Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 47 Afternoon Tea Set: Team Competition After Team Competition, Still a Team Competition? What's the Production Team's Plan?
Just as the audience was lamenting that the selection criteria were too strict, and even Xia Yuxingye only received a pending result, the next dish was served to Xia Ming.

[Sixth New Cuisine Item: Afternoon Tea Set]

As soon as it was placed on the table, Xia Ming smelled a faint lychee scent, followed by the aroma of fruit and a hint of vinegar.

This set meal is a significant improvement in presentation compared to previous dishes.

Two white plates, one with a hand towel on it, from which the aroma of white vinegar and lychee wafts, and the other with six different small pastries.

Besides some decorative patterns, a drink is also placed next to it.

Xia Ming took a sniff and found that the drink was probably chilled fruit coffee. The lemon flavor was mild, but it blended very well with the black coffee.

As for the six pastries on the table, the three on the left are savory, and the three on the right are sweet.

The savory snacks are paired with "crab sticks", "ham sausages" and "pork floss", while the desserts are paired with "dried strawberries", "chopped bananas" and "candied plums".

In terms of color, it is colorful and has a childlike charm.

Xia Ming also noticed that the six pastries were served on different bases. He raised an eyebrow and picked up the nearest one to taste.

The first bite is crispy, with the toast underneath fried to perfection. Then comes a crispy layer with a hint of strawberry jam flavor. The crispy layer itself is a bit hard and has a slightly grainy texture. As you chew, Xia Ming can taste a hint of cool cucumber flavor.

"It turns out that the crispy texture is achieved by crushing cucumber chips again, mixing them with a certain proportion of dried strawberries and sugar-cooked jam, and then flash-freezing the mixture!"

Xia Ming smiled slightly. Just based on the crispy potato chips he made, this dish would definitely get a high score.

Moreover, this contestant didn't just make one kind of crispy dish.

As Xia Ming took one bite of each snack, he tasted "Original Flavor Potato Chips", "Tomato Potato Chips", "Seaweed Potato Chips", "Sichuan Spicy Potato Chips" and "Barbecue Potato Chips".

The Sichuan-style spicy crayfish flavored potato chips combine very well with the crab sticks on top, giving you the feeling of eating crayfish crisps.

Of course, the cleverness of this dish is not only in its crispiness. The contestant also added many small garnishes using the available ingredients to achieve a balanced flavor.

For example, the savory crab sticks were brushed with a very thin layer of sauce, which was probably a diluted crayfish seasoning packet that had been cooked twice with braised egg yolks to make a special egg yolk sauce with a crayfish flavor.

This sauce makes up a small portion of the dish, but its flavor is very lingering.
Similarly, after a similar process, concentrated chicken broth is spread under the meat floss, but it doesn't taste like concentrated chicken bouillon. It should be made by removing the meat from the bones of a ready-made salt-baked chicken, adding salt-baked chicken mince, and simmering it over high heat with a little water to create a complex flavor.

Because it contains oil, it can act as an adhesive to stick the meat floss on top. As for the meat floss itself, it's nothing special; it's probably just something collected from a slice of bread.

After tasting the desserts, Xia Ming already had a judgment in his mind, but he still picked up the drink and took a sip.

The drink was very light, which could wash away the taste in the mouth, and the ingredients were not difficult to combine. However, even so, this contestant still added a little ingenuity to it.

"Interesting, this must be the sweetness from the candied tangerine peel!"

After licking his lips, Xia Ming nodded without hesitation and immediately threw out the "Delicious" card.

Compared to Xia Yuxingye's somewhat rough dishes, this "afternoon tea set" brought out the creativity and culinary skills to the extreme despite the scarcity of ingredients.

If this dish doesn't pass muster, then he thinks no one can pass this competition either.

Clearly, all the contestants who advanced shared this idea, and as one "delicious" card after another was thrown out, the "afternoon tea set" received unanimous approval.

Inside Hell's Kitchen, Yang Yanbin, standing on the platform, let out a long sigh of relief.

After deciding to make desserts, he encountered some problems, the most critical of which was that the sugar in the candied fruit snacks could not be removed.

Even dried strawberries are much sweeter than regular ingredients, so if you only make desserts with them, they will definitely taste too sweet.

Upon seeing the crab sticks, he had a sudden inspiration and decided to add three savory snacks, and finally paired them with a drink to create a complete set meal.

Although he failed twice when making crispy potato chips, his dish didn't require much flavor processing or a large quantity, so despite the setbacks, he finally finished it relatively early.

Looking at the busy crowd behind him, Yang Yanbin nodded and then took off his black chef's uniform as required.

As a resurrected contestant, he can return to the competition as the White Chef.
Watching Yang Yanbin's departing figure, Xia Yuxingye's eyes were filled with envy. As one of the "Four Lucky Chefs," he was always a step behind, which he found hard to accept. "No rush, no rush, there aren't many contestants left, there should still be spots!"

Perhaps Xia Yuxing went out at night and drank poisoned milk, or perhaps it just happened to be a Mercury retrograde day, and what he didn't want to see happened anyway.

Seeing that Yang Yanbin had passed the hellish test, the others also put in their best effort.

Because of the failures of the previous people, some of them also adjusted their production direction.

Aside from the "Chemistry Fantasy Chef" being eliminated due to a mistake while making a tree cake.

"Little Flower," "A Dark Horse," and "Lolo Humming" all managed to be successfully revived despite their best efforts.

Chen Xiaodong watched as the people around him left one by one, and he became a little nervous.

He originally planned to make "instant noodles with black bean dace sauce", but after seeing several people who used the instant noodles have had problems, he changed his idea at the last minute.

Using pre-packaged knife-cut noodles from the supermarket, knead them again, mix in a little salted egg yolk, and then add a small amount of soy sauce to make a dough with a fermented black bean flavor.

Then, reprocess it into small fish-shaped pieces, and then quickly deep-fry them until they are set. Then, put two fish-shaped pieces together, add the separately made salted fish sauce inside, and then coat them with water starch and deep-fry them again.

After frying, he took it out and flash-frozen it to cool. Then he added black bean dace and other ingredients he took from the boxed lunch and stir-fried it. In the end, he made a dish that looked ordinary but tasted very delicious: "Meat and Vegetable Dace".

Although the texture of the dough is different from that of the crispy pastry, it is fried properly, and while it is golden brown on the outside, it has a flavor similar to stir-fried knife-cut pastry on the inside. Paired with black bean dace, the theme is indeed very clear.

Ultimately, it was only after Lai Chi On withdrew again that he received the ticket to be revived.

However, while he was happy, he also noticed that Xia Ming's evaluation of the dish was "disgusting".

The thought of losing to Xia Ming made Chen Xiaodong furious.

"Just you wait, I've returned from hell, and this time, I'm going to take you down!"

With Chen Xiaodong's departure, Huang Qiyun was the only one left who hadn't finished preparing the dishes.

Perhaps due to his age, or perhaps because he was not very familiar with the ingredients in the convenience store, Chef Huang Qiyun's painstakingly prepared dish only barely received a "pending" rating in the end.

At this point, 10 contestants have advanced, 5 have been revived, and 2 are pending.

At this point, the production team also announced the previously marked number of spots, which, as Xia Ming had predicted, was indeed 6. This meant that one of the two contestants who were pending would have to leave.

This time, the production team didn't beat around the bush and directly announced that he advanced because "Xia Yu Xingye" had a shorter production time.

After the Hell Resurrection Match, there were 16 players remaining on the field.

[Chefs: Zeng Huaijun, Dong Jiaqi, Li Zhian, Shuai Xiaojian, Shao Denong, Wang Qingrui, Lin Chao, Yang Yanbin, Chen Xiaodong]

[Contestants: Sichuan-Chongqing Ice and Fire Chef, Banquet Graduate Student, Bald Cook, Little Flower, A Dark Horse, Lolo Humming, Xia Yuxingye]

Just as everyone was preparing to finish filming for the day and return to the hotel, the production team unexpectedly announced the theme of the next cooking competition ahead of schedule.

The chefs and contestants have been reorganized into four teams, and the next round of the "Snack Street Championship" will begin tomorrow at 8:4 AM.

Everyone has one night to communicate and form teams. If teams are not formed by 8 AM tomorrow, members will be randomly assigned to teams based on their number.

Upon hearing this rule, Xia Ming, who was walking in front, paused.

He sensed that many eyes were being cast his way.

However, compared to these extended olive branches, Xia Ming was more concerned about the program team's unusual behavior.

"Another team competition after the team competition, and they even announced some of the rules in advance? What exactly is the production team up to?"

(End of this chapter)