God of Cooking

<A sparrow, or a frog, or maybe even a butterfly (2)>

“I’m sorry. I think that’d be difficult.”

Minjoon’s reply was quick, which confused Alex. He thought Minjoon would throw a lot of questions to him. After all, this was actually a pretty tremendous business opportunity.

He hadn’t even thought of Minjoon refusing him like that. Anyone would be curious about becoming a model to earn money, after all. Alex replied with a confused look in his eyes.

“Wait. Perhaps you’d change your mind after a bit more…”

“No. There’s no need. I wouldn’t have revealed my recipe if I wanted to earn money out of it in the first place. If I start getting involved with making money out of this at this point… I think I’d be corrupting my original purpose. I apologize.”

“Ah…”

Alex couldn’t help but shut his mouth. No need for money? He’s heard rich stars say that plenty of times in the past, sure. But people like Minjoon? Now that was a surprise.

‘How can you say you don’t need money?’

Alex couldn’t even begin to understand it. His head just went blank. Minjoon seemed to have noticed Alex’s confusion, and responded softly.

“I’m fine with you using my recipe. I just think it’d be difficult for myself to promote it. Please do my recipe justice. I’d be happy if you made your customers walk away happy and satisfied.”

“…Is that really all you want?”

“Yes. It is.”

“Alright. I’ll have to contact my boss about this. Ah, and chef.”

Alex picked up his bag with a smile.

“I have much respect for your decision. Thank you for the meal. I enjoyed it.”

“Thank you. Your happiness means the world to me.”

“I’ll see you next time.”

“Yes. Thank you again.”

Alex walked away pretty easily. But he couldn’t take care of everyone just like that. Minjoon smiled bitterly as he walked into the parking lot with Anderson.

“You’re trying too hard, Ms. Terry.”

“Sorry, chef.”

Terry was staring back apologetically. Anderson turned to Minjoon with an annoyed look.

“How long will this take?”

“Don’t know, what do you think, Ms. Terry?”

“I have no idea. Just about as much time you could afford to tolerate me, I suppose.”

“Hm. How difficult.”

Minjoon started thinking a little to himself. Anderson jabbed him on the side, motioning him to move, but Minjoon couldn’t leave the girl like that.

“There aren’t any buses at this hour either. If we talk for a bit, would you mind driving me back home?”

“Of course I wouldn’t mind! I could even take you back to Korea.”

“That’s a bit too far… Sorry, Anderson.”

“Kaya might get mad at you, you know.”

“It’s fine. You’ll have to deal with her, not me.”

Anderson’s face turned incredibly bitter right then. Minjoon laughed as he put a hand over Anderson’s shoulder.

“I’m joking, man. You can do it. I believe in you.”

“… I can’t do much, you know. Come back quick, anyhow. She’s going to be furious if you’re late.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll be there.”

Minjoon nodded calmly. Anderson looked at Terry annoyedly before stomping over to his car. Terry fiddled with her hair nervously. The way the night light reflected off her blonde hair made her look unnecessarily cool. Was it because she normally looked quite rich? Minjoon felt a weird sense of alienation from her as a result.

“You know, don’t you?”

“Know what?”

“That there’s no way I’d work with Delia.”

“…I had my hopes up a tiny bit, but yeah. It really does look like it. Are you just tolerating me out of respect right now?”

“Pretty much. You should know yourself that Delia isn’t actually looking for a chef.”

Terry lifted her foot without saying a word. Every time her high heels touched the asphalt floor underneath, it sounded like a woodpecker pecking against a tree. Terry began with a quiet voice.

“Yes. I know that very well. I’d tell you to take advantage of her if you were a little more ambitious, but… I didn’t think you’d take that well.”

“If you really want me to work with Delia, you should focus on trying to change her instead. You two are friends, right?”

“Yes…. At least, I think. Delia probably thinks she’s my friend as well. Though the definition of that might be a little different.”

“You should seriously talk with her if you really want to recruit me. I know it’s hard for people to change, but you can’t keep wasting time like that.”

Terry smiled weakly as she looked down at the floor.

“You’re strong. I’ve always told Delia that some things can’t be bought with money, but you’re the first to actually prove that. That’s why I’ve been hoping in the back of my head that you’d refuse. But that does make me curious. How do you stay so detached from money?”

“I like money, too. I mean, I’ve lost sleep over rent more times than I can count. The reason why I’ve been riding Anderson’s car is because I’m a cheapskate as well.

“Ah, that was what it was?”

“That is what it is, yes.”

“So why did you refuse Delia’s offer, then? Your life would’ve changed.”

“It would’ve. But it wouldn’t have really gotten better.”

Minjoon didn’t tell anyone this, but he’s wondered more than once about what would’ve happened if he really did accept the money. About the things he could’ve bought, eaten, but…

“I would’ve gotten a car, my furniture would’ve risen in quality, and I might’ve even gotten myself a house. My rooms would get bigger, and my TV would’ve gotten better as well. Of course I’d feel happy about things like those. But I’m at my happiest when I cook. Especially when I cook good food.”

“Like Jo Reggiano, for example?”

“Yes. Kaya’s sad that I’m losing potential money over this, but… I feel like the world is in my hands right now.”

Minjoon grinned happily. Terry couldn’t help but believe Minjoon at that moment. The smile was just so sincere. Terry looked down at her high heels for a second. Her feet, encased in expensive material… Never looked more weak to her than now.

€

The next morning, Minjoon took off to a cafe with Kaya and Anderson. The three of them were trying the Jo Reggiano from the store.

“Looks like they used the right cheeses for this.”

“They have a lot of people. They can probably take it.”

“I mean, a single chunk of cheese lasts quite a long time, after all. Most cafes probably make do with just a single type of cheese.”

“Why can’t they just sell smaller amounts of cheese?”

“Why would they? Portioning is annoying. You should know how hard parmesan gets. It’s not like you could just dunk it in a factory either.”

“In any case, seeing my dish in a place like this is great.”

Minjoon smiled delightedly. Anderson just sighed to himself.

“I’m making something like this next time, I swear.”

“Can I name it? Why not use something like stupid cake?”

“…I’m not making cake.”

Anderson growled angrily, to which Minjoon responded with a smile. It was great seeing Anderson a little more energetic than before. Seeing the man be down like that reminded him of how he felt when Kaya and Anderson became level 8 at cooking.

‘I suppose that’s what makes us friends.’

As well as rivals. Right then, Minjoon noticed a grandmother with her child at a table near them. The girl seemed to be around Ella’s age. A few minutes later, they were served a single Jo Reggiano.

‘Are they sharing?’

That wasn’t the case at all. The girl was the only one eating. The grandmother was just watching with a smile on her face.

Looking at it made Minjoon want to cry for some reason. The grandmother might’ve just been lactose intolerant. She might’ve just not wanted to eat the dish.

But seeing them reminded him that there were still people out there who couldn’t afford the dish. After all, Jo Regianno was 20 dollars at the very least, due to the recipe’s difficulty. It was not at all a dish that a poor person could afford.

“Feeling bothered?”

Kaya asked. She knew how much Minjoon cared about food. She could understand a little about what he was feeling.

“You told me before that you wanted poor people to learn what it was like to try good food, right?”

“Might’ve.”

“I can relate to that feeling sometimes. But I don’t really want to embark on that path either. Making cheap food makes it inevitable to use cheap ingredients, which would set me back a lot.”

“…Yeah, I know. I’ve been thinking about the same thing a lot.”

“If only we could get good food for cheap.”

Kaya sighed with Minjoon in agreement. Anderson just watched the two with a bored look.

“You know there’s a way, right?”

“…What?”

Kaya frowned in disbelief.

“I said, there’s a way.”

€

“Ah, Minjoon!”

Alex waved with a grin on his face.

“Did you wait long?”

“No, I didn’t. But I was surprised. I really didn’t expect any answers back.”

“I ended up changing my mind. Sorry about that.”

Alex looked a little confused, but Minjoon decided to continue on.

“I have a few big requirements. As long as you follow them, I’ll decide to model for you.”

“Yes. We’ll do anything. Please go on.”

“First, you have to follow the recipe perfectly.”

“Speaking of which, why not start producing pre-made mixes? It’d lower the price as well.”

“But the result of the dish would depend greatly on the cook’s skill. This isn’t like pancake or instant noodles after all. I want to make something accessible and cheap.”

Alex nodded.

“That’s not that big of a request, actually. Making food cheap is a goal of any consumer goods company, after all. What’s your second request?”

“I’d like to check the factories whenever I want. I want the production methods to be up to my satisfaction.”

“That’s not that difficult either. Quality is important, after all.”

“Finally, the price.”

Minjoon’s eyes turned serious. Alex thought for a second that Minjoon was going to talk about the modeling fee. But that wasn’t the case at all.

“I want the price of the dish to be accessible. It’s an expensive dish to be sure, but I want everyone to be able to afford it. The only reason why I decided to become a model is because I think a factory can lower its production cost. You can get my advice about production at any time.”

“Yes. I understand. But Minjoon, what about your commission fee?”

“Ah, yes, that.”

Minjoon looked bored right then. Was the man really not interested in money, or was he just pretending? He got the answer to that sooner than he imagined.

“Just make it cheap and delicious. Delicious enough to impress a critic. I want all my customers to smile.”

“…Minjoon, what about your fee?”

Minjoon smiled the best smile Alex had ever seen in his life right then.

“The people’s happiness is my fee.”