As soon as the old lady said this, the other nine ordinary people who were tasting the food couldn't help but speak up, "You old lady are talking nonsense. The braised pork made by this cook is obviously the most delicious braised pork I have ever eaten in my life. I have never eaten such delicious food in my life. It's just that there is too little. It obviously deserves more points, more than 100 points, but you say this." As the old man spoke, he couldn't help swallowing his saliva. He still wanted to eat the braised pork cooked by this young lady.
The old lady chuckled and said, "Everyone has different tastes. You can't force me to give it a perfect score. If I think it's not tasty, then it's not tasty. I'm happy to give it a perfect score."
The young woman couldn't help but speak out, "Old lady, are you mad at the cook for not wanting to sell you a piece of brown sugar steamed cake for five cents a few days ago? At that time, the young lady brought some brown sugar steamed cake to eat, and your grandson was clamoring for it, asking the young lady to sell you a piece for five cents. The brown sugar steamed cake was a big piece, and it was made with eggs, beef, red dates, and raisins. The young lady said it was too expensive, and if you wanted it, it would be twenty cents a piece, and you cursed and walked away with your grandson..."
The people around suddenly understood what was going on. They said that even the judges couldn't help but finish a large piece of braised pork, so why did this old lady insist that it was not tasty? It turned out that she was holding a grudge.
"No wonder this old lady gave us such a low score. She's just trying to get back at us. What a petty person! Even though we didn't get to taste the braised pork, just the smell is enough to make us crave it. I hope the judges won't choose this old lady to taste food again. She's never fair."
"What are you talking about, my lady?" The old lady refused to admit it. "Why does she sell brown sugar steamed cakes so expensive? Besides, everyone has different tastes. I just don't think her braised pork is tasty!"
The old lady had just finished speaking when her little grandson had finished the braised pork. He then tugged at her clothes and shouted, "Grandma, I want to eat more braised pork. It's so delicious. How can it be so delicious? Grandma, grandma, I want to eat braised pork. I want to eat the braised pork she made." The little naughty child recognized Xu Qinyu and knew that the braised pork was made by her. He pointed at her and tugged at the old lady's sleeve, wanting to go over to see if there was any more braised pork in the pot.
In fact, there are still two pieces. We prepared two more pieces in case of any accidents. There are still two pieces left in Xu Qinyu's pot, which will be left for the guys who help out to try later.
Now there are only two pieces left, and the old lady is being unreasonable and giving low scores. The old gentlemen who are judging have decided to give the remaining two pieces of braised pork to two new people on the scene, let them taste them, and let them give scores.
When two more people were ordered to taste the braised pork, they both gave it full marks and said, "No wonder everyone says it's the best meat they've ever eaten. I agree, but a perfect score is only 100. Otherwise, I'd give it a thousand, ten thousand, or anything else, but it wouldn't be enough to describe how delicious this braised pork is. Only you can experience it once you've tried it."
The crowd watching the scene couldn't help but laugh out loud.
The old lady was ridiculed by everyone. When her grandson saw that the last two pieces of braised pork were eaten by others, he started to cry loudly. The old lady was really embarrassed and angrily pulled her grandson to leave. However, the grandson had tasted such delicious braised pork and was unwilling to leave easily. In the end, he was dragged away by the old lady.
Now, only ten ordinary people have given their scores first. The judges have not given their scores yet. After the old lady made such a fuss, all the judges gave their scores. Although the young cook is not very old, the braised pork she made is indeed impeccable. It is also the most delicious braised pork they have ever eaten in their lives, and they all gave full marks.
Xu Qinyu was also the first chef to get full marks in the first round. Yang Zhizhi, Xu Yunlan and Lianhua were so happy that they clapped their hands vigorously.
After the competition, Xu Qinyu went downstairs to stay with Lianhua and the others to continue watching the competition. She did not return to Xu's until dusk fell.
Kong Kun from Zuixianlou had also been keeping an eye on Xu Qinyu. Now that he saw that she had received full marks, his face darkened. He knew in his heart that the middle and final stages would not be difficult for Xu Qinyu. It was not that this young cook knew many recipes, but that her cooking skills were just that good.
He even knew in his heart that by the time this cooking competition was over, Xu's would truly become famous throughout the southwest. By then, Zuixianlou would truly be unable to catch up to Xu's, but there was nothing he could do about it...
Because of the incident with the old lady, judges have banned old ladies from tasting the contestants’ cooking as spectators in the future.
The old lady didn't feel comfortable bringing her grandson to watch the competition for several days.
Because of Xu Qin Yu Lu's skill, many chefs learned it and went back to try to use the little chef's recipe to make braised pork. Some of them paid attention to the recipe and the heat, and the taste was very good. Some did not pay attention to the proportion of ingredients and the heat, and the braised pork they made was a bit bitter. They could only try to practice more.
In the following days, Xu Qinyu did not go to the city to watch the competition every day, because the braised pork she made in the competition attracted many more customers who came to Xu Ji to eat. Some of them were not from Raozhou City, but came from other cities specifically to watch this cooking competition. They all came to Xu Ji to eat and ordered the braised pork, which was made by Xu Qinyu herself. After they tasted the braised pork, they finally understood why they all gave it full marks.
This time, the braised pork that Xu Qinyu stewed was simmered in a casserole over low heat for a full hour. It became even softer and more glutinous, and melted in the mouth, leaving a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth, and the mouth was filled with the residual meat aroma.
After they had tried all the signature dishes of Xu Ji, they found that not only the braised pork made by the young chef was delicious, but all the other dishes were also tasty. They were reluctant to leave Xu Ji. Some of them did not even want to watch the competition. They stayed in Xu Ji every day to eat breakfast and dinner, then go to the hot springs, take in the beautiful scenery around, and listen to storytelling. The storytelling at Xu Ji was better than anywhere else, with exciting and tortuous stories. Why would they want to go to watch the competition?
In addition, the number of fish balls, fish heads, and braised fish sold at Xu Ji’s store has increased a lot compared to before, and they are all bought by ordinary people in the city.
Twenty judges in a row learned that Xu Qinyu was the owner and chef of Xu Ji, and they all wanted to come and taste Xu Ji's food. However, they were judges and had to avoid suspicion. Before the end of the competition, they could not go to the restaurant of the chefs who participated in the competition to eat. They all stayed in the same inn and ate the same food. In order to taste the flavors, they had to eat light meals during these days.
Fortunately, time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, a few days later, the preliminary competition was over. In the end, only one hundred people passed the initial competition and entered the mid-term competition.
…
The first round of the competition was for braised pork, with the emphasis on the red case.
Hong'an is a cooking method that uses meat and other side dishes to prepare various dishes.
The mid-game competition is about making pastries. All pastries are made from white dough, and there is no stir-frying.
The pastry in the middle of the game is also simple. There are only two interviews, one sweet and one salty. You can make anything as long as it is a pasta pastry. Except for the flour, you can also submit other requirements to the judges.
The one hundred chefs drew lots again to decide the order of appearance in the competition.
This time Xu Qinyu drew number eight, which meant it was basically her turn in the first round. She wrote down the ingredients and kitchen utensils she required, gave them to the judges, and then went back out of the city.
We will have a day off tomorrow. The judges will prepare ingredients and kitchen utensils for everyone, and the halftime competition will begin the day after tomorrow.
Xu Qinyu knew that even the halftime match was the same as ten years ago, and the second match was a white case.
To put it bluntly, it is a pure test of the chef's skills in both cooking and non-cooking, and a pure test of the chef's cooking skills.
Unlike some competitions in later generations, which have many varieties.
However, even in later generations, the larger the cooking competition, the simpler it is, as it tests the chef's cooking skills and foundation.
On the third day, Xu Qinyu went out early in the morning.
This time, in addition to Lianhua, Yang Zhizhi and Xu Yunlan also went as usual.
A few days ago, the mothers and sisters-in-law of the two families returned to Yuanbao Town after watching Xu Qinyu's competition. Knowing that the two were good sisters with Xu Qinyu, they did not urge them to go back. They let them stay in Xu's house and watch the competition with peace of mind. It would not be too late to go back after the final match.
The four of them drove the carriage to the street outside the prefectural government office.
The mid-game competition is also simple. Each person is given five hours, which is ten hours, basically a whole day. There is plenty of time. There are twenty chefs participating at a time, and the mid-game competition can be completed in five days.
The reason for five hours is that many pasta dishes, such as steamed buns and dumplings, require fermentation. The fermentation of pasta is also very important in pastry making, and it can even be said to be the most important point, because if the dough is not fermented well, the taste of the pasta will be completely wrong.
It takes two or three hours to ferment the dough in the summer, and even longer when the weather is cold.
The rules for the mid-game are slightly different from the initial round, and the top ten in the scoring can advance.
This time the grading will be more difficult.
When we arrived at the scene, there were already quite a few people waiting. Everyone recognized Xu Qinyu, and when they saw her coming over, many people greeted her.
"Ms. Xu, how are you? What kind of noodles are you planning to make today?"
"Will Miss Xu make breakfast at Xu's? I've heard that Xu's breakfast is delicious, with things like custard buns, crystal shrimp dumplings, steamed siu mai, and so on. Even I've never tried them. I was thinking that if Miss Xu makes breakfast at Xu's today, maybe we can get some of the treat."
Xu Qinyu just smiled and didn't answer.
She didn't plan to make custard buns or Xu's breakfast today. What she wanted to make was simple and complicated at the same time.
Soon, all the contestants arrived. The twenty contestants in the first round prepared at least forty stoves, countless steamers, and other miscellaneous tableware.
Xu Qinyu asked for two large stoves and a lot of steamers, as well as eggs, milk, two kinds of dried amaranth, papaya, pork belly, green onions, coriander and other ingredients, as well as a lot of seasonings.
When she asked for milk, dried amaranth and papaya, many judges were curious and wanted to know what the little cook wanted these things for.
I was also worried that she wouldn't be good at cooking white pastries. There are many chefs who are very good at cooking red pastries but are completely terrible at cooking white pastries.
The champion they want must be the most outstanding in both red and white dishes. If this young cook is not good at white dishes, they can only reluctantly eliminate her. After all, it is very rare to see someone so young and so talented in cooking, not to mention that she is a young lady. It is really amazing and unexpected.
When the judging started, Xu Qinyu ignored everyone else and calmly started kneading the dough.
Many other chefs still add water and flour in several batches when kneading the dough. Otherwise, there will be either too much water or too much flour, and they will knead the dough slowly.
Xu Qinyu was completely different. She mixed the ratio of water and flour at one time, and poured a large bucket of warm water directly into several prepared bowls of flour. In addition, she also poured an appropriate amount of milk and beat eggs into the flour, and then poured the soaked amaranth water into the flour according to the proportion.
Before she kneaded the dough, she had already washed and soaked the two kinds of amaranth for a while, and then put the soaked amaranth into two small pots to boil them to boil out the pigment inside.
There is also amaranth here, which contains the most natural red and blue pigments, which can be used to color the dough.
She also squeezed the juice from the papaya and poured it into another smaller bowl. There was a small amount of flour in this small bowl, so she added a little water, an egg, and then the papaya juice. Soon the dough in the bowl turned into a light orange-yellow color.
After the boiled amaranth water has cooled, pour it into the other two bowls of flour, one with more flour and the other with less flour.
In addition to these three colors of dough, there is also an ordinary dough, which is made by adding warm water and flour. Nothing else is added. The kneaded dough is directly put into the old dough for fermentation.
Both the judges and the crowd watching below were a little stunned. They thought Miss Xu was amazing, but they were also a little confused about what kind of noodles she wanted to make.
The judges were also nervous. Seeing that the young cook was so skilled in kneading dough and didn't even need to add water in batches, they knew she must be able to make pasta and plain pastries. But how come she made dough of so many different colors, some even with milk and some with eggs? It was really strange. What on earth was she trying to do?
Xu Qinyu added old dough lumps to several pots of kneaded dough for fermentation, and then placed them in a steamer. There was no open flame in the stove, only a few pieces of charcoal, and the residual heat of the charcoal was also used to ferment the dough.
Because it is autumn and the weather is a bit cold, the dough ferments very slowly. If you use the residual heat of the charcoal fire to ferment it, it will be much faster. Just be careful not to over-ferment it or use too much charcoal fire. Just steam the dough until it is cooked.
While the dough was rising, everyone had nothing to do, so they just waited by the side. It was a bit boring, so Xu Qinyu didn't start preparing for the next step.
The two pasta dishes she was going to make were indeed simple, but not simple either.
There are two kinds of pasta, the sweet one is made with eggs and milk, which can be considered as milk steamed buns, but not simple milk steamed buns. She plans to make "National Color and Heavenly Fragrance", which is peony steamed buns. It really requires the skills of the pastry chef. It is very troublesome to make peony flower dough, so she did not make such complicated and tedious milk steamed buns in Xu Ji, but handed it over to Da Niu privately. Da Niu has a talent for making pasta. Now she has a variety of exquisite pasta patterns that are very good. When she is more proficient, Xu Ji will also be able to add these exquisite and beautiful pasta.
There was one salty dish left, so she planned to make steamed buns. Steamed buns are simple to make, but if you want them to taste good, you have to prepare the filling well.
The dough has not yet fermented, so she is not in a hurry to prepare the filling. She can just wait until the dough is almost fermented before preparing the filling.
The twenty chefs had basically kneaded the dough and were ready to ferment it. They were just waiting for the rest of the time, and the people below were also talking about it.
"What is Miss Xu planning to do? Why did you add amaranth juice and papaya juice? I see the dough is green, red, and yellow."
"It must be the same as the braised pork. Even though the cooking method is weird, it tastes good."
"That's right, although Miss Xu's cooking method is strange, it is really delicious."
"Then we'll just wait."
Many people are still looking forward to what Xu Qinyu wants to do.
The same was true for the twenty judges in a row. They paid more attention to Xu Qinyu than anyone else, and their eyes were on Xu Qinyu almost the entire time.
In this way, everyone rested for at least two hours, and the dough fermentation was gradually completed.
Some people don’t know the fermentation status of the dough, so they always open the lid every hour to check the fermentation status of the dough.
Xu Qinyu was completely different. After about two hours, she smelled the smell and knew the fermentation of the dough. She opened the lid and saw that all the dough had been fermented. The dough had expanded a lot. Although the surface was smooth, when she tore it open with her hands, she found that the inside was densely packed with honeycombs and had excellent elasticity.
She took out the dough and began to knead the dough to prepare folding the petals.
"Did you notice that Miss Xu never opened the lid during the entire process? By the time she did, the dough had already risen."
"Yes, it seems that Miss Xu is also good at pasta."
"Did you see what Miss Xu is doing? Why doesn't she knead the dough and cut it into pieces? She kneads the dough like this, rolls the dough out like this, and even uses chopsticks to wrinkle the edges. What is she trying to do?"
"So what exactly is Miss Xu planning to do? Why can't I tell at all, is she really going to make noodles?"
Xu Qinyu did not hear the whispers below, all her attention was on what was in front of her.
Layer upon layer of petals are rolled out, and then the edges of the dough are rolled out thinly to carve out the patterns of the petals. There are large patches of purple-red petals, and then there are thin orange-yellow stamens. Then, the fingers somehow wrap these petals around the stamens, and gently shake them, and a gorgeous, elegant and majestic peony flower appears in front of everyone.
In addition to this whole blooming peony flower, Xu Qinyu rolled out green dough into leaves, and then used a knife to carve leaf patterns on the green leaves. With the accompaniment of green leaves, the flowers look even more delicate and beautiful.
A flower of national beauty and heavenly fragrance is completed.
The crowd below was dumbfounded. They had no idea what to say and thought they were hallucinating.
Everyone was stunned. After a long while, someone finally stammered, "Isn't this a peony?"
The peony flowers were so realistic and vivid, with layers of petals, elegant, delicate and beautiful, just like a real peony flower appeared before their eyes.
"I, am I really not seeing things? How did this turn into a peony? Can a steamed bun be made to look like a peony?"
"My God, my life is really worth it. I even saw pastries like this."
"Oh my god, this is the first time I've seen this kind of pastry. Is this made of noodles? It really doesn't look like they picked a peony flower and placed it in front of us."
The judges were all stunned as they stared at the peony flower made by Xu Qinyu. The other contestants were even more dumbfounded. They stopped working and stared at the peony flower in front of Xu Qinyu.
Xu Qinyu ignored everyone else and continued to make flower balls with swift hands and feet.
She was extremely fast and obviously very skilled, and one graceful and elegant peony flower after another appeared before everyone.
Soon, Xu Qinyu made several steamers of peonies. She made thirty-five flowers. In addition to the ten flowers that were randomly selected on the spot, there were still a few more flowers.
After she put the peonies into the pot and started steaming them, she began to prepare the filling for the steamed buns.
The other chefs hardly moved, their attention almost entirely focused on Xu Qinyu. Only when she put the peonies into the steamer and started steaming them did they all come back to their senses and start working. Everyone knew in their hearts that this young chef was probably going to get full marks again.
Kong Kun had been watching from the sidelines, and by this moment, he knew his defeat was justified. Even without tasting the food, his skillful pastry-making skills alone were unmatched. His pastry skills had been mediocre before, and that was the reason for his initial defeat. He had spent the past ten years diligently practicing his pastry skills, but now he found himself no match for this young cook, barely twenty years old.
Kong Kun sighed softly. His father also said that he was a good cook and told him not to worry. He also said that he would definitely be the champion this time.
But with a genius like Miss Xu around, it's not his turn.
However, after seeing Miss Xu's craftsmanship, he was already convinced.
Xu Qinyu was still preparing the filling. Making flower rolls was even simpler. He prepared pork and green onions, and added chili oil made from dogwood and Sichuan pepper powder, as well as the five-spice powder and salt he had just ground himself. He spread the prepared filling evenly on the dough, then rolled up the dough, cut it into fist-sized pieces, pressed it in the middle with chopsticks, and lifted up the two sides. Then a flower roll with pepper and sesame pork filling was ready.
She prepared a lot of steamed buns, at least three large layers of steamers, each layer could hold about twenty buns, for a total of about seventy steamed buns.
Because she was hungry herself, and the extra food could be shared with Zhizhi, Yunlan and Lianhua.
By the time the flower rolls are put into the steamer, the peony flowers over there are not yet steamed. Such a large steamer needs to steam for at least 25 minutes.
When she smelled the flavor, Xu Qinyu removed the firewood from the pot, and the air was filled with the sweet aroma of milk and noodles.
The flower rolls were not yet steamed, so Xu Qinyu did not open the steamer on the 'Peony Flower' side.
When the steamed buns were done and the aroma of meat mixed with a strange aroma of pepper, sesame and green onion wafted out, Xu Qinyu knew that the buns were done and unloaded the firewood here.
She first opened the lid of the peony flower pot, and everyone stretched their necks to look into her steamer. Even the steamed 'peony flower' buns were not soft, but still as plump and blooming as before steaming. As soon as the lid was opened, the sweet smell became more intense.
Everyone was amazed and didn't know what to say. They just admired Miss Xu in their hearts.
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