The Chef From the Apocalypse Enters the Food Industry - Chapter 97

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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 97. The Final Round (4)
“Well.”
I chuckled softly and placed the dish onto the cart.
Then I began pushing the cart toward the judges’ table.
Jang On-gyu’s mask was turned in my direction.
‘Enjoy your meal.’
* * *
I positioned the cart in front of the judges’ table.
Jang Han-su picked up the microphone.
“Here we have the first dish! Please tell us what it is!”
“It’s mapo gnocchi.”
“Mapo gnocchi?”
“Yes. With one special ingredient.”
“One ingredient?”
“You’ll understand once you taste it.”
Jang Han-su swept his gaze across the audience.
His expression clearly showed he was entertained. He was definitely savoring this moment.
“This already seems quite unusual! Now, let’s serve the judges!”
Jin-woo quickly portioned the food into bowls and placed one before each judge.
Lee Sae-rom was the first to react.
“Oh my, the aroma alone…!”
She picked up her spoon. One bite. Her eyes widened.
“Whoa! What is this?!”
“How is it, Sae-rom?”
“It’s spicy! But it’s delicious! How does this work together?!”
Sae-rom bounced on her feet and took another bite. Her face showed she couldn’t stop despite the heat. A expression of pain mixed with pleasure!
“Something bursts inside the gnocchi? What’s inside this?”
Sae-rom. She has good instincts.
She’d detected another layer of spiciness beneath the mapo’s bold flavor.
Of course, I had no intention of hiding it.
I’d planned to reveal it from the start anyway.
“It’s gochujang.”
“You put gochujang inside?”
“Yes. I mixed it into the dough. It’s a fresh taste, isn’t it?”
“Ah…! It really is fresher than expected! I know the taste of gochujang, but eating it this way feels completely different!”
Sae-rom pulled the bowl closer to herself. She was completely captivated.
Ha-yun remained silent. Quietly, one bite, then another. She took a spoonful of the broth and swallowed it slowly. She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them.
“…The mapo oil doesn’t feel heavy at all.”
She seemed less familiar than usual.
It appeared she was restraining herself since this was a public broadcast. Yet her eyes still held warmth.
“It’s thanks to the gochujang.”
“An interesting balance.”
“Right? Cooking needs to be enjoyable to eat, after all.”
“Hehe. That’s true.”
I said nothing more. Instead, I picked up my spoon again. That was my answer.
Beside me, Sonny picked up her spoon, sniffed it once, and her expression twisted slightly.
“Actually….”
“How is it, Sonny?”
“You know, right? I really can’t handle spicy food.”
“I didn’t know that. I’ve seen you eat jjamppong just fine.”
“Ugh….”
Her expression looked as though she were facing a formidable opponent right before her eyes.
Laughter erupted from the audience as if they’d been waiting for this moment.
Sonny, famous for her mukbang videos, was afraid of spicy food.
It was an entertaining twist.
“A mukbanger should eat it, I think.”
“Not all mukbangs are about eating spicy food! This is visual mukbang, visual!”
“You should still try it!”
“…Sigh. I suppose I have no choice.”
Sonny squeezed her eyes shut and took a bite.
“Mmph…!”
A brief silence.
Then she slowly opened her eyes.
“…Huh?”
“How is it?”
“It’s spicy.”
“Yes.”
“But it’s delicious. Wow, really… you’re someone who deceives people with cooking.”
Laughter burst from the audience.
“What’s going on here? If it’s spicy, it should just be spicy—why is it delicious?”
Sonny took another bite with a bewildered expression. Tears welled up slightly in her eyes. Yet she didn’t put down her spoon.
The atmosphere heated up.
That was when it happened.
Jang Han-su glanced toward the special judges’ section as if conscious of the camera.
“Well, how do our special judges find it?”
Han Jae-won picked up his spoon first.
Slowly, he took a bite.
He chewed for a moment.
“….”
He nodded his head once. It was a small gesture.
Yet there was something contained within it.
“That’s an amusing dish.”
“In what way?”
“If you go in thinking it’s gnocchi, you’re caught off guard. But that surprise isn’t unpleasant. In fact, I think that’s what makes this dish so charming.”
It was a clean assessment.
Jang Han-su shifted his gaze to the side.
“Then finally, our special judge here—what do you think?”
It was Jang On-gyu.
He slowly picked up his spoon. Without hesitation, he took a bite.
Silence fell.
There was no sound of chewing.
No expression crossed his face.
Beneath the mask, his exposed face was perfectly expressionless.
The camera zoomed in on him.
There was no reaction whatsoever.
But then.
‘That.’
I saw it.
It was only for a moment. Less than a second.
In that instant as he set down his spoon, his fingers froze ever so slightly.
They paused, then moved down again.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed.
I saw it.
Jang Han-su spreading both hands.
Did he see it too?
I don’t know.
Instead, he continued with the proceedings.
“Now, let’s begin the judging! Please indicate your approval or disapproval!”
* * *
The judges placed their hands over the buttons.
The first light to come on was Ha-yun’s.
A green light.
Approval.
Sonny wiped away tears as she pressed her button.
A green light.
“It’s spicy but delicious, so what can you do?”
Laughter erupted from the audience.
Oh Tae-sik pressed his button with his arms crossed.
A red light.
Disapproval.
My expression didn’t waver.
‘I knew it would be like this. No matter what I put forward, he’ll always vote against it. That man.’
It was an expected result. Among everyone here, Oh Tae-sik was the most biased.
He had more than enough reason to do so.
Instead, he would give unconditional approval to the other two chefs.
They were on his side, after all.
There was someone neutral.
Lee Sae-rom.
She bit her lip before casting her vote, hovering her hand over the button, raising it, lowering it.
“Hmm…”
Jang Han-su subtly pushed the microphone toward her.
“Having trouble deciding?”
“I do like spicy food. But I’m not sure if this works for gnocchi. Then again, it does taste good.”
“Ha ha. What will you do?”
Sae-rom deliberated a moment longer before pressing the button.
A green light. Approval.
“Well, delicious food wins, doesn’t it? That’s what food is all about!”
“Oh! Exactly! That’s what food is! Sae-rom, that’s an approval!”
The audience erupted in cheers.
Three approvals, one disapproval.
Jang On-gyu slowly pressed his button.
A red light.
Disapproval.
His face was expressionless. Nothing could be read from it.
Three approvals, two disapprovals.
It came down to the last vote.
Han Jae-won.
He became the deciding voter.
He deliberated for a long time before placing his hand over the button.
He paused briefly.
Then slowly and decisively, he pressed it.
Ding!
A green light. Approval!
“There we have it! The results are in! Four approvals, two disapprovals! A majority approval! One point!”
[+1 Point]
The audience erupted.
Jin-woo clenched his fist beside me.
“Brother!”
“I know.”
I turned calmly back to the wok.
One point.
A good start.
* * *
The second cart rolled forward before the judges’ table.
It was Jeong Si-woo.
Owner chef of the high-end Japanese restaurant in Cheongdam-dong.
He brought his palms together and bowed his head.
“It’s chawanmushi. I focused entirely on temperature.”
“Didn’t you present this dish last time?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then there must be a reason you’re presenting it again.”
“I wanted to show you something more refined. A different flavor than last time—I’m going to compete with that.”
!!!!
Something more refined, he said.
It was quite an impressive answer.
It didn’t come across as arrogant either.
‘Unexpected.’
While I was still processing, the plate was set down.
The surface gleamed like a mirror.
The scent of the sea wafted up from the sea urchin roe.
Ha-yun took a bite.
Her eyes half-closed.
“It melts in your mouth.”
Sonny took one too. She looked up at the ceiling.
“…It’s not even spicy, so why am I about to cry?”
Laughter rippled through the audience.
The button was pressed. Four votes in favor, two against.
“Four in favor, two against! One point added!”
[+1 point]
Jeong Si-woo bowed once and turned back toward his station. Throughout it all, he carried himself with such humility that it seemed he’d renewed some kind of resolve.
* * *
“Dish complete! Here it comes!”
Surprisingly, it was Ern Kim who was making a commotion.
It was entirely different from his publicly known quiet demeanor.
Ern Kim’s cart rolled in.
As expected, with fanfare.
He didn’t bother with lengthy explanations. As if to say, shouldn’t you understand just by looking? If you don’t, then you don’t understand cooking.
“Foie gras sauté. On brioche.”
Sauté—a cooking technique where ingredients are quickly seared over high heat.
With fatty ingredients like foie gras, it creates a crispy exterior while keeping the inside tender and moist.
Brioche.
A French bread made with generous amounts of butter and eggs.
Rich and substantial in its own right.
The moment the plate arrived on the cart, the aroma of butter reached us first.
Foie gras seared to a golden hue.
Beneath it, the brioche was baked with crispy edges.
That was all that had been plated.
In a way, it even looked sparse.
Jang Han-su picked up the microphone.
“It’s quite simple, isn’t it?”
“There’s no need to complicate things. That’s what tradition is. We don’t force unnecessary elements into it.”
Jang Han-su sensed it immediately.
‘This is clearly a direct shot.’
There was no need to explain who it was directed at.
-Can he really get away with that?
-Will Jin-woo be okay?
-Wow… Ern Kim just sharpened his knives.
The audience felt it too, murmuring softly.
‘I need to maintain the atmosphere.’
Jang Han-su smoothly covered it with his commentary.
Just then, Ha-yun cut into the foie gras with her knife.
The cross-section was revealed.
The interior was moist.
It seemed as though it might spill out at any moment, yet it maintained that precarious balance without doing so.
One bite. Two bites.
“…The outside is so crispy like this.”
She paused mid-sentence. Then she cut again.
The moment Lee Sae-rom took a bite, her eyebrows rose.
“The brioche is acting as the sauce?”
“Exactly.”
She had good instincts and grasped the intention.
“That’s why there’s no separate sauce.”
Ern Kim nodded briefly instead of answering.
Sonny took a bite and paused for a moment.
“…Could I get another plate of this?”
The audience erupted with cheers.
The button was pressed.
Oh Tae-sik, green light.
Lee Sae-rom, green light.
Ha-yun, green light.
Sonny, green light.
Han Jae-won, red light.
Jang On-gyu. Green light.
Five votes in favor, one against.
“Five votes in favor, one against! The majority approves! One point awarded!”
[+1 Point]
Ern Kim’s expression remained utterly blank from start to finish.
As if the results meant nothing to him. He turned to head back to his cooking station.
* * *
Then.
Ern Kim passed right in front of me.
Just a single beat.
His shoulder lifted and dropped.
Not a wave of his arm, not even a glance.
Just his shoulder. Only his shoulder. And only for a moment.
But the meaning was unmistakable.
How about that, me.
That’s what it meant.
‘…That bastard.’

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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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