Chapter 97: The Arena of Gourmet Food Variety Show about "MasterChef"...
This "Alice" from the East has won unanimous praise from everyone for her ability to cook delicious meals and her high emotional intelligence.
The Knight Tavern was doing good business every day, and Ye Wan was also very busy. Sometimes she would think about how to sneak into the palace quietly, after all, Yuan was most likely to be there. But obviously, the Holy Rose Palace was a heavily guarded place, and it was difficult for Ye Wan to sneak in alone.
While working at the Knight Tavern, she also helped Xiao Hui resolve a bullying incident. Because Xiao Hui was a little wolf cub, many children bullied him, saying that he was a werewolf's descendant and refused to play with him. Xiao Hui was very sad and secretly hid in the quilt and cried at night.
Ye Wan came up with an idea. She used the blueberries, green grapes and cherry tomatoes in the kitchen to coat them with a thin layer of icing sugar, just like a layer of diamonds on the fruits. It looked very beautiful and tasted delicious. First, bite open the sugar shell and let the icing sugar melt on the tip of the tongue. Then the sweet and sour juice of the fruit will come out. This is a modified version of candied haws.
Ye Wan would send a string of messages to every child he met, but he would not send any to the naughty kids who bullied Xiao Hui. The naughty kids would cry with envy after seeing them.
In addition to the improved version of candied haws, she also taught Xiao Hui how to make simple desserts such as cream Swiss rolls, raspberry jam pudding jelly, and chocolate tarts. After learning these, Xiao Hui transformed into the brightest wolf cub on the street, followed by a group of younger brothers.
Everyone followed him just to eat the raspberry jam pudding and milk custard he made, which made those naughty kids who bullied him and called him a werewolf very angry.
Since then, Xiao Hui looked at Ye Wan with admiration, and he wanted to help her clean the dormitory and wash clothes. Ye Wan had to spend a lot of effort to stop him every day.
Two weeks later, Ye Wan finally saw some light on how to enter the palace to find Youan.
It all started when she took muffins to the market to buy vegetables. Ten years ago, the market was not a neatly planned model market, but a messy market with stalls scattered in strange places.
Canvas awnings of various colors are undulating, and the vegetables and fruits here are stacked together in a messy manner, including plump orange pumpkins, ugly oranges with rough skin but rich juice, cabbages and purple onions piled into pyramids. Because of their bright colors, they look quite beautiful.
The smell of leather was stronger near the Blacksmith's Guild, and a master was hammering new horseshoes on the spot. Ye Wan bought a bottle of iced citrus juice for Pancake and picked up a lot of vegetables. She was about to go back to the tavern when she suddenly found a lot of people gathered around the bulletin board in the central square. She occasionally heard the crowd talking about "palace" and "cook", and her heart moved, so she squeezed into the crowd with great effort.
There was a notice posted on the public column:
To those with culinary talents in the Kingdom of Osenna and surrounding kingdoms:
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has had a poor appetite recently, and the King is deeply worried. Therefore, he is looking for cooking masters. Regardless of race, anyone can go to the guard post at the west gate of the palace to register for the cooking competition.
Participants must meet the following conditions:
1. Be an adult (according to the laws of the Kingdom of Oceana, the adult age is 17) and have no criminal record.
2. The key is to be able to use the ingredients to cook delicious dishes that will make the Crown Prince smile.
If selected, you will be kept in the palace canteen to serve, with a monthly salary of 50 gold coins.
Edward Welch, Royal Steward, by order of the King
Ye Wan's eyes lit up.
She was convinced that Yuan might have been imprisoned in the palace by some strange creature, and was looking for her under the pretext of losing his appetite.
After all, Ye Wan had never seen Youan have a poor appetite. He could even eat two big bowls of something as common as instant noodles. How could he have a poor appetite?
Ye Wan said happily to Pancake, who was lying on her shoulder, "That's great, Pancake. Now we can see Youan. He's so smart, he will definitely find a way back."
Muffin was also very happy and nodded repeatedly.
The only unhappy person should be Xiao Hui. He had just recognized the big sister, but this "brave, kind and loving" big sister Alice was about to abandon him and go to the palace. He was so sad that he even ate half a bowl of dinner less.
The man with the goatee was very happy: "Alice, Alice, when you become the royal steward, don't forget to support our tavern."
To be honest, although every day in the Knight Tavern was very busy, all the employees in the tavern were quite nice, except for the fox Nick who always wanted to bet with her and cheat her of her wages.
So Ye Wan immediately wrote down a few recipes that she was good at and gave them to them. One of them was green plum wine. She saw someone selling rouge plums at the market, which must be very good for making wine.
After toasting with everyone at the Knights' Tavern, Ye Wan stroked Little Gray's furry, round head twice, then carried his bag and some muffins to the palace to sign up.
She got off a crowded public carriage that smelled of cheap leather. The west gate of the palace was a small side gate that usually did not allow civilians to enter, but it was now packed with people.
There are chefs from famous restaurants who come here to gain experience, there are also wandering gourmets who are dressed very gorgeously and claim to have cooked for aristocrats, and there are also many young people.
The steward was a tall, white, plump man with blue eyes and a large belly. He looked at everyone very seriously:
“The first checkpoint is to line up and walk through here.”
"What is that?" Ye Wan was shocked.
But obviously, except for her, everyone else walked past the huge stone sculpture calmly, so Ye Wan had no choice but to follow in confusion.
Suddenly, the stone sculpture's eyes turned red, it lowered its head and stretched out its huge arms, picked up a short man from the team and threw him out.
Soon two guards dragged the howling man out.
Ye Wan was stunned.
Seeing her confusion, the orange-haired girl behind her kindly explained, "Those stone statues are rocks imbued with ancient righteous magic. They can't speak, but they can sense sin. This level is about picking out the bad guys who have committed crimes."
They were not qualified to enter the palace kitchen for the time being, so the servants led them to a huge spare kitchen. It was larger and more magnificent than all the restaurant kitchens Ye Wan had ever seen (including those in Ye Wan's world). There were several rows of long stone counters that were shiny, with all kinds of copper pots and iron spoons hanging on them. Another room was filled with rare ingredients from all over the kingdom and even from foreign countries.
"This is the second round. The food will be tasted by the head chef of the kitchen. You can use any of the ingredients and seasonings here. There are no restrictions on the form or theme. One main course and one dessert. The time limit is two hours. Start now."
The crowd dispersed and all rushed to the food area. Ye Wan felt that this was a bit like the foreign variety show "Master Chef".
As expected of a palace kitchen, there were all kinds of ingredients and seasonings here. She even saw bright red Norton Highland beef, red snapper fresh from the sea, and even sea bass and catfish swimming in the pool...
The ingredients must be very fresh.
She picked up the net and accurately caught a sparkling sea bass. The fish struggled violently in the net, splashing water on her and Pancake's faces.
"This fish must be very chewy." Ye Wan said.
She skillfully pulled out the knife, and with a flash of the knife, the sea bass was already gutted on her chopping board. Ye Wan removed the scales and bones of the fish, rubbed the fish body carefully with fine salt, and then squeezed lemon juice to remove the fishy smell.
Ye Wan set up an iron pot, put the fish bones in to stew the fish broth, and sliced the fish meat into thin slices at the end. She carefully selected a bag of jasmine rice and stewed it in the copper pot.
While waiting, Ye Wan looked up and observed his surroundings. The "war" around him was burning fiercely. Some people were roughly chopping huge ribs, and some were stewing Caprera beef with beer, which was a bit similar to Cuban cuisine. It seemed that the competitors should not be underestimated.
In fact, beef is also very good, such as Sichuan-style stir-fried yellow cattle rice, but Ye Wan is not sure whether these judges can handle spicy food.
She lowered her head again, stir-fried the onions and added a spoonful of white wine. The white wine used in the palace had a much stronger fruity aroma, which exploded the moment it was put into the pot. Adding some light cream to the milky white fish broth would make the flavors more intense.
The fish fillets should be added near the end of the cooking process, briefly dipped in boiling soup, and the fish meat should be slightly curled into beautiful white flowers. Finally, beat an egg in the middle.
Then pour the rice in, and a serving of garlic and egg yolk fish soup rice is ready.
The dessert she made was a lemon curd tart. Ye Wan's dessert-making skills were not perfect, so she only chose a standard one, but she also added some small tricks to it. She put a layer of crispy oatmeal crust under the tart, which made it taste more crispy and delicious.
When the last grain of sand flowed out of the quarter-hour hourglass, everyone stopped using the spatulas.
The stern blue-eyed chef and his two apprentices passed by those exquisitely cooked and fragrant dishes one by one, and the lively atmosphere suddenly became quiet.
Ye Wan felt that the tomato-braised beef ribs made by the chef in front of him looked very delicious, but he was eliminated.
"It tastes good, but the presentation isn't sophisticated or elegant enough," the chef commented.
Ye Wan silently looked at the rice with garlic and egg yolk fish soup in front of him. This was actually an imitation of French cream stewed fish. The presentation was also good, so there should be no problem.
Soon the blue-eyed chef walked up to her, stretched out his silver spoon and tasted the soup.
Ye Wan felt that his brows seemed to relax a little. The soup was rich and smooth, with moderate spices and a slight sweetness from onions and white wine. The fish was cut very thinly and melted in the mouth. She finally added some lemon juice to prevent the cream from being too rich and greasy.
The chef nodded with satisfaction and cut off a small piece of lemon curd tart. The crispy oatmeal bottom of the tart shattered, and the cool and sweet lemon sauce with rich fruit aroma and cream rushed into his mouth. It was very refreshing, like a lemon forest in early summer.
The head chef showed a hint of approval in his eyes and nodded to the apprentice who was taking notes behind him.
Ye Wan breathed a sigh of relief, now everything was stable.
"You must wait for me, Youan."
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