I Got the Almighty Tongue - Chapter 134



Only Noblemtl

Episode 134: The Chefs of Segreto (2)

“Director, shouldn’t we be filming this? What should we do with everyone gathered at the table like this?”

Director Cho looks at PD Kim and asks.

“The camera director set it up in the corner over there. It’s not like we’re filming a mukbang, so that should be enough.”

“Sigh… I was wondering if I should step out and take pictures.”

The odor of the tone was unusual. For him, eating at a top-class fine dining restaurant was a luxury that was hard to imagine with Director Cho’s meager salary, so he did not want to miss this opportunity that had come to him after a long time.

Who is Chef Shin Je-hee? She is the person who presented her course meal in front of dozens of heads of state. When someone like that offered to cook and prepare a meal, it was natural that all the staff members, while being cautious, left their filming equipment and rushed to the table.

After some time, the food began to arrive on the table. From simple salads to pasta and risotto, and the much-anticipated lamb, the entire course was brought out at once, completing a sumptuous meal.

“Looking at it laid out like this, it looks like a table set for a Korean meal. In the West, when families spend holidays together, they gather like this and share a meal. Enjoy your meal.”

“thank you for this food!”

“thank you.”

The staff greet each other and begin to eat.

“This salad is really delicious. It has fish meat in it and has a unique flavor.”

The cinematographer takes a bite of the salad and is surprised, asking Jehee.

“The sauce used here is called Citrus Beurre Blanc. It’s a sauce used in France, and we arranged it to suit our tastes. Rachel played a big role.”

Jaehee explains the recipe while looking at Rachel.

“I just came up with the idea. I didn’t know he would change it like this. The main ingredients of traditional beurre blanc are shallots, butter, and white wine. However, the new chef actively used citrus to create a refreshing sauce. It originally felt a bit heavy.”

“It was my first time eating salad with fish, and I had no idea it would go so well together.”

It was an impressive dish with pan-fried cod, various vegetables, and a sauce that seamlessly combined them to bring out each other’s flavors.

“I have been studying mismatch for a long time. It is difficult to surprise by only using materials with combinations that everyone knows. I believe that there are many more options when it comes to matching materials.”

The staff nodded and looked at the pasta. It was the fettuccine they had seen while filming.

The brownish sauce was unfamiliar to their eyes.

‘It’s neither tomato sauce nor cream sauce…’

But the smell was so good. The assistant director took the fork first.

“Wow! I don’t know what to say about this pasta. I’ve never tasted anything like it before.”

He takes a bite of the pasta and is surprised. It wasn’t what he expected. But it was much better than he expected.

After hearing Director Cho’s words, other people also started eating pasta.

“Is this what pasta in the mainland is like? It’s completely different from anything I’ve ever eaten.”

PD Kim asks Jaehee a question.

“In Korea, Pomodoro (tomato)-based sauces and American-style carbonara have become mainstream pasta. Many people think of spaghetti, which is just a type of noodle, as synonymous with pasta.

But in fact, most pastas eaten in Italy do not use special sauces. Most of them are made by frying ingredients in oil and emulsifying the resulting oil with cheese or butter to make sauce. If I had to say, it is similar to what we call oil pasta.”

The staff listens intently to Jehee’s explanation.

“Then you didn’t use a separate sauce for this either? It’s so flavorful?”

Kim PD tastes the pasta once again. The rich aroma of mushrooms wafts into his nose. Then, the rich cheese and oil mix fragrantly on his tongue. The fettuccine noodles are chewed deliciously, and the chewy and soft texture of the mushrooms harmonizes with various herbs to create a variety of textures and flavors. And there is a rich flavor that encompasses them all. Only today did Kim PD learn what real pasta tastes like.

“I used chopped porcini mushrooms from Italy, shiitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and white truffles from Korea.

The cheese used is Asiago d’Allevo, which is a protected designation of origin in Italy, so production is limited. It’s probably a cheese that you can’t find in Korea yet.

We tried to provide a variety of textures by using both dried and fresh mushrooms. In fact, this menu is not yet on sale. This is the first time we are offering it to outsiders.”

Jehee smiles lightly and speaks to PD Kim.

“We got to taste the new menu first. It was really delicious. It broke my stereotype about pasta.”

As they talked, the food was disappearing at a rapid rate.

“Please try the main dish before you eat.”

Rachel offers him a dish to cook. The main dish is divided into portions for each person.

“It looks different than I expected.”

The staff, who had expected a barbecue-like meat dish while watching the lamb being cooked in the oven, were presented with an unfamiliar dish they had never seen before. The plate contained not only braised lamb but also a variety of other dishes.

“The main concept this time is traditional Northern Italian cuisine. This is a dish called Polenta.”

Jehee points to the food on the plate and says.

“I thought it was mashed potatoes.”

It was not surprising that he was mistaken, as the color and texture were similar.

“Polenta is simply corn porridge. In England, Germany, and France, it is common to eat carbohydrates in the form of potatoes during the course. However, Italy is a bit more diverse. Polenta is similar to rice in northern Italy. Various meats and dishes are eaten with polenta. After testing the corn, I chose organic corn grown in Gangwon Province.”

Gulp.

PD Kim swallowed. There was a delicious smell coming from the plate.

“How should I eat it?”

“Just eat as you please. I recommend trying the meat first and then the polenta.”

PD Kim nodded and looked at the plate. The lamb was covered in a deep green sauce, which was visually beautiful. PD Kim and the staff all picked up their forks and tasted the meat after Jaehee finished explaining. The food came out all at once, but they all wanted to enjoy the food in the order it came out.

‘It’s soft.’

The meat was so tender. The meat, braised in the oven for a long time, melted in my mouth. And then, various flavors came up later. The deep flavors of wine, tomatoes, various herbs, and sauces. There was a tangy, refreshing flavor. It was truly a heavenly taste. PD Kim’s eyes welled up with tears.

He saw with his own eyes how much effort the chefs put into making this dish, from the preparation stage to the cooking, at Segreto. And now that he has eaten the food, he realizes something.

‘That’s what it was made to taste like.’

“It’s so delicious that I’m embarrassed. I guess there was a reason why they put so much effort into every step of the cooking.”

Jehee laughs at his words.

“Please don’t do that. The guests don’t need to know the hard work that goes into the kitchen. It would be better if they didn’t know. I don’t want other emotions to be mixed when they eat the food. Just eat it deliciously and clean the plate, that’s enough.”

Rachel nods. She agrees. Dishes that are shockingly delicious are not easy to make. She is certain that no other restaurant in Korea will ever be able to do what Segreto does. Customers who taste the food here will set ridiculously high standards and go to other restaurants, but that is their job.

“But what is this dipping that is posted here?”

Kim PD belatedly noticed the green sauce on top of the lamb. It was because he remembered its refreshing, tangy taste.

“This sauce is called Italian Salsa Verde. The main ingredients are capers and anchovies marinated in vinegar. Then we add olives, garlic, onions, vinegar, mustard, lime, and cilantro. It’s a type of salsa originally enjoyed in Mexico, but we arranged it to suit our menu. It goes well with lamb, right?”

Rachel explains the source.

“This dish is layered. The bottom is a sauce made from the broth that was just strained, and the top is salsa verde, designed to create a harmony of different flavors. Jehee is a real genius.”

At Rachel’s words, the staff tasted the food again to check the taste. It felt more delicious when they ate it knowing what they were eating.

“Try the garnish on the side. Both the spinach and the cauliflower came straight from the farm this morning. Nothing was done carelessly.”

“Polenta has a strange charm to it. Like you said, it’s like a Western version of corn porridge. The texture is interesting. The taste is familiar, but also exotic and new.”

After a satisfying meal with dessert and coffee, the filming staff started working again. The camera director started setting up the camera. And PD Kim gave Han-young a sign.

“Is there anything else in the kitchen that you haven’t seen yet, Chef Shin?”

Han-Young begins the interview with high tension, as if continuing from the previous interview.

“That’s right. You haven’t been to the pastry section yet.”

“I’ve been smelling bread for a while now, so I really wanted to go.”

A bright color appears on Soo-Jung’s face because she loves bread.

“I will guide you.”

Everyone followed Jehee to the pastry section in a corner, where three pastry chefs were busy working.

“Hello, Jihye.”

“I’m busy.”

Lee Ji-hye glances at the camera and tries to run away. She is a timid person and was afraid of appearing on TV.

“It’s okay. Please introduce Jihye’s work. If there are many juniors who dream of becoming pastry chefs after watching the show, it would be good for the industry.”

Jihye sighs and responds to Jehee’s persuasion.

“I can’t help it. Nice to meet you. My name is Lee Ji-hye. I’m a pastry chef and the head pastry chef here.”

“Nice to meet you. But this isn’t the kind of pastry/bakery I was expecting.”

Around her were various instruments whose purpose was difficult to determine. It felt more like a laboratory than a bakery.

“We make everything from scratch.”

“What does ‘from the beginning’ mean?”

“For example, if we need strawberry jam, we start by washing the strawberries that came from the farm. If we need a chocolate cake for dessert, we start by roasting the cocoa beans.”

“You make your own chocolate?”

“Of course. It’s farm-to-table. We don’t use commercial products.”

“Is that possible?”

“I’ll show you. Come this way.”

The pastry chefs were preparing chocolates for the desserts to be served tomorrow. One chef came in carrying a heavy-looking bundle on his shoulder.

“Those are cocoa beans. Is this your first time seeing this?”

Jihye takes out the coffee beans and shows them to Soojung and Hanyoung.

“Yes. It looks like a bean or an almond.”

“Now I have to pick them out by hand. There might be some bad ones mixed in.”

Jihye began to quickly pick out the green beans as she spoke. The staff also stopped what they were doing, gathered together, and quickly picked out the broken or misshapen green beans and set them aside.

“Next is roasting. Some stores roast the beans in an oven, but that makes it difficult to turn them over and the heat transfer isn’t even, so the quality isn’t good. Fortunately, we have a roasting machine.”

Jihye pours the coffee beans into the roasting machine and presses the button. Then, the machine starts to roast the cocoa beans as if it were roasting coffee.

“This is my first time seeing chocolate being made.”

Han-Young shows interest in the sight he sees for the first time.

“I learned this when I was studying at school in Paris, but I never thought I would actually do it in a restaurant. Now that I’ve done it myself, I know for sure.

“It’s a huge advantage to be able to control the entire flavor process, from the selection of cacao beans. It’s expanded my options. My desserts have also improved. It’s been hard work, but now I’m grateful to Chef Shin Je-hee.”

Jihye smiles and picks up a roasted bean. Then she tastes it.

“That’s it. We’re just going to use the part that’s inside these raw beans. We call them cacao nibs. You’ve heard of them, right?

“Ah! These are cacao nibs. They’re famous as a diet food!”

When a familiar word comes up, Sujeong says it out loud as if she is happy to hear it.

“That’s right. It’s the most primitive form of chocolate. It has the taste and flavor of cacao because sugar hasn’t been added yet, but it’s not the chocolate we know. The process of separating the shell is done by a machine.”

When Jihye puts the roasted coffee beans into the machine and presses the switch, the machine starts operating and the nibs and shells are separated.

“Now it’s time to decide the flavor. This is called powdered sugar, and you can think of it as finely ground sugar. The flavor of the chocolate is determined by how much sugar you add. Since I’m making 70% dark chocolate today, I’ll only use 30% of the weight of the nibs as sugar. I’ll also add vanilla beans to give it some flavor.”

Wisdom puts the nibs and sugar into different machines.

“What kind of machine is this?”

“It’s called a melanger. Think of it as a millstone. The stone inside turns and grinds the ingredients. In the process, frictional heat is generated, which melts the sugar and cacao nibs and mixes them together. That’s how the chocolate we know comes out.”

“Is it over now?”

“Now that we have the basic ingredients ready, we can make various desserts based on them. We add butter and milk, and we make desserts with various shapes and layers.”

Wisdom pours the finished chocolate onto a tray. Then, with skillful hands, she begins to spread and shape the chocolate.

Soo-Jung is blankly looking at the scene.

“It’s like seeing magic.”

“The pastry part is especially so. Ms. Lee Ji-hye is a pastry chef that I have been trying to recruit for several years. She is doing as well as I expected.”

Jehee looks at Jihye with a proud expression.

“What should I call this place? It looks like a small culinary castle in a fantasy world.”

The surrounding staff also nodded their heads at Han-Young’s rave reviews. Behind the picturesque dishes, there was a stubborn craftsman’s spirit. They also never thought that there would be a restaurant that strictly adheres to the farm-to-table principle to this extent.

“That’s too much praise.”

Jehee speaks with humility.

“Have you looked around all the restaurants now?”

The staff members look at each other at Je-hee’s words. Then, Director Cho, who received a nod, speaks.

“We’ve heard rumors. The wine cellar at the Segreto flagship store is said to be the best in New York.”

“I don’t know if it’s the best, but it’s true that we put a lot of effort into our wine.”

“I wonder what the wine cellar here is like. Can I see it?”

“Of course. Follow me.”

The staff members follow Jehee up to the second floor.

beep.

Beep beep beep.

Crunch.

As I hold up my card key and enter the password, the heavy door opens, revealing a wine cellar.

The dark interior, which does not allow direct sunlight, is stylishly decorated with soft lighting. Underneath it, wooden wine racks are lined up so long that their end cannot be seen.

The staff were speechless as they looked at the huge cellar where each section was organized by region.