Chapter Two

Step 2: Add One Handsome Chef

 

 

 

Choi Seunghyun stood with both hands deep inside the pockets of his cargo trousers and stared up at the rubble-strewn building site that was destined to become his first signature restaurant.

 

 

This was it. After years of planning he has the fulfilment of his much awaited dream in his own hands. He felt happy that in the road near downtown YG St. was the location where he will start building his dreams. And in that same road was the place of Trattoria Rossi, the restaurant that taught him the passion and love for cooking.

 

 

In that same place—before he received Aunt Marie’s guidance and care, which owned the Trattoria Rossi—he experienced a lot of unpleasant incidents in his life. Not far away from that place is the squatter’s area wherein the apartment he grew up in stood still. He used to live their before with her single parent mother. And his mother entered three jobs at the same time only to provide their daily needs.

 

 

There was no other place he would like to start his dreams but in the place where he was exactly standing at.

 

 

He never forgot how much he hated his mother’s works way back then—works that almost killed her body. Her mother didn’t ever experience entering school so how could she find a better job then?

 

 

Top forced himself to do studying while working at the same time when his mother’s body started to give up. He often hung out in that road, hoping a philanthropist with a good heart could give him a good job. And in that particular place also he first tasted the sweet start of fulfilling his dreams.

 

 

It was time for lunch then and he has a really empty stomach because of finding a job that would give help to his mother. He stared closely to the customers eating inside the Trattoria Rossi and he started craving when he saw the delicious menus on the long buffet tables when an aged woman in her mid 30’s went out of that restaurant. She introduced herself as “Marie” and then the woman asked him.

 

 

“Do you know how to cook?”

 

 

He couldn’t forget the way she threw him that question. He hastily said “yes”. He really knows how to cook since he was the one cooking for them at their home. And because he frequently accompanied his mother to the cheap cafeteria she worked with before, he learned how to cook there as he watched the chef carefully whenever it started cooking customer’s orders. The owner of the cheap cafeteria never kicked him out of that place since he helped them with the works with no single pay. And in return of his free service, he only asked for a few foods during lunch and dinner to fill up his empty and noisy stomach.

 

 

And now he truly treated Aunt Marie as his true aunt. Trattoria Rossi was a first-class Italian restaurant. Unbelievably to other people, Aunt Marie accepted him to work there in her first class restaurant’s kitchen without hesitation. Since that day, she taught him everything about the art of cooking.

 

 

“What a loss for a handsome boy like you if you just stayed here and wander around this road,” she jokingly said to him.

 

 

She just didn’t only give him a job but she also treated him like her own flesh and blood. She sent him to school while he worked in her restaurant in return. She let him finished his high school and even helped him to study Culinary Arts. She never closed her doors nor windows to a stranger like him. She willingly opened her hands and extended it to him for a help. If not because of Aunt Marie, maybe he was wholly eaten up by the impurities and aggressiveness of the street. Mayhap he was nobody.

 

 

Aunt Marie gambled a chance for him. Now Top’s ready to roll the dice and be a total gambler to reach his dreams. Almost all his savings and knowledge were at stake for his new restaurant—his very own, personalized new kitchen. In a country where even successful restaurants struggled to make a living, it was precisely the kind of crazy, exciting, thrilling project he couldn’t wait to get started on. He was not alone in reaching for his dreams. In fact, Jiyong helped him, his best friend that he luckily met when he worked in Europe years ago.

 

 

Top glanced again at the building being demolished in front of him. It was an oldie bankrupted restaurant and was sold because it was neglected by the owner. But there was someone who bought it. And they started to tear the building down again intending to build a new one. Yet they only started the plan and later on the new owner became a nuisance to other businessmen, until they reached the decision to sell it for the second time. And luckily, he was the third owner of it.

 

 

He will raise it to popularity again. It would be one of the prettiest and classiest buildings in the city, and as a restaurant, it would have the most delicious food. Since the day he decided to be a chef, he worked hard to be the great chef in the country.

 

 

His cell phone rang. He smiled when he saw the number of Aunt Marie appeared on the screen. It’s been a long time since he moved out of her guidance and care and he didn’t even work with her anymore but he makes sure that they will not lose track in terms of communication. He could somehow afford to lose a friend, but he couldn’t afford to lose Aunt Marie.

 

 

But he was surprised when he answered the call and heard a man’s voice from the other line.

 

 

“Is this Top?”

 

 

“Yes. This is Top. Can I help you?”

 

 

“Oh, good. This is Junichi. You know—your Aunt Marie’s friend from the ballroom dancing class. I’m calling from Japan. Marie asked me a favour to call you up.”

 

 

Junichi?Did he meet that guy already? His Aunt has a lot of friend that was why he didn’t remember all of them easily.

 

 

“Marie had an operation on appendix.” He said delivering the news. “She’s doing well. But she’s still in the hospital right now. And because of what happened, her flight to Seoul and her comeback to Trattoria Rossi are both postponed.”

 

 

Junichi suddenly disappeared from the other line and a woman’s voice came out.

 

 

“Hello, Chef Choi?”

 

 

“Hello, Aunt Marie.”

 

 

“I’ve been kidnapped! One small operation and they want to keep me tied up to this bed for two weeks. Have you got a fast car or plane?”

 

 

“I can find one. I could pick you up there if you want?”

 

 

“Thanks, but I do need a favour. Go to Trattoria Rossi and give your support to Bom there. While I’m away, she’ll be in-charge of the restaurant. She has no chef right now, so is it fine with you to be her chef for the meantime?”

 

 

“Bom?”

 

 

“Yes. Park Bom. She’s my niece. She is Teddy’s baby sister. Bom texted me earlier and she is asking my permission if she could stay for some couple of days at Trattoria. I didn’t want to say yes because I wanted to close the restaurant while I’m here in Japan. But she’s so persistent. She said she has nowhere to go to. I didn’t know what the problem of that child is. I couldn’t do anything but to say yes to her. Besides, I’m worried if Trattoria Rossi could still make it to close for some days. I’m thinking that our customer’s won’t come back again.”

 

 

“You liked me to be your chef?”

 

 

“If it’s okay to you because my chef is still on vacation,” she said. “The only problem is that I forgot to tell Bom that I’m here in Japan. She thought she would see me at Trattoria. Are you willing to accompany her?”

 

 

“Why not, Aunt?”

 

 

“If that’s the case then, go now at Trattoria because Bom is on her way already,” Aunt Marie said. “It won’t be good if she sees no one there when she arrives. That kid might go somewhere else. No one’s around in their home coz her parents are out of the country. She might go around the area and talk to some strangers in desperation to have someone to talk to.”

 

 

“Okay,” he said. Park Bom? He couldn’t easily forget the family name Park. One sure thing he forgot was the exact appearance of Bom.

 

 

“Do you have any problem, dude?” Jiyong said, getting his attention. “You looked troublesome.”

 

 

“I’m giving you the floor to take charge of everything here while I’m not around, dude. I have to help out an old friend for a few days. You’re going to have to take the meeting on your own. I believed you can do it. Just call me whenever you needed me. I have to go.”