Magic was an extraordinarily important element in this world.
Just as modern society could not be discussed without science and technology,
this world could not be discussed without magic.
Magitech, which combined magic with technology, had transformed people’s lives.
Mana lamps used to explore dark caves.
Magitech igniters that allowed one to start a fire anywhere.
Even magitech trains, enormous means of transport that moved along rails.
On the other hand, there were those who purely studied magic and used it directly.
Those so-called mages were interested only in “strength.”
Wide-area fire magic that could burn thousands of monsters at once.
Lightning magic that could inflict fatal damage before the opponent even reacted.
Elaborate mana shields that could block even a dragon’s breath, and so on.
The research of mages was mostly focused on things like that.
But the direction I pursued was a little different.
The fundamental reason I studied elemental magic so deeply was for cooking.
This world lacked cooking equipment that could be used for cuisine.
Gas stoves, ovens, microwaves, sous vide machines, dehydrators, refrigerators, and so on……
Because the culinary knowledge I possessed was based on the modern world of my previous life,
it was difficult to display my true skill without such modern cooking tools.
That was why I turned my attention to magic.
What if I researched a way to make use of my overwhelming magical talent in cooking?
While other mages focused on producing greater destructive power,
I, on the contrary, focused on operating mana in small, minute ways.
Cooking was something that could be ruined if the temperature was off by just one or two degrees.
So I focused on mana control for the sake of precise heat adjustment that could maintain a perfect temperature.
After that became possible, I applied that mana control to other elemental magic as well.
As a result, I became able to flash-freeze ingredients at temperatures close to liquid nitrogen,
or manipulate air pressure and adjust the aroma or sugar content of growing crops.
In effect, I could reproduce with magic all the functions of modern cooking tools.
And that was a completely different field from existing magic, which pursued only greater mana and greater destructive power.
The ability to split mana down to the level of particles and operate it with precision.
The reason I began to be known as an archmage was because I was the first to establish that method of mana operation.
The advantages of this mana operation method, which was named “Meta Control,” were not limited to precision.
If it previously required 100 mana to launch a single fireball,
by maximizing mana efficiency, one could achieve the same power with only 10 mana.
All I had done was try to control every spell as precisely as possible so I could use it for cooking.
Yet somehow, it ended up changing the paradigm of magic.
And now that I had received an absurd order from my old comrade, the elf knight Irit,
I thought it was a good time to test the results of all the effort I had built up.
A dish that used no meat, yet gave the same satisfaction as eating meat.
In other words, the ultimate meat dish without meat.
In my previous life, I had tried vegan foods before.
I was not particularly a vegetarian, but a chef needed to have a wide range of culinary experiences.
Meat patties made from beans……
Something that imitated meat, commonly called “soy meat.”
But recalling my experience eating them, those fake meats had always been lacking something.
Compared to real meat, they had no meaty aroma, lacked umami, and did not have the greasy richness of fat.
Honestly, if someone who enjoyed real meat ate them, they would quickly realize it was not the real thing.
The dish I would make was the “ultimate meat dish” without using meat, so I could not compromise.
“Manager, I finished cleaninggg.”
Aris approached me and spoke while I was pondering over the candidate ingredients I had lined up on the cutting board.
She looked rather fitting holding a broom.
“Do you like meat?”
“Yeees?”
“I asked if you like meat.”
At my sudden question, Aris hesitated before answering.
“Yes, I like it. The stew I ate yesterday was delicious too……”
“Do you want to try another meat dish?”
“Another dish? If you give it to me, I’ll eat it gratefully! Ah, but the money……”
“It’s a test menu, so I won’t charge you. Instead, you can’t just eat it. Afterward, you have to properly tell me what you think.”
“Ah… yes, yeees!”
To think I would live long enough to ask a ghost to taste-test food.
In truth, when it came to taste, I was overwhelmingly superior, but I needed an ordinary tester.
I had no intention of telling Aris that there would be no meat in the dish.
She had to eat a meat dish without knowing anything, and fail to realize that it was actually not meat.
Since I would already know that fact during the cooking process, objective judgment would be impossible for me.
“Until I tell you to come back in, go pull some weeds or something outside the restaurant.”
“Huh? I have to go outside?”
“Yes. I’ll call you when it’s done.”
“O-okayyy……”
After sending Aris out of the shop, I began cooking in earnest.
There were three dishes I would make in total.
Hamburg steak, dumplings, and tangsuyuk.
All three were dishes in which meat played a central role.
There was a reason I chose those three dishes to test.
Steak was truly a dish where meat did ninety percent of the work.
If there was even the slightest hint that it was fake meat, it would be exposed immediately.
Even for me, recreating a raw meat steak with fake meat seemed difficult,
so I chose to go in the direction of Hamburg steak, which could at least be reproduced with fake meat.
On the other hand, dumplings and tangsuyuk were dishes with comparatively many ways to hide the ingredients.
Even if the fake meat stood out in the Hamburg steak, it might be fine in the dumplings and tangsuyuk.
In short, I had chosen foods that could be reproduced as real even when fake, divided by difficulty.
I intended to make all three dishes and feed them to Aris.
Now then, first I needed to make the meat.
I decided to start by making tofu from the beans that filled the sack.
I filled a large pot with water and soaked the beans.
The soaking process normally required a long time of more than eight hours, but I had magic.
“Control Pressure!”
Piiiiing—
A blue aura of mana shone from my right hand.
In the end, “soaking” meant that water forced its way into the beans through osmotic pressure.
I used magic to regulate the pressure of the water, accelerating osmosis so that the beans could absorb the water well.
After that, I controlled each particle of water that had seeped into the beans with mana,
making the beans soften with even more uniform quality than if they had been soaked properly over time.
Just like that, the beans were instantly ready to become tofu.
I immediately put the magically soaked beans into the pot and mixed them with water at an exact ratio.
“Grind!”
Paaaaat—
This time, I used magic to grind the beans extremely finely.
It was a spell I had devised to replace modern mixers and blenders.
Originally, it was magic devised for the purpose of tearing enemies apart and grinding them to pieces,
but through mana operation using Meta Control, I had reduced its power enough to use it for cooking.
Kagagagagagak!
The beans immediately began being ground down at tremendous speed.
The resulting soy milk churned violently inside the pot.
Tak! Fwoooosh!
Then I flicked my right hand and lit a fire beneath the pot with fire magic.
I finely adjusted the flame so that it was neither too strong nor too weak.
And when the soy milk began to boil—
“Separate!”
This time, I used “separation” magic.
Then the solids that would become okara gathered together on their own inside the pot.
The next moment, when I waved my right hand glowing with mana, that mass slipped cleanly out of the pot.
Soy milk simmered gently, with the dregs removed.
I lowered the heat and added nigari to the soy milk.
The nigari was something I had made in advance using seawater.
I could have used salt water and vinegar, but if I wanted the tofu to set more firmly, nigari made from seawater was better.
Now, if I gently stirred the soy milk and let it rest to finish, soft, curdled silken tofu would emerge.
And if I put that silken tofu into a mold and removed the moisture, the firm tofu we knew would be complete.
Even making a single block of tofu required such an incredible process.
If I had not used magic, making it within a day would have been impossible.
This was exactly why I had obsessively researched magic for cooking.
Make the process shorter.
Make the result better.
But the cooking had only just begun.
After all, the dish I was making was not tofu.
Hamburg steak, dumplings, and tangsuyuk without meat.
I already had a rough idea in my head of how I would make them.
All that remained was to pull the food I had envisioned in my mind into reality.
* * *
“Hm… hm-hmm… hm-hmm……”
Meanwhile, the seaweed ghost Aris was leisurely passing the time outside the shop.
She hummed as she looked at the wildflowers nearby, and spun around as if dancing.
Klaus, the manager, had told her to pull weeds or something, but the area around the shop was already clean.
Inside, he was currently making a new test menu.
Aris could hardly stand how curious she was about what kind of menu it would be, and what it would taste like.
“Hm-hm-hmm……”
Aris slowly strolled around the shop, humming.
Originally, a ghost could only materialize on its own when it had an intense desire for something.
But right now, Klaus was using mana to forcibly keep Aris’s body manifested.
At first she had thought it was frightening, but for some reason, Aris rather liked the situation now.
The shop was not particularly busy, and she could eat delicious food.
If she ate, the period she had to work would be extended, but she did not really mind.
Rather, she found herself thinking that as long as Klaus allowed it, she wanted to keep staying here.
“Hey, Aris! It’s ready. Come in!”
The restaurant door opened, and Klaus called Aris.
“Yees—!”
It seemed the test food was finished.
Aris, her heart swelling with anticipation, pattered quickly into the shop.
* * *