Those participating in the Grand Chef competition didn’t wait for Min-joon and Kaya, regardless of whether they were prepared to leave New York or open a new restaurant. They didn’t even give him time to take a break.
Whenever Min-joon, Kaya, and Joseph appeared at the Grand Chef House, the participants began to decrease one by one. And there were only eight participants left in the Grand Chef House now.
Gwen muttered, “I hear that they went back to Los Angeles. They are mentioned in the Star Book.”
“I wonder what kind of restaurant they will open. I definitely want to visit there later.”
“I don’t want to just visit there. I want to work there,” Gwen said in a low voice.
Ken asked, a little surprised, “You wanted to win in this competition, did you?”
“Even if I win, I want to work there.”
“Why? If you win here, you will have no problem opening your own restaurant, right?”
“Well, because it’s not my best option.”
Some participants of the Grand Chef competition sometimes got mistaken about one thing. In other words, they regarded themselves as fully verified as a good chef once they win.
Of course, it was true that they were verified fully by winning, even though some might question the verification standards, but there was no doubt that the winner had a very sophisticated sense of taste enough to run a general restaurant.
But could one really be satisfied with that?
‘I just do not know.’
When she first entered the Grand Chef competition, her most important goal was to achieve social success after winning. But after she met Min-joon, she began to change her mind. He was the greatest chef in her eyes. Although she regarded Kaya as her role model, it was because Kaya had a background similar to hers. In terms of achievements, he was much better than her.
“You know what? Even if Min-joon has climbed to the top position in the field, he is still hungry for something.”
“You mean he is still greedy?”
“Yeah, that’s right. At first, I thought he really sucked.”
Obviously, she thought how stupid he was that he didn’t know how much he achieved. Looking back, however, she knew he clearly appreciated what he already achieved. But he also knew what he didn’t yet achieve. How painful would one feel if one didn’t have a pickaxe to dig a lump of gold right in front of one’s eyes? Even if one’s nails were broken, one would try to poke through the mine to dig out the gold.
But the problem was that she didn’t notice that gold while Min-joon could do so. That was the difference between them. But that difference dwarfed the existing standards.
“I want to learn from Min-joon and Kaya. They are different from ordinary chefs. I can feel it,” Gwen said.
But Ken didn’t respond because he also agreed with her to some extent. Even Hugo, who overheard them inadvertently at some distance, was also of the same opinion.
‘I’m just frustrated…’
Hugo felt thirsty. So he went to the refrigerator and gulped down a bunch of cool water.
But that didn’t quench his thirst quickly. He felt as if he had a bad sore throat.
When he first participated in this contest, he didn’t think of other contestants as his rivals. Those he regarded as his rivals were Anderson, Min-joon, and Kaya. But when he actually competed with the participants here, he found it hard even to beat them. Of course, Min-joon would easily beat them without any question.
That drove Hugo nuts. Time passed by, and his friends made great progress in the field. But he still lagged behind them. Why? What made such a difference?
Peter and Hugo were in a similar situation, but they were different. Peter wanted to prove that he was not a worthless chef, while Hugo wanted to prove that he could compete with his old friends on an equal footing. But what he proved, after all, was that he was far behind them.
‘How would Min-joon think in this situation?’ Hugo suddenly thought.
While thinking so, he bit his lips. Even though he regarded Min-joon as his rival, he found himself trying to imitate him. He hated his weakness for that.
If his colleague ran far ahead of him and those behind him overtook him and ran right next to him, who should he think of his rival while running?
Come to think of it, he felt so miserable. In some respects, it was natural that he was in a miserable situation like this. Just as flies were attracted to filth, how could he think of any sublime things in a miserable situation?
‘I wanted to compete with him, not cook here. But I haven’t even competed with him at all.’
He felt so frustrated about himself while muttering to himself like that.
At a glance, he was just talking nonsense, but that kind of pathetic thinking kept his last pride.
“What’s the matter with you?”
“Oh, nothing…”
“Well, it looks like you are so worried about something.”
Even though he spoke to Hugo with concern, Michael was full of smiles on his mouth when he looked at him. Was he trying to comfort Hugo or prank him again? Watching him who must have been a social misfit had he not been smart enough to become a professor, Hugo sighed.
Hugo said, “It’s nothing. Just leave me alone.”
“Well, if someone says he is not worried, he just speaks out his mind.”
“What do you want me to say then?’
“The problem is that you have no problem at all.”
Pissed off by his response, Hugo thought he was crazy. He was trying his best to calm down at the moment. As a matter of fact, Michael was now the most hated person in the Grand Chef House. Why? Because he was a genius.
Michael didn’t even try to ignore others by boasting of his talent. He didn’t even consider himself special. That was why he was sinister. Basically, he felt so sorry for others when they lacked something, but the moment he didn’t hide his feelings, he didn’t know that his shallow appreciation of their mediocracy turned into a thorn and pierced their skin so painfully.
His indifference to their feelings was hurting everyone. Fortunately, he wasn’t a culinary genius, but just a smart genius. What he wanted others to know about him was their understanding of not his dishes, but the calculations and formulas on his dishes.
Of course, Michael didn’t spend his entire life in vain. He also knew that ordinary people did not readily understand what he thought. Even the smartest students in the world often couldn’t keep up with his calculations. That was why he could not hide his frustration with those who could not follow him, but he had to hide his feelings under any circumstances. But he wasn’t skilled enough to hide it, which made him rub everybody the wrong way.
‘If this guy wins…’
Would Hugo be envious of him then?
Well, he might not.
<hr />
Min-joon and Kaya took this opportunity to buy a house. More precisely, Kaya went ahead to buy it. She made a lot of money when her original dish Six Meats made a great hit, even though she didn’t make as much as him, whose Cho Reggiano was an unprecedented hit.
Unlike Min-joon, who was not so greedy about money, Kaya raked in all the proceeds from Six Meats, so her purse was so plentiful, compared to his.
So, right here, in the house located in Beverly Hills, the two were lying leisurely.
“How about enjoying our lives with no job for about a year?”
Kaya asked blankly, lying on the lawn in the yard while basking in the sunlight. She felt so good when the sunlight penetrated through the pores of her skin and tanned it.
When asked such an unexpected question, Min-joon thought it was funny that he almost agreed with her. As a matter of fact, he felt exhausted while wrestling with Rachel about the Rose Island Venice branch and his future there before he came here, but while he spent the past several days so leisurely without any worries, he felt so good about this kind of comfort and relaxation.
“Come to think of it, we have never had a good time relaxing.”
“You bet.”
From the days of Grand Chef competition until now, they had never had a good vacation.
They just spent every day snowed under all kinds of work and happenings. In fact, even now, they could not say they were taking a real break because they still had to visit the Grand Chef House almost every week.
“Well, I think we have to give up the position of a judge next season.”
“We don’t have to make the decision right now, but as you said, we might have to give up unless things work out well according to our plan.”
Regardless of whether their new restaurant had good business or not, it was a new restaurant to them anyway, so it would be very hard for them to run the restaurant and serve as the judges of the Grand Chef at the same time. Of course, Kaya served as a judge while running Irregular Lab. But because of that, she had to close Irregular Lab unexpectedly. Fortunately, she could do so because the restaurant was experimental. If it had been an ordinary restaurant, she would have taken a huge risk.
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