Chapter 527 Final
The apprenticeship was settled, and as soon as the old man left, Fatty dragged Yu Yiyuan into the four-person group, then immediately started a group video chat with Wen Xinyuan, boasting about the apprenticeship as if he were the one who became the apprentice. Wen Xinyuan, like everyone else, was thrilled. Seeing the four of them together, he kept shouting that he was the only one missing, and that Zhao Xiaojing must include him when the time came for the official apprenticeship. He even forgot his resentment at Fatty dragging Yu Yiyuan, the handsome guy he had always envied, into the group.
After the hiccup, the four of them continued working. Today was the fifth day, and tomorrow morning, the three of them would take the stage for the finals, where they would compete for first, second, and third place.
Therefore, the four of them practiced with all their might.
But while they were preparing to compete with each other, the four of them were talking and laughing, correcting each other, and there was harmony among them.
It was already the last day, and Nan Rongquan had already corrected and taught everything he needed to. Too much is as bad as too little, so he ate his meal and did not come over again.
The four of them practiced until eleven o'clock in the evening before returning to the dormitory to rest.
Zhao Xiaojing had a competition early the next morning, so she didn't enter the virtual space again. Instead, she took the time to sleep so that she could get enough rest for the battle.
Just before bed, I flipped through my empty system backpack again, feeling a pity for the upcoming apprenticeship. I remember I was rewarded with a late-night training coupon, which allowed me to practice all night and still be energetic the next day. Now even that coupon is empty.
Fortunately, Loulan Juan decisively learned the oil-fried double crispy technique at that time, otherwise it would have been a real loss.
Amidst her mixed thoughts, Zhao Xiaojing fell into a deep sleep without realizing it.
…
"Welcome everyone to our final! Today, we have finally ushered in the most exciting moment. Our contestants Yu Yiyuan, Zhao Xiaojing and Zhao Duo have gone through layers of selection and finally reached the final stage of the top three in the country. Let us welcome them with applause!" He Xi was still full of passion.
Amidst applause, the three people came on stage one by one. As they came on stage, the big screen played a clip of footage from the preliminary round to the final, accompanied by He Xi's passionate voice introducing his professional experience and achievements, which inexplicably made people feel excited.
They were used to the previous few shows being recorded and no one was watching, so when they first saw the full audience in the audience room and the enthusiastic applause for the three of them, they were a little uncomfortable.
"Do you think this is a stooge or a real fan?" The fat man stood on the stage with a stiff smile and made a sound through his teeth.
"It must be a scam. I haven't heard that the program recruited fans to watch the finals." Zhao Xiaojing also replied with a stiff smile.
"I also think it's a sting, otherwise the recording time would be too long. Food shows are no different from other ones. You are far away, you can't see the food, and you can't eat it even if you want to." Yu Yiyuan whispered.
"Now, let us once again give warm applause to encourage our contestants and invite them to the finals!" After introducing the competition system and rules, He Xi stretched out his left hand and pointed to the left.
The lights on the left lived up to expectations and all turned on at once.
Three exquisite and majestic competition tables lined up in a row sparkled under the spotlight.
The three of them breathed a sigh of relief and quickly stood still.
"Now, let's count down together. Three, two, one! Game on!"
As He Xi counted down, the three of them moved at the same time.
As he started moving, He Xi's commentary voice as the background sound also faded, and only the ingredients remained in front of him.
Cut the chicken, duck and pork elbow into pieces, wash them, blanch them, skim off the foam and keep the original soup.
Rinse again with warm water, put it in the pot after washing, and turn to low heat after high heat.
During this period, start boiling scallion oil, pepper oil, make scallion and pepper paste, and make scallion and pepper paste cooking wine.
In the middle, remove the soft green onion leaves from the soup and stir the soup pot slightly.
Cai was a beginner and had no understanding of the dish yet, so he could only copy it. Therefore, the three of them strictly followed Nan Rongquan's instructions and their movements were exactly the same.
The three were a little nervous at first because the audience was sitting below the stage, but once they put in the soup and boiled the oil, it was like they were back to practice time. They started chatting while doing it. In the middle, Zhao Xiaojing even washed a few cucumbers out of habit. After washing, she found that Nan Rongquan would not be on stage today, so she gave two to Yu Yiyuan and Fatty. The three of them each took a cucumber and started to chew on it.
After the soup has been cooked for a long enough time, the dry ingredients are taken out and the soup begins to dry. The three of them have finished all the miscellaneous work and all the miscellaneous ingredients have been prepared.
Although it was the finals, the showmanship of the scallion-fried sea cucumber was very low-key and could not be noticed by the audience who did not understand. The four of them practiced together all day and knew each other very well. There was no tense or exciting atmosphere. After the audience in the audience were not sure whether they were excited because the program crew asked them to or they were really excited, they gradually calmed down and even had the leisure to chat and gossip in groups of three or four.
Almost at the same time, the three people finished sweeping the soup for the second time, and the big screen switched to close-ups of their hands and the finished soup in a timely manner.
The audience also responded with a burst of "Wow" exclamations.
After this exclamation, the most critical part of the scallion-fried sea cucumber came.
Put a bag of sea cucumbers in a cage cloth, add pepper oil and dry ingredients at the bottom, pour out half of the clear soup just out of the pot, add about 1 gram of salt to adjust the base flavor, and simmer over low heat.
The three of them put the casserole on at the same time, started to heat the oil and fry the onions, then turned off the heat almost at the same time, took out the onions, started to fry the sugar color, make the onion juice, set the taste, and steam the onions.
Even though the stage had been equipped with ventilation facilities, the onion fragrance still found its way into the audience seats, making them slightly restless.
The three people on the stage raced against time to take out the stewed sea cucumbers and start pulling out the oil.
Heat the scallion oil to 60%. When the chopsticks touching the oil are about to produce large bubbles, scoop up the sea cucumber and put it into the oil pan together with the spoon. Quickly scoop in a spoonful of oil and let it sizzle on the surface of the sea cucumber for a few seconds. Then immediately pour the sea cucumber and the oil into the colander.
Then pour hot water over it, and as small bubbles continue to appear in the sea cucumber's belly, count the seconds before stopping.
Finally, the sauce.
Finally, drain the onion juice and pour it into the pot, then add the sea cucumber and cook until it is well-seasoned.
After three minutes, the juice will be reduced by half. Add a little MSG, a spoonful of starch sauce, and half a spoonful of pepper oil. Turn off the heat, arrange on a plate, and serve.
The fat man was the first to come out of the pot, Zhao Xiaojing was the second, and Yu Yiyuan was the third.
From start to finish, a whole morning passed by unnoticed.
As usual, the judges, led by Nan Rongquan, walked to the table immediately and started tasting the food while it was still hot.
He Xi also followed into the competition area. After the six judges tasted three sea cucumbers, he took the microphone and started interviewing.
Nan Rongquan smiled and said matter-of-factly, "Our competition is a re-creation of scallion-fried sea cucumber. Time is short, and scallion-fried sea cucumber is a dish that requires considerable skill and experience. The three contestants have great potential, and I think achieving this is already quite good. But if you ask me if it tastes good, then to be honest, it can't be."
"Teacher Nan speaks the truth, but he's a bit too modest. Let me put it this way: you might not find a chef as selfless as Teacher Nan anywhere in the world, willing to share such a valuable recipe. You might also not find three people who can create such a delicious scallion-fried sea cucumber in just five days. It might not be delicious, but we're competing on the level of perfection in replicating it. And just because it's not delicious now doesn't mean it won't be delicious in the future. I foresee that, given time, these three chefs will become great chefs."
As soon as Nan Rongquan started speaking the truth, several judges who had prepared a lot of flowery words to praise the food were at a loss as to what to do. Then the highly emotional Dang Yongge next to him followed suit. So they changed their tone and stopped praising the taste of the scallion-fried sea cucumber. Instead, they praised the contestants' potential and bright future, as well as Nan Rongquan's selfless teaching spirit.
After a long period of flattery, He Xi asked Nan Rongquan to explain in detail the difficulties of making braised sea cucumber with scallions and the degree of completion of the three contestants, and then asked the judges to return to the judges' seats to begin the final scoring.
The final score is still in the form of an average score. After the six judges pondered for a while and gave the scores, the final score was finally released.
He Xi stood in the center of the stage with the soy sauce bottle of his sponsor.
"Let's congratulate the third-place finisher in the national finals. She's..."
"Zhao Duo!"
There was thunderous applause, the fat man grinned and stood on the stage.
Zhao Xiaojing in the back clenched her fists, feeling very nervous.
After an award acceptance speech and another passionate summary, He Xi once again picked up the soy sauce bottle with a sense of ceremony and opened the cardboard underneath.
"Now, let us all give a warm round of applause to congratulate the second-place finisher in the national finals..."
"Yu Yiyuan!"
Another round of loud cheers and applause.
Yu Yiyuan turned his head and gave Zhao Xiaojing a smile full of admiration, then also stood on the stage.
Zhao Xiaojing smiled back in a daze. Time seemed to be fast and slow at the same time. She was excited, anxious, happy, at a loss, and had a million things in mind. She felt that everything in front of her was unreal, like a phantom. All the applause and the surging background music became blurred pictures. Only her own heartbeat was left like a drum, reminding her of the reality of this moment.
"First place... Zhao Xiaojing!"
He Xi smiled at Zhao Xiaojing and gestured for her to come in, and the matter was settled.
Zhao Xiaojing smiled slowly and walked onto the stage.
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