20demayo Chapter 221: Rest - Hell's Hotel Kitchen (3)
Chapter 221: Rest - Hell's Hotel Kitchen (3)
- Lee Eunsol
- Gulp!
I swallowed nervously and glared at Kain’s dish with tension.
Noticing my reaction, Kain stammered, “N-noona! I mean, Chef. The dish didn’t move because something inside it was alive. It shook because my hand hit it when I was putting it down.”
...Is that true?
When Kain removed his hand, the dish did indeed stop moving.
“Chef, it’s just grilled pork neck and porridge. You can dip the meat in wasabi or salt, whichever you prefer.”
“Porridge?”
“There wasn’t a rice cooker...”
It seemed he didn’t know how to cook rice without one.
Not that I did either, so I couldn’t judge him for that.
Grilled pork neck seemed like a safe choice; it was just slicing meat before grilling it.
Nothing could go wrong, right?
There didn’t seem to be any room for strange surprises.
It felt like he might have chosen something too simple, but from one perspective, it could be considered wise.
When I opened the lid, it was just as Kain described.
Regular grilled pork neck with a bit of porridge, oil, salt, and wasabi.
“...”
But I wasn’t letting my guard down.
I could still hear Kain’s earlier words echoing in my head.
— I don’t have to eat this, right? Thank goodness.
I tried the porridge and a bit of the meat in order.
The porridge was a bit bland, but since it wasn’t meant to be eaten alone, it wasn’t an issue.
The meat was evenly cooked, nothing remarkable but solid enough.
Considering it was a simple dish, it was decent.
It felt like a safe 7 points.
[I was born 7 months ago on the Hotel’s farm.]
“...?”
[Don’t worry! My life was happy. During the day, I roamed the lush oak forests—]
“...I’m hearing something weird.”
Kain turned away as if he didn’t hear me.
[...In the evening, I chatted with my farm friends about what games to play the next day, losing track of time.]
“Oh, come on! Merchant! What is this?”
“A Hotel specialty! ‘The Talking Pig’s Final Words.’ How do you like it? In fine dining, every dish should come with a philosophy and story. The pork you just ate—”
“Please, enough of this crazy talk! I don’t want to know the life story of a pig!”
“It holds the last words of a kind pig, Piyo, who played joyfully in the oak forest.”
For 15 minutes, Piyo talked excitedly about his life on the farm and how he looked forward to being eaten “deliciously”.
I waited patiently for Piyo to finally go quiet.
“Kain. Did you really have to serve this?”
“Well, you see, it didn’t show any signs when I was cooking. Only after it was plated did it suddenly say, ‘Thank you, chef!’ That’s when I realized something was off...”
“Then you should’ve only served the porridge!”
“...”
I finished the pork with a dazed expression.
The last trace Piyo left in this world tasted pretty good.
“The pork and porridge were okay. But Piyo’s final monologue ruined it, so I’m giving you 1 point.”
“Argh!”
“Do you want me to change it to 0?”
“No...”
Next up was Jinchul’s dish, which turned out to be his favorite—spicy stir-fried pork.
I already knew he loved it since he ate it almost daily.
It seemed he cooked it quite often too.
The dish was decent.
“I’ll give you 7 points. It’s well-made, but it’s a bit too spicy for my taste.”
“Oh~! Noona, just 1 more point, please.”
“No. The best dishes so far were the seafood and the beef stew. Since the seafood got 8 points, I can’t give you more than that.”
Next was Sanghyun’s turn.
Given his Blessing, “Diligence”, he seemed capable of doing almost anything well, so everyone had high expectations.
Sensing the anticipation, Sanghyun looked slightly nervous.
“I haven’t cooked much before. But I am confident in this dish...”
Contrary to his modest words, the steak and garnishes on his plate looked impressive.
Just cutting into the meat before tasting it was enough to make me exclaim!
The steak had a nice crust on the outside, with a juicy, pink center—a perfect medium-rare.
The color of the dipping sauce was also familiar.
“Is this red wine sauce?”
“Yes, I reduced red wine, sugar, and oil. It’s a simple recipe, but the Hotel’s wine is excellent.”
Ahri had prepared oil-based pasta topped with beef.
While it didn’t use many ingredients, the simplicity allowed the olive oil’s rich flavor and the beef’s taste to shine, making it a pleasure to eat.
“It’s really good. Why did you do that strange thing earlier when you can cook like this?”
Ahri chuckled and answered, “I overestimated our group’s cooking skills. Most of them can barely grill meat.”
“True. But let’s confirm before scoring.”
I called Elena to use her lie-detection skills.
“Ahri, did you do anything strange while cooking?”
“Not at all! I purely used my cooking skills in this dish. I did have to use my secret technique to stop the beef from wriggling, though.”
“It’s true.”
“Hmm. Good. 9 points!”
Next, Sanghyun brought his plate and lifted the lid.
It was a Chinese-style stir-fried noodle dish, “Chow Mein”.
The egg noodles had a unique, snappy texture, different from chewy udon or soft rice noodles, and they paired well with the stir-fried cabbage and bean sprouts.
“Wow! How did you make this? Didn’t you say you haven’t cooked much?”
Sanghyun looked confident as my expression brightened.
“Chef, it’s not anything extraordinary. I just tried it since the ingredients for egg noodles were available. Try it with the shrimp and noodles together.”
I did as he suggested, scooping up shrimp and noodles in one bite—
- Pop!
“...”
“Chef?”
“I just bit into the shrimp, and another shrimp popped out from it.”
“What?”
“Isn’t this one of those ‘Splitting Shrimps’? Did you have to use such an ingredient?”
Sanghyun looked flustered.
“No, it was just a normal shrimp until right before I added it—”
Sanghyun glanced at Ahri, who turned her head, feigning ignorance.
“...”
“...This is my fault. I should’ve double-checked if the ingredients were normal until the end.”
Before we could say more, Elena, who had used her lie detection ability, exclaimed.
“What? But earlier, you said you didn’t do anything strange—”
“Elena, think carefully. She said she didn’t do anything strange in this dish.”
So she only kept her mischief away from her own dish.
My head started to spin.
“...I’ll just give Sanghyun 10 points.”
The merchant calmly pointed out, “Chef, you must wear the hat when scoring.”
The hat’s evaluation, which ignored all biases and focused solely on the dish, was strict.
“The dish was good, but the shrimp was a total failure, so 7 points.”
“I accept that.”
With that, the merchant stepped forward.
“Now~! Congratulations, Participant Kim Ahri! How does it feel to be the first winner of Hell’s Hotel Kitchen?”
“What’s the prize?”
“Oh, how unromantic—”
“Just give me the prize!”
Grumbling, the merchant pulled out an unknown clear bottle and handed it to Ahri.
“What about mine? You said I’d get something for being the judge.”
“You’re already wearing it, aren’t you?”
“...This hat?”
“It’s quite an amusing tool. Make good use of it.”
Finally, this damned cooking competition was over!
Isn’t the Hand of Greed supposed to be risk-free for its users?
I didn’t understand why I had to go through so much trouble.
Before leaving, the merchant announced the “penalty”, “Participant Park Seungyub.”
“Yes...”
“For today’s lunch and dinner, you’ll be served the dish you made.”
“What???”
“You won’t be allowed out of Room 105 until you finish it.”
Laughter filled the Hotel.
By the end of the day, everyone was smiling again.
Seeing those cheerful faces made me smile too.
What an absurd Hotel event!
If it made us laugh and have fun together, maybe that was all that mattered.
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Tomorrow, we’d enter the Cursed Room again.
Today, we would rest.
“W-w-wait! How am I supposed to eat /genesisforsaken