episode_0277

The ‘Star Summit’ filming continues.

“In my case, when I first came to Korea….”

The foreign panelists are still busy chattering.

The topic currently being discussed is ‘Foods good for introducing foreigners to Korean cuisine.’ Fortunately, all the panelists are fluent in Korean. They’re each sharing their stories.

“Korean barbecue? Specifically, samgyeopsal is incredibly delicious. We don’t eat it like that in my country.”

“For me, ramen!”

“I remember tteokbokki being too spicy for me.”

While the foreigners are talking.

The stylists take Sua away to get her set up. They put a pristine white hat on her and tie an apron around her. They’re preparing to send her to the kitchen in earnest.

Around that time.

“Okay! That’s it for the initial talk! Cut!”

The PD briefly stops filming and calls Sua over.

“Sua-ssi, could you come here for a moment?” “Yes.”

“You’ll be cooking from now on, and as I mentioned before, there’s no need to feel pressured, okay? From the start, today’s cooking is… Ah, you’ve arrived just in time.”

PD Kang Hyun-sung’s gaze darts away, and Sua’s follows it. A man with a sullen expression comes into view.

It was Chef Lee Geum-hoo.

He glances at Sua and then nods his chin slightly. “Hello.”

Now that she sees it, it’s not just his expression that’s sullen! His tone is incredibly unfriendly too! Sua’s voice turns cold.

“Yes. Hello.”

Sua thought. This person is incredibly unpleasant.

In a way, it was instinct.

Even though Chinese panelist, Jo Jung-jung, was quiet, she just came across as cold? But Lee Geum-hoo is different. It’s like there’s a sense of disrespect mixed in.

It’s a subtle but significant difference.

PD Kang Hyun-sung laughs awkwardly.

“The two of you will be in charge of the ‘Star Summit’ kitchen today. Please introduce yourselves comfortably. I’ll take my leave. Please do a good job today!”

Sure enough, Sua’s premonition was right.

As soon as PD Kang Hyun-sung disappeared, Lee Geum-hoo’s attitude became slightly more overbearing. You could describe it as trying to push Sua down? In any case, it was unpleasant.

He touched the various kitchen utensils and said.

“I heard the concept is that the foreigners will share their experiences with Korean food, and then we’ll cook those dishes in the kitchen. You’ve heard that already, Sua-ssi, right?”

“No? I just found out from what you just said.”

“Haa, how can you not know something like that?” “Excuse me?” “The prior preparations are a mess, a mess.”

Lee Geum-hoo clicks his tongue and continues.

“Actually, never mind, since I’ll be doing all the cooking anyway, there probably wasn’t any need for you to prepare beforehand. I understand. I’ll take care of everything in the kitchen today.” “Huh?” “I think Sua-ssi can assist me… Are you good at things like prepping ingredients?” “What’s the standard for ‘good’ or ‘bad’?” “Okay, so that means you’re not.”

“…?”

Sua blinks.

What is this person? He’s not listening to anything I’m saying?

‘What’s with this guy? Should I just smack him in the face?’

Sua even had that thought.

Fortunately, the Sua Association stopped her.

─Endure it. That’s not the best course of action, but the worst.

‘Ugh! But he’s so annoying! What do I do?’

─You have to endure it because you’re so annoyed. There’s no reason for us to get flustered from the start. We just need to prove ourselves with our cooking skills from now on, and that’s it, right?

‘…Umm, that’s true.’

─Good. Take a deep breath! Come on! Let’s go, sunbae!

‘Alright. Just you wait and see.’

Sua huffs and moves her feet.

Of course, she didn’t do that outwardly, she just got angry in her mind. Sua-huff! Sua-rage!

.

.

.

.

.

“Waaaah─”

When Sua, who had been in the kitchen, reappeared, exclamations erupted from the panelists. The reason was simple.

“Sua-ssi! Even the cooking outfit suits you so well?”

“Wow, you’d be a perfect fit even if you filmed a cooking drama later? You look so pretty right now!”

Sua was just too pretty in the panelists’ eyes.

At this point, Seon-il stepped in to manage the situation.

“Our program isn’t a beauty program. You haven’t forgotten that today’s special is cooking, have you? Sua-ssi, please take the panelists’ orders quickly.” “Yeeeeees.”

Sua walked around with a notepad and pen in hand.

While receiving the orders pouring out.

“Is tteokbokki possible?”

“I’ll have kimchi fried rice!”

“Oh? I was going to make kimchi fried rice… Ah, kimbap was also delicious. Please make kimbap for me!”

“I’ll take bulgogi!”

Sua diligently wrote them down.

But what’s this? This wasn’t the end.

“Japchae! Japchae too!”

“Is bibimbap too much?”

“It would be disappointing without samgyeopsal!”

A huge list of requests pouring out as if it was just the beginning. Sua felt like her head was about to explode. How many are there! She barely managed to memorize them with the help of Yoo Han-sua.

After that, Sua arrived in the kitchen.

“…?”

Chef Lee Geum-hoo.

As soon as he saw Sua’s notepad, he frowned.

“You just wrote all this down indiscriminately?” “Well, what am I supposed to do when they say they want to eat it?” “Time is limited, and we’re not omnipotent, are we? We should have filtered out what we could. It’s too chaotic….”

“It doesn’t seem that chaotic to me.” “That’s probably because you don’t know how to cook, Sua-ssi.”

What is he talking about? Sua picked up a kitchen knife as if she was going to do it herself. Then Lee Geum-hoo snatched it away.

“I’m going crazy. It’s like leaving a young child near the water. This is a very dangerous knife. Could you just bring me the ingredients one by one when I ask for them sometimes?”

At the same time, he aggressively underlined things on the notepad.

“Let’s exclude everything except the bulgogi and kimbap. We don’t have time. Let’s just cleanly give up on the rest.”

After saying that, he starts cooking however he wants.

Chop chop chop chop─!

Thanks to that, Sua was left standing there blankly. Lee Geum-hoo focused solely on cooking without much communication.

So much so that Sua asked.

“Don’t you need anything?”

There was a reason she asked that. Sua could see all of Chef Lee Geum-hoo’s shortcomings. It would be a shame to do it that way… It could be done better….

“It’s okay.”

“Are you really okay?”

It doesn’t seem okay….

But Lee Geum-hoo was unyielding.

“Just stay still. Or you can watch and learn.”

“Um…. No. I’ll just do my own thing.”

In the end, Sua cleanly gave up on communicating!

She started making something on her own. Tteokbokki, japchae, bibimbap… The dishes that Lee Geum-hoo had boldly abandoned on the grounds that there wasn’t enough time.

The staff who were watching expressed their doubts about this.

“It doesn’t feel like the two of them are working together on something, but rather doing their own things? What’s going on?” “It’s clear that the atmosphere doesn’t look good. Umm, but it’s not bad. It doesn’t seem like a conflict so severe that we need to step in, and at the same time, it’s good for the broadcast structure.”

PD Kang Hyun-sung rubbed his chin and said.

The conflict between those who are cooking is a very solid broadcast material. Furthermore, dishes that high-demand Lee Sua made herself? If we put it out there, it will become a topic of conversation in some way.

One of the staff members said.

“But Chef Lee Geum-hoo is incredibly prickly, isn’t he? It’s not easy to assert one’s personality in front of Sua-ssi.” “That means he’s confident about cooking to that extent.” “I think he’s trying to establish his broadcast persona like that, but I don’t know if it’ll be okay. If he does well with the cooking, he’ll see the intended effect very well, but at the same time, if he messes up for no reason, it’s obvious that he’ll get a huge backlash from Sua-ssi’s fans.”

After 20 minutes passed.

“Alright, the bulgogi and kimbap are complete.”

Chef Lee Geum-hoo appeared carrying dishes of food on a cart. The delicious smell quickly spread.

“Alright, everyone, please try some.”

The food made by Chef Lee Geum-hoo was literally stable. Soon, the panelists who moved their chopsticks to pick up the food widened their eyes and smiled.

“Wow, it’s really delicious.”

“Yes, yes. This is the kind of taste that comes to mind when you think of Korea.”

As the compliments were repeated, Chef Lee Geum-hoo’s shoulders were almost soaring through the sky.

Then one of the panelists asked.

“I think Sua-ssi should try it too? Why isn’t Sua-ssi coming out?”

When one of the panelists asked, Lee Geum-hoo shrugged.

“It seems that Sua-ssi also has dishes that she wants to make. But I don’t know if that will be a taste that represents Korea. It’s just Sua-ssi’s cooking.”

That was the moment.

Chop chop chop chop chop chop─!

The sound of delicate knife work spread from the kitchen to this place, and everyone’s eyes widened at once.

There are moments in the world when you can judge a person’s skill just by the sound, and this was one of those times. Even if you just listened casually, it wasn’t the sound of a beginner’s knife skills.

The sense of hearing was followed by the sense of smell.

“Huh? A delicious smell….”

After the sound of the knife stopped, a delicious aroma began to spread throughout the studio. And 5 minutes later.

Drag─

“Did everyone wait long? I’m done too.”

When Sua also appeared pulling a cart.

“Huh?”

Everyone was shocked.

Drag─

On the cart were japchae, bibimbap, tteokbokki, kimchi fried rice…. All the dishes that Chef Lee Geum-hoo had abandoned were placed there without missing a single one.

Not only that.

“那个肯定很好吃….” (That definitely looks delicious…)

Jo Jung-jung, the Chinese panelist who had a cold expression and had been quiet all along, muttered to herself without realizing it. Yes, everyone had the same thought. That was a dish that tasted delicious even without trying it.