Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 166 You promised to make meat-filled pastries? What the hell are you doing, cosplaying as Ip Man?! (First update of 3K)
[Blank? What does this mean? Did you forget to write it?]

[That's impossible! All seven judges discussed it before writing it; how could they have forgotten?]

[That's simple. If it's not a judge, and it's not He He, then it can only mean that Xia Ming didn't write it at all.]

[Are you crazy? What good would it do him not to answer the questions? Is he cutting off his own escape route?]

[You don't understand! Xia Ming probably felt that writing a specific topic would be too restrictive, so he decided to create an open-ended topic, forcing He He to compete with him in terms of skill!]

In my opinion, although He He seems to be more skilled in pastry making, I always felt that Xia Ming was a true all-rounder, so in this case, it's quite reasonable for him not to do the questions.

"Inside the competition venue"

He He was only surprised for a moment before he realized what was happening.

“Since I wrote about pastries, then this note could only have been written by Xia Ming.”

"Damn it, he actually abused the rules."

He He bit her lip, her gaze involuntarily drifting towards Xia Ming standing opposite her.

She knew in her heart that drawing pastries was a stroke of luck.

Normally, she wouldn't stand a chance against Xia Ming.
Especially in the field of Chinese cuisine, judging from Xia Ming's previous performance, it's clear to anyone with discerning eyes that his strengths and weaknesses are evident.

"Now that we've drawn pastries, looking back at the competition, although the chances of winning are still low, they're much higher than before. It's not entirely impossible now."

"The current situation is that Xia Ming has posed an open-ended question."

"This is equivalent to reducing the original three questions to two. If we only consider pastries with meat, the scope would be expanded to an endless extent."

He He fell into thought.
How can one recreate this theme with a single dish while also satisfying the requirements of creativity and technical difficulty?
Unlike Qiao Ruoning, she didn't have many wildly imaginative ideas; all her logical thinking followed the thought process of a normal pastry chef.

So her first thought at that moment was [barbecued pork buns].

But He He quickly dismissed his idea.

The reason is simple: if it's just about char siu bao (barbecued pork buns), from a technical point of view, this question would be too monotonous.

She felt that since it was a pastry, it needed to make the most of its aesthetic appeal and the elasticity of the dough while staying true to the theme, to differentiate it from ordinary stir-fries and create a more creative extension.

Just as He He was pondering how to adapt to the topic, Xia Ming across from her smiled.

That's right, just as everyone suspected, this blank note was left by him.

The reason is not hard to guess.
Actually, for Xia Ming, pastry making is not an area where he is particularly good at it.

The reason for this is that the Blood Blade Sect's kitchen staff on the Nine Provinces Continent did not have the theoretically strong grasp of pastry making.

It should be understood that the Blood Blade Sect is a sect whose main harvest is flesh and blood. The fragments of flesh and blood that the disciples obtain each time are more than enough to meet the Blood Blade Sect's daily needs.

In contrast, the Blood Blade Sect did not have the habit of planting or raising grain crops on a large scale.

"After all, if you can get it from outside, who would still think about growing it from the ground?"

"Even if it's meant as a refreshing change after getting tired of eating meat and blood, it's just something a few elders would occasionally have."

But does that mean Xia Ming has absolutely no knowledge of pastry making?
Not entirely.
As mentioned before, the Sixteenth Elder, "Blood-Faced Buddha," was a monk who was extremely devout during the day and only ate mock meat dishes.

It was also one night when he was extremely agitated, but he only ate vegetarian-style dishes.

That's right, "mock meat" refers to making vegetarian dishes look like meat dishes, while "mock vegetarian" refers to making meat dishes look like vegetarian dishes. The most common form of the latter is pastries.

"The meat patties that look like green vegetables and the buns that look like potatoes are all used here, along with the little bit of spirit rice and flour that we have in the back mountains."

Therefore, Xia Ming can eat noodles, but when he thinks about it carefully, he prefers "salty snacks". After all, it seems that everyone in the Blood Blade Sect eats delicious food, but the real reason is that they need to cultivate.

You just need to transform what the Blood Blade Sect calls delicacies into what ordinary cultivators would consider elixirs.

It's just that compared to tasteless pills, the kitchen staff can adjust the flavor of them better.

"Meat and pastries... these are somewhat familiar topics."

Xia Ming smiled slightly, several dishes flashing through his mind, and finally, he chose the most difficult one.

It was at this moment that He He decided on her cooking.

In her opinion, her dish is also an extremely difficult pastry to make.
After drawing lots, the two quickly began preparing the ingredients. He He's unease became even more pronounced after seeing Xia Ming take various kinds of flour, as well as a large amount of meat and vegetables.

This was the most variety of ingredients Xia Ming had ever obtained, aside from the "Ingredient Snatching Competition," in her memory.

She couldn't tell what kind of dish Xia Ming wanted to make just by looking at the ingredients.

Xia Ming raised an eyebrow as he looked at the ingredients He He was holding. He couldn't recall any dishes that required those ingredients.

But looking at the colors of the ingredients, Xia Ming felt that He He was very likely doing something similar to what he was doing.

"That's starting to get a little interesting."

Smiling and shaking his head, Xia Ming let the yeast rise and began making pastries.
While the two were working enthusiastically on their project, the judges were also discussing the topic.

"Old Sui, what do you think you would do if you were to solve this problem?"

Sui Wubai smiled sheepishly upon hearing Yin Shengjiang's words.

"If you asked me to make it, I'd definitely make 'paper-wrapped buns.' That's easier said than done; it really tests a chef's pastry skills."

You Zhangwen nodded in agreement with Sui Wubai's words. "It is indeed a good choice, but if it were me, I would probably make 'soup dumplings'~"

"Hmm, soup dumplings are also a good choice."

Sui Wubai nodded with a smile. Although soup dumplings can be bought anywhere, the difference between top-quality and ordinary dishes is huge. Often, just a little detail can lead to a complete failure.

Hearing the detailed and detailed discussion, Tan Zhifeng smiled and joined in the conversation.

He prefers to make "barbecued pork buns" because he feels that the topic is not subordinate to it.

"It's not just meat, or just pasta."

"I think the core of this topic is to balance the three themes as much as possible while ensuring that all three themes are clearly presented."

"Of course, now there are only two themes, which in a sense reduces the difficulty."

"However, since it's Xia Ming and He He, whether the difficulty is reduced or not makes no difference to them."

Tan Zhifeng could tell that He He was under a lot of pressure when facing Xia Ming.

Given the need for advancement, He He will definitely give it his all.

On the other hand, Xia Ming is currently very popular online, and netizens have high expectations for him.

Although Xia Ming is not someone who cares about netizens' expectations and is bound by them, in order to achieve better program results, Xia Ming will only have the following two choices.

1. Choose to play with abstract concepts.

Second: To present exquisite art.

Tan Zhifeng prefers the latter to the former.
"His knife skills and fire control are top-notch, which means that his shaping and temperature control are excellent."

"As long as he doesn't have absolutely no knowledge of dough, he'll definitely produce a visually stunning dish."

It has to be said that Tan Zhifeng may have actually studied Xia Ming in private.

At times, his judgment was accurate.

At this moment, several bowls of noodles of different colors had been poured into the stove in front of Xia Ming. After adjusting the color of the noodles to his desired level, he started kneading the dough.

Unlike ordinary pastry chefs who knead dough, Xia Ming makes an astonishingly loud noise when kneading dough.

The stainless steel basin in his hands creaked and rattled as if it were a wooden stick without support.

Those who know the story would think he was kneading dough, but those who don't would think he was a street performer hitting a gong with a small, thick drumstick before a performance.

Viewers in the live stream gasped in surprise upon seeing this.

Just how strong is Xia Ming? It feels like he could crush the basin.

What's the use of brute force? Kneading dough requires even pressure and proper kneading until smooth. It's far more important than brute force. I don't think Xia Ming knows how to make pastries.

My pastry chef once taught me the same thing: to achieve a smooth surface, a shiny bowl, and a polished finish, you need to use skillful techniques.

[If it were an ordinary person, I naturally wouldn't think he would do that, but seeing Xia Ming take action, even if he just crumbled the bowl and added it to the flour, I'd still have to praise him for being a good source of iron!]

[Is this what a brainless fan is? Xia Ming may be amazing, but even fingers aren't the same length, let alone cooking skills. Besides, crushing stainless steel doesn't add any iron at all!]

[It's obvious they were just joking. To take it seriously and have it happen in this lifetime... While I agree with Sanguang's point of view, have you noticed that Xia Ming's speed is much faster than He He's?]

"Inside the competition venue"

Xia Ming's hands were a faint blood red.
Looking at it through the lens, it appears to be slightly red from being burned.

But only he knew that this was not a change caused by temperature, but a natural expression of his hands showing "effortless skill" after the blood gate opened.

As for why this color wasn't shown during the previous competition with Chen Xiaodong's team, it was simply due to the different effects of the camera angles.

The Blood Gate strengthens the hands, which ultimately enhances strength and control.

After the enhancement, he could control the kitchen knife with both hands and strike it violently for a long time. Under such circumstances, Xia Ming's arms would actually turn slightly red.

The reason it wasn't visible on camera during the "One Meal to Fame" segment was because it wasn't kneading dough, but rather pounding it. As he waved his hand, he created afterimages, so the camera naturally couldn't notice that tiny bit of red.

At this moment, with the Blood Soul's enhancement, Xia Ming's kneading speed was more than three times faster than He He's. Moreover, although the bowl around the dough looked like it was being kneaded loudly, the dough itself was actually being kneaded evenly, resulting in a complete finished product.

Even though Xia Ming was moving between multiple dough balls, his hands remained clean and he didn't mix the dough balls together because of the thin layer of blood and spirit protecting his skin.

After he kneaded the dough and covered it to let it rise, the judges saw him carefully clean his hands with water.

Then he took a piece of pork that was 9 parts lean and 1 part fat from the side and threw it onto a brand new cutting board covered with a stainless steel sheet.

Just as they were wondering why Xia Ming didn't take out a knife, they saw him take a deep breath, then clench his fist and unleash a series of powerful blows on the pork in front of him.

The speed of his punches was so fast that many netizens thought it was Donnie Yen remaking Ip Man 6.
With a series of powerful blows, the meat on the cutting board gradually turned into minced meat under his relentless punches.

More importantly, the sound of his punches made He He, who hadn't slept well, feel a pang of fear.

Looking up, she was shocked to see Xia Ming pounding pork with his fist.

"Wait, this...??? You said you were going to make meat-filled pastries? What the hell is this, turning around and cosplaying as Ip Man?!"

(End of this chapter)