“Hello, head chef Yuan, President Zhang, and Mr. Fujiwara. I will definitely not let you down today. I have prepared a very special dish.”
“Thank you, head chef Yuan, Mr. Fujiwara, and President Zhang.”
“I hope I can receive guidance from head chef Yuan. I have a lot in common with head chef Yuan.”
“Three great chefs, you’ve worked hard.”
The four contestants greeted each other. In fact, many things could be seen from the way they greeted each other. First, the way they addressed each other.”Head chef,””Sir,” and “President” were still very different. Of course, this was also related to the fact that “Jiayuan” couldn’t translate it in English.
The other four contestants “personalities were undoubtedly revealed. Sucha had said that their greatest common point was their handsomeness, but their words were more arrogant. They really were putting labels all over their bodies.
On the other hand, dashi xiujie and Kosen were more humble. The tall and thin Dupond directly threw out the special food to show his anticipation.
The three judges greeted them. The competition was about to start, so they couldn’t talk much. The four contestants went to their respective areas to familiarize themselves with the kitchenware.
In order to be fair, Yuan Zhou had originally decided to set up the four kitchens in the East, West, South, and North respectively, with the judges and the media in the middle. After thinking for a while, Yuan Zhou decided that he would have to turn his head and body to observe the four people. Therefore, he gave up this method.
There was enough space between the four cooking tables so that they wouldn’t affect each other. The reporters of various countries were interviewing the contestants of their own countries. As for those who didn’t reach the final, they could only follow others. Dashi xiujie’s side had the most reporters.
After all, among this year’s contestants, the most famous ones in Asia were dashi xiujie, ruan Yimin, and Alan Modi. The latter two didn’t even make it to the top ten and were all killed by grandma poison.
“Head chef Yuan and President Zhang, I’m very curious. Among the four young people, who do you think is the best?” After a moment of silence, tengyuan Jiayuan spoke again.
Yuan Zhou thought for a while and then answered,”I think da shi and ke Sen will win.”
Hearing dashi xiujie’s name, a smile appeared on Fujiwara Jiayuan’s face. He then looked at Zhang Ji.
“The four contestants have their own advantages. Dashi xiujie’s knife skills and plate presentation, Dupond’s combination of Filipino and French cuisine is very good, sucha is proficient in the four major Thailand cuisines and has a variety of seasonings, and Kosen has inherited his father’s skills.” Zhang Ye said.
Fine, this answer was equivalent to no answer.
Qin Kelly, Wanli and the others had already entered the final stage of preparation. They invited all the reporters and media to return to their seats. During his free time, Yuan Zhou even asked the system if the main mission had been completed, just like the last time when one more person appeared quietly. However, the progress was still (19/20), which was a little uncomfortable.
That’s right, this was the master mission. Ever since the all-cow banquet, it had been stuck at the last place.
It was unknown when the last master who admired Yuan Zhou would appear.
Ten minutes later, everything was ready.
“Next, let’s invite Yuan Zhou, the chairman of the green chefs ‘Association, the chairman of the China Chefs’ Alliance branch, the director of the China chefs ‘Association, the Honorary Vice Presidents of the Sichuan cuisine Association, the Honorary Vice Presidents of the Dian cuisine Association, the special consultant of the Jiangsu cuisine Association, and the honorary Vice Chairman of the chef’s welfare guarantee Association, to draw the final topic of the first international young chefs’ exchange meet for us.” Qin Kaili read it out in one breath and almost died.
Not to mention other things, Qin Kelly and the others had already studied for a long time on how to choose the title hanging above Yuan Zhou’s head. If they said too little, it wouldn’t reflect Yuan Zhou’s greatness. Moreover, it was also inappropriate not to say it on such an occasion. If they said it too much, it would feel too lame. People who didn’t know better might even think that they were reciting a speed recital.
The finals would be recorded, so Wanli decided to post all the titles that he hadn’t announced.
It couldn’t be helped. Yuan Zhou also wanted to keep a low profile, but his strength didn’t allow him to. On the other hand, the Chinese cooking circle had been waiting for a chef with “dominance” for too long.
The staff then presented a tray with three envelopes on it. Yuan Zhou picked the envelope in the middle. He didn’t like to be mysterious, so he opened it and said directly,””The theme of the final is chicken.”
After that, Yuan Zhou returned to the judging panel.
Then, he introduced the three judges. As Yuan Zhou had introduced them just now, he made it simple this time.
“From the selection of ingredients to the completion of the dish, the four of us chefs have a total of three hours.”
“After three hours, any unfinished food will be invalid.”
“Contestants, please pay attention to the time.”
The rules were simple. After Qin Kaili finished explaining the rules, she retreated backstage. The stage today belonged to the chefs.
“Chicken is a dish that every country has a lot of. In addition, the four of you have already prepared beforehand, so you quickly determined your goal.
After Qin Kaili finished explaining the rules, the countdown started immediately. At the same time, the staff members present handed a tablet to the four chefs. The ready-made space was not big, so the ingredients that could be chosen naturally could not be placed out. Therefore, if one wanted to order the ingredients, they had to draw on the tablet.
The ingredients would be ready within ten minutes. The members of the Qing chef Association had put in a lot of effort to do this.
“Three hours isn’t just to cook one dish. To be precise, it’s a main dish, three side dishes, and four dishes without a chef. You have to handle the ingredients by yourself. Time is a challenge for all the contestants.” Zhang Ji opened his mouth to speak.
It would take three hours with the camera focused on them. They couldn’t just respond in silence, so they still needed some commentary. As this wasn’t Zhang Ye and Fujiwara’s first time being judges, they were very familiar with the process.
“Normally, the kitchen of a restaurant can easily cook four dishes in an hour, but that’s only if there’s a kitchen helper. Moreover, this is a competition, so we have to consider the plate presentation and other aspects. It’s definitely not easy.” It was also time for Fujiwara Jiayuan to answer,”But considering that this is the final, it’s understandable.”
Yuan Zhou didn’t say anything. What was an assistant chef? Also, time was tight. If it was him, he would set the time limit at one hour.
“Tengyuan Jiayuan has a deep understanding of Kimura Kazuki. What do you think the main dish of dashi will do?” Zhang Ye asked.
“There are many dishes related to chicken, but considering that xiujie’s hometown is Fukuoka, and in this important competition, he is most likely to take out Fukuoka chicken Shaoguo.” Fujiwara replied. Then, he casually asked Zhang Ji what Kosen would do.
“Ke Sen dabbled in Sichuan cuisines, but he’s best at Guizhou cuisines. He relies on the mountains to eat and relies on the water to eat. Guizhou cuisines are especially good at making wild game and meat. Beef banquet, lamb banquet, snake banquet, and so on. The chicken banquet happens to be one of the seventeen banquets. ” As the chairman of Sichuan cuisine, Zhang Yan had quite a lot of food in his stomach.
“However, there are thousands of variations to the qiansu cuisines. I think that Kosen will cook a Chicken Feast, but I’m not sure what kind of changes it will be exactly.” Zhang Ye concluded.
Fujiwara Jiayuan and Zhang Ji, one of them analyzed dashi xiujie, the other analyzed Kosen, sucha, and Dupond. They were all very pitiful. In fact, it was not that they favored one over the other, but that they didn’t have a deep understanding of thai and Filipino cuisine.
Although Zhang Ji and Fujiwara had done their homework before coming here, they still didn’t know what sucha and Dupond were up to.
Other dishes aside, there were plenty of chicken soup with coconut juice, chicken with green curry, chicken with salad, chicken with lemon and cashew nuts, and so on.
“The following list will state the ingredients that the four contestants have submitted in advance and have been approved by the panel of judges.” Qin Kaili was holding a name list.
At the same time, the ingredients and condiments selected on the tablet were all displayed on the big screen behind the judges ‘table, making it convenient for the reporters to take photos.
“Contestant dashi xiujie: a handful of Fukuoka red scallion, a handful of Fukuoka fine scallion, two catties of golden bud rice.”
“Contestant sucha: three Thailand lemons, little bird pepper, several thai mangoes, several lemones.”
Dupond contestants: saba banana, phimang, Philippines pineapple, each.”
“Contestant Cosson: a certain number of woodflower Bramble.”
It was Yuan Zhou’s arrangement that the contestants were allowed to bring their own ingredients after the application was submitted. That was because delicacies were just that strange. Sometimes, only local ingredients were required to cook the dish to produce that kind of taste. Therefore, in order to let the contestants give full play to their own strength, this rule was made.
The restriction was that only the ingredients could be brought in. As for the seasonings or special sauces, they were not allowed. If a chef of Yuan Zhou’s level carefully prepared a sauce for the delicacies, would there even be a need to compete?
Of course, that was just an exaggeration. After all, Yuan Zhou’s cooking skills were not available so far. That’s right, he didn’t have any.
In comparison, Kosen had the least amount. The province was close to Sichuan, so they could provide all the ingredients they wanted. Dupond didn’t intend to declare any ingredients in the first place, because Filipino and Chinese cuisines had a lot of influence. In addition, Dupond combined French and Filipino cuisines.
But when Dupond found out that sucha had shipped mangoes from Thailand, he couldn’t sit still and also declared a pile of fruits. In his view, it was because I couldn’t lose to sucha in terms of aura.
“I brought red scallions and fine scallions from Fukuoka. The selected seasoning has tangerine vinegar. I’m not wrong. Contestant dashi xiujie is going to make Fukuoka chicken hotpot. This dish can’t be eaten in other places of Japan. It’s an original dish of the Fukuoka area and has more than a hundred years of history.” Fujiwara Jiayuan said.
“In 2016, the Golden bud rice was rated as the best rice in the world. It can be said to be the pride of Japan. Dashi xiujie brought it here with great determination.”
As soon as Fujiwara Jiayuan finished his words, he found the loophole in his words and immediately corrected it. “Of course, it’s not as good as the rice used in head chef Yuan’s restaurant. The Golden bud rice is only comparable to most of the ordinary rice in the world.”
Just now, tengyuan actually wanted to show off, but he suddenly recalled that Yuan Zhou was beside him and he had tasted the taste of the rice of master chef Restaurant himself.
Yuan Zhou didn’t say anything, because Japan was indeed leading the world in high-end meat, fruits, and vegetables. And the domestic food problem of insufficient quantity was only solved in recent years. That is to say, the world’s highest output as we know, but it still has to import every year.
After all, the country’s consideration was not only about whether there was enough food to eat, but also about food security, food storage, and a series of other problems.
In general, the demand was different. Japan had been taking the high-end food route from the beginning, so they had carefully cultivated it. On the other hand, the domestic population was huge, so the problem of quantity had to be solved first.
While they were talking, all the required ingredients had been prepared and handed over to the contestants by the staff. Not only that, there was a staff member next to each cooking table. If there was a need, they could ask at any time. For example, they could ask for kitchenware midway.
The first thing that sucha, Kosen, dumpte, and dashi xiujie did was to deal with the chicken meat. The chicken was whole and clean. After all, it was impossible for the contestants to kill the chicken on the spot. If the chicken feathers were all over the ground and the whole arena was filled with the sound of the chicken, it would really be too unstylish.
The size of the whole chicken was up to the players to their own needs.
“Fujiwara Jiayuan’s analysis is correct, and my analysis is also correct. Looking at the selected ingredients, Kosen has chosen to cook the chicken banquet.” “Actually, head chef Yuan knows more about Guizhou cuisine,” Zhang Ye said.
Zhang Yan directly passed the topic to Yuan Zhou.
“Kosen’s dish is indeed from the chicken banquet. Moreover, it’s the most famous dish in the qiansu chicken banquet. ” Yuan Zhou first confirmed Zhang Yan’s words and then further identified the dish that Kosen was going to cook.
When Zhang Ye heard that, he immediately noticed the size of the chicken that Kosen was cutting. The more he looked at it, the more he said, “There’s no mistake. ”
“Could it be the world’s best chicken, the Xingyang chicken?” Tengyuan Jiayuan, who was very familiar with Chinese cuisine, instantly reacted.
“Yes,” Yuan Zhou nodded.
“If I’m not mistaken, the famous spicy chicken in Sichuan cuisine was improved from xilingyang chicken.” Fujiwara Jiayuan said.
“Tengyuan Jiayuan is indeed worthy of being the Japanese who knows the most about Chinese cuisines. Yes, that’s right.” Yuan Zhou nodded his head and continued to comment,””Sucha brought bird pepperpeppers and Thailand lemons. His choice of food should be lemon cashew chicken, while Dupond specialty is mango, pineapple, and banana. I think it’s the more distinctive adobo.”
He casually finished evaluating dubang and sucha. Although Yuan Zhou didn’t reward them with any Thailand or Filipino cuisines, he had seen too many things in the past two years and had some understanding of the cuisines of these two countries.
Adobo was not the name of a dish. To be precise, it was a Philippines cooking method. In a way that the Chinese were familiar with, it was the northeastern Chinese stew.
That’s right. The only difference between adobo and chaotic stew was that more ingredients were added during the stew. The common ones were laurel leaves, garlic, and pepper, while the better Philippines chefs would add fruits to enhance the taste.
The core taste of Filipino cuisine was a combination of sweet, sour, and salty, and the chaotic stew was the most direct and best reflected the methods of these three. Dubang’s choice was completely understandable.
Zhang Yan and Fujiwara Jiayuan were just not sure, but not totally unaware of it. Therefore, after hearing Yuan Zhou’s explanation, they could infer many things from one fact and understand it.
After all, one was the chairman of Sichuan cuisine and the other was the chairman of the Japan famous chefs ‘Alliance branch. If they wanted to go international, they had to be familiar with the world.
The judges could understand, but that didn’t mean that the media and the guests could understand, so they only stopped talking about Zhang Ye and Fujiwara for a while.
Time passed by slowly. The result was just as Yuan Zhou had analyzed. Sucha chose the lemon cashew chicken, while Dupond chose aduo Bo.