“……Yes.”
“There are a lot of things that are lacking for it to be called paella. The rice grains are damp like cheese, and because of that, I get the feeling that the flavor of the other ingredients are also sloppy. Coney. Right now, you are the most convincing disqualifying candidate.”
After that was Kaya. After Alan ate a bite of Kaya’s risotto, he said with a casual voice.
“Before when you were preparing to cook, I asked you. If you were planning to imitate my dish. Actually, I said that half joking but you really did so.”
“……I told you before, that the risotto I ate before was the only time I have tried it.”
“If you say it like that, I feel sorry for telling you something, but even so I need to say what I have to. Didn’t you think about reforming a little bit of the basics of my dish?”
“Are you able to run before walking?”
That was the most indirect way Kaya could say. Joseph just chewed Kaya’s risotto without saying anything, and said with a soft voice as usual.
“Just like Alan had said, maybe it lacks creativity. Because it’s the same as copying another person’s dish. Alan should have thought that copying his recipe was the best you could make. Is that right?”
“I already told you. That walking is my utmost.”
“You are right. Alan. I think like that. That it’s a bad thing for a chef to test a customer with creativity that isn’t even theirs.”
Emily nodded and said.
“Actually, how many participants could there be that had used their own recipes. In the first place, this isn’t even that kind of program. You aren’t cooking what the others had already cooked, but the theme is to cook a delicious thing. I agree on the point that she had made the best she could. Of course, her lack of understanding towards risotto can be a diminutive point, but at least, it seems that she had done her best in her own environment.”
Alan didn’t refute the words of the two. Because he thought that there was some truth behind their words. The judges sent eye signals between themselves. Alan nodded and opened his mouth.
“Kaya. We think that we want to keep watching your cooking. It’s a bit disappointing that in today’s dish, there wasn’t a trace of your color but it was still good. You have expressed it completely like I had thought. You pass.”
“………Thank you.”
Kaya turned back with a not happy nor disappointed face. And after that, it was the turn of Jo Minjoon. Precisely speaking, Jo Minjoon and Chloe’s turn. Jo Minjoon glanced at her dish. Sea mussel and shrimp was appropriately placed on top of the sea mussel’s shell so it seemed all the more luxurious. But of course, peeling off sea mussel was realistically more burdensome to do.
7 points. It wasn’t a bad score. At least, she could survive today. After he thought like that, his head got filled to the evaluation he was going to hear. It was his best work in all his life. So it was obvious for him to be expecting what kind of evaluation he would receive.
The first one to be evaluated was Jo Minjoon. Jo Minjoon couldn’t help smiling little by little. Alan glanced at the dish and opened his mouth.
“You said that you weren’t familiar to risotto, do you think that you had made it well?”
“Yes. I affirm it more than any time.”
Those confident words made Alan momentarily flinch. Alan raised his head and looked at Jo Minjoon. A voice was heard. Not from Alan, but from Emily.
“Minjoon. Last time you said that you had a scoring system. Was that called cooking score? So, what kind of score would you put to your dish? If you are confident, maybe a 7?”
There were rumours in Grand Chef’s house that Jo Minjoon scored a dish, and that he had said that his best was making a 7 points dish. Looking at Jo Minjoon’s confidence there was nothing wrong to say that his dish was a 7 point. But the weird thing was after that. Jo Minjoon replied while smiling brightly.
“No. 8 points.”
“…….8 points? Didn’t you say that it was difficult with your current strength?”
“I wonder. Maybe the word miracle is used at times like this.”
Jo Minjoon’s words were better than usual, it wasn’t with the meaning to use as broadcast material. The judges, the participants and the casting crew that were looking at him all felt that. Joseph put the risotto in his mouth as if he couldn’t take it more. He closed his eyes trying to feel the grains of rice one by one and soon, the same smile as Jo Minjoon was seen in his face.