Min-joon and Kaya sighed once more and remained silent, not knowing what to do.

  ‘I don’t want to eliminate anybody here.’


  Min-joon was seeking to upgrade his skills again on the occasion of this competition, but at this moment, he didn’t care about it at all. This was a team mission in which he had to eliminate someone from his team, who was only looking up to him. This competition was just a training for self-development for him, but it was often a turning point in their lives, which was more important than anything else for the participants. So he didn’t want to do anything that might bring about their resentment.

  The system’s notification window often popped up in his head, but he didn’t care. It was common for such system window reminders to come to mind when he was thinking about cooking. If he were always concerned about it, it would be almost impossible for him to lead a normal life every day.

  [Your mastery of kitchen leadership is increasing!]

  After all, he missed that system message.

  It was only the next day that he noticed that message. It was during the moment when he finally checked the recipes with the participants and gave them a basic lecture about a full course. A system notification appeared before his eyes again. This time, he read that message.

  [The average cooking skills of the chefs that you are leading now are far lower than yours!]

  [Originally, it is more difficult to sweeten an unripe fruit than a ripe fruit. You are now realizing the fundamentals of kitchen leadership!]

  [Your qualifications as a head chef have increased even more!]

  ‘What?’


  At that moment, he stopped talking. He never expected it. Was it because the average skills of the chefs he was leading were not good enough? This was not the first time he led a team. When he stopped by the Grand Chef competition recently, didn’t he lead the participants?

  But he realized that the situation now was a little different from back then. Right now, he saw lots of restrictions when it came to his team members, so he was doing his best to lead them as much as he could.

  It was inevitably more difficult to carry a person from the first floor up to the 10th floor than to carry one from the 9th to the 10th floor. But Min-joon was trying to carry the five guys on the lower floor to the high floor where he was standing.

  However, he shook off such idle thoughts because now was not the time for him to focus on such things. He could do it next time. Now was the time for him to feed these poor little birds in front of him. He needed to spend time for them, not for him.

  It was the next day when he finally mastered the most important quality as a head chef.

  He managed to upgrade his kitchen leadership. More precisely, his mastery of kitchen leadership improved conspicuously. Obviously, when he saw it in the past, his kitchen leadership was somewhere near 90%, but it was now upgraded to 98% before he knew it.

  ‘Wow, I’m a bit embarrassed!’


  On the very day the team mission was due to start, Min-joon was lost in thoughts for a moment. This was something he didn’t expect at all. In other words, he never expected he would make up for his lack of kitchen leadership like this!

  ‘Then does it mean that I can help not only good chefs but also those who are not competent enough?’


  Obviously, this was not the way that typical Rose Island chefs thought about others. More precisely, that was not how Rachel or June thought about other chefs, based on his personal experiences in dealing with them.

  Rose Island only accepted the best chefs. They didn’t even accept ordinary chef candidates or interns. Even Justin, who was a chef candidate at Rose Island main store, grew up as quite a good chef.

  In other words, only those who had the potential, capabilities, passion, and other merits could become a member of the Rose Island family. Only then could they receive the head chef’s coaching and nagging.

  How about the members of the team that Min-joon was leading now?

  He looked at them in front of him. Gwen, Peter, Ken, Vlad, and Queenie. No matter how generously he thought about them, they were way behind the Rose Island chefs. As for Gwen, her cooking level was higher than that of the Rose Island cooks, but that wasn’t enough.

  ‘Cooking level is not everything.’


  No matter how well one could pluck the strings of a guitar, one was a half-baked guitarist if one didn’t know many songs or if he didn’t know how to play with others.

  The chefs of Rose Island knew what they needed to know, but these guys here didn’t know.

  And Min-joon was directing the rookies who knew nothing.

  This was something he had never done before. Since he had never done it, it was a difficult and worthwhile challenge more than anything else.

  ‘I have been trying to be too perfect until now.’


  He had to admit it because he felt he could not bring out anything worthwhile if he was not perfect. That was the atmosphere of Rose Island. They wanted to create a perfect kitchen environment and make perfect dishes. And they found themselves making perfect dishes before they knew it. But they missed everything that was not perfect while focusing on everything that was perfect.

  ‘Maybe this can be the solution to Rachel’s problem.’


  He frowned for a moment. Every time he thought about Rachel, he was distressed. It was not because he hated her, nor did he feel she was a burden on him. Her homework was hers, not his. Only when he and she could find the solution to her problem, he could smile comfortably when he thought about her.

  That was why he wanted to solve that homework somehow, so he could stop being worried about her anymore.

  He thought about it numerous times last night. In other words, he was pondering over how he could make use of these rookie chefs as much as he could. He could not have them make perfect dishes. Then, what was the most beautiful way to express their imperfect cuisine?

  But his answer to the question was not satisfactory.

  ***

  The process of the competition was simple. Each team took turns cooking. Due to the nature of the full course, that kind of process was necessary to stop the finished dishes from getting cold. As a matter of fact, since viewers were not able to taste the dishes, all the teams could make dishes at the same time, so the judges could try them one by one. That was what they used to do in the past. That way, the TV broadcasting company could save some production expenses.

  However, Min-joon and Kaya put forward one condition for their serving as the judges of this competition. Even if the production expenses went higher, they should devise the concept to the effect that they could feel the taste of the dishes made by the participants as much as possible.

  The reason why the two asked for it was pretty simple. They just felt it was a pity that they could not try the original flavor of the participants’ best dishes because they got cold. They felt it was the best consideration they could have for the participants.

  Because of that, Min-joon was now the first to lead the team assigned to him.

  “Cheer up!” said Kaya, turning up the corner of her mouth.

  Looking at her expression, she clearly wanted to tease, not cheer for him. But he didn’t care. He looked at his teammates. They spared no effort for their dishes for the past several days.

  “All you have to do is just put the finishing touches. You’ve done well for the past three days. I hope that none of you will have any regrets. You know what I mean?”


  His team members nodded heavily. He went to the kitchen table and folded his arms. Then he looked at them slowly. Given the three days of cooking, it would have been better if they had prepared soup in advance, but the rules of the competition were not generous enough to allow for that.

  That was why the team mission this time was difficult. Cooking would last for the next two hours. The judges’ sampling of their dishes would begin 30 minutes after they began to cook. And they should finish serving their dishes within two hours. Within that time frame, they have to sequence their cooking order and even calculate the judges’ eating speed. This would be somewhat difficult without Min-joon’s help.

  ‘Well, it’s not that difficult.’


  They left it with him entirely. The judges didn’t worry too much about it when they decided on the team mission because they were professional chefs anyway. As for Kaya, however, she was a bit embarrassed because she had never run a restaurant like this, but she could easily overcome the difficulty.