Chapter Text
[PRESENT: “THE SPACESHIP”, SAEYOUNG CHOI’S RESTAURANT, BACK ROOM]
“Kitchen Impossible. A show where two chefs send each other around the globe and make each other recreate dishes without the recipe, only by tasting and analyzing the food, which then gets judged on a scale from one to ten, by a jury whose favourite dish the original is - regulars, friends and family of the original chefs.”
Saeyoung Choi smiled into the camera and leaned back in his seat.
“Today, my contrahent is once again Marion Vanderwood. This is the fifth time we meet in this show…”
“Indeed!” Vanderwood, the man next to Saeyoung grinned. “We have done this whole thing four times already - and it’s currently standing 2:2. This means, in this episode we will finally find out who the true king of Kitchen Impossible is.”
“Well, don’t act as if you have any sort of chance against me. I’ve been doing this for four years now. I AM Kitchen Impossible.”
“Yeah, yeah, keep telling that to yourself.” Vanderwood grabbed one of the wine glasses standing in front of the pair. “Action.”
[FIVE MONTHS AGO: “MARY”, MARION VANDERWOODS RESTAURANT]
“I met Vanderwood four years ago… well, we already knew each other, but that was when we did the very first episode of Kitchen together. We’ve fought each other in this show in every season so far, and now we’re meeting up for the spectacular finale. Who is really the better chef? Obviously I want to see him lose. Wipe that confident expression off of his face.” Saeyoung laughed and turned around to enter the restaurant.
Marion Vanderwood was sitting on a chair in his restaurant, waiting for his contrahent.
“Saeyoung Choi… A good chef, I’m not going to deny that, but seeing him lose his patience really is way too easy. I mean, he starts crying as soon as you mention “baking” in front of him. Not that I would need something like baking to win this thing. This is going to be an even more heated race than all the other times before. Because now it’s really all or nothing. And I’m going to make that smug dick Choi cry so much, I can promise that.”
[PRESENT: “THE SPACESHIP”, SAEYOUNG CHOI’S RESTAURANT, BACK ROOM]
Saeyoung turned around to Vanderwood and started laughing out loud. “You do take this really seriously? Is someone afraid of losing?”
“Yeah, you wish.”
[FIVE MONTHS AGO: “MARY”, MARION VANDERWOODS RESTAURANT]
“Saeyoung!”
“Marion!”
The two men hugged,not having seen each other in quite some time.
“Looking forward to losing miserably?”
“Are you perhaps projecting?”
“Let’s just leave this. We both know I’m going to crush you.”
“I’ll let you believe that. So… you want to do the honours?”
“Of course, Marion.” Saeyoung grinned and pulled out two cards out of his pocket. “I thought of something really special for you.” He handed one of the cards to Vanderwood, who turned it around and raised his eyebrows. “The US? This could be literally anything!”
“Are you already giving up?”
“Why, you’re being really aggressive today”, Vanderwood said, “Your ego is going to shrink as soon as you see this card.” He threw it on the table with a triumphant grin. Saeyoung picked it up and looked at the flag printed on it. “Italy?”
“Since you claim being so good at this cuisine, I thought I’d let you prove your skills.”
“He wants to intimidate me,” Saeyoung explained to the camera, waving around with the card, “He’s giving me Italy because he somehow thinks he got my weak point. But what Marion doesn’t know: He could not be more wrong with this. Italy - a children’s play.”
[PRESENT: “THE SPACESHIP”, SAEYOUNG CHOI’S RESTAURANT, BACK ROOM]
“A children’s play, you say. Honestly, do you even listen to yourself? The entire nation of Italy is ashamed of us already.” Vanderwood pointed out.
“Ashamed of YOU, you mean. I wasn’t the one who had a mental breakdown trying to make ice cream. I mean… Fucking ice cream? Really now? THAT’S where you draw the line?”
“Ice cream-making has nothing to do with cooking!”
“Right, and I’m the one who is supposed to be crying after this.”
They both looked at each other and broke out laughing.
“Okay, we’ll see what happens. Let’s continue this.”
[FIVE MONTHS AGO: “MARY”, MARION VANDERWOODS RESTAURANT]
“Let’s get this behind us, I’m already sick of your smug face. Here we go”, Saeyoung turned his second card around to reveal the flag of… “That’s Belgium, right?”
“No. It’s Germany!”
“I’ve never actually been to Germany”, Vanderwood turned towards the camera, “so I’m not
sure what exactly to expect. This is going to be fun. I suppose.”
“So, one more destination!” Saeyoung clapped his hands.
“Right. For your second destination, I’ve thought of this.” Vanderwood handed his opponent the final card.
“Japan.”
“Japan.”
[PRESENT: “THE SPACESHIP”, SAEYOUNG CHOI’S RESTAURANT, BACK ROOM]
“So… the final four challenges before we can call one of us the true winner.” Saeyoung poured himself another glass of wine.
“And the first challenge, your first challenge, was the US. More specifically, New York.”
“I have to admit, I’m kinda proud of this one.”
Vanderwood decided not to respond to that and just flipped the other chef off.
“New York!” Saeyoung smiled and took a sip of his drink.