Chapter 80
“It isn't a course format.”
The Chairman spoke, holding chopsticks with brown patterns scattered across black wood.
As she said, the meal was not prepared in a course format.
I looked at the eight ceramic bowls and the single Stone Pot Bowl placed on the table and spoke.
“Yes. It is a Gucheopbansang prepared in the traditional Korean Hansangcharim style. In the past, it was said to be a precious dining table that only the Nobles called Sadaebu could enjoy.”
“Hmm.”
I made it sound incredibly impressive, but in truth, it wasn't a Gucheopbansang. Just because there are nine bowls doesn't make it a Gucheopbansang.
According to the traditional method, rice, kimchi, and soup are basic items excluded from the nine dishes.
So, strictly speaking, it is more accurate to call it an Ocheopbansang rather than a Gucheopbansang. And even then, it isn't a true Ocheopbansang, but rather a Table Setting imitating one.
However, a Gucheopbansang that only Sadaebu could eat and an Ocheopbansang that ordinary Yangban could also eat had a difference like heaven and earth when it came to Presentation.
The Chairman wouldn't know much about a Korean Traditional Bansang anyway.
As long as I kept my mouth shut, she would consider it a Gucheopbansang, which would Leave the Chairman satisfied and make things work out well for me too.
Even if it wasn't a real Gucheopbansang, there were nine bowls placed on the table, making it look visually splendid, so I figured that adding a slightly exaggerated verbal explanation like this would earn me a passing grade for the first impression.
Of course, the Chairman merely looked around the Dinner Table without any particular Change in Expression.
From her outward appearance Alone, I had no idea what she was thinking. It was like having an emotionless doll sitting at the dining table.
Still, just the fact that she didn't frown or spit out Cold words was a success.
The Chairman remained silent before speaking.
“Not Serving it as a course was not a bad choice. I've eaten Haute cuisine (France's highest-class traditional Course Meal) to the point of being sick of it.”
It worked.
I clenched my fist tightly where it couldn't be seen.
My intended strategy had worked.
The Chairman, who must have eaten the highest-class Course Meal dinners every day, seemed to find the Hansangcharim style of the traditional Korean table d'hôte I used as a motif to be refreshing.
From my knowledge within the game and the experiences I had gone through in reality, Chairman Karin Isiho was the type to feel disgusted by things she already knew or that were easily Predictable, and to feel interested in something new that defied expectations.
“By the way—you said you lost your memories of Korea, yet you know quite a lot, Gucheopbansang, Sadaebu... Have you recovered your memory?”
Crap.
My heart sank at the casually asked question as she poked around the rice inside the stone pot with her chopsticks.
That was true. When the Chairman had asked about my origins, that was my Answer.
I couldn't remember well. It seemed I had lost my memories from before my escape from Militia's Research Institute.
Only the language I knew, my cooking Technique, and other practical aspects of daily life seemed to come to mind vaguely.
I had given the convenient excuse of Amnesia... but in some ways, it was also true.
It had nothing to do with memories, but it was true that I had absolutely no information about New Mecha Korea.
All I remembered was the Republic of Korea from a century ago.
For whatever reason, the Chairman had let my flimsy excuse slide back then, but it was only natural that a corner of my heart still felt somewhat uneasy.
Because of that, I couldn't help but be flustered by the question of whether I had recovered my memory.
“It is thanks to the cooking Technique left in my head originally, and the knowledge about food awakened thanks to my experience working at the restaurant.”
Of course, apart from being flustered, coming up with some Improvisation to respond to a perplexing question wasn't difficult.
At my safe Answer, the Chairman gave a faint nod.
“I did order you to cook, anticipating that over the past period much more of your knowledge regarding cooking would have returned. I suppose we'll have to see how it is.”
Phew...
A figure like Isiho's Iron Blood Chairman wouldn't have asked that for no reason; she was probably just probing me.
I had managed to smooth it over somehow, but the problem was that the meal hadn't even started yet.
I had encountered all sorts of VIPs while working at the restaurant, but Karin Isiho was an entity that required an extreme level of caution far beyond them.
To think I had to continue this nerve-wracking conversation until the Chairman's Dinner time was over was truly...
“Is this pot rice?”
As if turning her Attention back to the food, Karin Isiho asked while touching the stone pot, the rice mixed with meat and bean sprouts inside it, and the seasoning sauce placed next to it.
“Yes. It is a Korean-style Kamameshi made using bean sprouts and Pork. It is delicious if you mix in the seasoning sauce appropriately with your spoon. It is good to eat as is, and it is also good to eat with other side dishes.”
In short, it was Kongnamul Sotbap.
I placed soaked rice, water, and bean sprouts inside the stone pot, then added Pork Stir-fried with ginger, garlic, and salt to be cooked with the rice.
It was a simple yet difficult recipe that I often used to make before coming to Dusk City.
As for why it had difficulty, it was because Heat control was hard. If the heat was too strong, the rice would burn, but if it was too weak, it would be undercooked.
You had to maintain just the right level by changing the strength of the heat, but since you couldn't open the pot to check the internal situation in the middle, you had to Finish it by feel, relying only on the sound, the smell, and the visible flames.
That was no ordinary feat. It was a dish that wasn't easy to produce a perfect result for.
And today's Kongnamul Sotbap was...
‘By my standards, it's perfect.’
Even the act of picking up a spoon and mixing the rice into the seasoning sauce looked like an incredibly refined and luxurious action when the Chairman did it.
However, even without the presence of a figure like Karin Isiho, the rice itself was perfectly cooked and shining thanks to the golden bean sprouts. On top of that, I could see that a proper crust of scorched rice had formed at the bottom.
From its outward appearance, it seemed impossible for it not to be delicious.
I had brought it out with the pot lid closed and only opened it when presenting it in front of the Chairman, so I hadn't been able to taste it, but that conviction came to me naturally.
I wondered how it would suit Chairman Isiho's palate.
She placed an amount that filled about half the spoon between her Red Lips and chewed thoughtfully.
Soon, she swallowed smoothly and gave her evaluation.
“It's good that there's no gamey smell.”
A light word of Praise. That was it.
However, this Alone was an undeniable achievement. Combined with the earlier comment about the table composition, it meant I had already heard Praise twice.
As expected, choosing the stone pot rice was a good choice.
It had been quite a while since I last made it, so I was worried if I could make it perfectly, but I also had Something to Rely On.
That was none other than Dusk City's state-of-the-art Kitchen System.
In particular, Technology related to Fine Cuisine had advanced time and time again, to the point where the Commercial Range in the Hot Section and the dishes that needed to be heated using it constituted an Automated System, requiring no human intervention in the middle.
Of course, the ability to handle the Range System was a separate issue, and if one couldn't set and adjust the detailed temperature changes and conditions in advance, it would be no different from pearls before swine.
I had completely hammered the method of managing the Heat control System into my head while working at the highest-class restaurant.
Since the kitchen environment was different, it wasn't exactly the same Interface, but it wasn't difficult to get used to.
Because of that, I was able to save more time than expected and Finish it much more easily, faster, and perfectly without directly adjusting the heat.
This too was the realm of Culinary Skill, and I had succeeded in covering it with the skills I had built up so far.
Fortunately, it didn't seem to displease the Chairman's palate much either.
I couldn't call it a perfect Answer, but I felt like I could get about 60 to 70 points out of 100.
The Chairman, Karin Isiho, put down her spoon and once again looked at the neatly arranged food on the ceramic bowls.
“Since you said there's no course... is the eating order also not set?”
“Yes. You may choose and eat the rice and side dishes according to your Judgment, Chairman.”
“I like that.”
The Chairman didn't think deeply and proceeded to lift her spoon.
The large Ceramic Bowl, placed next to the stone pot, held thin broth with green onions and a slight layer of grease floating on top.
With her spoon, she stirred the pure white chicken and scorched rice floating in the soup.
“Chicken Soup?”
“It is a Korean-style Chicken Soup, Samgyetang. I stuffed the inside of the chicken with Sub-ingredients such as glutinous rice, jujubes, ginseng, and garlic, boiled it, and then placed green onions, the boiled chicken, and Korean-style Okoge—scorched rice called nurungji—into that broth.”
“Chicken Soup with a whole chicken in it, how unusual!”
For now, I have succeeded in drawing her interest.
Samgyetang was also my own Trump Card.
Since rice and soup were the basics of a traditional Korean Meal and Hansangcharim, I ended up focusing exceptionally hard on choosing the recipe.
I couldn't exactly serve Kimchi Jjigae, Doenjang Jjigae, or Sundubu Jjigae when treating the Chairman,
and out of the things I knew, Samgyetang was the one I thought could be presented the most luxuriously while capturing the flavor well.