The dishes they made were simpler than expected. First of all, it was amuse-bouche. It was the most difficult to make. Because of its small size, people tend to think it was easy to make an amuse-bouche, but it was not.
Amuse-bouche was a dish that affected one’s first impression of the restaurant they visit. Once one took a bite of it, it could captivate one in an instant. So, depending on the chef, there were lots of chefs who focused more on amuse-bouche than the main dish.
Min-joon opened his mouth right away.
“Gwen! Boil the water right now and prepare to boil the eggs. Prepare the sauce. Peter, have cream cheese and bacon ready right now. Quinee, trim the salmon first.”
It was a good idea that they decided to make an amuse-bouche first. As soon as Gwen boiled the water, she began to prepare the sauce. It was a sauce made by mixing Sriracha sauce, honey, shallots, yogurt, and light mayonnaise. After stirring it so fine that no impurities were visible, she took boiled eggs, cut them in half, then carefully scooped out only the yolk.
Then she mixed the yolk with the premade sauce. After that, it was simple. She stacked the sauce again on top of the hollow yolk. Then she finely chopped the bacon that Peter had baked and put it on top of it. Only a couple of pieces of bacon cut into small grains of rice were placed on it. She wondered if it was meaningful to put such a small amount, but it would affect quite a lot more than she thought.
‘This is all I can do to help them.’
It was Min-joon who led his team members to reduce the size of that bacon. He couldn’t say it directly, but he hinted by saying that the taste of bacon overwhelmed all other tastes. And his team members soon found the answer.
This wasn’t done by any one person. All his team members thought hard about it and came up with a solution. And the results of their group thinking were satisfactory. Their cooking score was 7. It was a plan that they all put their heads together. And the results were certainly responding to them. It was a really good score for a simple dish that they made in an instant.
But they could not afford to feel complacent now.
“Gwen, start serving right now. After that, check the puree. Peter, if you are done baking the bacon, start plating!”
“Yes, Chef,” Peter answered in a dry voice.
Peter had various mixed feelings toward Min-joon. He was envious, but at the same jealous of Min-joon. But Peter didn’t want to cause trouble to others because of his personal feelings.
There was no single moment when he didn’t cooperate with Min-joon. Was it because his spirit was crushed? Or was it because he learned the wisdom of hiding his personal feelings?
But he was also deeply moved by Min-joon’s way of dealing with his team members here.
‘Man, he is amazing…’
As always, Min-joon’s kitchen leadership was overwhelming. When he heard about the orchestra at first, Peter sometimes wondered if it was really meaningful for the conductor to stand before the musicians and swing his arms. He thought that like a metronome, all the conductor did was swing his arms at regular intervals, be it four-four or three-four time.
But at least for now, Peter thought he seemed to appreciate the valuable role of the conductor.
Actually, he understood it clearly through Min-joon, just like the miracle that he was experiencing now.
Peter moved his hands busily. He didn’t just bake bacon for the amuse-bouche they just made. Interestingly enough, his team was going to include bacon for the appetizer, too, so Peter baked bacon again.
At Min-joon’s direction, Peter took the bacon out of the pan, wrapped it in a kitchen towel, and pressed it down with a plate. However, he had to remove the bacon from the kitchen towel at Min-joon’s order, for the bacon would completely harden like chips if he drained its oil too much.
Each of Peter’s cooking was nothing particular, but every process was going smoothly. Peter felt as if somebody else, not he, was cooking here right now. Not only he but also the other team members felt the same. They were different from each other, but they were one when they were cooking.
Peter felt thrilled. Looking back, he was leading a life with no purpose. His life was like being thrown into a maze. But suddenly, the sun rose over the maze. The sun was showing him the way to go. As long as the sun shone on him, the pain and inferiority that had consumed him until now did not torment him anymore.
Peter was here, scared about his colleagues’ hatred of him.
Even if they stopped hating him, he was still beaten by invisible arrows.
Scars wouldn’t go away even if one’s wounds heal.
Even if one didn’t hurt anymore, the ugly scar was still there.
Peter suddenly looked at Min-joon. He listened to Min-joon’s voice. He was now in a completely different place. The place he was standing now was not the world of scars. At this moment, he was a chef aboard Min-joon’s ship. The world he was in was a world of dedication where he only focused on serving the customers with delicious dishes.
At least for this moment, Peter didn’t have to think of all the scars he suffered, for one’s wounds were invisible to the person that one was dedicated to. Doctors didn’t complain to their patients about their sickness.
Peter’s world changed completely even for a moment. The nightmare that he thought would never end disappeared in an instant.
While he was lost in such thoughts, Min-joon began to move again. He was perspiring. Was it because of the heat of the flames soaring under the frying pan?
Min-joon looked back. He didn’t turn his head, but he looked back. The conviction and stubbornness he brought here was smiling when he looked at Peter. His face looked like Kaya’s, or Min-joon’s, who turned 30, or Rachel’s face.
Min-joon began to move. Nothing changed here. The flames were still hot, and he was perspiring with heat. He was thirsty. And his heart was still beating. Nothing changed.
[You have fully mastered how to lead your staff!]
[You have met the condition for cooking level 9, namely, kitchen leadership!]
He was still there, though.
A smile crept on his face. He knew he had to focus on cooking with his team members now, but he could not help but feel so happy when he realized he finally met one of the three conditions for cooking level 9, namely, kitchen control or leadership.
In the meantime, they served the amuse-bouche to Joseph and Kaya. After putting the halved eggs in their mouths, Kaya and Joseph nodded with great satisfaction.
“Well, it’s a lot of fun in this amuse-bouche.”
“You bet.”
Min-joon, Kaya, and Joseph were allowed to help their team members as their head chefs only minimally. Even if these amateur chefs worked very hard to make some dishes, their limits were clear. That was the case for the judges themselves. As the participants of the Grand Chef competition, what they made were just simple grilled dishes with puree, or fusion dishes with some minor changes to dishes like bouillabaisse.
That was why Joseph and Kaya didn’t have great expectations for the dishes of Min-joon’s team members. It was too harsh to apply professional standards to amateurs.
Nonetheless, Gwen’s team with Min-joon as their head chef showed the best that amateur chefs could show.
‘Good…’
Of course, the dish was not gorgeous. It was a dish with boiled egg white filled with some stuffing, then topped with bacon. That was it. As far as its recipe was concerned, even a high school student could make it.
As always, coming up with the recipe was not easy. Just as it was difficult for Min-joon and Kaya to create something beyond their cooking level, this dish was probably the best they could make at their cooking level.
The dish could look shabby. It was just made by mixing sriracha, yogurt, mayonnaise, and egg yolks. It didn’t require any special cooking process, and the ingredients weren’t that luxurious.
Nonetheless, it was delicious. It was simple but tasted good. The sweetness of honey spread in their mouths, and the pungent spiciness of sriracha was mixed with the softness of yogurt and mayonnaise. The texture of the egg white was added to the savory flavor of the yolk soaked in the sauce.
Kaya glanced at Min-joon and his teammates. They were still busy cooking some other dishes. None of them didn’t know what to do next. Min-joon was taking care of each of them, but the team members were also doing their best to carry out their assignments.
‘Wow, they’re doing better than I expected.’
Kaya thought Gwen and Peter would cook well, but she didn’t have much expectation for the other three. But they did well, too. Even though she didn’t think they were bad cooks, she really didn’t expect they could understand and follow Min-joon’s instructions so readily.
Cooking might seem easy, but it was not. In particular, it was not so easy for any chef to cook well in harmony with other chefs without their time and resources.
What really surprised Kaya was that they didn’t make any mistakes until now.
‘Yeah, Min-joon’s leadership is working.’
Min-joon looked back at his team members and smiled.
Min-joon once told them that when they were given his instructions, they should not focus on just moving their hands. He wanted them to think why they were making it, what they would do next, and what other team members were making now. He asked them to feel it, though they couldn’t completely.
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