God of Cooking

With a smile, Min-joon whispered into Kaya’s ear, “If I had thought I could not win, I wouldn’t have thrown down the gauntlet from the beginning.”

“How mischievous you are!”

“Hey, tell me I’m clever instead.”

Kaya agreed then stuck Brian’s mullet dish on a fork. Min-joon also tore the mullet flesh with its skin and carefully put it in his mouth. Then he nodded with a gentle groan.

“It’s delicious. How about you?”

“Yeah, it’s delicious. The recipe isn’t too much, but it’s a little salty. However, it’s just a matter of preference, depending on one’s taste. He cooked it well.”

“Are you talking about my dish right now?” Brian immediately opened his mouth, watching Min-joon and Kaya.

Not embarrassed, Min-joon replied with a casual expression, “Yeah. You made it well. I enjoyed your dish.”

“I have told you that Mediterranean cuisine is my specialty. I’m confident as far as making seafood is concerned. How about it? Would you want to admit you’re defeated?”

At the same time, she couldn’t believe that Min-joon was a rookie chef who turned into a professional chef in less than a year. Chefs in local restaurants often have 10 or 20 years of experience, but she had never felt their dishes were better than the dish Min-joon served right now. To put it simply, she had never been impressed by their dishes.

“I just wonder if this is the signature dish of Rose Island or Chef Min-joon’s own…”

It was not just by sheer luck that Cho Reggiano, Min-joon’s signature dessert, shook the entirety of America. Certainly, Min-joon was a well-prepared chef. If he could impress people with a simple dish like this without using any special skills, what kind of dishes would he produce at the moment he fully used his cooking skills? Just imagining it sent chills down her spine.

But Min-joon didn’t fluctuate between being happy and being sad about their reactions. In a calm manner, he tore the sea bream he cooked and put it in his mouth. He took lemon water in his mouth and smiled. Brian couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with Min-joon.

“You asked me to do something a little while ago. What was it?” Min-joon asked.

But Brian couldn’t answer.

Min-joon said with a smile, “You asked me to surrender, right?”

Brian couldn’t answer anything. He admitted having said that. Of course, he mentioned it half in jest, but at the same time, he was sincere because he was convinced he would win by that time. But right now, his half-baked self-esteem was about to collapse at any moment.

He could pretend he didn’t lose in the competition. He could pretend he didn’t know who was the winner. He could even pretend he was the winner or pretend to put on an air of conceit. However, if he made a mistake now, he would end up being called a fool who didn’t know Min-joon was in a different league from him.

“Ahaha…”

Brian laughed as if he thought Min-joon was kidding, but he sweated deep down. He couldn’t figure out how to react at this moment. So, he didn’t make the judgment on who’s the winner of this competition. After all, what moved him was not his cleverness but his self-pride.

“It isn’t over till it’s over,” Brian said.

“Well, you didn’t say that at first.”

“Oh, I was kidding then. Let’s leave the decision to our clever referees.”

Even though he actually made a dish that was worse than Min-joon’s, he didn’t want to admit that in front of so many people and Kaya. He made up his mind like that because of his self-pride, and it wasn’t that bad.

Unfortunately, not only Min-joon but also the participants clearly knew what he was thinking about at the moment. However, Min-joon did not respond to it. Whatever Brian did, the referees were supposed to judge who was the winner. And all of those who tasted their dishes already knew who they would declare the winner.

“Let’s do this. If you think Brian’s dish tasted better, raise your hands, but please raise your hands if Min-joon’s dish was better,” Kaya said in a calm voice with her arms folded.

Brian signaled to his team members with a glance. He knew clearly he lost, but without winning some of their pity votes, he would look really miserable to Kaya. He felt even a few pity votes would save his face. A bittersweet defeat would be much better than an overwhelming defeat to him.

Brian swallowed. He wished that some of his teammates would raise their hands for him.

His teammates knew why he had cast such a glance at them. They also felt Min-joon’s dish was overwhelmingly more delicious. They could understand it would be okay to give him pity votes, given their friendly relations with him.

But even they seemed to have decided to judge independently.