Chapter 21: 21

Episode 21: Tradition and Challenge

Translated by AmaLynne

 

TN: Sorry if the translation is bad >.<  There are a lot of long sentences and words that I don’t really understand T-T

 

「Anson, it’s been a long time.」

「Grandpa, you’re alive.」

「I’m so energetic that it’s hard for me to get a ride home from the other side. Where is the store?」

「I’m willing to be a little late for this evening’s session to see the new sauce from the female owner.」

「You have a difficult personality. You are just the opposite of Mirko.」

「Grandpa, I don’t think so.」

 

After lunch, Anson-san showed up at Nihon at the time we finished preparing the sauce, saying that he was going to taste the sauce I was going to make.

I make it to make sure the steak sauce tastes good.

But it’s not that difficult.

I don’t spend days making the sauce like the professional chefs of this world.

It was a『sham chaliapin sauce』made with finely chopped onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and other ingredients.

I could easily make other sauces using soy sauce and miso, so I just used them for the steak.

I once made a sauce similar to fon de veau, but since I couldn’t spend days making it, I had to cut corners to make it in a short time, and I even added soy sauce to fool around with it.

Come to think of it, in old France, King Louis XIV loved soy sauce imported from Kyushu.

In the same way, the people of this world have discovered the deliciousness of soy sauce.

And miso, too.

The only way to get both, though, is for me to magically produce a set amount per day.

「Go ahead.」

I served Anson-san『Aged meat steak with some kind of chaliapin sauce』and miso sauce.

「I’ve never seen this seasoning before… Is it a sauce with small chopped vegetables? …Nmm, yummy! Really good! And the meat! Mirko ohhh!」

「I’m trying to do some trial and error with the aging of the meat right now! I’ll tell you what, just give me time!」

「Damn it! I lost the meat and the sauce!」

Anson-san was so confident in his abilities as a chef that he could not gamble on his chef’s pride to say that my sauce was better.

He must have had the courage to admit defeat.

「Oh, so you are a proud cook, Anson, and you honestly admit defeat. This sauce sure tastes good!」

「Anson was defeated in this case. Even if he uses the same meat, this sauce with a lot of vegetables is delicious.」

Grandpa and oyabun-san chummy tasted the steak left by Anson-san and raved about its taste.

I think the fact that it’s the first time he had it is an extra big factor.

「My cooking skills are not as good as Anson-san’s, though.」

I think it’s the taste of the seasonings, soy sauce, and miso, that is overwhelmingly good.

Then there is the issue of stereotypes, which is the most unnecessary for a chef.

Anson-san originally cooked the food that the king would eat in the royal castle, so his skill should be far superior to mine.

But when he tries to rise to the top as a chef in the royal castle, he perfects his own fon de veau-style sauce and always uses it in his cooking.

Even though they don’t have soy sauce, they have fish sauce, but they don’t use it at all willingly because it is vulgar and might upset the stomach.

But Anson-san did not break the rules even after he quit his job as a chef at the castle and started his own business.

「The way they cut the meat and cut the muscle was very good, and the meat at Anson-san’s restaurant was very tender. As for grilling, both Bonta-kun and I were gradually improving our skills, but we were still not as good as the real professionals. But I won by surprise because I made something other than the sauce that the professional chef who worked for the royal palace always prepared.」

If I were asked to cook the same dish and face off against him, I would never be able to beat Anson-san

「Cuisine evolves. We must not neglect the search for new dishes and flavors. Even the sauces used in Anson’s dishes must have been invented by someone in the first place.」

「Certainly, the skewers at the landlady’s restaurant, the dishes made with the meat and offal of fresh magical beasts.」

「Like the miso nikomi. That’s something you won’t find in any other restaurant.」

Well, I can’t say much about others, since my dishes are also a pastiche of what was normally served in Japanese restaurants.

But I am fine as long as it tastes good, so I don’t think I am as stubborn as Anson-san.

「I think that since Anson-san quit his job as a chef at the Royal Castle to start his restaurant, he should serve dishes that the customers who come to his restaurant would be pleased with. What’s the point in comparing his food with mine?」

As it stands, Anson-san food was popular.

Because it’s cheaper than the high-end restaurants, and it’s similar to the food that kings and aristocrats eat.

So there is no point in comparing it to my food.

It’s a restaurant with its selling point.

「I thought it was strange, too. He was always taking shots at the Yukiko Landlady and Bonta. Why do you get involved with the Yukiko Landlady who thinks you are a lesser chef when you have the attitude that you are a superior chef? If you think you’re better than them, they usually don’t care.」

It’s true, Anson-san’s restaurant is full of customers right now, so there’s no point in competing with us, or eating at us.

Why did he do that?

「I’m a chef who used to serve the king. However, even though I had gone to the trouble of becoming independent, this was the limit of the restaurant’s rank…」

According to Anson-san, being a cook in the royal castle is a place where the power of the family and the nobles with whom you associate depend on each other.

You can’t have shady people cooking the food that kings and nobles eat, so most of them end up being people whose parents’ families have been running fine restaurants for generations.

Although Anson-san came from a commoner background, he had talent as a cook and was regularly in charge of the main dishes eaten by the king, but this bred jealousy among the other cooks of good family backgrounds.

He was also harassed in many ways.

「I got so sick of it that I quit my job as a cook at the royal castle and set up my restaurant. But I can’t run a fine dining restaurant.」

After all, even there, family background and connections play a role.

The number of so-called high-class restaurants is fixed, and no matter how talented he may be, Anson-san, whose family is not from a high-class restaurant and who comes from a commoner background, can only manage a restaurant of that rank.

Hm―――mm.

What a complicated story.

If it were in Japan, it would be impossible.

「I still worked hard and turned the restaurant into a thriving business. But still, the guys whose parents’ house is a high-end restaurant…」

They suddenly came to the store and insult Anson-san.

They said things like,『It’s so easy to make money by fooling those poor tongues』and『The stores smell bad because of the low customer base.』

I think they felt threatened by Anson-san restaurant because they went out of their way to put pressure on him, but he was too upset to think so.

Then, he continued, he was also told this.

『I hear that there are more customers at some weird bar called『Nihon』on a back street downtown than at your low-level establishment.』

I’m very sorry to hear that Anson-san, who was said to be the best young chef in the castle, has lost, even though the two restaurants serve the same low-level food…

You are reading story Wild JK Kashino Yukiko Opens a Bar in Another World at novel35.com

It seems that Anson-san has come to harbor ill will toward us after he was told that

「I guess the family of the owner of a fine restaurant has a lot of free time on their hands.」

If you have time for that, you should be training or preparing food.

「The restaurant’s reputation alone is enough to bring in fat customers on its own. Some of the restaurants are so good that they make me shake my head.」

「Is that so? I don’t understand. They charge a lot of money.」

They are expensive and tasteless, or they are well-established and have a lot of customers who pay well even if they don’t do anything, so they sit on their laurels.

「I sometimes go out with them, too, but I don’t like it. After eating the grilled skewers at the landlady’s restaurant, I don’t want to eat food with a lot of herbs to mask the stench of the meat.」

Come to think of it, Mirko is the only one who prepares and dismantles meat the same way I do.

「I’m an up-and-coming butcher, so I don’t get any help from high-end restaurants. I’m the only one who refuses to butcher.」

Certainly, the meat smells less beastly and should be of better quality at Mirko-san butcher shop.

But a fine restaurant that gets customers on its own wouldn’t improve on the food they make, much less create new dishes.

There is a reason why it is…because the traditional cuisine is eaten by aristocrats who are obsessed with tradition, but it may also be that the old tradition of using herbs to disguise the beastly smell of meat cannot be eliminated.

People can’t easily try new things.

「That kind of restaurant has a butcher shop that they have known for a long time. If that butcher doesn’t change the treatment of the meat, then it’s no wonder the meat still smells like an animal.」

Hm―――mm.

So, I’ve always wanted to go to a fine restaurant someday, but I wonder if it won’t be that good?

「I’ve been taken there a couple of times before, but it’s never been good. The menus are all the same.」

「You’ve been to some fine restaurants before, haven’t you, oyabun-san?」

「Well, it’s a social thing. In this kind of business, it happens from time to time.」

As expected of the neighborhood watchman who runs this area.

「If I had to pay for my food, I would choose to eat at the landlady’s restaurant.」

「Thank you, oyabun-san.」

It is nice to be praised by oyabun-san, isn’t it?

「I would rather eat a steak aged by the landlady than one from an overpriced restaurant that only tastes of herbs.」

「Oyabun-san is right. Only the landlady could think of maturing rotting meat.」

Excuse me, grandpa.

It is also a way of processing meat that was common and popular in Japan, or rather, on Earth.

My grandpa liked to age the meat he got from hunting, and I used to help him a lot.

「The food at your restaurant is better than those who sit on their laurels of being long-established restaurants, but you are so concerned about them that your taste buds are scattered all over the place. You have your restaurant, haven’t you? Why don’t you seek your taste like the landlady? You do the same thing you did when you were working in the royal castle, and if you are still criticized by those idiots, you look down on the landladies to satisfy your self-esteem. What a stupid man you are.」

「What!」

「You mean to tell me you’re not?」

When Oyabun-san simply asked him a question like that, Anson-san became like a withered vegetable leaf.

You don’t have to yell to be intimidating.

「Your friend Mirko used to be a bum who tried to use the power of his retired grandpa to make an easy business success. But now, he dismantles magical beasts by himself, sells meat that doesn’t smell like beast, and is increasing his clientele. He is also supplying good meat to you, too, through your connections as a friend. Why can’t you see how your friend has changed and changed yourself? I don’t know what you want to do with your restaurant in the future, but whatever you do, you have to think about it yourself. Will you be able to do that if you are dragged along by people who come all the way to complain?」

「That’s…」

He has good skills, but he keeps getting stuck in the old ways and is unable to research new cuisines.

It is ironic that Anson-san, who had a difficult time moving up the ladder despite his skills simply because his parents’ family is not a well-established fine dining restaurant, would be so obsessed with the ways of fine dining even after starting his restaurant.

He is rebelling against the traditions of his days working at the royal castle, but he has not been able to escape from them.

「What does the landlady think?」

「I think that there was someone who first developed any traditional cuisine, and that person was criticized by those who were obsessed with old dishes.  But if the food is really good, it gets a lot of supporters and becomes a standard dish. If the food is good, many customers will come and the restaurant will be profitable. It’s just a matter of the dish going down in history in the future, so we continue to experiment.」

「But you are paying attention to what your former colleagues who came to poke fun at your restaurant in their spare time are saying, making dishes that are not much different from the ones you used to make at the royal castle, looking down on the landlady, and fooling yourself. For a while, the restaurant will thrive with people interested in the food served at the royal castle, but after that, who knows?」

Indeed, Anson-san’s food was, to a frightening degree, the same as the menu served at the Royal Castle.

After the current customers get tired of it, will he be able to come up with new dishes that will keep them coming back?

I also thought that this was where Anson-san’s game as a chef would begin.

「At least, I wouldn’t go there. Not because the food isn’t good, but because it’s the kind of place that draws customers in with vague sales pitches about how the king eats the same kind of food.」

「I’ve worked hard at being a good cook!」

「Then why don’t you direct that toward creating new dishes like the landlady? If it tastes good, customers will come. You became tired of being a cook in the royal castle and decided to start your own business, but you only want aristocrats and rich people to be your customers? Who cares what the bourgeoisies of the old fine restaurants, who don’t cook well enough to make fun of you, have to say? You’re a funny guy.」

「…Oyabun-san, you’re going to say everything I want to say.」

It’s not that I wanted to say this terribly, but…

He is currently successful, so as long as he doesn’t bother us unnecessarily, it is his responsibility if customers disappear from his store in the future.

It may sound cold, but that’s what it means to be independent.

「I quit my job as a cook at the authoritative Royal Castle and went independent, and yet I still stuck to their style… The truth is, I was just jealous of『Nihon』, which had a reputation for food I hadn’t even considered, but they made fun of the place and the clientele for being vulgar and…I was on the same level as those who don’t cook well but sit on their laurels because they are heirs to a long-established fine restaurant. Was I on the same level…?」

「I guess that’s true when you look at it objectively.」

Grandpa, you don’t have to stab it there…

But he’ll never know if you don’t tell him.

「It’s okay to make mistakes. Those who can recognize and correct their mistakes when they are pointed out are not stupid. Those who can do so will surely succeed.」

「You are right, old man. I beg your pardon.」

With these words, Anson-san left my store.

I don’t know what he will do now.

But that is for him, the owner of that restaurant, to think about.

He might not lose any customers if he continues with the current menu, so some people think it is better not to change the menu down the road.

「Whichever option I choose, if I succeed, I’m happy, and if I fail, I’m in the wrong. I’m just trying to keep this place going.」

「Many people can’t do that.」

「I know you’re having a hard time renewing your shopper’s contract at your place too.」

They can’t get the shop fee from a store that has gone out of business, and when a new store opens, they have to go and negotiate.

Above all, if they don’t think it’s worth it, they won’t pay us, which is a big problem.

If they don’t think it’s worth it, they won’t pay you.

「That’s the hard part of this business. Hey, landlady, do you have any more of that steak?」

「Have.」

「I want some more.」

「Me, too.」

We’re not in business hours right now.

Since they are all regulars, I’ll give them a special this time.

It’s an expensive menu item, so I make a lot of money there.

You can find story with these keywords: Wild JK Kashino Yukiko Opens a Bar in Another World, Read Wild JK Kashino Yukiko Opens a Bar in Another World, Wild JK Kashino Yukiko Opens a Bar in Another World novel, Wild JK Kashino Yukiko Opens a Bar in Another World book, Wild JK Kashino Yukiko Opens a Bar in Another World story, Wild JK Kashino Yukiko Opens a Bar in Another World full, Wild JK Kashino Yukiko Opens a Bar in Another World Latest Chapter