Food: Randomly set up stalls, even the little guy is drooling.

For the next two days, Lu Feng immersed himself in intense practice.

Basically, he starts learning how to re-produce common ingredients as soon as he gets up. In the afternoon, he completes 500 steamed buns and 50 cornbreads every day and sells them through a mini-program.

Around 11 p.m. on Friday, the system screen began to flash.

Weekly task completed.

[Rewards: 30,000 RMB cash and a mystery recipe gift box.]

[New weekly quests are being generated...]

When Lu Feng saw the 3 yuan arrive in his account, a weight was lifted from his heart.

He finally raised enough money for his grandmother's first surgery. He contacted the hospital in advance, and the doctor will arrange the surgery as soon as the money arrives tomorrow.

His panel data also changed again.

【Master Chef System (Official Version)】

[Host: Lu Feng (23 years old)]

[Level: Intermediate Apprentice (Experience Points: 2878/3000)]

[Trait: Diligence Pays Off (Every bit of effort you put in will be recognized and transformed into the necessary experience and proficiency)]

[Basic Skills Panel]

Knife Skill Lv.0 (745/1000): You become a chopping maniac, your knife is as fast as a five-second real man, but that's all it is, fast.

Heat control Lv.1 (1874/2000): You have complete control over the splattering oil in the pan and the rising steam from the steamer.

Seasoning Lv.1 (1456/2000): After all this time, I still only know how to copy others. If I collect more Neeko, I can get three stars.

Spoon Skill Lv.0 (8/1000): No improvement whatsoever, it's just a basic skill.

Ingredient Selection Lv.0 (10/1000): Without top-quality ingredients, you've finally learned to choose vegetables based on market prices.

Pastry Lv.2 (2656/5000): You've made tens of thousands of buns, so your specialization is a bit too unbalanced.

[Recipe Proficiency]

SS-level recipe: Eight-dan wild vegetable steamed buns (Dacheng).

S-level recipes: Spicy Chicken Noodles (Da Cheng), Fried Chicken Cutlet (Da Cheng), Jie's Meat Buns (Da Cheng), Jie's Vegetable Buns (Da Cheng).

This is the confidence he has built up over the past few days.

……

The roar of the plane's engines continued to echo in my ears.

Lu Feng leaned against the porthole. It was his first time on an airplane. He looked curiously at the sea of ​​clouds rushing past outside the window, but his mind was on the preliminary round rules sent by the event staff.

"One hundred outstanding young pastry chefs from all over the country will each make 200 buns every morning, and invite 5000 local citizens to taste and vote." He pondered this carefully.

This is equivalent to throwing these 100 people into the morning market to compete on the same stage, just like his usual way of setting up a stall, directly facing diners.

The difference is that before, he had no professional opponents at all. This time, his opponents are not some street vendors, but true elites in the pastry industry.

Sitting diagonally in front of him were the other two contestants from Xingcheng.

Wang Sheng was a disciple of Master Xie Zong of Bi Ran Ju and deeply inherited the true teachings of Bi Ran Ju.

Hu Xi, the head sous chef of Yipin Su, another time-honored brand in Changsha, has developed many popular items among young people.

Wang Sheng is slightly overweight, with short, thick, and strong fingers, a mark left by years of working with dough.

He turned his head slightly, glanced at Lu Feng who was sitting by the window in a daze, and couldn't help but discuss it with Hu Xi, "Brother Xi, to be honest, I'm still quite puzzled."

"In this selection competition, all the well-known and skilled players in our Xingcheng circle were brought together to compete. It was only after several of the older brothers participated that the opportunity was given to the two of us."

"After all that hard work in the competition, I still don't understand why my master gave the spot to an outsider. Who is his real disciple?"

He lightly pointed in the direction of Lufeng, his tone full of incomprehension and a hint of disdain, "I heard he's just a street vendor, and so young, and he recommended him with just a few words?"

In this industry, around thirty years old is considered the golden age for pastry chefs. Their physical strength and energy are still at their peak, their basic skills have been honed for at least ten years and have become quite proficient, and they begin to form their own understanding and style.

In previous years, most of the participants were in this age group. He mentioned that the few who withdrew were all around 35 years old and felt embarrassed to participate anymore.

As the sous chef of a large chain store, Hu Xi has a more composed demeanor.

He said slowly, "Master Xie's judgment has always been extremely accurate. However, I also don't see where this person came from."

Hu Xi spoke more subtly, after all, Xie Zong was not his master, and he had to maintain a certain level of respect in front of someone else's disciple.

"However, this kind of competition involves too many aspects, such as speed, consistency, and on-the-spot adaptability. He is still young and hasn't experienced the tempering of formal competitions. Stepping onto the field rashly..." Hu Xi paused, "...mentality and rhythm are all problems."

"Sigh..." Wang Sheng sighed deeply. "Each citizen has 3 votes, so there are only 15000 votes in total. The first 20 people to get 200 votes will advance. This year's rules are too difficult. If you can't attract diners from the beginning, you're basically eliminated."

"I also feel that this is unfair to some people." Hu Xi also felt a headache about this rule. In his opinion, this kind of competition overemphasizes speed. Some pastry chefs are slow and meticulous, so wouldn't they be eliminated at the beginning?

"That's why I said that even if he has some skills, he's just cannon fodder in this kind of competition. There are only 10 recommended players in total. It's not that I'm afraid of anything else, but I'm afraid he'll embarrass our Xingcheng."

Although Lu Feng didn't hear everything, he caught the gist of it. He closed his eyes, pretending not to have heard.

These two men were speaking louder and louder, as if they were afraid he wouldn't be able to hear them?

They probably had similar thoughts, hoping to discourage him from taking the challenge.

The doubts were to be expected; his mind was more focused on how to handle the game.

Before he arrived, he helped his grandmother successfully complete her first surgery, which also depleted the money he had earned over three weeks.

The news that his grandmother's surgery went smoothly relieved him of a great weight, and now he must do his best to face the challenges ahead.

A few hours later, the plane landed in Lucheng, a city known as the "hometown of noodles".

The organizing committee arranged shuttle buses to transport contestants from all over the country to the designated Lucheng Hotel.

The hotel lobby was already bustling with activity, with pastry chefs carrying suitcases and exuding a capable air everywhere.

Many people greeted each other, clearly acquaintances within the industry.

Lu Feng followed the other two and quietly checked in, receiving his competition certificate and information bag.

Fortunately, all the rooms were single rooms; otherwise, with those two big mouths, he didn't know if he could have resisted slapping them both.

But as he walked toward the elevator with his room key, he heard several loud, unabashed voices discussing something in the lobby lounge.

There were several rather robust-looking men gathered together, flipping through documents.

"Look at this year's roster, it's getting younger and younger." A man with a buzz cut sneered. "Three of them are under twenty-five? Including two recommended ones. When did the threshold for the pastry competition become so low?"

"Let me see what it's called, Lufeng?"