Fermat's Cuisine Episode 6

Competition

Kai’s restaurant is catering a party at a local hotel for the guests of a competition. It is a high end affair and the chef that represents the menu will receive publicity and accolades. It’s a big deal and gives huge bragging rights to promote career. Gaku has pretty determinedly decided he wanted to help his friends not compete against them. The only one of similar mindset was top sous chef who had been removed from competing. As time went on, Gaku was made to realize that if he truly wanted to be a chef, he needed to explore all opportunities to advance his abilities. If he wanted to cook beside Kai, he needed to push harder to reach that degree of mastery. Top sous chef shared his best dish ideas with Gaku who made a unique dish for party. Appetizer soup and protein could be combined in succession to make a cohesive meal. Literally a party in a bowl. Kai as usual, has a direct and harsh way to wake chefs up to their true potential. He made his top sous chef realize that as good as his signature dish was, he had ceased to advance in his cooking. He was instrumental in Kai’s success by being his relight hand man and support. But this had come at the price of giving up his own place as a signature chef. He had stopped thinking and reinventing his dishes to placidly following Kai’s lead and enforcing the menu around others’ taste profiles. He ran the kitchen but he had stopped adding to the menu. All the chefs had to acknowledge that even tho he was the newest chef, Gaku continued to twist the norms and create new levels of cuisine. His math skills and drive pushed him on to new heights and clarity. He instinctively created the next level dishes as he saw in his domino method. Building on the old to reinvent the new. Kai handed him the paperwork of who the guests were and what the hotel expected. Gaku learned it was the ceremonial dinner for the math award winners. This was the contest he ran from and he faced in his mind the math student that made him realize his true limitations as a mathematician. The stress caused Gaku to literally collapse as the episode ends. He has to face his worst fear alongside top sous chef. Kai gave them both opportunity to pursue their best selves and overcome the fear that held them back. I am very curious how Gaku’s dishes will go over with his old math colleagues. And I want to know if top sous chef settles for that honor in Kai’s kitchen, or chooses to explore what direction his cooking could go if he took time to think about it.

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