Yaoyorozu Household -
It was a day of celebration for the obscenely-rich family, their only daughter Momo had just been accepted into the recommendation entrance test for the prestigious Hero School UA and will soon start her career as a Pro Hero, something that brought no little pride to both her parents.
POP! POP!
The Family Chef had even brought along a few party amenities and decorated the entire kitchen in an over-abundance of streamers and banners.
"There is no need for all this," Momo said with an embarrassed smile.
"There is! There is!" Rei answered, smiling proudly at her daughter.
"The Test is one year away, I don't even know if I will pass it," the young woman replied.
"With all the strings I had to pull to make you jump ahead of the queue, you better!" her father, Saito, answered with a smirk.
"Darling, don't make her feel guilty!" Rei chided him in answer.
"Just kidding! Just kidding!" the man of the house answered with a childish, cheeky raspberry.
"Thank you all the same for helping me, dad." Momo said while hugging the man tightly.
"Aaah...You are growing-up so fast! It seems just yesterday I was reading you bedtime stories and helping you dress-up in the morning!" her father replied, crying.
"Me too! You never wanted to eat your eggs when you were a kid!" the family Chef added, he too was sobbing heavily.
"Not you too, please, Takeshi-san!" Momo begged, chuckling.
Dling-Dlong!
"Uh?"
"Ah! This must be young Midoriya! He said he had a surprise for you to celebrate!" Saito said once seen Inko enter the house accompanied by their butler.
The short, and adorably plump (don't you dare lewd her), woman was as always dressed perfectly whenever visiting the Yaoyorozu house, and this time she was bringing with her a carefully folded paper basket of some home-made confectionery...The strange thing was that for some reason her son was nowhere to be seen.
"Good evening." she offered with a small bow.
"Good evening, Inko!" Rei answered, still giddy at her daughter's success.
"Congratulations for your acceptance into UA, dear. I know it's not much...But we kinda made this for you," Inko said with a tiny smile.
"My father has made things bigger than they are, as usual. I did not enter UA, I was just told I will be able to take part in a special form of Entrance Exam next year, nothing more. My getting into the University is still up to debate." Momo answered while gratefully accepting the small thing.
"Oh! Well, it is still worth celebrating!" Inko answered with a small chuckle.
It was honestly impossible to hate the woman, she and her son had been as unobtrusive as possible while Izuku taught Rei the basics of cooking, and especially by showing a godly level of patience during the lessons.
Flashback – During the First lesson -
"Let's start with the basics, shall we?" Izuku asked with a gentle smile.
"O-Okay!" Rei answered, and used the silent thumbs-up of both Saito and Momo to steel her resolve.
"We'll go slowly, starting with Peeling and Cutting , since preparing Ingredients is the first and most important step. And remember, until you feel secure about handling a knife, always use the Cat Paws while cutting."
"Cat Paws?" Rei asked, confused.
"Fingers folded, like a cat paw...You know? Nyan! " Izuku answered, smiling sweetly while moving his hands up and down and even mewing a little.
" Good God, that's adorable. " Saito thought in wonder while his wife and daughter turned beet-red at the cutesy scene.
Luckily beside that small incident things continued smoothly, and with how SLOW Izuku was forced to go to make sure Rei could not create another disaster of hers, as they all tragically discovered through trial-and-error, Saito was actually happy the lessons were free, because it was clear it will take a while before Rei would turn from a ' Lethal' to a ' Decent' Chef .
Present time -
"I don't see Izuku with you, though. Where is he? Is everything okay?" Momo asked.
"Oh!...He...He is still busy training in his Chef skills, nothing wrong! He is actually sorry for not being here today." The family noticed how the woman stiffened a little before answering, but did not push the issue as a form of respect.
"He wants to become a great Chef, so training is a must, isn't it?" Rei asked.
"Y-Yes. Again, I apologize."
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Saito, recognizing the situation was making her uncomfortable, switched the focus on the small package the woman took along.
"What is it?" he asked.
"O-Oh! S-Some Italian dessert... T-Tira-Tiram... Something? Tiramiso?" Inko tried saying.
" Tiramisu! Ah! He knows you are a coffee freak, Momo-chan! So he made you a coffee-based dessert!" Rei answered, amused.
"I-I-I am not a coffee freak, mom!" Momo immediately countered with an ashamed expression.
"You love two drinks, honey: Tea and coffee. You have a caffeine dependency." Saito said with a wink.
"I can stop whenever I want!" she replied, a tad lamely.
"Suuuure!"
"Daddy!"
"Huhuhuhu!" Inko could not stop a soft laugh from escaping her, further reddening Momo's face in embarrassment.
"Inko-san! Please! At least you!" the young woman begged.
"I am sorry, dear. But I really must go, I still have some errands to run. Congratulations again for your quasi-admission, Icchan and I will cheer for you when the time comes." Inko answered, bowing a little to the family before nearing the door again.
"Miss Midoriya?" Saito called-out while accompanying her out.
"Yes?" she asked.
"…" the man simply checked that his wife and daughter were distracted by the dessert, and the blissful expressions both had cemented their being elsewhere at the moment, and closed the door behind them both.
"Saito-san?" Once it was clear they were alone, Inko looked at the man with a curious expression.
"What's wrong? Is Izuku all right?" call it a businessman's sixth sense , but Saito could tell Inko was trying to bullshit him, and he instantly got worried.
"Everything is fine, don't worry. We are just extremely busy lately." Inko answered.
"Midori...No...Inko, please tell me." Saito asked again.
"Go celebrate with your daughter, Saito. Today is her day and her day only. We'll be fine, have no fear, we Midoriya's always bounce back." Inko answered with a gentle smile, a bow, and then silently walked away.
"...You are not fooling me, my friend." Saito muttered, sighing.
He saw how her smile dropped as soon as she turned around, making the smell of bullshit he had sensed before grow one-hundred-fold in power.
Returning inside he could see the small dessert being reduced to a tiny slice his wife, daughter and personal Chef has left him just for manner's sake, since the thing was so thin you could almost see through it...And the three assholes had at the very least the decency to turn around and not look at him while wolfing down the huge slices they took for themselves.
"Thank you for leaving me some…" deep in thought on the ' Inko Problem' , Saito only gave a half-hearted remark before tasting the thing himself.
To be fair, the dessert was amazing: the cream was fluffy and delicate, with the taste of both Mascarpone and Fresh Eggs mixed together to perfection, while the ladyfingers biscuits had been soaked in just the right amount of coffee to not crumble into a sludge when sliced and yet melt into the flavorful espresso taste once entered the mouth, making it so that the sweetness of the cream and the faint bitterness of the coffee could playfully battle for dominance in one's palate in perfect balance.
As Saito and his family had learned to expect from the boy's dishes: Pure Bliss . That was why Saito felt there was something strange if the boy was not present and his mother seemed to be shouldering some immense weight; both mother and son were now friends of the Yaoyorozu Family, and that meant Saito felt honor-bond to discover what was happening.
"You okay, dear?" Rei asked, once seen his thoughtful expression.
"I am just trying to taste whatever crumbs you ingrates left me with. It's not easy to taste something if it's smaller than the nail of a pinkie finger!" Saito answered sarcastically while pretending that nothing was out of the ordinary.
"I wanted to share it properly, but my mother insisted on cutting it differently." Momo tried saying, still with a bit of chocolate powder on the tip of her nose.
"I will forgive you because it is your special day, today. But I am very disappointed in your mother." he answered.
"I am so sorry, Darling!" Rei said immediately, eyes sparkling just as she could do on command whenever she knew she was being naughty.
"Sorry, Boss. It was really good." the family Chef added.
"You especially. I am the Boss of this house! You should not steal my food!"
"Sorry, sir…"
"I'll forgive you,"
"Thank you Boss!"
"...IF you make me a giant Tiramisu just as good as this one was." Saito added with a malevolent smirk.
"FUCK!" the Chef swore loudly in dismay.
Two days later – Midoriya Household -
Inko was sitting on the sofa nursing a cup of tea while her husband was spewing fire at the phone, both figuratively and literally.
"YOU LISTEN HERE, YOU BRAIN-DEAD QUIRKIST! MY SON DOES NOT NEED A DAMN QUIRK TO COME THERE TEACHING A LESSON TO THE SPOILED BRATS YOU CALL ' PROMISING STUDENTS' ! WHAT?! YOU BELIEVE ONE NEEDS A TAIL OR A SECOND SET OF EARS TO COOK!?"
"…"
"MORON!" Hisashi roared like a beast before closing the call.
"Another University refused him?" Hisashi's Boss, from I-Island, asked while refilling Inko's cup with more tea.
"Apparently Samui's little friends took offense to their beloved buddy having a mental breakdown because of Izuku, so they made it their mission to stop any attempt of his to get into any possible school for aspiring Chefs." Hisashi answered, snarling.
"And as a bonus, several Food Critics too have been asked to strong-arm Restaurants into not taking him in for Apprenticeship. Everything is hushed, but I called a couple guys specialized in intercepting calls and mails. If it is about Food, except with sub-par shacks, every venue have been sealed-off for Izuku." the old man answered, sighing.
"And of course if there are queues to get into any University, and no matter what specialization, Quirks get pushed forward in line," Inko added, tears ready to spill from her eyes.
"The world is not a nice place, I fear." the old man replied.
"You don't know anybody that can help him, Sir?" Hisashi asked.
"My contacts would have helped had your son decided to go into Analysis, Mathematics, Science, Physics, Programming...Hard Lab Science, so to say. Even I-Island does not have Food-Oriented sections, even if Izuku's abilities have started to interest several colleagues of mine already. I can try to see if I can help him become a researcher and join I-Island once older and ready...But as a Chef? I can't help him, I am sorry."
"It would still be a respectable job," Hisashi conceded, sighing.
"Does it really mean that Icchan can't chase his own dreams? That he can only let others decide for him?" Inko asked, heartbroken.
"If I could give Izuku my Quirk I would do it without a second thought, but I am not All for One ." Hisashi answered.
"Same here, all this fanfare for Quirks is still a mystery to me. Besides needing two pairs of glasses and seeing in the dark, mine never made me feel all-powerful." the old man from I-Island answered with a shrug while the secondary pair of eyes he had on his forehead briefly opened to look at the parents, before he closed them again with a grimace.
"Jesus...The headache I get when using them is still unbearable." he then muttered, wincing.
Knock! Knock!
"I'll go see who it is." Hisashi said, opening the door to see Saito Yaoyorozu look at him with a saddened expression.
"Yes? What can I do for you?" Hisashi asked, gulping a little.
"Can I see him?" Saito asked.
"...You know?" Hisashi asked back, sighing and letting the man enter.
"I made a couple of calls to a few people I know, so I guess I have a small inkling of what happened. No Schools for Chefs want him?"
"No schools, Academia, private tutors or even decent restaurants. And we suspect that should he try to open one himself, half the Food Critics of Japan will purposely destroy his reputation." Hisashi answered.
"Of course, Heaven forbid somebody dares shake the pedestal the great Samui sits his arse on! Bloody morons." Saito answered, rolling his eyes.
"...British ancestors?" Hisashi asked with a weak smile.
"No. My father forced me to study in England...Few things stuck. " the other replied with a scrunched nose.
"Good evening, Saito." Inko said with a small wave once both men walked back inside.
"Good evening." The old man also welcomed the new arrival.
"Hello, Inko, how's he?"
Sigh! "Honestly? Dead in a sense, the last spark was used to make that dessert for dear Momo...Now he just lies in his bed all day, hiding under the covers." she answered, sighing in despair.
"He took it that badly?"
"He was furious, the rage of a beast. Then I guess he just lost himself in sadness once done burning through the anger. Too many hands stacked against him for things out of his control, he just got fed-up with it, I guess." the old man answered with a helpless expression.
"It's not his fault if he is Quirkless and if he has a great talent for cooking!" Inko hissed angrily.
"We know, Inko. We know." Saito answered, sighing, and trying to knock gently on the door to Izuku's bedroom.
Knock! Knock!
"…"
"Izuku? It's me, Saito!"
"…"
"...Izuku?"
"…"
"...Just...I just want you to know that for us nothing will change. Rei still wants you to teach her and Momo still wants your help to revise her notes and Takeshi still insists on challenging you in a cooking showdown at least once. You still have friends in the Yaoyorozu family. Your family and mine have not abandoned you, you are not alone…" Saito said to the door.
"…"
"Remember: you are not alone. You will find a way, I believe in you." he said before taking a few steps back.
"..."
What not one of the adults in the living room could know was that the boy was not merely asleep , but actually going through what could be described as an out-of-body experience.
Somewhere far away from Japan -
Izuku had no idea when exactly he fell asleep, only that he found himself shifting from curling into a ball under his covers to standing in front of a small, unassuming restaurant hidden in a secluded, smallish alleyway in an ancient city he did not recognize.
"Fang Fang Little Store?" he read aloud the store name with an unsure tone.
"Uh?" with a sleepy grunt answering him, the boy finally noticed the slim and tall man slouching on a chair in front of the entrance and basking in the sun with his eyes closed.
" Rmmrf … " the very fat dog sleeping next to him instead just gave a guttural huff and briefly looked at the kid with only a single eye before returning to sleep.
The guy sitting on the restaurant front slowly got up to lazily stretch while looking at Izuku with half-lidded eyes and a face utterly inexpressive. He just tied his long black hair in a ponytail with a silk rope and stood with his crossed arms looking at him.
"Ehm...Hello?" Izuku tried saying with a weak smile.
"So it's you. Come in." the tall man muttered with the corners of his mouth faintly pulling up in something resembling a smile before signaling him to follow inside the store.
The restaurant was simple, neat and tidy. With an area of ten square meters and a few sets of tables and chairs, it was indeed a small, homely restaurant; curiously the plates listed on the wood tablets on the wall were priced in gold coins and crystals, but at the Owner's imperious gesture, Izuku ignored it and sat at a table under a strange tree giving off a soft light...And if Izuku's ears were not malfunctioning, a very faint chime-like sound whenever the wind from outside made its luscious green leaves flutter a little.
A Strange woman with jade skin and extremely long, silky black hair and black dress was sitting on top of a small boat resting in a corner of the restaurant and looking at him with unfazed eyes while she dangled her feet back and forth.
"W-Where am I?" he finally asked.
"My store." the Owner answered, his voice coming from the small squared window connecting the kitchen to the main room.
"...Okay?"
"I am Bu Fang," the guy added after a long silence, as if too lazy to even introduce himself.
"Izuku Mid-"
"I know." he cut him off.
"...How?"
"…"
"...Bu-san?"
"…"
"The System told me." the man answered.
"The System?"
" This is the Gourmet System. You have been chosen to become the System's Host in the Hero World and become the God of Cooking of the Hero world." a metallic voice resounded inside the store.
"What it said." Bu Fang added while delivering a plate of braised meat to the boy.
"What is the System?"
" The System is the System. It will aid the new Host in his mission to become the God of Cooking of the Hero world.
You will be given a Restaurant to manage, a training regimen to follow and Missions to complete to further your growth.
The closest similarity the Host can use to help understanding is to follow the logic of what you call ' Videogames': Each Yen you will gain will be translated into Experience Points, as you 'Level Up' your body, spirit and senses will become stronger and you will be permitted to use better Ingredients from other worlds and better Equipment from one of the various ' God Of Cooking Sets' of other Worlds.
Host Bu Fang has already ascended to the title of ' God Of Cooking of the Fantasy World' , it is now the turn of Host Izuku to Ascend." the metallic, gender-less voice of the System explained.
"Why? And Why me?"
" Because the System deems you worthy and because every world needs a God of Cooking."
"I see...did you really say Ingredients for other worlds? " Izuku asked, shocked.
"The Best ones." Bu answered while serving him the meat.
"At the current Level, Host Izuku will only be able to utilize Ingredients from his original world unless specifically asked by the System to use Ingredients from other worlds. The System will take care of delivering Ingredients and Instruments. Host can rest assured, nobody will find anything out of the ordinary. Host Izuku only needs to focus on cooking and furthering his skills as a Chef, the System will take care of all the rest."
"The rest?"
" Equipment, Security, Ingredients, Location and everything else."
"Security too?"
" A Whitey will be already waiting for you in the new Restaurant along another Blackie ."
"Uh?"
"A robot and a Lord Dog." Bu Fang answered while pointing at the tall robot with a protruding belly behind him and at the very fat dog sleeping outside.
"Not any normal dog. They asked the most vicious of this Lord's Sons to play security. Eh! They really want you to be safe!" the Dog answered with a deep, masculine and cultured voice worthy of a King.
"So...So I just have to focus on cooking?" Izuku asked.
"Isn't that what a Chef is supposed to do?" Bu asked back.
"I want to bring smiles to people with my food, to make them happy…Not just cooking. I want people to enjoy my dishes enough to brighten their day."
"Well said." the man answered with a small nod of approval.
" Then Host Izuku, please prepare for your Test! " the System said.
"Test?"
" In one year the System will test you, should you pass, you will be formally recognized as a Host of the System and be given the Restaurant and everything else. In the meantime the System will take care of preparations and make sure nothing will interfere with the Host should he pass the Test. Work hard, young man! " the voice declared.
"…"
"This may be your last chance before losing another dream." Bu tried saying.
"My last chance?"
"So I was told. They will try to make your dream impossible back home, but by personal experience, I can vouch that the System can help. Whenever it is not acting too stingy or demanding."
"My last chance to be a Chef...I...I'll do it!"
"Good. Congratulations."
"I'll become a damn good Chef again! I did it once as Zaus, I can do it again as Izuku!" Izuku said while taking a bite of the so-called ' Red Braised Meat' dish he was served, and as everything faded away, the boy had only one thought crossing his mind.
" Goddamnit, this tastes amazing!"
Real World - Midoriya Household -
BANG!
The four adults jumped in fright as the bedroom door was kicked open by Izuku as he marched towards the stove with a determined expression.
"Icchan!"
"...I'll be a Chef, even if I have to go against God himself to do it!" the young man declared while turning-on the stove and grabbing the knives and pans the guys of I-Island created for him.
"It will be hard, you know?" Saito said, sad.
"Then watch and be amazed!" Izuku answered, smiling in determination as a fat salmon appeared in his hands.
"Uhu?!"
" It really happened, I asked for the salmon I was tasked with preparing and it appeared. It means that the System really exists…I have one year to prepare for my Exam. I can't fail! " Izuku thought once he'd studied the perfect example of Salmon in his hand and the recipe that had been downloaded inside his head as the first exercise for his new training regimen.
Apparently the System had a very strict set of requirements for its Acceptance Exam, one even he as Zaus or Setsuno herself would have been hard pressed to meet, and Izuku had only one year to meet said insane criteria, along a series of Techniques/recipes he was supposed to master before the Exam came, and He won't slack off!
"Watch me, you fools out there! I was the King of Chefs once, now I will Ascend again to the top even without a Quirk!`` With a knife twirling at high speed in his hands, Izuku started cooking with a fervor even superior to his previous life as Zaus.
Behind him, Saito, his parents and the old man watched in awe as Ingredients kept appearing in his hands out of thin air for him to prepare, along dishes of insanely-high Quality being prepared at high speed by him.
One Year Later
Day of the Recommendation Exam for Momo and ' Gourmet Exam' for Izuku
Yaoyorozu House – Kitchen -
It had been a tiring year for the boy, an insane year of sleepless nights where he would revisit whatever memory as his life as Zaus he could call upon together with the encyclopedia-worth of basic knowledge the System pretended him to Master and Memorize to prepare for his Test.
Izuku's life had thus been reduced to a very strict schedule: Get up, Breakfast, Cutting Training, High School, Lunch, Carving training, Homework, Cooking Lessons with Rei Yaoyorozu ( If it was Monday) , Seasoning Training, Dinner, Meditation to recover Zaus' memories/ Special Cooking Techniques Training, sleeping. Rinse and repeat every single day.
And each and every training exercise came from the strict guidebook the System gave him, and every single exercise was ALWAYS done in live streaming so that Hisashi and a couple of trusted pals his father's Boss hand-picked could study him, because apparently what were ' Normal Skills' for a Chef like Zaus, in Izuku's original world were... Absurd , to say the least.
The boy was unaware that I-Island had taken an unhealthy interest in him, and knew even less of how ' Influential' the guys in those secret labs actually were.
"Now we put the pie in the heated oven, and we wait." Izuku instructed while closing the oven front panel to look at the raw dessert bask in the angry-red produced by the heat inside the thing.
"I am so nervous!" Rei admitted while nervously patting the flour from the apron she was wearing.
"You were amazing during preparation, Rei. I never helped you, you did it all alone!" the boy answered with an encouraging smile.
"Except when I almost used salt instead of sugar…" the woman said, sighing.
"Beside that," Izuku conceded, sweat-dropping.
"I will make the labels on the jars bigger still, don't worry." Takeshi, the personal Chef of the Yaoyorozu family, conceded while rolling his eyes.
"And I almost forgot to put the sliced apples in it…"
"That too doesn't matter."
"And-"
"Let's not focus on that! You made a wonderful pie to celebrate Momo's passing her Test, and you did it all alone! When she comes back, she will find your very first dish waiting for her." Izuku forcefully cut the woman off before she could start a new downward spiral of depression about her lackluster cooking abilities.
"Are you sure she will pass?" Takeshi asked, unsure.
"We are talking about Momo here, if she doesn't pass, who will?" Izuku answered.
"You hold my daughter in high regard, don't you?" Rei asked with a devious smile.
"She has a very sexy brain, more I won't say." Izuku, overly-focused on cleaning the kitchen top they worked on, answered without looking at the woman.
"Oh-Oooh!...Only her brain is sexy?" Rei pushed forward, her smile predatory.
"I won't confirm nor deny that your daughter is also a very gorgeous young woman, my lips are sealed and no amount of nagging will force me to talk!" he answered, flashing her a challenging smile.
"Do not underestimate my Nagging Powers, boy! No secret remains so if I, Rei Yaoyorozu Nee Katsuragi, want to know them!" the woman replied haughtily.
"You are welcome to try…" Izuku's answer faded into a whisper once he heard a gender-less metallic voice ring inside his head.
" One year has passed. Host please get through your Initiation Test right now. " the System said.
" Right now?! " he asked.
"Izuku? You okay?" Rei asked, worried at seeing him pale to unhealthy levels.
"Icchan? What's wrong?" Takeshi also asked, just as worried.
" Right now, Host. Please move behind the counter and prepare the required dishes following the recipes provided." the System answered.
"I... Uhm ...I was wondering if I could prepare something myself to celebrate…" Izuku asked with a forced smile.
"You forgot to get a present for Momo-chan, didn't it?" Rei asked, smiling mischievous.
"Y-Yeah. S-So I was wondering if I could prepare your dinner myself...A-A-As a present. S-She will surely be very hungry after using her Quirk to pass the Test." Izuku answered.
"Oh! Do you mind, Takeshi?"
"...Nah! Fridge is full to the point of bursting, if neither you or Mister Saito mind, I can sit one dinner out for once." the family Chef answered, shrugging.
"T-Thank you!" Izuku answered with an overly-elated expression that made both adults laugh.
Tying a green bandanna on his head, the young man started collecting Ingredients from the giant fridge, although from his point of view, the stuff he was about to cook was FAR from normal.
From Izuku's point of view -
As soon as he tied the bandanna on his head, the kitchen of the Yaoyorozu family disappeared and an endless white space appeared around Izuku; nothing beside the cooking area prepared by the System and a giant fridge was there, the young Chef was alone in the middle of a pure-white Nothing.
The Test was simple: 'Prepare a Full Course Menu', Meaning :
Hors d'Oeuvre
Soup
Fish Dish
Meat Dish
Main Course
Salad
Dessert
" Please prepare the First Dish: Hors D'Oeuvre. Ingredient: Puffer Whale" the System asked.
" Puffer Whale ...An Ingredient from the Gourmet World of Zaus…" Izuku muttered in dread as a small and long pure-white fish appeared on a plate in front of him.
A Puffer Whale was a deep-sea fish normally around six meters in length, but as it switched habitat and moved deeper underwater, the water pressure of the sea would compress its body to the size of a normal puffer fish.
It was a small, pudgy-looking white fish with a round body, thin fins, small beady eyes, and large blue lips.
As a result of the deep pressure, the tastiness of the fish would become highly concentrated but would also cause the huge amount of waste produced by its body to become highly concentrated as well, forming what was known as the fish' ' poison sack '.
Its poison sack resembled a small gooey purple blob whose position in the body constantly varied between Puffer Whales. When the fish gets startled, a chemical reaction would cause the release of its poison, causing its body to turn into a dotted dark purple color that shows off its intense toxicity.
Izuku watched the thing with scared eyes, because while he still had his Transmigration lifetime's worth of knowledge as Zaus', his original body was not as trained, as his trembling hands could testify.
"To ensure the Puffer Whale is safe to eat, before any further steps can be taken, someone with keen senses must first ascertain the location of the poison sack. Afterwards, extremely precise cuts must be made to open the Puffer Whale and reveal the poison sac, if the handling is off by even a millimeter the poison sack will instantly rupture and render the fish unsafe for consumption." Izuku mumbled aloud while recalling word-for-word the teachings of Zaus' old cooking teacher.
Complicating this step was the fact that the location of the poison sac was completely unique from fish to fish, meaning there were at least over a hundred variations of cuts needed to expose the poison sac.
Likewise the Puffer Whale's body was deceptively dense for its size due to the extreme compression it had undergone, making the precise knife work needed that much more difficult.
Once the poison sac was exposed, it could only be removed with bare hands, during which the sac must be constantly rotated whilst simultaneously removing the mucus membrane; it was no surprise that many Chefs of the Gourmet World put preparing that Ingredient on the same level of disarming a bomb.
" As an incentive for the future God of Cooking of the Hero World, Host Izuku will be permitted to use one piece of the ' God of Cooking Set ' for the duration of this Test. Temporarily unlocking the knife of the ' God of Cooking of the Abyssal World' : The Silver Sea Dragon kitchen knife. "
"Uh?" What appeared in the young man's hand was a humble-looking kitchen knife with a long and thin blade giving off a faint light similar to moonlight, both blade and the handle were made of pure-white bone, with the handle carved in a delicate recreation of dragon scales.
" Created with the bone of a one-thousand-years-old Silver Sea Dragon, the Goddess of the sea that rules unopposed the deepest oceans of the Abyssal World. " the System explained.
"And I can use it to cook?" Izuku asked.
" Host, the Dragon herself that was used to create the knife resides in another world and is a being that has ascended to Godhood. In this world the Host currently lives in, there is nothing that cannot be cut by this knife."
"Nothing?" he asked, gulping.
" Nothing, its supreme sharpness will also count as a Test for the Host' cutting and carving knowledge. "
"I...I will start then. I will prepare Puffer Whale Carpaccio ." Izuku answered, and loudly chose the recipe between the ones the System suggested for the Test.
" Good. Please start at once. "
Real World -
Rei and Takeshi were unaware of what Izuku and the System were talking about, they only saw the young man grab a fat fish from the fridge and start carefully palming it as if to study every inch of its body.
"He is treating it like a bundle of lit dynamite." Rei muttered, unsure by the overly-focused light in Izuku's eyes.
"He must really want to do a good job for Miss Momo." the Chef answered, thoughtful.
"You don't say…" the woman replied, smirking.
"Yes, he normally is at least a bit chatty when cooking, but now? He is so focused I think he wouldn't notice if we shot him with a rifle." the Chef answered, smiling just as mischievously.
In the meantime they watched Izuku finally open the fish belly to remove the guts inside with slow and very tense movements, as if actually afraid those innards would blow-up; in truth from his point of view he was actually managing to remove the poison sack from the special fish.
"...Since he is working so hard...Shouldn't we also invite him and his mother? I would feel bad if he works this hard and doesn't get a taste." Takeshi muttered.
"...True. Pass me the phone, I will ask Saito-kun if he is okay with having two guests for dinner." Rei answered after a short pause of thought.
" Sigh … " once the innards of the other two fishes as well went safely removed, they watched Izuku relax visibly, and start carefully removing the fins and head with a more calm disposition.
"What is he doing?" Rei asked.
"Going with how he is slicing the fish, I think he is preparing Fish Carpaccio ." the Yaoyorozu family Chef answered, looking at how carefully Izuku removed the skin of the fish to leave out its plump, pristine meat.
What the two did not know was that as soon as the poison sack and skin was removed, the System switched the fish that used to be in their fridge with the Puffer Whale Izuku was actually preparing, surprising the Chef with how fresh and gorgeous said fish flesh looked.
"Daaamn, that is one nice Ingredient, we got a good batch this time." he admitted.
"Considering how much we spend every time you go out for groceries, it was a given!" Rei answered.
"Now the cutting…" they heard Izuku mutter while lightly raising the knife in his hand and…
SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
"HOLY FUCK!" Both cursed in awe as a blurry of motion gave the impression the young man's hand managed to split into hundreds of copies of itself to slice the fishes into hundreds of extremely-thin slices at every swing of the knife, so fast air itself went shredded.
Satisfied by the slices being all of the same thickness, Izuku dared to show a tiny smile while taking out two wide plates, and once gently slapped each and every slice of fish with the flat side of the knife, he composed the two dishes by positioning the slices like petals of a flower and with each layer alternated so to create the image of two giant pure-white translucent lotus flowers.
He finished the two dishes by mixing olive oil, herbs, vinegar and lemon juice to season the carpaccio by gently drizzling the resulting aromatic oil all over it.
"Hors d'Oeuvre is ready." Izuku muttered, elated, while adding a tiny pinch of pepper and rock salt and putting a single tiny cherry tomato carved into a rose in the middle of each plate.
"Wow, he turned a tomato into a rose...That's not mere carving…" the family Chef muttered in bitter envy.
"Soup...I need to make the Soup next…" Izuku muttered while moving to grab a big slab of meat from the fridge.
" Please use this Boulder Armadillo meat to make the soup dish, and Host Izuku should remember the method the System taught him to tenderize its otherwise steel-hard meat into a dish good for human consumption. " After a Test about handling delicate Ingredients, it was time for the System to test the young Chef's knowledge in boiling and stewing.
Once removed the topmost layer of fat, Izuku moved the slab of meat on the chopping board and easily cut what to him felt like an ingot of steel into cute little cubes he then moved into a tall pot he filled in cold water.
"This knife is really sharp," he muttered while putting the pot of water with the meat cubes on the fire to boil.
"I sharpen them everyday, thank you." Takeshi answered, puffing-out his chest in pride.
"Down with the Ego. What's he doing?" Rei asked.
"He is blanching the meat, he covered it in cold water and put it on the fire, as soon as it will boil the meat's scum will float to the surface like a foam, he will then skim that foam away, rinse the meat and use fresh water to repeat the blanching until all the scum is removed. Like that the soup will have clearer broth, so it will be more pleasing to the eyes." Takeshi answered.
"Ooh! Nice!" the woman answered, intrigued.
In the meantime the two watched how once blanched, the small cubes of marbled meat got seared in olive oil and then gently braised with garlic and onions to then be submerged in a wine-based broth before being moved in the oven, where the meat would become meltingly tender.
"Two hours in the oven before it's done…I can move to the Fish Dish in the meantime." Izuku muttered, grimacing, as the next test was about Steaming .
The young man first squatted down and took out a few succulent fishes and various kinds of herbs and spices along with a bottle of white wine from the fridge and a few sheets of parchment paper from a near cupboard.
"The scales have to go," Izuku muttered, and just like before, the kitchen knife in his hand moved at shocking speed to remove the scales on both sides of the fishes, bringing to light the pristine and unblemished meat under it.
Just as with the Puffer Whale, every time Izuku started preparing a dish in the white Nothingness that was the System's Testing Ground , in the real world the Ingredients used were switched with those special Ingredients the System provided, everything without Rei or Takeshi noticing.
As the kitchen knife began to dance gracefully in Izuku's hands, the blade made a clean cut on the fat fish's bellies, and with a swoosh, their fillet was delicately removed and set aside.
"The bones…" Izuku muttered as he grabbed a pair of pliers with one hand and used the other to gently slap on the fish meat with the flat side of the knife, and once heard whatever sound cue he needed, his hand started moving back and forth at high speed to remove each and every bone from the mount of fish meat in front of him and then separating its skin from its flesh once done.
He placed the meat into a porcelain plate and covered it with thin slices of herbs and spices.
Once the stir-fried sauce and other side ingredients were prepared, the young Chef cut the various sheets of cooking paper into a heart shape.
"Oh, look...a heart...What a surprise!" Takeshi muttered with a knowing look.
"I know, who would have guessed he would have used a heart shape to prepare a dish for Momo!" Rei answered, just as amused.
Unaware of the two joking at his expenses, Izuku spread the paper wide open and went ahead to grab the skinned fish meat once finished spreading a good spoonful of the stir-fried sauce on the hearts, once placed the fish fillet above the prepared sauce he added few more strips of herbs on top of the fish fillets to completely cover them.
After that, he uncorked the wine bottle and poured a small glass of it over the fish's meat, preparing to wrap it once using some egg white as glue as he slowly wrapped the paper inch by inch around the meat until a cute-looking paper ball emerged as the final product.
"Curious recipe." Takeshi admitted, amused, and watched the various wrapped fishes being put inside a steamer and the thing added to the oven together with the still cooking stew.
"Almost done…" Izuku declared with a sigh, he was completely drenched in sweat, but the light in his eyes was still burning fiercely, he had many dishes still to prepare.
Two Hours Later -
"I am home." Momo declared with a tired sigh as she entered the huge house, she looked tired and emaciated, meaning that the Recommendation Exam forced her to give 110% of herself and pushed her Quirk, and so her own body, to the limit.
"WELCOME BACK!" To her surprise, not only her parents and the family Chef Takeshi were present, but Izuku and Inko as well, with the young man looking just as dead tired as she was.
"O-Oh! I-I did not know we had Guests! I am not presentable!" The poor girl said once seen her own disheveled look in a near mirror.
"It's okay, Momo-chan! You have worked hard so it's a given!" Saito answered while hugging his daughter as hard as he could.
"Come, I will help you freshen-up a little, like that dear Izuku will have enough time to FINALLY finish cooking." Rei offered with a kind smile.
"Him?" Momo asked.
"I may have gone a little overboard, I hope you don't mind." Izuku answered, smiling weakly, he too looked pale and drained since the Main Course Dish he had been tasked with preparing demanded him to infuse it with the Gourmet Energy from the Gourmet Cells he brought back from his Isekai as Zaus.
Izuku considered cooking by infusing the Dishes with Gourmet Energy cheating, the System preferred calling it ' Evening the Odds against Quirks' .
"I-"
GORORORORORORORORO!
Momo's answer was cut short by the inhuman gurgling sound that echoed from her stomach, with her face burning bright red right after.
"I am so sorry! Please ignore that!" the young woman begged, mortified.
"It's okay, for a Chef, that's music to the ears." Izuku answered, smiling gently.
"That doesn't help!" Momo replied, distraught, and walked away behind her mother on the notes of everybody's laughs.
Once everybody was seated, Izuku helped Takeshi serve the various dishes he made for his test, having been informed by the System that those were indeed the same plates he prepared for his Test and was now free to eat as his prize. And apparently, another prize was being able to use Puffer Whale as an Ingredient even without the proper Level.
" Host has passed the Test with a final score of 100%. Congratulations! You are deemed worthy of becoming a Host of the Gourmet System, your journey to become ' The God of Cooking of the Hero World' will start tomorrow at the delivery of the Restaurant. You will be given the precise address tomorrow and will find everything ready for use and the Restaurant already decorated and furnished to your specifications, congratulations! Your path to greatness is now open! Work hard, young man!" the System declared with a happy sounding fanfare once every dish had been brought to the table.
Everything was simply amazing: the raw fish of the carpaccio had a slightly-springy texture that made it bounce lively a little at each bite, with the meat seemingly never losing taste no matter how much one chewed.
"Holy...You improved again…" Inko said in awe.
The stew had a dense broth that felt like silk while traveling down one's throat and the meat had turned from hard as steel to buttery-soft to the point of melting on the tongue, filling the mouth in thick meaty aroma at every bite.
Same goes with the paper-wrapped fish mixing perfectly the gentle taste of fish with the astringency of the wine or the giant steak right after, a steak that while very thick and resembling a piece of marble thanks to it's thin lines of fat, was instead perfectly cooked to be juicy and tender.
"You still up to challenge him, Takeshi?" Saito, uncaring of his mouth being completely covered in oil, asked with a smirk.
"Fuck no!" the family Chef answered from the kitchen counter while wildly shaking his head, causing a new round of laughs to ring around the main table.
"It's a shame you still can't find a Restaurant to work in, Izuku. Your Skills are simply unreal." Momo said with a saddened expression while helping herself to more Seafood Risotto, Izuku's Main Course of the System's Test Menu.
"Actually...I may have found one." Izuku admitted with a low voice.
"UH?!" the entire table uttered as one in surprise.
"Really?!" Rei asked.
"Apparently a business group is trying to enter into the world of restaurants to broaden their horizons and needed a young Chef to take care of cooking in their first restaurant. I apparently was deemed good enough and so they offered me the job, tomorrow they will call me and tell me where the restaurant is." he explained while pulling out of his pocket the business card the System prepared for him to show if asked.
"Can I?" Saito asked.
"Sure!"
"... The System Incorporated? Never heard of it. Do you mind if I dig around a bit? Just to be sure it's not a scam." he offered.
" Feel free to accept, Host Izuku. Everything has been taken care of." the gender-less metallic voice of the System answered.
"S-Sure! At least I will be sure they are not trying to pull one on me." Izuku answered.
"Good. I'll keep this if you don't mind then." Saito answered while pocketing the plain business card.
"When will they call?" Momo asked.
"Tomorrow in the evening,"
"A bit too close, but I should be able to dig something up by then. Just in case we can accompany you, so you and Inko won't go there alone." Rei offered.
"Oh, nononono! I don't want to impose!"
"No can do!" the woman answered.
"I am sorry, Izuku. My parents hardly stop when they set their mind on something, my apologies," Momo offered with a small smile.
Sigh! "It's okay…" Izuku answered, sighing in defeat.
"Let's just focus on the dinner for now, Icchan. What about dessert?" Inko asked, trying to cheer her boy up.
"RIGHT! My Lemon Meringue Pie and Rei-san's Apple Pie! I will take them here immediately!" the young man gasped in horror before hurrying back to the kitchen to take out the dessert.
The Next day – Yavin Street -
Yavin street, also called ' Gluttony Street' as it housed the greatest ensemble of restaurant in the entire city, was a very long and straight street with restaurants of every type on both sides, from traditional Japanese restaurants to cheap sushi bars to Italian, Chinese, Mexican, American, Thai, Greek restaurants and so on so forth, it was said that if one wanted to eat everything planet Earth had to offer, they only needed to visit Yavin Street and just eat their way through it.
At number 4 stood a brand new restaurant called ' Green Cloud Restaurant' , a small restaurant with an area of twelve meters squared, neat and tidy, with walls painted pure white decorated with tiny cute green clouds and few tables adorned with comfy seats with plush emerald-green cushions; on the opposite side of the entrance there were two smallish trees framing the window connecting the kitchen to the main room and a dull glass panel acting as door to the kitchen. Two giant windows at both sides on the entrance made sure the people passing by on the street could see clearly everything that was happening inside.
From outside nothing looked out of ordinary, and even the other restaurants around and in front of the small new one seemed to accept its existence without too much of a fuss, partly thanks to the Chef being a well-mannered and friendly young man, but there were actually three strange things about the ' Green Cloud Restaurant' : its Chef was extremely young and talented, there was a strange tall robot with a plump belly and a shining bald head acting as security and a big black dog with luscious fur could be seen sleep in front of the restaurant, right next to the entrance door, at every hour of the day no matter what happened.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
A tiny bell chimed happily from above the door as a new customer entered the small new restaurant.
"Welcome! What can I do for you?" Izuku, wearing a green chef attire, asked while surfacing from the kitchen to welcome the new Guest.
The Path towards becoming the King of Chefs once again was long, Izuku knew that, but he was ready to do whatever it took to reach his goal.
