Banquet of Chefs (1)
The ‘Banquet of Chefs’ filming set.
Here stood countless lights and cameras, along with ten star chefs whose names anyone would recognize, and their ten disciples.
Naturally, Ayeon's head chef Yang Geon-ung was there too. And standing beside Yang Geon-ung... was me.
‘What on earth am I doing here?’
The day I finished my first day of work as a cold section cook, on my way home from the chicken place. The chef had told me out of the blue to appear in the ‘Banquet of Chefs’ filming a week later. It was absurd, but well, if the chef says do it, you do it. And honestly, I thought this was a good opportunity for me.
And so the filming began.
“Alright, everyone! Today, for our Teachers' Day special, we're doing a ‘Banquet of Chefs Special Edition’!”
MC Jo Young-ho's voice rang out through the studio.
“This time, instead of the head chefs of famous restaurants, their disciples, the junior chefs, will appear and compete. What's even more fun is that, like an avatar blind date, each of their head chefs will give instructions through an earpiece.”
In short, the main content wasn't a battle between chefs, but a battle between their disciples.
After finishing explaining the rules, the MC introduced the disciples one by one.
“From ‘La Maison,’ the essence of French fine dining, its junior, Chef Kim Tae-hyun. We're told this chef has worked as a junior for over a year.”
“Next is the junior of ‘Modern Bistro Seoul,’ Chef Jeong Min-a. Chef Jeong Min-a's career is one year and six months!”
“From ‘Raviola,’ the textbook Italian restaurant, its junior, Chef Seo Jin-woo, who worked for two years at a famous Michelin 2-star restaurant in Italy! And he's been working as a junior at Raviola for over a year as well.”
Every time the MC introduced someone, applause and cheers poured from the audience.
“Everyone's truly incredible. I'm already excited.”
And-
“Alright, finally, Ayeon's junior chef!”
The camera finally turned on me.
“The junior chef of Michelin 2-star Ayeon, I'm so curious about this one!”
Then the MC glanced at the script and paused.
“Ayeon's junior chef's career is.......”
He checked the script again and gave an awkward laugh.
“It says he's worked as a junior chef for one week?”
“Hahahaha.”
At that moment, laughter burst out in the studio. The MC, the contestants, the audience. And even the production crew.
“Only a week?”
“I mean, can you even call one week working?”
The other contestants all laughed and looked at me too.
“Chef Do Eun-seong! Is your junior chef career really just one week?”
The MC asked me.
I answered briefly.
“Yes.”
Because it was fact.
“What! Then, what were you doing before that?”
“I worked at Ayeon as a kitchen assistant for two years.”
“A kitchen assistant for two whole years?”
“Yes.”
“Then may I ask what you did before that?”
“I worked at a Chinese restaurant and a fried chicken place.”
“Then have you ever formally learned cooking, like at a culinary school?”
“No. I haven't.”
The MC asked, puzzled at my answer.
“So you've really only formally held a pan at a restaurant for one week?”
At his question, the audience burst out laughing again. The contestants were the same. Each of them tried hard to control their expressions, but there was a hint of laughter on all their faces.
“Ah.......”
The MC, perhaps realizing the slightly odd atmosphere on set, hurriedly started wrapping up his remarks.
“What matters for a chef isn't career or academic background, but skill. Mr. Do Eun-seong, I look forward to a great performance today.”
On this whole set, only Yang Geon-ung looked at me expressionlessly.
“Cut!”
Then the PD shouted loudly.
“We'll take a short break. Contestants, please rest in the waiting room and come back in twenty minutes!”
And then-
“Chef Yang Geon-ung. One moment, please.”
The PD quietly called only Yang Geon-ung aside from among the contestants. As if they had something secret to discuss, the two spoke quietly with their mouths covered.
Twenty minutes later-
“Alright, thank you for waiting. Now we'll draw the order of the matches.”
MC Jo Young-ho skillfully resumed hosting.
“The junior chef who'll compete in the first match is!”
The MC drew one of ten balls and opened it toward the camera.
“The most junior of the juniors, Chef Do Eun-seong.”
The MC said, looking at me.
“Unfortunately, the contestant drawn first will be using Fridge No. 1, which has the poorest ingredients.”
The camera showed Fridge No. 1.
Inside Fridge No. 1, no fresh seafood or expensive ingredients could be found; there was only cheap meat, basic vegetables, and some pasta noodles.
“And Chef Do Eun-seong's opponent is!”
The MC paused for a moment to build tension. Then he opened another ball.
“Unbelievable. It's Chef Seo Jin-woo of Raviola, who has the best credentials of all the junior chefs!”
At that moment.
“Oh no.”
“Of all people, Seo Jin-woo with the best credentials. And he's a beginner on top of that.”
“He's bound to lose.”
Reactions worried for me burst out from the audience.
“Chef Seo Jin-woo, who'll be competing against Chef Do Eun-seong with his one week, said he worked as a junior for two years at a Michelin 2-star restaurant in Italy. And he's a veteran junior chef who's also worked for a year at Michelin 1-star Raviola.”
The MC called the two of us to the center of the set.
“You two, please move to the main stage now!”
Seo Jin-woo and I stood side by side in the center.
“Alright, before we get into the real match, would you each say a word to each other!”
Seo Jin-woo smiled confidently, as if he'd been waiting, and said.
“I won't try too hard. If the gap's too big, the viewers won't have any fun.”
Everyone in the audience laughed at his playful provocation.
“I'll just do reasonably well.”
“Haha. As expected of Chef Seo Jin-woo, I can feel tremendous composure from his comments alone. Next, our Chef Do Eun-seong! Please say a word.”
In that instant, I could feel everyone's gazes turn toward me. Intrigued gazes, gazes that seemed to cheer me on, curious gazes.... But beneath all of them lay a condescending feeling that said, go ahead, give it a try.
These kinds of gazes had always been around me since the moment I, with nothing, had decided to become a fine dining chef. So I was used to them, and it didn't matter. I knew that whatever I said here right now would be meaningless. Everyone here wouldn't be interested in my words anyway.
“Well. Does a cook need to talk? I'll show you with my cooking.”
I ended it briefly.
“Oh, words of wisdom before we've even started! That's right. A cook should show it with his cooking.”
The MC immediately carried on with his remarks after my short answer. At the same time, he quickly glanced at the PD sitting in front.
“Alright, then let's start the match right away. Time limit twenty minutes, please make a dish that will move your mentor using the ingredients in the fridge!”
Ding-g-g.
With the sound of the bell, the match began.
Seo Jin-woo and I stood in front of the fridges and began choosing ingredients.
-Pick the ingredients however you want.
Chef Yang Geon-ung's voice came through the earpiece.
“Yes, Chef.”
Looking inside the fridge again, there were basic vegetables, pasta, and a small chunk of meat whose grade didn't look very good.
I glanced over at Seo Jin-woo. He was just leisurely looking at the fridge. But I quickly took out the chunk of meat, a wine bottle, and a few vegetables.
I decided to make steak. The meat wasn't in great condition, but there was no ingredient worth saving besides this meat. And above all, I just wanted to make steak.
-Steak? With that crap meat?
Chef Yang Geon-ung asked me.
“Yes, Chef. I'll go with this.”
Yang Geon-ung just snorted at my answer.
I went straight to the workstation. I quickly trimmed the meat and seasoned it. Next, I heated the pan and coated it with oil. When I placed the meat on the scorching hot pan-
Sizzzzzle.
The sound of steak meeting fire rang across the set.
Honestly, I'd never properly learned steak. I'd only watched Kim Jun-ho do it at the restaurant over his shoulder.
Still, added up, that was two years. I began grilling the steak Kim Jun-ho's way. I measured the timing precisely, and flipped the meat when the color was just right.
-Lots of butter, and start the arrosé right now.
‘Arrosé’ is the technique of basting with melted butter or oil. It usually starts once one side of the meat is fully cooked.
But Yang Geon-ung instructed me to start the arrosé at a slightly earlier timing.
“Chef, arrosé already?”
-Yeah. The meat's in bad shape, so just do it from now.
As Yang Geon-ung said, I started the arrosé. I gripped the pan, tilted it, and poured the melted butter over the meat.
-Good. Just like that. Build up the color well.
As he said, the steak was cooking perfectly.
A little later, at the right timing, I took the meat out of the pan and rested it. Then I cut off a little of the meat and tasted it, and.......
It was delicious.
Starting the arrosé a bit early as Yang Geon-ung said had been a divine move. The deep butter flavor completely enveloped the meat, so it felt like eating expensive meat, not cheap meat. Of course, there was still a slight gamey smell, but it seemed like the sauce could handle that much.
As I prepared to make the sauce, I looked to the side. Seo Jin-woo was also making steak. He was leisurely cutting the meat into pieces and grilling them. It looked like he was going for cube steak.
‘Is his sauce a cream sauce?’
A carton of fresh cream caught my eye. He seemed to be trying to cover the flavor of the poor-condition meat with the heavy taste of cream.
-How are you doing your sauce?
Then Yang Geon-ung asked me.
“I'd like to use wine, Chef.”
I wanted to add wine to the juices left from grilling the steak and make it into a sauce. The method was relatively simple. You just pour wine over the meat juices, fat, and seasoning left on the bottom of the pan the steak was grilled in to make a base sauce.
The deep flavor of the wine would cover the gamey smell of the low-grade meat, which could otherwise reek. The wine's acidity also seemed like it would balance the steak's richness and draw out a fuller flavor.
But it also seemed like the meat was in too poor a condition to cover the gamey smell with wine alone.
Still, to make the sauce for now, I opened the wine bottle, and.......
‘What is this?’
In an instant, a rotten smell shot up from the wine. Did the staff make a mistake? There was no way there should be spoiled ingredients. I was just about to say something through the earpiece.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-
Of all times, the wireless earpiece's battery seemed to die, and it cut off. I had to quickly tell the MC that my connection with the chef had been cut.
That was when.
‘Huh?’
The kick began to appear before my eyes. That familiar fluorescent line.
So I decided to just try it for now. I quickly grabbed three onions from the workstation and began slicing them thin.
Chop-chop-chop-chop-chop-chop.
I sliced the onions quickly in a very familiar rhythm. The knife Seok-cheol Hyung from the chicken place had given me had definitely been made by an artisan. My knife work was even better than usual.
The people who saw my knife work went wide-eyed.
“Whoaaaaa.”
“What the? Who's that guy?”
“Why is his knife work so fast?”
“Did you see? He finished cutting a whole onion in three seconds!”
Exclamations began pouring from the audience.
They're surprised by just this?
What mattered was what came next.
Sizzzzzle!
I began pouring the rotten wine onto the well-grilled steak.