Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 132: Makki’s Secret Garden (Third Update!)

Chapter 132: Chapter 132: Makki’s Secret Garden (Third Update!)

"Onions, dill, butter, cheese," the filling mixed and stirred to perfection...

Ichise Hui swallowed a small piece of the Fried Cod Pie as well.

The crust, baked to a crisp, crumbled under his teeth, followed by the filling that embraced the cod slices.

At last, much to everyone’s calling, the fragrant and savory cod slices, rich in flavor, made their debut.

Finally reaching the core, Ichise Hui found his mouth, and his entire body, trembling slightly in a complex state of fear and expectation, entangled in a complicated emotion.

He hesitated for a moment, and then his teeth decisively took a bite!

Mmm!

Ichise Hui’s pupils dilated, somewhat disoriented.

Through the veil of time, he saw a mysterious courtyard, with children’s laughter echoing in his ears, both near and distant.

It was probably early spring, the weather still a bit chilly; undeterred by his bare skin, Ichise Hui ran barefoot across the garden, and splash! He ran through layers of dense foliage, suddenly bursting into an open view.

Outside the courtyard lay an endless Dill Garden.

Late March, early April, just the season when dill blooms and bears fruit, a girl in a white dress was walking slowly in the field, her back to Ichise Hui, moving gracefully, like an angel descended from heaven.

"Wait for me—" Ichise Hui sprinted forward, only to find the girl getting farther and farther away. Just when he was about to give up, at a loss, the girl stopped by a stream where the ice and snow had not yet melted.

Panting, Ichise Hui approached her; she turned her head at the sound, a gentle smile on her face, her voice like jade beads falling on the heart, "You’ve finally arrived, I’ve been waiting for you for so long..."

The vision abruptly ended.

Ichise Hui didn’t see the girl’s face clearly.

Unwittingly, he had already swallowed the food in his mouth.

The hand holding the knife and fork trembled; Ichise Hui stared fixedly at the barely touched piece of ’Fried Cod Pie’, internally struggling, unable to muster the courage for a second bite.

"How come, doesn’t it taste good?"

Sen Tian Makoto tilted her head slightly as she looked at him.

Taking a deep breath, Ichise Hui put down his knife and fork, turned his head, and wiped the corners of his eyes, barely managing a smile, "It’s delicious, but I don’t want to eat any more..."

Ichise Hui turned to look at the others.

Yoshino Yuuki was the most uninhibited of them all, cutting and eating voraciously, choking up while completely disregarding her own image, "What is this feeling! When I bite through the layers of pastry, it feels like my soul, too, is gently being peeled away layer by layer, defenseless!"

"I saw a secret garden!"

"There’s a girl waiting for me there!" Xingping Chuangzhen exclaimed with his eyes open, and then uttered a noise, coming back to his senses and looking around, "What did I just say?"

Ichise Hui simply patted him on the shoulder.

"No one is waiting for you, and no one is waiting for me either!" As he said this, Ichise Hui felt a mix of bitterness and despair.

The cooking of Sen Tian Makoto had inflicted tons of emotional damage on him.

"Then why..."

Xingping Chuangzhen blurted out but stopped mid-sentence, staring at the ’Fried Cod Pie’ on his plate for a long while before revealing a refreshing smile, "So it turns out that cooking can convey such strong emotions!"

"Morioka, you’re amazing!"

"This ’Fried Cod Pie’ is even more impressive than the ’Emperor Crab Thick Egg Omelette’ you made in the exam a week ago!" Xingping Chuangzhen gave a thumbs up.

Tanaka Hikari and Shen Liangzi were secretly wiping away tears.

"What?!"

Having finished the entire piece of pastry with her fork and knife, Yoshino Yuuki wiped her pale palm across her face in a rough motion, sniffled, and then shouted with a quivering voice, "Makki is mine! From now on, I’ll protect you, Makki!"

After speaking, she moved closer to Sen Tian Makoto and whispered in a negotiative tone, "Makki, could you stop showcasing such affection when you cook? Even without the chef’s sentiment, your cooking is top-notch!"

...

On the other side of the phone screen, Xia Yu and Aoki Motota quietly watched the Polar Star Dormitory group enjoy the food.

"A promising talent!"

Aoki Motota took in the expressions of the tasters and then made this remark.

"Of course!" Xia Yu also smiled, "Makki, and that other girl with the braids, over there, see her? They’ve both begun to form their own culinary souls."

"Tsk, tsk," Aoki Motota chuckled, "It seems inviting two young people to be assistant instructors was a great idea. You blend in with the students, making it easier to guide them imperceptibly."

"Instructor Aoki, could you please comment on Morioka’s cooking?"

Ichise Hui’s wry laughter came over the phone.

"Comment?" Aoki Motota was a grandmaster chef with vast knowledge. Although he hadn’t tasted the dish, he could still draw some conclusions from observation.

"Let’s keep it simple."

Aoki Motota stroked his chin and said, "Considering the pastry technique used in making the puffed or French mille-feuille crust, this female student has a solid foundation in pastry making, impeccable."

"Did you notice the pieces of mackerel in the filling? That’s the core of the dish’s secret garden!"

He focused on the image of Sen Tian Makoto and smiled, "You describe the specific culinary technique."

After glancing at Xia Yu and seeing his encouraging smile, Sen Tian Makoto’s lips curled up in a pleased arc, and she softly said, "First, when I sliced the mackerel, I skinned it and then put the fish into the frying pan and fried it in olive oil until it turned golden brown."

"Before wrapping the mackerel with mille-feuille crust, I broke an egg, discarded the egg white, retained only the yolk, brushed the egg mixture all over the fish slices, and the surrounding crust also had to be brushed..."

The audience had a moment of realization.

"So you fried the mackerel slices before putting them in the oven," Xingping Chuangzhen exclaimed in amazement. "No wonder all the moisture in the fish was locked in. That’s the secret to keeping the fish succulent and tender!"

After a while, as they digested the information, Aoki Motota suddenly mentioned, "The sauce should not be overlooked either."

"As we all know, in Western cuisine, drizzling sauce over the main ingredient for seasoning is a common cooking step. Various sauces, transformed by the skillful hands and secret recipes of chefs, become catalysts for diners’ hearty enjoyment. Generally speaking, all sauces evolve from a few basic sauces like red sauce, white sauce, hollandaise, and barbecue sauce..."

As he spoke, everyone from the Polar Star Dormitory, including Xia Yu, focused on the sauce that Makki had drizzled over the dish.

Ichise Hui dipped his finger into a dab of the white sauce and tasted it on his tongue.

"Hollandaise?" he murmured.

"It’s actually a modified version of egg yolk sauce..." Sen Tian Makoto said shyly and quietly, "Break an egg, use only the yolk, add salt, black pepper to season, mix well, separately boil a mixture of lemon juice and an equal amount of white wine vinegar, pour it into the egg mixture while hot, stirring continuously, then add melted butter, dragon wormwood, and keep stirring..."

"Dragon wormwood? One of the famous traditional herbs of Western Europe, no wonder it has a spicy taste!"

Xia Yu suddenly realized from her end of the phone.

Hollandaise sauce, formally known as Dutch spicy sauce, is a type of sauce that maximizes the diner’s appetite and enhances the taste.

The sauce served as a key for the Polar Star Dormitory members to unwrap the layers of the mille-feuille crust and enter the secret garden Makki had created to enjoy the filling and taste the mackerel.