"I'll give you ten thousand! Just stay and compete!" Bill angrily said, "This ten thousand is more than your monthly salary."
"If you can win against our chef, I can also give you ten thousand," Don said as well.
Twenty thousand dollars made Jason and the others envious, wishing they could compete on behalf of Jake. For Jake, the sum of money was not insignificant either. It was much more than what he earned from a night of barbecue. So, after thinking for a moment, Jake agreed.
"Fine, since you're so sincere, I'll stay and spar with your chef," Jake reluctantly said. His attitude, motivated by money, angered both Bill and Don.
"If you lose, you must apologize sincerely to me and our chef," Don said.
"And don't think you can take away that ten thousand dollars!" Bill added.
"Deal!" Jake agreed without hesitation. "But who will be the referee? It can't be you as referees because you may be biased," he said. Indeed, the quality of culinary skills couldn't be precisely measured by numbers; it required subjective judgment, which opened the possibility for cheating.
"Let's have the people in the restaurant tonight act as referees," Don suggested. "You and our chef will each prepare three dishes of your choice. After you finish, you can designate one customer as a referee, we can designate one, and Verna will choose the final one. It'll be a best-of-three, two out of three wins. What do you think?"
"No problem, that sounds fair," Jake said. He still trusted Verna to some extent. At least, she wasn't on the same side as Bill.
"If you're okay with it, then let's go to the kitchen now," Don said. Led by Don, the group headed towards the kitchen.
"Why are you so impulsive? It's obvious that Don was called by Bill to embarrass you. Can't you see it?" Verna whispered to Jake.
"Who's going to be embarrassed is not yet certain," Jake smiled. "But thank you for your concern, Verna."
"Don't tell me you really think your culinary skills are better than the chef here?" Verna looked at Jake in astonishment.
"Why not?" Jake said.
"Don't joke around. The chefs here are not ordinary people. Even if you have some culinary skills, you surely can't surpass them," Verna said.
"The chefs here may be more skilled than many others, but they don't include me!" Jake confidently said. His excellent culinary skills had greatly enhanced his ability in food appreciation. By tasting those dishes, he could discern the skill level of the chefs.
Compared to ordinary people, the chefs here were indeed highly skilled. However, in Jake's eyes, his culinary skills were at an intermediate pinnacle. He was just one step away from breaking through to an advanced level. But that one step was not something anyone could take. The gap between the two levels was still quite evident. As long as there was no opportunity for cheating from the restaurant's side, Jake believed that the winner would be himself!
However, Jake also had some doubts in his mind. This Kailomen restaurant was considered one of the best in J City, and the chefs here should be highly skilled. How could they only have an intermediate level of expertise? Before coming here, Jake had thought that the chefs would all be master-level, but he hadn't expected that they hadn't even reached the advanced level.
"Could it be that master-level chefs are even rarer in reality than in the game world?" Jake speculated in his mind.
"You're quite confident," Verna looked at the confident Jake, slightly surprised. They say that confident people are the most charming, and Verna now experienced the truth of this statement. Jake, who had seemed ordinary in her eyes, now appeared unusually attractive. This made Verna blush slightly and avert her gaze, feeling somewhat hesitant to look at Jake.
"should be no problem, haha," Jake chuckled and didn't dwell on the matter any further. Meanwhile, Bill, who was walking ahead, was even more jealous seeing Verna deliberately lagging behind to interact with Jake. He secretly vowed that after Jake lost, he would mock him to his heart's content. Moreover, he would spread the incident at school, making sure that all the teachers and students knew, and that Jake would be too embarrassed to stay in school!
The back kitchen of a restaurant is generally off-limits to the general public, especially the back kitchen of a star-rated restaurant like Kailomen. During busy times, even the restaurant manager isn't allowed in, let alone outsiders like Jake and his group. So, it was not surprising that when Don led Jake and the others into the back kitchen, they were driven away by the head chef there.
"Don, what's wrong with you? Don't you know it's working hours? How can you just come in here and bring outsiders? Get out," a chef wearing a chef's uniform and chef's hat approached to drive them away, showing no good expression even when facing Don.
"Alan, don't get angry for now. I know we can't just enter here, but there's a reason today," Don said, "This guest claims that your dishes don't taste good and are inferior to his. has found faults with every dish you made for him, so I brought him here to have a friendly competition with you and prove your skills."
Alan was the restaurant owner spent a lot of money to hire him. It was said that he was a descendant of a certain culinary school and had immense power in normal circumstances. He controlled everything in the kitchen, including Don. After all, the restaurant manager could be replaced, but the head chef wouldn't be changed easily. That was the guarantee for attracting customers to the restaurant.
The kitchen naturally didn't have only one chef but a team. Alan was the head chef, responsible for preparing food for the guests in private rooms. As for the dishes ordered by the customers in the main dining area, they were cooked by other chefs, whose skills were naturally inferior to Alan's but still higher compared to chefs in other restaurants.
"Get out, all of you! I don't have time. If I agree to compete with everyone who wants to challenge me, will I have time to cook?" Don's explanation didn't convince Alan to accept the challenge. He still wanted to drive everyone away.
"Just one time! Just this one time!" Don said, "It's also for the restaurant's reputation and a serious matter. I won't bring anyone else to the back kitchen again to trouble you, Chef Alan."
Don couldn't bear Jake's words and, coupled with Bill's request, he was determined to make Jake embarrass himself and apologize, no matter what.