I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 107

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 107. Broadcast Filming (2)
“Well, where should I start… Ah! I suppose I should introduce myself first. I’m Martin Pablo.”
Before beginning the interview, Martin offered his introduction first.
I had heard from Seung-hyun, the owner of Treffle de Bognoir, that he was a veteran chef who had worked at a Michelin three-star restaurant for seventeen years, but the credentials he spoke of himself exceeded all imagination.
“Pardon? You hold the MOF title?”
“The interpretation was correct. If you look at Chef Martin’s chef’s coat collar, you’ll see the French tricolor flag attached—that’s why. You can’t wear that without the MOF.”
Yu Jin, who handled the junior writer position at Delicious Dining Road, was utterly astonished at this point.
What is MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France)?
Isn’t it France’s Best Craftsman award?
I understood it was a state-sponsored competition held once every four years, much like the Olympics or World Cup, and in France, recipients are treated as living national treasures.
“It’s nothing special. I’ve also won the Baking World Cup and the Paris Best Baguette Competition. Well… it’s embarrassing to talk about such things.”
“You won first place in the baguette competition and supplied bread to the Élysée Palace for a year, didn’t you?”
“It was an honor, but it was equally demanding. Haha.”
Moreover, he had the distinction of supplying bread to the Élysée Palace, the French presidential residence.
Yu Jin simply couldn’t fathom why such a person was holed up in this tiny alley baking bread.
“This place was originally a restaurant I operated. Once I started down the path of success, I considered closing the business and focusing on entrepreneurship.”
“But why…?”
“It’s all because of this bread fanatic from Le Cordon Bleu here. Hahaha!”
Martin burst into laughter while patting Seung-hyun’s shoulder repeatedly as he continued speaking.
“When this fellow was still a student at Le Cordon Bleu, he visited my restaurant once.”
“Ah, you don’t need to mention that…”
“What! It’s the origin story of our baking partnership! How can I not tell it!”
Back when Seung-hyun was still a student, he was running a restaurant in this very place called Shadow of the Earth.
The day Seung-hyun came happened to be the day Martin made a slight mistake while baking bread.
The fermentation had been incomplete, and the bread came out slightly harder than usual.
At that time, Martin had thought to himself.
‘There’s hardly any difference—I’ll just serve it.’
“I was an extremely arrogant fellow back then. I thought that at my level, I could discern the difference, but ordinary people would simply eat it and think it was good.”
“But that wasn’t the case, was it?”
“That’s right. Of all days, Seung-hyun had to come to my shop that day. Hahaha!”
When Seung-hyun arrived at the shop, he appeared as an ordinary exchange student.
He wasn’t fastidious like typical food critics, nor did he wear expensive clothes.
The typical attire and demeanor of an Asian exchange student you’d see anywhere.
When I served the food according to his order, he tilted his head in confusion but ate everything that came out.
Up until that point, Martin didn’t know.
What kind of extraordinary behavior he would display.
“After finishing everything, he was about to pay when he called for me—the chef, that is, me. When I came out, do you know what Seung-hyun said to me?”
“What did he say?”
“He asked if we could practice baking bread together. Hahaha!”
Sometimes, pure intentions strike people in the most painful way, don’t they?
This was precisely such a case.
I had felt that my bread-baking skills were lacking compared to Martin’s culinary prowess.
“And then he explained what efforts were needed to keep the bread from becoming hard. It was all information I already knew, but hearing it from such a young friend made me feel utterly ashamed.”
“Well… I could feel the bread was hard….”
Yu Jin looked into Martin’s eyes.
His eyes, flushed with excitement and burning bright.
This Bakery Owner, recognized for his skills in France, had been passionately expounding for an hour now about Seung-hyun—a young Korean man whose name was unfamiliar to the world at large.
‘This is absolutely going to succeed!’
Yu Jin was certain, trusting her instincts as a Writer.
This wasn’t merely a matter of talent.
It was love, wasn’t it?
‘Though it doesn’t quite seem like the kind of thing you’d call perverted….’
There are many anecdotes about talented people who stand out in the world.
And such anecdotes always seem to contain these small episodes.
To Yu Jin, this felt like a broadcast that could succeed, but it wasn’t quite at the level where you’d call it perverted.
But that was a misunderstanding, as became clear through Martin’s subsequent testimony.
“Yu Jin, you won’t understand. Seung-hyun doesn’t simply bake bread. He converses with flour, I tell you?”
“Converses with it?”
“No… it’s not really conversing, just paying attention to it…. Martin is exaggerating a bit….”
“The fact that he checks humidity from the start proves his passionate perversion toward bread!”
Martin’s gestures grew more animated.
According to his explanation, my day begins with sensing the humidity in the air with the tip of my tongue.
Yu Jin stopped typing at that point.
“He senses humidity with the tip of his tongue?”
“It’s an exaggeration. I do check humidity, but not with the tip of my tongue….”
“Wasn’t he always sticking his tongue out at 2 AM while sleeping! And then he told me—he could feel the humidity of early dawn!”
“Ugh! I was young back then!”
It seemed there really was a track record.
As astonishment clouded Yu Jin’s face, the Black Cat, who appeared to be Seung-hyun’s pet, meowed with an expression of utter boredom.
Meanwhile, Martin snorted and waved his hand dismissively.
“Exaggeration? No, it’s an understatement! The amount of water, the temperature, the technique in handling the oven—he pays attention to every single detail! Back then, he said the water quality in Paris changed seasonally and went searching for solutions!”
“But you felt that too, didn’t you, Martin?”
“It never struck me with such intense difference!”
Goosebumps rose on Yu Jin’s arms.
This wasn’t mere diligence.
An obsession bordering on paranoia.
No, that’s not even enough.
‘Madness….’
The anecdotes Martin shared continued, one leading to the next.
Once, I had been dissatisfied with the crystal size of salt and went searching, distinguishing each grain of salt one by one.
It was to control the speed at which that tiny pinch of salt in the bread touched the tongue.
“Have you ever tried a croissant I made? You can feel exactly in your mouth whether the layered butter sheets are 64 or 128 layers. I’m sure I even calculated the angle at which I use my body weight when rolling the dough!”
“Wow! To that extent!”
“Well, it’s not like I don’t think about it… but not to that degree!”
Yu Jin no longer heard Seung-hyun’s protests that it wasn’t to that degree.
Rather, it would be an understatement to say he heard it well.
Saying he doesn’t think about it means he does think about it, doesn’t it!
‘Truly endless craftsmanship!’
As Martin continued his praise of Seung-hyun without hiding his excitement, Yu Jin transcribed every word and thought.
Perhaps through this broadcast, Han Seung-hyun, a heavyweight bakery owner, could reveal his true self to the world.
If so, this special wouldn’t remain merely a special from an entertainment program.
It would become a broadcast that properly captured the first official appearance of a star chef who would rise across the nation—no, across the entire world.
‘My heart is racing!’
Yu Jin, a born writer, wrote down a sentence with trembling hands.
A subtitle for this special that she would propose when meeting the main writer later.
The word “bread fanatic” was written plainly in her notebook.
As a side note, of course, this word was cut at the main writer’s level.
* * *
“Martin was really annoying yesterday, wasn’t he?”
“No! It was truly a valuable time! For us, securing footage for the broadcast is what matters most!”
I exchanged pleasantries with Yu Jin, whose expression was flushed with excitement upon arriving at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport.
After that, several staff members were preparing for the main shoot.
Today marked the beginning of the main filming.
Today, the MC and fixed guests who had been conducting this delicious dining journey would arrive at this airport.
How long did we wait.
“Wow, so this is Paris!”
“Sir, why are you acting like someone who’s never been to Paris before?”
“Come on! This is really my first time in Paris!”
Two men appeared, dragging their luggage while making a fuss.
One was Ho-jung, one of Korea’s representative MCs, and next to him was star chef Young-gu.
And then two women appeared.
“Really? So was pumpernickel the first bread you ever tried, Hani?”
“Yes! It was so delicious! Ah! The baguette that Roro mentioned must be delicious too!”
Walking toward us with a warm atmosphere were Roro, a mukbang YouTuber who now had 1.5 million subscribers, and Hani, a member of the globally popular idol group “Favor.”
The destination of this unusual combination was singular—to follow in my footsteps.
“Ugh. Suddenly I feel burdened.”
“Don’t feel burdened. Oh, you know the camera is rolling, right?”
“Ah.”
For some reason, Noir continued without making a single meow sound, acting aloof.
I wonder when he realized we were filming.
Regardless, Ho-jung was the first to recognize me and waved his hand.
“Oh! Seung-hyun! I’ve been waiting for you there!”
“Gasp! The master has finally arrived!”
“Wow… you really do call me master….”
“Truly….”
“Of course! I’ve always wanted to call you my teacher, but since you won’t allow it… *cough*….”
Ah, so he went ahead and said it properly on broadcast after all.
As shame crept over me, I desperately prayed.
Please let the viewers accept that he was exaggerating because it was being broadcast.
“That must mean the master received great teachings in this place!”
Young-gu, moved with emotion, adjusted his bag, while Ho-jung flashed his characteristic impudent smile and delivered his line toward the camera.
“Now, viewers! We have finally arrived. To the very place where Han Seung-hyun, the owner of Treffle de Bognoir, began his ‘passion’—Le Cordon Bleu Paris Campus, we now head directly!”
“Wow! I’m so excited!”
“The writer mentioned it beforehand, saying it was amazing!”
It seemed a quiet introduction and moving on wasn’t going to happen.
Thus, on the way to Le Cordon Bleu Paris Campus.
As the group went, Hani and Roro took selfies in high spirits while whispering about Seung-hyun’s accomplishments during this time.
It was just as the group was about to enter the school building located on the Seine riverside.
“Huh? That person?”
“Chef Olivier?”
“Ha ha! Seung-hyun! You’ve finally come!”
An elderly gentleman with white hair streaming down, yet eyes sharp as blades.
The man spread both arms toward Seung-hyun and cried out.
“I’ve been waiting quite a while since receiving your contact!”
My mentor and world-renowned master baker, Chef Olivier, gripped my shoulder firmly and smiled broadly.
Then, his expression grew slightly stern as he quietly asked me.
“Could you help me for a moment? Seung-hyun?”
“What is it, sir?”
“Hmm… well, you see….”
He removed his hand from my shoulder and gazed at me with an expression of utmost gravity as he made his request.
“Would you be interested in conducting a special lecture?”
A rather sudden request, indeed.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————