Universe Infinite Canteen.

Chapter 594 Head-to-head confrontation
"So you were thinking about this pan-fried duck breast before cooking the first dish?" Rocky Chen was surprised.

"Yes." Sun Mei admitted, "The time for this competition is very tight, especially after each round, the available time is even less.

“However, some dishes that take a lot of time to prepare are not actually because the cooking itself takes a lot of time, but because a certain part of the pre-processing process takes a long time. If you can cook many dishes at the same time, you can save time to the maximum extent.

"This is a very common thing in the kitchen, nothing to be surprised about."

"Ah, that's true, but the theme this time is coconut, which is very difficult to cook. How can I think of all the dishes in advance?"

Gaggan Anand lamented, “Your creative ability is just too outrageous.”

“I actually didn’t think about it right from the start. I just had a vague idea and I just left it there. It wouldn’t take too long to prepare the ingredients in advance anyway.

“I’ll pick it up when I find inspiration later. Actually, the inspiration for this dish comes from Chef Malu’s previous work, Coconut. His use of smell is very impressive.”

"Which 'Coconut'?" Millipede asked curiously.

“The second one.”

"Oh oh oh oh."

Malu gave Sun Mei a thumbs up. He really thought Sun Mei was amazing.

Although he looked more relaxed on the surface, that was because Lao Wang was playing for him throughout the whole process and he only used one hand.

But Sun Mei has been fighting hard until this point, and she is considered the most powerful chef Malu has ever met.

However, Sun Mei did not seem satisfied, especially when she saw Malu's dishes, she was stunned again.

What Malu cooked this time was also duck, but it was not fried duck meat, but roasted duck.

There is no doubt that his duck meat was roasted early in the morning so that it could be taken out of the oven at this time. There was also no trace of coconut on the plate.

Sun Mei was immediately interested. The two chose the same ingredients and cooked them in a similar way, which was equivalent to a direct confrontation. Sun Mei really wanted to get back at his old self with this fried duck breast.

So I am paying special attention to the results this time.

The four judges' eyes welled up with tears when they saw the roast duck. Considering what Malu had served in the first two rounds, it was not easy to have some decent food from him.

Olette Huppert started first. Although he is a foreigner, he has been active in Asia for many years and is very skilled in using chopsticks.

He picked up a piece of roast duck and put it in his mouth, and the next moment his eyes widened.

Because the taste of this bite is so strong.

He bit through the crispy skin of the roast duck and felt the rich fat beneath the skin melting in his mouth. Then the rich coconut aroma exploded in his cavity, impacting his soul.

Olette Huppert almost moaned in pleasure.

How, how is this done?!

If Sun Mei’s duck breast has just a light coconut aroma, then Malu’s roast duck is simply a coconut bomb!

This is obviously not something that can be done by smoking.

"It's molecular cuisine." Seeing the four judges looking over here, Malu admitted generously.

“I used the molecular gastronomy technique of spherification to make small balls of the sauce made with coconut milk and put them under the duck skin.”

"I see. Traditionally, roast duck is eaten with sugar." Rocky Chen nodded. "The combination of fat and sweetness creates a wonderful reaction."

Yoneda Hajime, who rarely spoke among the judges, suddenly said, "Now that we have color, fragrance, and taste, the next step is to move on to shape, meaning, and nourishment."

When he said this, there was another uproar.

The other three judges were also surprised. "Wait, are you saying that the three dishes he made have another theme?" Gaggan Anand asked in amazement, "Is this... a dual-theme creation?"

"Well, I know that Chinese food has the concepts of color, fragrance, taste, shape, meaning, and nutrition." Yoneda Hajime said, "It probably corresponds to the color, fragrance, taste, shape, artistic conception or atmosphere, and nutrition of Western food.

"We have already eaten the first three dishes. If nothing unexpected happens, we should be able to eat the last three dishes."

"Although everyone has different cultural customs, the criteria for judging food are the same," said Olette Huppert.

“This also makes me look forward to your performance, Chef Malu, but I need to remind you that you have already used 104 minutes, and there are only 16 minutes left.

"If I want to win, I have to cook three more dishes. Can I really do that in such a short time?"

"No problem at all," Malu answered straightforwardly, "Just like Chef Sun Mei said, we spent a long time at first just because there were a lot of things to do.

“Things actually get easier later on, and my next dish is almost ready.”

“We can’t wait to see what you, Chef Malu, will do next,” Rocky Chen concluded.

Although the judges respected the competition process and did not announce the score of this dish on the spot.

But Sun Mei knew that she had lost again, which made her secretly clench her fists.

She couldn't remember how long it had been since someone had caused her such intense frustration in cooking.

The last person who made her feel this way was Sun He, her grandfather, but Sun He is also old now.

Her grandfather used to be a mountain that she could not climb, someone she could only look up to.

But the night before she left for the World Youth Chef Competition, she discovered that the towering figure was no longer indestructible and omnipotent.

What follows is a strong sense of emptiness, the confusion and boredom of having lost your goal.

It was not until many years later when she returned to China that she encountered another mountain.

This time, standing before her was the towering Mount Everest.

Sun Mei's desire to win was also completely activated, especially when she saw Malu putting one hand in his pocket and looking like he was just playing with you guys.

It was like seeing how careless I was when I was competing in the lower age groups.

From an outsider's perspective, was I really that deserving of a beating back then?

Sun Mei gritted his teeth and swore to himself that he would never lose to that guy.

Soon, the third round of scores came out.

Malu got full marks again, and Sun Mei's fried duck breast scored 4.5 points, 0.25 points higher than the previous round, continuing its steady growth.

If it weren't for the millipede, her speed of progress would definitely be noticed, but at this moment everyone's attention was basically focused on the millipede.

Kawano Masaaki made sesame tofu in the third round and scored 4 points again.

Luo Junkang actually doesn’t like to create dishes on the spot. He thinks that good dishes require immersion and time in polishing, just like wine which becomes more fragrant with age.

Especially this kind of competition with a very short time limit, which is purely for the purpose of torturing the contestants. Although he made a mutated version of squirrel mandarin fish in the last round, he was actually not very satisfied with this dish.

I didn’t want to try Huaiyang cuisine this time, so I just made some Bisque lobster soup to get the job done.

I thought I would be sent away, but unexpectedly I got 4 points.

(End of this chapter)