How To Draw The Eye of a Dragon (2)

The smile on Minjoon’s face stiffened. He responded with a shocked voice.

“You can’t…?”

Rachel’s words sounded especially tough on him. But he knew Rachel wouldn’t say this without reason. Rachel opened her mouth calmly.

“It’s tasty. A good dish, no doubt. And the story… You probably wanted the pomegranate to look like a birthday present.”

“…I’m surprised you could figure that all out.”

“It looks too obvious. If you just put a ring in it, it’d make a great proposal.”

“N-no. I can’t. Kaya got mad at me for suggesting that last time.”

“That girl’s quite something herself. Well, besides that, this dish is still incomplete.”

“…Yes, I see.”

Minjoon lowered his head in sadness. Rachel looked at him like a loving mother.

“Don’t be too sad. I didn’t say I wouldn’t allow it on the menu. It’s just a little lacking, still.”

“Could you tell me what’s missing?”

“Well… That wouldn’t be very fun, would it? Besides, it wouldn’t make the dish entirely yours if I helped you.”

Minjoon nodded slowly. He couldn’t call the dish entirely his if Rachel was the one to fix a critical error in it. Rachel smiled.

“Sometimes, knowing that your dish is imperfect can be the biggest help. You know if you have to improve your dish or not, after all. I hope you find an answer soon, Minjoon.”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll make something better soon.”

Minjoon responded as calmly as he could, but it was impossible to hide the disappointment in his voice. By the time Minjoon grabbed the door handle, Rachel asked him a question.

“Did you let other people try the dish?”

“Mm… No. I took it to you before anyone else.”

“Then give it to other people. The problem might end up getting easier.”

“I understand.”

The problem would get easier just by letting other people taste the dish. Minjoon left the room thinking about the idea. When he entered the kitchen, Janet was the first to greet him.

“What did Rachel say?”

“She said it needs improvement.”

“Ah, pity.”

“….Did you smile just now?”

“What, should I be crying, then?”

“It’s not exactly a situation where you should be smiling either, you know?”

Janet just shrugged before turning away. The question of whose dish would be on the menu come christmas was a very sensitive topic between all the chefs. Minjoon tried a bite of the dish Rachel had just rejected.

“It’s tasty…”

The jam neutralized the icy coolness the ice cream provided. The balance, in fact, amplified the sweetness of the dish further, providing a very nice balanced flavor to the dish.

‘What am I missing here?’

Minjoon remembered what Rachel had told her right then. He took the dish and walked towards the other chefs. Javier, after trying the dish, cocked his head.

“It’s really good, though? Pretty fun to eat as well. Why this would’ve gotten rejected… I’m not sure.”

“Anderson, what do you think?”

“I agree with Javier. It tastes perfect. I like how sweet and sour it is. It’s pretty perfect as far as desserts go.”

Minjoon looked at all the chefs around him. They seemed a bit surprised, as they didn’t expect to have to provide their opinion. The first to speak was Gerrick.

“They say the three most important elements for food are flavor, look, and texture. This has all three. I don’t know what you’d want to fix from here.”

“I agree. It tastes a lot like pomegranate as well… I wonder what Rachel found wrong about it?”

“Mm… Maybe she was telling you to improve instead?”

Maya was the one who said the last sentence. Minjoon turned to look at her. Maya looked away unconfidently when their eyes met.

“Continue.”

“N-no. I think I just said something useless just now.”

“I’ll be the one to decide that. I need every advice I can get right now.”

“The dishes of Rose Island isn’t just tasty. It’s all about showing the guests some sort of freshness, or depth, in the flavor of the food. It should make the guests go ‘Wow, so food can taste like this, too?’ or ‘Huh, this food has such an incredibly complex flavor.’ Ah, not that your food is bad, of course.”

The girl seemed incredibly nervous as she talked. Almost as if she was afraid that Minjoon would misunderstand. Minjoon spoke to her comfortingly.

“Don’t be so nervous, Maya. You know me. I can take a beating or two. Tell me what you think.”

“…Honestly, it was a little meh. It’s super tasty, but it felt like something from a great restaurant elsewhere, almost? It felt a little lacking compared to the dishes here.”

“So it’s lacking that wow factor.”

“Mm… I suppose that’s what it is.”

Maya smiled awkwardly. It was never easy critiquing someone’s food. Especially if that food was made by someone more skilled than her.

Minjoon tapped the dish as he spoke to himself.

“A wow factor…”

Difficult.

€

There were a few things a person gets used to when they start working at Rose Island. One of them was good food. Most of their meals were composed of experimental dishes a chef had been developing. But since most of those dishes were done by Rachel Rose herself, even those experimental dishes were much better than most high class restaurant dishes.

The second thing the person would get used to was famous people. LA was a place full of hollywood stars and whatnot. Visits from stars were quite commonplace, and some people even came to taste the food by plane. Even the second richest person in the world swung by a few days ago to eat.

But even with that, he wasn’t used to the people on the table out in the hall right now. That is, Minjoon wasn’t used to them. One of them was a famous comedian, and the other was a famous female MC. The other one was a familiar face to him. Martin. Martin was on their table. But they weren’t the reason why Minjoon felt the way he did to that table.

“So Chloe’s gotten big enough to hang out with those kinds of people now.”

Minjoon stared at the table dumbly. Of course, it wasn’t like he knew what would happen to people in the future, but he was still surprised to see someone he lived with a few months back on a table full of superstars. Anderson responded with a smile.

“You didn’t know? Her cookbook has been a best seller for a while. She’s been getting on all sorts of shows.”

“Why do you look so proud of that fact?”

“I’m not.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I’m really not, though…”

Anderson made an annoyed face, but Minjoon ignored it. Janet walked up to the two with crossed arms.

“Are you good friends with Chloe? She came by last time, too, if I remember correctly.”

“Well, yeah, we’re pretty good friends. Aren’t we friends, too?”

Minjoon turned to smile at Janet, but the woman looked at him coldly in response.

“You know you’re really cringey sometimes?”

“…I guess I am. Alright, I’m sorry.”

“You really need to fix that. Some of the chefs can’t even work properly when they hear you speak.”

He really didn’t know what to say to that. When Minjoon scratched his cheeks awkwardly, Anderson turned to look at Janet.

“You should fix your personality as well. You’re giving your chefs a ton of stress.”

“I don’t think I should be hearing that from you of all people?”

Anderson wasn’t a great boss to Antonio either, all things considered. Anderson could only stand there, unable to respond at all.

When the meal was finished, Minjoon and Anderson headed over to Chloe’s table. Minjoon smiled, and offered them his greeting.

“Hello, Martin, Chloe. Ah, greetings to you two as well. It’s our first time meeting, yes?”

“We were dragged over by Martin and Chloe, haha. It turned out well, though.“

The female MC spoke jokingly. Martin looked at Minjoon with a smile.

“Minjoon, Anderson, it’s good to see you working hard here. How is it, do you like it here?”

“Very. It’s a great job.”

“Anderson, you?”

“There’s no reason for me to not like it. I’ve worked as a chef my entire life, after all.”

Anderson responded with a bored voice. Minjoon poked him almost annoyedly.

“Hey, stop being so mean to the customers.”

“…There’s lots of mean chefs out there already.”

“It’s ok, Minjoon. That’s just what Anderson’s like.”

“The two of you are still the same as ever.”

Chloe smiled, and Minjoon shrugged in response.

“It’s only been ten days, you know?”

“Ten days in Hollywood is really long. Tons of stuff happened.”

Chloe sighed. The other two who were on their table soon left due to their schedule, and Minjoon and Anderson were able to sit down.

“So, that pomegranate dish. Has that been going well?”

“I thought it did, but… Rachel told me she couldn’t put it on the menu.”

“Why?”

“She wouldn’t tell me. I think she wants me to find out myself.”

“Hm… Makes sense.”

Chloe nodded. Martin looked at Minjoon with a curious face.

“Could you show us? We can give you feedback as customers. Plus, we just finished the current menu, so we can compare quite nicely.”

“Is that fine? The dish might ruin the experience for you a little.”

“…I can always come back later. As long as you could get a table for us?”

“Alright, I’ll try. Please wait.”

Minjoon walked into a kitchen, and brought out the pomegranate candy and jam. Chloe expressed amazement after breaking open the shell.

“Wow, it’s so pretty!”

“And now you pour the jam in here.”

Minjoon poured the jam in one fluid motion. Chloe took a spoonful of the jam, ice cream, and toffee, and trembled with joy.

“Ughh, it’s so good. Minjoon, you’ve almost gotten annoyingly good.”

“Can you tell what’s wrong with it?”

“No, not really…”

Minjoon turned to look at Martin, but the man seemed to be just as confused. As Minjoon let out a sigh, Chloe continued to eat the dish. Right then, Chloe tilted her head in confusion.

“Strange…”

“What is?”

“Well, the flavor keeps changing, I think. It’s almost like I’m growing numb to the flavor…”

“That’s because you keep eating the same…”

Minjoon closed his mouth. A moment later, he opened his mouth again, seemingly exhausted by the wave of ideas that swept over him.

“…They say you can never stop learning. Thanks, Chloe, you saved me.”

“What, you thought of something?”

“Yeah.”

Minjoon spoke with a calm face. Chloe looked at him dumbly. Why did that face of his look so trustworthy?

“The answer. I found it.”

End.