The Chef From the Apocalypse Enters the Food Industry - Chapter 87

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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 87. Ripple Effects
The recording had been on Thursday.
Today was Saturday, two days later.
‘PD Ga is a monster too.’
Just barely past 48 hours, and PD Ga had pulled off the audacious feat of airing the program.
In the old broadcasting environment, live editing had been standard.
But in the current era, such things rarely happened—yet he had managed it.
Thirty-some chefs had plated their dishes.
He had successfully edited every moment of the judges tasting them.
‘Remarkable.’
It was a moment where I could feel the depth of his formidable power in broadcasting.
‘For the next operation, it was something I had to accomplish. But I never thought he’d pull it off like this.’
I truly hadn’t expected it.
I watched the living room TV screen and let out a whistle of admiration.
* * *
On screen, the tense BGM suddenly cut off.
The moment I pushed the earthenware pot toward the judges’ table was being shown in close-up.
‘The angle is beautiful.’
The rustic earthenware pot captured in the camera frame.
The jamon gleaming with a lustrous sheen.
The rich, heavy aroma of that jamon seemed to fiercely engulf the entire studio, threatening to burst through the screen itself.
‘They shot this so sensually.’
Even for someone like me who understands taste, the screen captured something so appetizing my mouth watered.
Then suddenly the shot switched to the judges!
“I-I’ll try some!”
Lee Sae-rom, now in focus.
She swallowed hard and picked up her spoon.
Not to be outdone, Ha-yun and Sonny, as if entranced, scooped up large spoonfuls of broth and brought them to their mouths.
“…!”
“Mmm…!”
In that instant, the judges’ eyes all widened like lanterns.
Below the screen, an appetizing calligraphic caption swept past.
[The salty umami of jamon condensed through long hours of drying!]
[Explosion! Burst!]
“Slurrrp! Gulp!”
“Ahh… wow, this is insane! What is this deep flavor?”
The cross-editing of the broadcast was artistic.
The silence was brief.
Then the frenzy began.
Lee Sae-rom, forgetting all dignity as a former idol, buried her face in the earthenware pot.
“I boiled the jamon, so why isn’t it salty?”
“Exactly!”
“Wow! How is it this refreshing with such an explosive umami flavor? I can’t put my spoon down!”
But the empress of mukbang content pulled off something unexpected.
Ha-yun set her spoon down entirely.
She grabbed the clay pot with both hands and began gulping down the milky broth like a wild animal.
“Ahhhhh! Haaa!”
She really went for it!
Dopamine surging!
Not to be outdone, Sonny also grabbed her pot and swallowed its contents.
As the scalding broth traveled down their esophagus, beads of sweat formed on their foreheads.
They gulped down the rice soup like possessed spirits, forgetting the pain of their burned palates.
Their eyes gleamed with fierce vitality on camera.
Beside her, Sonny had completely shed her glamorous beauty YouTuber persona.
“Munch munch! Smack smack!”
She wrapped the torch-seared jamon slice in hot rice.
Like wrapping a side dish.
Then she shoved it into her mouth until her lips nearly split.
With each chew, the rich, concentrated jamon essence burst forth!
‘Wow. You can feel how delicious it is right through the screen.’
Before I knew it, I was swallowing hard again.
Sunny couldn’t even muster exclamations and frantically scooped up more rice soup.
Clang! Scrape!
The loud sound of scraping the bottom of the clay pot shattered the studio’s silence and echoed into living rooms everywhere.
‘This was exactly when the notification came, right?’
[The satisfaction level of those consuming the food reaches its peak.]
It was a notification that everyone was genuinely satisfied.
As memories of past notifications flickered before my eyes.
The TV screen captured their overwhelming and violent mukbang reactions and the people standing before the intoxicating symphony of umami that consumed the entire studio.
The sneering expressions of Ern Kim and the other chefs flashed across the screen.
There were no additional subtitles explaining anything.
But that alone made it clear they were greatly flustered.
This was PD Ga’s handiwork.
‘It’s art.’
Their faces had turned pale as blank paper in the zoomed-in shot.
After that, everything moved at lightning speed.
Thirty chefs including myself!
Scenes of half of them failing and leaving played out consecutively on screen.
Me?
I naturally passed.
* * *
Right after the broadcast ended.
PD Ga didn’t rest even then.
‘If I want to execute the plan, I can’t afford to stop here.’
He launched a series of follow-up strikes.
The Broadcasting Station’s official YouTube channel.
[Round 1 Overwhelming Victory! A Neighborhood Restaurant Owner’s Jamon Soup That Crushed Fine Dining]
A highlight compilation video with that title was uploaded.
Not long after the video went live, the response came.
‘Oh, it’s already like this?’
The compilation video instantly caught the algorithm and climbed to the trending videos list.
-Is this place a trending delicious restaurant?
-Wow. Seeing it here again?
-This is insane. Absolutely insane.
Even as I scrolled down refreshing, comments kept pouring in.
-Wow crazy, was that really smashing a jamon bone with a kitchen knife just now? That expensive stuff!
I saw it too and couldn’t believe my own eyes lol
-Making soup with premium ingredients worth millions of won?
The very idea itself is hilarious.
┖That definitely hit the fine dining chefs’ trigger.
-But it seriously looks delicious.
┖Right. Look at Ha-yun drinking straight from the stone bowl.
┖That’s the real deal.
Haha, Sony said she was on a diet but then went crazy and stuffed her face ㅋㅋㅋ
┖Hey. Lee Sae-rom is an idol, remember?
┖She’s nose-diving.
-Look at the traditional chefs’ faces rotting.
┖I’m getting satisfaction from this.
Haha, did you see how Ern Kim was trying to teach me a lesson at first?
I’m gonna use that blank-faced Kim expression over and over lol. That’s gonna be good material.
-Does anyone know where that factory canteen is? I’m taking leave tomorrow and rushing over. Drop the coordinates!
-That crude knife work smashing the bone is so satisfying, seriously.
┖Ten years of constipation just cleared out.
┖Ahhh… Owner! Now that’s soup!
Hundreds of comments poured in with every scroll.
Enthusiastic reactions.
Explosive view counts on the YouTube compilation.
And added to that.
The satisfaction of crushing premium Western ingredients under the most rustic Korean soup!
That hit the dopamine button perfectly.
The viewers were thrilled by the exhilarating satisfaction of flattening the arrogance of the privileged chefs who had been posturing with their refinement and elegance.
‘The response is much hotter than I expected.’
I was contentedly checking the comments when it happened.
Ding ding—ding—
A familiar name appeared on the screen.
It was PD Ga.
“Yes, hello.”
“Owner! Did you see it! The viewership ratings right now and the speed at which the YouTube compressed version is getting views—it’s absolutely insane! It’s record-breaking!”
“Yes, I was just checking it.”
“Right? I did well, didn’t I?”
“You did excellently! It exceeded my expectations.”
“Hehe. Hahaha. That’s just how I am. I’m PD Ga, you know? Hehe.”
PD Ga’s voice coming through the receiver was trembling with excitement.
His usually smooth tone was quivering with uncontainable joy.
“The comments keep pouring in without pause.”
“It’s far beyond that! The broadcasting station’s viewer bulletin board has completely crashed from traffic overload!”
“That’s good.”
“Good indeed! Owner, with this momentum, I think we can proceed with the strategy we devised. With this kind of response, it’s absolutely doable!”
“The strategy. Good.”
The plan for the next round that PD Ga and I had secretly shared.
It was a technique to completely block the shallow editing tricks they had set up.
To completely expose their pretense before the entire nation, if possible.
“Do you think it’ll work?”
“Yes! I have the perfect justification to convince the Department Head. I’ll march right into the director’s office and completely overturn the next round’s setup!”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“Of course! Owner, you just make sure you’re ready to stomp on those bastards one more time for good!”
PD Ga’s voice was filled with fierce combat spirit.
If they set up the board, we’d simply chew up that entire board—that kind of audacity resonated in his tone.
* * *
‘This is it!’
PD Ga hung up the phone.
He immediately rushed toward the director’s office.
“Department Head, did you see yesterday’s first broadcast viewership ratings?”
“Oh, you’re here! I saw it! It’s absolutely crazy!”
“Exactly! It went off perfectly.”
PD Ga eagerly handed over the documents.
The Entertainment Bureau Chief who received them had a grin stretching from ear to ear.
“That’s our PD Ga. You pulled off an absolutely brilliant shot from the setup Jang Owner laid out. So, how are you planning to push this momentum for the next one?”
“We need to build it up impressively.”
“Expand the board even further from here?”
“Yes! Of course that’s obvious!”
“Heh. Alright, so how?”
The Department Head asked with a grin, and PD Ga answered with a gleam in his eye as if he’d been waiting for this moment.
“That’s what I’m saying. For the next round, I’m thinking we go in a completely different direction.”
“A different direction, you say?”
This crazy PD. What exactly was he planning that he had to build up the suspense like this?
The raccoon-like Department Head felt goosebumps suddenly crawl down his spine.
‘This guy’s insane. If he says he’s going big, just how big is he talking?’
As the Department Head’s apprehension grew, wondering what kind of ridiculous stunt he was about to pull off next.
PD Ga finally opened his mouth.

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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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