Chapter 67. I’m Confident in My Knife Skills (2)
“Time! The second test is over!”
The signal announcing the end of the second round soon rang out.
Just like before, the men in suits began moving around and inspecting the sauces the applicants had made.
“Failed. Leave.”
“Failed.”
“Failed. You didn’t reproduce the flavor.”
Rejections came from every direction.
At least during the first test, a fair number of people had passed depending on their results.
But in the second round, applicants were being eliminated one after another.
Eventually, an examiner came to check Yukgap’s result too.
“All right. Where’s the sauce you made?”
“I didn’t make one.”
Yukgap answered casually.
The examiner looked genuinely taken aback.
“What do you mean?”
“This sauce can’t be reproduced.”
Yukgap looked straight at him.
“That’s my answer.”
When he had tasted the sample earlier, a distinct sweet-and-tart savoriness had lingered at the tip of his tongue.
Yukgap had immediately realized what it was.
But there was a problem.
“There’s one ingredient this sauce absolutely needs.”
He pointed at the available seasonings.
“Plum extract.”
“But there wasn’t any plum extract among the ingredients you gave us.”
That was right.
The seasonings they had been told they could freely use did not include plum extract.
And that was exactly what Yukgap had noticed.
“This sauce was impossible to reproduce from the start.”
He looked at the examiner knowingly.
“Right?”
The examiner remained silent for a moment.
Then he nodded.
“...Pass. Prepare for the third test.”
“Knew it.”
Yukgap grinned proudly.
Victoria, who had been watching from nearby, looked almost more excited than he did.
“That’s amazing! How did you figure it out?”
Yukgap shrugged.
“Animal instinct.”
Then he added casually,
“Kevin’s men aren’t idiots. There’s no way they accidentally forgot an essential ingredient. If it was missing anyway, that meant they did it on purpose.”
Yukgap quickly looked around.
Far more applicants than expected had failed the second round.
Only a handful remained.
And the applicant Yukgap had been watching earlier was still standing firmly in place.
Apparently, he had passed the second test as well.
“That guy passed too.”
Yukgap kept a close eye on him.
Before long, the signal for the third test rang out.
“We will now begin the third round.”
Kevin’s men immediately brought out an assortment of ingredients and arranged them in front of the applicants.
Every single one was top quality.
“Using the ingredients in front of you, prepare the dish you’re most confident in. The examiners will taste it and decide.”
“Now this actually feels like a proper cooking test.”
Yukgap’s fighting spirit rose.
The earlier tests had measured basic culinary skills.
The third round was where their actual cooking ability would be judged.
In a way, this was the real contest between chefs.
“What are you going to make?”
Victoria asked cautiously.
Yukgap frowned in thought.
“Good question. What should I make?”
Someone once said that the hardest dish to make was “anything.”
With so many excellent ingredients in front of him, Yukgap actually found it harder to decide.
Robert offered advice.
[At times like this, it is best to make what you are most confident in.]
“What I’m most confident in...”
Yukgap thought about it.
A dish he had made so many times he could probably prepare it with his eyes closed.
Something customers responded well to.
Something that would probably continue selling in the future.
“There’s only one choice.”
Yukgap answered firmly.
“I’m making salmon rice bowl.”
Victoria looked doubtful.
“You’re really going with that? Isn’t it a little ordinary?”
“It’s better to make something I know well than screw up trying something fancy.”
Yukgap had already decided.
He gripped the daggers he always carried in both hands.
“Besides, knife work is what I’m best at.”
Victoria immediately stepped forward.
“Then I’ll handle the rice and sauce!”
“Good. I’ll take care of the salmon!”
Yukgap quickly moved to find salmon for the dish.
Before long, he spotted a bright orange fillet among the ingredients.
The sheen and freshness were perfect.
With that, he could make an ideal salmon rice bowl.
Yukgap reached for it.
“Huh?”
At that exact moment, someone snatched the salmon right before his hand reached it.
Yukgap froze in surprise.
“Oh. Did I beat you to it?”
Someone spoke awkwardly.
It was the applicant Yukgap had been watching.
Yukgap instinctively answered,
“N-No. It’s fine.”
“Here. You can have it.”
The man handed the salmon over to Yukgap.
Then he smiled pleasantly.
“Good luck.”
With those words, he walked away.
Yukgap stood there staring blankly at the stranger’s back.
“Yukgap, what’s wrong?”
Victoria immediately noticed something was off when he returned with a dazed expression.
Yukgap glanced toward the mysterious applicant a short distance away.
“That guy matched my speed.”
Victoria recoiled.
“Is that possible?”
“No.”
Yukgap’s answer was immediate.
He possessed animalistic reflexes and visual tracking sharp enough to follow movement beyond the speed of sound.
Yet that man had not only followed Yukgap’s hand.
He had taken the ingredient Yukgap wanted first.
This was the first time anyone had ever beaten him like that.
“That guy really isn’t a normal human.”
Yukgap watched the mysterious applicant with certainty.
[Receive the baptism of fire!]
Flames burst from Robert and perfectly seared the salmon.
Yukgap checked the condition of the fish placed over the rice bowl and grinned.
“Good. The sear is perfect too!”
Victoria arrived with freshly cooked rice.
“The rice and sauce are ready.”
“We should thank the Salmon Rice Bowl Brothers.”
Yukgap muttered as he arranged salmon over the steaming rice.
Victoria giggled.
“True. Thanks to them, you’ve gotten really good at making salmon rice bowls.”
Slices of salmon sashimi were soon neatly layered across the bowl.
Victoria stepped forward as though she had been waiting for this moment.
She poured the prepared sauce over the top.
“All right. Now we finish it with Lady Victoria’s special sauce!”
Yukgap immediately narrowed his eyes.
“It’s a normal sauce, right?”
“Relax. This time, I only used completely ordinary ingredients.”
Victoria answered confidently, clearly trying to reassure him.
“The third test is over!”
Just as they finished the salmon rice bowl, the signal announcing the end of the round rang out.
Yukgap nervously presented the dish.
“Finished?”
The examiner in a black suit asked.
Yukgap had done everything he could.
With that thought, he held out the salmon rice bowl he had carefully prepared.
“Yeah. Try it.”
“Hmm. It looks decent.”
The examiner scooped up a large spoonful and put it into his mouth.
Chew. Chew.
Yukgap held his breath and waited.
Every second felt painfully long.
“Wow.”
The first thing that came out was an emotional exclamation.
The examiner stared blankly into empty space.
“Wow... wow... wow... Wooooooow!”
His hands even began trembling as though he had witnessed something incomprehensibly vast.
Fear and ecstasy alternated across his face.
That was obviously not a normal reaction.
Yukgap immediately turned on Victoria.
“Victoria, what did you put in this?”
“Uh... soy sauce, garlic, salt, a little pepper...”
“That’s really all?”
Yukgap pressed her.
Victoria cautiously answered,
“I mixed in just a tiny bit of that universe-flavored curry we made before, to get rid of the salmon smell.”
“Why would you put that in?!”
“The internet said adding a little curry to sauce can be good!”
Meanwhile, the examiner who had eaten their salmon rice bowl continued gasping for breath and marveling at something only he could see.
“Wow... wow... wooooooow...”
Yukgap could only laugh hollowly.
“We’re screwed. Haha.”
“Haaaaaa... I finally had a chance to meet Kevin too.”
After the test ended, Yukgap walked outside with a long sigh.
The examiner who had eaten his salmon rice bowl never properly recovered and eventually had to be carried away on a stretcher.
Afterward, the organizers had simply told Yukgap to “go home.”
It obviously meant he had failed.
“Yukgap, are you mad?”
Victoria asked cautiously.
She was the one who had caused the situation.
But Yukgap did not even have the energy to get angry.
“No. I’m just mad at myself for not realizing this would happen if I let you touch the cooking.”
The three of them were walking dejectedly along the docks when a black car suddenly stopped nearby.
The rear window rolled down.
A man in a black suit called out to Yukgap.
“Wait.”
Yukgap immediately sensed something unusual.
“What is it?”
“I came to inform you that you passed the third test.”
“What?”
Yukgap thought he had misheard.
The man in the car carefully explained,
“Those who pass the third round will meet Kevin directly. To prevent any unexpected incidents, all successful applicants are notified individually.”
Then he held out an invitation.
Yukgap stared at it in disbelief.
He had passed with that dish?
Still confused, he accepted the invitation and asked,
“By the way, is the guy who ate my food okay?”
“The examiner?”
The man nodded.
“After regaining consciousness, he praised your cooking and said he had ‘seen the end of the universe.’”
“...Good to hear.”
Apparently, the universe-flavored curry had somehow suited his taste.
The man pointed at the invitation.
“The location and time for your meeting with Kevin are written inside. Go there, and you’ll be able to meet him.”
He continued,
“You’ll speak with Kevin privately, and he will personally decide whether to hire you.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
“Then I’ll see you there. I hope Kevin takes a liking to you.”
With that, the man raised the window.
The car immediately drove away.
His departure was just as sudden as his arrival.
“Whew. So... I guess things worked out?”
Yukgap muttered as he looked at the hard-earned invitation.
There had been plenty of twists and turns.
But he finally felt like he had taken another step closer to his past.
