The problem was that modern Japanese food relied on modern ingredients and cooking utensils. I didn’t even have the necessary condiments. Soy sauce and miso were the bare minimum, but I didn’t have tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup, or ponzu either—all delicious in their own right. I couldn’t remember what ingredients were necessary to make tonkatsu sauce from scratch, but I vaguely recalled the list being long and packed with tons of vegetables, fruits, and spices. It truly had been a labor of love from the famous company that’d formulated it.
The theme song of that show I watched is starting to play in my head!
Tonkatsu sauce aside, dashi was another cornerstone of Japanese cuisine. In the past, when professional foreign chefs—French chefs, for instance—visited Japan, they’d buy a few knives and leave. Nowadays, they’d also stock up on kelp to make dashi, or so I’d heard. Dashi was amazing, and before I died, it’d started gaining recognition worldwide, not just in Japan.
In the empire, however, ready-made condiments were practically nonexistent. The equipment in kitchens also paled in comparison to induction heating, gas ovens, and microwaves. All we had were stoves and ovens fueled by firewood, with wildly inconsistent heat. By and large, reproducing twenty-first-century Japanese dishes was just impossible.
Had I come to this world as the person I’d been in my past life, Yukimura Rina, I probably would’ve been dying for Japanese food. But I, Ekaterina Yulnova, had never actually tasted it. I still held the memories from my past life, but memories alone weren’t enough to make me desperate. I was more than satisfied with the dishes the chefs of the empire prepared. If anything, the shoddy food I’d grown up eating while confined made everything I tried now taste amazing in comparison.
That was why I’d been more than happy to stick with the recipes Flora had taught me so far. That said, after several months of cooking, I’d started craving new challenges. That was how I’d set my sights on tonkatsu—something I could easily procure ingredients for and which I’d imagined would be well received by a growing teenage boy.
I made a point not to overestimate my abilities, so instead of trying it for lunch right away, I’d first sought help from the House of Yulnova’s chef.
I’d heard that tonkatsu-style pork cutlets were based on Milanese cutlets. Since this world resembled Europe, I’d assumed a version of this dish would exist here too. I was wrong.
Breadcrumbs for breading ingredients did exist, but they were finer than those in Japan. To obtain Japanese-style breadcrumbs, or panko as we called them, I’d first had to find an appropriate grater.
I’d also run into a few issues with the pork. Without the centuries of selective breeding the pigs in Japan had undergone, the pork here had a strong smell and was quite tough. Our chef had tenderized it thoroughly and soaked it in yogurt to soften it and remove the smell, but it’d still been different from the tonkatsu I’d remembered—easy to bite into and mild in flavor.
The next problem had been the oil. Finding oil suitable for deep-frying was difficult, and even once I had, using that much at once was considered incredibly extravagant by this world’s standards. The chef had shuddered when I’d asked him to do a trial run.
But I’d pushed through each obstacle until I’d finally arrived at a satisfactory result!
Normally, Flora and I used ingredients from the academy’s kitchen. For today, however, I’d brought most of what we needed from home. The chef at our residence in the capital had made the panko, and the meat was high-quality pork from a species with demonic boar blood. It originated from the Yulnova Duchy, but Sergei had brought several specimens to the capital back in his day and started a breeding farm. The oil was also from the duchy.
The kitchen staff had watched with interest as we’d assembled the tonkatsu sandwiches using all the luxurious ingredients I’d brought in.
“You liked the roasted pork the chef made for us in the duchy, right?” I asked Mikhail. “My grandfather had people start raising those pigs on the outskirts of the capital. I had some of their meat brought in to make this.”
“You went that far? Thank you for going through the trouble. Knowing that you gave it that much thought for my sake makes it all the more delicious. I’m overjoyed, Ekaterina,” Mikhail said. He really did look pleased.
I nodded, quite happy myself. I knew it! Boys love meat!
Mikhail had helped me so much with Olga’s trouble that I was glad I could finally do something for him in return. I’d cooked while thinking of him the entire time. This was my way of saying thank you, after all! I didn’t like to leave debts unpaid.
“Lady Ekaterina, we should get going,” Flora interjected.
Oh no! I snapped back to reality. I’m making my brother wait. I want him to eat while the food’s still warm!
“Thank you for the reminder, Lady Flora. Well then. Prince Mikhail, we’ll be on our way.”
“Yeah... See you tomorrow.”
I got the feeling Mikhail was glaring at Flora, but it must have been my imagination.
I hope my brother says it’s good!
Alexei always said that everything I made was good, though. That was just how he was.
Sure enough, the tonkatsu sandwiches were a big hit in Alexei’s office.
“This dish is very much like you,” Alexei said. “It’s packed with amazement and delight. For the longest time, I didn’t understand why people were so hung up on their food, but I’ve come to understand their feelings in recent months. Eating the food you make fulfills my heart and body, and gives me great happiness as well.”
I’m the one who’s happy!
No, I was over the moon! Showing my brother the joy of eating was one of the main reasons I’d picked up cooking in the first place. I wanted his life to be full of fun, joy, and happiness!
And I’ll keep it up!
The sauce I’d ended up using for the sandwiches was a type of tomato sauce recommended by our chef. The harvest period of tomatoes had already passed, but he’d made a sauce using dried tomatoes as a base. It was packed with umami, and while it was very different from the tonkatsu sauce of my past world, it was still delicious. The pork cutlets that existed here—the closest thing to tonkatsu in this world—were usually paired with tomato sauce, so this was a combination the people of the empire were used to.
Well, I suppose imperial-style tonkatsu is fine this way.
The chef at our capital residence was now super motivated to serve tonkatsu to the imperial family during their next annual visit. Apparently, he even wanted to deep-fry the meat in front of the emperor and empress as a form of entertainment.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about serving Their Imperial Majesties tonkatsu, but by this world’s standards, a dish using that much oil was indeed worthy of their rank. If anything, perhaps it was the perfect thing to serve them.
No one else but me would think it’s weird, after all...
“If this becomes popular, we can expect high-quality pork to sell like hotcakes in the capital,” Halil said with a smirk.
I wondered if, one day, tonkatsu would become an emblematic dish of the empire. The thought of this European-styled empire adopting tonkatsu as its national dish made me feel incredibly apologetic.
If that ever happens... Well, I’m sorry.
The one who ended up liking tonkatsu the most among my brother’s advisors was Aaron.
“I’m once again reminded of how happy I am to serve the House of Yulnova,” he declared dramatically. “If this dish makes it into a restaurant, I’ll become a regular, no matter the price.”
It didn’t suit his scholarly looks in the slightest, but Aaron loved meat-heavy dishes best. I wondered if that was because he’d gotten used to eating wild game for survival when he went on field trips with Granduncle Isaac. Whether or not that was true, it remained my leading theory. Aaron loved Isaac so much, it wouldn’t have been surprising.
I won’t lose to you, Aaron! I love my brother just as much!
“Has your class decided what to do for the festival yet, brother?” I asked.
“They have, but I don’t take part in such events. I never have the time for them,” he replied immediately, his tone matter-of-fact.
That made my heart sink, but I still nodded. “You’re very busy, after all. It’s no wonder you can’t participate.”
The fact that work was the only thing in Alexei’s life worried me, but I wasn’t sure he’d enjoy a school event anyway. There was a good chance it’d simply tire him out further.
“You’re always so kind,” he said. “To be honest, working feels easier and more comfortable to me. I’m a boring man, you see.”
Alexei sounded indifferent as he depreciated himself, but I quickly shook my head. “The lives of the people of Yulnova depend on your work. I also believe prioritizing them is the right thing to do. I already worry enough with you handling your work as duke on top of your schoolwork, so I don’t think you should push yourself to participate in the festival.”
“Thank you, Ekaterina. However, I must say I’m far more worried about you. With the great success of the musical evening you put together, your classmates must be expecting a lot from you. Remember not to overwork yourself. They say beauties are ephemeral as dreams. If you are a dream, I never want to wake up. I beg of you to show me a never-ending dream, my sweet Ekaterina.”
Alexei’s mastery of flowery prose is through the roof as usual. I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, brother!
“I won’t overwork myself, and I promise to do as you say in all things,” I assured him.
“Good girl.”
Alexei patted my head, putting me in the greatest of moods!
These days, whenever students gathered, all they talked about was the upcoming festival. It was as if asking other classes what they were planning had become some sort of password—fail to say it, and you risked being kicked out of the academy. To be perfectly honest, I’d also intended to ask Mikhail what his class was doing before Flora had reminded me we were in a hurry.
I hadn’t given it much thought before, since I’d always seen it as just another event from the game, but the festival was sort of an odd thing. The academy itself was odd, actually. Leaving aside the fact that there were monsters and magic—and that you could run into actual gods—this world closely resembled early modern Europe in terms of social structure and culture. The Magic Academy stood out conspicuously in the midst of it all. I was pretty sure a compulsory academy for noble girls and boys had never existed in Europe during that time period. The fact that it was co-ed was especially peculiar.