2.2. A familiar taste

I grabbed my brother's head and turned him towards the jury. I bowed and forced him to bow too. I felt like throwing up doing that but I had to. I want him to stay at least a week in the competition, like that he'll see how it is to live in a house where everybody hate you. And then in a town where everybody despise you once you're kicked out of the show.

Moreover, it's so embarrassing when somebody as for forgiveness for your shit. Even if I think he feels more angry because I destroyed his plan.

"I'm sorry. Pleas accept my apologies in my brother's stead. He just wanted to mess with his beloved brother. It won't happen again. I'm sorry."

I didn't say, not even once, that he had cheated but everybody had understood. Nova sighed.

"Fine. You're lucky you're brother was the victim of your childishness. You should thank him for apologising for you even after what you did."

I looked up at the chef and gave a relieved smile. He was a bit like the chef of the chefs so what he says goes.

"Thank you very much, chef."

The filming of the first trial finished, the three participants who arrived last place went to prepare for the 'last chance' challenge. The others went to the balconies to watch the show from above.

Chef Anthony stood up and announced the task.

"I remind you that only one of you will be saved and able to come back into the competition. It's a really close fight so do your best!… The dish you'll have to do for this challenge is our chef Nova's favourite. Something you eat when sad, happy, angry or just bored. It's like a warm hug when you're cold… and the dish is…"

Nova took out something from behind his back and placed it firmly on the table.

"Ramens!"

On the table was a box of instant ramen. I stood there confused. Wait, that wasn't the dish they had to do for the qualifying round in the original timeline. First of all, it was supposed to be chef Anthony's favourite and it was macaroni and cheese.

But ramens are fine, too. It brings back memories. I ate some at least once a week even in my original world. But the best memories I have were with Amory. As crazy as it seems, he had never eaten ramen before meeting me but he soon couldn't live without it. It reminds me of our weekends —watching TV, cuddling and laughing.

Ah… damn, I'm starting to feel lonely.

I swallowed down the tears that were menacing to fall. I'm okay. Everything's okay. I'll just take revenge and leave the world right afterwards. Like that, I'll be done in a year or two depending on the difficulty of the worlds and then I'll end it all. He said that we would see each other soon so I must hurry to keep our promise.

But for now, let's just focus on those ramens.

"You'll have two hours. I wish you all good luck and… start!"

I'm quite confident. I have this world's knowledge along with knowledge of other worlds and the system so my skills are three times better than the original's.

I went to take the ingredients I needed for the recipe and started to prepare the bouillon with miso paste, shoyu, sesame oil and a mix of vegetable and chicken stock. To spice up all this, ginger, chilli and garlic. I also added my secret ingredient —but I won't tell.

While it was simmering, I took a look at what my competitors where doing. The two of them were so focused on cooking their meat or trying to do something original that they completely forgot about their bouillon. What a bunch of beginners.

The soup is the most important part of the ramens. It needs to be tasty because it gives its taste to the garniture and the noodles. If you're able to drink the soup alone at the end without feeling nauseous, then your ramens are perfect. Of course you mustn't forget about the other parts of the recipe.

I put my meat to marinate. During that time, I did my noodles. They need to be supple, not floury or they'll break when you grab them with the sticks. I put them in cold water with block of ice to immobilise them.

Then I cut all the garniture; vegetables, shiitakes and narutomakis, and put them aside. After that, I put all my focus on the egg. Usually, the egg needs to spend 48 hours in a special preparation to give them a strong taste but I obviously didn't have 48 hours so I decided to use another technic. I'll give the egg a smoky taste by cooking it in hot ashes. The difficulty is on keeping a liquid egg yolk.

Once it was done, I started roasting the pork and finished by assembling every element in a big bowl. The ramen is a popular food from japan. It's not the kind of dishes served in three stars restaurants —people don't want to eat it there anyway. It's the kind of food you eat on your sofa a Sunday night in front of a drama show and making fun of the bad play of the actors.

Focus! Damn, that's because of the smell of the ramen. It made me nostalgic… Luckily I finished my dish so I didn't lose any time.

"And… stop! Everybody raise his hands."

We let go of our utensils and took a step back. I looked at my bowl, satisfied. Then we brought our dish to the judges one after another. I was the last one. The first dish's soup was tasteless —as I had predicted— and the second dish's noodles weren't elastic enough and were breaking in pieces.

It finally was my turn.

The judges tasted the bouillon, then the noodles and in the end the meat and vegetables. They kept an expressionless face during the whole time but I didn't need to see their face to know that it was perfect. Of course it was, I'm the one who did the dish.

The food critic began.

"The noodles are well prepared and the meat well cooked. I have nothing to say."

Then chef Anthony spoke.

"The bouillon is perfect, the seasoning is perfect… everything is perfect."

Chef Nova stayed silent, his head in his hands —he looked a bit troubled. I knew it was good but I honestly didn't expect that reaction. He stared at me with a frown for a short while and then raised his body with a big sigh.

Nova put his hand on his breast, where the three stars were, and took them off of his uniform. He slammed them on the table, breaking the silence and took the bowl of ramen. leaned back on his chair and started to eat again while sulking.

What the hell?

All the contestants and the judges, even the filming crew, were looking at him flabbergasted. The great chef Nova, the chef with the best palate in the world, just gave up on his stars for a bowl of ramen. It didn't matter how good it was, he always had something to say, a negative detail to point out.

But now, he only stayed silent and ate.

Chef Anthony, who was once Nova's teacher and was mentor to him, laughed with a wide grin. Well, it wasn't everyday that you'll be able to see the always expressionless man sulking.

"So, Nova, what do you think of Angel's dish?"

The chef stopped eating and stared hard at his now almost empty bowl.

"… I wish I could eat this every single day."

I was stunned. I knew how difficult it was to please his sensitive palate but that was literally the only and best compliment he ever gave during his whole career. I felt cheeks blushing. Chef Anthony laughed again.

"Well, looks like someone fell in love…"

When he felt Nova's angry glare he added.

"With Angel's cooking, of course. Haha…"