Steak Showdown (4)
Dreams.
That's just how dreams are. Before you achieve a dream, you feel like you'd work truly hard if only you could achieve it, but once you actually achieve it, it simply becomes a life of doing that thing every day. Really, every day.
It was the same for Kim Jun-ho. He wanted to become a cook more desperately than anyone. So he saved the money from the part-time jobs he'd worked since he was nineteen and went to study abroad in France.
“A genius. A genius.”
At Le Cordon Bleu, one of the world's three great culinary schools and France's flagship culinary school, he was called a cooking genius.
Kim Jun-ho was truly good at cooking. Especially at reproducing a dish exactly after being taught it only once. He had been born with that ability. He was exactly the kind of talent most needed in fine dining, where food of the same quality had to be served every single time.
As if to prove it, as soon as he graduated top of his class from the culinary school, he landed a job at a Michelin one-star restaurant with great ease. He didn't even have to put in time as a Kitchen Assistant. In a French kitchen with its nose held high, he started from the very beginning as a Junior Cook and immediately began cooking.
And so Kim Jun-ho achieved his dream more easily than he had expected. He was happy. Because the dream he had always wished for had finally come true.
But once he actually started working in the kitchen-
“There's nothing to it.”
He realized that making the same dishes the same way every day was the dream he had been dreaming. Grilling the same steak and pouring the same sauce, always on the same griddle, always in the same posture. That was all.
That was why he disliked Do Eun-seong. It wasn't because he wasn't from the Overseas Faction, or because he was merely a high school graduate, but because he hated the sight of him working hard every day.
He himself had already grown sick and tired of cooking, of the dream he had longed for so much, yet Do Eun-seong, despite being a mere Kitchen Assistant, gave off the sense that he was giving his all every single moment, and he hated that feeling so much.
It was truly childish, but that seemed to be why he had tormented him. Because he knew all too well that he could no longer cook that hard himself, and because he hated even looking at Do Eun-seong, who was always putting in the effort.
“…….”
But it was strange. The version of himself written in Do Eun-seong's notebook wasn't like that at all. It wasn't the predictable daily life of some Section Cook who was sick to death of cooking, but simply a life of diligently repeating something every day, a life spent trying to correct a single mistake.
That his life had looked like that in someone's eyes was strangely… truly strangely reassuring.
No, honestly, he didn't know. What exactly this emotion was. It was a very strange emotion, one that brought an inexplicable sense of relief, yet one he didn't want to think about any longer.
***
The second day of the steak showdown.
As soon as I arrived at the kitchen, I checked on my wine first.
“It worked.”
The wine I had oxidized overnight was far more stable than yesterday's. This would do. Now I could really draw out the best possible flavor.
What's more, it was still only 5:15 in the morning. With over two hours left until the start of the shift, I could practice at least ten more times with the newly oxidized wine. This was what was good about Ayeon's kitchen. Head Chef Yang Geon-ung always opened his kitchen freely to his cooks.
But apart from practice for the New Menu Test, none of the seniors used this kitchen. The work itself kept them busy enough. Honestly, practicing separately on top of that was too much. So, as always, I practiced alone.
Thwack.
But at that moment, the kitchen door swung wide open, and Kim Jun-ho walked in.
This was the first time it had happened in the two years I'd worked at Ayeon. Kim Jun-ho was someone who always came in at 7:20 a.m. Exactly ten minutes before the shift started. That same Kim Jun-ho had suddenly shown up for work at five in the morning.
“Good morning.”
“…….”
Kim Jun-ho took his place at his section without much of a reply to my greeting. The Meat Section. The spot he had held at Ayeon for five years.
He immediately began his routine. Movements that never deviated by even an inch. He checked the griddle temperature, then went straight into inspecting the ingredients. He examined the freshness of the meat that had come in that day, its marbling, any pooling of blood, and so on. Then, checking the state of the stock, he made the sauce he would use for the day.
He always moved exactly the same way. Now, once he took out the ruler and scale he used every day as the final step, his morning routine would be over.
Thunk.
But Kim Jun-ho's movements were a little different from yesterday. He went to the ingredient room and brought out ingredients he normally never handled.
‘Onions. Flour. Butter. And milk……?’
These were ingredients that weren't used in the Signature Steak he made.
Chop-chop-chop-chop-chop.
He suddenly began julienning the onions. Then he caramelized the julienned onions in a large pot. At that, the distinctive sweet aroma of cooked onions spread pleasantly through the kitchen. It didn't end there. He took out another large pot and began making a roux with flour and milk.
He was making a new sauce. It was the first time I had ever seen Kim Jun-ho make a new steak sauce outside of a New Menu Test period.
‘Béchamel sauce. With caramelized onions added.’
I could tell without even tasting it. A strongly sweet sauce that could fight my strongly acidic steak. He had come back onto the battlefield, aiming squarely at my sauce.
At that moment, this steak showdown started to get fun. Once again, I moved my hands quickly.
***
Start-of-shift time at Ayeon.
Baek Seon-woo entered the kitchen with his fellow cooks.
“Huh! What's that smell?”
“Yeah, it smells sweet.”
“Did someone sauté onions?”
The cooks immediately reacted to the new smell. And one more thing: they were surprised that Kim Jun-ho had arrived before them.
“Hyung, what's got you coming in this early?”
One of the Overseas Faction cooks, who was normally close with Kim Jun-ho, spoke to him.
“…….”
But Kim Jun-ho focused only on his own cooking, without any reaction at all.
“Hyung's acting kind of weird today.”
Just as he said, Kim Jun-ho really was acting strange. He truly just cooked without saying a word.
“Everyone here?”
Even Head Chef Yang Geon-ung came into the kitchen. Only then did Kim Jun-ho open his mouth.
“Chef, may I change my sauce?”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“Something I learned at Le Cordon suddenly came to mind.”
“What sauce are you changing to?”
“Here. I think it would be best if you tasted it.”
Kim Jun-ho held out the sauce he had prepared to Yang Geon-ung.
“Hmm…….”
Yang Geon-ung lightly dipped into the sauce and tasted it. After a slight nod, he dipped the meat that had been grilled into the sauce and tasted it once more.
“It's good.”
“Then may I switch to this sauce?”
“Yeah. Switch.”
At his words, the gaze of every cook in the kitchen converged at once.
“Hyung's changing his steak sauce?”
“Isn't this a first?”
“Why's he suddenly acting like that?”
Everyone was flustered by this behavior from Kim Jun-ho, which they had never seen before.
“Chef, may we taste that sauce too?”
Baek Seon-woo asked Yang Geon-ung as if he had been waiting for the chance.
“Sure. Come and try it.”
As soon as Yang Geon-ung finished speaking, all the cooks went to the Chef's Table and tasted the sauce Kim Jun-ho had newly made.
‘What is this sauce?’
Baek Seon-woo was surprised as soon as he put the sauce in his mouth. At first, he had naturally assumed it would be an ordinary béchamel sauce. The simplest cream sauce, made by adding milk to toasted flour.
But the moment he put it in his mouth, even the weight wrapping around his tongue was different. Behind the richness of butter that melted on his tongue in an instant, the sweetness of slowly reduced onions came surging in. Like endless waves.
There were no flashy spices, no harsh seasonings. The flavor was truly simple. But within that simplicity, it was packed full with the nuttiness of roux, which had served as the backbone of French gastronomy for hundreds of years, and the sweetness of onions.
A flavor that didn't follow trends. The dignity of a classic that would never crumble no matter how much time passed. Kim Jun-ho had realized it perfectly.
‘Why has he been hiding skills like this all this time?’
Baek Seon-woo was so genuinely surprised by Kim Jun-ho's sauce that he couldn't make sense of it.
“It's really delicious.”
So Baek Seon-woo exclaimed in admiration without realizing it, and at those words, Kim Jun-ho smiled slightly. It was a little different from the expressionless face he'd worn while making the sauce all this time.
But that was all. Kim Jun-ho still said nothing. Even when the Overseas Faction cooks he was close with tossed him a word or two, he silently went on with his own cooking.
“At this rate, Senior Kim Jun-ho might actually win, huh?”
Baek Seon-woo quietly approached Lee Seong-min and spoke.
“Yeah.”
Lee Seong-min thought the same. Kim Jun-ho, who always grilled the same meat the same way, had changed. Every cook in the kitchen could feel that change.
“Starting lunch service.”
“Yes, Chef.”
“Everyone, to your stations.”
At Yang Geon-ung's words, every cook in the kitchen stood in front of their own station. As always, they cooked their best at their respective stations.
Sizzzzzle.
As if to make a mockery of the steak showdown, lunch service was much like usual. No, it was even more peaceful. No complaints, no accidents. It was truly too peaceful.
After finishing his lunch courses, Baek Seon-woo of the Cold Section secretly went to a Server and asked about the state of the vote.
“It's neck and neck.”
“Seriously?”
“On the first day, the reaction to Do Eun-seong's steak was definitely much better. But since the Signature Steak changed its sauce, the customers are loving it too.”
It was just as Baek Seon-woo had expected. The Signature Steak, no, now Kim Jun-ho's steak, had started getting a response as well.
Kim Jun-ho's steak sauce was a sauce designed precisely to beat Do Eun-seong. What if you ate Do Eun-seong's strongly acidic steak and then tasted Kim Jun-ho's new, strongly sweet sauce? Naturally, you would find Kim Jun-ho's sauce more delicious. Because Koreans like sweetness.
“Is the showdown going to end like this?”
If it ended like this, it would be Kim Jun-ho's victory. As if he found that somewhat disappointing, Baek Seon-woo watched Do Eun-seong and Kim Jun-ho closely.
That was when it happened. Just before lunch service ended, Do Eun-seong strode toward Yang Geon-ung.
“Chef. I would like to change something too.”
“What? You're changing your sauce too?”
“No.”
Do Eun-seong added a single garnish on top of his steak. Seeing it, Yang Geon-ung let out a snort of laughter.
“Not going to lose to Kim Jun-ho, huh?”
“Yes, Chef.”
Baek Seon-woo, who had also seen Do Eun-seong's garnish, snorted with laughter too. More cleverly than he had thought, Do Eun-seong was crafting a dish all his own.