Chapter 453: Forcing Growth

In front of the wretched male chef was a bowl of freshly cooked Shaobai, steaming hot and emitting hot smoke.

The dish that takes three hours to make with crispy skin and tender meat is now ready in this delicious way.

“This compresses the time by almost half, right? It will look the same, but the texture and taste will be affected to some extent.” Zhao Xiaojing gave an objective evaluation.

"Yes, although it is an oven and a pressure cooker, the time is not enough and the flavor may not be fully absorbed. There should be a lot more that can be done, why do we have to do this?" Wen Xinyuan was still puzzled.

"In my group, there were two pieces of high-grade pork belly, but I only left one for him. I took away the other special and high-grade ones. Could this be the reason?"

"Even if you want to use pork belly, there are many Sichuan dishes that can be made with pork belly, such as twice-cooked pork, garlic pork, and salt-fried pork. You don't have to make this, right?"

"Yeah, I only left some for him because he didn't need two pieces. There was no need to kill them all, and I wasn't forcing him to make a big dish with the pork belly."

Zhao Xiaojing and Wen Xinyuan both looked puzzled.

"It has nothing to do with you. He's just being opportunistic." Guan Yingxia smiled faintly. "Dang Yongge wrote in a magazine that as he got older, his teeth weren't as good as they used to be, so he started to like steaming pork belly. And of the various types of steamed meat, he liked Sichuan-style salty braised pork belly the best."

"So that's what he meant. But he's flattering the wrong person, isn't he?" Wen Xinyuan looked at the stage with a gloating look.

Dang Yongge on the stage did not show any happy expression when he saw Shaobai. Instead, he showed a hint of displeasure that was barely noticeable. After tasting it, he shook his head repeatedly.

Nan Rongquan on the side glanced at him, ate only half a piece and put down his chopsticks.

The wretched male chef had been observing the judges' expressions since he came over. When he saw the two men's expressions, he immediately panicked visibly. When Dang Yongge waved him off, he shouted something anxiously. Then Dang Yongge looked at him with obvious displeasure, put down her chopsticks, and helped Nan Rongquan leave.

"He actually dared to mention Ran Zhengyi. Not only is he not even considered a master, he has completely disgraced Ran Zhengyi." Zhao Xiaojing and Wen Xinyuan were puzzled when Guan Yingxia shook her head sarcastically.

"How do you know he mentioned Ran Zhengyi? You can even hear it. Do you have a keen ear, Sister Xia?!" Wen Xinyuan asked the question Zhao Xiaojing wanted to ask in shock.

"If you can't hear, just look at the lip shape. These three words are easy to distinguish." Guan Yingxia looked at Wen Xinyuan with a caring look for the mentally retarded.

Wen Xinyuan was speechless after seeing this look.

After seeing this, the wretched man dared not say anything anymore. He could only walk down the stage from the other side with a dejected look on his face as he watched the two judges leave. He didn't even raise his head when he passed by the three people.

The three of them were not very interested in him and did not discuss it anymore, turning their attention back to the fat man. In the meantime, the fat man had finished mixing the stuffing and started preparing the breadcrumbs to coat it.

In just a few moves, the fat man spread half of the breadcrumbs evenly on the bottom of the plate, then held the filling in his hands and squeezed it out from his thumb and index finger, forming balls with a diameter of three centimeters.

After squeezing out about seven or eight dumplings, the fat man picked up the other half of the breadcrumbs, sprinkled a layer on top of the dumplings, picked up the dumplings, grabbed a handful of breadcrumbs at the bottom of the plate, and then kneaded the dumplings in circles between his hands to shape them.

After being formed, the dumplings not only become shaped like cattail sticks, but the breadcrumbs are also perfectly and evenly coated on the outer skin.

After coating everything with breadcrumbs, the fat man turned on the fire and poured in oil. He waited for the oil to heat up and slowly took out the wax paper from the cupboard and spread it on the flat plate. He also specially selected a barrel-shaped seasoning dish according to the color of the wax paper, prepared the dipping sauce, put it on the dish and set it aside.

The fat man’s method of frying the Pu Bang Chicken is very unique. When the oil temperature reaches halfway, he puts the Pu Bang Chicken in and starts frying. When the color turns slightly light yellow, he immediately takes it out and puts it aside to control the oil. At the same time, he continues to increase the oil temperature. When big bubbles start to appear when chopsticks are put in, he lowers the heat and puts the Pu Bang Chicken back in.

The Pu Bang chicken that was put back in turned golden in a short while. The fat man took out the golden Pu Bang chicken and drained the oil a little, then arranged it on the plate and raised his hand to signal.

Zhao Xiaojing glanced at the timer and saw that the fat man had thirty minutes left. Although this dish looked simple, the chicken puree and the stuffing mixture actually required a lot of effort. Just seasoning it twice and beating it repeatedly took quite a while.

However, judging from the variety of dishes, their ideas for selecting dishes are similar.

One hundred minutes sounds much longer than the previous ones, but it is impossible to make a big dish, so I simply made a specialty but unusual dish more refined, which would be more appealing when served.

However, ideas like that of the wretched male chef are easy to understand. He simply wants to win by finding a new way and stand out from the crowd of contestants.

The idea is good, but unfortunately it is too hasty and has the opposite effect.

"Look, brother is more stable. Just now, Mr. Nan was laughing while eating my food." The fat man quickly returned to the audience and spoke excitedly before the three of them could say anything.

"Are you sure it wasn't your bow that made the old man laugh? You bow after every match, how could the old man not laugh when he sees you having fun?"

"I bowed only after the old man laughed. It's polite, understand? Politeness."

The two of them started arguing again in the blink of an eye.

"Hey, your group has finished the competition and no one has come up yet? Is it time for a halftime break?" Zhao Xiaojing's head was buzzing with the noise, and she interrupted the two of them very skillfully.

"Yeah, they said that there can only be a maximum of ten groups at a time. That should give us some time for lunch, right?" Wen Xinyuan immediately exited combat mode and looked up at the time.

"The old man has eaten twenty dishes. He is old and has been busy on the stage for so long, it's time for him to take a break." The fat man immediately stopped talking.

The first ten groups of contestants on the stage had almost finished their dishes, and now only a few contestants from the last three groups were left. The four of them sat for about twenty minutes, and the contestants finished their dishes one after another. After the judges tasted them one by one, the host He Xi walked onto the stage again.

"Our judges have reached a consensus and voted for the top ten groups. Next, we will announce the results of the top ten groups and invite the two judges to comment. Now, I will read out the list of qualified contestants. The contestants whose groups and names are read out will be the qualified contestants in that group. If a group is not read out, it means that both contestants in the same group have been eliminated."

"Group one, Wu Dayong!

The third group, Zhao Xiaojing!

The fourth group, Jing Ziheng!

Group 5, Xu Meiling!

Group 6, Sun Zhigang!

Group 7, Feng Jianjun!

Group 8, He Xiulan!

Group nine, Lin Weidong!

Group 10, Zhao Duo!

Let us congratulate the above players for advancing!"