Chapter 299: Chapter 192: Huo Yifan Wants to Make White Robed Shrimp? What are you waiting for, learn! [Seeking Monthly Ticket]
The contestants’ scores were displayed on the big screen one by one. Beneath Lin Xu’s ranking were Huo Yifan from the Xia Gong Restaurant of China Grand Hotel and Zhuang Yizhou from the Chinese Restaurant of Yanjing Hotel, occupying second and third places, respectively. Guo Xinghai still ranked fourth. Wei Qian, because his minced meat eggplant had too much meat and was too greasy, received eighth place and was eliminated.
Out of thirty contestants, eight were eliminated in the first round, seven in the second, five in the third, and three in the fourth. Now, only seven contestants remained on the field, two of whom were from Fishing Platform.
At this point, both the eliminated contestants and those still competing had lost the arrogance and discontent they had before the competition started, along with the illusion that Lin Xu is nothing special; with a little effort, I could surpass him. Four rounds of competition had passed. He had consistently scored either full marks or 9.9 points, firmly holding the first-place position. In such a situation, how could anyone compete?
In the front row of the audience, Liao Jinming, the head of the Dining Department, quietly said to Bai Pengbo next to him, "Go tell He Baoqing to prepare a lavish lunch to reward Lin Xu and the others; they’ve really made Fishing Platform proud today."
"Okay, Director Liao."
Bai Pengbo made his way over to the advisors’ section and relayed Liao Jinming’s instructions.
Upon hearing this, He Baoqing immediately grumbled, "Reward them? What am I supposed to reward them with? Our Building One is more home-style; we don’t have anything particularly special to serve. Giant Grouper? There’s just a Giant Grouper that arrived fresh this morning, but can we actually butcher that thing?"
Xie Baomin, upon hearing that Building One’s kitchen had this treasure, immediately said, "Of course you can! Since we’re rewarding the champion, surely we pick something delicious, right? A Giant Grouper needs to be kept in seawater and requires an oxygen supply; it’s incredibly troublesome to maintain."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Dai Jianli, who loved stirring up excitement, chimed in, "Exactly, exactly! It might die any day if it’s not well taken care of; better to slaughter it now. Do you need my help, boss? I’m quite good at handling these things."
Song Dahai looked at these two with disbelief. "Get real, you two. When your buildings have a Giant Grouper, I never see you slaughtering it for yourselves."
"Mainly because there wasn’t any competition going on... Old Song, you’re good at cooking fish, why don’t you do it?" Seeing Song Dahai speak up, Dai Jianli immediately tried to drag his old buddy into it.
Song Dahai glared at him, then sat to one side, looking at He Baoqing with a sympathetic gaze.
He Baoqing wasn’t foolish and directly passed the buck to Bai Pengbo. "Can the Giant Grouper be butchered? If so, I’ll start preparing right now."
"I’ll go ask Director Liao. Chef He, don’t be impulsive. Giant Groupers are getting harder to buy these days; you’ll be in trouble with Director Liao if you just butcher it."
Upon hearing Bai Pengbo would go back to consult, Dai Jianli and Xie Baomin immediately sat back and resumed eating their cookies.
"With Director Liao’s penny-pinching ways, we can forget about even tasting the Fish Scales of the Grouper."
"Right, let’s just have the suckling pig Chef He made for lunch. Its flavor might be a bit home-style, but it’s really good with rice."
「On the field.」
As soon as Wei Qian confirmed his elimination, he immediately carried his minced meat eggplant and Guo Xinghai’s Salted Fish Eggplant Stew out of the competition area. While these dishes were still quite hot, he hurried to the kitchen to get some rice to eat with them. He planned to eat and drink his fill before watching Lin Xu win the championship.
After the eliminated contestants left, the staff replaced the racks with new ones, filled with various ingredients.
Liu Zhengyu, holding a microphone, stood up and said, "Chinese cuisine is vast and profound, with dishes of various colors, but white dishes tend to have an artistic touch. So, please prepare a dish with white as the main color. There are no restrictions on meat or vegetarian ingredients, nor on flavor profile. The time limit is one hour. The timer starts now!"
White?
As soon as the competition’s requirement was announced, a buzz of discussion erupted among both the audience and the live stream viewers.
"WOW! The topics for this competition are always so unexpected."
"Indeed, you can never guess them right."
"There are indeed many white-colored dishes, but with only one hour, they have to think carefully."
"I bet many contestants will choose tofu."
"Not necessarily. There are a lot of white Chinese dishes, like Chicken Bean Curd, Furong Chicken Slices, Milk Soup with water spinach, and so on, which are much classier than tofu."
"Don’t forget Lin Xu’s White Jade Lotus Root Strips are also white."
"Right, right, how could we forget the White Jade Lotus Root Strips!"
"Looks like he’s going to win this round too."
"..."
「In the audience seats.」
Upon hearing that they had to make a white dish, Shen Guofu immediately said with a happy expression, "This round is in the bag."
He had just eaten the Steamed Rice Flour Silver Strips cooked by his son-in-law yesterday—its appearance, taste, and texture had left a deep impression on him.
Han Shuzhen, Chen Meijuan, and others also nodded in agreement. With Steamed Rice Flour Silver Strips, passing this round should be no problem.
Chen Yan, seeing everyone’s agreeing expressions, suddenly felt as if she had missed several episodes of a TV series. "What’s going on? Did my brother-in-law cook a new dish yesterday?"
Shen Jiayue said, "Yesterday, my Xu made Steamed Rice Flour Silver Strips; it’s white and tasted absolutely amazing. If he makes this dish, then this competition is a sure win."
Upon hearing this, Chen Yan immediately felt like she had missed out on billions. AAARGH! If only I’d known, I would have gone with Uncle and Aunt to freeload a meal yesterday!
As she was fuming, Shen Baobao even took out his phone and showed her a picture of the Steamed Rice Flour Silver Strips.
Chen Yan’s regret grew even stronger. I heard their engagement party is tomorrow.