novelQuarter-finals - (2)
| ← Ch.097 | Ch.099 → |
Chapter 98
In addition to fried rice, there were also many contestants who made chow mien. But they too had nothing new to offer, so they weren't able to get much votes.
Zha Panpan finally used the steamer. She made small buns, but she added carrot juice and pea juice to the flour to create red, green, and white three-colored buns. They filling were also varied. The white buns were filled with bamboo shoots and minced meat. She had marinated it in doubanjiang and various seasonings. The flavor was savory and spicy, very tasty. The red-colored carrot buns were filled with thick, runny and sweet egg yolk custard. The green-colored pea buns were stuffed with tomato and ham sausage. It's sweet and sour taste created a distinct flavor.
Three-colored buns used three different fillings, and they were concocted based on the ingredients in the mystery box. They all had to admit that she was indeed very creative. Because she had to use three kinds of fillings, Zha Panpan also had to prepare a lot, and she took longer than the others to finish. The hour was almost up by the time she had finished.
However, the result was obviously very good. The audience liked her buns very much, and her votes very quickly outstripped the others.
[Qing Han Leng You: The buns made by the pretty lady is really delicious. The three kinds of buns all have different flavors — spicy, sour, sweet, and salty. It has all of them!]
[Yan Sheng Yan Sheng Yan Sheng Sheng: delicious and beautiful! This beautiful chef is top-notch!]
In fact, there were quite a few people who, like Zha Panpan, thought of using flour to make dim sum. Unfortunately, the simply made Chinese crepes or meat-filled buns. Although they tasted good, they was nothing new about them, so they weren't able to attract a lot of votes.
At the end of the game, the final number of votes was very polarized. The high ones were particularly high, and the low ones were particularly low. Those in the middle were far from the top players. The aggregate votes garnered by the top three was even higher than the votes garnered by the bottom 47.
The judges never expected this kind of result.
[Yin Xiaoyu: Wow, this difference is just too big, right? Promoting any of the latter players would just be like picking the tallest one among the dwarves. It doesn't feel very convincing. ]
[Cold Night: Actually, those players in the lower ranks all did similar dishes. Promoting some of them but not the others seem a bit unfair. It's like it was all based on luck. ]
Because the latter half of the players had similar scores, if they were to promote this small group of people based on their slight advantage, they were afraid that some might be unwilling to accept this kind of result. Based on the opinions of the audience, the program team discussed it with the three judges and in order to ensure the fairness of the match, they decided to directly advance the top 11 and have a rematch for the remaining contestants.
"Today, I will teach you to make a snack called hand-smashed beef balls. Since it's called hand-smashed beef balls, as the name suggests, it's made by hand. I will now demonstrate how it's made." Ruan Tang said as he lifted his sleeves.
Soon, a smart robot set a table before Ruan Tang, setting up a chopping board and a wooden stick.
[Small transparent: My Tang is the most handsome and the most amazing!]
[ID24730079: Hand-smashed beef balls, even the name sounds delicious!]
Ruan Tang picked up two sticks and began to steady beat the beef on the cutting board.
"You should pay particular attention to the direction of the grain of the meat. Using two wooden sticks you will need to beat the beef continuously and evenly from left to right, then up and down, until the meat has turned into a paste." Ruan Tang explained while beating.
The beef gradually became soft and pulpy under the Ruan Tang's constant pounding. At this time, Ruan Tang stopped the movement of his hands and lifted up the piece of beef that wouldn't turn to mush. He pointed at the white membrane and said, "Look, see this white membrane here? This is the fascia of the beef. The fascia will affect the texture of the beef balls, so when the meat gradually separates and breaks down, you will need to remove the fascia to make the meat puree more delicate and pure."
The players nodded again and again.
Soon, the beef was thoroughly beaten into a paste. Ruan Tang took out a metal basin. He added water and egg whites, and seasonings such as salt and fresh soy sauce, and then stirred the mixture with a pair of chopsticks.
"It must be stirred in one direction to allow the beef to absorb more water. Absorbing the water will make the beef balls more elastic."
After mixing, Ruan Tang asked everyone to try it themselves."Now, you will be given one hour to create hand-smashed beef balls just as I demonstrated. You will then use it to create a delicious dish. If you need any ingredients, you may ask the smart robots who will get it for you."
Ruan Tang took 25 minutes to do the demonstration. Since they were definitely not as skilled as Ruan Tang, and they would inevitably take longer to make it. So everyone didn't dare to delay and immediately started to act.
For a time, only the sound of sticks hitting the beef could be heard throughout the venue.
[Spicy Grain: Hahaha, it's time to test everyone's physical strength!]
[Nuanhua Lian Ye: I didn't know I was watching a drum beating program, hahaha]
While the audience was happily watching the drama, the contestants were already sweating. Some people couldn't grasp the strength and speed, and the beef wouldn't turn to mush. Some girls didn't have enough strength, so they could only grab the sticks and pound the beef with all their might.
When someone finally beat the beef until it turned into mush, more than half an hour had already passed. They hurried shaped the beef paste into balls and put it into boiling water to create soup.
For simple ones, they used green vegetables and the beef balls to make a green vegetable and beef ball soup. For more complicated ones, they used tomato and onion to stew a strong-flavored tomato beef ball soup. There were also some nimble minds who used the beef ball was a container, stuffing it with shrimp or diced sausages, etc. , adding a bit to the beef balls' taste and texture.
As minute after minute passed, the contestants became busier and busier, and some people couldn't finish within the time limit.
Finally, a diverse variety of dishes were presented before Ruan Tang and the others.
The three stepped forward to taste the works of the contestants.
First up was a person who simply cooked a green vegetable and beef ball soup. Because he used less time in the early stage and the process was simple, he had sufficient time to cook the soup and because he used the appropriate seasonings, the final soup was quite delicious.
"The taste is okay, but you haven't mastered the ratio of egg whites, water and beef mash. The beef balls must be mixed thoroughly in order to let it absorb more of the water, otherwise the beef balls will lose its smoothness and elasticity." President Gu tasted a beef ball and pointed out his shortcomings.
"Yes, because you used less egg whites and water, the beef is a bit loose. And because the soup was boiled a bit too long, the beef balls became a bit too tough. The texture of the beef balls could use a lot of improvement." Ruan Tang couldn't help but shake his head slightly..
"You paid attention to the seasoning of the soup, but you ignored the taste of the beef itself. Without any seasoning, it tastes very dry." Ge Lao also gave a bad evaluation.
The expression on that player's face suddenly collapsed. He knew he was out of the quarter-finals.
The player who cooked the soup with tomato and onion had already started to boil the soup when he started to beat the beef. Therefore, the tomato soup tasted very dense and rich. After adding the beef balls, they absorbed the sweet and sour taste of the soup. This accentuated the umami of the beef, and because his handling of the beef was spot on, the three judges gave him a good evaluation.
The next contestant was tall and big, with a burly build. He had beaten the beef very well, so the beef balls he made were very supple, flexible and at the same time delicate in texture. He cooked a savory soup with shrimp and corn. Adding the beef balls, all the ingredients complemented each other, so he too won praise from the judges.
The player who stuffed his beef balls was also quite ingenious. He didn't cook it with soup, but chose to use a deep-fryer to cook the beef balls and then paired it with a tomato dipping sauce. The taste was also unexpectedly very good.
However, the latter players weren't so lucky. Some people spent too much time in the early stage, and the final beef balls were not cooked through. Some people didn't completely remove the fascia from the beef, which affected its texture and it would sometimes get stuck between the teeth.
Although the audience was not as professional as Ruan Tang and the other judges, they could also tell what was delicious and what was not, and which had good texture and which ones did not. In the end, their evaluation matched with those of the judges.
Soon, fourteen players proved with their strength that they were qualified for promotion.
The three nodded, and they were ready to announce the end of the match when a voice cried out from the players' stage.
"I object!"
"Huh?" Ruan Tang turned his head and looked at the player who had cried out. He asked, "Chen Shifu, what is it that you object to?"
Chen Shifu cried out, "I object to the selection of advancing contestants."
Chen Shifu's name wasn't on this promotion list. During the previous rounds he had always been in the middle or upper layer of contestants. For this round, he had made snack-type dish, a scallion pancake that Ruan Tang had made before. Except, he added an egg to it. For the rematch, he made something a little different from the others — a simple hot pot.
"For the last two matches, I made dishes that were different from everyone else's. Isn't this match scored on the quality and taste of the dishes? Then why am I, who focused on the quality and taste of the dishes, being eliminated?" He clenched his fist indignantly."There weren't any problems with the taste of my dishes. Even I dare to say that it is not much worse than the dishes made by Judge Ruan Tang himself."
"The most important thing is that I obviously had as many votes as No. 25, Xin Yun. But why did she qualify, but I was eliminated?!"
He and Xin Yun had the same number of votes and were tied for 25th place. But since only 25 would be promoted, after a final review, the judges decided to retain Xin Yun and eliminate him.
In the previous matches, he obviously ranked higher than Xin Yun, and so he couldn't accept this result!
In the end, Ruan Tang stood up and said lightly, "You have a solid foundation, and it would be no problem for you to be a chef in any four-star restaurant."
"Then why did you knock me out?" With his affirmation, Chen Shifu suddenly felt even more confident. He straightening up and said loudly, "Did she give you some sort of bribe?!"
"What nonsense!" Xin Yun called out suddenly, her face flushed.
Ruan Tang gave her a soothing glance, and then said to Chen Shifu, "Your level is good, but we don't want a chef who can only imitate."
In the previous matches, every dish that Chen Shifu made was a complete replica of what Ruan Tang had made in the live broadcasts. It was different from the modified semi-imitation of others. He completely imitated his dishes, from the processing of ingredients to the proportions, everything was a complete reproduction of Ruan Tang's cooking data. They contained nothing of his own understanding of food.
Chen Shifu opened his eyes sharply."So what? Isn't imitation still considered cooking? It's fine as long as it's delicious!"
"..."
In the face of such a pestering player, Ruan Tang finally had to harden his heart and no longer used kind words to persuade him. He said directly, "This is true in ordinary families, but this is a chef's competition. If it's just copying, even robots can do it."
He shook his head, returned to the judges' table, looked at the players below, and said in a deep voice, "I don't know how many people are like him who feel that it's unfair or that there is some shady dealings going on. If you feel any doubts about the result of this competition, you are free to verify this with the judges at any time."
"In this competition, we have a variety of promotion criteria, not just votes. Your basic skills, your mental quality, including your ability to innovate and your understanding of ingredients are all being considered. We have to choose talents who can lead the development of the Imperial cuisine culture, not mediocre people who can only follow suit."
After seeing the players trembling in fear and afraid to speak, he took a deep breath and put an end to this unpleasant topic.
"Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, on your successful promotion to the national Top 25. The next match is the semi-finals and only five people can advance to the finals. So the difficulty of the match will increase once again. Please use the next few days to make full preparations."
| ← Ch. 097 | Ch. 099 → |