The Game of Life-Chapter 835 - 834 good
Chapter 835: Chapter 834 good
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Chapter 835 -834 good
“Drip, drip, drip.”
With the final three mechanical, clear, and evenly spaced drips sounding like a death knell, the countdown on the big screen was completely cleared.
Time was up.
All the contestants had finished their dishes, and one team had even finished eating dinner.
Looking at the freshly cooked, meticulously selected, golden and fragrant Phoenix Egg that didn’t seem as appealing because he was already full, Jiang Feng couldn’t help but let out a hiccup.
“Hiccup.”
A hiccup that, amidst the mechanical sounds, wasn’t very loud but particularly noticeable and clear, as everyone was quietly standing behind their cooking stations waiting for the staff to collect the dishes.
Bearded Main Chef: ?
Bearded Main Chef glanced at all the contestants using his peripheral vision, realizing only he found Jiang Feng’s hiccup to be strange, surprising, incomprehensible, and confusing.
The reactions of others were normal, as if they hadn’t heard anything.
Bearded Main Chef even stealthily glanced at Chef Arno.
As a once trusted underling who was often scolded by Chef Arno and even grew a beard to resemble him, Bearded Main Chef knew Chef Arno’s temperament well.
He was a person who wouldn’t tolerate even a speck of dust, both figuratively and literally.
Let alone a hiccup, even a small cough might provoke Chef Arno’s scorn. The Tai Feng Building Quartet not taking the competition seriously, eating dinner mid-contest, drinking juice, and then even enjoying dessert, and to top it off a hiccup at the end of the match was such appalling behavior that if Chef Arno saw it, how could he not explode in fury, slamming the table to rise.
Chef Arno had no reaction.
“Hiccup.” Jiang Feng let out another hiccup.
Chef Arno took notice of Jiang Feng.
He looked towards Jiang Feng.
Bearded Main Chef’s heart was leaping with excitement, but his beard did a great job of concealing his emotions from everyone else.
Finally, finally, it was time to scold someone, right!
In his excitement, Bearded Main Chef clenched his fists.
“Hiccup.” Jiang Feng hiccupped again.
Jiang Feng found today’s hiccups to be peculiar, as they just wouldn’t stop. It was just extra eating, for goodness sake, as if he didn’t respect the semi-finals at all.
Yes, they had a slight mishap while preparing the third dish, so they ate it and then hurriedly made the fourth dish as their entry for the contest.
Chef Arno opened his mouth.
“Water?” Chef Arno raised the unopened mineral water in his hand, the gesture quite clear.
“Thanks,” Jiang Feng caught the mineral water tossed by Chef Arno and unscrewed the cap to chug down half the bottle.
“Hiccup.” The hiccup was even louder now.
Bearded Main Chef: ???
After drinking the water, Jiang Feng still found it odd and whispered to Wu Minqi, “Why does Chef Arno have water and we don’t?”
Jiang Feng felt the show was being discriminatory.
“Actually, there’s chilled mineral water in the ingredient area, in the box in the very corner with ice floating in it. I noticed it when I went to get mushrooms,” Wu Minqi explained, “It must be specially requested by Chef Arno. I saw him using the chilled mineral water while cooking.”
Jiang Feng suddenly understood.
On the other hand, all the dishes from the four teams of contestants were already presented before the four judges.
Not many dishes, four main courses and four desserts, essentially completed just in time. The plating was immaculate, and from the appearance alone, each dish looked exquisitely delicious. All eight dishes together gave off a vibe of an emperor strolling through his royal garden. The eight distinct and beautifully presented dishes were like lovely courtesans, each with their unique charms, vying for the emperor’s attention, waiting for him to extend his chopsticks to partake.
Xu Cheng now felt the thrill of being a negligent ruler, thinking that such gourmet competitions should happen more often. A contest that brings together Chef Arno, Sun Maochai, Jiang Feng, and the head chefs of New York Light and a Chinese restaurant should definitely be held more frequently.
If not for this competition, who could have their dishes appear on the same table?
Of the four judges, Peng Changping was the oldest and held the highest status. Food testing needed an order, and naturally, that order was for him to decide.
In front of Peng Changping was the molecular gastronomy from the Bearded Main Chef, which looked extremely delicate—like a small portion of pudding with a soft light effect, from the jam to the decorative green leaves, everything radiated a gentle and clear luster. Even those who were not fond of sweets might not be able to resist the urge to scoop a taste of this seemingly ordinary yet irresistibly appealing grape juice chicken egg pudding.
The pudding was placed in front of Peng Changping, and his first sight was naturally this dish. Bearded Main Chef was already prepared behind the cooking station, and he even felt a tinge of excitement.
He had not expected his luck to be so good—their team’s dish happened to be right in front of Peng Changping.
The most respected of the four judges was Peng Changping, yet he was also the least professional in food critique. He was merely the acknowledged number one chef, not a professional food critic.
Despite his rough appearance, the Bearded Main Chef was no less calculating than anyone else. The semifinals lasted a long time, spanning almost the entire lunch and dinner hours from noon to six in the evening. Out of respect for the contestants, the four judges remained at their seats throughout the competition, except for bathroom breaks, and aside from drinking water, they did not consume any food. Their dedication sharply contrasted with the behavior of a certain quartet, who halfway through their own contest, suddenly started eating dinner.
It’s only natural to get hungry after such a long time without food.
As everyone knows, food tastes better when one is hungry than when full. Confident in his culinary skills, the Bearded Main Chef believed that with Peng Changping having not eaten anything during the usual times, the first bite to be tasted being his dish would surely be rated even higher in Peng’s mind.
With the heavens, earth, and people all in his favor, it seemed like a divine help to the Bearded Main Chef who felt certain that he would now make it to the finals. He planned to ask for a raise as soon as he got back.
Then Peng Changping reached for the Phoenix Egg in front of Xu Cheng on his right, confidently picking up one that was still steaming, coated in a sauce as evenly distributed as the eggshell, at the perfect temperature for tasting.
Bearded Main Chef: ?
“If no one objects, why don’t we start with tasting this dish? Jiang Feng acted quite cleverly—originally I wasn’t eager to try it, but sitting here and watching him eat has made me really want to taste this dish,” Peng Changping said in English, and upon these words, even the two judges from across the ocean silently chuckled in agreement.
Clearly, Peng Changping had voiced what everyone was feeling.
The more joyfully the Tai Feng Building Quartet ate earlier, the more the judges craved their meal.
It was ironic that they had come to judge and eat, yet instead, they had first watched others enjoy the meal.
Sitting on the far left of the judge’s bench, Xu Cheng moved the Phoenix Egg to the right for the other two judges to pick up first as they were not adept with chopsticks and might take a while to grab an egg, while he quietly scooped up a small bowl of rock sugar bird’s nest for himself.
By the time Xu Cheng was scooping the bird’s nest, Peng Changping had already finished eating the very Phoenix Egg he was just talking about.
He swallowed it in one bite, and after just two chews, the man over a hundred years old, Peng Changping, ate with more vigor than the much younger Han Guishan.
Xu Cheng tasted a spoonful of the rock sugar bird’s nest and nodded in satisfaction.
“Actually, I’ve always felt that Master Sun’s true talent lies in stewed dishes, although he probably thinks they take too much time and lack technical complexity, and so he seldom makes them. It’s really a shame,” Xu Cheng continued, lowering his head for another spoonful.
“A chef always has personal likes and dislikes, you have to understand that. Even if they’re good at it, they naturally wouldn’t want to make dishes they don’t like,” Peng Changping said with a smile, not scooping any bird’s nest.
Xu Cheng noticed that Peng Changping had finished the Phoenix Egg and reached out to help him scoop some bird’s nest, but Peng Changping declined with a wave of his hand.
“Let me have a moment to savor it again,” Peng Changping said with a smile.
Xu Cheng was stunned, “Savor?”
After many years of knowing Peng Changping, it was the first time he had heard him use that term.
“Was it… that delicious?”
Peng Changping shook his head, “It’s not that exaggerated, but indeed, it’s a rare and excellent dish. What I’m savoring is the thickening technique used in the dish.”
“Thickening?” Xu Cheng was even more confused.
“This dish was still being worked on by Jiang Feng not long ago, and to be honest, it’s actually one of his great-grandfather Jiang Chengde’s signature dishes. When my father taught it to me, he kept telling me how Jiang Chengde’s version was supposed to be. I always thought the ideal state of this dish was to have an undamaged eggshell with no egg liquid remaining in the pan.”
“No egg liquid in the pan?” Xu Cheng was inwardly amazed, “If that’s achievable, then it’s truly… a perfect dish.”
“Not necessarily,” Peng Changping shook his head, closed his eyes briefly for about three or four seconds, “there are other directions to make it even better, which I never thought of, but he did.”
Xu Cheng didn’t quite understand what was said, but at that moment, David and Henry, the two judges who were not proficient with chopsticks, finally managed to stubbornly pick up a Phoenix Egg each and passed the plate back to Xu Cheng, indicating that it was his turn.
Nothing beats personally tasting it.
Xu Cheng decisively grabbed a Phoenix Egg and popped it into his mouth.
It was tasty. The fish was fresh, the egg custard was tender, and the thickening was just right, with the sauce seemingly integrated into the dish as a whole.
It was slightly amazing, but not overwhelmingly so.
Xu Cheng’s fastidious taste buds began to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Phoenix Egg in his mouth, though his evaluation was slightly biased due to Peng Changping’s previous remarks.
He focused his analysis on the thickening, which made the already delicious Phoenix Egg seem even tastier.
Xu Cheng had eaten Phoenix Eggs before and lacked the novelty of seeing the dish for the first time. David and Henry, on the other hand, had never even heard of Phoenix Eggs, so for them, it was a brand new, charming, and excitingly mysterious dish.
A dish that lived up to high expectations in flavor.
“Amazing,” Henry exclaimed.
“Unbelievable!” David was even more emphatic.
As someone who played a certain matching game and was once deeply addicted to it, Xu Cheng thought: …
You two are having a blast playing Candy Crush here.
Silently, Xu Cheng added a “good” to his inner commentary.
