I Got the Almighty Tongue - Chapter 62



Only Noblemtl

World Study Abroad Fair (2)

“Thank you for coming first, Chef. Actually, we were in a difficult situation as well.”

Park Hyun-woo says.

“Does this happen often?”

“Not often, but occasionally. Especially since last year or the year before, there have been a lot of Korean food events in New York. I’m called out every time to cook, but I’ve never been properly paid.”

It seems like Korean restaurants in New York have had a hard time while I’ve been busy.

“Can’t you refuse?”

“Ha.. It’s not that simple. There’s a project that the government is currently promoting. It’s a plan to increase the number of overseas Korean restaurants to 40,000 by 2017. So if you meet the criteria, you can receive a subsidy. It’s not a lot of money, but it helps with operations, and there are also administrative benefits if you do business in Korea in the future.”

Is this why so many restaurants are going out of business because they keep trying to control their owners like this?

“That’s why I came out crying. I closed the store and came out, but it breaks my heart to think that customers will come and just leave.”

Baek Jun-ho, who has a slender and delicate sensibility that doesn’t match his bandit-like appearance, has red eyes and is about to cry.

“If we don’t express our opinions properly now, the juniors who come into the industry later will also have a hard time. In Korea, it’s zero-sum and we may be competitors, but it’s different overseas. We have to live together.”

Working in a restaurant abroad, I realized that there are so many things to help each other with. From simple things like helping each other out, to emergency blood transfusions when ingredients run out, the only place you can get them is at a Korean restaurant.

“We also feel sorry when we think about it. The problem is that we don’t have the strength to refuse when we are trying to make a living.”

Lee Byeong-min returned after finishing the call.

“The chairman’s approval has been granted. We will sign a contract with you at the level of an external consultant.”

Lee Byeong-min told me with a trembling face that my request had been accepted.

“Thank you. Then I will draw up the contract first. But please make one thing clear. Do I have the final say in this matter?”

“Shouldn’t that be something that all the chefs should discuss and decide on?”

“What would happen to an army without a commander? The same goes for a kitchen. You absolutely need a head chef to make good food.”

A messy kitchen is a no-no.

“First of all, Aaron is in charge of this event. Aaron is well-versed in Korean food because his wife is Korean. He also published a book and runs several restaurants.”

“Then you don’t need me.”

“You shouldn’t think so extremely.”

“I have no desire to take orders in the kitchen. If I can’t plan the menu and take orders the way I want, I can’t do my job.”

“Chef Shin. The reason we invited Chef Shin was because the Minister specifically requested it. He said he became a fan after watching a show where Chef Shin appeared. So he individually requested that we include Chef Shin. Thanks to that, even Chef Shin’s unreasonable request was accepted.”

I realized for the first time that asking for wages was an unreasonable request.

“It’s a blessing.”

“But if you do this, we will be in trouble. What should we do about the consultants who have already signed contracts?”

I suspect a kick-back since he’s quite stubborn. But I don’t want to get involved in that.

“Do you have events anywhere else besides New York?”

“We have also decided to open a booth at the Boston Marathon in April.”

“Then, when you do that work, use those two people.

I understand that Korean food related events are not going well these days. If this event is successful in this situation, it will help the director’s performance evaluation. I will take responsibility and make it a success. However, I need authority to do so.”

Lee Byung-min listens to what I say and thinks carefully. Who would want the event they are hosting to fail? They would also want it to succeed.

“···Okay. I will explain to you both.”

Lee Byeong-min speaks in a weak voice, as if he has given up.

“Then I would like to ask my lawyer to draft the contract.”

“No. Why even a lawyer..”

He presses his hands against his eyes as if he is tired.

“I always consult with a lawyer before signing a contract.”

So, from now on, you’d better not even think about calling me that rudely.

Lee Byung-min goes to Paolo and Aaron and explains the situation. After a few minutes of conversation, I see Lee Byung-min send them away and then I call the entire group together.

“First, let’s look at the menu we prepared. Do you have anything prepared?”

“Yes. I made something to test it out before the chef arrived.”

“Please bring it.”

Park Hyun-woo and Baek Jun-ho bring the food they prepared. Foods such as tteokbokki, kimbap, fried food, pasta, and bulgogi pizza are placed on the table.

I tasted the tteokbokki. There was too much sugar. The kimbap is food that spoils quickly, and it already smells bad. The quality of the ingredients must be the problem. The fried food was soaked in oil.

When I sighed, everyone looked at me. I didn’t want to taste any more, but I had no choice but to put the pasta in my mouth. Then, unable to overcome the disgust, Chimi found a tissue and spit it out.

“What is this pasta?”

Stir-fried beef and vegetables in a gooey gochujang sauce, but why on earth would they add tomato paste? I can’t believe a chef made this dish.

“Paolo made this. It’s called gochujang ragu pasta..”

The curse was rising to the top of my lungs. But I still couldn’t curse. I tried to hold it back, but my efforts were in vain and it eventually burst out.

“No way! This is food.”

The bulgogi pizza was worse than a franchise pizza. Toppings were just the right amount of bulgogi and vegetables sprinkled on a nondescript dough. Tomato sauce was not balanced. It was a pizza I would never eat even if you offered me money. And to introduce Korean food, it was pasta and pizza.

“I’m going to change the entire menu.”

People rolled their eyes, but no one raised an objection when they saw my murderous expression.

“Director Lee Byeong-min.”

“yes.”

“You’ve run a deficit every time you’ve held an event so far, right?”

Since they made these kinds of foods, only the most curious people would pay money to eat them.

“That’s right. We always spend more than we budgeted. We have to sell food to make ends meet, and that’s not easy. So it was also difficult to pay the chefs’ wages.”

“It would be the opposite. Who would work properly if they weren’t getting paid? All the items on the menu here are unsellable. They wouldn’t sell even if they were sold for $3.”

“I actually sold them for under $5, but I always had a lot left over.”

“People don’t avoid eating something because it’s expensive, and they don’t buy something because it’s cheap. They just want to eat something delicious.”

“What are you going to do?”

Lee Byeong-min asks me in a voice devoid of venom.

“I will make a profit, so let me use the materials and people I want.”

“If you run a deficit later, it will be difficult. You need to provide supporting documentation, but if there is a puncture, it will be difficult to prove it.”

“Then I will pay for it with my own money.”

“If you say so.”

His face brightens.

“The biggest reason why Korean food doesn’t appeal to Westerners is the visual problem. Red rice cakes and kimchi are not appetizing.

Many people find Japchae grotesque because it resembles a jellyfish. The same goes for fusion foods.”

I called Mark and asked him for some good quality meat and vegetables.

“First, let’s make food that people would want to eat visually. We’ll only have two menus.”

“Will that be okay?”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s just one. What matters is what it is. Will there be a lot of visitors to this exhibition?”

“We expect more than 200,000 people to visit over the two days.”

“There should be enough customers. I’ll try to attract customers from other booths as well.”

Mark arrived at the restaurant in his pickup truck. I felt relieved to see that the groceries I ordered had arrived.

“The menu is pork belly wrap and bibimbap. But it’s not ordinary. I’m thinking of changing it up a bit.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Just watch.”

First, you need to marinate the bulgogi. I marinated thinly sliced ​​chuck eye rolls in soy sauce, honey, garlic, plum extract, star anise, and parsley. When I tasted it, it was a delicious marinade that added an exotic flavor to the traditional bulgogi flavor.

After that, I put the pork belly in the barbecue grill and smoked it with charcoal and apple wood chips. Then I started making rice for the wraps and bibimbap. White rice is not suitable for this kind of event. I think it would be good to make nutritious rice using paella.

Dissolve turmeric powder in water instead of saffron, and finely chop burdock, carrots, and shiitake mushrooms. Add a sheet of kelp when soaking rice to add savory flavor.

Since it’s Korean food, I want to use sesame oil, but today I want to make a dish that everyone will like.

Stir-fry carrots, burdock, and shiitake mushrooms with olive oil. Then add soaked rice and stir-fry together. Then add water mixed with turmeric powder and boil.

Cover with a lid and let it steam, and you have golden, delicious, nutritious rice. Add salt and add nuts to change the texture.

I took the smoked pork belly out of the barbecue grill and it was half cooked. I cut it into bite-sized pieces and grilled it again over charcoal. I spread out the cabbage leaves that were lightly blanched in water, put on salted rice, ssamjang, fried garlic, peppers, and pork belly, and then rolled it up nicely like a cabbage roll.

Food should be tasty and appetizing. This cabbage roll makes the eater curious about what’s inside. Aesthetically, the green roll is also beautiful.

“Here, try it.”

“This is ssam. We eat cabbage ssam too, but when it’s rolled up into bite-sized pieces like this, it feels like a different food.”

People gather together and taste each piece with chopsticks.

“The aroma and texture of the rice are unique. The pork belly and ssamjang are familiar tastes, but since the rice is different, it feels new to us. Above all, it’s delicious. I can’t resist eating just one.”

Director Lee Byeong-min picks up another one and eats it with satisfaction.

“As expected, you are a new chef. It is really delicious. The fried garlic gives it a strong flavor. The nuts and meat taste together, and it is so new that I don’t think I will get tired of it. It is a taste that makes me want to eat about ten of them.”

Park Hyun-woo speaks in admiration, then closes his eyes and savors the taste.

Baek Jun-ho also tastes it and his eyes widen. It is a slightly different ssam than what he usually knows. However, it is definitely Korean food.

“Since you have to wrap the lettuce in your hand, it’s not suitable for eating outside. It doesn’t look good either. However, if you cut it neatly into bite-size pieces like sushi, it could be popular enough. Above all, if you wrap pork belly in the wrap and eat it, it’s so delicious that it can’t be replaced.”

“Then what are you going to do with the bibimbap?”

“Exactly like this.”

I stir-fried the bulgogi that I had marinated in advance. Then I spread the nutritious rice I had used earlier evenly in a large bowl.

“We will use the same nutritious rice. Since we need to serve the food quickly, we need to use the same ingredients as much as possible.”

On top of that, neatly arrange avocado, spinach, bean sprout salad, braised burdock, stir-fried zucchini, stir-fried mushrooms, shredded and stir-fried carrots, and bulgogi in a squid-like shape. Finally, pour the seasoning sauce in the middle and top with a fried egg to complete the dish.

“If the customer wants, we will also add pork belly. The culture of mixing rice and eating it is very unfamiliar in the United States. Even if you give it to them as bibimbap, most people do not mix it. In that case, it would be better to make it taste good even if they do not mix it at all.”

For this, we made a nutritious meal that is delicious even if you just eat it, and we also paid attention to the toppings. It is delicious no matter how you eat it.

And pork belly cabbage rolls and bibimbap also suit the tastes of Americans who eat fried foods, donuts, and hamburgers every day, but still have a vague yearning for healthy food.

“It looks really good. It looks like gourmet food.”

Baek Jun-ho is impressed. Bibimbap is a really visually appealing dish, if only it weren’t mixed.

“If it goes like this, I think everyone will like it. But how much do you plan to sell it for?”

Lee Byung-min asks the price out of curiosity. He says he can’t give them a quote for the $5 they usually charge.

“With all these ingredients, we can’t sell it cheap. We’ll put 16 wraps in a square lunch box. And we’ll put the mushrooms, bulgogi, and kimchi that went into the bibimbap on the side. This will cost $10.”

“Bibimbap will also cost $10. You will also need to pay extra for the pork belly topping, and you will also need to prepare a simple soybean paste stew.”

“Isn’t it too expensive?”

“Of course it won’t be cheap. The ingredients are expensive. But it will definitely sell. And it will be delicious. It will give people a good image of Korean food.”

“But how are you going to make all this? It’s an event with 200,000 people. If it sells well, you’ll have to make it endlessly. Isn’t that too much work?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

I took out my smartphone and made a call.

“Soyoung?”

-Yes, chef.

“Do you want to work part-time for two days this weekend?”

-Where are you?

“Javits Center. Daily wage: $200. First 10 people. Find some Korean students.”

-Please save a spot for me! Everyone will come, right? Our hourly wage is $8!

I can hear Soyoung’s excited voice. Okay, I’ve secured 10 high-level personnel. I’ll just pay the budget back.

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