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Chapter 475: Between Art and Cooking (2)

Downey made an upset expression at Min-joon’s words. Kevin, who peeked at his expression, roughly figured out what was going on. No matter how great Min-joon was as a chef, it was inevitable for him to encounter a man like Downey who made the case for seniority to those who landed a job later than him at June’s restaurant.

Kevin thought for a moment whether he should pay attention to their acrimony. It was quite surprising that Min-joon was feuding with one of the kitchen staff. Kevin thought with his fantastic cooking skills and position, Min-joon would be free from such worries. As a matter of act, he was like an idol among young chefs these days. They knew very well how difficult it was for a young chef like them to beat their seniors with cooking skills.

But Min-joon made it. He beat not just ordinary seniors, but the top chefs at the Paris International Culinary Competition.

As a result, quite a new trend had been on the rage among young chefs lately. In a break with blind obedience to their seniors, they began to be a bit rebellious and resistant to their authority. And the results were never bad. Also, young chefs didn’t take their shortcomings for granted because of their young age.

Kevin said to Min-joon, “Can I wait a little more?”

“Oh no. Let’s go.”

Min-joon looked back at Downey for a moment, then moved with Kevin without saying anything anymore. Downey looked at his back for a while. He was pissed off, but he soon knew his place. While Min-joon was powerful enough to grant an interview to the magazine editor, he found himself just looking at his back helplessly.

Just because Kevin and Min-joon left the place, the situation was not over yet.

Eva opened her mouth, looking at Downey coldly.

“Are you going to let me be your excuse again this time?”

“Sorry, Chef Eva.”

“It doesn’t matter now whether you let me be your excuse or not. Whatever the reason, I can’t accept your childish behavior.”

When she said that, he looked at her bitterly as if he was offended. At that moment, she felt a bit sad, but she was determined to change his bad habit.

“You have challenged Min-joon every time you speak to him, but you are silent before me. Why? Min-joon is your sous chef and our sous chef. If you don’t respect him, what do you think will happen to our kitchen?”

“Well, it’s going to be a mess...”

“You know it already. If that happens, who is to blame? Min-joon you are hating or an idiot like you who is messing up with everything with stupid jealousy?”

Downey hardened his face at the moment. Normally, she would have stopped at this point, but she could not today. She knew he was also aware that he made a mistake. But he messed up because he could not control his feelings.

She continued, “You guys said one of you would have to quit in the worst scenario. I don’t know how Chef June would judge it, but if such a situation came, I think you should have to leave this place.”

“Chef!”

As if she felt she was too mean, Osla, who was next to her, stopped her with an offended expression.

But Eva didn’t stop and said, “You’re corroding our kitchen now.”

***

“It looks like you are in a pretty difficult situation.”

As he was moving for an interview, Kevin asked subtly. It was clear what he asked.

Min-joon said, nodding with an awkward expression, “Well, I want to get on my horse by saying I’m not somebody, but it makes me tired. Human relations are more complicated than I think.”

“You bet. There’s nothing more difficult than human relations,” Kevin responded, chuckling.

The two headed for a franchise coffee shop in downtown New York, where a homeless man was lying down in front of a glass window. They sat down with a cup of her coffee.

Kevin quietly opened his mouth in a cheerful tone.

“As you are hard to interview, it was difficult for me to stop other junior reports from trying to interview you. I’m going to make the stars of this interview Chef Chloe and Chef Kaya.”

In fact, Min-joon didn’t grant interviews to reporters often simply because there were too many. He could not accept all their interview requests, nor did he want to select only a few of them. That was why he granted only a few reporters the interview, including Angela who was close to him.

One of the reasons why Kevin, the editor of the magazine, not a junior reporter, decided to interview Min-joon directly. He was worried that his ties with this quite promising chef would be ruined if his junior reporter made a slip of the tongue while interviewing him.

“When you first heard about the idea of Irregular Lab, what did you think?”

“Well, I thought it would be fun.”

“Fun? What about its success as a restaurant? Isn’t it the most successful factor in business?”

Min-joon rolled his eyes for a moment at his words. Success?

“Well, I thought it could be a jackpot or fiasco for them.”

“Don’t you think about the possibility of moderate success?”

“Nope. If they can make their idea work, it has far-reaching implications that can change the restaurant world. But if they can’t, their restaurant would not be better than an ordinary one. As you know, Kaya and Chloe can’t run their business by relying on their name value for long. People are very strict as far as food is concerned.”

Having said that, Min-joon drank coffee. Watching him quietly, Kevin realized once again that times had changed. Just over a decade ago, chefs at his age usually cooked without knowing what cooking was because the only way they could learn to cook was to go directly to a cooking school or work at a restaurant. Of course, there were cookbooks, but they couldn’t understand all there was in cooking. But now it was different. If people surfed the internet, they could quickly learn all of the cooking knowledge as much as chefs.

“You must be very relaxed now because the experiment of Irregular Lab has succeeded.”

“I do not know.”

“Really?”

“Well, I’m not sure yet whether they have succeeded or not.”

Kevin was rather embarrassed. This wasn’t the reply that he expected, for Irregular Lab was obviously running a good business by any standard. As more and more gourmets visited their restaurant and more people paid attention to it, Irregular Lab’s reputation became all the more higher. It was so clear that Irregular Lab would be one of the hottest items for a while. As a matter of fact, more and more chefs began to benchmark Kaya’s idea.

“Why are you not sure of the success of Irregular Lab?”

Kevin wondered if he could discern something that Kaya and Chloe could not see.

After hesitating for a moment, Min-joon looked at him and said, “I don’t want to answer that question because I don’t want to make their knees turn to jelly when they are working so hard now.”

“Can you tell me off the record?”

Min-joon shook his head as if he felt sorry and said, “I’m sorry I can’t. It sounds tough. I don’t know you, Kevin. But I know how greedy reporters are for the story they are going after.”

“If you don’t like it, I can’t run this interview, either.”

“Why?”

“Because you are the chef who will soon lead the gastronomic trend not only in the United States but also in the world,” Kevin said seriously. “I can’t afford to incur your hate. It’s going to be a big story if I incur your anger, but I can’t have a bad relationship with you because of that. Even if you don’t believe me, you have to trust your worth.”

“You have a knack for pleasing people.”

“Because it’s true.”

Min-joon chuckled as if he would agree to reply to what Kevin asked.

Min-joon hesitated a little longer, but he opened his mouth, after all.

And Kevin could not help but be shocked to hear that.

***

“I hear you’re not on good terms with Downey these days. Is it true?” June asked with a smile.

Fortunately, she was not in a mood to scold him, but Min-joon cleared his throat as if he got caught doing something wrong.

“Well, we haven’t gotten along well. He is complaining about me all the time.”

“Do you want me to fire him?” she asked nonchalantly.

At that moment, he couldn’t understand why she said that.

So, he asked, “I beg your pardon?”

“I heard that you asked him which of you Chef June would choose if she had to. Good question! If I have to choose, I’ll have to choose you as a businessman and a chef.”

“Chef June, I just said that...”

“Well, you might have said that casually, but it’s something that I have to clearly draw a line at. If you two continue to clash like that in the kitchen, I myself will find it very difficult to manage the staff. Looking at the situation, it’s clear who made the mistake. I’ve no problem at all even if I fire Downey because it is much easier to hire a demi chef than a sous chef.”

Given the way she spoke to him, she wasn’t really kidding. If Min-joon wanted, she would immediately fire him even now. So, he was so embarrassed.

When he hesitated for a moment, she opened her mouth again.

“As you know, I hired you the hard way. And I promised you the best compensation possible. My contract doesn’t have a clause on the situation where you feel offended by somebody here, and I don’t want to keep the guy who makes me break that promise. So tell me what to do with him. Do you want me to fire him?”

At that moment, Min-joon seriously pondered over the question. Honestly, he would be comfortable if she fired Downey. But what would other kitchen members think of this situation? Did he really think Downey made a big mistake enough to justify her firing?

“I think it’s too harsh to fire him. He may be immature...”

“Well, I don’t really agree with that, but if you want to, I’ll listen to you. Then, you manage him from now on. Got it?”

“Me?”

“It’s you who would not let me fire him. Then, you’ll have to mend fences with Downey. It’s up to you how to control him. You can threaten or persuade him to listen to you. Above all, make sure who is his supervisor.”

She ended the conversation with him. He came out of her office with a heavy heart.

While standing before the door, he suddenly got upset. As a matter of fact, he had so many things to take care of right now, but he had no choice but to waste his precious time because of this stupid guy.

He headed to the kitchen right away. Downey, who was just checking the soup in the kitchen, looked at him in a bit of surprise.

“Hey, Downey,” Min-joon said in an angry tone.

“I need to talk to you. Follow me.”

“Well, I’m busy now.”

“If you don’t follow me right now, you are going to be fired. Chef June has given me the full authority.”

When the kitchen staff heard him, the cheerful atmosphere in the kitchen turned heavy in an instant. With everybody looking at him in a tense mood, Min-joon opened his mouth quietly.

“I know you’ve maintained something like your own territory in this kitchen, but I have no intention of respecting it.”

His tone was very harsh this time.

“Let me remind you clearly who is your supervisor here.”