The Chef From the Apocalypse Enters the Food Industry - Chapter 113

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 113. The Factory
“Brother, you’re making your dishes here?”
Jin-woo stared up at the building with his mouth agape.
Three stories tall, its exterior walls were covered in gray steel panels. A single sign hung there.
[Gaon Food Second Factory.]
Gaon Food. Seeing that “gaon” meant the center…
‘To become the center of food. Something like that?’
The meaning itself was good.
Though whether that center referred to consumers or myself was worth considering.
Either way, this was where my dishes would be made.
There was no reason to view it negatively.
“That’s what they say?”
“Wow…”
Film trucks were lined up from the entrance onward.
Two vans, three equipment trucks.
-Watch it there! That’s heavy!
-Secure the bottom! Be careful it doesn’t tip!
The staff were already bustling about. They were moving lighting equipment in front of the entrance.
‘Maybe it’s because it’s a factory.’
The air around the factory carried a mixture of cement and oil smells.
It was different from the oil smell in a restaurant. The scent of industrial lubricant was quite strong.
‘Maybe it’s because we’re outside?’
It was somehow different from the oil smell I detected in the kitchen.
The fact that my dishes would be made here felt somewhat mismatched.
‘But wouldn’t it be different once I go inside?’
That’s what I thought.
In the meantime.
“Chef Kim Seon-woo!”
Someone came running over.
* * *
“Just a moment!”
Park Min-soo. An assistant director under PD Ga.
He came rushing over, waving a large clipboard.
“It’s been a while.”
“Yes, it has!”
“First, things are urgent right now, so I’ll give you the cue sheet!”
Two A4 pages. A cue sheet.
Quite a lot was written there.
Movement patterns, filming order, comment points. It was packed.
‘I see. PD Ga doesn’t look like it on the surface, but he’s meticulous.’
So this is what someone who excels at their work looks like.
Even the smallest details were refined.
I scanned through the entire document.
‘All I’m supposed to do is cook normally.’
Yet the paper contained everything—line explanations, tasting reactions, closing interview segments.
‘Meticulous. That’s admirable, but…’
There were even example comments written out.
[‘Please start with “The essence of flounder is~”‘]
[‘For the interview, maintain a humble yet composed demeanor~’]
Everything outside of cooking felt somehow unsettling.
“Do I have to do all of this?”
“Oh, no need to do everything! Just keep it natural, and PD Ga will capture it all! Think of it as more of a guideline. I’m just trying to help.”
“A guideline.”
“Yes. I thought it would be much better to have something rather than nothing. I was just trying to assist.”
Park Min-soo waved his hand apologetically, looking like he regretted burdening me.
‘Natural. That’s always best.’
I’d already learned during the competition that being natural on broadcast is the hardest thing to do.
But Jin-woo seemed to find this entertaining.
Jin-woo peeked over at the cue sheet from beside me.
“Hyung. Do I appear too?”
“It says you’re listed as an assistant.”
“Oh!”
Jin-woo found his name on the cue sheet.
[Assistant: Kang Jin-woo]
He could get this excited over a single line of text.
“Can I look too?”
“Of course. But don’t get too excited—just act like you normally do.”
“Yes!”
His responses are always quick. The problem is the execution.
Well, in any case. PD Ga had explained everything so thoroughly, and Jin-woo was thrilled about it. I couldn’t just refuse.
After all, they’d prepared this for me.
‘I’ll accept it.’
When I made a gesture to read the cue sheet, PD Ga bowed deeply. It was his way of expressing gratitude.
* * *
A short while later, Park Min-soo pointed toward the entrance.
“The waiting area is ready now! If you head inside, we’ve prepared a space for you. We have about 30 minutes before filming starts.”
I nodded and headed in.
As the automatic doors opened, cold air rushed out.
‘Must be because it’s a food factory.’
The interior temperature was low. They clearly prioritized food storage conditions.
‘I like this.’
The factory interior opened up before me.
The ceiling was quite high.
‘Wow. I thought our restaurant was tall since it used to be a factory too.’
But this place was on a different scale entirely.
Fluorescent lights hung in rows overhead.
And beneath them, conveyor belts stretched out in long lines along the production path.
This is where my song-seo-gwang-eo comes out, then.
‘Seeing it in person is different.’
My feelings were renewed.
Knowing something through numbers and seeing it with your own eyes were completely different.
The scale was what struck me.
What I made one at a time in the kitchen, this line would produce hundreds, thousands of them per day.
It wasn’t long ago that I heard they were just preparing everything.
There were already three frying lines set up.
The smell of oil drifted through the ventilation ducts.
I wasn’t entirely without concerns.
‘How well will the taste hold up.’
Taste.
That was what stuck with me. And what I was most curious about.
It was a natural question for a chef.
How much of a gap existed between the taste of something made by hand and something produced by machine.
How much could we actually achieve.
Looking at it through the lens of breaking the limits of taste, that difference would show up in numbers. Very precisely.
‘There’s probably going to be quite a gap. I’ll have to accept some level of difference.’
There would definitely be a difference.
No matter how advanced the machinery, there would be subtle nuances it couldn’t capture.
The experts said they handled the settings every time.
‘There are delicious restaurant recipes everywhere in the world, so why aren’t they all delicious restaurants.’
In reality, those settings failed to capture quite a lot.
When those small failures accumulated, the taste suffered.
Still, what could I do.
‘At least my cooking is coming out of here, so I hope it tastes good.’
I wanted to verify that myself.
* * *
-Raise the lighting here!
-All done!
-Perfect!
The setup was still in full swing inside.
Lights hung over the line and three cameras were positioned at different angles.
While Ha-yun had gone to a separate waiting room to prepare, the judges began arriving one by one.
“Sonny’s entrance!”
“Wow. You’re always so cheerful, aren’t you?”
“Should I say ‘This body’s entrance!’ instead?”
“Hehe. No.”
Sonny was the first to arrive.
Or rather, Sonny and her camera.
Jin-woo greeted them both.
“Wow. But this place is insane! This is amazing, right? So this is what a factory looks like.”
“Is this your first time at a factory?”
“That’s right! I know how to eat, but I have no idea how to make it!”
“I see!”
“What’s that expression? Are you going to capture that?”
“By all means.”
“Oh… You’re confident, different from before? Why?”
“Because I trust our owner. Hehe.”
“I like that spirit. I’ll film it really well.”
She pulled out her selfie stick and began filming the factory entrance. She had already started her YouTube recording.
Her manager was huffing and puffing as she followed behind.
“Sonny, the inside isn’t ready yet—”
“Just a moment! One more angle! Okay?”
“It’s not ready yet…!”
“Ugh. I don’t care. I can’t hear you. I’m going to show my subscribers properly. I already got permission anyway, didn’t I?”
Unstoppable.
Sonny was always like this. Once she picked up a camera, everything in the world became content to her.
‘That’s just like her.’
Perhaps she had come this far with that professional spirit.
It was hard to call it a nuisance either.
After all, I had given permission.
To film as much as she wanted.
‘Quite the character, that one.’
* * *
Meanwhile, Lee Sae-rom moved differently.
“Hmm….”
Lee Sae-rom was already walking along the production line.
Conveyor belt, fryer, packaging line.
She passed by each one, pointing with her finger. And finding the angles. The perfect angles for filming.
Even if she seemed casual about it, this was someone who never made a wasted movement.
“You really make it here? With this machine?”
“That’s correct.”
The factory worker nodded.
“Wow. This really is a factory.”
“Right? Everything’s divided by production line.”
“I see! This is so fun! It’s fascinating!”
I wasn’t sure what she was going on about.
But Lee Sae-rom’s reaction played well on broadcast.
She was channeling the audience’s perspective.
It had been the same during the competition.
She had good instincts.
She touched exactly the points viewers would be curious about.
‘That’s what a professional broadcaster is.’
Im Ha-yun was different.
She stood in front of a process explanation panel attached to the wall beside the production line.
She wasn’t even crossing her arms, just standing there, moving her gaze along the text.
[Raw Materials Intake → Preprocessing → Frying → Filling → Packaging]
She went through each one.
As if she were carefully reading line by line.
Moving slowly.
Her judging method during the competition had been the same.
While other judges got swept up in the atmosphere, Ha-yun stuck to her own standards until the end.
‘She’s the type who doesn’t miss anything, no matter what she does.’
That’s when it happened.
“Alright, everyone gather around!”
* * *
Jang Han-su began the rehearsal.
MC mode. Not the calm tone he’d shown at the restaurant days ago.
His voice resonated with presence.
“Now, this is where the championship-winning dish from Gourmet Saviors, the Song Seo-gwang Flounder, is born!”
The atmosphere shifted with a single sentence.
There was no audience since it was just a rehearsal.
But several factory workers stopped what they were doing and looked over at the sound of Jang Han-su’s voice. Lee Sae-rom also stopped walking and turned around.
This man commanded the space with just his voice. It had been the same during the competition. The moment Jang Han-su grabbed the microphone, the stage came alive.
A true professional was a true professional.
That’s when Sonny approached.
The camera on the end of her selfie stick pointed at my face.
“Chef Kim Seon-woo! A word about how you’re feeling today!”
“…I’m just here to work.”
My expressionless face was captured on camera. Not intentional.

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