The Spirit of Gourmet

Chapter 165: The Audition Scene!
"I'm in arena number five, what about you?"

Qin Lang quickly raised his head and looked at the other two.

Upon hearing Qin Lang's words, Cao Dongdong and Zhao Qian showed expressions of disappointment.

"I'm in venue number six, and Zhao Qian is in venue number two." Cao Dongdong shrugged. "It seems we'll have to split up this time."

"It's just a preliminary round," Qin Lang said with a smile, reassuringly. "I believe that with all of our culinary skills, advancing to the next round shouldn't be a problem."

"At that time, we will naturally be on the same field."

"That's true." Zhao Qian nodded with a smile. "So, when do you plan to go to the preliminary rounds?"

"Let's go now." Qin Lang thought for a moment. "This is a cooking competition. The food judges need to taste each contestant's dish. If we go too late, there might be some factors that affect the competition."

The preliminary rounds differ from the subsequent elimination rounds because different chefs take different amounts of time to cook, so there is no fixed order for the contestants. The main principle is to judge the contestants who finish first, and then judge the contestants who finish later.

As previously mentioned, with over 20,000 applicants, each sub-venue will have over 2,000 participants.

The preliminary rounds only last for four days.

On average, the food judges at each sub-venue taste 500 different dishes every day.

Even if each dish is only sampled in small bites, the large number of contestants taking turns on stage puts a considerable strain on the stomachs of the food judges.

Qin Lang did not doubt the judges' professionalism, but people's experience of the same dish would definitely differ when they are hungry and full.

Therefore, letting food judges taste your food sooner will definitely yield better results.

If nothing unexpected happens, the other players should be thinking the same thing and are already on their way to the various sub-venues.

If you go late, who knows how long you'll have to wait in line.

"Jingle Bell--"

Just as Qin Lang was pondering, a short bell rang.

He glanced at the caller ID and couldn't help but chuckle.

Oh right, I almost forgot about that guy.
-

"Hello! Good morning, my dearest fans in the live stream! I'm your most beloved Zaozao!"

Yu waved at the camera early on, ignoring the barrage of comments, and quickly turned the camera to the huge crowd around her.

"Today, we have come to the preliminary selection site of the Tianhua Prefecture Youth Cooking Competition!"

As a massive crowd appeared on the live stream screen, the chat instantly went silent.

"Does it feel like there are a lot of people?" Yu Zaozao noticed the changes in the comments and smiled mysteriously. "Let me tell you something: there are ten venues for the preliminary rounds of the competition, so there are nine more places than this!"

Upon hearing Yu Zaozao's words, the comments section erupted once again.

From that seemingly endless line, they gained a direct understanding of just how popular this competition was.

"Besides, Zaozao isn't doing a solo livestream today!" Yu Zaozao smiled slyly, pointing the camera at Qin Lang, whom she had been deliberately avoiding earlier. "Ta-da! Look who our guest is!"

The barrage of comments cleared up again, revealing Qin Lang's handsome face from every angle. After a moment of silence, the comments surged up again.

"Hello everyone." Qin Lang waved to the camera with a wry smile. "Although I'm a guest, I'll be going on stage later."

“That’s right, that’s right.” Yu Zaozao took over the conversation, turned the camera back to herself, ignored the countless comments on the screen urging people to give the camera to Qin Lang, and shamelessly said, “We are now in the fifth division, and I will be broadcasting the entire process of Qin Lang advancing to the preliminary rounds!”

"At the same time, Qin Lang's two teammates are currently in other competition venues. We also send our best wishes to them and hope they advance smoothly!"

"They will." Qin Lang said with a hint of confidence, his gaze sweeping over the crowd and toward the center of the open-air arena.

Neat rows of three-meter-long cubes were laid out on the field, with walkways between each row. Each cube had a door for entry and exit. Contestants kept coming out with dishes, and soon new contestants would enter.

"That's the standard cooking unit?"

“That’s right!” Yu Zaozao chimed in, pointing the camera at the cubic grids. “These are the standard cooking units used in the vast majority of cooking competitions.”

"Though small, it is fully functional. Within its three-meter ceiling height and nine-square-meter footprint, it features an integrated cabinet with an extremely high storage capacity, a standardized chef's cooking stove and utensils, which are sufficient to support various cooking methods."

"Its modular structure makes it easy to disassemble and clean, which greatly reduces the time cost of setting up the stadium."

"In addition, the top and sides of the standard cooking unit can be unfolded, switching from closed mode to open mode in 3 seconds."

"Each preliminary round has 25 standard cooking units set up in each venue. When the light in a standard cooking unit is red, it means that a contestant is cooking inside. Yellow means that the staff is cleaning up after cooking. Green means that the contestant can use the cooking unit."

"The contestants entered the green unit one by one, and after completing their cooking, they handed their dishes to the judges in the order they were completed for tasting and voting."

"You seem to know quite a bit about this," Qin Lang couldn't help but say.

"Of course! I did my homework beforehand," Yu Zaozao said proudly, puffing out her chest. "Besides understanding the standard cooking units, I also learned about other things!"

"For example, the five food judges in the fifth division!" Yu Zaozao said, pointing the camera at the judges' panel in the arena.

Across the long queue, the five judges sitting on the judging panel could only see five small black dots with the naked eye, but that was not a problem.

Because the preliminary rounds also have large screens with close-up shots, and the sound amplification equipment is sufficient to ensure that the voices of each judge can be heard in every corner of the venue.

“The one sitting in the very center is Mr. Li Yuan, the chief judge of this event.” Yu Zaozao chuckled. “Mr. Li Yuan is a senior food writer. It is said that he was once nominated as a food recommender, but he was unable to serve as a food recommender for some reason.”

“Unlike the other four judges, Mr. Li Yuan has three direct advancement spots. If the five judges do not have three votes for a contestant, but Mr. Li Yuan believes that the contestant deserves encouragement, he can choose to use the spots to let the contestant advance to the next round.”

"At the same time, being the chief judge means that Mr. Li Yuan will be one of the ten judges in the next round of the preliminary competition."

"Besides Mr. Li Yuan, the other four judges are..."

Yu Zaozao quickly introduced the five judges.

After listening, Qin Lang, who was standing to the side, had to admit that this streamer did have something special to gain so many fans.

She did her homework too thoroughly.

(End of this chapter)