God of Cooking

Chloe pretended to be calm, but she was obviously offended because Teresa teased her. Of course, she could not show her feelings because of her petit pride.

Teresa also felt even if she teased Chloe more that she would be more upset. So instead of teasing her, Teresa changed the topic with a smile.

“What are you going to do next?”

“Cooking.”

“Can you elaborate?”

“I just don’t know. I just feel scared about starting a new job.”

Teresa didn’t ask her why she was scared because she already knew the answer. It was usually because of one reason that she was scared. She was scared about failure because she had never failed in her life. Of course, her relationship with Min-joon could be taken as a failure, but at least since she started a cooking career, she had been walking the path with guaranteed success.

Looking at her quickly, Chloe asked, “Will you come often if I open a restaurant?”

“Well, I will as long as you make fine dishes and I’m available.”

“You said you liked the food I made last time, right? How much do you like it?”

“Chloe,” Teresa said in a low voice. “Don’t think of being judged by me. It’s you who has to judge your dish, not anyone else.”

“Well, I’m willing to if I sing a song. But cooking is different. You can sing without anyone hearing it. But if they don’t enjoy your dishes, I should throw them in the trash.”

“Yeah, you’re right. So why are you scared? What’s the matter?”

“I’m just curious how valuable I am as a chef if people think of me not as an entertainer.”

Teresa did not answer. She was not in a position to rank her worth as a chef. She still thought it was Chloe herself who had to evaluate her own dish at the end of the day.

She slightly changed the topic.

“What would you do if they don’t think you are valuable as a chef?”

“Uh?”

“It seems that you are doing nothing but praying that you can be more valuable than you think. What will you do if you are not valuable? Are you going to give up?”

“Oh, that’s not what I mean…”

“Even if you think you are valuable, just try what you want. You will find yourself more valuable someday if you try hard. If you can’t, just try to find a way to increase your worth.”

Chloe did not respond to her advice because she had nothing to say. She realized why she was hesitant now. She wondered if she was not competent enough to open a restaurant, but at the same time, she was afraid of working for somebody else.

No wonder she felt so. Given her fame, she didn’t have to work for another chef. If she had to land a job at a restaurant, it was because she needed kitchen leadership such as how to control the kitchen staff, just like Raphael tried to make up for his shortcomings by learning from Rachel.

That was why she admired Raphael and Min-joon. Even though they already established themselves as chefs, they didn’t hesitate to work for Rachel.

Chloe found it hard to come to terms with that reality. When she knew it, she didn’t go to the trouble of finding a restaurant job. She did not want to give up the happiness she was enjoying now.

Chloe was silent for a long time. Teresa didn’t push her. Chloe had been avoiding the choices that could lead to her failure. And she would do the same this time. Over the short or long run, she had to find a way to survive. She was that type of woman.

***

Min-joon and Kaya’s newlywed life was strange. It wasn’t strange just because they didn’t go on a honeymoon. Even now there were too many guests in their house.

“Hey, do you guys really want to have a party like this when you are still newlyweds?”

“Well, it’s boring that only the two of us are spending time like this.”

“If you are already bored about your newlywed life, what will you do when you are old?”

“Well, we can have a party like this.”

“Oh my God!” Anderson sighed and shook his head.

Right now, there were lots of people in their house, though they were not as many as the wedding guests. Among them were Lisa, Ella, Min-joon’s family members who didn’t yet return to Korea, and Kaya’s family members.

Besides, Chloe and Delia were also among the guests now, not to mention Rachel, Isaac, Janet, and other members of Rose Island head restaurant. Even Gwen was looking around in the corner. It was no exaggeration to say that almost everyone they knew in Los Angeles was here.

In the meantime, Min-joon and Kaya were concentrating hard on cooking in the kitchen. Obviously, they promised not to do anything bothersome for the next 15 days, but they soon realized that they were inseparable from cooking. At first, they felt so comfortable spending day by day without cooking anything, but they soon couldn’t stand doing nothing all day long.

In that respect, it was no exaggeration to say that they hosted this party to find an excuse to cook. Fortunately, all the participants in this party enjoyed their gathering here.

“So, how about your newlywed’s life?”

“Well, it’s great! Of course, you don’t know it.”

Kaya replied with a smile at Delia’s question.

At that moment, Delia made an upset expression but tried to calm down.

She had never won an argument with Kaya. So she knew she didn’t have to show everybody here that she was being humiliated by Kaya again.

Kaya said, “If there’s one thing I regret, it’s that my vacation is coming to an end soon.”

“Gosh, how can you describe your newlywed’s life as a vacation?”

“Why not? After our 15-day honeymoon vacation is over, we have to get back to work.” “Work? What are you talking about?”

“We have to prepare for the opening of our restaurant. First, we have to hire new kitchen staff.”

“Really? So lots of people applied for a job at your restaurant? As you know, hiring the staff is the most difficult thing in running a restaurant.”

As she said, there was no place like a restaurant that suffered from a severe shortage of labor. Of course, it was not that difficult to hire just good cooks. To be honest, it was quite difficult to find a demi-chef with good cooking skills. Delia knew it well because she was running a hotel.

But Kaya wasn’t as worried as she thought.

She said in a calm voice, “I think I have no big problem. Fortunately, there are more applicants than I thought.”

“Really? How many applied?”

“600 applicants.”

“What the heck… Are you serious?”

Delia opened her mouth blankly. She didn’t understand what Kaya just said.

As if she didn’t think it was a big deal, she once again said, “600 applicants.”

“Do you think it makes any sense?”

Delia raised her voice as if she was screaming.

But Kaya made a sullen expression on her face. From the moment Delia mentioned it, she knew Delia would react like this.

It wasn’t just Delia who was shocked to hear it. Others at their house, who were in the restaurant business, were also surprised to hear as many as 600 people applied for a job at Min-joon and Kaya’s new restaurant. To put it another way, everybody except for the families of Min-joon and Kaya was surprised.

“People seem to have really big expectations of you,” Chloe said in a bewildered voice.

After looking around with a puzzled expression, Ara Cho asked in poor English, “Is that great?”

“Absolutely. I guess there are probably only a handful of restaurants in the world that accept hundreds of applicants like this.”

Chloe was just amazed to know there were as many as 600 applicants trying to get a job at Lotus Bridge. To the best of her knowledge, there were not as many applicants as this when Rachel announced a hiring ad recently. Of course, there were many differences between Rachel and the two.

For example, Rachel already established herself as the best chef in this country, so many people got cold feet even before they applied for a job at her Rose Island restaurant. Obviously, she would have elite chefs under her, so it was natural that they were scared in advance, fearing that they might not be able to compete with all kinds of elite chefs working for her.

However, Min-joon and Kaya were different. The two were famous, and people recognized their cooking skills, too. Despite their fame and achievements, however, they didn’t look arrogant. In other words, people found them quite friendly. While Rachel was such a giant chef that they found it difficult to approach, the two were just a competent chef couple armed with talent and passion for cooking.

To put it simply, they felt Min-joon and Kaya were generous enough to give them a chance to work at Lotus Bridge. That was what Chloe felt about such a large number of applicants, and she frankly told Kaya about it.