Javier’s eyes didn’t change at all while Minjoon thought. Due to that, Minjoon paused a little bit when he turned back to Javier.

“Did you fall for me all the sudden? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…Ah? Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking.”

“If it’s not that important, can I tell you my idea for the dish?”

“Sure. What’s your idea?”

“I think we can add a few more bland things, since the anchovy stock turned out saltier than we thought.”

“Bland things?”

“There are a few things I already thought of, but tell me what you think first.”

“Hm…”

Javier started thinking.

“The texture of the dish is pretty chewy right now, thanks to the fish. How about we use something that has a bit of an interesting texture?”

“Hm, like what?”

“We could use jelly, since that’s your specialty. But it has a weird texture that probably doesn’t fit this dish…”

“Hold up, what’s that about my specialty being jelly?”

Minjoon’s eyes widened in surprise. Javier nodded.

“The one thing you do way better than all of us. It’s jelly, isn’t it?”

“…But that’s not what I’m confident with.”

“What is it, then?”

Minjoon didn’t hesitate.

“Sauce.”

His specialty since Grand Chef had always been sauces. That’s never changed.

“You were always pretty good with combining ingredients,” Javier agreed.

At first, it was all thanks to the system helping him out. But these days, he could make something decent even without the system. He supposed he could say that he was now able to win without cheating? Minjoon looked down at his hands for a second.

“Anyway, my specialty isn’t jelly. It’s sauce.”

“Fine. Whatever you say, boss. Anyway, we can’t do jelly. The texture’s weird, and the sashimi already has a similar texture.”

“So what, then?”

“Tendon. The fatty part.”

“…Tendon?”

“I’m going to cook it low and slow, and then fry it up.”

“Fry it with what? Is it even going to work, to begin with?”

Tendon. Minjoon didn’t even think of such an option. Sashimi with fried tendon… It was completely different compared to the traditional sashimi. Minjoon had a hard time imagining what it’d be like.

“Well, I kind of came up with the fried thing on the fly, but the main thing I’m thinking of is the tendon. I think the fatty part would meld well with the sashimi.” Javier answered awkwardly.

“Hm. That does actually sound pretty nice.”

“What did you think of at first, Minjoon?”

“Soft tofu.”

“Ah, yeah, that’d work really well.”

Javier clapped in surprise. Minjoon shrugged.

“It does, but yours sounds way more interesting. Let’s try both first. We can choose one of the other, or just try both at once.”

“Ah… Mixing doesn’t sound that great.”

“Let’s try it first, yeah? Trying it once is infinitely better than thinking it a hundred times.”

“Oh, sounds cool.”

There was probably no need to tell Javier that was a korean idiom. Minjoon smiled as he took out the tofu and the tendon from the fridge. He then started thinking. They needed a plan.

“I was thinking we could slice the tofu into thin threads and dump it in the soup. So that you can have it with the sashimi just like that.”

“Sounds nice. What about it?”

“I think we could also fry it up a bit like agedashi tofu.”

“You’re getting too many ideas, man.”

“Seriously. Agh, let’s just go with our original plan. Go start cooking the tendon. I’ll cut the tofu. Ah, what are you going to cook it in?”

“I’m just going to use some of the stock. That should imbue the tendons with some nice flavor.”

“Nice. Don’t season it, though. The stock should season it well enough.”

“Sure.”

Javier smiled as he cleaned the tendons. It’s been a while since cooking felt so fun to him. It was all thanks to Minjoon. Having someone who thoroughly enjoyed cooking right next to him was almost infectious.

‘So this is how Kaya fell for him.’

What more could you ask for than a person that made you feel comfortable and happy? Javier muttered to himself as he started on the stock.

“Justin’s going to have a lot of fun with this.”

“What about Justin?”

“He’s going to have to take care of all the anchovy shit.”

“Ah.”

If a person doesn’t take out the guts of a dried anchovy out, the resulting stock would turn quite bitter. It was almost a requirement to take out the innards of a large anchovy. Of course, this job would fall on the probationary employee, Justin.

“I used to suffer a lot when I was on probation, too.”

“Eh? I thought you never was one, though.”

Oops. Minjoon forgot that that never happened here. He tried to cover it up quickly.

“Ah, you know. When I first started cooking.”

“Well, since you were alone, I guess you had it even harder than Justin. Since you had only the internet to rely on.”

“Yup, that’s it.”

Minjoon took up his knife. Normally, a Chinese cleaver was best for this task, but… Western knives weren’t so bad either.

‘I need to get the angle right.’

He didn’t hesitate once he felt he got it right. He started pounding the board with a quick rhythm. After chopping the tofu as thinly as possible, he had to lay it down on the ground and chop some more. Javier looked at this with great interest.

“You’ve gotten better with your knife. How does that work? Justin’s the one doing all the prepping, isn’t he?”

“I cut the jellies, remember? The focus required from that helped a lot, I think.”

Minjoon said this as he picked up a single tofu thread from the pile. It was almost invisible to the eye. The rest of the process from here was rather simple. He just put the tofu into the hot stock, along with the sashimi, caviar, and a piece of cilantro. The end. It was rather easy to assemble, but the process wasn’t easy at all.

First of all, the tofu. Cutting it like that was almost impossible for a normal person. Making sashimi was no easy feat either. Just cutting the fish into even slices was a challenge enough. Even chefs had a difficult time working with fish that he wasn’t familiar with sometimes.

‘Now that I think about it, I’ve never really hit a wall on this kind of front after a certain point.’

Of course, he was still very lacking in terms of noodles, bread, rice cakes and sushi, but he didn’t have any problems making something basic.

‘Skill tab.’

As soon as he thought the words, numerous screens appeared in front of Minjoon. He picked out the ones that he wanted.

[ Understanding of Knifework ] – 75% experience

You will face no difficulties with ingredients, as long as you have a sharp knife.

Your skill with accuracy and speed are all at the level of an expert.

Your knife work will not affect the freshness of the ingredients.

Incredibly low chance of getting a cut while cooking.

‘…What percentage was it last time?’

He remembered it being under 60% at one point. Did he just grow that much? Minjoon took the dish over to Javier.

“Here, try it.”

“Ah, finally.”

Javier opened his mouth, and took a bite. As soon as he did so, he trembled almost as if he was thrown into cold water. He lifted his arm up at Minjoon.

“You see this?”

“Damn, you got goosebumps? Was it that good?”

“Taste aside… The dish is very straightforward. Every ingredient is showing its charm in full bloom. The caviar tastes like the sea itself, the stock is incredibly rich, the tofu is tickling my tongue, and the fish almost feels like a human tongue. This… is a really lewd dish.”

“…What an interesting review.”

Minjoon tried a bite as well. He instantly agreed with Javier. The tofu was pushing its way onto his tongue ever so slightly. As he stood there smiling in delight, Javier let out a sigh.

“Man, I lost. The tendon isn’t going to be even half as good as this.”

“Don’t give up. You can’t say that before you even try.”

“You think I can do it?”

“Come on, man. Remember what I said?”

Minjoon looked into Javier’s eyes.

“I trust you.”

Javier couldn’t help but smile. He turned to look at the pressure cooking behind him. The tendon was sitting in that pot all this time. Javier sent out a silent prayer towards it.

‘You better taste good, tendon…’

€

“Hm, to use this many ingredients in one dish… How interesting. Who came up with this?”

“We came up with it together.”

Javier responded without missing a beat. Rachel looked at him quietly for a bit before turning back to the dish. A white, circular dish, with the center of it curved upwards into a slight hill. The dish had several main ingredients on it, with the tofu decorating the sides along with the soup.

Rachel put her attention on the ingredients. The sashimi, the caviar, and the cilantro. There was also a tiny piece of tendon as well.

‘Tendon, huh…’

She could decide on her opinions after she tasted the dish. She took a bite. Her face didn’t change at all even after she finished swallowing.

“So how did you end up working together with Minjoon? You said you were going to work alone, didn’t you?”

“Chefs and cooks have different jobs. Cooks need to do everything by themselves, but the chef is a commander on the battlefield. I realized that if I were to be a real chef, I needed to stop ignoring my friends and get as much help from them as possible.”

“You didn’t feel embarrassed reaching out to them?”

“Of course I did. It means I’m still very lacking. But if I’m to improve, I’m still going to have to enlist the help of others. Minjoon was just the first to offer his help to me.”

“Javier worked hard this time around.”

Minjoon smiled. Rachel couldn’t help but smile in response.

“You almost look like I already gave you an ok sign.”

“Well, I think you will.”

“Why?”

“I feel like I know what you’ll ok or not after getting rejected and approved a few times.”

“You’re starting to sound like a know-it-all just after half a year.”

“Hey, I still have much to learn. I’m going to stay here for at least a decade.”

Minjoon grinned. Rachel let out a small laughter before placing her utensils next to the dish. The plate was completely empty.

“I thought you guys might fall short on at least one dish, but…”

Rachel smiled.

“That critic’s going to get a real beating with this one.”

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