The Chef From the Apocalypse Enters the Food Industry - Chapter 85

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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 85. The Professionals (2)
“Yes. We discover talented chefs struggling in the alleys, help them, and achieve mutual growth with large franchises. Isn’t that true progress for the food service industry? Today, we’ll find that brilliant gem right here.”
Oh Tae-sik smiled leisurely toward the camera.
His gaze drifted subtly toward the two teams.
Ern Kim’s team and the team with Kim Seon-woo.
On the surface, his eyes seemed generous and encouraging.
But beneath that lay a thick layer of mockery—a silent challenge to struggle all they wanted. I could see it clearly.
‘Disgusting. Absolutely repulsive.’
Just moments ago, he’d openly sneered at us.
Now he played the benevolent mentor before the cameras.
It was hypocrisy laid bare for all to see.
But I had no time to call out that hypocrisy now.
“Alright! Let’s gather this burning energy and reveal the rules for the first round!”
Jang Han-su’s cry rang out as if on cue.
Repulsive hypocrisy and mounting tension.
Within it all, the curtain on the real competition was rising with Jang Han-su’s voice.
* * *
“Now, the heart of the first round! I present to you the first mission that will determine your fate!”
Jang Han-su’s cry.
Whoooosh—
With that, the massive black curtain concealing the back of the stage swept away smoothly.
What emerged was an enormous spinning wheel divided into sections of vivid colors.
“Wow!”
“The first mission is the luck-of-the-draw ingredient wheel! Whatever ingredient the needle lands on becomes your main theme for today’s cooking!”
The moment the wheel was revealed, murmurs erupted throughout the studio.
I too examined the ingredients listed on the wheel and suppressed a bitter laugh.
‘I’d heard about it, but this wheel is way too obvious.’
The materials crammed densely onto the wheel.
Caviar, foie gras, truffle, artichoke, saffron, Iberico ham.
Every single one was a difficult foreign ingredient.
Hard to source, hard to handle.
Impossible to work with without experience.
For someone running a rough factory canteen and cooking Korean cuisine, this setup was absolutely disadvantageous.
Did she notice that obvious manipulation?
Lee Sae-rom’s eyes widened in the judges’ seat as she picked up her microphone.
“Wow! These really seem like delicious and precious ingredients!”
“That’s right! We sourced them from all over.”
“Honestly, there are so many ingredients I don’t even know. What’s that one there… arti…?”
“You mean artichoke!”
“Yes!”
“It’s a plant from the Mediterranean!”
“What about the one next to it?”
“Ah, this is jamón! I’ve never seen it in such a large chunk before!”
“Wow… So jamón originally looks like that.”
“Haha. That’s right. It just means we’ve assembled the finest premium foreign ingredients that are normally difficult to come by, wouldn’t you say?”
Jang Han-su countered with his characteristic energy.
At this, Sonny crossed her arms and interjected with a dissatisfied tone.
“But doesn’t this have way too many foreign ingredients?”
“Only foreign ingredients?”
“Yeah. You could search with your eyes wide open and still not find a single ingredient from our own land. Don’t you know about supporting domestic products? Koreans are all about rice, and our ingredients are the best!”
At Sonny’s sharp observation, Ha-yun burst into laughter and chimed in.
“Wow, supporting domestic products? How does Sonny even know such old-fashioned expressions?”
“Hmm…”
“Your face looks like you’re in your twenties, but could your actual age actually be…”
“Ugh, be quiet!”
“Hahaha.”
Laughter erupted from various corners of the studio at their back-and-forth banter.
It was playful conversation meant to lighten the mood.
But beneath that framework lay a sharp insight pointing out just how fatal and unreasonable these ingredients on the wheel were for me, whose cooking was based on Korean cuisine.
‘They’re all trying so hard.’
But it was the opposite for the other chefs besides me.
Most of them had specialized in Western cuisine like French and Italian.
Even if that weren’t the case, many of them were chefs who handled premium ingredients daily.
For them, this wheel was essentially their home turf.
Perhaps that’s why.
‘Still, I can’t help but laugh.’
Ern Kim, the Michelin two-star owner chef who entered the competition directly.
Oh Tae-sik, the large franchise executive who took a seat as a judge.
An undisguisable arrogant smile spread across the faces of these chefs and others.
Jang Han-su surely wasn’t unaware of this.
Still, he focused on the proceedings.
“Well then, shall we spin the wheel of destiny in earnest? First up, Chef Ern Kim, please come forward!”
“Yes! Coming!”
Ern Kim approached the wheel with leisurely steps.
He glanced at me with a sneer and a blatant smirk, then gave the wheel a light spin.
Whirrrr- whirr-
“Now then, what could it be!”
The wheel spun amid Jang Han-su’s encouragement.
Click!
The wheel came to a stop.
The arrow pointed to exactly one location.
“It’s caviar! Chef Ern Kim’s main ingredient is the black diamond of the sea—caviar!”
“Excellent ingredients. Allow me to demonstrate a perfect fine dining experience.”
Following that, the other chefs Jang On-gyu had brought took turns spinning the wheel.
Truffles, foie gras, and other premium ingredients they knew all too well came up one after another.
They confirmed their respective ingredients and smiled with satisfaction, certain of victory.
Now only one person remained.
“Now, for the final turn! Owner Kim Seon-woo, whom I haven’t seen in quite some time—please come forward!”
At Jang Han-su’s call, I walked forward calmly and stood before the massive wheel.
Dozens of cameras and an equal number of chefs’ gazes filled with barely concealed mockery fixed upon me.
-Does he even know how to handle these ingredients?
-Isn’t he coming to ask for help because he can’t work with them?
-This is rigged. Totally rigged.
-Heh. I’ll snag an easy win.
The studio was thick with sneers suggesting a chef who’d only ever boiled stew in some alley restaurant could never have touched such ingredients.
* * *
The studio was thick with sneers suggesting a chef who’d only ever boiled stew in some alley restaurant could never have touched such ingredients.
Yet even amid their mockery, I grasped the wheel’s handle without hesitation.
In truth, I’d already known about this blatant rigging beforehand.
‘He came to the restaurant before filming even started.’
Several days before today’s recording began.
PD Ga had come to find me with a thoroughly wrinkled expression.
“Owner, the first round rules are good, but I think we need to change something. I think we should skip the wheel and go with a different mission instead….”
“Wasn’t the wheel idea your suggestion, PD?”
“It was my idea.”
“Then what?”
“But those logistics team bastards completely changed all the ingredient details that were supposed to go inside.”
“The logistics team?”
“Yes. The logistics team has to be outsourced. The broadcasting station obviously doesn’t have its own food ingredient logistics team.”
“Right?”
“I think they exploited that. We had no choice but to use personnel from Jang On-gyu’s side for the set’s ingredient logistics. That’s where they made their move.”
“How so?”
“When I checked, they’d filled it entirely with Western premium ingredients that disadvantage you.”
“Oh. So it won’t be easy after all? That’s actually interesting.”
“Ugh. You shouldn’t find this interesting! This is a disaster!”
“Why is it a disaster?”
“It’s like slapping cheap paint over a well-crafted work. And in all the wrong colors too!”
“I can’t tell if you’re worried about me or your production.”
“Both! Both of them!”
PD Ga was furious that his carefully designed broadcast had been tainted by manipulation.
He tried to overturn this unfair game.
“But this won’t work! What if things go wrong? Let’s change it?”
I simply shook my head with composure.
“Let’s just proceed. We don’t need to change the rules.”
“What? No, the odds are completely stacked against you! Those ingredients are what they handle every single day!”
“It doesn’t matter.”
My reason for accepting the unfavorable rules without hesitation was remarkably simple.
‘I’m confident I can cook perfectly with whatever comes out.’
Confidence, that’s all.
So I didn’t change the rules.
In my previous life.
In that barren, hellish world, I carved out the poison sacs from grotesque monsters whose names I never knew,
and sliced through leather as tough as stone to brew stews that kept people alive.
I had handled every conceivable horrific ingredient just to survive.
There was no reason to fear over some unfamiliar materials.
‘Rather, crushing them with the very ingredients they’re most confident about—that’s the real victory.’
If I was going to break them, I had to do it properly.
So without hesitation, I spun the wheel with all my strength.
Whirrrrrr—! Whirr—!
The massive wheel began spinning furiously.
Beneath the mocking gazes of the chefs directed at me.
The pointer gradually slowed its pace.
Whirr… Whirr… Click!
The wheel that had been spinning loudly finally came to a stop.
Over it, Jang Han-su’s high-energy voice rang out sharply through the studio.
“It’s stopped! So, the main ingredient for Factory Canteen Owner Kim Seon-woo is…!”

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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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