The Chef From the Apocalypse Enters the Food Industry - Chapter 130

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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 130. The Next Problem
‘How do I get customers to come?’
Customers. That was the problem.
Honestly, this wasn’t about cooking.
‘The condition of this place isn’t great.’
I’d observed the New City District on my way here. There were several vacant storefronts scattered around.
‘Jang On-gyu seems to be pulling people in through advertising somehow.’
Jang On-gyu’s method required capital to execute.
It was impossible for ordinary people.
‘I need at least some initial customers to work with anything.’
Initial customers. Yes. Gathering those initial customers was an entirely different dimension from teaching cooking.
‘Should I suggest advertising to him?’
Even as I thought that, doubt crept in.
He was struggling with electricity bills.
I wasn’t sure if adding advertising costs would actually help.
Beyond that, I was uncertain about how far I should involve myself.
‘I can handle the taste however needed, but operations don’t seem to be my domain?’
I felt helpless.
Once I put my hand to something, my nature is to see it through to the end.
But touching these aspects carelessly could mean inadvertently stepping on a nerve.
That’s when it happened.
Someone pushed open the shop door and entered.
“Excuse me, could you….”
The entering customer was looking at me.
“Wait? Aren’t you the person from the broadcast? That restaurant?”
“Huh?”
The person following behind stopped and glanced at me once, then turned their gaze toward the interior of the shop.
Now that I looked closer, these were customers who’d recognized me and come here.
The customers tilted their heads in confusion.
“Well, yes, that’s correct, but….”
“Wow! I really wanted to meet you!”
Once I acknowledged it, their reaction grew even more animated.
“Me too! I went to the restaurant, but there were never any seats available! I tried again today and failed… and now I see you here!”
“…Thank you.”
“I’ve tried the song seo-gwang fish too!”
“Me as well!”
I still hadn’t gotten used to this.
In any case… this had become an unexpected stroke of fortune.
“Is this a skewer restaurant? Can we eat here?”
“Yes, we can!”
Seeing an opportunity, the Owner quickly adjusted his apron and accepted the order.
Unlike their hesitation at the entrance, the Customers moved with remarkable speed.
I stepped back a pace.
‘Huh. Is it really happening like this?’
* * *
“I’ll take those skewers! Three! No, five!”
“Oh! Excellent! By the way, these skewers were specially consulted on by the Owner here!”
“Really?”
“Then give me five to eat here, and pack ten more! I’ll share them with my family!”
“Oh…! Since you’re the first customer to order over ten today, I’ll give you one—no, two on the house!”
“What about me!?”
“You’ll get one too! That’s five plus one, after all!?”
“Wow!”
Once the Owner seized the momentum, he didn’t stop—he kept going.
‘This is serious.’
As if releasing the frustration of months without business, he pulled the skewers straight from the grill. The way he elevated the atmosphere alongside the food struck me as anything but ordinary.
‘Before, he’d panic with just a few customers…?’
Now the man seemed completely transformed. The bewildered expression had vanished entirely, replaced by something predatory—like a beast seizing an opportunity.
‘People do change when survival is on the line….’
But this one seemed almost theatrical about it.
Then again, for someone whose shop had seen nothing but flies for nearly half a year, perhaps he’d been waiting for exactly this moment.
“Just a moment, please! I’ll have it ready right away!”
Sizzzzzzle—
The sauce-coated skewers sizzled on the griddle.
The aroma of garlic rose with the smoke.
Oil splattered, and the sauce caramelized once more on the hot surface.
One customer picked up a skewer, took a bite, and glanced sideways.
“Hey.”
“What.”
“This is actually delicious?”
The person beside him grabbed one.
He chewed, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
They were wide with surprise.
“No, seriously.”
“The sauce is different, isn’t it? It’s not just sweet.”
“Right. The beginning and end taste different. There’s something in the aftertaste. Wow….”
“As I mentioned, it’s been specially consulted on. Haha.”
The Owner’s hands never stopped moving.
Tap-tap-tap sizzle. Tap-tap-tap sizzle.
The sauce-coated skewers changed color on the griddle, and once finished, they moved onto plates.
The customer quickly picked one up.
The customer took another bite of the skewer.
He chewed all the way to the end, sauce and all.
“Hey, notice how that savory flavor comes from the back?”
“Yeah, you’re right. But it’s not greasy.”
“What sauce is this?”
The Owner flipped the skewer and answered briefly.
“It’s our house sauce. We got consulting on it!”
“So you can only eat it here?”
“Yes, that’s right!”
The customer nodded and picked up another one.
“Just one more. Really the last one.”
“Can I get that to go as well?”
“Yes, of course!”
“Then wrap up two more for me. I need to give them to a friend.”
“Make sure you pack mine well too!”
“Of course! Haha.”
The Owner nodded and added more skewers to the grill.
Sizzle. Sizzle—
I leaned against the counter and watched it all unfold.
‘This should be fine now.’
The Owner’s process of grilling, flipping, brushing sauce, and serving flowed without a hitch.
For some reason, it felt like business was about to boom.
* * *
Customers leaving with their takeout orders.
“Thank you!”
“We’ll enjoy it! Oh, take care too, Owner!”
By the time I’d greeted all the familiar faces, quite a bit of time had passed.
Besides, we’d started late anyway.
Well, technically it was consulting.
‘Wait a minute…?’
As I watched, words that had been floating around in my head suddenly connected.
Jang On-gyu. Mass production. Skewer restaurant. Han Jae-won.
In an instant, all four pieces came together.
My recipe coming out of a factory line.
My resistance to that had long since faded.
‘Truth be told, there was never any real resistance to begin with.’
I created it, and it comes out my way.
I’d settled that matter long ago.
Yet Han Jae-won’s next proposal still nagged at me.
A question about what the next product would be.
I still hadn’t answered it.
As if I’d come to a standstill.
I think I finally understand the reason why.
In the end, there was only one reason.
No matter how I partnered with Han Jae-gyu and expanded the distributed food, I could deal a blow to Jang On-gyu.
‘I knew that already.’
I could even force him out of the market.
I could make things difficult for him in many ways.
‘I know that well enough.’
But that wasn’t a direct strike.
It felt vague somehow.
‘It lacked a certain personal touch, I suppose? That was the problem.’
I was the type who liked to strike with my own hands.
It was the same in my past life.
Whether it was a siege or a subjugation, the final blow always had to come from me for it to be finished.
That habit seemed to have kept me frozen all this time.
‘That’s it. That was it.’
It lacked that feeling of doing it with my own hands.
But looking at it today.
‘I think there might be a way for me to take him down directly?’
There seemed to be a way I could do it myself.
Of course, that didn’t mean I was foolish enough to insist on doing it only my way.
‘If I go with the method I just thought of….’
It seemed possible to strike at Jang On-gyu by blending in Han Jae-won’s approach as well.
‘This will be fun.’
I finally felt like I’d found the path forward.
* * *
The next day.
Today’s special menu addition was kalguksu.
It was a recommendation from Haran.
I added it because it was a good dish for Jin-woo and the other to learn the basics.
Thwack. Thwack.
But my mind wouldn’t stop working as I kneaded the dough.
‘Hmm… I’ve found the path, so now I need to act, right?’
The things I’d seen at the Skewer Restaurant last night kept circling through my mind.
More precisely, the thoughts that came to me afterward kept my mind burning.
‘Taking him down directly is certainly fun.’
After the shop closed yesterday, I’d walked around the New City District on my way back to my restaurant.
There were quite a lot of vacant storefronts.
Perhaps there were even more stores that looked like they’d soon go under.
‘The situation didn’t look good.’
I understood.
When the New City District was first developed, Jang On-gyu had momentum.
He was called a business genius, and his image was solid on entertainment shows.
But now?
‘He’s completely lost his touch.’
It seemed PD Ga had twisted the broadcast however he could. But it was already too late.
‘Is that the kind of era where things change?’
Times had shifted, and this wasn’t an age where such tactics would work.
Still, the reason he’d gone to such lengths was obvious.
‘He wanted to display his power.’
To show he was still standing strong.
To demonstrate he had the influence to have a broadcast rerun edited. That’s what he wanted to prove.
Creatures of his type needed to flaunt their vitality; otherwise, they couldn’t feel alive.
Regardless.
‘What if I gave a taste of what I offered yesterday to those barely holding on? Or those just starting out?’
In other words, what if I provided the same consulting I’d done yesterday to others?
It could turn out quite interesting.
‘I changed one sauce, and the skewer restaurant came back to life.’
The Skewer Shop Owner wasn’t the only one facing that issue.
There had to be more than one or two stores in the New City District with similar problems.
Some could grill but their sauce was off.
Others could make dough but their broth was lacking. There were definitely people missing that one crucial element somewhere.
I’d go, taste their food, identify the problem, and fix it.
‘That way, I’d save people and land a blow against Jang On-gyu at the same time.’
That itself was quite an enjoyable experience. It had been the same when I fixed the Skewer Shop Owner’s sauce.
Watching flavor come alive in someone else’s hands was a different kind of fun than making it myself.
‘If I save the merchants of the New City District that way.’
It wasn’t a bad picture.
‘Though the idea of “consulting” is suddenly a bit funny.’
But the more I thought about it, the structure made sense.
Fix one place, then two, and the alley transforms.
Word spreads, and the neighboring stores come back to life.
Once it starts moving at the alley level, my commercial sphere rises above the one Jang On-gyu laid down.
It becomes a structure of erosion from within.
‘Though I’m not planning to do charity work.’
A Chef from the Apocalypse enters the food industry
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Box Office
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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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