Joichiro Yukihira took a deep breath, temporarily suppressing his curiosity. He looked at Ray, his tone carrying a touch of solemnity.
"Young man."
Ray looked up, meeting Joichiro's gaze, his expression having returned to its usual calmness.
Joichiro smiled and pointed at the sizzling meat skewers on the grill.
"Could I try one of your skewers? Don't worry, money isn't an issue."
After a slight hesitation, Ray nodded.
"Of course."
Saying so, Ray picked up a freshly grilled skewer, deliberately skipping the secret sauce he had used earlier.
The sauce was mixed with Jewel Meat broth. While delicious, it would mask the purest umami of the Regal Mammoth meat itself.
Ordinary people would just find it incredibly tasty.
But a top-tier chef like Joichiro Yukihira would definitely notice the discrepancy.
Therefore, Ray simply pinched a small amount of Salt Orange and lightly sprinkled it over the meat.
The savory freshness of the Salt Orange was the best way to highlight the ingredient's natural flavor.
"This skewer is on me. Please, enjoy," Ray said, handing the skewer over.
Seeing this, Joichiro didn't stand on ceremony and accepted it straightforwardly.
He first took a deep breath of the rich meat aroma, then carefully took a small bite.
His teeth broke through the charred, fragrant crust, and the meat juices instantly burst in his mouth!
Joichiro's body jolted violently, as if struck by an electric current. His eyes widened instantly, his pupils filled with shock.
The meat was so tender it melted on the tip of his tongue like a cloud.
Yet it retained just the right amount of chewiness without feeling mushy at all.
The meat aroma also carried a hint of citrus fragrance that hit his taste buds directly.
This was an ultimate delicacy he had never tasted before, an intertwining of wildness and gentleness.
And the perfect heat control brought out the meat's umami to the absolute limit!
Soma Yukihira looked at Joichiro's loss of composure with great surprise.
"Dad! Is it good or not? Say something!"
Joichiro acted as if he hadn't heard Soma's question. He slowly closed his eyes, his tongue carefully savoring the ultimate delicacy. Even his breathing became incredibly light, afraid of disturbing this feast on his tongue.
After a long time, Joichiro slowly opened his eyes and looked at the busy Ray, his gaze full of wonder.
"This meat... is incredibly delicious."
"What's even rarer is that the heat control is absolutely perfect..."
Hearing this, Ray smiled. He was very confident in his heat control.
After all, this was highly likely a special ability brought by his Gourmet Cells.
But Ray felt it shouldn't be just that.
It was just that he had possessed the Gourmet Cells for too short a time; he still needed to verify his special abilities.
After hesitating for a moment, Joichiro still couldn't help but ask.
"Young man, what exactly is the origin of this meat?"
Ray just gave a faint smile and didn't answer.
He couldn't exactly tell Joichiro that this was meat from a Regal Mammoth over a thousand meters long, right?
If he said that, probably no one would believe him; they would just treat him like a lunatic.
Pointing at the long queue behind him, Ray spoke calmly.
"If you want more, please line up."
Joichiro was taken aback at first, then reacted and couldn't help but smile bitterly.
He knew Ray didn't want to reveal the source of the ingredients.
However, he really did want to taste it again.
Turning around, he walked to the end of the line without hesitation, not forgetting to drag along the still-dazed Soma.
Soma finally snapped out of it and hurriedly followed, his eyes still full of curiosity and anticipation.
Ray glanced at Joichiro and Soma, his mind wandering again.
'The world of Food Wars! isn't too bad.'
It just so happened he wanted to learn cooking anyway.
Perhaps he could go to Totsuki Academy for some systematic learning.
It should be better than fumbling around on his own.
Moreover, now that he had Gourmet Cells, delicious food was the nutrient for him to continuously grow stronger.
He should be able to eat a lot of good food at Totsuki Academy!
But to enter Totsuki Academy, his identity issue needed to be resolved.
That wasn't a problem.
Ray looked at Kazuya Mito waiting on the side.
As the leading enterprise in the beef industry, Mito Meat should be able to provide him with some help.
Of course, Joichiro Yukihira should also have this ability.
But for now, Ray didn't plan to have too much contact with Joichiro.
He couldn't help it; aside from his mastery of heat control, his culinary skills were practically non-existent.
If he interacted too much with Joichiro, his lack of skill would easily be exposed!
He had already played the part of an expert in front of Joichiro earlier.
Ray had no intention of blowing his cover so soon.
Meanwhile, the Yukihira father and son were still busy running their restaurant, so they left directly after buying some skewers.
Soon, the last skewer of meat was sold.
Ray packed up the grill, wiped the grease off his hands, and turned to look at Kazuya Mito, who had been waiting on the side.
Ten minutes later, Ray brought Kazuya Mito back to his home.
After a brief negotiation.
Ray ultimately sold 500 kilograms of Regal Mammoth meat to Mito Meat at a price of 200,000 yen per kilogram.
Totaling 100 million yen.
And this result was quite satisfactory to Ray.
500 kilograms of Regal Mammoth meat was already half of what he had brought back.
But it was enough so that he wouldn't have to worry about money for the foreseeable future.
Furthermore, for him, just going to the Toriko world one more time would be enough to bring back even more.
The only problem was that he needed to wait a while before he could travel to the Toriko world again.
This left Ray feeling a bit frustrated.
In addition, Ray also told Kazuya Mito that this was the meat of some kind of elephant.
He wasn't lying about this; the Regal Mammoth was indeed an elephant, just a 'little' bigger.
As for Kazuya Mito, although he had paid an extremely high price.
He believed that relying on the quality of the Regal Mammoth meat, the profit those 500 kilograms could leverage was far more lucrative than 100 million yen.
In fact, if possible, he even wanted to buy all the Regal Mammoth meat Ray had on hand.
Unfortunately, he was flatly rejected by Ray.
Outside of the trade, Kazuya Mito also promised to help Ray resolve his identity issue.
He could even pull some strings for Ray to get the qualification for the Totsuki Academy transfer student exam.
However, what made Ray feel it was a bit tricky was that this year's Totsuki Academy transfer student exam was just one month away.
This meant he only had a short thirty days to improve his cooking skills to handle the exam.
Although Ray found this challenging, he had no intention of backing down.
After all, he could start preparing for this transfer student exam right now.
If he still couldn't pass it after all that, he would truly be useless.