Steak Showdown (2)
To forcibly oxidize the wine, I first submerged the wine bottle in warm water. Then I went straight to Head Chef Yang Geon-ung.
“Chef, could you give me just twenty minutes?”
At my sudden request, Yang Geon-ung's brow narrowed.
“All of a sudden, why?”
“I need one more ingredient.”
To complete the kick I'd seen before my eyes, I needed exactly one more ingredient.
“Fifteen minutes.”
“Pardon?”
“Exactly fifteen minutes.”
I nodded.
“Yes. Understood, Chef.”
Fifteen minutes. It wasn't enough, but it seemed doable. I quickly gathered a portable gas burner, a pan, and the rest of the ingredients.
“So cocky.”
Seeing me, Kim Jun-ho tossed out a remark.
“......”
I ignored his words.
But.
“If you can't do it, give up now. Don't go acting all cocky for nothing.”
Kim Jun-ho didn't stop provoking me. As he always had, he grilled the meat mechanically in the same posture while needling me.
“No. I'm going to try being cocky with everything I've got.”
I looked at him.
“Being cocky is way better than always staying still in the same place. You never know. I might make it all the way up to the spot I want that way.”
“Doesn't mean anything.”
His voice was laced with mockery.
“We'll see about that.”
And so I gathered the ingredients and headed out of the kitchen.
***
Not long after Do Eun-seong left the kitchen, Yang Geon-ung also left the kitchen. Then, as if they'd been waiting, the cooks each began throwing in a word.
“The steak showdown, who do you think'll win?”
“Want to bet again?”
“Deal. This time let's each put up a bottle of wine.”
“Okay. Then who's yours?”
The cooks started their own little bet, as always.
“Kim Jun-ho, obviously.”
“Me too, obviously Kim Jun-ho. You?”
“Kim Jun-ho for me too.”
Almost every cook bet on Kim Jun-ho winning.
“Why do you think so?”
“Putting out lunch and dinner service at the same quality overnight? And steak, at that? A beginner can never do that.”
It made sense.
But Baek Seon-woo of the cold section knew. That there was nothing Do Eun-seong could do better than making many dishes of the same quality.
There was something Baek Seon-woo had felt while working with Do Eun-seong in the cold section. This kid's fundamentals are no joke. Do Eun-seong's fundamentals were truly solid. Watching him work in the kitchen, he looked like a veteran who'd lasted at least ten years at Ayeon. A veteran who'd absorbed all his seniors' strengths, at that.
It had been the same on ‘Banquet of Chefs’ yesterday. Do Eun-seong's posture when grilling beef had resembled Kim Jun-ho's far too closely.
So Baek Seon-woo could be certain. That serving 100 portions at once wouldn't be impossible for Do Eun-seong. That, if anything, Do Eun-seong would pull that off all too well.
“Then Baek Seon-woo, what about you? Who do you think'll win?”
The cooks' gazes all turned to Baek Seon-woo at once.
Baek Seon-woo's answer was, naturally.......
“Senior Kim Jun-ho.”
“What?”
At the unexpected answer, the cooks all looked at him.
“Baek Seon-woo, you too? You really think Kim Jun-ho will win too?”
“Yes.”
If it had been any other section, Baek Seon-woo could have been certain without a second thought that Do Eun-seong would win.
But meat. That is, steak, was different.
“Why do you think Do Eun-seong will lose?”
“Because it's steak.”
“What about steak?”
“No matter how well you grill beef, it's still beef. In the end, beef can't beat the natural flavor of the ingredient itself.”
Baek Seon-woo took out his notebook.
“Ayeon's current recipe is built to bring out that essence better than anyone. Compared to that, Do Eun-seong's recipe used rotten wine to hide the taste of low-quality meat. In the end, it'll wipe out all the strengths of the ingredient's essence.”
That might have worked on ‘Banquet of Chefs.’
But a showdown between the two using top-grade beef and top-grade wine. Kim Jun-ho would obviously win that. In the end, what mattered with steak was drawing out the flavor the ingredient originally had as much as possible.
“True, the more you force things with the ingredients you add to steak, the more they just drag down the meat's flavor.”
That was why many people called steak ‘the food with the highest floor but the lowest ceiling.’ Because no matter what good ingredients you added to try to enhance a steak's flavor, in the end it came out as nothing more and nothing less than drawing out the meat's natural flavor as much as possible.
Wine was the same. No matter what you did to wine, in the end you couldn't beat the original aroma the wine had.
“Still, that steak he made on the show yesterday looked delicious.”
“On the show it was poor-condition meat and rotten wine. But right now, the restaurant's ingredients are meat in excellent condition and perfectly fine wine. No matter how much he oxidizes it, he won't be able to produce that taste. A forced flavor has its limits. So in the end, Senior Kim Jun-ho's steak, which brings out the good ingredients, will win.”
At his words, the cooks nodded.
“Makes sense.”
“Yes! Then I'll win this time. You all know Baek Seon-woo's predictions have a hundred percent accuracy, right?”
It was true. Baek Seon-woo had almost never lost a bet like this. A hundred battles, a hundred wins.
“Then shall we go with 11 to 0, everyone on Kim Jun-ho winning?”
“What! Then there's no point in betting, is there?”
That was when.
“I'll take Do Eun-seong.”
Lee Seong-min of the fish section, who'd kept silent the whole time, finally opened his mouth. At his words, everyone went into an uproar.
“Seriously?”
“No, why are you suddenly betting on Do Eun-seong, Senior?”
“He's going to end up donating wine again.”
“Senior, if you lose this time, it's ten bottles of wine!”
In fact, Lee Seong-min had almost never won a bet like this. A hundred battles, a hundred losses; he always lost bets.
“Are you rich, Senior?”
“No.”
“Then why are you betting on Do Eun-seong? Just go with Kim Jun-ho too, Senior.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it's Do Eun-seong.”
Because it's Do Eun-seong.
Baek Seon-woo thought Lee Seong-min's words did have a point.
But he still thought the steak showdown would be different. Especially now, when he had to use a forcibly oxidized wine sauce.
Just then, Do Eun-seong came back into the kitchen, dripping with sweat. In his hand was a black plastic bag.
What's that? Baek Seon-woo got curious about it. So he quickly finished his service prep and carefully watched Do Eun-seong's every move.
As soon as Do Eun-seong entered the kitchen, he started grilling meat.
‘As expected.’
His posture was perfect. Just as he'd seen on the show, he grilled in almost the same pose as Kim Jun-ho. With the two of them grilling meat side by side, they looked like twins. Without even tasting it, Baek Seon-woo could tell the meat would taste the same.
But the problem was the sauce, after all. The key was whether Do Eun-seong could make a sauce at the restaurant that brought out the ingredients' essence.
Do Eun-seong made the sauce without hesitation. First, he took out the wine he'd been oxidizing in the warm water and poured it into the pan. Then he swirled wine vinegar into the pan once more.
Up to this point, it was within what Baek Seon-woo could predict. To bring out only the strengths of rotten wine, he'd forcibly oxidized the wine. And Baek Seon-woo knew that would trip him up. No matter how hard he tried, it wasn't spoiled wine, it was forcibly oxidized wine.
But when Do Eun-seong took an ingredient out of the black plastic bag, Baek Seon-woo knew right away that his prediction had missed badly.
The ingredient Do Eun-seong took out was.......
‘Paprika?’
Smoked paprika, no less.
‘That bastard's a real madman.’
Do Eun-seong mixed the smoked paprika into the reduced wine sauce. Then he scooped in a spoonful of doenjang and finished the sauce.
Just then, Head Chef Yang Geon-ung came back into the kitchen.
“Fifteen minutes are up. All done?”
“Yes, Chef.”
Do Eun-seong and Kim Jun-ho answered at the same time.
“Alright, everyone come taste.”
Yang Geon-ung called out to all the cooks. Every one of the cooks cut and ate Do Eun-seong's steak first. Baek Seon-woo did too.
The result was exactly what Baek Seon-woo had sensed a moment ago.
‘This bastard really is a madman.’
The kick was paprika. Not just paprika, but smoked, at that. That completely shattered all of Baek Seon-woo's predictions.
Do Eun-seong had probably taken the portable gas burner up to the rooftop and smoked the paprika. His black bag even held apple wood chips.
“How does my steak taste?”
Do Eun-seong quietly came up to Baek Seon-woo and asked. Unlike usual, his face looked a little tense.
How should he describe the taste? For a moment, Baek Seon-woo deliberated. He carefully analyzed the taste of the steak Do Eun-seong had made, step by step.
If you forcibly oxidize wine, the wine's flavor breaks down. So Baek Seon-woo had thought that no matter how much doenjang was dissolved into forcibly oxidized wine, it couldn't beat the flavor the wine originally had.
But Do Eun-seong was different. He put smoked paprika into the forcibly oxidized wine. As a result, the smoky aroma of the smoked paprika held onto the wine's flavor, which could otherwise have oxidized and flown away.
In the end, Do Eun-seong kept only the wine's strengths. An oxidized wine that retained the wine's oak and smoky aromas. It was a truly perfect flavor.
What's more, this ‘rotten wine doenjang smoked paprika sauce’ went incredibly well with the steak. So it drew out more than the steak's original flavor.
Baek Seon-woo chewed the steak Do Eun-seong had made once more and spoke.
“I always thought steak was a food with a low ceiling. No matter what high-end sauce you used or what aroma you added, I figured in the end it couldn't beat the ingredient's original flavor.”
Baek Seon-woo really had thought so.
“But I think I was wrong.”
Baek Seon-woo looked at Do Eun-seong.
“Your steak broke through that ceiling. Five out of five. No, honestly, it's a seven. It's more delicious than any steak I've ever eaten.”
And at Baek Seon-woo's words, Do Eun-seong grinned.
“That's a real relief.”
Baek Seon-woo returned to his station. Then he organized the recipe Do Eun-seong had made in his notebook. ‘Rotten wine doenjang steak. But with smoked paprika added.’
Then Lee Seong-min of the fish section quietly came up to Baek Seon-woo.
“I've been into New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc lately.”
Lee Seong-min said quietly to Baek Seon-woo.
“Yes. I'll buy you a bottle of that, Senior.”
Lee Seong-min grinned as if satisfied.