Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 149 Operation CD, Zhu Wuneng's "Twin Peaks Floating Pagoda Meat" (First Update in 4K)
The gentle, delicate flavor lingered on his tongue, and Yin Shengjiang felt the dark scene before him gradually becoming real.

It lacks the somber atmosphere of a Buddhist temple with its incense sticks, and is not as noisy as a kitchen.

At that moment, he felt as if he were lying in an endless field, feeling the warm rays of sunlight from the sky that seemed to entwine into his body.

Simple, pure
Just like the sensation on the tip of the tongue, it is intoxicating and relaxing, allowing you to forget about too many complicated things.

[Delicate tranquility]

This was the only feeling in his mind at that moment.
He hadn't felt this relaxed over a dish in a long time.

As the sunlight continued to warm his body, he felt chrysanthemums blooming one after another in the field.

In the gentle breeze, their petals trembled slightly, and Yin Shengjiang could sense the hidden fragrance beneath the chrysanthemums.

It's not overly sweet, but rather delicate, gradually transforming into a rich, oily aroma.
After about ten seconds, Yin Shengjiang slowly opened his eyes.

"With such a short preparation time, they actually used pig cartilage, coupled with amazing knife skills."

"It was truly unexpected that such a calming dish was presented."

Because Yin Shengjiang had previously tried Xia Ming's cooking, he had very high expectations from the start.

Even so, this "Crystal Chrysanthemum Cup" still shattered his understanding.

To be honest, at this moment, Xia Ming was like a rising sun in the culinary world in his eyes.

With such knife skills, coupled with such ingenuity and execution, that's remarkable.
If we were to nitpick, Xia Ming's culinary skills should now have reached "Level 6 in China".

In a place like the "New Chef Competition," this would be an absolute table-flipping, dimensional-lowering blow.

Even though Zhu Wuneng's dishes hadn't been served yet, he could already conclude that Xia Ming had won.
After all, "Pagoda Pork" is incomparable to this "Chrysanthemum Cup in Glazed Glass".

The "Crystal Glass Cup" will definitely be included in the teaching materials after the competition, and at that time, a large number of online food bloggers will surely make replicas of it.

Unlike Xia Ming's previous "braised pork", the "crystal cup" is attractive enough in terms of both appearance and craftsmanship, and netizens will buy it because of this trend.

This kind of breakthrough, where chefs' image is enhanced through their cooking, is what the Chefs Association hopes to see.
For food bloggers, this dish is also a sharp whetstone; whether someone has real skill can be seen by their ability to "turn bones into paper."

Even if special knives, tools, or other techniques are used to enhance the knife skills, it is enough to attract a wave of traffic.

Not to mention Xia Ming, who himself generated this wave of traffic.

There are many wealthy people in China, and they have high standards for the style of food on special occasions. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many Western restaurants that don't study the basics properly and instead spend their days trying to "innovate".

In the eyes of the Chinese Culinary Association, Chinese cuisine is far more sophisticated than Western cuisine, but the chefs' dishes and Chinese medicine have many similarities.

That is, what makes someone strong is never the recipe, but the person!
Mid- to low-level "Western cuisine" techniques can be standardized through strict process control.

But Chinese chefs are truly all unique.
If Xia Ming, Tan Zhifeng, and Sui Wubai were placed together and asked to make Mapo Tofu, the final dishes would likely differ to varying degrees.

This isn't a matter of habit; it's simply a matter of how the chef understands the dish, which ultimately determines how the dish will be presented.

Yin Shengjiang understood that even if he painstakingly removed the cartilage and cooked according to Xia Ming's recipe in a 1:1 ratio, the final result would still be different from his.

"In the eyes of netizens, the most difficult parts of this dish are definitely 'removing the bones' and 'thinly slicing'."

"But only after actually tasting it do you realize that perfectly presenting pork cartilage to the two qualities of 'translucent' and 'semi-translucent' requires an almost unbelievably precise control over the ingredients and temperature."

Before eating, Yin Shengjiang had roughly seen the cooking steps. He had some guesses about why he used "raw cartilage extraction" and "bone-splitting" techniques in such a showy way.

At first, he thought it was for better knife work.

While raw cartilage is difficult to process, cooked cartilage is even more challenging.
Now, however, he doesn't think so anymore.

"This 'Chrysanthemum Glass Cup' was conceived and designed in a complete and coherent manner."

"Only freshly extracted cartilage can guarantee its elasticity, meeting the standards for paper and shredded products."

"Because it's raw cartilage, we can use a method of extremely precise temperature control after shaping to cook it until it's 'semi-transparent'."

He could imagine that even if all the food bloggers on the internet tried to replicate it, they probably wouldn't find more than five pork cartilage recipes that could achieve the "semi-transparent and crystal clear" effect.
Even many chefs who don't observe carefully may not understand why this color effect can be achieved.

This is normal, because he himself can only roughly estimate the secret of its temperature control from a theoretical perspective.

If he really wanted to replicate this dish, he would need to experiment with pork cartilage before he could reach a conclusion.

He strongly suspects that the pig's age, the location of the cartilage, and the thickness of the cartilage all affect the final color.

There are simply too many techniques involved to present them all at once.
With a sigh of relief, Yin Shengjiang glanced at Xia Ming in front of him with satisfaction, and couldn't help but praise him in his heart.

"A truly wonderful dish, a great start to the competition!"

As he sighed, he picked up the serving spoon next to him and reached into the bowl again, intending to eat a little more. But he was shocked to find that there was nothing left in the bowl, and even the soup at the bottom had been completely scooped up by the other judges.

"?"

Slightly taken aback, Yin Shengjiang's eye twitched, and then he looked around.
He soon noticed that Wei Yan, who was sitting one seat away from him, was still chewing, nodding as he ate.
Seemingly sensing Yin Shengjiang's slightly suspicious gaze, Wei Yan glanced at him discreetly, then turned her head away quietly, looking rather embarrassed.

Even when caught red-handed, Wei Yan did not stop chewing.

Yin Shengjiang temporarily skipped over him and looked at the others, noticing that Mao Xianzheng's bowl in the corner still had half a bowl of soup left.
Judging by his appearance, he's the one responsible for finishing up the bottom of the bowl.
Facing Yin Shengjiang's gaze, Mao Xianzheng was not embarrassed. He simply stroked his beard, then smiled amicably.

That expression was clearly meant to tell Yin Shengjiang.

"I'm getting old, so seeing this kind of food made me very happy, so I ate a couple more bites. I don't think it'll be a problem."

Looking at his senior, Yin Shengjiang also felt a little helpless.

In theory, they will have to try 15 more dishes, and there is no guarantee that there will be no staple food among them. If you think about it carefully, the burden on their stomachs is actually quite heavy.

It's fine for younger people like Wei Yan, but for someone like Grandpa Mao, who is of the same generation as his master, wouldn't drinking two small bowls of soup be too heavy on his stomach?

"These kinds of things should be left to us younger generations to handle."

Of course, the soup has already been eaten, so it can't be conjured up again now.
Yin Shengjiang, who had given up, carefully tasted the remaining flavor in his mouth with his tongue and nodded.

He already had an idea of ​​Xia Ming's score, but the scores for the dishes in this round of the battle were calculated together after both of them had tasted each other's dishes.

So even though there's only an empty soup bowl left, the judges have to wait for Zhu Wuneng to finish his dish before they can start the next round.

Xia Ming, standing in front of everyone, had naturally heard the host explain the rules in detail. Therefore, upon seeing this scene, he did not linger in front of the judges.

After nodding to everyone, he picked up the soup bowl on the table, turned around and returned to his competition area, preparing to clean the stove while waiting for the competition results.

Viewers in the live stream started discussing the empty bowl in Xia Ming's hand.

Not a drop is left; the bowl is emptied cleaner than my face!

[The portions weren't originally that large, just a small bowl per person. With two extra bowls, Chef Tan and Sui Wubai each got half a bowl, the veteran judge and the youngest judge each got half a bowl, and the head judge was gone.]

[It looks delicious! The judges enjoyed it immensely, and they all looked very energetic!]

【No, Xia Ming, when are you going to open a restaurant? I can't stand it anymore! You're so young, this is the perfect time to make money, wouldn't it be better to come back and open a restaurant?】

[It won't smell good at all. These days, fame can make more money than a restaurant. I bet Xia Ming will get offers for variety shows after the competition!]

[Do you even need to tell me? It's not like he's never been on variety shows before, you just haven't seen them! Looking back now, no wonder Jia Bing was eating so heartily that day—he wasn't just showing support, he genuinely made a fortune!]

[I strongly suggest they appear on "Chinese Restaurant Season 10"! They're good-looking, their cooking skills are top-notch, they could practically debut on the spot!]

[You're not talking about that show that listed the most representative foods in the country, labeling Hubei's northern region as "Sweet Osmanthus Lotus Root" and Hunan's region as "Chopped Chili Peppers," are you? Don't be ridiculous, it completely blew my mind!]

I know about that. They labeled Dalong District as Lanzhou Ramen. My roommate was about to call the police because they said they only have beef noodles in their area, not any kind of "ghost ramen".

Just as the comments section was gradually going off-topic, Xia Ming, who was wiping the table, saw that Zhu Wuneng's steamer basket across from him had finally been lifted.

He sniffed the air and knew that Zhu Wuneng's "Pagoda Meat" should be ready.

Xia Ming turned to look at the judges beside him, who were still collectively recalling the taste of the "Glassy Chrysanthemum Cup".

He glanced at the remaining time in the game, and finally a smile appeared on his lips.

"The timing was absolutely perfect!"

It's just unclear whether he was referring to Zhu Wuneng or the "Pagoda Meat" he was about to present.

Or perhaps his "crystal chrysanthemum cup" and "pagoda meat" achieved some kind of "wonderful" interaction.

Smelling the aroma of the pagoda-shaped pork, the judges gradually snapped out of their reverie about Xia Ming's cooking. After confirming that Zhu Wuneng had entered the final stage, they began to rinse their mouths with the water they had prepared earlier.

Although this was only the first dish served by Xia Ming, thanks to his previous actions, apart from Mao Xianzheng and Yu Fangmei, the other five people rinsed their mouths extremely carefully, repeating the process several times to make sure that there was no taste of "Glassy Chrysanthemum Cup" in their mouths before stopping.

Seeing the judge's action, Xia Ming didn't react in any special way.

However, a little discussion broke out in the players' lounge.

Several contestants were discussing whether the fact that Xia Ming was rinsing his mouth so thoroughly meant that the soup he made was too salty.

Since the contestants couldn't get any food and the judges didn't speak up, some controversy is understandable given the inferences drawn from the speculation.

However, Han Tianyan, Bai Heng, and He He had no interest in joining this pointless guessing game.

They only raised their concerns and expectations about Xia Ming again after seeing his empty bowl.

There's no way around it; there can only be one champion in the "New Chef Competition." Given Xia Ming's current momentum, even if he's very confident, it's hard for him to say that he's guaranteed to defeat Xia Ming.

Of course, Shuai Qixing might actually say it~
Li Yuan, standing to the side, didn't care about the empty bowl. He had already estimated Xia Ming's speed and skills in the previous round, and this round did not exceed his expectations.

Even the seemingly miraculous "bone-to-paper" technique, which other judges considered incredible, was something he had seen before.

The user was a butcher deep in the mountains, over seventy years old, who had spent his entire life slaughtering pigs for the village.
It exudes a menacing aura; if it walked up to a pig, the pig would be so frightened that it wouldn't dare to move.

I remember that time, he stayed overnight at the butcher's place and saw him take the center of the pork cartilage, slice it, cut it into diamond shapes, stir-fry it with a spicier sauce, saying that this was more suitable to go with alcohol.

Li Yuan wanted to learn the skills, so he even bought wine for the butcher. In the end, the butcher didn't take the wine, but he did give him some pointers.

"This isn't a skill at all. It's just something you learn naturally over the years by killing a lot of pigs."

Of course, Xia Ming's move completely outshone the old butcher in terms of both technique and final presentation, but it at least proves that this kind of skill has the potential to exist.

"Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles; traveling ten thousand miles is not as good as meeting countless people."

"Beneath our magnificent land, there are countless talented individuals whose names remain unknown. Learning a little from each of them would be enough to benefit me for a lifetime."

Just as Li Yuan was feeling sentimental, the host in the competition venue, after confirming the names of the dishes, slowly began to speak.

[New Chef Competition, 64 to 32, Day 1, Group 1 contestants]

【XC7Z1296651——Zhu Wuneng, cooking complete.】

[Dish Name: Twin Peaks Pagoda Meat]

After the announcement, Zhu Wuneng brought the pagoda-shaped meat to the judges' table.

The judges looked up and saw two pagodas standing on the plate, one on each side. Upon closer inspection from bottom to top, they found that the layers on the surface were extremely fine and the pork belly slices were very thin.

More importantly, although the two towers are connected in the middle, they are indistinguishable from each other from the outside.

It should be noted that Zhu Wuneng chose a square piece of pork belly for his pagoda-shaped meat. Under normal circumstances, even if it is cut perfectly, there will still be obvious marks at the corners.

In addition, the usual "pagoda meat" is made using molds, and the molds fit the pagoda meat perfectly, so the shape is set from the very beginning.

But Zhu Wuneng's case is clearly different. In general, the best explanation for this is that he was able to process the meat at every bend in the meat exactly the same.

In previous years, this skill alone would have been more than enough to get him into the top 32, but unfortunately, his opponent was Xia Ming.

Faced with knife work that exceeds the limits, this one, with its even thickness, clearly falls short of expectations.

More importantly, the judges present all frowned slightly after smelling the aroma emanating from the "Twin Peaks Pagoda Meat".

Sui Wubai's expression turned solemn.

"The knife skills and the design are both top-notch, but for some reason, looking at this glistening, fatty pork belly, I always feel something's off."

"greasy"

(End of this chapter)