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Theo muttered in a low voice. Only now did he seem to realize that the atmosphere of the venue was so sharp and cruel. The losers had to quietly admit defeat in a blend of frustration and resignation, while the winners were in the limelight, enjoying all kinds of praise and admiration.

In fact, this was not his first time participating in a cooking contest. And this wasn’t the first time he was defeated. But at this moment, his defeat really hurt his pride. It was probably because he had never beaten Min-joon and Kaya since this contest started. The pair didn’t beat him by a hair’s breadth. He was destined to lose to them from the start.

At that moment, Enzo put his hand on Theo’s shoulder. Theo turned his head slightly to look at Enzo’s hand then his face. While he was unconsciously trying to find some anger and sadness of defeat in his father’s expression, Theo stepped back because there was no agony in his expression. Theo got confused at that moment.

He asked in a confused and surprised voice, “Dad, are you okay?”

“I’m alright, son.”

“But you have always told me the name of Chef Daniel. You told me he was the one who defeated you and left an indelible stigma on your life.”

“Yeah, and that stigma was more painful to you than me.”

When his father spoke in a calm voice, Theo looked at him blankly as if he was hit hard in the head. But Enzo didn’t get agitated at all, watching his son.

Then Enzo said in a calm and soft voice, “Of course, I was distressed because I was defeated. At first, I felt like a mountain with no top was created before my eyes. But I felt it only once. After that, I didn’t stop climbing the mountain. I still don’t know if I have climbed the top of the mountain right now, but compared with it in the past, I know I definitely climbed higher.”

“Dad...”

“I am grateful to Daniel.”

Theo, who was trying to say something, suddenly remained silent at his words. Enzo took his eyes off Theo and looked down at his hands. His hands with thick calluses here and there showed how much time and effort he had made to improve further over the years.

“No matter what anyone said, it was Chef Daniel who had transformed me as a chef the most in my life. Of course, a sense of defeat has always remained in my memory, but it was a loss that was more valuable than any victory. Of course, you might disagree...”

A valuable defeat. Enzo muttered that word.

What Enzo just mentioned was like saying that the man who had been angrier and more distressed than Enzo was Theo. Theo was suddenly speechless.

Theo thought Enzo was probably right. His father was defeated by Daniel, who was the person that his father, who he thought was greater than any other chef, could not defeat at the end of the day. And Theo had been bothered by and upset about Daniel’s presence. Theo loved cooking so much as to inherit his father’s restaurant without even thinking of opening his own restaurant. So, Theo wanted to get rid of the elements that degraded the value of the dish even a little bit.

“Then, did you participate in this contest because of me?”

“...”

“It wasn’t your defeat to Chef Daniel that really degraded you so much. It’s...”

It was Theo’s anger and inferiority complex. Theo couldn’t disclose it to his father.

He thought what had harassed his father all his life was Daniel, but he was not. It was himself who distressed his father, contrary to what he had thought until now.

Enzo made a smile, which was mixed with sorry, gratitude, and regret.

“No one can look down on me, son, unless I do it myself. So, you don’t have to be sorry.”

“...”

“I wanted you to know what it was like to be defeated. I just wanted you to know that it’s painful, but it’s not worthless at all.”

“If that was the case, I wish you had told me about it in advance.”

“Even if I had told you, you would not have listened to me.”

Enzo was right. If he had confided, Theo might have thought that his father wanted to look strong before him. Right now, however, Theo accepted Enzo’s message in the most obvious and cruel way.

“When I first saw Min-joon and Kaya, I thought it was fortunate that they were showing good talent comparable to Daniel’s. Theo, at that moment, I thought you might suffer a sense of defeat like me. You can turn away or run away. But in the end, you will accept the fact that you have a long way to go, not to mention your shortcomings.”

Theo could not deny what he said. Certainly, he could feel all the emotional feelings Enzo harbored now, namely his yearning for and jealousy of Min-joon and Kaya, the shocking gastronomic approach that he had never thought of, and his fear that he might not catch up with their innovative view of cooking.

Theo understood the full meaning of his father’s defeat to Daniel. He had never imagined that he would suffer so much shock and stimulus in this contest. His goal was to take over his father’s restaurant, Paris Park, but he now found even his goal was shaking.

Of course, Enzo had his number because his son might have felt so confused and embarrassed now just like he had done so a long time ago.

Enzo said in a quiet voice as if to give him a piece of advice, “Tomorrow you will see much more change than today.”

***

Everyone was worried about it, but they thought it would not happen, but at the end of the day, it happened. In other words, the chefs from Rose Island showed overwhelming competence throughout the competition, compared to other chefs. Among them, in particular, the Min-joon and Kaya pair and the Dobby and Eva pair stood out.

But even if everyone was concerned, it was quite painful and embarrassing for the French people to find no French chefs in the finals of the contest held in France. Newspapers and culinary magazines described this abnormal situation as ‘a tragedy caused by the narrow-minded French cooking style.’

Was it because of that? Those in the French restaurant industry said this embarrassing episode could be an opportunity for France because they were very passive about making any change since they were far ahead of other countries in cooking methods. But now, they could no longer remain passive. If the Paris cooking contest were an ordinary event, they would just ignore it and move on, but it was the biggest cooking contest in France. Besides, they were shocked to learn that Chef Enzo of Paris Park participated in the contest only to be eliminated from the finals, so it was natural that they felt a sense of crisis.

Of course, not everyone was on the same page on the shocking results of the contest.

Some said the problem was the Rose Island chefs’ excellence, not French cuisine. Actually, they had a point to some extent. In fact, there were not many foreign participants who stood out in this contest, except for the Rose Island chefs.

Because of that, it was Brandon who was enjoying big time now.

Looking around the fully packed restaurant, he said with a broad smile, “Thanks to you, I feel like I’m a bear riding on the back of a tiger.”

“Bear riding on a tiger’s back? Not a fox or a rabbit?”

“Well, I don’t look like a fox or a rabbit in your eyes, right?”

“Oh, no...”

“Thank you anyway. If you want, I can give you guys a lifetime pass to our restaurant. Of course, only two of you. You should not bring your friends.”

“It looks like you are too stingy. Remember we’re not coming to France often, as you know.”

“Well, if you want to manage a restaurant, you need to see how I run it. That’s the way you can become a smart CEO.”

“Okay, okay. So, please give it to me now.”

“Sure, you are as impatient as Rachel!”

Brandon took an invitation out of his pocket and gave it to Min-joon. It was an invitation to a three-star restaurant in Paris. Free a la carte tasting ticket. Min-joon accepted the invitation with his eyes twinkling.

Brandon said as if he could not understand Min-joon, “No matter how much you like cooking, aren’t you sick and tired of a restaurant? You know you have been eating all three meals at the restaurants since you came to France.”

“No, I’m not at all,” Min-joon replied with a smile.

In fact, by the time the semi-finals were over, he was feeling sick and tired of touring the French restaurants because eating a full course at a decent restaurant was harder than doing quite a bit of exercise, for he had to eat the course meal over three hours. No matter how delicious the dishes were, he had no choice but to feel he couldn’t have them all.

However, he now had a reason to keep touring restaurants because it was fun.

‘The fact that I reached gastronomic level 9 made me change like this!’

The biggest change was that he could figure out all the recipes for the dishes with a cooking score of 9. In the past, he could figure out the ingredients to some extent, but not the recipe. Of course, he could do some guesswork, but there was a limit.

But now, he could easily figure out the recipes for all those dishes. Of course, he still couldn’t figure out the kind of dish with a cooking score of 10. But even if he went to a 3-star restaurant, he could rarely find any dish with such a perfect score.

That was why he kept touring restaurants in Paris these days. Peeping into their recipes was both study and play for him. He kept enhancing his understanding of French cuisine everyday, which in turn made him feel more clearly what the French cuisine was like.

When he reached gastronomic level 9, Min-joon didn’t just feel a systematic change. In fact, even when he actually tasted a dish, his delicate taste of the food seemed to be deeper and richer. At the same time, he could fully feel the differences in the characteristics of each country’s dishes thanks to his cosmopolitan gastronomic viewpoint.

“That’s why I can keep touring the restaurants comfortably.”

Actually, he wasn’t just touring the restaurants to enjoy the benefits of his gastronomic level 9.

When the semi-finals were over, Min-joon and Dobby were given the theme of the finals in this contest.

‘The signature dish on one plate that can express yourself.’

It was a rather simple mission, compared to the semi-finals, but at the same time, it was a difficult mission because they had to express the best of their cooking style in one dish.

So, they had no choice but to concentrate on the dish’s perfection.

When the theme of the finals was given, Min-joon and Kaya decided on a certain dish after discussing it for some time.

“Let’s make a French dish in the finals.”

They were determined to make it more French than typical French dishes, and more Paris than typical Paris.