Climbing one more step or not might mean a lot to those who are now about to climb the steps, but it was meaningless to those who had already climbed thousands of steps. Min-joon already climbed numerous steps from the moment he first climbed the steps.

  Recalling the first time he met Min-joon who was young and innocent, Martin felt strange all of a sudden.

  “What do you think about the participants this time? Do you still think Michael is the most likely winner, and you are still cheering for Gwen the most?” producer Martin asked.

  “Well, if you want to ask me in detail, I may give you a few different answers, but I am still of the same opinion about Michael and Gwen. If I single out the participant that has surprised me the most, I have to mention Peter,” Min-joon replied.

  Martin was surprised at Min-joon’s words. He realized that Min-joon didn’t mention Peter simply because he was surprised by the latter’s change. As long as this interview was on the air without being edited and if Min-joon said good things about Peter in the interview, the TV viewers would consciously or unconsciously look at Peter’s merits only.

  Of course, Min-joon’s good feedback about Peter itself was not a big change. However, just giving people a chance to think well of Peter would help him a lot to escape from the hellish situation he had been through.

  ‘Come to think of it, I’m no less than a devil in Peter’s eyes,’ Martin thought to himself.

  Martin felt bitter when he thought about it. As the producer of this cuisine competition, he felt it was certain that people would blame him if he aired a segment showing Min-joon’s interaction with Peter, which would draw people’s good reaction, but he thought it was his destiny as the producer of this show to accept it. He felt sorry for Peter, but if he faced the same situation, he would make the same choice again.

  “What surprised you?” Martin asked.

  “Well, I was impressed to find that Peter approached Merlyn first, and he focused on listening rather than talking to her. He’s quite different from before. I must say that he has become a bit more mature than before. I should say that he has obviously grown up.

  “Really?”


  “Unless you run a one-person kitchen, the most important thing for a chef is team play. Peter is no more the old Peter. Many people think that the combination of Peter, Gwen, and Merlyn looks unstable, but at this point, I think they are going to achieve the best results.”


  “It looks like you have some mixed feelings about Peter. Do you feel sorry or something like that?”


  “Well, I’m not sorry,” Min-joon answered without any hesitation.

  The moment Martin’s eyebrows trembled at his answer that was quite colder than he expected, Min-joon continued, “Peter had an argument with us then, and we had a lousy quarrel. It was Peter’s problem when we examined it objectively and subjectively. Well, the viewers might ask whether we had the right to be angry with Peter, but it was inevitable that we had a bad impression of Peter back then.”


  Min-joon looked at the camera with a serious expression. He looked at the potential viewers who would watch him on this cuisine program anyway.

  “Peter thought he had to change, and he actually did. He is different from before. So, I don’t want people to look at him with hatred like they used to,” he said emphatically. “Don’t hate him, please.”


  Even after he came back after he had an interview with the producer, many of the teams didn’t yet finish the discussion. First of all, they had so much to think about, starting with trifling stuff. For example, how to distribute the roles among the team members was a difficult matter for them. They could not easily decide whether each of them would be responsible for the assigned cooking itself, or whether they would divide their roles, based on the type of dish they would make. In many ways, their division of roles had merits and shortcomings, neither of which was particularly advantageous to them because they didn’t have any experience in cooking together either way.

  ‘Well, there is another way for them to divide their roles.’


  It was to select one of the team members as their head chef and let him lead their members’ cooking. However, if there was anybody who could assume such a role among them now, Hugo was the only one. Even though Hugo had only some experience leading a small kitchen staff, his team now consisted of only three people.

  Anyway, the contest was going on now. Somehow, each of them would draw their own conclusion. At that moment, a harsh voice came from Michael’s team.

  “Hey, Michael! Why are you taking issue with the recipe alone?

  “Because I see the merits or disadvantages of it all. If you want to serve shrimp pie as an appetizer, you have to make its serving really small and the sauce should contain a moderate amount of acidity because you will be sick and tired of its oily taste. If something goes wrong, you can ruin all the dishes after that.”


  “I don’t think so. I’ve had shrimp pie appetizers before, but it was really okay.”


  “What you are trying to make is not the same dish as you did before. There are dozens or hundreds of different types of shrimp pie. And you don’t even have the same sauce recipe that you used back then. If we cook according to your recipe, it will taste rather sticky than sour. In other words, it’s the worst as an appetizer.”


  “How dare you say that when you haven’t tried it yet?”


  “Taste is science. If you’ve done some research on the components of taste, you should be able to imagine its taste just by looking at the recipe.”


  “Are you trying to imitate Min-joon? Okay, so let’s do it this way. Let’s ask him. If he reacts negatively after checking out my recipe, let me admit and withdraw it.”


  After that, they went ahead with cooking regardless of Min-joon’s opinion. But the two of them soon approached him and explained to him about the recipe of the sauce for a shrimp pie.

  Min-joon felt uncomfortable about their childish approach.

  ‘How immature of you!’


  Of course, they could ask Min-joon because other judges gave their feedback to the team members as long as it didn’t affect their judgment directly.

  But what Michael’s team members asked Min-joon was fundamentally different because it was as if they begged him to intervene in their quarrel and judge who was right and wrong. He could help them cook, but he didn’t want to join their quarrel.

  Aside from the woman who was raging with anger at Michael, Min-joon didn’t think Michael would act like this. He thought as a college professor, Michael could judge more sensibly. But Michael didn’t seem to care about it at all as if to show he was a freak.

  Min-joon asked, “Do you think it’s right to ask me about it now?”


  “Can’t I?” the woman asked back.

  “It’s very embarrassing to me that you don’t know that.”


  When Min-joon let out a sigh, Kaya, who was next to him, also sighed and shook her head.

  Only then did Michael scratch his head in embarrassment.

  “Well, I’m sorry.”


  “You have to solve the problem between you. I don’t want to give you feedback in this situation.”


  “Sorry.”


  Only then did the woman seem to have grasped the situation. She stopped being angry and went back. After she went back, Michael could not move his steps easily. He looked at Min-joon as if he had something to say, but Min-joon wasn’t in a mood to talk with him.

  Eventually, Michael also returned, and Min-joon muttered, “These guys don’t know how to appreciate cooking.”


  Although he said that out of the blue, Kaya realized what he meant and smiled bitterly.

  “Well, it looks like they are desperate. So I can understand their feelings.”


  Even Kaya couldn’t afford to pay attention to the so-called beauty of cooking in the past. Since she had the same experience like them right here in the past, she couldn’t blame them recklessly. But Min-joon shook his head.

  Kaya was cool. She was different from them because she was a fine chef. Since she was desperate, she made more desperate efforts to cook better. Rather than defending her pride in a difficult situation, she did her best to make her own dish by trying to overcome the difficulties.

  At that moment, Min-joon recalled what somebody told him before, who told him that self-confidence was different from self-respect. Searching for one’s own strengths and finding their own value eventually turned their confidence into a sense of inferiority the moment they meet somebody better than them in the field that they were so confident in. Then their value was just meaningless. However, even if a person met someone who was better than them, they didn’t have to feel inferior when they have self-respect.