Expectations Are Always (part 3)
“Are you sure it is Michelin?”
“Who knows? Can you be sure of anything in this world?” Jo Minjoon responded to Kaya’s question with a shrug of his shoulders.
The servers had not told Jo Minjoon that Michelin had come. They had simply said that someone had arrived who looked like they could be from Michelin.
However, Jo Minjoon could instinctively tell that there is a very high chance they are judges from Michelin. L.A.1 is a region that has received its fair share of attention from Michelin. And Lotus Bridge is an upcoming force in said L.A. region, while simultaneously, Jo Minjoon’s name bears enough weight to serve as bait to attract their attention.
“Let’s just do what we need to do.”
“Yeah.”
Michelin’s arrival changes nothing. They are unable to change the course menu, nor could they expend more effort on it since Jo Minjoon and Kaya were already putting forth as much effort as possible for all their customers.
However, chefs cannot help but think, ‘I wonder how many we can get?’ Even the chefs who detest the Michelin stars system sometimes fantasize about the Michelin stars themselves.
Jo Minjoon was no different in that aspect. Honestly, he also did not like the Michelin rating system all that much. Michelin says that when they evaluate restaurants, they do not consider the interior nor the service and only take into account the creativity and perfection of the cuisine. Actually, there were street vendors who received stars. However, there were many instances where a large portion of restaurants that received a lot of stars had impeccable interiors and service.
That is a debatable point. One could say that restaurants that could afford to focus on their interior and service would also naturally be exceptional in their cuisine.
Truthfully, Jo Minjoon did not really disagree with that opinion because it actually made logical sense. But should Michelin really only be focused on the cuisine, then maybe a distorted misunderstanding arose since the restaurants also had good interiors and service.
However, aside from that, Jo Minjoon could not completely accept how the stars were calculated. Because no matter how much of an attitude of fairness the judges take, they are only people in the end. Even the system does not show you the level of the dish. It only shows the cooking score. That implies that there is no absolute method of measuring the worth of a cuisine.
If the system is unable to do it, then neither Michelin nor the Michelin judges can.
‘I’ve lost interest all of a sudden,’ Jo Minjoon chuckled.
He had felt the Michelin evaluation was incredible somehow, but realizing it is just people doing the evaluation made him not nervous at all.
‘Let’s not think about the stars.’
Stars cannot fully capture the value of a cuisine. Even if they were unable to receive a single star, Jo Minjoon was confident that he would not care. Of course, he may be a bit bitter about it, but in the end, their ratings were only a reflection of their personal thoughts.
Jo Minjoon glanced over at Kaya. He was worried she may be even a little bit nervous about Michelin, but those were needless worries. She had already forgotten about Michelin long ago and had a very focused look on her face as she sprinkled gold dust on caviar.
It is not that she did not care at all about Michelin, but more that the dish right in front of her gave her far more pressure than what Michelin gave. It may not seem like it, but Kaya’s obsession with making each and every one of her dishes perfect was stronger than one expects.
‘The only thing in your world at this very moment is that plate.’
The caviar’s sparkling surface will catch one’s eye. One can recognize in an instant that the gold dust changes its light and color depending on the angle and how firm and flat the norimaki seaweed underneath it is.
He cannot afford to lose. Jo Minjoon increased his concentration that he had almost let slip. He began to take control of the kitchen at a frightening pace. Jo Minjoon shouted a few times. The kitchen immediately began to be filled with his voice, and the chefs, who had been moving on their own accord, began one-by-one to be led by Jo Minjoon’s instructions.
‘…Head chef’s really going at it today.’
While Lee Minwoo was wiping the sweat from his forehead, Gwen gripped the pan tighter. Wine was poured onto the pan filled with clams. Flames shot up and generated heat.
Even in that moment amidst the heat, Gwen could feel chills run up her spine. She turned her head at the prickling sensation and saw Jo Minjoon looking at her.
He said, “Gwen, did Andrew caramelize it before you flambéed it?”
“I think he did.”
“Are you sure?” Jo Minjoon asked a second time.
After hesitating for a moment, Gwen took a spoonful of the wine that was simmering. It was then that she realized that the caramelizing had not been done. She could not taste caramelization’s characteristic burnt sugar taste.
Jo Minjoon shouted out, “Toss this out and start over again. Pay attention, everyone!”
“Yes! We will.”
Did he really manage to notice that she had missed the caramelization among all that? Gwen wondered to herself just how in the world Jo Minjoon caught that. Was he able to read the entirety of the kitchen scene at once, or was he able to tell from the slight aroma emitted from the flambé?
‘…That’s impossible.’
To be able to smell the flames she had generated among all the various other aromas in the kitchen? Jo Minjoon’s absolute sense of smell notwithstanding, that would put him in an entirely other unimaginable realm.
At that very same time, the cameraman was also feeling that same sentiment.
‘…It feels like I’m at a restaurant led by an artisan with decades of experience.’
He had started the show with Sara and had been able to build up a certain level of discernment between the atmospheres of a kitchen run by a skilled chef and those of an incompetent chef.
And in that sense, Jo Minjoon’s kitchen was a bit abnormal. Even while overflowing with the spirit typical of youth, at the same time, he gave off a strange feel of seasoned experience that only those chefs with authority possess. Of course, that seasoned experience was made possible by the system and the unusual structure of two head chefs, but the cameraman was not capable of seeing that.
What was certain was that Lotus Bridge’s kitchen exceeded his expectations. He believed the viewers would not fail to also sense what he was feeling.
‘I guess a star isn’t a star for nothing.’
It felt as if he was already able to see past the screen into the viewers’ eyes.
And in those eyes, there was yearning.
‘…Those people seem familiar somehow,’ Sara stole glances at the people sitting to one side of her.
She thought she had seen those people before somewhere. However, she was not able to recall where.
She did not concern herself over them for long because the first amuse-bouche would soon come out.
“This dish is a mousse made from a blend of apricots cooked sous-vide and shrimp meat sandwiched between lobster chips topped with lobster bisque purée.”
“It’s pretty,” Sara said calmly.
The plating itself was quite fancy. Whatever was put into the lobster chips was making them appear yellow, and in between them was a slightly whiteish mousse that looked just like cream. Unlike normal bisque purée, the lobster bisque purée was green, so Sara naturally thought it was full of herbs.
But her thought was disproved the moment she put it in her mouth.
“Was wasabi used in the purée?”
“Yes. Just enough to stimulate the tongue. The taste of the wasabi will draw out the distinctiveness of the lobster’s savoriness.”
“The taste is really sexy. It’s refreshing to have the purée not just soft but also tangy. And so is the rich taste of the shrimp broken into pieces in between the lobster chips…”
This was the best amuse-bouche she has ever eaten at any one of Jo Minjoon’s restaurants. She had no way of denying that.
Sara unconsciously glanced at the table she had noticed earlier for a moment. They were conversing about something with smiles on their faces.
And it was at that moment that one of her staff members approached her briefly and whispered, “Sara, they’re saying the Michelin judges have shown up here.”
Sara realized immediately in that moment what that feeling of déjà vu she had been having was. At those words, she looked at that table with piercing eyes.
‘Michelin’s come at last, is it?’
How many Michelin stars will Lotus Bridge receive? This was a topic Sara had discussed several times with other gourmets.
At that time, Sara had said one star. Actually, one star was being generous. In this whole wide world, it was not common at all for a newly-opened restaurant to receive a star.
The number of chefs who have dedicated their lives to receiving just one star is so high that one could stumble upon them easily were they to line the paths one walks on2. Even considering how special Jo Minjoon is, he is not so special to be able to easily grasp Michelin’s specialty.
It was then that the appetizer bread for the meal was placed before Sara. There were about five types of bread, from rye bread to butter rolls. But Sara did not really pay attention to the bread because she had already tried Lotus Bridge’s bread the last time. Sara’s impression of it the last time was simple.
As expected.
Lotus Bridge’s bread did not taste all that great. Of course, that did not mean the bread was bad. At the very least, it covered all the basics. However, that was all there was to it. Lotus Bridge’s bread was not so impressive as to leave a deep impression on Sara. It was truly just a basic type of bread.
Perhaps guessing what Sara had in mind, Simon the server quietly said, “A new pâtissière has joined us. You will find the bread to be different from before. I am letting you know in case you were curious.”
“Hm… is that so?”
Even after hearing Simon’s words, Sara was not any more expectant than before. It was highly unlikely that Jo Minjoon had already been able to hire a decent pâtissier, given that a skillful pâtissier is much harder to come by than a skillful chef.
It is understandable why it is harder to find one. When asked between cooking and baking which of the two areas looks broader in scope, most people would say, “Cooking, obviously.” Of course, there are a good number of people who are passionate about baking, but for those who do not have much of an opinion between the two choices, they usually pick cooking.
It is a significant enough issue where having or not having a skillful pâtissier could spell the difference between two stars or three. For that reason, you will always find skillful pâtissiers at a famous restaurant.
You would not find them working with an up-and-coming chef like Jo Minjoon.
‘Didn’t they say Minjoon’s pâtissière had trouble hearing?’
It was not that long ago when the PD3 had scolded her for letting the happiness she secretly held when she heard the story was going to move forward show on her face.
Sara picked out a piece of bread with a softened expression on her face. If the person had come this far with such a handicap, then she, too, should show at least this amount of respect.
And it was at that moment when she tasted the bread that her face blanked out with a dumbfounded expression of someone who had just been scammed.
‘…What’s this?’
She thought perhaps she had ruined her tongue from overwork lately. The bread did not taste like anything she had been expecting. The piece of bread she had chosen was just ordinary squid ink bread. However, its taste was anything but ordinary.
Sara tore off another piece of the bread and tasted it. Even the sensation of tearing the bread felt different. It was only then that Sara could feel the artistic delicateness of the fine-grained crumb.
“This is unbelievable…”
Sara tried the other breads aside from the squid ink bread. Soon after, she realized in that short of a time Lotus Bridge had, once again, improved.
CREDITS:
Original author: 양치기자리
Translator: Comic Seoul
Proofreader: Potato