God of Cooking

Chapter 59: Traveling, Cooking, and Business (4)

Maybe this was how it felt to be discouraged. When he saw people of all colors and races lined up, he felt both happy and scared. One of the younger producers approached and asked, “Are you going to open now?”

“Yes.”

The producer nodded and went back to the staff. Martin wasn’t there. Since the contestants split up into 3, so did the producers, and Martin went with another team.

As soon as he opened the side door of the truck, the team members, who were getting ready to take orders, looked outside with blank looks on their faces. They knew Grand Chef would have an influence, but they probably didn’t know there would be so many people.

Cho Min Joon got back into the truck and asked, “What should we do? Two can take the register, and the remaining three can cook with me? It’ll only take 30 minutes to make rice. Hm… Which ingredients do we have left?”

“We’re out of beef, and we only have a few avocados left.”

“… Then leave out the hamburger and avocado Kimbaps. We’d better use all the rice we were going to use for dinner. What else?”

“We have some leftover Tandoori chicken, but is that not a good idea?”

“Norkimakis is normally eaten cold, but if it’s too old, the flavors are all gone. Let’s keep an eye on it. Do we have any that haven’t been cooked yet?”

“No. We used it all.”

“I’ll go and wash the rice first. Start taking orders.”

There was no time to waste. The four of them stood in front of the counter and packed up what had been ordered. The person who took the orders and stood at the register was Joanne. The other 3 weren’t very suitable for serving customers. Anderson was strict, Ivanna was blank, and Peter… was just Peter.

Except for Joanne, Cho Min Joon was the only one who was good with customers, but it was Cho Min Joon’s job to wash the rice, and what took the longest with Norimakis was the rice. They had to make it beforehand.

He hesitated on the portion, but he decided to make enough for 100 people. That meant he only had to fill 2 out of the 3 rice cookers. It was possible that more customers would come, but if the flow happened to be cut off, they would suffer a loss.

They could probably use the leftover rice for dinner, but he didn’t prefer to do that. There was a huge difference between freshly made rice and leftover rice. Even if they stored it properly, loss of flavor was inevitable. Half of the customers were probably viewers of Grand Chef. He didn’t want to disappoint their expectations. Of course, they probably wouldn’t know the subtle difference between old and new rice, but as a chef, he wanted to feed them good food.

“Min Joon, if you’re finished, take the register.”

“I’m done, but why?”

“So I can prepare the pork barbeque, and…”

Joanne whispered in Cho Min Joon’s ear as if she had a secret.

“People want you. You’re a star.”

“… Way to make me feel embarrassed.”

Being called a star gave him goosebumps. Cho Min Joon knitted his brows and then smiled. The first customer standing in front of the register was an Asian woman. She was smiling so much that her lips looked like they would rip.

“Hello! I’m such a big fan of yours!”

“Thank you. You’re Korean.”

“I am! I heard you’re doing a food truck, so I drove all the way here.”

The woman spoke in Korean. It had been a long time since he talked to anyone in Korean. Cho Min Joon smelled her perfume and smiled.

“What would you like?”

“I’ll have a tuna avocado and a Korean Kimbap. Two’s enough to get full, right?”

“Yes, unless you eat a lot. That’s 4 dollars and 50 cents.”

“Here you go. I hope you win! I’m cheering you on.”

Cho Min Joon answered with a smile. She wasn’t the only one who struck up a conversation with Cho Min Joon. There were those who were more careful, but many customers also chatted him up while he took their money, and the most common question he received was…

“Be honest. What’s your relationship with Kaya?”

They were mostly of that sort. At first, he said they weren’t anything, but no one believed him. After all, not even his fellow contestants believed it.

But that didn’t mean he could give them the answer they wanted either. That wasn’t the truth. Cho Min Joon simply thought of Kaya as a friend or a little sister.

Aside from questions about Kaya, the other topics were minor.

‘I liked your cooking.’

‘Please do a good job.’

‘Do you think you can win?’

It was hard work trying to answer all of their questions. Since he took 2 to 3 customers per minute and each customer at least bought 2, they had half of their 300 Norimakis left after just 30 minutes.

The first one to go was the pork barbecue. Americans had a deep love for barbecue, and the second most popular was the hamburger.

On the other hand, the least popular kind was unexpected. It was Cho Min Joon’s Korean KImbap. Of course, there were many Japanese Norimakis that had similar ingredients to the Korean Kimbap, but they called it a Korean-style Norimaki. He knew not many would take the chance.

The Kimbap didn’t yield good results. It was 2nd to the last place, and the least popular was the sea urchin roe. He didn’t think it would sell much even when they came up with it, and it appeared that it wasn’t popular among Americans, so they were lucky they had made less of it compared to the other types.

“The rice is almost ready. Joanne! If you’re finished with the barbecue, take over the register.”

“Wait. Just 1 minute.”

Joanne didn’t even look back. The Norkimakis kept disappearing, but the line was still long. They could probably manage compared to the first time, but considering how long the line was getting, 30 minutes wasn’t fast enough to make the Norimakis.

“Forget it! Let’s switch.”

Joanne approached. Cho Min Joon finished with a customer and went back to the rice cookers. The rice was perfect. Since he washed it multiple times, there was no smell to the rice, and every single grain of rice had the perfect shape. It was cooked so well that he couldn’t help but smile.

“Anderson, is the fried shrimp and karaage finished?”

“I’ve strained it. It’s ready as soon as the oil is drained.”

Anderson was preparing the ingredients instead of packing up the Norimakis, but that was okay. Since only one person was taking the orders, one person could manage with packing up the food.

‘Do we need one more person at the register for dinner?’

It was difficult. At this rate, the remaining 3 had to work on packing up the food. Considering that, it was best to just have one person at the register even if that slowed down the movement of the line.

‘Maybe we should change our selling method…’

But this wasn’t the time to worry about that. Cho Min Joon mixed the rice with vinegar as carefully as possible. It was best to break as many grains as possible for the cleanest flavor.

And after that was simple. He had to put rice on the seaweed and put the ingredients on top before rolling it up. The different types were pork barbeque, karaage, and fried shrimp. Those were the 3 most popular types that they still had in stock, but this time, they made twice as much pork barbeque compared to the other types.

It was hard for Anderson and Cho Min Joon to roll all the Norimakis. Their arms started hurting, and their bowed necks were stiff as well.

‘This is why restaurants are hard.’

Since they only served one dish, they had to work repetitively. Even when he worked as the rookie chef at a fancy restaurant, the kitchen environment was the same. He had to peel the same vegetables over and over.

So Cho Min Joon was actually happy about this type of tiredness because it came from making food, not peeling vegetables. This was their cooking. He was able to hold a knife, hold a pan, and look at the customers’ smile. That made his heart feel warm. Anderson said, “… Let’s take a break. It’s not like we need this right away. Let’s take it easy. We’re making it much faster than they’re selling.”

“Yeah, take a break, but I’m going to keep going.”

“Then how am I supposed to stop?”

Anderson grumbled and continued to roll the Norimakis. Cho Min Joon smiled at Anderson. This was temporary, but they had their own restaurant with customers and colleagues. He wished that one day, he would have a restaurant of his own with this kind of atmosphere…

“I thought I was going to die.”

“Same here. Ugh, it’s hard to even talk right now.”

In response to Ivanna’s tired voice, Joanne sighed and agreed. Their business was open for 2 hours and a half, and they sold all the Norimakis without any leftovers. Of course, the sea urchin roe only sold out because there was nothing left. The sea urchin roe was sold out by the time they restocked the pork barbeque and karaage.

Cho Min Joon smiled.

“Do you want to know something funny?”

“… I doubt it’s funny, but go on.”

“We have to start again in an hour and a half.”

“…”

Joanne glared at Cho Min Joon. Ivanna did the same. Anderson sighed.

“I’ve helped out at my parents’ restaurants, but this is even harder.”

“It’s hard to keep standing. I think standing is the hardest part. Why does my neck hurt more than my arms and legs?”

“Lean your head back. You won’t have time to stretch later on.”

In response, all four of them leaned their heads back. It was a relief that a camera was set up inside. It was a sight to see and record. Cho Min Joon rubbed his neck as he said, “I wonder how the other teams did. I bet they had a hard time with the lines. At least we sold Norimakis, which are easy.”

“Yeah, come to think of it… Hold on.”

Joanne picked up her phone. At that moment, all four of them realized what she was doing. Customers probably lined up at the other trucks, and they probably weren’t quiet about it. The menus were bound to be leaked. Joanne stared at her screen. Peter asked out of frustration, “What is it? Tell us.”

“Wait. I’m still reading. First, Hugo’s team made cake and coffee. They went for a café truck theme, and Chloe’s team… made skewers and sandwiches, but that’s not the problem. Apparently, they fought.”

“… Did Kaya start it?”

Cho Min Joon’s face was serious, but Joanne shook her head. She frowned out of disbelief as she stared at the screen.

“No. Chloe did.”