The Cooking Princess - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Princess Who Cooks

Episode 2

The fish had such a fishy and nauseating smell that you could taste the bitterness. It seemed like it was just grilled without any treatment to remove the fishy smell. The earthy smell characteristic of freshwater fish was a bonus.

She wasn’t aware of her own expression, but the Duke and Duchess saw Chloe make a face as if she had bitten her tongue the moment she put the potatoes and fish that she had been eating just fine into her mouth.

“Chloe, what’s wrong?”

“You must still not be feeling well.”

Hearing the words of the Duke and Duchess who had no idea how serious these foods were, Chloe couldn’t help but get emotional and ended up shouting.

“No! It’s because it doesn’t taste good!”

“What, what?”

While the Duchess’s cake was admittedly tasteless enough for even the Duke to acknowledge, to say that even normal cooking didn’t taste good.

The Duke quickly took a bite of the fish placed in front of him, but the fish tasted the same as usual.

The same bitter fishy smell and earthy taste as always.

Isn’t fish supposed to taste like that?

“There’s nothing wrong with the food. You must still be unwell.”

“No, it just tastes…”

“That’s right. It seems like eating that cake must have caused something wrong with her taste buds.”

The Duchess lamented that because of her, Chloe might never be able to eat anything properly again. The Duke was busy comforting his wife.

‘This is maddening…’

Chloe realized intuitively.

If she couldn’t convince her parents now, she would have to live eating only this kind of food forever.

So the method Chloe chose was.

“I’m perfectly fine. It’s the food that’s wrong!”

To throw a tantrum for now.

“Ch, Chloe?”

“If no one understands me, I’ll have to make my own food!”

At Chloe’s declaration, the Duke and Duchess exchanged glances with each other.

‘It seems like…’

‘For now, let her do as she wants…’

The Duke and Duchess, who quickly confirmed each other’s intentions through eye contact alone, began to soothe Chloe who now looked ready to throw herself on the floor.

“That’s fine too, but first let’s call a priest to examine you.”

Chloe firmly refused the Duke’s suggestion to call a priest, who would cost an enormous amount of money each time, worried that his only daughter’s taste buds might be damaged.

“The problem is with the food, so why should I change my taste buds? I’m going to change the food to suit my taste!”

Though Chloe herself didn’t know it as she said this, her eyes were half-rolled back.

‘I really can’t live eating stuff like this!’

Chloe looked straight into her parents’ eyes and persuaded them.

“But Chloe, cooking is really hard and difficult work. You saw what Mom went through, didn’t you?”

Chloe swallowed the words that what her mother had done seemed more like manufacturing poison than cooking.

Then the Duke, who had been thinking for a moment, made a suggestion.

“Then Chloe, let’s make a promise with Dad.”

“What kind of promise?”

“One week. Prove that what you’re saying isn’t wrong within one week.”

He meant to bring evidence that could support her claim that it was the food that was wrong, not Chloe’s taste buds.

“If you must cook for yourself, then your food should be that delicious, shouldn’t it?”

The Duke’s tone became slightly stern. Cooking involved handling fire and knives, making it dangerous and not easy work for a young child.

“I’ll listen to your stubbornness once, but if you can’t produce results within a week, cooking is forbidden.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Of course, Chloe was confident.

Even if given three days instead of a week, she was confident she could make food much more delicious than the whole roasted potatoes and grilled fish currently served at the Garnet Family’s table.

“I’ll definitely make something delicious and serve it to Mom and Dad too!”

“Yes, I look forward to it.”

Normally, the Duke and Duchess wouldn’t have given permission so easily.

But before regaining her past life memories, Chloe had quite a temper from childhood, showing signs of being a villainess.

But to say such mature words as ‘I’ll serve you something delicious.’

The Duke and Duchess exchanged glances and quickly had a silent conversation.

‘Normally she would have screamed to call the head chef.’

‘Since she’s finally matured, let’s let her try what she wants to do.’

Having barely obtained temporary permission from the Duke and Duchess, Chloe stormed into the kitchen as soon as dinner ended that day.

“In, ingredients? You, Princess?”

“Yes. Mother and Father gave permission too.”

The head chef was very flustered to see the Princess suddenly invade his workplace, but Chloe paid no attention and rummaged through the kitchen to check what ingredients were available.

“There was fish earlier, what kind of fish is it?”

“It’s carp caught yesterday from the Maron River over there.”

“So it was carp…”

Freshwater fish are much more troublesome to handle than saltwater fish, so of course it would taste strange if grilled without removing the smell.

The Garnet Estate was inland, so there was no way to eat ocean fish in this place without refrigeration.

“Can’t we make stew with this?”

“Stew, Princess! Why are you looking for such soup dishes that only commoners eat?”

‘Ah…’

She had grasped the perception of cooking methods to some extent. There seemed to be a prejudice that soup dishes were for stretching small amounts of ingredients.

“Then is there no fish from the ocean?”

“Oh my, Princess. Only monsters live in the ocean, don’t they? There are no edible fish living there, and even if there were, they would have been eaten by monsters long ago!”

Chloe was so surprised she couldn’t close her mouth. No ocean fish. All monsters!

‘Does this make sense?’

Deciding to properly investigate the surprising facts later, Chloe decided to focus on the ingredients in front of her for now.

Other ingredients were also limited. Since meat spoiled easily, there were usually many salted bacon and sausage types. Fresh meat was also often roasted whole.

Vegetables and fruits that could be easily bought at marts or online in her previous life could only be used seasonally here. It seemed like they didn’t eat vegetables much in the first place, saying they wilted easily.

‘I should have known from the fact that there wasn’t a single salad on the table.’

Back in her room, she organized the cooking recipes from her previous life one by one.

Of course, when twelve-year-old Chloe said she would cook something she had never tried before, the Duke and Duchess didn’t believe her.

‘She’ll probably give up after a few tries.’

The Duke and Duchess were parents who usually let their daughter do what she wanted, but they also knew their daughter’s personality well.

She was impulsive but lacked persistence and would give up quickly.

So even though she had stepped forward to cook, they expected she would quickly give up when faced with work that was harder than expected.

But Chloe was no longer just the thoughtless precious daughter of the Garnet Family.

In her head were memories of her previous life, and that previous life was actually…

‘I was the daughter of a home-style restaurant owner.’

Twelve years old, what? She had been cooking her whole life, starting from peeling garlic from childhood that she couldn’t even remember.

Her parents in her previous life were people who made food the traditional way, fermenting soybeans to make sauces and burying kimchi in earthenware jars.

‘If I couldn’t do this, I should have closed the restaurant long ago.’

Even after her parents passed away, she maintained steady flavors and didn’t lose regular customers. New customers kept coming, and on weekends there would be lines outside the store, and she was featured on broadcasts several times as a famous restaurant.

‘There’s nothing special about it. Somehow I have to raise the cooking level here to be similar to my previous life.’

Then a maid knocked on the door.

“Princess, a letter has arrived.”

“Yes, just leave it there.”

Several noble families who learned that Chloe had collapsed sent letters of concern.

Most were young ladies who had been close to Chloe, and from families of Count rank and below, the heads of families sometimes sent letters directly.

Then, as Chloe was looking through the letter envelopes, a familiar name caught her eye.

[Shuel Siclamene]

“…!”

Chloe was startled to see that name.

‘Why would the original male lead send me a letter?’

Shuel, who was still a prince now, would later become the crown prince and be the very person who would bring down Chloe and the Garnet Family.

There should be no reason for him, whom she had never even met yet, to send Chloe a letter.

Chloe first carefully broke the wax seal that closed the letter.

[To the Honorable Lady Chloe Garnet.]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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