Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 72 Infinite Reincarnation Culinary Showdown! The first round's theme is ~Tofu!

"It's another bright morning, welcome everyone to our live broadcast of 'One Meal to Fame'!"

"Yesterday's quarterfinals were full of twists and turns. All the players gave their all to fight for the four strongest spots and advance to our next test."

"Throughout it all, we witnessed the persistence of a dark horse, Chef Li's carefree spirit, the boundless love of the Sichuan-Chongqing Ice and Fire Chef, Luo Luo's hesitant humming, and Chef Wang Qingrui's unwavering dedication."

"After experiencing these extraordinary lives, four outstanding chefs, selected through rigorous rounds of competition, finally stand on the 'Four-Sided Arena.' They are..."

"The carefree and elegant wine connoisseur, Chef Lai Chi On!"

"The Sichuan-Chongqing Ice and Fire Chef who made the judges cry with a bowl of noodles and garnered two trending topics!"

"Chef Wang Qingrui, a representative of the intangible cultural heritage of knife skills!"

"And then there's the cool and aloof girl, Lolo, who finally stood up again after a brutal resurrection round!"

As the host announced their names, the four entered the venue in an orderly fashion.

Compared to yesterday, today's competition venue only had four stoves removed; the rest remained largely the same. The host was still standing in the center, and Xia Ming guessed that the qualifying spots would most likely rise from below, just like yesterday.

Sure enough, after going through a similar process, a familiar round table rose in the center of the stage, except this time there were two chairs!
Xia Ming glanced at Chef Li beside him and saw him stretch and yawn.

That's true; the filming over the past few days has indeed been a physical test for the older chefs.
Based on the information Tan Zhifeng revealed yesterday, Xia Ming guessed that this game might be a bit of a "long-term battle" for the elderly.

"Chef Wang Qingrui is a bit younger than Chef Li, and he seems to be in good shape right now. I just wonder how complicated the competition format will be later."

After a short commercial introduction by the host, the large screen on the side finally revealed the theme and rules of the competition!

[Four-Stage Tournament: An Infinite Cycle of Culinary Showdown!]

[Contestants must use the ingredients from the rising food display at the center of the stage as the main ingredients to prepare a dish for the judges to taste within a specified time.]

After tasting, the judging panel will make a comprehensive judgment based on the dish's completeness, technique, and breadth of creativity, awarding either a "pass" or a "reject" card.

[Based on the combined opinions of the seven judges, the final decision was made regarding whether the dish passed.]

If the dish is not completed within the allotted time, the contestant will be disqualified for this round.

After all rounds are completed, the two chefs with the highest pass rates will qualify for our final hall!

[Special reminder: Don't let the judges eat the same dish twice in this round!]

Looking at the rules displayed on the screen, Xia Ming raised an eyebrow, as he keenly noticed the trickery involved.

"It only said that all rounds have ended, but it didn't say how many rounds there were?"

"Unknown ingredients, unknown time, unknown number of rounds—this completely blind box competition format, could it be that they were scared off by what I did before and then made a last-minute change?"

Xia Ming knew that his behavior of flipping the table in the previous round had been noticed by many people.

But this was an open conspiracy; the judges didn't say anything, and theoretically, according to the show's usual practice, they shouldn't send anyone to intervene.

However, not sending anyone to intervene does not mean not intervening. Introducing more unknown elements into the competition format can indeed mitigate the impact of Xia Ming's actions to some extent.

"If that's the case, then it should also significantly shorten the cooking time, keeping me too busy to think and only focusing on the food in front of me."

"Because the number of rounds is uncertain, the judges will most likely only take a small bite of the dishes."

"In terms of ingredients, we're using the original 'recipe database,' which includes all the commonly used ingredients and none of the outlandish ones."

Xia Ming knew that achieving taste isolation under this model was extremely difficult. Because you can't be sure what someone is doing or what the final product will be, if the dish doesn't match your initial observations, you could very well end up shooting yourself in the foot.

Moreover, the tasting segment for the four contestants was definitely based on their finishing speed.

Whoever rings the bell first gets to try the food, but even if they gain an advantage in the first round, they may not be able to continue converting customers later.

Xia Ming was particularly concerned about the phrase "special reminder".

"Don't let the judges eat the same dishes twice? The concept of 'repetition' is quite broad!"

"If one spicy dish is followed by another spicy dish, even if the ingredients are different, it can be considered a repetition in a broad sense."

"It's similar to having one cold dish followed by another. So, is it about the taste of the dish or the preparation method?"

He first raised a question mark in his mind. He hadn't seen the ingredients yet, nor did he know when they would be prepared, so he couldn't accurately judge where the key point of this game was.

But one thing he was clear about was that achieving large-scale taste blockade was basically out of the question.

In some ways, this round does seem fairer, primarily testing the chef's understanding of the dish and their mastery of the techniques.
The problem is, Xia Ming simply doesn't believe that Luo Luo didn't get the exam questions beforehand when she was whining.
Just as he was pondering, the "food counter" in the center of the stage slowly rose up, and with the exciting music in his ears, everyone's eyes fell on the center of the stage.

On the food counter, there was a pile of white bricks. Upon closer inspection, everyone realized that they were actually neatly stacked tofu.

"That's right, the first ingredient is 'tofu'!"

"I'm sure everyone is familiar with this! After all, you can see it in both farmers' markets and supermarkets."

"In various schools of Chinese cuisine, there are also classic dishes made using this technique!"

"Alright, enough chit-chat, let's announce our cooking time now!"

As the host waved his hand, a square screen descended above the food display, with its four sides facing the four contestants.

At that moment, they saw "30 minutes" clearly marked on it.

Xia Ming was startled, and then rushed towards the food counter. If his judgment was correct, the 30 minutes included not only the time for cooking, but also the time for selecting raw materials.

Sure enough, just as Xia Ming was about to reach the platform, the countdown began!

Seeing this, the others also began to move. Luo Luo hummed and was only a few steps slower than Xia Ming. At this moment, she also arrived at the center of the stage.

Chef Wang and Chef Li were a bit older, so they were a few steps slower.

Xia Ming, who was the first to arrive at the center, recognized the type of tofu here at a glance.

"On the left is soft tofu, and on the right is firm tofu. The quantity of both is about the same. Judging from the amount of ingredients, it's enough to host a banquet for a hundred people!"

Regardless of whether the production team was being extravagant, Xia Ming directly took a piece of soft tofu and a piece of firm tofu, then took them back to the stove and rushed to the "ingredient storage".

"30 minutes is all it takes to prepare a dish that isn't too time-consuming, yet it still needs to be both well-executed and creative."

"So you're saying that home-style dishes like Mapo Tofu are hard to score points on, and even if they're not fundamentally different, you still have to be creative in other ways?"

"If that's the case..."

How about making a spicy diced chicken dish?

(End of this chapter)