until you give up . There were many times when the world continued to focus on Minjoon that he thought Jo Minjoon was a wall he could not climb over .

‘You don’t lose ……until you give up . ’

€

They had decided on an apprentice . Next in line was obvious the prep cooks . Of the fifteen applicants, four of them will end up a part of their family . Maybe it was because they were at the level to apply for prep cooks, but the majority of them had decent skills . Only one of them had a cooking level of 4, nine of them had a cooking level of 5, and the remaining five had a cooking level of 6 .

‘It seems too much for a level 4 to apply to be a prep cook . ’

The person seemed to be around thirty years in age, and Minjoon thought he might have worked at restaurants based on his experience rather than his skill . Jo Minjoon started to focus on the people with a cooking level of 6 . There was nothing else he could do . Unlike the point system for dishes, he knew first hand the difference in cooking levels from coming up the levels himself .

There was even a difference between people who were at the bottleneck of level 5, and people who just broke into level 6 . Of course, if you reached the bottleneck, you could level up with the slightest of insight, but you could never tell when that insight would happen .

Rachel started to speak .

“There is a simple reason as to why we are selecting four prep cooks . Minjoon and Anderson, as well as the two new demi chefs we are selecting today . We want each of them to have an assistant . What we are going to ask of you today is not creativity . What we are expecting from you is quite simple . You need to be able to complete dishes you are asked to make by following a recipe without making any mistakes . But before we start……”

Rachel had a mischievous smile on her face as she asked .

“I want to ask you a question . If you are selected and end up following one of the demi chefs, who do you want to work with? Since we haven’t selected the other two demi chefs, I guess right now you can only pick between Minjoon and Anderson . ”

(TL: OOOh, Rachel, you gonna light a fire . )

She made it sound like it was a joke to lighten the atmosphere, but Jo Minjoon and Anderson both had sharp glares in their eyes . Men had a tendency to get fired up about such childish things; Jo Minjoon and Anderson were no different .

Anderson looked at Rachel with a fierce gaze .

“Teacher . Before they decide, can I make a campaign speech?”
“Of course . Go ahead . ”
“Ahem……”

Anderson let out a fake cough before stepping in front of the crowd . Jo Minjoon sent him a look as if asking if he really had to do this . It made him question his decision for a second, but something made him want to win . Anderson started to speak in the friendliest voice he could muster, although it only came out sounding very awkward .

“I have a very stiff personality . However, this also means that I will not micromanage you . I will only step in when I see the need to do so to make sure everything is okay . Plus……”

Anderson spoke with a meaningful smile .

“I will promise you this . If you pick me and end up being selected, I will personally cook a fine dining dinner for you . ”

The applicants let out some cheers and ‘ooooooos . ’ No matter what, he was the runner-up in the Grand Chef competition . Plus, to be able to eat fine dining cooked by Anderson, who had been receiving elite cooking education at ‘Glouto’ since he was young was like a dream come true . They were both curious and full of anticipation . At that moment, Jo Minjoon glared at Anderson before stepping forward and starting to speak .

“Since Anderson has come forward with such a commitment, I guess I have no other choice . I will also treat you to fine dining . And honestly speaking……”

Jo Minjoon started to smirk as he looked at Anderson .

“How can you tell anything by trying it once? You need to try it at least twice to compare and dissect it . I will treat you twice . ”
“……I agree . Then I will treat you three times . ”
“Four times . ”
“Five times . ”

The two sharply glared at each other . Javier, who had been watching the kitchen from the hall, smiled as he started to speak .

“Men end up becoming children whenever there is a competition . ”
“What?! Then my uncle will get younger?”

Ella took in a deep breath and her eyes opened wide in surprise . At such an attack that came from nowhere, Javier did not know how he should respond . Janet answered on his behalf .

“He may even end up younger than you . ”
“Umm……is it also possible for women to get younger?”
“I’m not sure . I guess they might, depending on the person . ”

Janet answered in a calm voice . Ella had a refreshed expression as if she was saying that she finally answered one of her lifelong questions, but started to mumble with a complicated expression .

“I think my mommy became younger too . ”
“Why do you think that?”

Ella kept her mouth shut and did not answer . She could not answer . She wanted her mommy to maintain her pride . Ella sucked in her cheeks as she thought to herself .

‘That must be why mommy uses strawberry flavored toothpaste . ’

< The Friendly Judge (2) > End

Translator : Miraclerifle
Proofreader : Miraclerifle