The Dedication of Samgyetang

Samgyetang is a dish that requires a lot of work.

Not only is preparing the garnishes cumbersome, such as cutting the jujubes, removing the seeds, and rolling them up and slicing them,

but you also have to remove the fat from the chicken's neck and legs, poke holes in the legs, cut off the tips of the wings, spoon in the stuffing, and then fold the legs to secure them...

Then you have to boil it in a Pressure Rice Cooker along with Sub-ingredients like green onions, garlic, jujubes, wood, and ginseng, and simultaneously, you have to roast rice in a pan to make nurungji.

Of course, since it was food that Isiho Chairman would eat, there were many parts I paid particular Attention to. If I were eating it Alone, I would have done it in a much more simpler method.

I wouldn't have even used beautifully rolled jujubes and crispy nurungji as garnishes.

Because there were so many Minor steps, it felt like I had easily spent a quarter of the total time just making the Samgyetang.

If there was one fortunate thing, it was that the result was proportional to the time invested.

The milky broth and the green onions floating on top, the jujubes rolled like flowers, the yellowish roasted nurungji, and the glossy chicken skin were incredibly captivating.

I felt like I could imagine the taste without even eating it.

The chicken would go down smoothly, as if it melted just upon entering the mouth, and the broth and stuffing would warm up the insides.

It seemed like a dish I needed more than the Chairman did. I felt like I was the one who needed to eat Samgyetang for Invigoration.

The recipe itself was chosen appropriately in many ways.

As far as I knew, Samgyetang was a dish that was very Korean yet had many aspects that would appeal to foreigners.

I hoped that point would work on the Isiho Chairman as well.

It wasn't spicy or strongly scented, and since it used chicken, there was less aversion to it, allowing the flavors of the ingredients to be drawn out gently.

‘Since I used Chicken Powder, couldn't it be considered the natural taste of chicken?’

The only sticking point was that I used a Chicken Stock-type seasoning.

It couldn't be helped.

If I didn't use Chicken Stock, I would have to boil various parts of the chicken together with vegetables over a gentle heat for hours to produce a broth rich in umami, which was not only an incredibly cumbersome and annoying Process, but also one I didn't have time for in the first place.

The time given to me was only about an hour, and creating Natural Chicken Broth within that time was impossible even with advanced Technology.

cooking is in the Territory of science, and seasonings are the very crystallization of Culinary Science. If using them could make the taste better, then it was right to use them.

Following that Judgment, the broth of that Samgyetang was made by adding various seasonings and Chicken Powder to the light broth that came from boiling the chicken and vegetables in the Pressure Rice Cooker.

And Isiho Chairman was scooping up and drinking the broth with a spoon.

How would she consider a broth that had a certain amount of seasoning added to it?

I had succeeded in elevating the umami, but as a trade-off, the taste of the broth had parts that were standardized toward something familiar.

I hadn't put in that much, and I had only used it to the extent of enhancing the flavor, yet I was somehow anxious.

Knowing how sensitive the taste buds of that gourmet Chairman were, I worried that the fact that I used Chicken Powder might become a point of deduction in her evaluation.

I watched with bated breath.

Karin Isiho brought the broth to her mouth with a neat and refined Movement, as if viewing a living work of art, and next she tore off a piece of chicken with her chopsticks, before scooping out the glutinous rice with her spoon.

And finally, she placed a piece of nurungji soaked in the broth into her mouth.

That was it. There was no particular evaluation.

I couldn't read anything from her expression or gestures either. She remained as expressionless as if I were looking at a painting or a statue.

Should I consider it fortunate that harsh criticism didn't come out, or did it mean the food was so obvious and boring that there was no need to express it in words?

My stomach churned, feeling like the result wasn't very satisfying compared to the effort I had put in.

Chewing on my parched lips, I looked over the Dinner Table once again.

Isiho Chairman had turned her gaze away from the Samgyetang.

Those eyes headed toward the red dish placed on the wide, circular Ceramic Bowl right in the center of the table.

It was a natural sequence.

It was a dish I had paid as much Attention to as the rice and soup, no, much more than that, and I had placed it in the middle spot where it would draw that much Attention.

There was one more Specialty Dish left that I had poured my heart and soul into preparing.

I could be confident that this, at least, would receive a good evaluation.

“What is this?”

“Somewhere between red and orange?” Tapping the Chicken Wing that boasted the captivating and stimulating color of a sunset with her chopsticks, the Chairman asked.

“It is Braised Chicken Wings garnished with basil, jujubes, ginger, and green onions, and flavored with gochujang.”

The explanation was the simplest among the dishes presented so far. However, only the explanation was simple.

That simple chicken dish involved the most Complex and cumbersome Process out of all the dishes I had presented on this table.

Naturally, its taste was also no ordinary taste.

Gochujang Braised Chicken Wings was a dish that became a hot topic when a winning Chef in my Previous World presented it during a famous cooking Competition Program.

When I was highly interested in cooking, I discovered the recipe and succeeded in making it after much Trial and Error, and the sense of accomplishment and the shock of the taste I felt still remained deeply lodged in my mind.

Thanks to that, I had researched the cooking Method quite diligently, and since I had often tried making it afterward, I was able to confidently place it on the Chairman's table.

Of course, naturally, just because I had made it often didn't mean it was easy. It was still a difficult dish, then and now.

The preparation itself was a hurdle. It went One Step further than that Samgyetang. It was harder, and it took longer.

First, start with the Main Ingredient: the chicken wings.

I made a slit slightly inside the joint at the tip of the Chicken Wing To Cut the tendon.

I flipped open the cracked part and pulled it to one side, making the two wing bones stick out like chopsticks.

These bones acted as handles that allowed one to hold and eat it with one's hands.

They say it's a Preparation Method that considers the visual appeal of the food and the convenience of the person eating it, but I didn't know about the convenience of the eater; I just knew damn well that it made things incredibly cumbersome for the person cooking.

I prepared a dozen or so chicken wings all in the same way, blanched them in water to hold their shape, and removed impurities to get rid of any gamey smell.

Next were the jujubes and ginger.

I stamped the ginger with a mold to make pretty shapes and then sliced it with a knife.

For the jujubes, just like when making Samgyetang, I had to go through the Process of cutting the ends, making slits to remove the seeds, rolling them up, and then slicing them one by one.

This part was somewhat better since I could just do it all at once in a large batch while making the Samgyetang.

The problem was the green onions.

The part that boasted being the core of this dish's taste, just as much as the chicken wings, was the Roasted Leek.

To make the outer part of the green onion soft, and To prevent the inner layers from slipping out, I had to carve a series of dense slits along the surface that were neither too deep nor too Shallow, but just the right amount.

On the white stalks of a dozen or so green onions, there were all these detailed slits, front and back.

If I hadn't mastered blade combat from doing various chores at the restaurant, and if I hadn't been in a state where I could focus all my Concentration to quickly Finish any task in a short amount of time, it would have been an incredibly difficult dish to complete.

Even if I had managed it, it would have Taken much longer than this, and I wouldn't have been able to Finish on time.

It took nearly 15 minutes just to prepare the ingredients like this.

And that was even with me utilizing my abilities to Carry out all the movements delicately and quickly.

And then the braising Process.

I gathered all the ingredients, except for the green onions and the sauce made by mixing refined rice wine, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, perilla oil, Chili Oil, and gochujang, and boiled them over High Heat.

Here too, the key was Heat control.

Strangely enough, it was a dish that felt like it had deepened the difficulty by combining the cooking Process of Samgyetang and stone pot rice half-and-half.

It was High Heat at first, but once it boiled, I had to thoroughly cook the wings over Low Heat and let the flavors of the aromatic vegetables steep out.

When the chicken became tender, I had to add the green onions and cook them, pouring the sauce over them.

Right about when I felt it had completely boiled down, I added the Basil Leaves that had been soaked in water and finished it off over High Heat to make the sauce stick tightly.

This braising Process took 30 minutes.

If I hadn't borrowed the power of the Range System to proceed with the other dishes simultaneously, I might have consumed all my cooking Time just making these Braised Chicken Wings.

It was a dish made through an incredibly delicate and Complex Process. However, not a single part of the Process was useless.

Everything undergoes Setting in a direction that amplifies the Taste and Aroma, as well as the convenience felt by the eater.

As someone once said, God is in the Details.

The result, completed like that and given its Setting, was astonishingly beautiful.

Green, brown, red—all those colors sparkled like a well-coated Marble Block, stimulating the appetite.

The result, which had been plated with even a few Basil Leaves on top, was showing off a distinct presence on the table.

And that taste... something beyond the effort put in and the captivating outward appearance emerged.

During the cooking, since I had poured my heart into it, I tried eating one Chicken Wing and a piece of green onion to taste it.

It was exactly the taste I remembered. No, it surpassed what I remembered.

The texture, right on the borderline between tenderness and dryness of a Chicken Wing, perfect for tearing into, truly came alive.

The sauce itself certainly didn't seem like such a surprising and amazing taste, but combined with the various vegetables, it produced an unimaginable result.

The flavor and aroma of the jujubes, ginger, and basil dominated the inside of the mouth. It wasn't just the meat; the green onions were like that too.

Surprisingly, the green onions were even tastier. That crisp texture and the umami that clung to the palate felt like they sent a tingling sensation all the way to the brain.

It was complete in itself, a dish that attacked human gastronomic senses using the meticulously designed combination of Taste and Aroma as its weapon.

As far as I knew, it was a dish that would perfectly suit the tastes of the Karin Isiho Chairman.

Strictly speaking, it couldn't be called Korean Food, and it should be seen as Fusion Food that borrowed elements of Korean Food.

That wasn't important. What was important was that this dish was the best food I could present in this Setting.

If the previous Kongnamul Sotbap and Samgyetang were dishes that scored around 60 to 70 Out of 100 Points, this was a 90-point dish.

It would definitely work.

Looking at my face brimming with confidence, Isiho Chairman asked Calmly.

“Do I have to pick it up and eat it with my hands?”

It was indeed a dish intended to be eaten with the hands. However, I couldn't let red, sticky sauce get on the Chairman's Jade Hands.

I took out the black Nitrile Gloves I had prepared in advance and placed them on the table.

“Yes. You can put on the gloves and pick it up with your hands to eat.”

In truth, even this was a discourtesy. Even though there were gloves, it still meant making her eat with her hands, which didn't suit the Chairman's dignity.

However, I knew that Karin Isiho Chairman was a person who wouldn't care about such trivial matters if the food was worth it.

As long as it tasted good, as long as the taste was beyond the passing mark, it would be Fine.

“You can hold the bone part sticking out like a handle and eat it.”

The Chairman moved according to my words. Tapping the table with one hand as if displeased, she reached out with her other hand.

Swish.

The Chicken Wing, gently picked up by the girl wearing the glove, entered the girl's small mouth.

"...!"

Her eyes, which had been indifferently calm, widened. Her pupils trembled.