Chapter 538: Unexpected Twist (6)

They applauded Rachel and Min-joon with a resounding welcome. It was maybe June or somebody else who started clapping their hands, which soon prompted all the other chefs to cheer and clap their hands.

Some of them even whistled and shouted at the appearance of the two judges of this competition. In a festive atmosphere people watching hundreds of cheering chefs dressed in nicely ironed chef suits could not help but be overwhelmed.

Amid their intense gaze, Rachel and Min-joon stepped up on the podium.

Rachel grabbed the microphone first.

“It’s me, Rachel. Congratulations to all of you who have come here because you are participating in one of the biggest events in American culinary history.”

They giggled at her words here and there. But what she said wasn’t just a joke. Rose Island was so huge that it could be said to represent the finest restaurants in the United States to some extent, so choosing the new representative of Rose Island was like choosing the next largest owner in the American restaurant industry.

She continued, “We’ll be testing the sample dishes at one restaurant per day for over a month. It’s me, Min-joon, and the head chefs of all the branches who are going to test the sample dishes. We’re not going to rate your dishes, but Min-joon and I will make the final judgment of who is the winner of this competition.”

Perhaps there was no other competition than this, which would continue without stopping even for a single day. But given that this competition was far from an ordinary one, it was natural. Rachel could not ask several chefs to make dishes at the same time per day and rate them roughly.

She was determined to take a closer look at the efforts that her students made until now for this competition. But many of them took it for granted that either June or Dave would win the competition anyway. Even Min-joon agreed with that because he already visited and sized up all the Rose Island branches. He concluded that Dave was the most promising winner this time.

Other than Dave, June was another strong candidate to win the competition.

But it seemed that Rachel didn’t think so. Of course, Min-joon could not figure out who she had in mind as her successor or the winner of this competition. Basically, she refrained from expressing her opinion on this matter.

In some respects, it was natural that she showed such an attitude because she wanted to give all the participants an equal chance. If she had somebody in mind even before the start of the competition, this competition would be meaningless from the beginning.

So, Min-joon tried to shake off any prejudice he might have had as much as possible, for it was possible that some candidate other than Dave or June could emerge as the winner in an unexpected twist in the competition. Min-joon wondered whether he was also expecting a ‘twist’ in the competition when he decided to help June to beat Dave.

‘By now, I think she has figured out how to beat Dave,’ he thought to himself.

As a matter of fact, Min-joon found it hard to find any fault with June’s full course when he checked it last. He even felt that June’s full course was as good as Rachel’s. Anyway, June would try to show her best in this competition.

‘The problem is Dave…’

Min-joon wondered whether Dave’s cooking skills were still the same as before or improved since he saw June’s rival last. To be honest, he could not know. If he had another chance to visit Dave’s restaurant and checked it out, he would have had a better idea, but he could not take time out to do so.

But Min-joon thought that Dave would come up with a better recipe than the one he checked before, for he must have paid more attention than usual after checking out Rachel’s demands.

What if Dave would come up with a more advanced dish this time? Honestly, Min-joon thought Dave would win the competition.

But Min-joon decided not to worry about such matters from now on because he was not here as June’s sous chef. When it was time for June to cook for the competition, he would cook next to her as her sous chef, but except for that moment, he had to be present at the competition as a judge.

At that moment, Rachel looked at Min-joon for a moment then said, watching the head chefs standing before their own kitchen staff, “I don’t think there is anybody who doubts Min-joon’s qualifications, but if there’s still any of you who is not yet persuaded or still in doubt about his qualifications, just raise your hand and speak out. I won’t give you a penalty for that…”

No head chefs responded to her words because they didn’t have to. It was not because they were scared about her penalty, but it was because none of them were stupid enough not to have sized him up yet. If they had not checked out his cooking level and qualifications, they would not have been able to come to this competition.

Watching the reaction of the head chefs, the cameramen, and broadcasters filming them, the people at the venue could not help but be stunned by the head chefs’ silence. Some of them had a hot temper, and others were notorious for backbiting and slandering. Given the nature of their profession, most of them had a tough personality. Nonetheless, none of them showed any reaction when Min-joon, a very young junior compared to them, was here to judge them.

One of the broadcasters said, “It looks like Choters Guide has succeeded a lot.”

Another one responded, “It’s not just because of Choters Guide. It was because of Min-joon’s fantastic cooking skills that Choters Guild became so famous. I guess that’s why they could not raise any objection to him being their judge today.”

While chatting with each other, the broadcasters looked at Min-joon. He was about to grab the microphone. Finally, he spoke in fluent English in a confident voice, “Today is a quite meaningful day to me and you. The next month I will spend with you will be quite meaningful. It’s going to be an unforgettable time for me for the rest of my life. So, I hope each and every one of you will show us the perfect dish. You will never forget this time and your dish, so I guess you will do your best to avoid something regrettable in your life for you and me.”

Having said that, he made eye contact with the head chefs. At that moment, he had no choice but to feel some strange goosebumps. He saw pure aspirations and dreams in their eyes. Although they were growing old, their eyes and soul were different. They were still hungry and thirsty for recognition.

Only then did he realize that they didn’t give up their aspirations and ambitions yet. Although they said self-mockingly that Dave or June would succeed Rachel as the next owner of Rose Island, they were still full of strong desire and ambition to challenge their prejudices that they could not express properly.

‘Wow, they are really serious about this competition…’

At that moment, he smiled at them. It didn’t matter whether they really thought they could win the competition or not. He just appreciated their ambitions and desire. He liked their reckless challenge.

Only he could understand why she refrained from expressing her true feelings about the candidates. When they were so serious about the competition, how could she come here with prejudices for any specific participant? How could she not give them an equal chance to be her next successor?

“I look forward to your best results,” he said lastly.

Then Rachel grabbed the microphone again and looked back at them.

“Now, it’s time to decide the order. We could proceed with this with a simple game, but we don’t have to aim for that kind of fun. You guys are so nervous anyway. Okay, let me start accepting your application for cooking after two days. Does anybody want to cook first?”

When she said that, they turned to each other. In fact, they could not help but feel uneasy about being the first to have their cooking tested because they might want to get adjusted to the atmosphere first before cooking.

It looked like nobody would apply, but at that moment, somebody raised her voice.

“I will do it.”

“Deborah?” As if he was a little surprised, Min-joon called her name in a low voice.

Deborah replied with a confident voice, “Well, I would rather get things off my chef first and feel relaxed. And I think it’s going to be the same when I show my best cooking skills even now or one month later. So, let me show you my favorite dish, Chef Rachel and Min-joon.”

In Min-joon’s eyes, she always looked diffident and weak-minded, but she was different this time.

She said in a firm voice, “I’ll show you how much I’ve improved.”

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