The Chef From the Apocalypse Enters the Food Industry - Chapter 116

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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 116. Admiration
There was admiration in his voice.
Not as an MC, but as a human being.
“Wow…!”
“I’m a chef, after all.”
I answered flatly.
I didn’t pretend. It was the truth.
A chef knows ingredients. A chef knows their value.
If I didn’t know the ingredient cost of my own dishes, that would be strange.
The camera was capturing my face.
It must have been expressionless. That’s just how my face is.
In the back. Han Jae-won was standing there.
“Hmm….”
He had his arms crossed, leaning against a pillar at the end of the filling line.
The person who had been stepping back since earlier, observing the whole picture.
His mouth moved. Slightly.
It seemed like he said something to a staff member next to him.
I couldn’t hear it.
But I could read his lips.
‘He’s a monster.’
That’s what it seemed like he said.
It wasn’t sarcasm.
The tone of acknowledgment.
For the record, I’m not the type to boast about things like this.
What I did was simply taste.
I tasted the flavor, read the ingredients, and stated the numbers.
I merely did what any chef should do naturally.
But it seemed to have become a bombshell in this place.
‘Well, I threw it out there anyway, didn’t I?’
It wasn’t my problem.
I just wanted to make something delicious.
The factory fell silent.
Only the sound of machinery running remained.
The red lights on the three cameras were still on.
* * *
“Hmm….”
“Ahem.”
The air had settled.
Since we were in front of the cameras, no one made a sound. But the atmosphere was still unremarkable.
‘It makes sense.’
That’s when Oh Tae-sik stepped forward.
He’d been standing behind the line. Slowly. Leisurely.
The corners of his mouth were slightly raised.
“Kim Seon-woo.”
His voice was smooth. The tone of an oiled blade.
“I do respect your opinions as a chef.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I once dreamed of being a chef too. I graduated from culinary school. But well, as you can see, I’m at the factory now.”
“I see.”
“But when you work here, you realize. The factory side is quite different. That’s how production works.”
A pause.
“Without field experience, it’s easy to misunderstand by looking at numbers alone. You know? I understand.”
Polite. But there was a barb at the end of his words.
‘Hand-cooked cuisine and factory cuisine are different? That’s what he’s trying to say, isn’t it?’
An amusing provocation.
Did they all not understand him?
!!!
Lee Sae-rom’s eyes widened as she watched from beside me.
Sonny subtly shifted the camera angle. As if this situation was entertaining.
“But you must understand one thing.”
“What could I possibly understand?”
“That Song Seo-gwang flounder itself has high process difficulty.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“Yes. Given the remarkable dish you’ve created… well, how should I put it. It’s a dish that’s difficult to actually implement.”
He tilted his head slightly as he spoke.
Like someone giving a lecture.
“It’s a different dimension from ordinary frying. There are four processes: frying the fish, filling it, and packaging. Change one setting and everything downstream is affected.”
“One setting. I see.”
In other words, this is what he’s saying.
What do you know? A factory isn’t a kitchen.
You don’t even know what a setting is, but one wrong adjustment ruins everything.
So don’t presume.
That’s it.
“This level of cost structure is unavoidable.”
“Cost structure.”
“It’s unavoidable. Honestly, I’d like to cut it too. If I could cut it, I’d donate even more. Wouldn’t I?”
“So if you could cut it, you would have cut it even more?”
“Haha. That’s right. Exactly! Even though you don’t know factories, you certainly understand words quickly.”
The words ended.
The camera alternated between capturing me and Oh Tae-sik.
Both of them were smiling.
But they were smiles with teeth.
‘Well, even if I leave it as is, PD Ga will tear him apart anyway.’
But I had to step in now.
I’d already thrown the bait.
So. In other words, even if I do nothing, Oh Tae-sik’s bones will ache. And they’ll ache terribly.
But then.
Oh Tae-sik went one step further.
“If you really don’t trust me, would you like to try setting it up yourself?”
“Setting it up?”
“Yes. Setting it up.”
He didn’t stop.
“I mean the mass production settings for this factory. Haha.”
This was provocation, no matter how you looked at it.
His tone was courteous for the camera, but his intent was different.
The one whose pride had been wounded was striking back.
You don’t know anything.
If you don’t know, shut your mouth.
Simple logic.
“…”
“…”
The surroundings fell silent.
The factory workers had stopped and were watching.
Jang Han-su took a step back, clearing the space between me and Oh Tae-sik.
That must be his instinct as an MC.
He knew viewers would eat this moment up.
“Hmm….”
“Why? Are you scared?”
I stopped my hands as I was untying my apron.
No, I actually tied it back on instead.
“Let’s do it.”
I said it tersely.
* * *
Jin-woo’s head snapped up beside me.
“…?”
Oh Tae-sik’s eyes wavered slightly.
‘He didn’t expect me to accept.’
In his calculation, I was supposed to decline.
Most people would.
A chef with no factory experience trying to take control of the line would be humiliated.
I was wrong.
“Well, I’m a chef, after all.”
I repeated the same words once more.
In the same tone as before.
“Ha….”
Oh Tae-sik let out a scoff of disbelief at that.
Oh Tae-sik turned his head toward the Factory Manager.
He lowered his voice. A tone the camera wouldn’t catch.
“Open the settings for me.”
“Pardon?”
The Factory Manager blinked.
“I said open the settings.”
“Yes? Right now?”
“How many times do I have to say it? The line settings. Open them. He said he’d try it himself.”
His tone had shifted.
Gone was the gentleness from moments ago. His voice came through gritted teeth.
The Factory Manager hesitated at this.
“Director. That’s… having an outsider directly touch the production line is a bit….”
“He said he’d do it. If he can do it, then let him try. How can we keep the broadcast going like this?”
He spoke quietly.
But his voice was laden with force. His face flushed all the way to his neck.
Everything that had been building since the cost figures started pouring out earlier was erupting now.
“Ah….”
The Factory Manager closed his mouth.
Oh Tae-sik tapped the Factory Manager’s shoulder.
He gave a slight nod.
The meaning was unmistakable.
‘Open it for me.’
The Factory Manager finally moved.
He unlocked the panel. The process settings screen appeared.
Oh Tae-sik looked at me. He was smiling.
“There, I’ve opened it for you.”
He raised his voice back to camera-ready levels.
His expression now said: so what are you going to do?
“You’ve never touched something like this before, have you? Factory lines are quite different from a kitchen.”
* * *
I provoked him and he took the bait?
Fine then, let’s see how far this goes.
What could a chef possibly do with machinery?
That was his calculation.
That’s why I opened the line.
If I’m humiliated, the cost discussion gets buried too.
I used my head well in the rush.
‘Well, the picture looks good anyway.’
Apparently he thought it was outside the camera’s range.
But Sonny’s selfie stick camera was circling from behind.
Oh Tae-sik seemed to have forgotten about it.
Though I suppose he was in a hurry.
The cost got exposed too.
A problem was brewing, so I had to do something.
That’s why I took the provocation.
“Let’s see, shall we.”
I stepped in front of the panel.
Numbers were densely listed across it.
There were quite a few menus too. The vertical axis alone had over ten, and the horizontal axis had even more. If I pressed it, more would probably spill out.
It wasn’t a familiar screen for me either.
‘…This is a bit different.’
Oh Tae-sik stood watching with his arms crossed.
The corners of his mouth were turned up.
He was watching me hesitate.
Reading taste with my tongue was different from touching factory machinery.
In the kitchen, my hands are the tools themselves.
Here, the machine is both the tool and my hands.
But I don’t know the machine’s language.
‘I know what needs to be changed. But….’
Temperature. Time. Ratio. But I don’t know which buttons to press on this panel or how.
I hesitated.
One second. Two seconds. At that, I saw the corners of Oh Tae-sik’s mouth rise in my peripheral vision.
He didn’t seem willing to help even if he told me the settings.
This was about making me fumble around in embarrassment on my own.
That’s when it happened.
“Should I operate it? I’m confident with the operation at least, even if I don’t know anything else.”
A voice came from behind. I turned around.
It was Han Jae-won.
The man who had been leaning against a pillar with his arms crossed until just now was now right beside the line.
“From your expression during the tasting earlier, temperature was the problem, wasn’t it?”
“How did you know?”
“Ah. Your expression made it crystal clear.”
“Wow. You’ve got sharp instincts.”
A leisurely tone.
But my eyes were fixed on the panel. The exact same one I’d been studying.
“So in any case, that’s right? The temperature?”
“…Yes. It’s running three degrees higher than the target value. The oil condition isn’t good.”
“By condition, you mean the acid value?”
“Yes, the acid value is poor. Ah, to put it bluntly, it’s degraded.”
Pfft.
A laugh echoed from somewhere.
But we kept our focus ahead.
‘This person really did know, after all.’
The relationship between oil acid value and temperature compensation.
‘Would it be strange if he didn’t know?’
A man running multiple Franchises.
I heard he operates a Factory too. Since he’s self-made, he might be able to handle a filling line with his eyes closed.
‘That’s what separates the real from the fake.’
Han Jae-won approached the panel with confident movements.
His fingers moved naturally.
He pressed the menu a couple of times and entered the process settings screen.
The very screen I couldn’t find.
“You just need to change it here. The Filling Line temperature in the back gets adjusted automatically too.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You just input the numbers. Wait after that, and the machine will tell you when everything’s complete on its own. After that, it’s just maintenance. That’s the beauty of machines, isn’t it? Brilliant.”
“Yes. Brilliant indeed.”
Though I’m not sure who this brilliance will destroy.
But this? This is definitely brilliant.
A Chef from the Apocalypse Ventures into the Food Business
Author |
Heung-haeng
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
Address |
7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260206001
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter(X) |
@dreambookss
Submission |
[email protected]
(Samyang C&C) – Without written permission from Dream Books, the contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means.

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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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