Chapter 229 - New Idea

"Everyone please look at Wang Ming's fillet. This is a rare occurrence that happens when the fish gets damaged under transport. This is not because of his cooking skills, such a poor fish should not have slipped through our inspections, I'm terribly sorry for this. Judges, what do you think? Should we give him more time or maybe another fish?"

Gao Ying, honestly, cared little at all about this competition anymore. He only came here to pursue Miss Natasha, he was in the middle of admiring her. Being interrupted by Meng Zhong made him irritated. But since he couldn't do anything to Meng Zhong, he targeted Wang Ming instead. With a nonchalant tone, he said.

"A chef should be able to deal with unforeseen circ.u.mstances, yes it's not fair that he got a bad fish, but it's unreasonable for us to give him more time or another fish, if we do then everyone can start complaining. We won't give you anything at all. But of course that's only my opinion what do you guys think?"

"I don't need any preferential treatment. I'll clean this tuna easily and I'll even qualify just you watch" Wang Ming didn't know how he had offended the judge but he didn't care as he don't need their help and pity he would with his own skills show them what he's capable of. 

None of the other judges said anything at all. They wanted to give Wang Ming a little extra time, as the tuna being bad is completely out of his control. But after hearing what Wang Ming said, they found him interesting. They really wanted to see how Wang Ming would solve this. None had ever been this c.o.c.ky to refuse help. 

Looking at the bottom of the fillet he had just cut out, Wang Ming sighed the broken spine had stabbed into the fillet destroying it. Putting it away, Wang Ming grabbed the other fillet to ensure that it didn't have any damages, after seeing it looked pristine. He then used the knife to cut out any unnecessary parts on the fillet, like some of the fat. He left on the skin as they hadn't told him what they wanted to fillet for. 

If they want to pan-fry or grill the tuna, it's best to have the skin on as the skin has a great taste and texture. The skin also has a lot of nutrients, which is why most chefs leaves it on when they sear the fish. 

Grabbing a duller knife Wang Ming ran the knife over the skin to remove all the scales, he were attentive while doing it and frequently cleaned the fish and the knife to ensure that he removed the scales properly, tuna has very few and small scales so it didn't take long at all. Luckily with the tuna the fish is very simple to debone as the spine connects the meat. He only needs to cut out the spine to remove all the bones. 

Cutting the spine off the fillet, he cut it as close to the spine as much as possible. He didn't want to lose any meat. Even though Tuna shouldn't have any loose bones in its meat, Wang Ming still thoroughly inspected the fillet, after ensuring there were no other bones in it, Wang Ming put the fillet away and went back to the other fillet. 

Looking at the destroyed tail part, Wang Ming felt sad. The Tuna is a high-grade fish, for its quality to be destroyed like this was quite sad. Since its spine had broken and fragmented, the meat on this fillet had many small bones he had to pull out. His problem was that it isn't normal bones but the bones from its spine. 

Wang Ming pulled out all the bones he could see with a tweezer, but that just made the fillet even uglier. It had many small holes in it, some even as large as a coin. There's no way he could serve something like that, and even worse, there could be other pieces of bones in the meat that he couldn't see. 

What he was afraid of is that, when he felt the fish on the back, he felt a small hard spot on the fish, but he didn't know if it was a bone fragment or not. But he had to move on, he had done his best. He only had 25 minutes to make a noodle dish, looking around him all the other participants had started on their dish already. He could even smell a great aroma in the room. 

But it was then an idea hit Wang Ming. What if he cooks this fillet? The rules stated he had to fillet the fish perfectly; it didn't state that he had to have 2 fillets, he could have one and cook the other. That way he could get rid of the bad fillet. 

It's perfect, he thought. Looking around him he saw that every other participant had two fillets on their kitchen counter. He also remembered from the last round everyone had two fillets. This might be stupid, but there's no way he's going to win or get to the next round with the two fillets he has, but if they only judge the one he has, then he would have a great chance. 

The other fillet looks perfect, it had no bone holes no nothing, it even had perfect shape on it. 

Wang Ming then dumped a lot of flour on to the kitchen counter and shaped it to a circle he then made a hole in the middle and put a few eggs in the hole. With excellent technique he mixed the flour and eggs together. It almost looked like he was training tai chi. In just a few minutes in front of him wasn't a pile of flour anymore, but a beautiful dough. He didn't use any baking soda as he wouldn't let it rest.

Usually he would love to have the dough rest for a while, but he didn't have enough time. With great strength, he used a rolling pin to flatten the dough. Usually it wouldn't be possible to flatten it enough to make noodles with a rolling pin. But with his strength, somehow he made it possible. The other chefs gasped seeing Wang Ming doing it they had all used a machine to thin out the dough which took them 10 minutes to do. But Wang Ming used only a few minutes with a rolling pin. They first thought Wang Ming was crazy to use a rolling pin, but they were all proved wrong. 

"Everyone let me update you on the competition. It seems like Wang Ming, the youngest chef here, has a big problem. His fillet is 'broken' even though he has done his best it might not be possible to salvage this. But look at his strength, it's incredible! He flattened the dough with a rolling pin, a rolling pin!" Meng Zhong felt excited seeing how Wang Ming did things. It looked so unorthodox, but it works. 

"Yes, but please look at Tan Ai, she's an owner of a big sushi restaurant. Her noodle dish is incredible! She's made a cold noodle dish coupled with raw fish. Most people eat raw fish only with rice, but her dish looks like a noodle salad together with beautifully cut salmon and tuna. I would love to taste her dish. There are many good chefs in this group lets see if Wang Ming can keep up."

Ming Ming slapped her foam hands together to cheer on Wang Ming. The sound wasn't too loud, but it was still disruptive for the show. But when the producer saw it was just a little girl, he said nothing, he just looked pleadingly at Fu Ya and Zhang Hou, to control her. Ming Ming looked exactly like his own daughter, he couldn't scold such a cute girl.

Fu Ya put Ming Ming on her l.a.p and gently stroked her head to calm her down. "Please don't be noisy, Ming Ming, okay? I want to cheer to but we need to be silent for now, okay? Just wait until Sunday then you can shout as much as you want!"

"Fine." Ming Ming looked down, but still silently cheered on her Daddy.

After rolling the dough thinly, Wang Ming cut the pasta to noodles, he only made straight thin noodles as he didn't have time to be fancy. But even though he couldn't make the noodles fancy, Wang Ming still had another trick up his sleeve.

Wang Ming didn't cook his noodles normally, but he cooked them with not only the tuna bones he had cut off earlier but also some of the tuna meat he from the other fillet. This is perfect, he thought. The noodles could absorb all the flavor from the tuna bones and the tuna meat. He could then after cook down most of the water and use it as a sauce base. He could save so much time and effort!