God of Cooking Novel - Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Unfamiliar (2)

The first ingredient Cho Min Joon considered was octopus. Octopus was often called the fish of the Devil by fishermen. There were some dishes in Spain, Italy, and France that used octopus, but it was an ingredient that most Caucasians were wary of. They looked at it the way Koreans looked at jellyfish. Perhaps even worse.

The problem was that the only recipes he knew using octopus was teriyaki or making it raw with a dip. It was a type of dish that wouldn’t even reach 7 points, because the process was too simple.

But when it came to tripe, he had eaten it more than he cooked it. As a result, he didn’t know how to cook it besides frying it or grilling it, and with a simple method like that, there was no way he would get a high score. He didn’t have the confidence to make the right puree or sauce for tripe either.

In the end, Cho Min Joon chose truffle. It was a box containing white truffle. Compared to octopus or tripe, there were many more cooking methods for truffle. Allan stared at the box and asked, “Truffle…? It might look simple, but the scent is hard to control. What are you thinking of making?”

“I haven’t decided yet. The direction is still uncertain. I’m sure I’ll think of something once we get to cooking.”

“In that case, I’ll let you know how much time you have to cook. 1 hour. Not just for Min Joon, but everyone else here must complete it in 1 hour.”

1 hour. Countless recipes went through Cho Min Joon’s mind before disappearing. Allan stared at Cho Min Joon. That was when Cho Min Joon came to his senses and went back to his position. Emily covered the rest of the 7 boxes and said, “Please turn around. We’re going to shuffle the boxes. Don’t look this way until I give you the cue.”

All 8 contestants turned around. They heard the boxes shuffling around. Kaya tried to focus on the sounds from right to left, but just because she focused didn’t mean she knew where the boxes went. They could have just picked up the boxes and put them back down. Kaya frowned.

‘I just hope it’s not that one.’

She was confident with most of the ingredients. Kaya had even worked with octopus before. After all, whenever the shopkeepers gave her materials that were about to go bad, she made something with it even if it was a strange piece of octopus.

She had never worked with truffles before, but she thought she could get the right flavor out of it, but sea anemone was an exception. Kaya had never seen one before. She wanted to take a piece and experiement with grilling it first, but there wasn’t enough of it to do that.

The contesants each took a box. Same with Kaya. It was slightly heavy, but she wasn’t sure if it was the ingredient or the box.

As soon as everyone arrived back in their places, the judges smiled. It was clear that they were waiting for the judges’ cue. Joseph shouted, “Please open your boxes!”

There was no need, but due to his loud voice, they all opened the boxes quickly as if it was going to blow up if they didn’t. Kaya grimaced as soon as she saw what was inside.

“… Shit.”

Inside Kaya’s box was a sausage, or more like a cow penis that looked like a sausage.

Kaya picked it up while looking at it in disgust as if it was a cockroach. The outside was shiny, and when she sniffed it, it reeked of meat.

On the other hand, Chloe got shark’s fin, which had neither a smell or flavor, unlike the cow penis. The texture was the most important, and since it was to be eaten with sauce, some would say it wasn’t a good ingredient… But in order to make it taste good, one required great skills.

Chloe’s face looked vague. She had eaten shark’s fin before, but she didn’t particularly like it. She didn’t eat it because mercury wasn’t good for her health, and she didn’t see any point if she had to dip it in a sauce for any kind of flavor, so she had never worked with shark fin before.

What Kaya dreaded the most went to Anderson, but he didn’t’ look nervous about it. After all, he had learned to make all sorts of things under his parents. He was experienced enough to work with sea anemone.

Hugo got the calf brain. Joanne got the deer liver, and Ivanna got the tripe. As for Sasha, she got the octopus. No one looked particularly satisfied with their ingredients.

“Your faces are full of confidence and determination.”

Allan spoke in a firm voice. They all sighed. Joseph smiled as he said, “You might think this mission is too mean. Since they’re not desirable materials, you might wonder why you have to cook with it, but this will clearly exhibit your true skills. Unfamiliar ingredients that you’ve never worked with before. The ability to analyze and understand an ingredient in a short span of time. The contestant without that skill will be disqualified today.”

“The number of disqualified contestants hasn’t been decided. I promise you. If you all exceed our expectations today, none of you will go home, but if anyone disappoints, the result will be different.

No contestant felt excited by the fact that no one could go home. Not even the judges believed that was going to happen. After all, one of the 8 contestants was bound to make a mistake or lack in ability. Without a miracle…

“We’ll give you 10 minutes to come up with a recipe. Please make your decision in 10 minutes.”

He always wondered why they were given such little time for the recipe. 10 minutes wasn’t enough time for even the professional chefs to come up with a proper recipe for a unique dish, so it was definitely impossible for an amateur. Of course, Anderson, Kaya, and Chloe had high cooking scores… But being skilled and being experienced were two different things.

Cho Min Joon thought of multiple recipes. The most basic one was to use the truffle as a garnish. That was the safest method. Cho Min Joon put a piece of the truffle in his mouth. He had to understand the flavor.

He didn’t think it was particularly delicious. It felt as though a type of vinegar pierced through his nose. People said it was an acquired taste, but it didn’t taste all that good to him right now.

‘Since I can’t cook it, I have to put it on a plate like this…’

Since the truffle was white, not black, he couldn’t cook it. Unlike black truffle, white truffle had to be raw in order for the scent to be preserved. If he boiled it like the French did, the scent would fly away, so Italians preferred white truffle while French people preferred black.

For that reason, most of the recipes Cho Min Joon thought of were Italian. The most basic one was oil pasta with white truffle on top. He could put it on top of meat as well, but it was difficult to make sure that the scents didn’t collide. It was also a good idea to put truffle on top of omelet.

‘Oil pasta or gratin with macaroni or gnocchi…’

With the given time considered, the latter was better. It was ineffective to spend an hour making oil pasta. That dish would only take him 20 minutes max. That could make him lose points.

If he went with gnocchi, it was a matter of if he could make it homemade. He had to make the batter with potato, flour, and eggs. That would take 1 hour on its own. Cho Min Joon’s eyes turned sharp. He either had to use prepared gnocchi and reduce time or take the risk and make it himself.

‘As for the sauce, it’ll have to be cream cheese sauce.’

He considered adding tomato sauce, but to make sure it didn’t clash, it was better to use cream cheese sauce using gorgonzola. Gorgonzola and truffle went well together, and more importantly, the expected score wasn’t so bad. At that moment, Allan announced, “Time’s up! Please begin cooking!”

Everyone raced to find their ingredients, but Cho Min Joon boiled water first. He had to boil the potatoes as soon as possible in order to succeed.

Cho Min Joon brought over the potatoes and sliced them in half, and he put them into the boiling water. He brought smaller potatoes so that they would cook faster. After that, he just had to make sure to work fast.

Other than that, the ingredients were simple. Fresh cream, butter, onions, gorgonzola cheese, mozzarella cheese, pepper, and salt.

Cho Min Joon sliced the onions and took out the water. After that, he mixed whipping cream and fresh cream in 1 to 1 ratio. After that, he fried the onions, and once the onions turned yellow, he added fresh cream and gorgonzola cheese.

While waiting for the sauce to boil, Cho Min Joon checked the potatoes. They were small potatoes, and they were also sliced in half, so they cooked quickly. Cho Min Joon put a bowl on top of ice water and put potatoes inside. He wanted them to cook down quickly.

It would take some time for the cream cheese sauce to boil and for the gorgonzola cheese to melt. Cho Min Joon glanced over at Kaya. She looked like she was making a stew. To be honest, he didn’t want to eat it no matter how it was cooked. Even if it was a 10, he wasn’t going to eat it. Perhaps, he would have tried the brain, but as a fellow man, he couldn’t dare to eat a cow penis.

‘I might throw up.’

Cho Min Joon shook his head with a smile. He felt the importance of ingredients in cooking. At that moment, the judges approached. Joseph asked, “What are you going to make?”

“Potato gnocchi gratin with cream cheese sauce. I’m going to put the truffle on top.”

“The cheese might swallow up the truffle’s scent. Have you thought about that?”

“As long as the proportions…”

Cho Min Joon stopped. He heard banging noises. And every time, Cho Min Joon’s body flinched. Kaya was grabbing on to the cow penis and slamming her knife down onto it. Beyond the act being violent, the sight would have made any man get the chills.

The judges turned around as well. Emily looked amused, but Joseph and Allan turned pale. Kaya lifted her head to the glances and spoke with a smirk. It was an evil smile.

“This is fun. I might get addicted.”