Chapter 60 - Watermelon Ingredients, An Unpopular Side Dish
Chapter 60: Watermelon Ingredients, An Unpopular Side Dish
In the end, Xu Le had the best score in the entire venue, with all of them above 6 points. His performance immediately brought great pressure and challenge to the contestants after him.
Old Master Song waved at Xu Le. “Number Three, come here.”
Xu Le walked over obediently and estimated the seniority. “Hello, Grandpa.”
When Old Master Song saw him, his face was smiling full of wrinkles. He asked, “Who taught you this dish?”
Xu Le was stunned. He did not know why he asked that question.
Old Master Song explained, “My great grandfather was a servant in the palace. Back then, he even cooked this dish for Empress Dowager Cixi. Later on, when I was seven or eight years old, about the same age as you, my great grandfather personally cooked Stir-fried three baldy. He used Suzhou barbel fish and it was fresh and delicious…”
As he spoke, a layer of mist covered his eyes, but it quickly dissipated.
“What you did was exactly the same as what my great-grandfather did. Xu Le, can you tell me who taught you this?”
Xu Le could not expose the system, so he could only push the credit to his parents who were overseas. He said, “My mother taught me. She likes to study ancient cuisine. I think she got a book from the antique market and made it at home. My father likes Western desserts. The two of them are now studying in France.”
“Oh.”
Old Master Song was skeptical, but he couldn’t find a better reason.
He looked at Xu Le with a gratified expression and said, “As expected of a generation of talents, the younger generation surpasses the older generation!”
After a few more words of praise, Xu Le was about to return to his seat to continue watching when he was stopped by Old Master Song. “Come sit beside me.”
Lin Shuwei was not surprised. He immediately asked someone to add a stool to the judges’ table. Xu Le was flattered and waved his hand in refusal. “I’m just a participating chef. I’m not qualified to be a judge. This is unreasonable and unfair to others…”
“No, I just find you cute.” Old Master Song’s eyes were filled with joy. “Come sit beside me and try the taste of this dish.”
Xu Le had no choice but to agree. The stool was too high and he was about to use his arm to support himself when someone gently lifted him helped him sit down.
Old Master Song looked at him with affection and said, “If I had a grandson, he would be around your age.”
Without waiting for Xu Le’s reply, he picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of the Michelin three-star dish. As expected, Li Peng was quite capable. He made the foie gras into an exquisite molecular cuisine. It looked, smelled, and tasted good. Old Master Song picked up a ‘cherry’ in the plate and gave it to Xu Le. “Try it.”
As soon as he bit into it, the rich and smooth taste of the foie gras filled his mouth. It felt like ice cream and melted as soon as he tasted it.
Xu Le happily tasted the dishes one after another. He could tell the shortcomings of the dishes just by tasting them.
He whispered, “When the chicken was fried, the water on it wasn’t dried and it wasn’t crispy enough. There is also a problem with the ratio of the chilli peppers. He added too many cone peppers, so the taste was too spicy and the fragrance was insufficient.”
When Old Master Song heard this, he became even happier and praised him as a ‘genius’.
After the preliminary round ended, the next day was to prepare for the advancement round of the top 20 to top 8. As for those who did not advance in this round, they would compete for ranking at another venue.
Under Zhang Tong’s lead, the Heavenly Restaurant barely made it. This made them even more worried about the next day’s advancement match.
When they bumped into each other outside, Zhang Tong teased, “Xu Le, did Old Master Song give you any hints?”
“How is he that kind of person?”
Zhang Tong nodded and said, “I’m just teasing you. He probably thinks that you can be his grandson at your age, so it’s normal for him to like you.”
“Who are you mocking here?”
“Hahaha, your reaction is pretty fast.”
Zhang Tong walked side by side with him and said, “Tomorrow, Old Master Song will definitely let you go to the judges’ table. However, the rules for tomorrow’s competition seem to be a little different. The organizers will provide the items and let us choose the theme.”
Using a completely unfamiliar ingredient and a completely unfamiliar theme was undoubtedly a test of tacit understanding between the employees under the head chef.
Zhang Tong suddenly said, “Old Master Song has no children. When he was young, his wife passed away due to illness. It became a sore spot in his heart and he went into seclusion for many years. Now that he’s in his sixties, he finally came out and invested in a program.”
These few words left a deep impression on Xu Le’s heart. He returned to the hotel and typed Old Master Song’s name into the search engine.
Song Deyue.
The content of the old marketing gimmicks immediately popped up and Xu Le’s heart skipped a beat.
Although the marketing accounts had exaggerated the twists and turns in the love story between the two of them, who would have thought that a terminal illness would break them up again after they finally got together? Because of that, Song Deyue had no choice but to watch his wife’s life slowly fade away while he remained helpless.
The article also described how Mrs. Song was terrible at cooking when she was alive, and how she liked to cook for Song Deyue. In the end, Song Deyue didn’t eat a single bite except for her dish “Jadeite stir-fried with White Jade”.
The morning before Mrs. Song left, she said that she wanted to eat “Smoking Duck”, but by the time Song Deyue brought it to her, she was already covered with a white cloth.
This also became Old Master Song’s sore spot. He often drank alcohol to numb himself. For a long time, his hair was messy, and he looked neither human nor ghost. Somehow, Xu Le thought of the tattered jacket he was wearing, closed the laptop, and leaned back.
The next day, during the the advancement round.
After the host announced the rules, many people were dumbfounded.
Especially Xu Le. He rubbed his ears and said, “What?”
“The ingredients prepared for today are on the table, and the theme is summer. Please do as you wish. From the lowest to the highest rank, you will choose the ingredients.”
Xu Le and Li Peng, who were at the top of the rankings, were even at a disadvantage. He did not know whether to laugh or cry at the ridiculous competition rules. He could only watch as the abalones, lobsters, king crabs, black truffles, scallops… were slowly selected.
In the end, there was only a segment of pork ribs, vegetables, duck meat, and watermelon left. Li Peng chose before Xu Le. This meant that his Michelin-level ‘Cherry Foie Gras’ was still defeated by Xu Le in the advancement competition.
Li Peng chose the pork ribs and vegetables, so Xu Le only had duck meat and watermelon left. He stood by the table and frowned in deep thought.
No matter how he looked at it, these two ingredients didn’t look like they could be matched together, let alone be used to make the theme of summer.
However, with the system around, he wasn’t afraid. After taking the ingredients back, he saw that there was already a heated discussion about what to cook next.
Looking at the watermelon, Xu Le suddenly thought of an unpopular side dish..