Steak Showdown (5)
Sweetness is the most powerful counter to sourness. If sourness is a sharp stimulus that pierces the tongue, sweetness is a softness that wraps around that sharpness and rounds it off. That's why, in a head-on fight, it's nearly impossible for sourness to beat sweetness. Because the brain instinctively seeks stability over stimulation.
Kim Jun-ho had come into the kitchen having calculated that thoroughly. On top of that, he had added the traditional techniques he possessed.
The rich density of béchamel sauce, called the essence of French cuisine, plus the sweetness of onions caramelized to the extreme. His strategy of crushing the acidity of my wine sauce with that overwhelming flavor was perfect.
So what about me? There was only one thing I could do here. Avoid a head-on fight and relentlessly dig into his weakness.
Sweetness has only one weakness.
‘You get sick of it fast.’
Steak is already greasy. The steak itself is greasy, and if the sauce is sweet too, the tongue tires easily. Westerners used to this kind of flavor might be fine, but Koreans would definitely feel that fatigue quickly.
Once my thoughts reached this point, something that had now become familiar appeared before my eyes. A brightly glowing fluorescent line, the Kick.
At the end of the line spread before my eyes were baby potatoes and salt. At that moment, in something close to intuition, a cooking method that perfectly matched those ingredients came to mind.
“What is this, a rest stop?”
When I placed round baby potatoes and salt on the steak plate, the Pasta Section senior next to me yelled in shock.
“You're putting baby potatoes on that right now?”
“This is what it needs right now.”
“No, even so, you're going to put plain baby potatoes on a steak, of all things, in a course that costs over 300,000 won?”
At his words, the other seniors looked over in surprise too.
“Wow…. I've never seen a garnish this shabby at our restaurant.”
“Aren't you misjudging things a bit just because it's a showdown?”
“Rest-stop baby potatoes in fine dining…. You really… have no foundation.”
Well, you could say I have no foundation. Just as the seniors said, next to Kim Jun-ho's steak plate, decorated with expensive truffles, caviar, and flashy edible flowers, my plate looked utterly shabby. It felt like crashing the glamorous party of aristocrats in a sleeveless undershirt.
But the reason I'd put baby potatoes on the plate was clear. Sweet-and-salty. The only thing that could wake a tongue worn out by sweetness was saltiness. Because sweet-and-salty is always the truth.
‘But if I just stop here, it really is no different from rest-stop baby potatoes.’
I grilled the potatoes over high heat, almost frying them. That way, I hid a secret weapon beyond the saltiness. A secret technique whose true worth would be revealed only when the customer broke the potato open.
I placed the hot-cooked potatoes directly on my steak without letting them cool. Then I sprinkled fleur de sel, the finest French sea salt known as the flower of salt, on top and paired it with high-quality olive oil.
“Why are you sending the potatoes out that hot?”
Senior Park Jin-woo of Pasta, who was next to me, piped up again. Without answering him, I took the plate straight to Head Chef Yang Geon-ung.
As expected, the Chef let out a snort of laughter as soon as he saw my plate.
“Not going to lose to Kim Jun-ho, huh?”
“Yes, Chef.”
The Chef poked at the steaming-hot baby potato on my steak. Then he cut off a very small piece and tasted it-
“Pass.”
As always, he said only what was necessary.
***
After Ayeon's lunch service began, the mood in the hall flowed in a peculiar direction.
“Wow, this white steak sauce is really delicious.”
“It's melting in my mouth. And this cream sauce… the flavor's no joke.”
“Having the sweetness hit after eating the slightly sour sauce is so good. It wraps right around your tongue.”
The customers' reactions were different from yesterday. They had come because they were so curious about Do Eun-seong's Rotten Wine Doenjang Steak after seeing the broadcast, but reactions began pouring in that the steak beside it was actually more delicious. That sweetness in particular, the sweetness of the heavy cream sauce, kept drawing them in.
But when about half of the steak had disappeared, the customers' reactions began to diverge little by little.
“Hmm… but it's getting a little cloying.”
“Really? I still think it's delicious.”
“Eating sweet stuff nonstop is getting kind of tiresome.”
It was definitely a perfect flavor, but as they ate, their tongues grew tired. A sort of heavy feeling in the mouth. The customers suddenly looked for water or pickles.
That was when it happened. The round baby potatoes, which they had pushed to the corner of the plate because they were too hot, caught the customers' eyes. People absentmindedly reached their forks toward the potatoes.
‘The potato is still steaming?’
Crispy outside, moist inside. Carefully breaking the potato open revealed fluffy potato flesh with steam wafting up.
But that was all. The baby potatoes, so familiar and rustic in shape, didn't impress the customers much. Without a thought, they simply put the last remaining potato on the plate into their mouths.
But at that moment, another reversal began.
CRUNCH.
As soon as they bit into the potato and the salt sprinkled on top of it, the customers' eyes widened.
“What is this?”
Fleur de sel. The near-perfect crystals of top-grade salt burst in the mouth and stimulated the tongue, and the clean potato flavor that followed completely cleansed the palate.
But that wasn't the end. Do Eun-seong's secret technique was only now properly revealing itself.
Potatoes whose surfaces had been grilled at a very high temperature, almost fried, triggering a rapid Maillard reaction on the surface. Thanks to that, the internal temperature of the baby potatoes was still holding at 75℃.
Usually, by the time you finish a steak, the meat's temperature has already dropped to around 40 to 50℃, leaving the mouth very greasy.
But what happens if a hot 75℃ potato goes in at that moment? The fat that had congealed melts and creates flavor once again. On top of that, the tongue's sense of taste, stimulated by the saltiness, would begin to stir again.
That was exactly what was happening now.
“It's just a potato… so why is it this delicious?”
“I know. This potato is crispy outside, but so moist inside…….”
“It's so good I just got goosebumps. Wow…. I want another bite.”
Saltiness, that most primal and familiar flavor, was perfectly wrapped by the heat, and with the moderate moisture unique to potatoes grilled almost to the point of frying added in at the end, an overwhelming flavor had been born.
Kim Jun-ho's béchamel steak, full of sweetness, and Do Eun-seong's acidity-driven Rotten Wine Steak-
What broke the balance of that tense showdown was, ironically, a single, utterly insignificant potato. That one rustic potato made the flavors of both steaks complete.
“Excuse me, would you like to vote for a steak?”
After lunch service ended, the Server carefully brought the ballot box over to a customer.
“Um, but can I ask just one thing?”
“Of course. What is it?”
“Well… if the potato was the most delicious, where should I vote?”
“Pardon?”
The Server couldn't help but be flustered.
***
Ayeon's kitchen.
“Ha…….”
Kim Jun-ho secretly picked up and ate one potato that Do Eun-seong had left over from grilling. Then, dumbfounded, he laughed for a long while.
This was fine dining, and a Michelin two-star restaurant at that. To think of putting baby potatoes you'd only find at a rest stop on top of a premium sirloin steak served in a place like that… Do Eun-seong was no ordinary nutjob.
Cooks who first pick up a pan in fine dining, especially, always strive to find complex and newer flavors. Because they believe that's the way to prove their skill. Because beginners always just want to show off their skills. So even if one did think of baby potatoes, one should never have been able to actually put them on a customer's plate.
But Do Eun-seong was different. Fearlessly, he had put a mere single potato on a fine dining plate. And that became the perfect Kick for his steak, and for this showdown.
He didn't need to see the voting results to know.
‘Do Eun-seong won this showdown.’
The human tongue is more conservative than you'd think. In the end, the intuitive feeling of ‘delicious’ comes from known flavors, the most familiar flavors. Rest-stop baby potatoes, which no Korean could possibly have gone without tasting. Do Eun-seong had made his stand with the most familiar flavor of all.
Do Eun-seong even seemed to have designed the order of eating. He had deliberately served the potatoes very hot. So that the customers would naturally eat his potatoes last.
And above all-
“It's really just… so good.”
No other explanation was needed. He had simply grilled the potatoes extremely well.
Potatoes are basically 80 percent water. So how you handled that moisture was the core of any potato dish. If you grill or fry them without properly driving off the moisture, they easily turn soggy no matter how well you cook them.
But Do Eun-seong was different. By grilling the potatoes very quickly and fiercely at a high heat above 150℃, almost frying them, he had controlled the moisture amazingly. Potatoes crispy outside and very moist inside. And on top of that, the flavor maximized through the top-grade salt sprinkled over them.
“…….”
Now Kim Jun-ho could no longer help but acknowledge Do Eun-seong.
“I will announce the results of the steak showdown.”
Time for the announcement. Tension hung over the kitchen, but Kim Jun-ho, the one actually involved, wore a calm expression.
“The first day went to Do Eun-seong. Today's lunch service, Kim Jun-ho won. And after that…….”
Yang Geon-ung paused for a moment, which was unlike him, before continuing.
“After that, Do Eun-seong's steak won every time. The bold choice of garnish seems to have played a part.”
When he finished speaking, a long silence settled over the kitchen. None of the cooks could easily speak.
It was understandable.
Kim Jun-ho.
A cook who had graduated top of his class from a French culinary school and guarded the Meat Section at Ayeon for over five years had lost to a rookie cook of barely a week, no, barely two weeks. And to Do Eun-seong of all people, who hadn't even attended a cooking academy, let alone a proper culinary school.
“…….”
His colleagues all just watched Kim Jun-ho warily. The unease that he, with his strong pride, might soon explode kept enveloping the kitchen.
“Do Eun-seong. You won the showdown, so tell me what you want.”
“…….”
“Do you want to go to the Meat Section as its main?”
At Yang Geon-ung's question, the already quiet kitchen grew even quieter. The main of the Meat Section. That meant taking Kim Jun-ho's spot. Everyone was staring only at Do Eun-seong's mouth.
Do Eun-seong looked at Kim Jun-ho for a moment. Then he opened his mouth.
“Yes, Chef. I want to go to the Meat Section.”
As expected, he chose the Meat Section.
“But not as the main. I want to work under Senior Kim Jun-ho.”
“What?”
Not only Yang Geon-ung's eyes but Kim Jun-ho's eyes widened too.
“I want to work under Senior Kim Jun-ho and learn more from him.”
Do Eun-seong was no ordinary nutjob. Everyone thought so inwardly. All except one person. Yang Geon-ung, who wore a meaningful expression.
“Kim Jun-ho, what about you?”
“The loser has nothing to say. If I'm told to do it, I do it.”
At Kim Jun-ho's half-joking answer, his fellow cooks chuckled. Only then did the atmosphere in the kitchen begin to ease little by little.
“Are you really okay with this?”
Yang Geon-ung asked Kim Jun-ho once more.
“Yes. I'm really okay.”
“Then what's your plan for the Meat Section going forward?”
“I want to serve two steaks at the same time, just like now. You think so too, don't you, Chef?”
“Yeah. Exactly.”
Yang Geon-ung nodded at Kim Jun-ho's words as if he had been waiting for them.
The two steaks, Do Eun-seong's and Kim Jun-ho's, were flavors that complemented each other perfectly.
Not just in flavor, but in skill and personality as well. Kim Jun-ho, who had learned French tradition just as it was, and Do Eun-seong, who had no foundation and might bounce off in any direction, were partners bound to create synergy.
“Then you two will serve the steaks together again tomorrow, just like today.”
“Chef, then what about me?”
Baek Seon-woo raised his hand.
In truth, Baek Seon-woo was dying right now. Making Do Eun-seong's labor-intensive salad alone was physically too hard. It was no longer possible.
“I'll find someone quickly.”
“Chef… I don't need someone else. I need Do Eun-seong.”
Baek Seon-woo looked at Yang Geon-ung desperately, but there was nothing he could do.
“Hang in there alone a little longer.”
“…Yes, Chef.”
“Then, see you all tomorrow.”
With those last words, everyone left the kitchen.
“…….”
Only Do Eun-seong and Kim Jun-ho were left in the kitchen.
“Can you really work under me?”
Kim Jun-ho asked Do Eun-seong, his arms crossed.
“Honestly, I'm not confident.”
“What?”
“But I still want to learn under you, Senior.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm still lacking.”
Do Eun-seong said calmly.
“My cooking still relies on instinct. So it's inconsistent and unstable. But your cooking is different, Senior.”
“…….”
“Your cooking never wavers. It is as solid as a machine. I want to learn that.”
“It'll be really hard. Especially for someone like you with no basics at all.”
“I've already prepared myself. And Senior… as a cook, I always thought you were cool. So I wanted to learn under you at least once.”
“What about how I've ignored and tormented you until now? You'd be fine working under someone like that?”
Kim Jun-ho tossed out the question casually, and Do Eun-seong paused for a moment.
“On a personal level…….”
“Enough, kid.”
Kim Jun-ho hurriedly cut him off, because it seemed like Do Eun-seong would really lay out everything that had happened without a moment's hesitation.
“I'm sorry for everything.”
Instead, Kim Jun-ho said what he truly needed to say.
A very brief silence.
“Ah, it's fine. I don't care about that sort of thing. Just teach me a lot from now on.”
But Do Eun-seong trailed off slightly at the end-
“This brat holds a grudge.”
Kim Jun-ho smiled broadly in the kitchen for the first time in a very long while.