The Rise and Fall of the Last Imperial Cook

15. Telling Deficiencies One By One

Translator: Lao Xinxian

Proofread by Peter Gong

The Shoulder Pole Tofu is dished up first, because it requires the least time to cook and must cool a little before being served.
Then, the “Golden River around Silver Mountain” is served. Although both the egg floss of the “Golden River around Silver Mountain” and the tofu puff of the Caihe Tofu (stuffed tofu puff with minced meat) shall be fried at first, to fry egg floss is much simpler than to fry the tofu, since the latter needs to be fried piece by piece delicately. Moreover, after frying tofu, two processes are essential to complete the Caihe Tofu, i.e., to hollow out the tofu and stuff it with minced meat, and to simmer it. Therefore, the Caihe Tofu definitely needs more time.
But even when the Caihe Tofu starts being simmered, Xu Zhiwei is still standing there, which makes everyone feel that he may have given up the competition.
The competition must be finished within a time limit. The time of burning a coil of incense[ ] makes a caishi[ ]. Generally speaking, it will take no more than a caishi to complete a delicate dish. During the dish competition, cooks may make some particularly delicate dish, but in no case shall they spend more than two caishi, i.e., the time of burning two coils of incense on it.
This time, Bai Dazui is so careful that he pays attention to every aspect of his Caihe Tofu, so it takes almost exactly a caishi for him to finish. When he shifts his attention from his satisfied cooking to his opponent, he finds that Xu Zhiwei hasn’t done anything yet, which makes an uncomfortable surprise flashing through his mind. He isn’t alone in feeling surprised — everyone outside and in the Huiquan Hall no longer cares about Bai Dazui’s dish. They all focus on Xu Zhiwei.
Another half coil of incense is nearly burnt, but Xu Zhiwei keeps standing still. The lobby of the Huiquan Hall is quieter, while the lobby outside becomes noisy, as if the wind were blowing through thick weed — those bystanders are whispering to one another, louder and louder.
Although people in the lobby are silent, they are more anxious than bystanders. Xu Zhiwei’s behavior is beyond understanding, so inevitably, they feel panic, especially the three leaders.
Some optimists believe think that Xu Zhiwei may already know he will be bound to fail and thus struggle in this way so that even if the Chef Clique wins, it will seem that the clique is tricked by him. If so, it is already impossible to change the situation. This disturbing and annoying conclusion makes them have an impulse to give Xu Zhiwei a terrible beating. But doing so will not only ruin the dish competition but also break the rules and taint the reputation of Chef Clique. As a result, they can merely wait anxiously.
Only half the coil of incense remains. Wang Zhunian pouts his lips and clears his throat: “You have half a caishi left. Hurry up, guys.” He is reminding cooks according to time, but actually, he is just reminding Xu Zhiwei.
Eventually, Xu Zhiwei takes action. He turns toward the three leaders swiftly. Meanwhile, he no longer meditates with his eyes half-closed but smiles at his opponents and those chef leaders sitting opposite him, which makes his three opponents scared, and those leaders fidget.
But Xu Zhiwei just turns around. The man just smiles and stares at them. After turning around, he can’t see the incense anymore. It seems that he has given up completely and is deliberately killing the time of the last half caishi.
His three opponents and all of the chef leaders are also waiting for the last half coil of the incense to be burnt. It is humiliating for them to see Xu Zhiwei’s teasing attitude, but it will be much more humiliating to lose the dish competition. Therefore, they are keen to see Xu Zhiwei will give up without a fight when time is over.
However, this is not the way it happens. Not until the last caishi does Xu Zhiwei’s cooking start. Even though he can’t see the coil now, there emerges a duster cloth with dripping oil in his mind.
Actually, Xu Zhiwei was feeling how his opponents were cooking while he stood still — yes,  with intuition instead of with his eyes. Because even if he stared at his three opponents, he couldn’t see all simultaneously. But it is possible to consider all of the processes, ingredient changes and dish formation with intuition, identifying the flaws in his opponents’ dishes by sensing wrong or faulty details in terms of movement, fire, flavor, etc.
It is not something that ordinary experts can do. In other words, from the very beginning of the competition, Xu Zhiwei is already identifying and appreciating his opponents’ dishes in a way only the best of the best cooks can do.
The appreciation of dishes is important. In order to win, Xu Zhiwei has to point out the deficiencies of the other three dishes. Otherwise, even if his dish is flawless, the result will be a tie. But with the limitations of tasting dishes, a mere taste of a dish at the end is not enough to find out the flaws of a culinary master, not to mention finding out the flaws of all the three at once. These limitations include not only the heat, coldness, condensation and emission of the dish itself but also the taster’s constitution and mood, etc. Especially when multiple dishes are tasted in succession, the senses will be confused easily so that it is impossible for a taster to accurately find the deficiencies. Therefore, Xu Zhiwei looks for flaws in the cooking techniques of his opponents, and then judges based on the ingredients used and the flavors emitted.
Besides, he was feeling the temperature of the small stove beside him. In a dish competition, one should not only find others’ deficiencies but also prevent his or her own deficiencies from being found. Therefore, he must cook, and must do best at his dish. The stove is certainly needed, and the fire should certainly be controlled.
New charcoal has been uniformly added to the small stoves before the competition begins. In line with the needs of their dishes, chefs can poke at the charcoal fire and adjust the air vent cover to get the desired heat. This is another competition. Usually, with a big stove, cooks have helpers specializing in controlling the temperature, and among whom many experts can make the desired fire as requested. When it comes to a small stove, without helpers, cooks must control the heat on their own. This imposes higher requirements on their comprehensive ability.
Xu Zhiwei does nothing but lets the charcoal burn slowly, for sooner or later, the desired heat he needs will be there if only he seizes the right moment. So while feeling the cooking process of his opponents, he is also feeling the temperature of the hearth. The oil-dripping cloth in his mind tells him that the fire will not appear until almost two coils of incense are burned.
“The ‘Golden River around Silver Mountain’ is supposed to be a wonderful vegetarian cuisine. But I am saying that nowadays, vegetarian dish is a defective genre in terms of taste. This is because in the course of its development, cooks have gradually developed a tendency to make non-vegetarian dishes, feeling that it is best to make vegetarian dishes taste like, or even better than non-vegetarian ones. Inevitably, they put the cart before the horse and completely mask the taste of the main ingredients with the tastes of the supplementary ingredients and dressings. After all, vegetarian dishes are different from non-vegetarian ones. While these dishes lose the taste of the vegetable, and they are non-vegetarian dishes, either, so they are in an awkward situation.” Xu Zhiwei doesn’t start making his dish, but judges his opponents’ dishes first, without even tasting them.
Hearing his words, some people nod their heads, some are unconvinced, and some dismiss it. But no one says anything; they are waiting for Xu Zhiwei to make a more specific judgment.
“To make a vegetarian dish taste like a meat dish, much oil must be added. The egg floss in the ‘Golden River around Silver Mountain’ is designed to bring in the oil and aroma similar to a meat dish. However, it is the biggest deficiency of this dish.” Xu Zhiwei gets to the point.
Lao Sha is stunned. So are the other leaders. Many of them recognize Xu Zhiwei’s opinion that vegetarian dishes follow the characteristics of meat dishes, but the ‘Golden River around Silver Mountain’ dish is not exactly like this. It is just right in the production and fusion of meat and vegetable tastes. Almost everyone knows that the best thing about Lao Sha’s dish is the egg floss, whereas Xu Zhiwei says it’s the egg floss that is a deficiency.
This time, Xu Zhiwei doesn’t continue immediately, but puts the pot on the small stove behind him, picks up a small bowl, and carefully pours the oil from the cup into the pot.
“To highlight the original taste of the major ingredients, the most rudimentary technique is to use boiled pure oil. However, in the ‘Golden River around Silver Mountain’, the egg floss brings fatty, fragrant, mixed oil, which covers up the soy flavor of the tofu. Besides, the egg floss is so loose that it absorbs flavors of all kinds of dressings. It is not easy for tofu to be tasty; cooked with egg floss, it is robbed of taste. Therefore, with the main ingredient tofu being replaced by the egg floss, this dish still puts the cart before the horse in terms of cooking method and taste as other vegetarian dishes. Instead of tofu, the egg floss is the most delicious. It’s not a tofu dish anymore in its true sense.”
Lao Sha puts one hand on the table, listening intently to every word Xu Zhiwei says. He never speaks, not even grunts, because he doesn’t know what to say. But he knows that from now on, the “Golden River around Silver Mountain” will only be a second-class dish.
The other leaders of the Clique all sigh in frustration. As expert cooks, they know Xu Zhiwei has hit the needle when he says this. Obviously, Lao Sha has already lost half of the game, and the only thing left to do is to see if he can identify the deficiencies in his opponent’s dishes to even up the odds.
The pot in front of Xu Zhiwei is slowly heating up. The sides of the pan look dry and white, while the oil begins to show little reaction. Everything coincides with the rhythm of the oil-dripping cloth in Xu Zhiwei’s mind.
Xu Zhiwei continues with his eyes staring at the oil in the pot, “The Caihe Tofu is a rare and wonderful dish that uses every method to its perfection. The deep-fried tofu puff is not greasy, and the sauce is made just right. The minced meat has a built-in taste that not only keeps the original taste of the tofu but also brings it out when one bites into the meat. Theoretically, there should have been no deficiency.”
He pauses and slowly picks up another cup, inside which there is salt, refined salt. The man carefully pours all the salt into the oil — yes, he pours the salt into the heating oil. Fortunately, the oil is not too hot, and the amount of salt is relatively large compared to the amount of oil, so there is no oil explosion. But as the temperature of the oil continues to rise, the situation will be unpredictable.
Everyone in the hall is watching Xu Zhiwei’s seemingly leisurely operation, anxiously waiting for him to continue. “But the Caihe Tofu today fails to achieve the desired result, or rather, it neglects a key factor that may not have been given much attention to in normal times. That is the deep-fried tofu puff. Therefore, what should have been the most delicious part of the dish becomes the most unpalatable.”
“You’re just talking palaver out of your imagination. It is pure speculation. How can you say that the tofu in my dish is the most unpalatable before even tasting it?” With the nickname of ‘big mouth’, Bai Dazui is more than having a big mouth and a strong tasting ability; he is also a good debater, especially when it comes to cooking.
“There is no need to taste it. I can judge it only by the way you cook it. You are not deficient in cooking techniques, but in the conditions of cooking, because you used a small stove today.”
“So what? I use small stoves at ordinary times. I fry tofu piece by piece respectively, I let them half soaked in the oil and stir them skillfully so that they are fried just right in terms of heat. What does the type of stove matter?” Bai Dazui is not convinced: he is certain that his method is reasonable and not limited by the small stove.
“So, I am saying that you haven’t taken this key factor to heart at ordinary times, or rather, you just want to show the delicacy and high grade of the dish by using a small stove. With a small stove, a small pan, and a small amount of oil, you have to let the tofu half soaked in the oil and stir them skillfully. But such a two-step process takes a longer time, causing the tofu to absorb a lot of fat. Having been fried with a small fire, the outer cover of the tofu will be too hard and the middle portion will be prematurely cooked, resulting in air holes. If it were in a big stove and big pan with a large amount of oil, the whole tofu will be soaked in the pot so that all sides of tofu will form covers at once, while the middle part will still maintain its original texture.”
Bai Dazui rolls his eyes, “Even if what you say is true, it doesn’t seem to have any effect on the dish. Afterward, the tofu will be hollowed out, and the flavor of the sauce can still enter the tofu. I deliberately used the sweetness of the ingredients in the sauce to hide the taste of the oil, so it will not be too fatty.”
Xu Zhiwei does not reply to Bai Dazui immediately. Instead, he begins to cut the chives carefully, which look green and refreshing on the porcelain plate.
“You’re right, these are the strengths of the Caihe Tofu. But so far, you haven’t realized the deficiencies I’m talking about. Fried on a small stove, the tofu absorbs a lot of fat, which can be compensated by hollowing it out and using sweetness to mask the flavor of the oil. However, you fail to do something for the other source of oil absorbed by the tofu. No, you’re not even aware of it at all.”
“The other source of oil absorbed by the tofu?” It is not that Bai Dazui is unaware of it, but that he doesn’t understand it at all.
Xu Zhiwei picks up a spoon, and stirs it slowly in the pot a few times. He is trying to let the added salt melt into the oil as much as possible before the oil temperature rises too much.
“Yes. It is the fat from the minced meat. You hollow the tofu out and stuff it with minced meat. A lot of fat comes out of the cooked minced meat. They all stay in the air holes of the prematurely cooked part of the tofu and won’t seep out because of the hard outer cover of the fried tofu. So now the tofu will be greasier than the minced meat. As the temperature of the dish drops, the grease will start to solidify and take on an oily astringency. When I finish my dish, this will be even worse, so the tofu in your dish is bound to be the worst part of the meal.”
Hearing this, Bai Dazui opens his big mouth wide, as if he were shocked, angry, and about to cry.