On the other hand, people’s perceptions of Kaya were changing radically. They often admired her cooking skills, with exclamations like ‘Wow, what a great chef she is!’ The reputation of Irregular Lab and her signature menu, Six Meat, also raised their awareness of her a lot more, but they took it for granted that she was one cut above Min-joon as far as cooking was concerned.
Looking back, it was funny. Until she attended the Grand Chef competition, Kaya was portrayed as a genius that Min-joon could not dare to challenge. But the reason why they regarded him as more competent than Kaya was because his brilliant activities in the cooking world left such a deep impression on them that they even forgot the gap between the two’s cooking skills.
While reading their conversation in Choters Guide, however, they found out that when he was making some gastronomic decisions, he was rather dependent on her. Of course, they noticed it subtly for some time, but they confirmed it finally this time.
At first, some of them thought it was simply because of his trust in her as a lover that he was dependent on her. But the more they looked into his conversation with her, the more they realized that he was not dependent on her simply for that reason.
Kaya’s gastronomic level was so great that they could not find any appropriate words to describe it. So much so that she had a perfect palate. Whatever she ate, she quickly grasped what made up the taste of the dish she tried. And she didn’t even try to mention it because she was not inspired by that kind of stuff. But she felt so clearly the hidden tastes that everyone could feel only unconsciously. Since she was not good at expressing what she tasted, she described it quite awkwardly. But those who really understood her could not help but be stunned to realize that all the taste that she expressed was far beyond the level of a perfect palate they used to know. Thanks to her rediscovery of the taste, they came to appreciate the hidden taste of the dishes that they had never noticed before.
In fact, Min-joon lacked some delicacy in his perfect palate. Of course, he was better than most ordinary chefs in that respect, but it was true he fell short of their expectations.
However, Kaya had both delicacy and sensitivity in terms of a perfect palate, which they didn’t expect of her at all. It was natural that they had a question like, ‘Does she also have a perfect palate like Min-joon?’
Nobody could quickly answer that question. But people couldn’t think that Kaya had a perfect palate. If somebody with a perfect palate appeared in a different place, they would probably think there was another one like Min-joon and forget it.
But it was just unthinkable that the lover of Min-joon with a perfect palate also had a perfect palate. That just didn’t make any sense probabilistically.
Meanwhile, one of Min-joon’s quotes in an interview during his days at the Grand Chef that his delicacy in taste was nothing compared with Kaya’s was often on everybody’s lips again.
After all, people had no choice but to make one conclusion that Kaya’s gastronomic ability was far beyond their imagination and that it was greater than Min-joon’s in some respects.
“So, Kaya has a perfect palate in your opinion, right?” asked June.
Min-joon calmly nodded at her question.
As a matter of fact, Kaya’s perfect palate should have drawn people’s attention long ago during her days at the Grand Chef competition. But she could not back then because people focused on Min-joon’s fantastic palate alone. Even if she had displayed her cooking skills later, she would not have made any tangible impact on people unless she found out all the ingredients in the dumplings like Min-joon did.
But the situation was different now. Both Kaya and Min-joon have achieved achievements of their own in cooking, and the way people watched them had become different in lots of ways.
Above all, June was around them these days, who could make the best use of the items perfectly.
While touching her lips, June was lost in thought for a moment.
‘Does this make sense?’
In fact, she had often wondered if Kaya also had a perfect palate. As a matter of fact, when she witnessed Kaya’s gastronomic ability, she didn’t lag behind Min-joon at all. In some respects, she was ahead of him.
However, after hearing from Min-joon that Kaya also had a perfect palate, June had more mixed feelings than before.
‘How could these two lovers have a perfect palate? Was her perfect palate contaminated by his? If that was the case, she wanted to be contaminated, too,’ June thought.
While she was idly thinking about it, June slightly cast a glance at him. Given that he benefited so much when people came to know he had a perfect palate, he would also come to realize how much she could benefit from people’s recognition of her perfect palate.
‘I have to satisfy her expectations…’
June said, “Since you mentioned it to me, you wish I could publicize Kaya’s perfect palate, right?”
Min-joon replied, “I want to publicize Kaya’s perfect palate to the general public without making any big fuss. As you know, if something goes wrong, people would misunderstand her easily. As you know, there were not many people who would be willing to believe she and I have a perfect palate.”
“Well, it’s not that hard. It’s hard to win over people’s hearts, but it’s easy to sway their minds,” she said, surfing the internet briefly. As a matter of fact, she had been agonizing over one thing these days. She looked at him for a moment then turned back to the computer.
She muttered in a low voice, “Are you ready to do anything to publicize Kaya’s perfect palate?”
“Well, it depends on how dramatic it will be. Yeah, I’m ready, of course.”
“Good. Wait, you’ll hear the good news soon.”
“What are you trying to do?”
“Just wait.”
She smiled at him without answering his question. Her smile was quite mischievous, which didn’t befit her at all. And it took only two days for him to find out what June was trying to do.
***
It was a typical day, as usual. The sky was dark, and the cooks and servers at June’s restaurant were busy preparing to open.
While everybody including Min-joon was busy, a welcome customer came to him.
“Hey, Martin?”
Watching his familiar face, Min-joon asked in a surprised voice for a moment.
Martin looked at him with a smile. With the passage of several years, Martin’s hair turned more grey, and his face had lots of wrinkles.
“It’s been a while, Min-joon.”
“What has brought you here? You want to meet June or me?”
“Well, I’ve come here to see June, but I’ve got some business to talk with you, Min-joon.”
“I think I can guess what it is, Martin,” said Min-joon, looking at him.
As a matter of fact, there was only one reason why Martin came to meet him at this time of year.
“You’re thinking of asking me and Kaya to be the special judges of a cooking contest, right?”
Actually, the two had been through this before. Min-joon wondered if their participation as the special judges would make any impact on the participants this time, but it would be different from before. He thought that if he and Kaya would serve as the judges as the representatives of Choters, they would be able to promote Choters and publicize Kaya’s perfect palate to lots of people in the best possible way. In other words, it would be a golden opportunity for them to give Choters Guide the best possible publicity.
However, Martin only smiled meaningfully, but he didn’t respond.
Then he slowly said, “You know that Alan and Emily are dating, right?”
“Yeah, I know that Alan has proposed to her first.”
“Oh, I see. Rumors are very fast. That’s true. They’re going to get married around next year. They are planning a sweet honeymoon.”
“Next year?”
“Yeah. Emily is probably busy this year as a Grand Chef judge, so she can’t take time out this year.”
“Really?”
“And Mr. Takeshi says he plans to focus more on running the restaurant, starting next year.”
Min-joon opened his mouth blankly at his words. If that was the case, it was inevitable that he would be invited as the Grand Chef judge. As expected, that was true. He was to be the judge of the Grand Chef competition that he once participated in as one of the competitors, and he dreamed of being its winner.
Martin said, “Can you be a judge for the Grand Chef competition?”
“Are you sure? You want me and Kaya to be the judges of the Grand Chef competition?” Min-joon asked in an embarrassed voice. Even though he understood Martin’s question, he had no choice but to ask again because he had never thought of such an offer from Martin, something which was totally unrealistic from his point of view.
What kind of program was the Grand Chef competition? It was a popular chef program that would be watched by tens of millions of people once the competition started. He could not believe that Martin was going to give him and Kaya a chance to be its judge as well as its emcee position.
But Martin understood Min-joon’s surprise, but at the same time, he could not.
So, he said in a calm voice, “I understand your feelings, but you guys don’t have to be so surprised right now because you are fully qualified for that position.”
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