The two walked in the garden for a while. Lots of things happened in this garden. Some of the Grand Chef participants went out on a picnic here, some were engaged in heated arguments here, and some began to date somebody here. But they were things of the past. But their memories were still in their minds.
The two walked in the garden for a long time without saying anything to each other while enjoying things like the wind, the air, the woods, and the fragrance.
At that moment, she blankly opened her mouth.
“Do you remember what’s the first cooking mission at the Grand Chef competition?”
“You mean the one this time or back then?”
“I mean our cooking back then.”
“I made catfish soup.”
“What did you make?”
“Don’t you remember? I made catfish balls, and you made deep-fried sweet and sour catfish. We exchanged our dishes at that time.”
“Really?”
Kaya nodded blankly. Min-joon looked at her with a slightly sad expression. In fact, it was like their first meeting, but she forgot it.
But he understood her feelings. It was a very meaningful moment for him that he conversed with her, but she might have simply thought that he cooked well.
“I wonder if the competition for this season will be fun.”
“It would be fun for us,” he said with a giggle. Seeing his smile, she looked at him with an unhappy expression.
“How come you already begin to mention ‘fun’ in this competition? You’re going to give them lots of stress?”
“You first mentioned the ‘fun’ of this competition.”
“I’m really going to give them a lot of hard time,” she said nonchalantly, giggling as if she didn’t provoke him. What she said sounded even scarier because of her pretty smile.
He shrugged as if he couldn’t outwit her.
“Well, I hear there are lots of great participants this time. There are obviously great guys with lots of potential as a chef.”
Min-joon and Kaya visited many places and checked out the participants in person. Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult for them to predict who would be the winner. They have made their own signature dish again. Their signature dish was, to be honest, almost like their big guns. In fact, many of them showed much greater dishes than they could make beyond their abilities. Because of that, it was too hasty for anybody to predict the likely winner simply by checking their dishes in the preliminary rounds. Of course, Min-joon was an exception thanks to the system.
Min-joon could get a glimpse of everyone’s cooking stats. That wasn’t all. He even knew their potential. Of course, he wasn’t very interested in the competition this season, so he didn’t remember every single detail, but he knew who the winner would be, not to mention what would happen after the competition was over.
He hardened his expression seriously for a moment.
Kaya looked at him and asked, “Do you want to poop? Why are you making such an expression?’
“Well, I’ve got something to think about.”
This contest would be fun in many ways, he thought.
***
“Oh, Joseph.”
“Min-joon! Kaya!”
Smiling broadly at them, Joseph opened his arms to them.
Min-joon hugged Joseph for a moment and smiled. Both haven’t seen each other in a long time. During the preliminary rounds, Min-joon and Kaya had to travel with Joseph as well.
But their status changed this time. Min-joon and Kaya were now on an equal footing with Joseph as judges this time, unlike their status as participants in the past.
Fortunately, Joseph was not particularly uncomfortable with their status change. In fact, they respected and cared for even ordinary participants, so there was no reason for Joseph to feel bad about the two former participants’ promotion as the judges of this Grand Chef competition. Rather he was happy about it.
‘I feel like my son has grown up.’
That was what Joseph said when Min-joon met him again as a judge this time.
Min-joon looked at the room next to Joseph. It was inside the Grand Chef House, but it was a space he had never seen before. It was a waiting room for the judges. It was so spacious that it could not even be compared with a general waiting room, and the furniture was luxurious.
‘Have I really succeeded in life?’
Being lost in thought like that for a moment, Min-joon said, “I’m a little nervous. I’ve never imagined I would be in a position to judge other chefs like this.”
“Don’t worry. No one will notice it. I think the participants will feel more nervous than you.”
“I guess so.”
Min-joon nodded, smiling bitterly. The participants would probably be more scared about Min-joon than anybody else.
As if she thought of something interesting, Kaya opened her mouth, grinning.
“Come to think of it, the only one that the participants can rely on is Joseph. As you know, the other judges here have a nasty personality.”
“Do I have a nasty personality, too?” asked Min-joon.
“Do you want me to answer that? Wait a minute. You are talking as if you take it for granted I have a nasty personality. Do you want me to teach you a lesson?”
“Oh, I don’t mean it. As you know, I’m a meek guy, right? I don’t have any reason to hear you calling my personality nasty. I guess the participants won’t be scared about me the least.”
“Stop that bullshit! The whole people saw you spitting out harsh words to the participants on TV during the Rose Island competition. Don’t you know that?”
“It’s not because I’m angry or anything like that. It was because I just needed to do it…”
“Well, you will need to do so again this time,” she said firmly as if she was convinced.
He wanted to refute her, but he was not sure if he could not spit out harsh words to the participants again. Even head chefs often couldn’t control themselves. So, the pride or arrogance of the participants here, who were all head chefs, must know no limits. That was how Min-joon felt during the preliminary rounds.
“I wish they could make as good dishes as the previous participants did in the last season,” Min-joon muttered. Certainly, their season was almost the golden age of the Grand Chef competition. This season would depend on how great of an outcome they could produce, but nobody could predict what would happen.
Joseph smiled at Min-joon because he felt Min-joon was rather cute and even human because he had a lot of pride for this season as a judge.
After that, Min-joon had to read and memorize a prepared script. Of course, the comment was not very long, and in fact, the judges were supposed to make impromptu comments most of the time. The script contained some suggestions on how to make comments when they were cooking or what kind of combination he should recommend for their dishes. There was nothing that required him to make any ready-made comment or simply recite the prepared script.
They soon headed to the kitchen where the participants were busy preparing their dishes.
Joseph was the first to enter it. Some nice introductory remarks about Joseph came out from the speakers, then thunderous shouts were heard right after that.
Kaya was the next to enter the kitchen.
“She is the winner of Grand Chef Season 3, the owner of the Irregular Lab who shocked all the chefs within a few years of debuting in the cuisine world! Kaya Reuters, the winner of the prestigious Paris International Culinary Competition and partner of Choters Guide!”
‘Man, this introduction seems grandiose like when they introduce a pro wrestler!’
It felt like the moderator was telling a story about the player before entering.
However, Min-joon had to be exposed to the participants like Kaya quite soon. His heart throbbed.
Soon the producer of the Grand Chef beckoned him to walk up the stage.
Biting his lips, he moved to the podium. Just like Joseph and Kaya drew their hot attention, he was in their limelight.
“Min-joon is a young genius who won third place in Season 3 of Grand Chef and surprised the world as the first chef with a perfect palate in history! After he joined Rose Island, he made historic desserts such as Cho Reggiano, and he quickly rose to the position of sous chef, won the Paris International Culinary Competition, and served as a judge to decide the next head of Rose Island! He is the emerging chef that America pays the most attention to, Min-joon Cho!”
After that, the emcee heaped praises on him. So much so that he was afraid he would blush. He just could not understand why the emcee introduced each of the judges with such great accolades. He was afraid the emcee’s excessive praise might give the participants the impression that the judges were childish, rather than enhancing their authority.
But he immediately discovered that he was mistaken when he looked at the expressions of the participants.
‘What the heck?’
Min-joon momentarily felt embarrassed because the participants’ eyes were sparkling as if they were looking at their idols. He wondered if it was possible that they could cast such a glance at him, no matter how popular he was.
Of course, it would have been impossible for them to show such a reaction if this had not been the Grand Chef. But right now, the Grand Chef competition was underway, and each of the participants regarded the Grand Chef as the best competition to realize their dreams as chefs. So, they had no choice but to regard Min-joon and Kaya as their perfect models.