The Game of Life-Chapter 863 - 862 The Best Dish for the Finals
Chapter 863: Chapter 862: The Best Dish for the Finals
Chapter 863 -862: The Best Dish for the Finals
After finding a good pot, Jiang Feng became obsessed with stir-frying as if he had discovered a new continent. He cast aside all techniques including knife skills and soup making. After finishing his basic daily practice, he spent most of his time with this beloved pot, like a besotted emperor neglecting his consorts, favoring only the iron pot, his newly favored concubine.
Of course, it’s not quite fitting to describe the iron pot as the “imperial harem of 3000 beauties,” because not only did Jiang Feng use it himself, he also invited everyone else to use it, and all who used it praised it highly.
If one had to describe it, it was as if such an extraordinary and stunning iron pot existed in the world.
Three days after the iron pot had been brought into Taifeng Building’s kitchen, at least three people had already asked Zhang Weiyu to resign quickly and go home to learn iron crafting from his father to better serve Taifeng Building.
Zhang Weiyu: ???
Day by day, the date of the competition approached even closer.
On Wednesday night, Jiang Feng used the backtracking function to re-enter a memory of Jiang’s Old House, and watched Jiang Chengde’s enlightenment process from the beginning. He practiced three more months than Chef Arno and others due to the time manipulation, and felt his culinary skills had improved a bit.
He felt even more confident about winning the championship.
If initially he was 80% sure of his victory, now it felt like 99%.
Not that he wanted to look down on Chef Arno, but he wanted to say that everyone present is __.
The staff didn’t respond with the remaining tickets within three days as promised over the phone, probably because the tickets were in such high demand onsite. Jiang Feng didn’t care much about it, but Ji Yue did, since she was always keen on gossip.
According to Ji Yue, the few hundred tickets released on the online platform, namely the official WeChat account, were snapped up in less than ten minutes, even crashing the system.
Left with no choice, the production team added eighty more seats and released eighty lottery-based tickets to calm the public’s anger, even making it onto two trending searches midway.
It’s not that the production team was stingy by adding only eighty seats; the venue was large enough to add two hundred if needed. They were primarily worried that Rolan wouldn’t be able to make two hundred more cakes, as making cakes was much more complex than making congee from any perspective.
The production team responded to Jiang Feng on Thursday afternoon.
Although several days later than expected, the response was positive; the production team gave Jiang Feng fifty-three tickets.
According to the staff, the top-floor restaurant didn’t request a single ticket, while Peng Changping took a few, ensuring that the front three rows would be filled with Taifeng Building’s cheering section (Yonghe House was directly included in Taifeng’s cheer squad). If possible, bringing light signs, banners, or support sticks wasn’t out of the question.
Fifty-three tickets were much more than Jiang Feng had anticipated.
After much consideration, the generous capitalist Jiang Feng decided to invite the core backbone of Taifeng Building’s kitchen (the chefs with names) to watch the contest for free. This was listed as part of the annual performance review, directly linked to everyone’s year-end bonus.
Not just inviting the core members to the match, Jiang Feng even allocated two tickets for Liu Qian and He Yueru, inviting friends and family who did not have to work to witness his championship moment.
With that, everything was ready except for the opportune east wind.
Jiang Feng could already smell the fragrance of the championship trophy.
Thursday night at 9 p.m., 37 hours before the final match.
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Jiang Feng had finished his work for the day and started cleaning his knife and scrubbing the pot, preparing to pack up and head home.
If this had been a few months ago, he might have stayed behind habitually to help everyone clean up the kitchen. But as his culinary skills had grown at a cheating speed, both his mindset and abilities had reached the level of a head chef. He began living the life a head chef ought to have.
Clock off and head home, no dragging feet.
“Jiang Feng,” Sun Maochai called out just as Jiang Feng was getting ready to happily finish work and head home.
“Master Sun, do you need something?” Jiang Feng paused, and Wu Minqi, who was beside him, also stopped.
“Come by my place around ten o’clock later tonight, I have something I want to discuss with you,” Sun Maochai said.
Seeing that Sun Maochai had only spoken to Jiang Feng and not even glanced at her, Wu Minqi uncertainly asked, “Master Sun, so is it all of us going to your place tonight, or just Jiang Feng?”
“Just Jiang Feng is fine, I want to discuss the dishes for the final with him,” Sun Maochai said.
Wu Minqi instantly understood; matters amongst the head chefs, they, the support staff, shouldn’t meddle. She nodded, and left together with Jiang Feng.
On the way back, Wu Minqi couldn’t resist asking Jiang Feng, “Fengfeng, haven’t you discussed the final dishes with Master Sun beforehand?”
“There’s no need to discuss,” Jiang Feng was also a bit puzzled, “Didn’t they announce during the finals’ rules? Just like the semifinals, two dishes, any theme, any type, anything is acceptable. I had already agreed with Master Sun; he does one dish, and I do another, each responsible for our own.”
As for the top-floor restaurant, it’s certainly Chef Arno preparing two dishes while the others make cakes.
“Could it be that there’s an issue with Master Sun’s dish?” Wu Minqi boldly guessed.
“That shouldn’t be the case. Master Sun has so much experience in competitions. Logically, preparing one final dish should be simple, there shouldn’t be any issues. Perhaps it’s just to discuss the division of labor,” Jiang Feng didn’t think much of it and advised Wu Minqi not to overthink, “There won’t be issues. How could there be problems with the dish just before the competition? Impossible.”
After returning home, Jiang Feng did a quick clean-up, played on his phone for five minutes, chatted with Wang Hao about random stuff, and seeing it was already ten o’clock, he headed out to take the elevator to Sun Maochai’s place upstairs.
Sun Maochai was stewing a radish pork rib soup. Seeing Jiang Feng arrive, he quickly invited him in, gesturing for him to wait a bit longer as the soup would soon be ready for him to have a bowl.
“Master Sun, what brought about the leisure to stew soup tonight?” Jiang Feng asked with a smile.
This was his many visits to Sun Maochai’s place, and it was only the second time he saw Sun Maochai stewing soup, always radish pork rib soup.
“Whenever I have something to rejoice or worry about, I always make it a habit to stew a pot of radish pork rib soup. It helps soothe my mood so I don’t get too excited or too anxious,” Sun Maochai explained, his expression suddenly serious.
“I have something I want to talk to you about.”
Jiang Feng suddenly felt like the flag he had planted earlier might just come true.
“You’re not going to tell me…”
“It seems like there’s a problem with the dish I prepared.”
Jiang Feng: …
“The competition hasn’t even started yet, and the ingredients were all prepared by the crew. How could there be a problem?” Jiang Feng didn’t understand.
“I initially planned to make Taishi Snake Soup for the final,” Master Sun began to explain, “probably because I haven’t competed in a long time. I actually forgot that snake, as an ingredient, is quite taboo in international competitions, especially since Taishi Snake Soup requires various venomous snakes that need to be slaughtered on site.”
“I called the crew this afternoon to discuss it, and since the last two hours are going to be live on television, they advised me it would be best not to choose this dish, as it could cause a lot of trouble.” Master Sun was also helpless, having his chosen dish cancelled in such a manner made anyone feel helpless.
Jiang Feng hadn’t anticipated this complication, and was also somewhat at a loss.
“Can’t you change the dish?”
“I can indeed. I called you here tonight to discuss which dish would be better to change to. After all, our opponent in the final is Chef Arno, and if we choose a dish of typical competition difficulty, I’m afraid I might hold you back,” Master Sun had called Jiang Feng up just to discuss this.
Master Sun listed six potential dishes for Jiang Feng, three of which Jiang Feng had never tried. Master Sun went through the difficulty, required time, pros, and cons of these dishes to Jiang Feng, wanting his help in deciding which dish would be better to make.
Jiang Feng felt that none of them were as good as the Taishi Snake Soup.
It wasn’t for any other reason, mainly because Taishi Snake Soup was rare. So far, Jiang Feng knew only Master Sun could make it, a unique dish that was absolutely a nuclear weapon in a culinary competition.
Jiang Feng felt that none of those options were good.
Just as he was regretting that such a good dish couldn’t be used for the final, an idea for a unique dish that not only no one else could make, but also few had even tasted, appeared in his mind.
Herb-flavored cabbage.
Golden Jade Cabbage.
This dish Jiang Feng had never made since he obtained it, not because it was too difficult. In terms of difficulty, Golden Jade Cabbage was far less complex than Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup.
The main issue was the trouble.
The sea cucumber and abalone broth required for the cabbage was too troublesome.
One pot of broth took ten full hours to stew, with seven hours requiring constant attention. Unlike ordinary broth that can serve many dishes, sea cucumber and abalone broth was only suitable for Golden Jade Cabbage, making it low cost-effective and time-consuming.
It’s unsuitable for selling, but perfect for competition.
Who in the world could resist the charm of herb-flavored cabbage?
Jiang Feng had the skills to stir-fry cabbage, and now he even had Zhang Weiyu’s legendary golden cast-iron pot, enhancing his skills tremendously. If Master Sun was willing to spend ten hours making a pot of sea cucumber and abalone broth during the competition, Jiang Feng believed that a sure win could improve even further.
Even though the sea cucumber and abalone broth was complex, it wasn’t very difficult to make. Jiang Huiqin could do it, let alone Master Sun, whose culinary skills and seafood handling were far superior to Jiang Huiqin.
It was simply perfect.
This dish was absolutely perfect for the finals!
It didn’t matter that he had never made it, wasn’t there still a day left? Jiang Feng believed Master Sun could master the sea cucumber and abalone broth with just one practice, no problem at all.
“Master Sun, I thought of a dish that we can both work on together, and the part you handle would be perfectly suited for you!” Jiang Feng’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.
“Oh? What dish?” Master Sun hadn’t expected that Jiang Feng, so far into the competition, still had new dishes to offer, not to mention two reserve dishes.
Not even Doraemon’s gadget pouch was as resourceful as him.
“Golden Jade Cabbage! I’ll handle the cabbage part; you handle the broth. The broth is a bit complex. Let me explain to you how to make it: first, the main ingredients are sea cucumber and abalone, along with some other seafood. Once they are cleaned, you need to…” Jiang Feng began explaining the specific method of making sea cucumber and abalone broth to Master Sun.
He talked for half an hour, leaving Master Sun completely baffled.
He had never imagined that a soup could be so laborious, and that stewing such a pot of soup was just for frying some cabbage.
Was it worth it, just for a single cabbage?
Having cooked countless laborious dishes, Master Sun couldn’t help but exclaim.
“The steps for the broth are basically like this, although it takes a bit long and is somewhat troublesome, but you can definitely see that it’s not very difficult. I believe that if you make it once tomorrow, there would be absolutely no problem during the competition the day after tomorrow because it really isn’t hard.”
“What do you think? If you think it’s feasible, try it tomorrow, and if there’s no problem, we’ll make this dish during the competition,” Jiang Feng asked.
Master Sun: …
What did he think? He wondered if he had somehow offended Jiang Feng, so Jiang Feng intentionally wanted to challenge him with this complicated dish.
“Alright, let’s try it tomorrow,” Master Sun nodded in agreement.
Although he had never heard of Golden Jade Cabbage, nor had he ever made it, nor did he know where Jiang Feng had learned such an unconventional, distinctive cabbage dish.
But he trusted Jiang Feng.
Tired, although it was a bit exhausting and even suddenly turned from a chef to an assistant, Master Sun was very willing.
After all, he wasn’t going to be the star of the final the day after tomorrow. Acting as a stepping stone to elevate Jiang Feng to greater heights was well worth it.
He was very willing.
