Chapter 34
Chapter 34: Powerful Cutting Skills
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
After more than two hours of freezing, this piece of pork belly had become extremely cold.
But to Xu Le, it was still not tough enough.
If it could be frozen for six hours, this piece of pork belly would become as hard as steel and wouldn’t have any deformation when it was cut.
That was the most suitable state for cutting.
Now, the pork belly was not hard enough, which undoubtedly created a lot of trouble for the cutting process.
Xu Le placed the pork belly on the chopping board and picked up the butcher knife.
After taking a deep breath, Xu Le tried his best to calm down.
The requirements for cutting skills of [Pagoda Meat] had reached a terrifying level.
The chef had to cut the meat into two millimeters thick slices along the outermost edge of the pork belly.
The final effect was to make the entire piece of pork belly five centimeters wide and three meters long.
Moreover, he could not stop during the entire process!
What was even more terrifying was that during the process of cutting, if the chef made even the slightest mistake, causing the meat slice to break, then the entire dish would be completely ruined.
Once it broke, the shape of the pagoda could not be formed.
This piece of pork belly required a lot of time to cook and freeze, so every chef only had one chance in the limited time they had.
His only chance!
Once it failed, the [Pagoda Meat] would fail completely.
Xu Le was feeling uneasy when he was about to begin cutting.
He tried hundreds of times in the system space, and nearly half of them ended in failure.
Even later on, his success rate was only about 70%.
“I must not fail,” Xu Le muttered softly.
He placed the piece of pork belly upright and used his left hand to support the meat to prevent it from falling down while his right hand picked up the kitchen knife.
At this moment, Xu Le entered a highly focused state.
Xu Le was still nervous and uneasy when he picked up the kitchen knife.
However, after picking up the kitchen knife, he entered a state of complete focus. No matter what happened, nothing could distract him.
In Xu Le’s eyes, there was only this piece of meat!
He held the knife steadily.
There were no tremors or shaking.
The knife was like an extension of Xu Le’s arm, while Xu Le was like a doctor who was in the middle of a precision surgery. He squinted his eyes and focused on the pork belly in front of him.
Slash!
The sharp blade touched the edge of the pork belly and immediately cut it open.
The thin flesh rolled outwards.
Xu Le’s hands were as steady as iron pincers, holding the meat down firmly. The incision continued to extend downwards.
The thickness of the meat slice was extremely even and was maintained at two millimeters.
Soon, the knife was about to reach the bottom and the end of the pork belly.
Xu Le did not panic and turned the entire piece of meat 90 degrees.
The meat slices that he had cut previously were also moved to the top.
At the turn of the corner, the kitchen knife suddenly turned around and cut out a small arc. It went from horizontal to vertical before continuing to cut downwards.
While maintaining the thickness of the meat slice at two millimeters, there could not be any breakage at all.
At every corner, Xu Le carefully moved the knife.
The director of the program team was also very considerate and turned the live-stream camera to Xu Le.
Millions of spectators watched as Xu Le carefully cut the meat. They were also on tenterhooks.
Swoosh!
He turned the meat 90 degrees again and used the sharp kitchen knife to cut off the meat.
On both sides of the blade, the pork formed rolls.
Immediately after, a piece of meat as thin as a cicada’s wing fell!
Xu Le seemed to have sped up. He quickly completed the first round and entered the second.
His gorgeous knife skills were stunning.
The deeper it went, the narrower the ring became, and the more difficult it became.
The blade had just cut a short distance when it would face a turn.
Xu Le had to be extra careful and pay attention to his movements at the corners.
Once the meat slices were broken, the entire dish would fail.
Ten minutes later…
Clang!
Xu Le placed the knife on the table, producing a crisp sound.
In front of him, there was a stainless steel plate filled with meat slices.
The thickness was only two millimeters, and the width was maintained at five centimeters. The entire piece of pork belly had been cut to a few meters long by Xu Le, and it had not broken from the beginning to the end!
This was…
The kind of cutting skills expected!
“Impressive!”
Even Chef Lin Shuwei couldn’t help but exclaim when he saw Xu Le’s performance.
His display of cutting skills and extremely strong mental fortitude really made it hard for people not to praise him.
If they were given sufficient time in the kitchen, many chefs could display this kind of cutting skills.
But this was a competition.
As a participant, it was impossible not to be nervous.
While Xu Le was cutting the meat, he even sped up. There were no accidents from the beginning to the end. He cut the entire piece of pork belly in a stable manner and the cut was almost perfect.
The audience in the live-stream had never seen such superb culinary skills.
The live comments were also filled with praises.
At the same time, the contestant beside also took out the pork belly from the freezer and started to slice the meat.
Following that, one contestant after another came to this segment.
A large square piece of pork belly was placed on the chopping board in front of each of them. They began to carefully cut it.
The images in the live-stream were constantly switching between the contestants.
However, no matter where the camera panned, the audience could see that these renowned chefs could not handle this piece of meat as well as Xu Le in this tense competition environment.
Be it speed or neatness.
They were far behind Xu Le.
While the other chefs were cutting the meat, Xu Le had already entered the next step.
He chose some fresh sprouts and washed them about ten times. After they were completely cleaned, he would cut them into pieces as backup.
He also prepared some green onions and garlic, then added some dried chilli and chopped them all up.
He added several spoonfuls of the collard sauce, pork ribs sauce, seafood sauce, sweet bean paste, fermented bean paste and some yellow wine and stirred them evenly to mix them all together.
This rich sauce was then applied evenly on the sliced pork belly by Xu Le.
The three-meter-long meat slice was completely covered with a thick layer of sauce.
Next was to shape it into the shape of a pagoda.
Previously, Xu Le had used a kitchen knife to cut this piece of pork belly from a squarish shape into a thin piece of meat. Now, what he needed to do was to restore the shape of the piece of meat.
He wrapped it up one layer after another.
Soon, the pork belly returned to its original square shape.
Xu Le took out a mold from the side. This mold was also provided by the production team. It was an indispensable tool for making pagoda meat.
The mold was shaped like a pyramid. The bottom was squarish while the top was sharp.
He turned the entire mold upside down and placed the square-shaped pork belly inside.
The pork belly, which had been cut into layers, began to sink layer by layer. Soon, it perfectly fit the mold.
Xu Le placed the entire mold on the table and started to stir-fry the sprouts.
The sprouts and seasoning were stir-fried together, poured into the mold, and pressed with chopsticks.
Then, he turned it upside down and placed it into the pot, steaming it for two and a half hours.
The reason why it took so long was because the more time it took to cook the pagoda meat, the softer the meat would become and the more delicious the finished product would be.
After the [Pagoda Meat] was placed into the pot, Xu Le used a towel to wipe the sweat on his forehead.
It had to be said that making so many dishes at the same time was not only a test of skills, but also a test of a chef’s stamina.
Next dish… [Boiled Cabbage].