Training (1)
Though they had kept silent in the kitchen, the Overseas Faction cooks were actually in shock over Do Eun-seong's victory.
“Does that make any sense? A cook in only his second week, a former Kitchen Assistant with zero foundation at that, beat Senior Kim Jun-ho with a steak?”
Gong Seok-jin, the youngest of the Overseas Faction and a Le Cordon Bleu graduate just like Kim Jun-ho, especially couldn't contain his anger.
It was understandable. He had joined around the same time as Do Eun-seong and taken the elite path, yet he was stuck in place, while Do Eun-seong, a high school graduate who hadn't even majored in cooking, had at some point pulled far ahead.
The New Menu Test, the Banquet of Chefs, and now even the Meat Section. A gap was steadily forming between Do Eun-seong and the Junior Cooks, one that could no longer be closed.
“How does a high school graduate who didn't even go to culinary school beat Senior Kim Jun-ho? Something's seriously wrong here.”
But the other Overseas Faction cooks knew. That Do Eun-seong had done it all on his own and had more than earned the win.
“The Meat Section… I really wanted to go there too.”
“I never dreamed Do Eun-seong would get there before Senior Lee Seong-min of the Fish Section.”
“Yeah. I'm seriously jealous of Do Eun-seong.”
The Overseas Faction cooks simply envied Do Eun-seong for getting to the Meat Section before them.
“But why isn't Senior Kim Jun-ho coming?”
“Is he skipping because he's embarrassed he lost?”
“No. He said he wants to stay behind and practice more.”
Everyone was surprised at that.
“Senior Kim Jun-ho is really staying in the kitchen to practice?”
“Yeah. Really practicing.”
“No way. Why did he suddenly change?”
“I don't really know either. He's suddenly got this venomous drive in him.”
Kim Jun-ho had changed-
The Domestic Faction cooks felt that change too.
On the way home from work, Baek Seon-woo, Lee Seong-min, and the Domestic Faction cooks from the other sections gathered separately.
“Here's the wine.”
Baek Seon-woo handed Lee Seong-min a bottle of the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc he had promised him.
“You already bought this?”
“Yes. I bought it on the first day of the showdown. But I was surprised at how much fiercer the showdown got than I expected.”
“Yeah. I didn't know Kim Jun-ho would show up with a new sauce.”
“That béchamel sauce Senior Kim Jun-ho made tasted killer.”
At Baek Seon-woo's words, Lee Seong-min nodded.
“I figured the showdown would end there too. But then he suddenly throws baby potatoes on it.”
“I know, right? Those baby potatoes with a light sprinkle of salt were truly a divine move. Crispy outside, super moist inside.”
“Who would've known he'd end the showdown with ordinary baby potatoes?”
“That was so very Do Eun-seong.”
The two nodded at the same time.
“But why did Do Eun-seong suddenly go to the Meat Section?”
“The Meat Section is the core of the kitchen, so there's no reason not to go there.”
“But he has to work under Kim Jun-ho, though?”
“True. I think I'd… kind of hate that too.”
“Why on earth did Do Eun-seong suddenly go to the Meat Section, where Kim Jun-ho is?”
Lee Seong-min and Baek Seon-woo thought hard, but couldn't find a clear answer.
***
The reason I suddenly went to the Meat Section, and under Senior Kim Jun-ho no less, was simple.
It was because of the Kick.
At first, it was hard to define exactly what the Kick that unfolded randomly before my eyes was. But after several experiences had piled up, the Yuzu Marmalade, the Maple Syrup, the rotten wine, and so on, a formula slowly began to take shape in my head.
First, judging from my experiences so far, the Kick was an ability that found and told me the correct ingredient among countless options. When some problem came up while cooking and I had found about 60 to 70 percent of the answer on my own, the Fluorescent Line would unfailingly appear and point to the ingredient that would become the Kick among countless ingredients.
But the problem came after that.
That being ‘implementation.’
Until now, it had only been a matter of mixing an ingredient into an already-made dish, so I could solve it with my instincts. But the fine dining kitchen had begun demanding more and more of my ability to see the Kick.
Take grilling the baby potatoes this time.
With baby potatoes, everything had to be precise: the temperature of the fire, the size of the potato, the resting time. Because even a difference of 1℃ or 1 second could completely change the flavor. So only after dozens of practice runs was I able to implement the perfect Kick. It was a good thing I'd had plenty of time; in an urgent situation, I would have ruined the service.
‘How can I complete the Kick consistently?’
I thought hard, but there was only one conclusion. To turn the Kick the Fluorescent Line showed me into the best possible dish, I ultimately needed solid cooking skills of my own.
‘Foundation.’
In other words, my own skill itself had to serve as the base.
But I couldn't go study abroad right now, and I was starting to feel the limits of books and NewTube. So what I settled on was the Meat Section, under Senior Kim Jun-ho. Kim Jun-ho. Because he was our kitchen's best technician, who had inherited French skills exactly as they were.
Of course, I didn't expect Senior Kim Jun-ho to teach me his skills. I thought just watching from beside him would be plenty helpful.
That was definitely what I'd thought, but after the steak showdown ended, he began to change.
“Starting today, stay behind.”
First of all, he didn't leave after closing time. This was someone who used to leave right on the dot every single day.
Instead, Kim Jun-ho began taking things out of a plastic bag. Asparagus, sirloin, and carrots, and then flour, butter, and even milk.
“Aren't these all ingredients that go into your steak, Senior?”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you suddenly taking these out?”
“Because from now on, if anything happens to me, you'll have to make my steak right away.”
Kim Jun-ho began grilling his steak right in front of my eyes. Very slowly, as if he were teaching me the entire process.
“You grill meat well.”
Then he began saying something unexpected.
“Pardon?”
“Your feel for handling the fire, your eye for judging doneness. Honestly, you're better than most cooks with three years under their belt.”
“…Thank you.”
“But you can't call yourself a fine dining chef yet. What do you think fine dining is?”
His sudden question flustered me a little.
Fine dining… A place that makes the best food? A place that offers the utmost satisfaction with premium ingredients? Somehow, I couldn't sum it up in a single word.
When I hesitated, Kim Jun-ho picked up an asparagus spear.
“Fine dining is going out of your way.”
“Out of our way?”
“Yeah. Out of our way.”
Kim Jun-ho picked up a peeler and began peeling the asparagus.
Normally, you only trim off the tough part at the base of asparagus before cooking it. But he was peeling the entire spear, very thinly and evenly.
“You don't have to go out of your way to peel asparagus. The peel doesn't get in the way of eating it at all. No, there are even people who like the texture the peel has. But we go out of our way to peel it. Why?”
He showed me the smooth, peeled asparagus.
“So that when you put it in your mouth, there's not a single thing that bothers you. So that we don't allow even 0.1 percent of a tough texture.”
This time, he placed a sirloin on the cutting board. It was already meat in good condition. But Kim Jun-ho took a knife and mercilessly cut away the fat and connective tissue. Under his hands, even perfectly good lean meat fell away in chunks.
“You trim off that much?”
“Yeah.”
Kim Jun-ho cut away far more boldly than I did when I trimmed sirloin.
“You cut off more than I thought.”
“If this were a neighborhood restaurant, this would get me smacked on the back by the owner.”
Kim Jun-ho tossed the trimmed bits of meat not into the trash can but into the stock pot.
“But we go out of our way to cut it off. For that moment when the customer puts a knife to it and it slices as softly as tofu. For that instant when you put it in your mouth and the fat doesn't slide around on its own, but melts together with the lean meat.”
Now he picked up a carrot. Then he began cutting the carrot into a rugby ball shape, in other words, a Tourné. His hands were very delicate.
“Customers don't know. How much we practiced to carve this carrot into a rugby ball shape, how many times we strained the sauce through a sieve to get the consistency of a single drop right.”
I quietly nodded.
“But they feel it unconsciously. ‘Ah, I'm being treated well.’ ‘This dish really tastes perfect.’ We go out of our way like this to give them that one moment.”
Kim Jun-ho handed me the knife.
“Now you've entered that world too.”
From then on, training began and went on for a month. And very harsh training at that.
***
Yang Geon-ung only watched from afar as Kim Jun-ho and Do Eun-seong's training went on for a month.
Kim Jun-ho wasn't simply teaching Do Eun-seong how to grill meat. As if reviewing everything he had learned all this time, from meat dishes to pasta and even fish dishes, Kim Jun-ho was passing on to Do Eun-seong, in full, everything he had learned at culinary school and on the job.
Seeing that, Yang Geon-ung was naturally reminded of a scene from the past. Kim Jun-ho working in a Michelin one-star kitchen in France, and how he had looked back then.
“You. Come to my kitchen.”
The person who had brought Kim Jun-ho to this kitchen was none other than Yang Geon-ung.
Kim Jun-ho, who had graduated top of his class from Le Cordon Bleu and was working in a Paris kitchen that had earned a Michelin star, was fairly well known among Korean chefs.
Yang Geon-ung persuaded Kim Jun-ho by offering him the Meat Section, the core of his kitchen. After coming to Korea that way, Kim Jun-ho worked hard alongside Yang Geon-ung, and in the end, they earned two Michelin stars.
But that was the end of it. After earning the stars, Kim Jun-ho rapidly began to lose interest in cooking. From then on, it was a life of maintaining the stars they had earned, and nothing more.
From the moment the steak showdown between Do Eun-seong and Kim Jun-ho began, Yang Geon-ung had already finished his calculations.
‘When this showdown ends, I'll send Kim Jun-ho to another restaurant.’
Yang Geon-ung knew Kim Jun-ho better than anyone. Because he had such strong pride, Yang Geon-ung had judged that after losing to the youngest in the kitchen, he wouldn't be able to stay in this kitchen any longer.
No, more than that, Yang Geon-ung knew that Kim Jun-ho was more worn out than anyone in this ‘Ayeon’ kitchen. So, as a fellow cook, to protect Kim Jun-ho, Yang Geon-ung had already gone as far as contacting another restaurant.
But because of one person, that plan had become completely useless.
“Do Eun-seong again.”
Yang Geon-ung chuckled. Kim Jun-ho had suddenly awakened. And the cause of that awakening was, as expected, Do Eun-seong. Do Eun-seong yet again.
That was when it happened.
“You there, what are you doing here?”
“……?”
A familiar voice came from the hall. Soon, someone walked out of the pitch-black darkness. It was a face he knew. A welcome face, too.
“Master Tak……?”