Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 20's 1v1 battle has ended, and a revival spot has fallen from the sky!
Inside the competition venue, Xia Ming continued to keep an eye on the movements of the "Banquet Graduate Students".

To be honest, both the ingredients she drew and the dishes she chose were relatively unremarkable among the contestants.

Her rival chef, "Jin Hongnan," is a Level 5 chef, the same level as "Maicas." His idea was to combine loquat with eel to create an exquisite eel soup.

On the other hand, the "banquet graduate student" took a more mainstream approach, preparing the eel in two ways: fried and in soup.

The fried part is the standard "fried eel belly", while the soup is inspired by the flavor of pickled fish and is paired with porridge from the same region as "Fuzhou eel" to make a dish of "pickled eel".

Xia Ming could also tell from this that chefs whose names start with "Hua" are different from those whose names start with "Xi".

Chefs whose names begin with "Hua" (华), regardless of their skill level, tend to prefer techniques such as stir-frying, stewing, boiling, frying, and steaming. Chefs whose names begin with "Western cuisine" primarily use techniques like pan-frying, grilling, deep-frying, and braising.

The former offers a variety of flavors and more layered ingredient combinations, while the latter focuses more on the "concept" and has virtually no difference in plating.

Following this logic, Xia Ming felt that his technique was more like that of chefs from China, because some chefs from Western countries would really waste a lot of time on plating and creating atmosphere.

"The disciples of the Blood Blade Sect don't have good tempers. The middle-level disciples are one thing, but some of the inner sect elites will kill someone if they're not satisfied. At that point, even if you arrange the dishes like a naked fairy from a holy land, it won't make a difference. If it doesn't taste good, it doesn't taste good. Do you think adding more decorations will make it taste better?"

Moreover, he could see that Chinese cuisine is more diverse. Even the same dish can have completely different flavors depending on how it is prepared, which is something that Western cuisine lacks.

However, if we are to be exacting in terms of "color", "aroma", and "taste", Western cuisine does have some aspects that can be learned from in terms of color.

Xia Ming mainly focused on cooking large pot dishes at the Blood Blade Sect. Although he did cater to the needs of the elders, they generally paid attention to the efficacy of the dishes and did not care much about the presentation.

"Apart from the Nineteenth Elder, who, in urban parlance, is a perfectionist, her food cannot be even slightly irregular, otherwise she will feel extremely uncomfortable. Fortunately, she doesn't eat very often, so it's not that troublesome."

Just as Xia Ming was analyzing the gap between the two sides, the results of the ninth group, which was the group that had previously been called "No pain, no gain", were also released.

Xia Ming was not surprised that "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" advanced with a crushing 3-0 victory.

As described before, for a player with such an unconventional mindset, each new dish is like rolling dice, randomly choosing a lucky number from 1 to 6. Clearly, his inspiration this time is quite good.

The chef on the other side, "Lin Chao," is a Level 5 chef, so his skills are definitely guaranteed. But he couldn't withstand someone who used strange tricks, so he must have lost rather frustratingly.

Xia Ming strongly disliked the idea that "you have to fight to win." While both were impulsive, Xia Ming made more impulsive choices after calculating all the possible scenarios, whereas "you have to fight to win" relied more on a sudden flash of inspiration.

"Anyway, if it's really a team competition, I definitely won't choose this guy as my teammate. In the Nine Provinces Continent, guys like this should go solo. Sometimes you don't even know how you died if you're with someone like this!"

After nine rounds of matches, the score of the entire 1v1 showdown reached 6:3. The players' successive victories gave a boost to those still on stage.

There was a lot of controversy in the live stream regarding the assessment of the two sides' strengths.

I think "No pain, no gain" was all luck this round; no normal person would cook like that!

Luck is also a part of ability. Just like singing competitions, culinary skill rankings only represent technique. If it were only about technique, then singer-songwriters might as well all vote.

[What is Lin Chao's status? He lost to this young man; even if you're going to pull a stunt, it's not like you're doing it this way!]

[If we're talking about behind-the-scenes manipulation, wasn't the Michael Jackson incident a tragic injustice? I now feel like this variety show was made solely to promote the Sichuan-Chongqing "Ice and Fire Chef" program.]

[If the person upstairs is brainless, they might as well donate. I'll accept it no matter who you say you're promoting, but the Sichuan-Chongqing Ice and Fire Chef barbecue restaurant is closed, and the person isn't rated. Are you going to promote them to debut on a talent show next door?]

[That's hard to say. His looks are absolutely top-notch at fooling female fans. Imagine him launching a ready-to-eat meal brand, selling like hotcakes on his livestreams—just watch those crazy women devour it!]

The guy upstairs makes a good point!

Regardless of what the viewers in the live stream said, winning on the field is winning. At this moment, "Only by striving can you win" was warmly welcomed by the other contestants when he returned to the second floor.

After all, it was a complete upset for Lin Chao, a Level 5 Chinese student, to be defeated by "Ai Pin Cai Hui Ying" (a Level 3 Western student).

It was quite noisy over there, but it had nothing to do with Xia Ming, who was alone on the side. At this moment, he was carefully observing the "banquet graduate student's" every move.

"Very standard, very methodical. This is most likely not innate talent, but rather the result of long-term practice. Moreover, her cooking style is independent, but not as forceful as that 'Little Flower' from before. She should be a potential collaborator!"

Just as Xia Ming finished speaking, the "Banquet Graduate Student" took the fried eel out of the oil pan.

Looking at the eel, which was evenly wrapped and fried to perfection, Xia Ming nodded slightly.

"The oil temperature control is very good, about 7% of my level. It's just that the sauerkraut sauce isn't cooked well enough, and the seasoning is a bit lacking."

After evaluating the "banquet graduate student," he took another sniff and realized that the other person had made a mistake.

"I don't know if it was intentional or accidental, but this guy across from me named 'Jin Hongnan' made a mistake when choosing loquats. The loquats weren't sweet enough, and although the soup looked clear, it brought out the fishy smell of the eel."

"Especially since there's a slice of marinated pork on top. The idea behind using this piece of meat was probably to add a touch of saltiness to the soup, but it's not salty enough, and the aftertaste of fishiness comes back, ugh."

Xia Ming could even smell the faint, almost imperceptible fishy smell of eel through the soup, and he couldn't bear to imagine what kind of expressions the judges would have when they ate it.

"Wait, aren't you going to taste the food? So confident, this 'Jin Hongnan' guy must be joking."

After glancing one last time at the "Banquet Graduate Student" who was chewing on the eel he had prepared, Xia Ming had already made up his mind about the outcome of this match.

"That makes it 6:4, and there's not much time left for the next team."

Thinking of this, he suddenly saw the "bald cook" silently watching the competition below from another corner on the second floor.

As an eliminated contestant, Xia Ming guessed that he must have found the congratulatory voices next to him, saying "Only by striving can you win," to be particularly noisy.

"It's a real shame. This guy looks young and should be very talented, but he just has too little experience and can make such a basic mistake."

"I originally thought I'd have a chance to give him some pointers, but now it seems this guy just lacks a bit of luck."

As the program time ticked away, the last group of contestants emerged from the blind tasting room, and the 1v1 duel finally entered its final settlement stage.
The 16 groups of contestants, totaling 32 people, ended up in a bizarre tie after a fierce afternoon of competition.

Eight chefs advanced, and eight contestants advanced. Judging from this result alone, it has a somewhat scripted feel to it.

Just as the contestants were about to leave the stage, the production team suddenly announced a new revival mechanism.

"Each judge has the opportunity to revive one chef and one contestant. The revived contestant will advance to the next round, while the contestant who is not revived will be eliminated."

Upon hearing this, both the defeated chef and the contestant turned their attention to the competition arena, where the three judges had already emerged from the blind judging room.

Looking into those expectant eyes, Nicholas Tse smiled and spoke.

"We actually discussed this inside earlier. It's getting late, and everyone has another competition tomorrow, so I won't beat around the bush."

"Chef's side: Lin Chao, Shao Denong, Jin Hongnan, congratulations on your resurrection!"

Upon hearing the list, applause erupted from the chefs' side. "Bald Cook" stood in the losers' seat, looking enviously at the chefs beside him.

At this moment, he desperately hoped that his name would be among the resurrected contestants. It wasn't that he wanted to compete again to get more screen time; it was simply that he was extremely curious about Xia Ming. Unlike the others' underestimation of him, he felt that Xia Ming was the biggest dark horse in this competition.

"The Sichuan-Chongqing Ice and Fire Chef is definitely not as simple as he looks. The outcome of the competition doesn't matter, but this guy can give me a lot of inspiration. Please, leave him for one more round, at least let me see what tricks he will use in the next match!"

Just as he was looking forward to it, Zhang Yong, who was next to Xie Tingfeng, also spoke up.

"The resurrected contestants are: Xia Yuxingye, Chemistry Department Fantasy Chef, and..."

(End of this chapter)