Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After Yuan Zhou studied the mission for a good few minutes, he spoke inwardly.
“System, I’ll overlook the stupid designation you are calling me with, let us focus on the mission. Why does this mission feel like two missions instead?” Yuan Zhou asked immediately, abiding by the concept of voicing all doubts to avoid being tricked.
The system displayed, “Winning this activity is considered as mission completion.”
“Oh, so you mean winning it means the completion of this mission?” Yuan Zhou asked.
The system displayed, “Yes, little comrade.”
“Please stop calling me that,” Yuan Zhou said helplessly.
The system gave no reply. Yuan Zhou took a deep breath and threw that weird name out of his head and continued reading the mission.
“The reward seems good, but does the Sichuan Cuisine mean the entirety of Sichuan Cuisine?” Yuan Zhou muttered to himself. He reached out to the drawer of the countertop and took out his phone.
“System, is this a complete Sichuan Cuisine, including Palace Cuisine, Chongqing School of Sichuan Cuisine and so on?” Yuan Zhou asked.
The system displayed, “Yes, they are included.”
“How about the side dishes?” This wasn’t Yuan Zhou being long-winded. Rather, it was him having smartened up after his numerous battle of wits and courage with the system.
The system displayed, “Yes.”
“So there are no special requirements to unlock the side dishes this time, right?” Yuan Zhou asked.
The system displayed, “You won’t know that until you complete the mission.”
“Hoho, I have a feeling you are trying to scam me again,” Yuan Zhou said.
Even so, with such a generous reward, Yuan Zhou had to complete this mission. After all, the temptation of mastering an entire set of cuisine was too great.
He calmed himself and prepared to do more research on this competition.
With the advancement in technology, a lot of information could be found online. And thus, the first place Yuan Zhou went searching was the Internet.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Yuan Zhou navigated his phone rapidly and before long, many web pages were already opened, even an online encyclopedia was opened.
After reading through all of them, Yuan Zhou gained a basic understanding of this competition.
It turned out that in order to spread the culture of Sichuan Cuisine, each year, a Sichuan Cuisine restaurant selection would be held. This was an activity jointly held by the government and Sichuan Cuisine chefs. It had extremely strict standards.
To take part in the selection, one needed to first obtain a recommendation from the government. Next, a voting process would be held among the organizing chefs before a restaurant would be chosen.
Simply put, this competition concerned the glory of Sichuan. Therefore, this was not a competition where votes would be taken from the masses on the internet. After all, there would be too many variables if they did that.
After all, the selected restaurant would receive the commendation of the government and be marketed extensively. Of course, an officially acknowledged number one Sichuan Cuisine was something all Sichuan Cuisine chefs would desire. And thus, the competition had always been extremely intense.
From the first year until now, this competition had been held three times. And when Yuan Zhou saw the three past champions, his confidence started dropping.
All three of those restaurants shared one same trait: a long history. One of them was the restaurant founded by Wu Yusheng, a Sichuan Cuisine master chef. Unsurprisingly, the signature dish of that restaurant was also Wu Yusheng’s signature dish, Kung Pao Chicken. That was a restaurant with over 100 years of history.
As for Wu Yusheng, he was also the founder of Emei Restaurant. His food was widely loved, even the Beijing opera masters, Mei Lanfang and Zhang Youyu, and the famous painter, Qi Baishi, loved his food.
This was the impressive background the first restaurant had. Of course, the second restaurant was similarly impressive as well.
It was Zhang’s Sichuan Restaurant, a restaurant where Zhang Guangwu once worked at. The restaurant was known for its Spicy Boiled Fish, which was Zhang Guangwu’s signature dish that was extremely popular in the country.
Zhang Guangyun was also the private chef of Zhang Qun, and his food was loved by Zhang Xueliang and Fourth Young Lady Zhao.
The third restaurant was a long-established restaurant, Palace Cuisine. The well-known Boiled Cabbage was the signature dish of this restaurant.
Compared to all three of them, Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was merely a tiny restaurant. It had a short history of no more than two years. However, it was quite popular. At least it was very popular in Sichuan both online and offline. After all, the system had judged the restaurant as the most popular in Sichuan.
But even so, it was nothing compared to those restaurants with a long history that had been popular since the establishment of the Republic of China. How should he compete with the likes of them?
Yuan Zhou felt his head aching. Forgetting about whether he could actually win it, how was he supposed to even get a government recommendation? Even after searching for a while, the only information he found was “government recommendation”.
“System, isn’t this mission too excessive?” Yuan Zhou sighed.
The system displayed, “As a future master chef, this is the glory the host must seize.”
“Um, that makes sense. In terms of strength, with Chengdu School’s Sichuan Cuisine, I have no fear. But the problem is, I do not even have the opportunity to stand on the same stage like the others,” Yuan Zhou sighed.
That’s right. This might be a competition, but it wasn’t one that strictly competed in cooking skills, or one that he could join by challenging someone. The one “government requirement” was sufficient to stop the advance of many people. A good example would be the current Yuan Zhou. Even if he wanted to take part in it, he had no way to.
Of course, Yuan Zhou still had confidence in his cooking skills. He knew both Spicy Boiled Fish and Kung Pao Chicken as well. But in terms of the restaurant’s history, Yuan Zhou was far from the other restaurants.
The system displayed, “Little comrade, I am confident in you.”
“Thanks for the trust,” Yuan Zhou palmed his face. Faced with a thorny issue, he could no longer be bothered with how the system was calling him.
How would Yuan Zhou’s restaurant with no accumulation whatsoever and that only had Yuan Zhou alone complete this mission?
“Nothing is free in this world,” Yuan Zhou lamented. He finally understood why the reward was so generous.
The system displayed, “Little comrade, you can cook your own lunch. I will only charge the cost of the ingredients on you.”
“… thanks,” Yuan Zhou said helplessly. Yes, the system made perfect sense.
With his brows furrowed, he sank into thought and could no longer be bothered with the system.
Normally, Yuan Zhou would never let go of a chance to bicker with the system.
“Firstly, I need to find a way to enter the competition,” Yuan Zhou rubbed his head and thought. Since he couldn’t find any information online, he had to ask others about it. He checked and found that this competition was jointly held by the Sichuan Cuisine Heritage Association and China Chefs’ Alliance.
With the restaurant’s door opened wide, Yuan Zhou was seated on a chair holding his phone with one hand and rubbing his head with the other hand. A pensive expression was on his face, looking like he was thinking of something difficult. He concluded that Zhou Shijie, Chairman Zhou, would be able to answer his question.
“Ding Ling Ling, Ding Ling Ling.” Suddenly, Yuan Zhou’s phone rang.
“Um?” Yuan Zhou lowered his head and looked at the name on his phone. It was Zhou Shijie.
Such a coincidence?
“Hello, is this Little Yuan? Is lunchtime over?” Zhou Shijie’s amiable voice sounded the moment Yuan Zhou answered the call.
“Yes, chairman,” Yuan Zhou nodded.
“How have you been recently? Do you have any new dishes? I am always looking forward to trying your new dish,” Zhou Shijie said with a smile.
“I am indeed planning to do that,” Yuan Zhou replied.
“Good to hear. As a chef, we should always be focusing on cooking. That is the only way to improve,” Zhou Shijie said.
Whenever Zhou Shijie called, he would first ask Yuan Zhou his progress in cooking. Yuan Zhou was already used to this.
