I've been possessed by a culinary genius, and I've turned Shaxian snacks into a rip-off!

After listening to Master Shen Heting's guidance, Li Zhibai suddenly understood.

His hands started itching again, itching to do something.

This feeling of bursting with inspiration is so incredibly intoxicating, like suddenly finding a toilet after holding in your pee all night—you can't hold it in no time.

"Excuse me, sir."

Li Zhibai stood up and clasped his hands in a fist salute to the culinary luminaries present.

"Dear teachers, I'm so sorry, I suddenly have an urgent matter to attend to. Please excuse me for a moment. Enjoy your meal!"

After saying that, he turned and left.

These bigwigs in the culinary world had no idea what was wrong with Master Su. They only saw him chat with Master Shen for a few words, then his eyes lit up, he became restless, and then he simply ran away.

It would be somewhat impolite to leave the table when the tasting event was only halfway through and the main courses hadn't even been finished.

Shen Heting seemed to have guessed what Li Zhibai was going to do. He watched the other man's hurried departure and, far from feeling impolite, he appreciated the young man he was meeting for the first time even more.

He had just shared some of his insights with the other person when they couldn't wait to verify them. This kind of passion for cooking is truly touching.

"This child is so pure-hearted; it's quite admirable that he's so obsessed with pursuing delicious food."

At this point, Li Zhibai's impression on him had completely changed. He went from initially thinking that Li Zhibai had some skills and talent to seeing him as a very pure and innocent good chef.

This child has a limitless future!

However, what Shen Heting didn't know was that Li Zhibai's purity was completely different from what he had imagined.

His only pure thought was that if this vegetarian meat could be developed, he could ruthlessly rip off customers who couldn't eat much meat.

Although braised pork is delicious, it limits a certain potential consumer group, such as young women who love beauty and want to maintain their figure, or older people like Mr. Huo who are prone to high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol.

Once a vegetarian version of braised pork comes out, his ability to rip off customers will become even sharper.

No need to worry about fat intake, cholesterol, or getting tired of eating too much. Whether you want to lose weight or maintain your health, you can eat to your heart's content.

Moreover, winter melon has a high water content. A normal adult can only eat about ten pieces of braised pork, but a whole bowl of meat would be too much to handle. But if you eat a whole bowl of vegetarian meat made from winter melon, you'll only feel full from the water, and you won't have to worry about gaining weight.

This is simply a divine product designed specifically to rip off tourists.

Li Zhibai became more and more excited as he thought about it, and couldn't help but chuckle softly as he walked.

"Hehehe..."

He only composed himself when he noticed the passing waiters giving him strange looks.

Li Zhibai pushed open the kitchen door and went inside.

At this moment, the kitchen was at its busiest, with the stoves roaring and the range hoods humming as head chef Ma Yinming diligently prepared the next main dish for the tasting event.

When he sensed someone standing behind him, he immediately felt annoyed and wanted to yell, "What? Are you too bored...?"

Before she could finish speaking, she turned around and saw it was Li Zhibai, her attitude completely changing: "Master Li... what are you doing in the kitchen? The tasting event isn't over yet!"

After losing the last competition, Ma Yinming was completely convinced of his superiority.

Someone who runs a Shaxian restaurant can replicate his signature dish after just one look, and even improve it to taste better than the original. What kind of talent does that require?

Calling him a genius wouldn't be an exaggeration.

It's only right to be polite.

"I'm leaving early," Li Zhibai said, looking at the kitchen ingredients area. "Chef Ma, I need to ask you something. Can I borrow your kitchen for a bit? I want to try a new dish."

"A food tasting?" Ma Yinming's eyes lit up, and he quickly nodded, "Sure, sure, use whatever you like, and pick any ingredients you like."

Watching a master chef prepare a new dish live is a rare and valuable opportunity to learn!

Then he immediately shouted to the apprentice not far away, "Xiao Zhao, stop chopping vegetables and come help Master Li!"

"Alright!" Xiao Zhao immediately put down the cleaver and ran over.

"Then could you please find me some ingredients?" Li Zhibai immediately named the ingredients: "I need a winter melon, it has to be a solid, mature winter melon, not a young one. Also, some porcini mushrooms, matsutake mushrooms, dried shiitake mushrooms, and if you have any monkey head mushrooms, bring some too. Also, rose-flavored fermented bean curd, rock sugar, star anise, cinnamon... Oh, and do you have a liquid nitrogen freezer here?"

"Yes, yes, yes, it's next to the freezer in the back kitchen!" Xiao Zhao nodded.

He wondered to himself, what kind of dish is this, using winter melon and liquid nitrogen? How strange.

Soon, all the ingredients were ready.

Li Zhibai took off his suit and put on a chef's uniform, then picked up a chef's knife from the knife rack and began to process the ingredients.

The sound of chopping vegetables rang out.

The rhythm was both fast and steady.

The apprentices who were secretly watching him stared wide-eyed at his fluid and skillful knife work, their faces filled with disbelief.

Li Zhibai held the winter melon with his left hand and a knife in his right. The blade moved quickly, almost touching his knuckles. He sliced ​​the several-centimeter-thick winter melon into even slices, removed the hard skin and pulp, and cut it into pieces similar in size to braised pork.

That wasn't all. He then switched to a smaller carving knife and made fine cuts on the surface of each piece of winter melon, making it look almost like the texture of pork belly before stopping.

Xiao Zhao was stunned. He had been cutting vegetables for almost half a year, and this was the first time he had ever seen someone score a winter melon like that.

That knife skill is amazing!

Li Zhibai placed the scored winter melon pieces on a tray and put them directly into the liquid nitrogen quick-freezing cabinet.

"Chef Li, this... are you just going to freeze it?" Chef Ma Yinming, who had just finished cooking, couldn't help but say upon seeing this, "Winter melon has a lot of water content. Won't it become soft after freezing? It won't have any texture anymore."

He had already guessed what dish Li Zhibai wanted to make based on the ingredients and seasonings, but winter melon has too high a water content and will fall apart as soon as it freezes, so it can't support the shape of braised pork at all. The result after cooking will most likely be a mushy lump.

So no one in this industry has ever done it this way before; they always start by stewing it raw.

"Let's try it first. If it doesn't work, I have other ideas." Li Zhibai had already thought of this problem, but he felt that there was a difference between freezing and quick-freezing.

Regular freezing is slow, and ice crystals grow gradually inside plant cells, piercing the cell walls and eventually causing the cells to rot when they thaw. Liquid nitrogen flash freezing is different; it allows ice crystals to form evenly inside the cells in a very short time. The ice crystals are also smaller, causing much less damage to the cell walls.

If the timing can be controlled well, it may be possible to preserve the original basic structure of the winter melon while creating pores.

Time is up.

Li Zhibai took out the tray; the winter melon pieces were frozen solid, with a layer of white frost on the surface.

Then he thawed the frozen winter melon pieces. Although they didn't become soft and mushy, there were obvious signs that they would be frozen again, even if he did it twice more.

This first experiment was a failure.

But it's okay, he has another way.

—Seaweed gum.