Chapter 101. [Latest] Is the Splendid Mountains and Rivers really a dish?

"The country is so beautiful... and so majestic!" the master said immediately with certainty.

But Chef Luo really couldn't imagine what kind of dish Ye Tian was going to make. Anyway, he had never taught her and said that his apprentice was just good at it.

"I plan to make use of our advantage of using chicken broth when making boiled cabbage. I plan to classify the different ingredients in advance, arrange them into the shape of mountains and rivers on the plate, and finally slowly pour chicken broth on them to create an effect of mountains, water, and clouds and mist." Ye Tian briefly told the chef about her idea.

Chefs Luo, Yu, and Xiao Zheng pondered the situation for a while. They seemed to recall seeing a scene with mountains, water, and mist. But was that definitely not a bonsai?

Some restaurants use ice basins to display various sashimi, which has a similar effect, but it seems a little hard to imagine making it into a dish directly.

However, everyone thought that they would know once Ye Tian finished her work. They were full of confidence in Ye Tian.

…

At three o'clock in the afternoon, after the contestants received the ingredients they ordered, the host announced the start of the competition, and the scene became lively again.

Ye Tian first prepared the chicken and bones, boiled the chicken broth, and then began to research the container provided by the organizers. She needed a large, flat, deep dish, preferably rectangular or oval.

Fortunately, there was a wide variety of plates on site, so she chose a vintage, oversized blue-and-white porcelain plate. The plate had a simple shape, which matched the landscape mood she wanted to create.

Afterwards, Ye Tian seized the moment and methodically sorted the ingredients. She blanched what needed to be blanched, deep-fried what needed to be deep-fried, and then cut the ingredients into various shapes based on the finished product image in her mind, sorting them into different ways to prepare them.

To present a series of mountains, of course you can't just pile the food on top. Not only will that not work well, but it's likely to collapse before it even forms a mountain.

Therefore, Ye Tian used green and white radishes. She first used the radishes to carve out the basic shape of the mountain. She carved not just one mountain, but several connected together, with the mountains rising and falling one after another.

Anyone can pose mountains, but how to make the mountains look more beautiful depends on your aesthetic sense and skill.

Ye Tian had studied Chinese painting and was also fond of landscape painting, so the shaping of the dishes was not too difficult for her. She placed a few radishes on the plate, even before the other ingredients were added, and the dish already looked quite artistic.

The other contestants were also busy, and the judges and the host commented from time to time and guessed what dishes the contestants were going to make.

"Look at contestant No. 16's durian pastry. It's golden yellow, with a small beak, like a bird. It should be [Two Orioles Singing in the Willows]!"

"I think you're right. Contestant 19 seems to have made a radish mountain. I wonder which line of poetry it's from? "Looking from the side, it looks like a mountain, and from the front, it looks like a peak"? "Green mountains on both sides face each other"? None of them seem like it."

"I haven't figured it out yet. It looks quite large, so it's obviously a large dish. But I have an idea about contestant #1's dish. Doesn't his dish look like a bunch of small sailboats? I'm guessing he's making [Set Sail to Cross the Ocean]."

"That makes sense. Then I think the moon shape over there is [When will the bright moon appear], hahahaha!"

"This question is quite interesting, but it's a bit difficult for the contestants!"

"Hahaha……"

…

Ye Tian finished placing the last piece of fish fillet and poured the chicken soup into the narrow-mouthed kettle. The host also announced: "Competition time is up!"

"Hello everyone, this is the final of the National Youth Cooking Skills Competition. At this moment, all 20 contestants have completed their dishes within the specified time. And I just took a look, today's dishes are based on poetry, they are all very creative, and each has its own merits! Now, please allow the judges to taste and comment on the first dish!" The host walked onto the stage in high spirits. Although he had been up all day, his professionalism still made him in high spirits.

Some of the judges were older and actually looked tired, but they still began to taste and evaluate the dishes very professionally.

Contestant No. 1's dish was indeed what the judges had guessed: "Set Sail to Cross the Sea." However, he didn't create a real sea; he simply drew a few lines. The sailboats were the main course, which was actually stuffed peppers. He cut the peppers in half, minced and seasoned the meat, stuffed the peppers with it, and steamed them. He then pierced a slice of white radish with a toothpick to create the shape of a sailboat.

After the judges tried the stuffed peppers, they thought it tasted just like ordinary stuffed peppers, but it was still considered to be one of the better ones.

Moreover, contestant No. 1's dish also met the requirements of the topic and indeed presented the effect of "setting sail to cross the vast ocean" in the poem. The taste of the dish was also remarkable, and the judges nodded frequently after eating it.

Next is contestant No. 2. He came up with the topic of this competition, so the dishes he cooks will definitely attract more attention.

The shape of the dish he made was indeed very special, it was two huge golden peony flowers, and the name of the dish was [Only Peony is the True National Beauty].

"This is actually a dish from the Qing Dynasty palace. The peony petals are fish fillets. An experienced chef will cut the grass carp into even fillets, fry them, and then arrange the fillets into the shape of peonies, adding stamens and green leaves, which looks very much like a realistic peony. When eating, pick up a petal and dip it in the sauce, which is spicy, sour, sweet, and has several flavors. If this dish is well made, it is very classic and delicious. I was fortunate to have eaten it once." Chief Judge Wang commented, with an expression as if he was reminiscing.

"This dish requires very high knife skills, heat control and seasoning. Let's try it," he added.

The other judges and contestants were also looking at the two peonies, but to be honest, although the shape of the flowers was a bit interesting, and contestant No. 2 showed a hint of pride from time to time, the peonies he displayed were indeed not so "beautiful and beautiful", but rather a bit wilted, and the leaves did not look very symmetrical.

The judges picked up the fish fillets in turn, dipped them in the sauce and started to taste them, but no one looked surprised.

Contestant No. 2 was expecting praise from the judges, but it didn't come. He thought the judges might wait until the final scoring to tell him, and the chief judge had just explained the origin of the dish.

He had practiced this dish several times before, and he felt that he had done a very good job of recreating it.

Soon it was Xiaozheng's turn. He took his work to the next level, but the finished product was not as sloppy as he said. The whole building was very exquisite and people couldn't bear to eat it.

"The building has a simple and quaint shape, and the food is well matched!" said one judge.

"It tastes good!" said another judge after tasting it.

Next, the judges evaluated the dishes one by one. Some of the dishes had nice presentations, such as [Two Orioles Singing in the Green Willows]. Unfortunately, he only made two durian pastries, and the judges had to cut them into small pieces and eat them separately. Moreover, it was just a dessert, so the taste was inevitably too monotonous.

There were also dishes that were completely irrelevant to the theme, and one person used lyrics instead of a poem. Fortunately, the dishes tasted okay.

After seeing all kinds of strange dishes, the judges finally came to Ye Tian's dishes. They were also very curious.

Ye Tian picked up the narrow-mouthed kettle and slowly poured the boiling hot chicken soup into the plate.

Mist rose up, swirling and dancing in the disk, and a beautiful scene of mountains and rivers suddenly appeared. Next to the mountain peak, a red sun rose into the sky.

The judges were reluctant to blink, and their faces were filled with surprise, as if they saw the rising sun, the majestic China, and the beautiful rivers and mountains from this dish.

"The land is so beautiful that it attracts countless heroes to compete for it..."

The room was completely silent, everyone was immersed in it. After a while, the chief judge came to his senses and picked up the serving chopsticks.

"Is this... really edible?" He was a little unsure. Was it really a dish in front of him? It was clearly a miniature landscape painting!

"How...do we eat this?" Another judge was also a little hesitant.

Ye Tian explained with a smile: "You can directly pick up the vegetables on the surface of the mountain. This is mushroom, that is fish fillet, and there are bamboo shoots over there..."

"Because they have been processed in advance, the vegetables are cooked and can be eaten directly, or they can be soaked in chicken soup and eaten with the soup." She then gestured with her hands.

The chief judge, reluctantly, tentatively picked up a piece of mushroom, fearing that it would ruin the shape of the landscape.

A female judge next to me was studying the sun behind. How did that carrot slice suddenly rise?

The chief judge carefully placed the shiitake mushroom in his mouth. The unique flavor of the mushroom, tinged with chicken broth and a fresh aroma from some unknown treatment, exploded in his mouth. It reminded him of the eggplant that Granny Liu ate when she visited the Grand View Garden. It was so delicate and flavorful that it made him forget the original appearance of the ingredient.

The other judges began to taste one by one, but they all carefully picked up a piece from one place. No one wanted to destroy the harmonious beauty on the plate.

"You can also try the soup!" Ye Tian reminded in a low voice.

The judges then picked up the spoon and took a sip of the soup.

The soup was still very hot, with steam rising from the spoon, like a waterfall with fairy air, and drinking it could make one ascend to heaven and become an immortal.

As soon as the judges took a sip of the soup, they suddenly felt as if their souls and spirits flew away with joy. Their whole bodies became very light and they seemed to be floating. Then, as the soup entered their stomachs, their souls and spirits slowly returned to their bodies.

So, they all stretched out their spoons and drank a second spoonful...