Chapter 508 Something Normal Has Changed

"Welcome everyone to the second round of our 'Western Soy Sauce Chef Competition' national top 50 to top 3 points competition! Now, let's first appreciate the joint works of the contestants from each team!"

As He Xi stepped forward and back, the big screen began to show the dishes made by each team, just like last time. He Xi stood aside and introduced the teams while introducing the names of the dishes.

The first dish was naturally the handmade family portrait by Yu Yiyuan’s team. The family portrait was beautifully arranged and the various ingredients were also exquisite. As soon as it was displayed, it aroused applause from the audience.

The second course was the Invincible Pizza. This team, the former Fatty Team, now Team Wen Xinyuan, made a 12-inch pizza and cut it into 10 slices. Each slice was topped with a different pizza topping, a creative fusion of different styles. They had ten different styles, including Satay Beef Rib Pizza, Braised Pork with Green Peppers Pizza, and Salt-Baked Snails with Lime Pizza. It sounded like a dark dish, but it actually looked delicious.

The third team was Mao Tingxiu's. Mao Tingxiu, showcasing her Sichuan cooking prowess, simply stir-fried a rich red oil hot pot base and served it up. As for the hot pot ingredients, of course, the team members were left to their own devices. They cooked up handmade shrimp balls, spicy braised roe, handmade tamagoyaki, fried tofu balls, braised pig throat, and more, all so exquisitely prepared that at first glance, you'd hardly recognize them as destined for hot pot.

The first three teams basically had the same idea, which was what Yu Yiyuan called the "platter" model. It looked like one dish, but ten people made their own dishes and then combined them at the end.

However, the style of painting suddenly changes from the fat man.

Fatty's team made a dish they named Feng Tun Tian.

This dish is a chicken. It looks whole on the outside and is thickened with sauce, but it is actually a whole chicken that has been deboned. After deboning, the chicken's belly is stuffed with stuffing, and there is chicken stuffed in the stuffing.

If this dish has a Cantonese origin, it's probably "pigeon swallowing bird's nest" or "phoenix swallowing bird's nest." The former involves deboning a whole pigeon, stuffing it with bird's nest, steaming it, and then thickening the sauce. The latter involves deboning a whole chicken, stuffing it with shark's fin or bird's nest, steaming it, and then thickening the sauce.

However, it may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that it is the prototype, because the fat man has nothing to do with these two dishes except for deboning the whole chicken, stuffing it with stuffing and then thickening the sauce.

The fat team filled the bowl with a bunch of meatballs.

There are a bunch of various things, with white radish balls, glutinous rice balls, red dates, mushrooms, and chestnuts on the surface, but the inside is hollowed out and filled with scallops, salted egg yolks, walnuts, shrimps, lotus seeds and other fillings. It looks very time-consuming and labor-intensive at first glance, but when you cut it open again and again, it is indeed a dish that can fool people.

This dish is no longer a platter, but a collaborative dish, which is the second type mentioned by Yu Yiyuan, a collaborative dish.

As for the last team, the one led by Luo Junlang, although all members also gave it a try, their style was completely different from that of the Fatty Team, which had a strong impact on people's eyes.

Their team made a dish of stir-fried bean sprouts.

It seems that it is hard to understand why such a simple dish exists. However, when the host said that it was a copy of Empress Dowager Cixi, oh no, a replica of the silver sprouts that Cixi loved to eat, most of the contestants immediately expressed their understanding and cast admiring glances at the dish.

The first step in making this dish is to select bean sprouts, one by one, choosing those that are thick, healthy, and look durable.

Then pinch off the heads and tails of the bean sprouts, leaving only the thickest and straightest part in the middle. Then use a needle to pierce the bean sprouts one by one to hollow out the core in the middle, achieving a smooth hollow state.

After reaching the hollow state, the bean sprouts that were supposed to be filled with pureed chicken are stuffed with very fine shredded chicken or ham, or injected with ham puree, chicken puree, etc. by syringe. Finally, the bowl is prepared with starch, and the stuffed bean sprouts are lightly fry with oil after heating to 30% to 40% and adding side dishes. Then they are put back into the pan, drizzled with starch sauce, stir-fried, and removed from the pan. It becomes a dish that looks like fried bean sprouts, but is actually called inlaid silver sprouts, a high-end dish that is a level higher than fried bean sprouts.

The steps are simple, but the preparation is very meticulous. Even if you have never made this dish before, it doesn’t matter. As long as you join the team of processing bean sprouts, you can play an important role in this dish.

After all, bean sprouts are thin and fragile, and washing them will damage them, not to mention that they have to be filled again after being pierced with a needle.

After Luo Junlang's team quickly confirmed and chose this dish, ten people were busy all day picking and filling bean sprouts. They finally filled a plate, but the seasoning and heat were not ideal, so they filled a new plate again. They were scratching their heads and going crazy before this dish was successfully served to the judges' table.

Zhao Xiaojing was amazed when listening to He Xi's explanation. In comparison, the dishes made by her team were the most normal, even a little abnormal among the five teams.

All five teams chose to cook the same dish, which means their basic scores were the same, and they all got 230 points. After He Xi made a brief announcement, the judges began to exercise their right to deduct points above the basic score.

The five judges will divide each team's total score equally, deduct points from the team as a whole based on their own standards, and finally add up the total to form the team's total score.

All five teams scored 230 points, which means each judge had 46 points.

Since Nan Rongquan was not there, Dang Yongge naturally took on the role of chief judge, and the responsibility of leading the judges' rhythm naturally fell on him.

"Let's start with the first team and briefly talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the first team as a whole.

The first team prepared the "Family Pork" dish, a dish that can be both homely and upscale, with each restaurant having a different flavor, but each restaurant is authentic and appealing to both the elite and the masses. I've eaten quite a few of these in Hubei and Hunan provinces over the years, but whether it's upscale or homely, the one I had here today was undoubtedly the most special.

First of all, what’s special is that this is a dish that was created by ten people working together. Each ingredient has a different style, and they compete with each other yet are harmonious.

The most remarkable of all is the soup. It seems simple, yet it perfectly balances the interplay of nine flavors. Its subtle acidity whets the appetite without overpowering the flavors of the other ingredients, enhancing the mouthfeel and layering both the soup and the ingredients. This is quite remarkable. To achieve this, the chef needs more than just solid skills; it also requires experience amassed through countless bold ideas and a heart, like the soup itself: calm and inclusive, yet true to its own unique identity.

At the same time, the change of the raw materials of the fish cakes with raw dumplings, dried bamboo shoots and fish as fillings also gave me a big surprise.

As for the shortcomings, apart from the three I mentioned, the other seven were pretty predictable and average, lacking the exploration and curiosity that evokes in the simmered dumplings, or the eye-opening surprise that comes with the fish cakes.