Several days had passed since I sent a letter to the Early Bird Newspaper.
I erased the very fact that I had sent it from my mind,
and returned to my peaceful daily life, waiting for guests who might come again who knew when.
I watered the herb pots on the rooftop,
tended the small vegetable garden I had cultivated beside the restaurant……
studied cooking while testing new menus on my own,
and sometimes went into the city to look around the market and see if any interesting ingredients had come in.
But even as I spent my days like that, no guests came.
The barrier to entry for Gourmet Restaurant Slow was certainly absurdly high, after all.
Even if I thought about it from a guest’s perspective,
if I saw an advertisement for a truly delicious restaurant but was told it was on some mountaintop or in the middle of nowhere, it would be hard to go there.
Looking at it that way, I even wondered if I should promote it a little more actively.
Even if it truly became known across the entire continent as a “dream restaurant” and its popularity exploded,
people might only talk about how they wanted to go as idle chatter, while the number who actually came would be extremely small.
After watering the herb pots on the rooftop,
I came back down to the first floor and stepped outside the restaurant, where I found Aris squatting.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
I asked Aris, still holding the watering can.
“……”
Whether she hadn’t heard me or not,
Aris remained squatting there without the slightest movement.
“I asked what you’re doing.”
“Shh— It’s an earthworm.”
“What?”
“I was watching an earthworm.”
At the utterly unexpected, absurd answer, my thoughts stopped for a moment.
An earthworm?
Come to think of it, it had rained a little a few days ago.
More importantly, a ghost taking an interest in and observing an earthworm……
“Are you bored?”
“Oh, there are two of them.”
Aris said cheerfully, her gaze fixed on the ground.
“They look close.”
“……”
“Would you like to watch with me?”
At Aris’s invitation, I slowly approached with the watering can.
Then I tilted the remaining water inside it over Aris’s head and poured it down.
“Eek—! What was that all of a sudden, Manager!”
“Earthworms like water, don’t they?”
“I’m not an earthworm! I’m soaked……”
“You’re always soaked to begin with.”
“Oh, that’s true.”
In truth, even if I poured water on Aris,
it didn’t particularly change her condition much.
It was a leisurely afternoon.
I set the watering can down on the ground and squatted beside Aris.
Then I shifted my gaze to the ground she had been observing.
“You’re right. There really are two earthworms.”
“See? They’re completely overlapping, so they look like they get along.”
“Did you know earthworms can be eaten too?”
“Huh? Eeek……”
“Well, it feels closer to medicinal ingredients than food.”
Aris’s horrified reaction was amusing.
When no guests came, my daily life always felt something like this.
The sun was slowly starting to set.
I rose to prepare dinner.
* * *
Back when I had been a chef in my previous life.
I had worked in all sorts of places, from barbecue restaurants to fine dining establishments.
Korean cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Western cuisine……
I made foods across a wide range without discrimination, but what I liked most was Korean cuisine.
The food in this world included many dishes that were close to Western cuisine.
The forms of food that had developed here differed due to differences in ingredients and culture,
but if you looked at the direction of flavor they pursued, they were most similar to Western cuisine.
Of course, there were also foods like those of Topeulliya on the northern continent, which used powerful spices.
Cooking that used monsters as ingredients had also developed quite a bit thanks to the activities of adventurers,
so when I first cooked monster dishes, I had referenced this world’s cooking methods a great deal as well.
But after going in circles,
in the end, the food I liked most was Korean cuisine.
All kinds of braised meats and bibimbap packed with vegetables,
seasoned namul made from all sorts of ingredients, and soups and stews with deep broths……
And there were a few ingredients that Korean cuisine absolutely could not do without.
They were jangs such as gochujang, doenjang, and ganjang.
In this world, there were no proper jangs suitable for Korean cuisine.
It was only natural.
Since this was a world with completely different ingredients and culture,
the jangs and seasonings I had originally used well did not exist.
So I had decided to make and use the jangs that formed the base of Korean cuisine, such as gochujang, doenjang, and ganjang, myself.
When I had not long since opened the restaurant,
I kept failing at making jang, resulting in strange flavors, or having it spoil instead of ferment.
Even the varieties of chili peppers and beans that served as the main ingredients had subtly different tastes and characteristics.
If I used the exact same methods by applying the knowledge I already had,
the result was not very good.
But through precise magic using Meta Control.
After changing the method little by little through countless trials and errors……
I became able to produce jangs of fairly decent quality myself.
The ganjang was a little less salty, but had a strong umami and aroma,
and the gochujang was less spicy, but had less heaviness and a lower viscosity.
As for doenjang, I had succeeded in producing a taste almost close to traditional Korean doenjang,
so recently I was trying to recreate the miso mainly used in Japanese cuisine, dividing it into red miso and white miso.
It would be difficult to perfectly imitate modern seasonings born from the combination of long research and science,
but at the very least, I wanted to fill the empty space of science and technology with magic and recreate all the seasonings I needed.
Even now, I could make almost any dish,
but it would remain my task to continue research and trial and error, refining them into even better flavors.
“Oh, Manager~! I think the newspaper is here~!”
As I was pondering seasonings by myself,
Aris looked out the window and spoke to me.
The Early Bird Newspaper?
No, wait. It was still too early for the next paper to arrive.
The newspaper arrived precisely on a set day every week.
Today was not the day the newspaper came.
Then was it a guest?
No, if it were, Aris wouldn’t have gone out of her way to say it was the newspaper.
She must have seen the deliveryman’s distinctive outfit and hat and told me that.
“Go out and get it.”
“Okaaay~!”
Aris trotted outside.
What she brought back a moment later was, as expected, not a newspaper.
It was a pure white envelope sealed with wax.
“It wasn’t the newspaper.”
“A letter? Are you sure the deliveryman who left this was the same as the newspaper deliveryman?”
“Yes, that’s why I thought it was the newspaper.”
Hmm. Then that meant this letter had been sent to me directly by the Early Bird Newspaper.
What reason would I have to receive a letter from a newspaper company?
Could it be that they sent a threatening letter related to Lady Rosaria?
The Early Bird Newspaper was the greatest newspaper on the continent,
but according to certain rumors that circulated behind the scenes, they sometimes found weaknesses of famous people and extorted money from them.
Well, they were only unconfirmed rumors……
But when you received a letter from a newspaper, that sort of thing naturally came to mind.
I sat down in front of the counter and broke the seal on the letter.
Then I took out the folded sheet of paper inside and unfolded it.
The stationery was of such high quality that it could not easily be found in the market.
The sensation of the paper brushing against my fingertips was smooth and pleasant.
The letter was fairly long.
---
To Gourmet Restaurant Slow.
We have received the introduction to your restaurant.
Since planning this column, our editorial department has received introductions to hundreds of restaurants and forwarded them to Mr. Moshul.
However, due to Mr. Moshul’s strict standards, there had been no restaurant we could feature in the column,
and afterward, in order to find a restaurant capable of passing Mr. Moshul’s standards, we changed to open recruitment.
This open recruitment received applications from thousands of restaurants.
And during the process in which Mr. Moshul personally reviewed the applications, he read the introduction to your restaurant,
and for the first time, actively expressed his intent to visit.
This is a first for our editorial department.
The planned visit date is one week after you receive this letter.
We have heard that after a visit reservation,
meals are available on separately designated dates.
So that our column may have the honor of introducing its first restaurant,
we ask that you take special care in serving Mr. Moshul.
From the Editorial Department of the Early Bird Newspaper.
---
“What……”
“What is it? What kind of letter is it?”
This was something I had never expected at all.
To think I would be chosen for the restaurant verification of that newspaper’s new column, “Today’s Gourmet.”
And from the contents of the letter, it wasn’t as if they had chosen several restaurants at the same time,
nor had they picked one at random.
That fastidious gourmet, Moshul, had personally looked over the restaurants that had applied,
and of the thousands of restaurants, he had specifically chosen mine.
How could something like this happen……
To think the thing I had written roughly and sent in would actually be selected.
“Manager~ Can I see it too? Manager~”
I handed the letter I had finished reading to Aris, who was pestering me at my side.
Aris took the letter and read it with her eyes darting quickly over the page,
and before long, her eyes grew as round as saucers.
“Wow~!! We really got chosen?!”
“Looks like it.”
“Out of thousands?!”
“That’s what it says.”
“Waaah~!! Are we going to be in the newspaper?!”
Aris jumped up and down in place.
“No, not yet. If that person named Moshul doesn’t like it, it’s pointless.”
“But still, being given the opportunity is something~!”
“Well, that’s true……”
It felt strange.
At the same time, I didn’t understand it.
This person named Moshul seemed like quite the eccentric too……
If it were another restaurant, they would be making a huge fuss about a chance to turn their life around,
but I was calm.
“Manager! Shouldn’t you prepare a lot?”
“Prepare what?”
“They say he’s a famous gourmet~! Something special……”
“I just have to do the same as usual. A gourmet is ultimately a guest too.”
I folded the letter and put it inside the counter drawer.
Even if I were to prepare, there was nothing particularly different to do.
This restaurant had always been a restaurant that made what the guest wanted.
Whether a gourmet came, a princess came, or an ordinary passerby came, nothing changed.
As for what Moshul would order, I would only know once he arrived,
and whatever order came in, I simply had to make it with all my effort.
I rose from my seat and headed to the kitchen.
It was time to prepare tonight’s dinner.
As for what kind of person that Moshul was……
Well, I would know when he came.