Absinthe

Chapter 26: A Chef's Ultimate Weapon

I swear to God Jiwoo was hopeless. There's nothing I hate more in this world than unnecessary drama,

and he was drama personified. Ergo, I hated him.

Wasn't he the one who wanted to be friends? And weren't we both in our 30s? What's the big deal

about giving each other advice? The more I thought about the whole thing, the more annoyed I got.

I shrugged and decided to let it go. The rest of the day was a blur, like every other day we had spent so

far in Chef Maxwell's course. The only difference was that I could feel some unexplainable tension in

the air.

It couldn't possibly have been the heat because the air conditioner was set at 20 degrees, which was

cool enough. And yet, I could see beads of sweat trickling down Nico's forehead. I could also hear the

steady tapping of Vivi's foot against the wooden paneled floor. And Jiwoo was pretty much staring into

nothingness.

The next thing I knew, I was already in the kitchen for our daily OJT.

"Throw this garbage away!" shouted Chef Karl.

I was already on the verge of crying because I had no idea what was wrong with the crab meat I had

prepared. And to think that it was the 7th time that my crab meat was getting chucked into the bin.

"Sorry, Chef," I muttered. "If you can just let me know what's wrong—"

"Get the fuck out of here if you don't know what you're doing!"

I felt Jiwoo's hand on my wrist as he dragged me back into our corner.

"Smell this," he said, gently lifting the plate against my nose. "You need to blanch this for about 2 to 3

minutes to completely remove the briny smell. Customers with sensitive taste buds and nostrils can

detect this from a mile off."

I looked back at Jiwoo, my eyes tearing up. I had washed the crab meat thoroughly, but he was right:

there were traces of its briny odor left. It was faint, but it was still present.

"Thank you," I murmured.

Jiwoo ruffled my hair. "I'm sorry about earlier. It must be the lack of sleep." He then grinned at me, but I

wasn't ready to forgive him yet. I mean, yes, he helped me with the crab meat issue, but it didn't erase

the fact that he had been a total jerk earlier.

"Service!" I heard the head chef shout. We all looked and saw Vivi gleaming in delight as her

Cantonese fried noodles were approved for serving.

"Let's not fall behind those two," Jiwoo said, smiling in encouragement.

After following his advice on blanching the crab meat, my output considerably improved. All the crab

meat I prepared was approved for use, and afterward, I was transferred to the pâtissier whom I helped

with dessert preparations. Thankfully, I finished that day's OJT in much better standing.

We ate a quick dinner. Vivi made us crispy pork buns that were definitely crispy yet melted in your

mouth. I don't really know how she did it, but it was the best siopao I had ever tasted. Her Cantonese

fried noodles were nothing short of amazing, too. They were spicy and sweet and savory, and upon

eating them, there was an explosion of flavor in my mouth.

That meal was the happiest event of the day because Jiwoo wasn't acting like the asshole I knew he

really was deep inside, and both Vivi and Nico didn't seem as nervous and agitated as they were that

morning.

Unfortunately, we were brought back to reality when Chef Maxwell sent someone to fetch us for our

test.

We were given two and a half hours to prepare our dish that will include all of the flavors we had

identified from the flavor paste he had given us.

We wasted no time in rushing to the pantry to get all the ingredients we needed.

I started off by cold smoking my sole fillets, charring some tarragon, and incorporating that charred

tarragon scent into the fish. Next, I grilled the soles on high heat to caramelize their outer layer before

adding some lemon juice and leeks.

I removed the fillets to let them rest and continued to reduce the lemon juice for my sauce. I deglazed

the pan with some white wine vinegar and added some diced shallots, spring onions, horseradish,

cucumbers, and a few oysters. When I was happy with the taste, I added breadcrumbs for texture.

The time was almost up when I finished plating my dish. I glanced around and saw Nico had finished

with his as well. Vivi looked like she was almost done, but Jiwoo was still struggling with piping the

filling into his éclairs.

God, I wished he had followed my advice and pricked those damned éclairs. Otherwise, he would fail,

and I won't be seeing his handsome face and hot bod anymore. Please excuse my ever-horny mind.

"And time's up!" declared Chef Maxwell. "Hands off the counters, please."

Chef Maxwell went straight to Nico's station and asked him about his dish.

"I prepared pork belly braised in soy sauce with apple puree and sprouting broccoli. I incorporated the

flavors of pork fat, apple, thyme, star anise, sea salt, and fennel."

Chef Maxwell took a bite and chewed it for what seemed like eons before putting down his fork.

"And the seasoning?"

"Sea salt and black pepper, Chef."

"And that's what you got wrong. The flavor paste I gave you had white pepper instead of black. Good

job, though. You have identified all the flavors except for that one mistake."

So did Nico pass? Did we have to get everything perfectly? Or were mistakes like Nico's acceptable?

God, I was getting more and more nervous by the millisecond.

Chef Maxwell went to Vivi's station next.

"My dish is coronation cauliflower with roasted apricots and pickled turmeric. I used roasted apricots

because I felt a strong presence of roasted smells and the sweetness of apricots in the flavor paste. I

also used lemon, coconut yoghurt, coriander, cider vinegar, and raisins."

Chef Maxwell tasted the dish, and again, he took his time before swallowing that small bite.

"You almost had it perfect, except for the raisins. Your flavor paste had sultanas in it. While the two are

identical, there is a slight difference in their acidity and sweetness profile."

Chef Maxwell came to my station next, and boy was I sweating bullets. After I explained my dish, he

tasted it, and then the motherfucker smiled!

"I doubted that anyone could guess that charred tarragon flavor. It's subtle and absolutely hard to

identify, especially when combined with other strong flavors. That is why it's paired perfectly with this

grilled sole. Very impressive, BJ! I am very proud of you. However, I believe the breadcrumbs that you

used are from your typical bread?"

I nodded.

"That's a shame. You see, your flavor paste included wheat. You would have perfected this test had

you used crumbs from wheat bread."

What the actual fuck? I didn't detect wheat at all from that flavor paste, and I only used the

breadcrumbs for texture! I immediately took the flavor paste I had gotten and tasted it.

Fuck.

Sure enough, there was a lingering taste of wheat. You wouldn't really notice it at first because of the

other flavors, but it stayed on your tongue after every other taste had subsided.

"Jiwoo picked the hardest flavor profile," Chef Maxwell announced. "Let's see if he got it right." He

tasted Jiwoo's éclairs, taking tiny bites of all four of them.

"I made these Four Seasons Éclairs with vanilla and absinthe pastry cream as filling. For the toppings, I

have pistachio and strawberry, apple and caramel, mango and yogurt, and finally, dark chocolate and

orange."

Chef Maxwell nodded. "Perfect identification of flavors, indeed!"

Jiwoo was beaming.

"I never expected any of you to be able to identify the individual components of that paste. All the

ingredients are on the sweet side, which makes them blend rather than contrast well. Very, very, very

impressive, Jiwoo!

"However," Chef Maxwell added. "I'm afraid you do not get full points for this dish."

All of us looked at each other.

"The winner of this test is BJ, followed by Nico in second place, and Vivi in third."

What?

"Please remember that while a chef's ultimate weapon is indeed his palate, his technique in preparing

food is his weapon-wielding skill.

"Jiwoo's ultimate weapon is undoubtedly the strongest in this room. However, all three of you beat him

with how you wielded your weapons against his. Jiwoo's choux pastry will not pass any gourmet

restaurant—it is soggy and collapsed. I expect all of you to already know the basic techniques in

cooking. Starting next week, we'll be progressing to specific cooking genres."

"Uh, Chef Maxwell?" Vivi asked. "Does this mean we all pass?"

Chef Maxwell smiled. "Yes. Now you all better get some rest this weekend because we're turning on

our Spartan Teaching Mode starting next week!"