Chapter Fifteen: The Great Chef Competition

  Because Liu Yidao suddenly fell ill, the time left for Zhuangyuan Pavilion was not too much. Zou Qingshan and Liu Yidao's styles were also different, so there were differences in dish matching.

  This also led to the ingredients originally prepared for Liu Yidao being completely unused, while Zou Qingshan's needed items still had to be re-prepared.

  In such a short time, it's obviously impossible to prepare too complicated ingredients. Chu Feng thought for a moment and quickly made adjustments based on the dishes that Zou Qing Shan and others had mentioned as their specialties, combined with his previous knowledge.

  "Time is too short, re-preparing ingredients won't make it in time, how about we just have boiled white vegetables instead?"

  As soon as Chu Feng said the four words "boiled water cabbage", all the top chefs, led by Zou Qing Shan, were stunned. This dish was extremely famous in the culinary world.

  Boiled White Cabbage is a traditional Sichuan dish, originally created by Huang Jinglin, a famous Sichuan chef in the Qing palace kitchen. Later, Huang Jinglin brought this dish back to Sichuan and it spread widely.

  It's just that 'boiled water cabbage' is simple in ingredients, but difficult to cook. The key lies in the soup, which must be rich and clear, as clear as boiled water. When the dish is done, it looks like a few hearts of cabbage floating in clear water, without even a single oil flower visible, but when you eat it, it's refreshing and fragrant.

  Zou Qing Shan's eyes lit up, if he really wanted to make boiled water cabbage, the ingredients were all ready-made and didn't need any special preparation. It was just that this dish required a very high level of skill for the soup, and with his culinary skills, he had no confidence in making such a high-level soup.

  However, he also knew that time was pressing now, and choosing this plain boiled cabbage dish was the most suitable.

  He gritted his teeth: "Alright, let's just make plain boiled water with cabbage. The only problem is that the soup has to be extremely good, I'm afraid..."

  "Things have come to this point, we can only treat a dead horse as if it were alive. If anything happens, I'll take the blame, you just do what you need to do." Chu Feng saw that Zou Qing Shan agreed and let out a sigh of relief, patted him on the shoulder, and gave him a reassurance.

  No matter how unconfident he was, Chu Feng understood one thing: he must have a heart that is determined to win. If you yourself don't think you can win, then there's no chance of victory at all.

  Once the ingredients were decided, the rest of the work was simple. After a brief moment, everything was ready. Chu Feng and his group rushed to the scene of the famous cooking competition.

  ……

  There are four hotels that entered the final, and the other three hotels are all first-class hotels in Pinghai City. Only Zhuangyuan Pavilion is much worse than them in terms of scale and popularity.

  The cooking competition was broadcast live on site, and many reporters were already waiting there. The head chefs of the other three families and their managers had also entered the venue.

  After all, such a game involves a wide range of aspects and requires a lot of preparation, so each family basically enters the venue more than half an hour in advance to make sufficient preparations.

  With half an hour left before the competition, the staff of the event organizer saw that personnel from the other three houses had all arrived, but none from Zhuangyuan Pavilion were present, and they began to get anxious.

  "What's going on with Zhuangyuan Pavilion? Hurry up and urge them." Ye Qiu anxiously glanced at his watch, pulling the staff member in charge of contact to ask.

  "I've contacted them, they said they're on their way."

  "Oh." Ye Qiu let out a sigh of relief, but still feared unexpected events, and once again instructed the staff member: "Keep an eye on them, tell them to speed up, others have already entered the venue."

  Time was ticking away, with only ten minutes to go before the competition started. The chefs from the other three families were already standing at the entrance of the arena, waiting to enter, and the four judges responsible for evaluating the dishes had also taken their seats. However, not a single person from Zhuangyuan Pavilion had appeared.

  Ye Qiu finally became anxious, this project was his brainchild and he was the host, if it succeeded, it would greatly boost his reputation, but if it failed, the blow would be immeasurable.

  So he couldn't help but rush over to the staff who were busy on the side: "Why hasn't anyone from Zhuangyuan Pavilion come yet?"

  "They said they were on the way, but why haven't they arrived yet? I really don't know." The staff member was full of grievances. He had indeed been urging them to hurry, but the people from Shuangyuan Building still hadn't arrived, and he couldn't do anything about it.

  "Don't do anything else, just keep calling me to urge them to come quickly!" Ye Qiu said in a low, suppressed voice.

  However, his unusual behavior was also seen by several judges in the field and three famous chefs waiting to enter the scene.

  "Hasn't Zhuangyuan Ge arrived yet?" someone from one of the three big hotels asked, glancing at the person beside him with a mixture of surprise and schadenfreude.

  "In my opinion, they are afraid of losing too badly, so they don't dare to come." Someone looked around with disdain and didn't see anyone from the champion's pavilion, so he sneered coldly.

  "They don't even think about it, we are a first-class hotel, they are a second-class hotel, and they only made it to the finals by luck, that's already a miracle. And now, they're looking for trouble!"

  "Haha......"

  The people in the three major hotels suddenly burst out laughing together.

  The four judges on the judging panel were also whispering to each other.

  Ye Qiu had already broken out in sweat, occasionally glancing at his watch as he saw time ticking away second by second. It was already the time to enter, yet there was still no news from Zhuangyuan Pavilion. He finally made up his mind and walked straight into the venue.

  He adjusted his emotions and put on a warm smile: "Ladies and gentlemen, honorable judges, distinguished guests, I now declare that the Pinghai City First Chef Competition is officially underway!"

  "Wow......" The audience erupted into warm applause.

  "Now let's give a warm welcome to the participating teams with our most enthusiastic applause."

  "Wow......" The applause sounded again, but this time it was for the hotel's famous chef who slowly walked onto the stage.

  "The first to enter is the Kaiyue Hotel." Ye Qiu's voice was full of magnetism, dragging out a long tail tone that attracted everyone's attention, and they all looked towards the group of people from the Kaiyue Hotel who had just entered.

  "The second one is Jinzhu Grand Hotel."

  "The third one is Shenglong Hotel..."

  Ye Qiu's long tail sound, however, only managed to delay time by a dozen seconds or so, which was already the greatest effort he could muster.

  He shouted out the third house, and there was an obvious pause. He looked blankly at the entrance, but no one was there. He felt a bit bitter, and finally gritted his teeth, just about to announce that the Grand Hotel had given up its rights, when he suddenly saw a group of people appear at the entrance. The leader, whom he didn't recognize, was a young man radiating confidence.

  So he didn't react in the first place, only until he saw the young man holding up the flag of Zhuangyuan Building Hotel did he confirm that it was someone from Zhuangyuan Building.

  In the blink of an eye, he had almost said something that was on the tip of his tongue, but instead swallowed it back and changed to a passionate tone: "The fourth one to enter is, Zhuangyuan Ge Hotel!"

  With his shout, Chu Feng raised the flag of Zhuangyuan Pavilion and walked slowly into the arena.