Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 121 Is this considered a front-row perk? How did he even figure that out? (Bonus Chapter for 2K Views)

Seeing Xia Ming's actions, Tan Zhifeng, who was in the judges' room backstage, smiled slightly.

Wei Yan, who was standing to the side, also nodded.

"At least they grasped the essence of the question! In terms of thinking, they can already be considered excellent!"

That's right, there's an implicit rule in this exam question.

The so-called "on-site ingredients" naturally refer to anything displayed on-site; anything that's on-site counts as ingredients!

"The vegetables, fruits, fish, and meat in front of you all count!"

"And what about the green plants on the side, the water and snacks in the vending machine? Aren't they all part of that?"

It's worth noting that the organizers had reminded the contestants well in advance!

The food we ate for lunch was on the salty side. Most people had used the vending machine in section C. Even those who prefer stronger flavors saw others using the vending machine.

"Some seemingly insignificant things in life can become a source of inspiration for chefs!"

"This is exactly the kind of creativity that Chinese chefs desperately need!"

"If a chef can keenly observe other things, he will definitely go further than someone who can only memorize recipes."

"This is why a 'Level 6' chef can achieve this level by relying on their understanding of a particular dish or a single cuisine."

"But chefs who are promoted to 'Level 7' in Chinese cuisine have basically crossed multiple cuisines and reached a certain level of critical thinking before they can pass the exam."

Wei Yan touched his hair.

"The most crucial element here is the chef's vision and breadth of thinking!"

"The 'New Chef Competition' aims to select promising young chefs who may one day become pillars of the Chinese culinary world. Compared to existing skills, a chef's most essential qualities are valued more highly by those in power."

"After all, skills can be honed through practice, just like Wang Qingrui's knife skills."

"But the essence of being human is difficult to change! It's a matter of perspective."

"It's obvious that this year's batch of players are all very promising!"

As he spoke, Wei Yan saw several other people rushing toward the vending machine.

After a careful count, among the top twenty, only "Zhou Jing" did not go; the others all rushed to the vending machine first.

Some of the other contestants saw what the people in front were doing and realized what was happening, so they all joined in and crowded around.

Xia Ming ignored the tail behind him and rushed to the "vending machine". He refreshed the mini-program and quickly scanned the code.

During this brief moment, he also peered sharply into the cabinet.

Just as he expected, the vending machine had changed since he last bought water.

The snack section at the bottom contains quite a few usable items.

This means that the organizers intended for the contestants to use these semi-finished ingredients from the very beginning.

However, Xia Ming also noticed that there was a line of red text at the bottom of the vending machine page on his phone.

[Note: Each contestant may only purchase one item]

Xia Ming was not surprised by this.

With so many participants, if there's no limit on the number, it would be difficult to handle if someone took away a large amount of snacks!
After taking another closer look at the cabinet, he found that there were very few preserved plums; there were only three boxes in the cabinet.

And there was a box of obviously white preserved plums next to it.

Xia Ming raised an eyebrow when he saw the preserved plum.

"Salted plum, okay, is this considered a front-row perk?"

After making a joke, he pressed the buy button, put the only salted plum in the entire cabinet into a basket, grabbed a handful of fresh scallions from the green plants next to him, and then rushed straight to the fruit section.

Beside him, Han Tianyan went to another vending machine and took another box of salted plums.

That's right, when he saw Xia Ming head to the nearest vending machine, he immediately chose to go to the one that was farther away.

Bai Heng also chose another machine, but Zhu Wuneng and He He beat him to it. Sun Xingyao wanted to grab the last machine, but Li Yuan was ranked ahead of him. He was about to get angry when he missed the first turn, but just as he put his hand on Li Yuan's back, Li Yuan reached out and grabbed his hand.

"you!"

Just as Sun Xingyao was about to open the chat in Zaun, he felt a sharp pain in his hand.

Despite not appearing particularly robust, Li Yuan possessed an unusually strong grip. With a practiced flip, he sent Sun Xingyao sprawling to the ground.

Seeing this, Li Yuan also squatted down and took out a large bag of sea salt melon seeds from underneath.

"You're Sun the Mad Dog, right? Do you even know what a homeless chef is?"

"A wandering chef is a chef who travels through villages all over China and then goes to the mountains to find precious ingredients."

"Some people jokingly call us 'food hunters.' You don't actually think I'm comparable to a weakling like you who's built up some brute strength in the gym, do you?"

Looking at Li Yuan's slightly cold smile, Sun Xingyao gritted her teeth and revealed a sinister look.

Li Yuan didn't care about his gaze, and just silently shook her head.

"Apologize to me, and this matter will be over!"

"You're in pain."

Just as Sun Xingyao was about to continue arguing, she felt the pain in her hand become even more pronounced.

"Don't be silly, the longer you and I stall, the faster the others will arrive."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"Wouldn't that solve the problem?"

Li Yuan smiled and let go of his hand, then walked towards the vegetable selection area as if nothing had happened.

Sun Xingyao, ignoring the pain in her hand, quickly got up and scanned the code before Chen Sui could!

But judging from his gaze as he watched Li Yuan's retreating figure, it was clear that this matter was far from over in his mind.
Ignoring the minor incidents happening next to the other vending machines, Xia Ming had already arrived at the vegetable selection area.

A large crowd had already gathered there, with most people selecting sugarcane segments and grapes from the side.

Having activated his Blood Eyes, Xia Ming skipped this stage and forcefully pulled out a section of whole sugarcane, longer than his arm, from a pile of sugarcane with a strong smell of alcohol.

Then, amidst the bewildered gazes of the many contestants, they headed towards the "fresh meat" section.

"No way, how could he possibly determine that there's something good down there from this pile of stuff?!"

"Could there be something going on behind the scenes?"

"Let me check too, oh dear, there's a pile of garbage underneath!"

"These are all unusable sugarcane; some are completely rotten inside. I'd rather go find that pile of rotten mangoes! At least they're usable after peeling them!"

"You're not going to pick me! Get out of my way!"

Amidst the commotion, Xia Ming quickly rummaged through hundreds of boxes of meat and found the one he needed.

To others, he doesn't need to press with his hands or smell; it seems he can tell which ingredients are fresh enough just by glancing at them.

This ability, comparable to a human-shaped scanner, also attracted the attention of Wei Yan, who was working behind the scenes.

"How is that possible? Did he really carefully select that speed?"

Seeing Wei Yan finally looking surprised, Tan Zhifeng also laughed.

"I told you before, Xia Ming is different from others, this kid was born to be a chef!"

Wei Yan was genuinely confused this time.

"Is it based on smell? Sugarcane can be somewhat explained, but this pork was sealed in plastic wrap."

"This is a bit illogical! How exactly did he make that judgment???"

(End of this chapter)