Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Mr. Bai, do you mean you have more confidence in Yuan Zhou and believe he can win the competition?” This question was asked craftily.
“Actually, many of the 28 restaurants have cooperation with my company. So they are also quite strong,” said Bai Xiaoxiao slowly and methodically. He didn’t walk into the reporter’s trap.
“So which dish do you look forward to the most, Mr. Bai?” the reporter made notes and asked.
“I am looking forward to the squid more,” said Bai Xiaoxiao. Speaking of his preference in taste, he liked eating the squid most.
“The Flaming Squid cooked by one of the head chefs has once been regarded as one of the ten most delicious seafood dishes in Sichuan Province. He hasn’t cooked this dish personally for almost seven or eight years. I look forward to eating it this time very much.” Bai Xiaoxiao continued proactively even before the reporter asked him.
1
It wasn’t difficult to cook the dish of squid. Even if one wasn’t good at cooking, one could make it tasty by frying it simply and scattering some chili powder over the surface. But if one wanted to stand out from the crowd, it would be more difficult.
It was the present situation of many dishes, being easy to cook, but difficult to be delicious. And the taste of squid mainly depended on the mouthfeel. It must be both crumbly and soft, each of which was very difficult to achieve.
In this regard, that head chef had his own secret.
So did Yuan Zhou. Just like the mantis shrimp, he had his own unique methods to cook it. Of course, the work had to be done one after another and so were the dishes. It wasn’t the turn of the squid yet.
Bai Xiaoxiao was familiar with some head chefs from the 28 restaurants and was more willing to answer the reporters’ questions. Therefore, many of the reporters’ questions were for him.
When the reporters directed their questions toward Yuan Zhou, Zhou Shijie answered on behalf of him. Nevertheless, the style of introduction was quite strange.
He said it like that, “It’s also the first time for me to see Head Chef Yuan cook seafood. He’s the type of person that is harsh on himself and even more harsher when it comes to his culinary skills.”
“So I don’t know when I am able to eat Head Chef Yuan’s seafood dishes if we don’t have this competition.”
When Zhou Shijie made the introduction, a reporter asked two immature questions. However, Zhou Shijie just continued speaking as if he hadn’t heard of that.
The point was that this reporter didn’t dare to interrupt Zhou Shijie’s introduction. As the chairman of China Chef’s Alliance, even the press director must show due respect for his feelings, not to mention the reporter.
“I have always been emphasizing that Head Chef Yuan’s knife skills can’t be compared with the younger generation. Even among my peers, including me, his superb craftsmanship is one in a million. It can be obviously judged from the way he processed the crab meat.”
“Even the tossing of the pan requires skills in order to make the Little Yellow Croakers evenly fried. That reminds me of the unique skill of Shanxi Cuisines, Hua Da Si Men1. Though they are different, every movement of this skill requires much practice.”
…
That was all. Speaking of Yuan Zhou, Zhou Shijie had always been praising him. He wasn’t like Bai Xiaoxiao who explained to others justly at all.
All right. Actually, Bai Xiaoxiao also admitted that every movement of Yuan Zhou was perfect without fault.
But that was a little boring. After all, what the reporters really wanted was breaking news rather than justness and blind praise. Therefore, the reporters were quite helpless and hence, they all turned to focus their attention on the people who surrounded to watch both parties. However, most of them were surrounding to watch Yuan Zhou.
They were still trying to find fault with him. After all, Zhou Shijie had commented that Yuan Zhou was the best and only one just now.
They just couldn’t imagine how Yuan Zhou could let the reporters find fault with himself.
“As far as I can see, there is a sous-chef who’s processing the food ingredients at the red side while the blue side was doing this work by himself. Is there any difference?” Bai Xiaoxiao knew very well about eating, but he wasn’t a chef. So many problems, which were very common in the eyes of the insiders, were nevertheless incomprehensible to him.
“It actually depends on the chef’s habit whether or not he processes the food ingredients by himself,” said Zhou Shijie, “Many famous chefs will teach their disciples by performing and showing the movements. So their disciples can also reach their intended level when they process the vegetables for him. And that could also help to train them.”
“That happened a long time ago. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer disciples. The chefs have kitchen workers. And just in order to highlight the, they want to strengthen this kind of contrast in the kitchen,” said Zhang Yan straightforwardly.
“Chairman Zhang, it’s way too cynical to say so,” said Wang Xiang. As soon as the reporter left, he became active.
Zhang Yan asked back, “Don’t you think so? A chef can know the food ingredients well only by processing them by himself. And when he starts to cook, he can have a good command of the heat control.”
Obviously, Zhang Yan and Wang Xiang had different opinions on this matter. Nevertheless, Zhou Shijie just kept watching Yuan Zhou cook attentively.
Looking at the name list of these chefs, Bai Xiaoxiao thought that Yuan Zhou could hardly win against them no matter how awesome Head Chef Yuan was. After all, he knew the ins and outs of those 28 restaurants very well. Some of the head chefs had really good craftsmanship.
Just like the Chef Liu Jie who was best at cooking squid and which Bai Xiaoxiao was looking forward to just now. He came from Genuine-Taste-Meal Restaurant and was in his forties.
Just like Bai Xiaoxiao said, Liu Jie hadn’t cooked this dish personally for seven to eight years, more precisely, seven years and two months.
The reason why he hadn’t cooked it personally for so long was the same reason as Chef Li. As his restaurant was getting bigger and bigger, he had more work to do and became more like a businessman.
But he was quite confident in winning this competition.
“Chef Liu, how do you like this competition? Are you confident?” Chef Li asked in a caring manner.
“Of course, I don’t dare to say yes in other aspects. For the squid, however, I’m quite confident. Just wait and see.” Liu Jie rolled up his sleeves, wore his face mask and then began to process the food ingredients.
“Duo Duo Duo”.
Liu Jie began to cut the squid into pieces very quickly. The sound of the kitchen knife touching the chopping board was quite regular.
To be frank, Flaming Squid was actually the Sizzling Squid. Liu Jie believed that he was able to create the best taste out of it.
“Even if that Yuan Zhou started to learn to cook before he was born, he probably couldn’t catch up with us,” said Ao Pi confidently after he finished cooking a dish.
“Haw-haw. We can’t say that.” Chef Li was only modest in appearance. In his eyes, however, there was a sense of confidence to win the competition.
“Even if you know somebody, it doesn’t make any sense. You surprisingly dare to threaten me? Chefs depend on nothing but their craftsmanship.” Chef Li seemed to have forgotten himself who had once sent people to disturb Master Chef Restaurant, as if he had lost his memory of that.
“We have two votes from Boss Bai and Wang Xiang at the very beginning. Besides, the two chairmen are unlikely to practice favoritism in the face of the public,” said Chef Li.
No wonder Chef Li had that confidence. A few years ago, Wang Xiang had indeed praised his Bloom and Prosper Shrimps, not to mention Bai Xiaoxiao.
The clear and chilly voice of Yuan Zhou suddenly sounded when Chef Li was lost in various thoughts that he would arrive at the peak of life and his restaurant would become the No. 1 seafood restaurant in Sichuan Province.
“I’m done. Please have a taste,” said Yuan Zhou.
“Pardon? He’s done so quickly?” Chef Li was startled inwardly. He raised his head and looked at Yuan Zhou.
Indeed. There were seven plates, small or big, on the table in front of Yuan Zhou. They were arranged in a circle just like a seafood feast.
“How does this person cook so quickly? We still have two more dishes to cook,” Ao Pi approached Chef Li and knitted his brows, saying that.
It had just been an hour. That was way too exaggerated. Many reporters went into action without delay.
“He’s the only chef in his restaurant, so he must have practiced a lot to cook so quickly,” Chef Li pulled himself together and said calmly.
“Yeah. It’s a competition for better taste rather than the speed,” Ao Pi nodded his head and then said.
“Please present all the dishes over here,” the host who didn’t even have the sense of existence al this time uttered that.
Well, there was actually a host…
