Chapter 516 Ingredient Competition
"Our competition is very simple. It's a test of hand strength. All chefs have hand strength, so we'll just compete in the basics of carrying sand. There are eight pounds of sand in the pot, and the pot weighs ten pounds. If you can carry a single pot with one hand for five minutes, you'll pass. If you can carry a double pot with two hands, you'll pass for three minutes," said the staff.
Everyone stared.
It is indeed simple to say. The basic training of a chef starts with carrying sand, but the maximum training is to put 8 kilograms of sand in the pot, and it takes 5 minutes. To carry 10 kilograms, do you still need to use a single pot or two pots?
Who can carry 10 kilograms and hold two pots in one hand!
"When holding a pot, you must hold it flat, not with your arms tucked under you." A staff member demonstrated the standard pot-holding technique, holding an empty pot. "The contestant who holds the pot the longest wins first place. Holding a single pot takes twice as long as holding a double pot. The first place winner chooses the ingredients first, the second place winner chooses second, and the rest of the finishers choose together. Before the rankings are determined, no contestant may leave or select ingredients unless they give up their prize ingredients."
Several people gasped.
There's even a plot where they can't leave until the competition is over. If they encounter a strong opponent in the competition and have to hold the blame for an hour, they'll be trapped here by a conspiracy? So this is where the production team's trap is!
"On your marks, contestants, take your pots."
Seven people hurried forward, two of them took double pots and five of them took single pots.
Zhao Xiaojing naturally took a double pot.
"start!"
Zhao Xiaojing held the double pots steadily to a horizontal position. Since she was the only female chef and the competition was about strength, the photographer carried the camera and took pictures of her, which attracted the attention of several chefs.
After five minutes, the person holding the single pot immediately put down three.
Everyone was there to compete in strength, so naturally, only the strongest of the group showed up. Even with the added weight, no one was eliminated midway. However, after weighing the weights, knowing they couldn't take first place, there was no need to push their luck. So, the strategy was to simply finish and let go once the time was up.
After eight minutes, put down another one in the single pot.
After thirteen minutes, the man holding the single pot looked at Zhao Xiaojing and the other burly male chef holding the double pot, thought for a moment, and put down the pot.
After fifteen minutes, the male chef who was carrying the double pots had sweat on his forehead. He kept holding the pots and turned his head to look at Zhao Xiaojing.
Zhao Xiaojing didn't even break a sweat and didn't move at all.
The five chefs who came out were stunned.
Eighteen minutes later, the male chef carrying the double pot looked at Zhao Xiaojing, whose expression was calm, for the eleventh time.
"I lost, I lost! Sister, I'm really impressed by your stubbornness!" The male chef gritted his teeth, put down the double pots, flexed his wrists with a grin, and shouted at Zhao Xiaojing.
Zhao Xiaojing glanced at him with a sullen smile, adjusted her breathing, and gently put the pot down.
Now the ingredients for Mrs. Song’s fish soup can be prepared.
Zhao Xiaojing was the first, bypassing many beautiful fish and shrimps and choosing pen eels, frogs, and mandarin fish.
The staff member registered Zhao Xiaojing and put a label on her. Then Zhao Xiaojing left the small hall and went to the next game.
The second task assigned to Zhao Xiaojing was knife skills, and the ingredients were seasonal vegetables.
The first round of knife skills was competed by Yu Yiyuan, who is recognized for his strong knife skills in Huaiyang cuisine, but he could not take all the seasonal vegetables at once, so Zhao Xiaojing had to come over for the second round to take the ingredients that Yu Yiyuan had not taken.
As soon as I arrived at the door, I met Yu Yiyuan who was waiting for me.
"I picked three kinds: spring bamboo shoots, kale, and wolfberry tips."
"Great! I got pen eels, frogs, and mandarin fish."
"Awesome. I'm off to the next one then."
The cell phone was taken away, and the five people decided to hand it over in pairs. After the first round, the person Zhao Xiaojing needed to hand over the information to was Yu Yiyuan.
Zhao Xiaojing nodded and entered the second game.
There were not enough people, so we had to wait for 5 more people before the second game started.
I originally thought it was a competition of knife skills, either in terms of speed or beauty, but as soon as I walked in, I saw several cutting boards, each with a large water-filled balloon and half a radish on it.
The knife skills in this competition require cutting on a water-filled balloon!
"The balloon can't burst, the water can't leak out. Use the straw hat knife technique, and the one who cuts the thinnest is the winner."
Zhao Xiaojing soaked the hand cloth on the chopping board in water and wrung it dry, then placed it on the balloon and carefully placed half a radish on it. After thinking for a moment, she cut off the head and tail of the radish, leaving only a thin slice about one centimeter thick in the middle.
Cutting vegetables on a balloon is too tricky. Zhao Xiaojing can cut it no matter how thin it is, but she still wants to be safe.
For fear that the balloon would burst, everyone cut it very carefully. What could have been done in half a minute took Zhao Xiaojing ten minutes to complete.
Two of the impatient ones cut the balloons, and water leaked into their pants, and they hurriedly left the competition area.
In the fifteenth minute, after another contestant accidentally cut the balloon, the last contestant finally finished cutting it.
After two were eliminated, the first and second place winners were determined from the remaining three.
The thickness of the three looked similar, so the staff diligently took out a vernier caliper to measure them.
In the end, Zhao Xiaojing won with a slight margin of 0.04cm thinner than the second place.
Zhao Xiaojing chose carrots, leeks, and lotus roots.
Carrots were her side ingredients, leeks were from Yu Yiyuan, and lotus stems were just to make up the numbers, as she chose them because they looked particularly fresh.
After this competition, Zhao Xiaojing completed her task and all the dishes were ready, but the first place winner was also awarded personal points.
After glancing at the time and seeing that there were still 20 minutes left, Zhao Xiaojing went straight into the nearest competition hall.
As soon as I entered, several voices laughed at the same time.
Zhao Xiaojing looked up and laughed too.
Aside from one unfamiliar contestant, Fatty, Yu Yiyuan, Wen Xinyuan, and Guan Yingxia were all there. The five of them had agreed to compete and earn points in a random location after completing their respective tasks, but they unexpectedly chose the same place.
As soon as Zhao Xiaojing arrived, there were six people in the hall. The staff started the competition after a brief explanation.
This is a knowledge competition, and the reward ingredients are fruits. It's simple and each person has a Pad. The one with the fastest speed and the highest accuracy rate wins.
There were 20 questions, and Guan Yingxia won with full marks.
The five of them randomly picked the fruits they wanted to eat as if they were strolling in a vegetable garden, and walked towards their team's competition hall while eating.
The ingredients competition ended at the perfect time and the official competition began.
The fat man washed the chicken and started to make a light broth that everyone can use.
Yu Yiyuan poured the pen eel into the water, kept it in a basin temporarily, and began to peel the spring bamboo shoots.
Guan Yingxia turned on the stove, took out honey, rock sugar, salt, rice wine and ginger slices, stir-fried them slightly and then boiled them into juice.
It was too early for Zhao Xiaojing and Wen Xinyuan to cook, so they temporarily acted as handymen. Zhao Xiaojing washed and chopped the onions, ginger and other ingredients, while Wen Xinyuan soaked the duck and began to boil lard, onion oil and cooking oil.
At half past eleven, except for the vegetables that had not been touched for fear of staleness after washing, Zhao Xiaojing had finished all the chores, Wen Xinyuan had finished boiling the oil, Yu Yiyuan had processed the bamboo shoots, and the fat man's hanging soup was left in the pot, and the four of them looked at each other.
Compared with Guan Yingxia, they seem like salted fish.
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