Ch95 – First Round Results

Soon, everyone started to get busy. Cooking soup was actually not difficult. The difficulty lay in getting rid of the rankness of the duck meat and the temperature and time control.

A large number of seasonings were neatly placed on the shelves in the last row of the testing site. Many of them such as onion, ginger, garlic and rice wine, could be used to remove fishy smells.

Since there had been no cooking wine before, Ruan Tang had used scallion-ginger juice to remove the fishiness. So, most of these contestants also continued to use Ruan Tang’s old style. After pounding the scallion and ginger to extract the juice, they applied it to the duck meat to remove the fishy taste and smell. Only a few people added a small amount of rice wine to further remove the fishy smell and enhance the taste.

Ruan Tang took notice of a girl named Zha Panpan. Although her movements were slow, she had special ideas. For example, she made a few cuts on the duck leg to let the duck meat absorb more flavor. At the same time, she used a small knife to carefully remove the fat from beneath the duck skin. Obviously she knew that the fat was where most of the duck’s rank smell came from.

By the time she’d finished preparing the duck, the other contestants were already waiting. Zha Panpan put the processed duck legs into the pot without any rush. She then added the pieces of shallots, ginger slices and the appropriate amount of salt. After filling the pot with water, she let it boil over high heat, skimming the floating scum. She then slowly simmered it over low heat.

All contestants used the same kind of soup pot. There was no speculative method of using a pressure cooker to stew the duck. Many simply threw the duck inside and they were done, but the girl ingeniously found a clean cloth and used it to seal the lid of the pot, trying her best to prevent the steam from escaping to make the duck meat tenderer.

Ruan Tang nodded slightly, thinking that this girl was a good seed.

Sure enough, although it took a long time, her method to get rid of the fishiness was the most successful. All ten of the off-site judges accepted the bowl of duck soup and gave her very high marks.

64 people failed to get more than half of the votes from the off-site judges and thus they entered the danger zone. The so-called danger zone meant that the three main judges would taste their soup and decide whether they would stay or leave. Actually, according to the rules of the 1st round, there were still 72 people to be eliminated, so it was quite possible to directly eliminate all 64 contestants who entered the danger zone.

The 64 people in the danger zone, all anxiously stared at the three judges, hoping that they would leave one side of the net open. It couldn’t be ruled out that some of them do have some potential but that there was still room for improvement.

These three judges had observed their cooking methods just now and so they had some impression of their skills. Ruan Tang and Ge Lao each chose seven people to stay. Some of them have very solid basic skills, but they made some mistakes. There were also some who were clever and brilliant, but unfortunately their basic skills had yet to be perfected. They could all be counted as good protects. Ruan Tang felt that they could be given another chance.

At this point, the number of contestants remaining in the field was 122, which meant that at this stage, 22 people will be eliminated. The situation of the 14 people who had just escaped elimination by the skin of their teeth had turned even more precarious.

“Next, we shall start the last test, that is, the combination of ingredients.” As Ge Lao’s words fell, several small robots stopped in front of the contestants, holding wooden boxes.

After hearing this reward, all the players’ eyes lit up. Having priority to choose the ingredients in the next round of competition — what a great advantage! This small privilege might even ensure your qualification for the round after.

But at the same time, they felt even greater pressure.

Because of the limited time, this segment would test the contestant’ understanding and control of the ingredients. In order to make an innovative dish within the prescribed time, selecting the ingredients to be combined has become the most important challenge.

The players opened the box and found that it contained strawberries, milk, tenderloin, peas, eggs, green peppers, chili peppers, onions and bitter gourd. Seeing this, many people’s expressions turned even more serious. Actually, it was not difficult to match up these ingredients. It was very easy to combine them to make a dish, but the difficult thing was that it had to be ‘special’ as emphasized by Ge Lao.

It’s obviously impossible to fool them with simple dishes like bitter gourd scrambled eggs, green pepper shredded pork, or strawberry milk.

Everyone scratched their cheeks and began to think long and hard about suitable combinations.

However, these people were, after all, outstanding talents that had risen above tens of thousands of other hopefuls. They most certainly would not be defeated in this way, and they soon began to act.

Zha Panpan once again performed quite well in this test. She used scrambled eggs to spread out a thin golden yellow egg skin. She used it to wrap up peas, diced meat, diced onions and diced green peppers, sprinkled it with black pepper and it became a delicious egg roll. She arranged three in the middle of the plate, and topped it off with a tomato sauce. The finished product was exquisite and bright in color, extremely appetizing.

The egg rolls were quickly served to the review panel, to be tasted by countless live room audiences and the three judges. Ruan Tang cut a piece and put it in his mouth. The egg skin was soft and sponge-y. The filling inside was delicious and topped with the sweet and sour tomato sauce, it created a unique and delicious taste. It was a very good and appetizing dish.

Sure enough, this egg roll also garnered quite a lot of votes from the online viewers.

In addition to Zha Panpan, there were also others who showed their strengths. Someone drew inspiration from the stuffed green peppers Ruan Tang made previously and used the green pepper as a container, pouring scrambled eggs and minced meat inside before steaming it in a pot. They added the egg flavor to the original dish. The taste of the stewed egg was exquisite, and the sweetness of the green pepper itself had been absorbed by the stewed egg. Adding to that the savory-ness of the minced meat, this dish tasted delicious. It received a lot of support and was able to pass without a hitch.

Yet another had marinated thin slices of tenderloin and after pan-frying, spread it on top of a smooth egg custard and sprinkled it with red strawberry pieces. It looked like an unconventional combination, but it produced a wonderful chemical changes, and it too had won over a lot of votes.

Yet another type were the “naturally-talented” ones, who cleverly prepared dishes such as pepper stew strawberries and milk steamed fillets. If they were to be judged according to the past styles, they would no doubt, be directly eliminated.

But most still thought very much in the box. The dishes they made were common and mediocre, such as milkshakes made from strawberries, milk, and eggs, or stir-fried dishes with bitter gourd, eggs, and meat slices. Compared to the others who dared to innovate, their dishes seem unremarkable.

No fault, but no impact.

As expected, these people entered the danger zone and it was up to the three judges to determine if they would stay or leave.

After tasting their dishes, Ruan Tang, President Gu and Ge Lao took into consideration their performances in the first two tests and eliminated the last 22 people in this stage.

Even if they were eliminated, Ruan Tang gave each one simple but very specific suggestions tailored to each individual’s situation. Although their journey in this competition stopped here and they were very disappointed, getting these suggestions still made many of them clench their fists and swear, “Next competition, I must reach the finals!”

“Refuel.”

They bid farewell to the eliminated players and the preliminary round ended successfully. The remaining 100 contestants will enter the next stage. President Gu said aloud, “Congratulations on passing the 1st round, the 2nd round will be in three days. As for the top three in this test, their names will be announced during the next round.”

“Yes!”

There was a vigorous response from the crowd.

After everyone left, the three judges remained to choose today’s three best performers.

President Gu asked with a smile to Ruan Tang and Ge Lao, “How was it? Don’t you think there were a lot of good seedlings in this competition?”

Ruan Tang nodded. “I think that girl named Zha Panpan was very good. She has good ideas and the courage to try them out.”

Zha Panpan’s performance in these three tests of the preliminary round was very eye-catching. President Gu and Ge Lao both had good impressions of her, so they agreed with Ruan Tang’s assessment.

Ge Lao said: “There’s also Cao Jun and Shi Mingxu. They both have solid basic skills. Although their performance in the third test was not sufficiently impressive, they could both be considered as having great potential.”

Evidently, these three were their choices.

The purpose of this competition was to select and train talents. They were looking forward to seeing these players continue to grow in the course of this competition. What made them feel gratified was that although professional chefs still accounted for a large proportion of the remaining 100 people, there were also 23 players who were amateurs and held other professions. And many of them were full of ideas, just like Zha Panpan.

This meant that in the empire, the culinary art had stepped down from its altar and had truly entered the lives of the common people. Anyone can cook and anyone can become a gourmet.

Although that day may be far away, they could already see the dawn of a prosperous culinary culture.