Food Tycoon

The final result of this culinary art competition group competition is 100 famous Y cuisine restaurants. The gold content is obviously not as big as that of famous chefs, but only 100 restaurants are selected in the whole province, which is quite important. The brand of famous restaurants As soon as it is posted, it is an invisible advertisement, and the hotel's grade has also been improved, and it will be a source of money in the future.Therefore, the major restaurants attached great importance to this competition, and they all sent their most capable chefs to participate in the competition.

There are 100 famous restaurants, but only 10 famous chefs, that is to say, the probability of being selected as a famous restaurant is much higher than that of famous chefs.But for the major restaurants that are currently participating, the pressure has not diminished at all, because only the top ten in the team competition can advance to the preliminary competition, and the number of entries in the team competition is equal to that of the individual competition, almost 10 out of 1. Competition is pretty brutal.

The team competition is the same as the individual competition, and the competition time is two hours.There are no prescribed dishes, and all dishes are prepared by the team. Each team organizes a table of banquets, including one cold appetizer, two hot dishes, one soup, one dessert, and one fruit, a total of six dishes.To cook so many dishes within two hours, it is definitely not possible for one person alone, so everyone's cooperation is necessary.Therefore, in addition to a complete set of cooking utensils, the organizing committee allocated another stove. In other words, only two chefs can prepare this banquet. This depends on the overall level and cooperation ability of a team .

Although the menu is self-made, it cannot be unconstrained. The chef of each store draws up the recipe based on the ingredients provided by the organizing committee, and then submits it to the organizing committee.

There is a saying called slow work and meticulous work. This saying is most appropriate when used in cooking. The traditional classic dishes are all models of slow work and meticulous work, such as roast suckling pig, Buddha jumping over the wall, overlord duck, etc. Nothing takes hours.Now it is necessary to prepare a table of dishes within two hours, and also want to win the competition, so the selected dishes must not be too time-consuming, but must also reflect the skills, which is really not good for the chef. small test.

Only the cold dish is an exception, because brine is the most representative local delicacy, and the cooking of brine takes a very long time, so the dish of cold dish is not counted within two hours. The chef can prepare it in advance, but also Must be prepared in the clubhouse.Because it takes more than ten hours to make brine, after the end of the individual competition, the kitchen in the clubhouse is open 24 hours for contestants to cook brine.Many restaurants find it troublesome, or they are not good at making brine, so they simply choose other cold dishes.

The head chef of Haibawang is of course Haixuan. After careful consideration, he finally decided on the menu. The cold dishes are assorted vegetarian platters, the hot dishes are chrysanthemum fish and Tai Chi shrimp, the soup is assorted winter melon caps, and the desserts are I chose Qingxin Wan, and the fruit platter can be mixed freely.

Yu Lu was holding the menu, and he could understand everything else, but what was this assorted vegetarian platter: "Ah Hai, what are our cold dishes?" Shouldn't we be making a brine or siu mei platter, so that it would appear level? .

Haixuan said: "Cold salad."

"Cold dishes are of course cold dishes. What about cold dishes?" Yu Lu asked.

Haixuan said: "Cucumber, carrot, kelp, jellyfish skin, fungus and so on."

Yu Lu was taken aback: "Could it be too simple?"

Hai Xuan smiled slightly: "As long as it tastes good, you're right."

Yu Lu was skeptical, but Haixuan had always had a plan in mind, so there should be a reason for him to make such an arrangement.

Zhang Yiwei said: "Then I don't have to cook the marinade at night?" Many contestants arrange people to cook the marinade that night in order to make the marinade, because it is during the competition, and someone must watch the cooking process, otherwise the If people do bad things, they lose everything.Most of the things like cooking marinade are done by the assistants. Zhang Yiwei has already found a place with a socket and is ready to stay up all night. He didn't expect Haixuan's menu to liberate him.

Hai Xuan said: "No, go back to sleep with peace of mind, your body is just right, don't stay up late."

Zhang Yiwei insisted on eating Chuanbei pears in rock sugar for the past two days, and his cough finally healed. Haixuan didn't say to replace him and asked Zhao Xiaoyang to replace him, which made him heave a sigh of relief: "Master, when the time comes, I will come to the winter melon cup and fruit platter How about carving? I'm very good at this."

Haixuan said, "Okay, come on."

Zhang Yiwei was very happy: "Master, I will definitely do it well!"

Compared with the individual competition, the team competition is tense and busy, but also much more exciting, because each contestant has to present a table of sumptuous food for everyone, and the dishes selected by the chefs must reflect both difficulty and It is necessary to pay attention to the combination of nutrition, and the requirements for color, fragrance and shape are even more perfect.

Compared with the tense and busy chefs, the judges are on another level of hard work, because each contestant has six dishes, and each judge must taste each dish at least once, so as to give a fair score.A group of ten contestants, that is, sixty dishes, just tasting the dishes can fill you up.After eating, it is estimated that they are not enjoying it, but enduring it.

Seeing the expressions of the judges on the TV screen, Yu Lu felt that they must be miserable. If he had to taste so many dishes one by one, it would hurt his stomach.He finally understood why Haixuan chose the assorted vegetarian platter. Compared with the brine and siu mei platter, vegetarian cold dishes may be more suitable for the appetite of the judges. This season is already hot, and it is the season when cold dishes are needed for appetizers. Haixuan's choice Maybe it will be favored by the judges.

At the end of the first day of the competition, the competition was extremely miserable. Many players who had achieved relatively good rankings in the individual competition did not stand out in the team competition. After all, one person cannot support a big hotel.Moreover, the scores of the contestants are generally low, probably because there are too many dishes, but the total score is still 85 points. A little deduction here, a little deduction there, the score will be less. After the first day of competition, the highest score is only 70 points, the lowest There are even scores of [-] points.

In the evening, Jin Nanshan asked his disciples to eat at his home. Yu Lu and Haixuan worked together to cook some home-cooked dishes in Jin Nanshan's kitchen, and ate with the old man.Jin Nanshan looked at the several bowls and plates on the table and couldn't help smiling: "Boy Yu, bring a bottle of wine from the cabinet in my room. It's in a blue and white porcelain bottle."

Yu Lu was setting the table and chopsticks, looking at the old man: "Master, do you want to drink?"

The old man had a smile on his face: "It's been a long time since so many people have dinner together. I'm happy today. Come and have a drink with the master."

Hearing this, Yu Lu felt a little sad, usually the old man should eat by himself: "Master, can you drink?" He was a little worried, at such an old age, what if something went wrong with drinking.

The old man said, "Why not? Drink less."

Yu Lu entered the old man's bedroom and quickly called Qin Weibin: "Brother, Master said he wants to drink, can he drink?"

Qin Weibin said: "You can drink, but drink less."

"Okay." Yu Lu asked politely again, "Brother, have you eaten yet?"

There was silence for a while, and then said: "Have you eaten, are you eating at Master's place?"

"Yes. Brother, do you want to come over?" Yu Lu asked.

Qin Weibin said: "No, I still have something to do here, so I'll get busy first."

"Okay, goodbye, brother." Yu Lu decided to keep a proper distance in the future, avoid getting close, and take good care of the master, so that the other party thinks that he is trying to curry favor with him.

He opened the wooden cabinet in Jinnan Mountain, and saw many bottles and jars inside, all of which were famous wines, not Maotai, or Fenjiu, as well as Xifeng wine, Zhuyeqing, Zhuangyuanhong, etc., which were probably his treasures for many years.Yu Lu found a blue and white porcelain vase, picked it up, and found that it was Fenjiu from 20 years ago. Could this wine be too mellow?

Jin Nanshan kept twisting his neck and looking forward, when he saw Yu Lu finally came out: "Did you find it? Yes, it's the bottle of Fenjiu."

Yu Lu recognized the words on the bottle: "Master, this is high-grade wine. It's been so many years. Can you drink it?"

"Why not, I drank it last year, come, come, have a drink with Master." Jin Nanshan ordered the table and asked Yu Lu to sit down.

Haixuan took the wine bottle: "Good wine. But it may have a lot of stamina. Yu Lu, you don't hold a lot of alcohol, so don't drink it. Ah Wei, you have a good cough, so don't drink it. Jin Lao, I will drink with you, just a little good."

Jin Nanshan smiled and said, "Okay."

Haixuan took the wine glass, unscrewed the cork, first poured Jin Nanshan half a glass, and then poured half a glass for himself.The wine was indeed good wine, the lid was removed, the aroma of the wine was intoxicating, and the mouth water almost flowed out.

Jin Nanshan protested dissatisfied: "That's all?"

Yu Lu said: "Master, drink less, your health is important."

Jin Nanshan picked up the wine glass and took a sip, then squinted his eyes contentedly: "It's delicious. You underestimate your master's drinking capacity. I used to drink four taels of this kind of wine at a time."

Yu Lu said with a smile: "That was before, you are old now, drink less. Master, come, eat vegetables, this is my fried carrot shreds, try it." Put a little on his plate.

Jin Nanshan didn't like carrots very much at first, but tonight's dish was paired by Yu Lu and Haixuan. He said it was a nutritious and healthy recipe, so he couldn't choose, so he ate carrots.I took a bite, as if I was a little disbelieving, and then I picked up a little bit to taste: "How to deal with this? It doesn't smell like carrots anymore, it's delicious."

Yu Lu laughed: "Master, let's take this to the competition tomorrow and make mixed platters, what do you think?"

Jin Nanshan couldn't help eating a chopstick again, and nodded: "I think it's okay. Those guys almost vomited after eating today. When you cook tomorrow, try to be as light as possible. If there are sour dishes, it will be better. .”

Haixuan said: "Cold dishes can be slightly sour, and chrysanthemum fish is sour."

"That's enough. Don't have any more roasted duck or white-cut chicken. It's not greasy at first, but it won't be greasy if you eat too much. What else do you have for tomorrow?" Jin Nanshan asked.

Yu Lu told him: "There are also cooked Tai Chi shrimp and assorted winter melon hats."

"The selection of dishes is not bad, did Boy Hai choose the right one?" Jin Nanshan said.

Hai Xuan nodded: "Yes."

"You are the second batch. It's just in time for lunch. Hurry up and try to go as early as possible. Don't wait for them to eat before serving food." Jin Nanshan instructed them.

Yu Lu and Haixuan nodded again and again.

Finally came the last day, which is also the most critical day. Although Yu Lu was not the first batch of competitions, he still arrived at the venue early to prepare.The host Qin Weibin's Nanshan clubhouse is the first group today. He brought the fat chef from last time and three other apprentices to the stage. Five people are the upper limit required by the team competition.

Yu Lu had noticed the competition space a long time ago. In fact, three people are the most relaxed, four people are barely enough, five people are a bit crowded, but if there are many people, each person is responsible for a dish, and the time is more leisurely.Generally, four people are arranged in restaurants, and there are also groups of three like Yu Lu and the others, and the proportion is relatively small.

Because Qin Weibin was the host, the photographer gave them more shots. Their cold dish was marinade. It is estimated that the marinade they had boiled all night last night would come in handy right now.The fat chef was in charge of marinating the meat. He was fat, and despite the air conditioner, his back was soaked from the heat. Zhang Yiwei said in a low voice, "I know why their marinade is so salty, because it's all sweat from the fat chef." After speaking, he stuck out his tongue and made a grimace.

Yu Lu almost couldn't hold back his laughter. He said, "Don't talk nonsense, or you will be beaten." But to be honest, he didn't like that fat man very much.

Qin Weibin is cooking a unicorn abalone dish, which is very high-end, and abalone is the only relatively expensive ingredient provided in this competition.

Yu Lu was waiting outside the arena to enter the arena. He didn't go to the studio to watch the game with Master, so he asked Haixuan in a low voice: "How do you think Senior Brother Qin is doing? Why do I think his technique of chopping vegetables is a little raw?"

Hai Xuan said: "You read that right, he probably hasn't cooked for a long time. But he still has experience."

Yu Lu thought to himself, wondering what Master would think when he saw it.

They waited quietly for more than an hour. Finally, the Nanshan clubhouse was the first to complete the competition and put the prepared food on the table. Judging from the appearance, it was quite successful.Their timing was very good. Today, the judges have learned from yesterday's lesson. They didn't eat much for breakfast. They are still hungry. It's a good time to go up now.

So this time the judges are also very careful in eating, scoring and commenting. Qin Weibin is still young, and he took his apprentice to the stage and scored 84.7 points, ranking second for the time being. If the judges are still as strict as yesterday, they will advance to the semi-finals. Very likely.

After that, the contestants finished the competition one after another, and the judges began to taste and comment one by one. Most of them scored 85 points, but none of them exceeded [-]. One score was the same as that of Nanshan Club, temporarily tied for second place.

Finally, it was Yu Lu and Yulu's turn to play. To be honest, as far as the team competition is concerned, the first match had an advantage over the second match, especially the second match which finished later. The judges were full. No matter how good the food is, there is no good taste.So it is very important to seize the opportunity.

The three of them had already arranged the order of cooking. First, make the assorted wax gourd caps, because this dish needs to be steamed for about an hour, which takes a very long time. After steaming, they will process other dishes without delay.This dish is due to Lu and Zhang Yiwei.

Before making winter melon hats, Yu Lu washes the gorgon, barley, lotus seeds, etc. and puts them in a pressure cooker. This is used for making desserts, and then he processes the assorted winter melon hats. Zhang Yiwei is in charge of carving winter melons.

When they were making this dish, Haixuan began to deal with the assorted vegetarian platters, because the platters were cold dishes and could be accommodated.If the hot dishes are prepared in advance, but the others are not out, the taste will be compromised after cooling.

The assorted vegetarian platter selects six types of jellyfish skin, carrot shreds, cucumber strips, potato shreds, kelp shreds, and fungus shreds. Into the disc, there are white, orange, green, yellow, dark green, and black. The colors are very rich and eye-catching, but because they are the most common ingredients, this dish seems a bit too ordinary.Generally, in such formal competitions, no one dares to take risks with home-cooked dishes, because home-cooked dishes are the most familiar to everyone, and it is quite difficult to cater to the crowd, let alone the judges who have tasted all kinds of delicious food.

The assorted platter has just been prepared, and the assorted wax gourd caps have been prepared on the other side of the road, and they are steamed in a steamer.Haixuan started to cook Tai Chi shrimp, Yu Lu started to stew desserts, and Zhang Yiwei helped with the ingredients for Tai Chi shrimp. The three of them worked together and cooperated very well.

Tai Chi Shrimp is made by shelling the shrimp and picking the thread into shrimp glue, chopping the fat meat and water chestnuts into a puree, adding egg white, monosodium glutamate, refined salt, etc., mixing with the shrimp glue, and then kneading the mixed material again Shaped into a shrimp shape, two shrimps are buckled together head to tail, and one of them is inlaid with ham cubes to make it into a Tai Chi shape. Put it on a plate, smear it with egg white, and steam it in a steamer for 8 minutes.

The dessert Qingxin Wan made by Yu Lu is made of Cheng Goose Powder, which is a kind of potato starch. It is slowly mixed with boiling water, kneaded into a dough, and then cut into small pieces to become Qingxin Wan. Grind the mung beans in half, peel and wash them, cook them in a pot, remove and drain the water, then put the barley, gorgon, lotus seeds and cooked mung bean and lily in the pressure cooker Together, put Qingxin Wan into the pot, add water and sugar, and add a small amount of dilute water starch to cook together.It is a sweet and delicious Qingxin Pill, which has the effects of moisturizing the throat, clearing away heat, diuresis, and refreshing the heart and lungs.

Yu Lu stewed the Qingxin pills, and then came back to help Zhang Yiwei make Tai Chi shrimp.After Haixuan prepared the ingredients for the Tai Chi shrimp, he handed over the follow-up work to Zhang Yiwei, and he made the chrysanthemum fish himself.

Chrysanthemum fish is a dish that tests the chef's basic skills, because it is impossible to process the fish into a chrysanthemum shape without long-term training.Descale the grass carp, cut off the head and tail, remove the bone and remove the thorns, cut the fish into thin slices with an oblique knife, but do not cut the skin, cut it about five times, and then cut the thin slices into thin strips with a straight knife, still Don't cut the fish skin, marinate the cut fish fillets to taste, coat with starch, fry in a [-]% to [-]% hot oil pan until set, take it out, raise the oil temperature and fry again until golden and crisp, drain the oil Put it on the plate, pour the sauce prepared with tomato sauce, garnish with celery leaves, and you're done.

When the chrysanthemum fish was ready, the Tai Chi shrimp was already in the steamer, and Yu Lu and Zhang Yiwei were preparing a fruit platter.Zhang Yiwei usually loves to play and carve vegetables and fruits. This is why Haixuan brought him here. Today he carved a phoenix out of apples and a tree out of watermelon rind. Let the phoenix lie on the watermelon rind. Then decorate it with watermelon slices, cherries, mango slices, etc., which is full of fun, but it has a tall name-Fengqi Wutong.

Yu Lu laughed softly: "It looks like a rooster no matter what."

Zhang Yiwei glared at him angrily: "Brother Lu, why don't you come?"

Yu Lu shook his head, asking him to cut a slice and dig a fruit ball is okay, but he hasn't learned how to carve.

Haixuan looked up at the electronic time on the wall. One hour and 32 minutes had passed. He said, "Okay, ready to serve." After speaking, he clicked the bell to indicate that their group had finished.

Haixuan went up first with cold dishes, Yu Lu and Zhang Yiwei followed with hot dishes, and soon a table was filled.Yu Lu looked at the judges and felt a little nervous. Although he had tasted the dishes and they all tasted good, he didn't know what the picky judges thought.He stood aside and looked at Jin Nanshan subconsciously. Jin Nanshan pressed his hands on the crutches and stared at the field. There was no joy or anger on his face, but Yu Lu could feel the eagerness in the other party's eyes. He forced himself on the old man smiley face.Jin Nanshan nodded slightly to show encouragement.

Several judges came over and formed a table, looking at the dishes on the table, Haixuan introduced them to everyone one by one.A female judge said unexpectedly: "Is the cold dish a cold dish?"

Hai Xuan said: "Yes, they are all cold dishes that are often eaten in summer."

The female judge picked up the chopsticks, reached for the jellyfish skin, took a bite, and nodded slightly: "Well, the taste is not bad." Then she tasted a shredded carrot, "Is this shredded carrot? It doesn't smell like carrots."

"Yes, I treated it with oil to remove the smell of carrots." Haixuan said.

Several other judges picked up their chopsticks and tasted it carefully.

Yu Lu was nervous watching from the sidelines, his palms were sweaty, he paid attention to the subtle expressions on each judge's face, but he couldn't see anything.

Finally, the judges put down their chopsticks and walked to the judges' bench. The first one to score was the female judge. She picked up a pen, wrote a number on the sign, then wiped it off, wrote another one, held it up, and got 94 points.

The people outside the arena started to be in an uproar again. This is the highest score ever scored in a team competition.The other judges showed their cards one after another: 95, 93, 94, 90, 96, 92, the first high score finally appeared, and the final score was 93.6 points.

The joy in Yu Lu's heart finally flooded his face uncontrollably, and he smiled so that he showed his neat white teeth. He raised his fist in excitement and stretched out to Haixuan: "Ah Hai, we won!"

Haixuan also stretched out his fist and touched him, with a faint smile on his face, Zhang Yiwei quickly raised his fist and touched the two bosses: "Brother Hai, Brother Lu, it's great! We The score is super high!"

The female judge began to comment: "To be honest, when I saw cold dishes, my first thought was: Home cooking? This contestant is either too perfunctory or too confident. The level of our competition is not low. No one dares to make home-cooked dishes for the judges, because the most common dishes are the most difficult to make a good taste. I ate their cold dishes out of curiosity. To be honest, it was amazing, crispy, refreshing, and salty and sour. It is very good, it can satisfy the taste buds to the greatest extent and mobilize my appetite. I think the other judges are also like this. The cold appetizer is an appetizer, and this cold appetizer has already done it. It made me understand that the contestants are not just perfunctory, It’s about having enough self-confidence. You know, in the past few days, we have eaten too many delicacies, all of which are big fish and big meat, because otherwise, the skill of the chefs cannot be reflected. And this home-cooked cold dish , it makes me feel kind, and it is so special in taste, so I can't help but be impressed. The other dishes taste very good, especially the dessert. It's served with ice water, right? ? Very cool and refreshing, the most suitable for this weather to drink, very good attention to detail, very attentive, please continue to work hard."

Yu Lu's face couldn't help but shine, and the judges praised his dessert for being well done.Hai Xuan stretched out his hand and patted him on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement.

After the female judge finished commenting, another judge also commented, but he mainly talked about shortcomings, such as some flaws in the shape, some small flaws in the taste, but in general, the flaws are not hidden, pointing these out, just hope They can go one step further.

The three of Yu Lu bowed to express their gratitude for being taught, and then walked towards Jin Nanshan on the sidelines with excitement: "Master, we won."

Jin Nanshan said: "Hey, don't come back like this. Take back all your dishes and take them back for us to eat. It's a waste to leave them anyway."

In the past two days, the chefs have cooked countless dishes. Generally speaking, after the judges have tasted them, the rest will be disposed of by the clubhouse. Some are eaten by the staff, and some are just thrown away. It’s a pity to say .

Yu Lu thought about it. After working for so long, he should bring it back and eat it by himself. It is shameful to waste food.So he quickly turned back and said to the staff who were collecting the plates: "Wait, wait, can I take these to eat by myself?"

The staff looked at him, then looked at Mr. Jin behind him, and couldn't object, so they nodded.Yu Lu hurriedly brought two plates, Zhang Yiwei and Haixuan also came up to help, and took away all the dishes on the table.The judges on the field couldn't help laughing, the contestants in this group are really interesting.