God of Cooking

Chapter 146: The hands of a master (3)

“Hard work……Really doesn’t betray.”

Jo Minjoon, that was savoring the lingering flavor of the sushi in his mouth for quite a while opened his mouth, and then Yamamoto said with a nice smile.

“There’s a saying for sushi. Someone with mediocre abilities that made sushi for 50 years makes it more deliciously than a genius that has made it for 49 years. But of course, sayings like these are just listened to, there are many cases that they aren’t proved. However, I think that it may really be true. One year……no, me from one month ago is different from me right now.”

“I think I understand that. I’m also a chef even if I have short experience.”

Him, before starting Grand Chef, and him of right now was different. It was merely half a year but how much had his level risen by? While nodding his head thinking like that, Rachel said with a calm voice.

“It is like that for technique. If you have sensitive senses, although you may be fast on starting to walk later on it can only be difficult.Experience accumulates as much as you have sweated regardless of talent. If sushi, udon, bread, etc. are things that only masters have to work on it from start to end, something like talent won’t be that big on how much it makes a difference.”

“Saying that for technique……means that it isn’t so for other parts, teacher?”

“Technique is sharpening and keep sharpening an already made knife. However, it’s different when you look it as the maker. To make a knife, you need to have creativeness to make that knife to be beautiful and durable. And they also need to know how to express that to make his creativeness to make it a reality. You can’t make this up just with experience. And your tongue……There’s nothing more to say, don’t you think so?”

Rachel smiled softly. Yamamoto, that was listening to their conversation, asked.

“You two……Are you perhaps master and disciple?”

“Yes. I recently just barely made this kid my disciple.”

“How can you say barely. I would have become teacher’s disciple whatever happened.”

“Huhu………I feel thankful as you say it like that.”

“This is new. I couldn’t hold a conversation with my teacher that calmly, nor a seat in the same table. Maybe it’s because you are from the west, the atmosphere is certainly different.”

“Rather than being from the west……It’s because the teacher is a warm person. She treats me really well.”

At Jo Minjoon’s words, Rachel turned her head with an embarrassing head. Thinking about it, she wondered if it was the first time Jo Minjoon said something like this in front of her. Maybe that was why she felt warmer but she couldn’t look at Jo Minjoon’s eyes. Because she from the past wasn’t like this. Although Kaya was also a tomboy………

‘I was worse.’

It was when Rachel smiled bitterly. Yamamoto was taking out the next fish. Jo Minjoon’s eyes shone.

“It’s tuna belly.”

“You are right. And it’s not a normal one. Can you guess what’s special about it?”

“Ah. Did you slice it following the tendons? So we don’t chew it.”

“You got it right immediately.”

Yamamoto raised his knife. It was quite amazing looking at the sashimi knife slice the belly meat as if it was splitting water. Jo Minjoon didn’t miss one movement and saved it in his eyes. The shape of his fingers when he gripped rice, how much wasabi he smeared in, up to how much does the brush twist when smearing soy sauce on the belly meat.

[You have experienced the technique of a sushi master in front of your eyes!]

[Mastery of sushi cooking has increased!]

[Your understanding of living has increased!]

A technique that made your skills increase just with watching it. Jo Minjoon just looked at the tuna belly placed in front of his eyes.

[Tuna belly sushi]

Freshness: 98%

Origin: (Hidden as there are too many ingredients.]

Quality: High

Cooking Score: 7/10

7 points. It was a good score, but not to the point to admire it. However, Jo Minjoon couldn’t watch this sushi in front of him lightly. Sushi basically got this score just because of the simplicity of it. Thinking about it slowly, it was a really amazing thing to get this score with just rice, wasabi, and raw fish.

And the flavor was also extraordinary. Tuna belly meat. A part that has more fat and is a soft part even among the parts of tuna that’s famous for being oily. Maybe it was because he had removed the tendons that the texture was a lot softer, and every time he chewed it, the oil that came out of the bat sipped in the rice grains.

It was obvious, but Yamamoto’s sushi didn’t end there. Pacific saury sushi with a silver skin, an eel that was rested in soy sauce stock, louder sushi and rockfish sushi, and also octopus sushi. Several kinds of sushis appeared.

Among them, there were none that surpassed the score of 8. And for Jo Minjoon, that had a tasting level 8, he could know all of the recipes. But……

‘Sushi is not a problem of recipes.’

How you grip it, how you raise your knife and slice the textures. Even if you know all of that in your head, if your hand’s don’t follow your will it becomes meaningless. But of course, it had plenty of worth just by stealing his know how.

“How is it.”

“………I want it. Your hands. I also want to grip sushi like that.”

Jo Minjoon’s eyes, that were looking at Yamamoto’s hands, were burning in ambition. And when he faced those eyes, Yamamoto felt a chill in his spine.

‘They say that geniuses all have a crazy side……This youth also has a dangerous side.’

Thinking about it, he also understood. The more sensitive your tastes are, the worth you put in cooking also becomes higher. Perhaps, his hands gripping sushi may look like jewels in Jo Minjoon’s eyes. Thinking about it, he also felt a bit happy. Because however, you put it, it meant that he wanted his abilities. Yamamoto said with a confident smile.

“I also want your tongue, but that won’t happen for eternity. However, Mr. Minjoon just has to work hard.”

“Thank you for your nice words. However, after eating this delicious sushi, honestly speaking my body can’t help but heat up. That’s cowardly. This is cowardly.”

“As I focused my whole life on just one thing, I have to be able to bring this flavor.”

Cooking only one thing for all your life. Those words were heard to be kind of cool. Right. If you focus on only one thing, no one would be able to follow you at least for sushi. Even if Jo Minjoon becomes an excellent chef, there was no way that he would be able to make a better sushi than a chef of a sushi store as an occidental chef.

But even so, Jo Minjoon wasn’t the type to be able to focus on one thing for all his life. To do so, there were too many cooking methods and ingredients that entered his eyes. He wanted to use all of that and make the ultimate result a dish could get. Although that may be the dream for all of the chefs, Jo Minjoon was a most earnest of that dream compared to others.

Perhaps, it may be because this reality of having returned to the past was just like a dream. A dream that occurred once. It may be because he was certain that a second dream could happen. Jo Minjoon turned to look at Rachel and opened her mouth.

“Teacher. I have always been curious about this. Restaurants try many dishes. But if they keep changing their menu periodically, aren’t they able to carve in that menu deeply?”

“Of course.”

Rachel answered with a calm voice. Jo Minjoon, that expected some solution, looked at her with a perplexed face. Rachel smiled brightly and said.

“Minjoon. To make a complete dish, there’s no need to become a complete chef. Chef Yamamoto has to be like that. The start and end of a sushi are in his hands, so at least for sushi he has to be perfect.”

“……Are we different?”

“We are. Dividing parts. Jobs. A restaurant is one country. If you get your assigned job done, a flawless dish would come out. Think about the many other restaurants. The bread is made by the patissier, and in the cases of noodles it’s different in each case but normally they are done by excellent noodle makers. The essence of western restaurants is the harmony of the experiences of several that occurs over a plate.”

“Then what do we have to grind and polish?”

Jo Minjoon frowned as if it was difficult. It was something he didn’t try to think properly because it was usually a vague problem. And as he got to face it now, it was more complicated and huge than what he thought. Jo Minjoon looked at Rachel with thirsty eyes. Rachel opened her mouth.

“It’s different based on your rank, but I will speak with a head chef as the guideline. Because in the end, you will also become a head chef. There are two big things. First, leading the kitchen. The tools, fire, the number of staff, everything has to move in your head.”

“And the second………?”

“Imagining it.”

Rachel opened her eyes clearly and looked at Jo Minjoon. Her eyes were shining so clearly that you would think she was glaring. Rachel continued speaking.

“Imagine it. The path for your kitchen. The connections of all the people, effort, experience and imagination. In the end…… the path you have imagined will melt down on the recipe. Pull out the stimulation and emotions you felt while watching this sushi! Feel it and express it! A recipe isn’t simply combining ingredients and cooking methods. When you make it with the inspiration you are feeling now is when that recipe becomes completely yours.”

Jo Minjoon’s eyes became absent-minded. Tens, hundreds of thoughts flashed through his head. Jo Minjoon stood up from his seat.

“I……will take some air.”

Rachel didn’t hold him back. While looking at Jo Minjoon’s back that was leaving, Yamamoto opened his mouth.

“You are a good teacher.”

“………I’m a spoiled one. I’m pretending to be all well but perhaps I may be more urgent than that kid.”

“Why are you in a hurry?”

“I want to make that kid grow at least a day faster. It’s a funny thing. I just gave birth to a kid, but I want to already prepare the wedding.”

Rachel smiled bitterly. Yamamoto looked at that Rachel and slowly placed back his knife in his knife holder.

“Is there a parent in the world that aren’t greedy over their own kids?”

“Yes. That’s why if I am going to be greedy, I’m going to fill everything that kid has.”

“As he has that tongue, the size of his greed wouldn’t be a normal one.”

Rachel just puts on a ginger in her mouth without saying anything. She felt that the sweet and sour, the fresh and rough flavor of root vegetables slowly passed by her throat. Rachel said with a relieved voice.

“Fortunately, what I can give to that kid isn’t at a normal scale.”

-

As he got out of the kitchen, Jo Minjoon took in a deep breath. The moment the smell of dirt with air entered his nose, Jo Minjoon’s head was spinning quickly like a computer.

‘Sushi. Sushi. Dishes that use sushi.’

He couldn’t win with normal sushi. But even so, he also didn’t want to leave his recipe like sushi that couldn’t be modified. Because of that, tens and hundreds of ingredients were clashing and mixing in Jo Minjoon’s head.

“7 points. 6. 8……Ah, no. No. This isn’t it. It can’t be a recipe of this level.”

The cameramen, that were waiting outside, looked at Jo Minjoon mumbling lowly and filmed while putting a weird face. But Jo Minjoon wasn’t aware of the cameramen and the staff that was looking at him.

If the camera could record the insides of his head instead of Jo Minjoon’s face, that would probably have been a really amazing thing to see. Three or four recipes were made and thrashed away even before he could exhale once, and the appearances and flavor of the food he thought of were clear. It was to the point that he may be able to feel it with just imagining it. And actually, saliva was accumulating in Jo Minjoon’s mouth.

“Ideal kniving. Gripping. It can’t be with just this. Shall I use fire? No, it can’t become perfect with just this. Then……”

The endless mumbling stopped. But just because of that, it didn’t mean that Jo Minjoon got a hold of himself. His eyes were still looking at the empty air, and his lips slowly opened up. It was unavoidable. Because several windows appeared and disappeared in front of Jo Minjoon’s eyes.

And the moment the wheel stopped was about 10 minutes after Jo Minjoon started looking at the air. Jo Minjoon’s eyes, that were dim, started to find the light again. And the cameramen that were filming him got a weird thought at that moment. That they thought that Jo Minjoon could see something they couldn’t.

But that wasn’t a mistake. Because in front of Jo Minjoon’s eyes, windows only he could see had appeared.

[The estimated cooking score is 9!]

[You have thought of an estimated cooking score of 9 alone!]

[The mastery for recipe composition greatly increases!]

< The hands of a master (3) > End

Translator: Subak

Proofreader: Saihikawa

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