The Spirit of Gourmet

Chapter 482 The Hunting Team's Scheme
Ignoring the complaints and drooling around him, Qin Lang focused all his attention on the Dongpo pork in front of him.

Although the total cooking time for this Dongpo pork is only a dozen minutes due to the spicy speed, the actual cooking time is a full four hours. With such a long cooking time, one cannot be careless as the cooking progresses.

Remove everything from the pot except the pork belly, then turn the heat to high.

As the saying goes, "One extra sip of soup diminishes the flavor by three-tenths," the key to making good Dongpo pork is reducing the sauce at the end.

While reducing the sauce over high heat, Qin Lang lifted the pot with one hand and rotated it horizontally in one direction, causing the pork belly in the pot to rotate as well, ensuring that the pork belly was heated evenly during the sauce reduction process.

When only a shallow layer of broth remains in the pot, each piece of pork belly has an incredibly tempting, glistening sheen. Thanks to the previous pressing and shaping steps, even without the need for rope binding, each piece of pork belly can maintain its shape and remain square and neat.

Place blanched lettuce at the bottom, adjust the arrangement of the pork belly to make it neat and orderly, and the final step is complete to make a plate of delicious Dongpo pork.

"Deng deng deng-"

A series of hurried footsteps quickly approached Qin Lang.

Qin Lang turned his head and saw a short, fat man with a small mustache running towards him. His gleaming eyes were fixed on the Dongpo pork that Qin Lang had just finished, as if he were looking at an unparalleled beauty.

"Leave it for now, I'll do it!"

The short, stout man ran over, waving hurriedly at Qin Lang, "I'm Zhou Hongtao, just give me this meat."

Zhou Hongtao…

Qin Lang then realized that the other party was the judge he had chosen. However, before he could even serve the dishes to the judges, the judge on the panel had run down on his own.

Thinking of this, Qin Lang's expression suddenly turned strange.

Privately organized competitions are basically unconventional...

Seemingly sensing Qin Lang's doubts, Zhou Hongtao casually pulled a plaque from his pocket and slapped it down in front of Qin Lang.

"I'll try a bite first. If I'm satisfied, it's yours!"

Seeing the sign that read "Advancement," Qin Lang immediately had no objections and smiled as he made way for him, saying, "Please go ahead."

"Hehe~" Zhou Hongtao revealed a smug expression, picked up a piece with his chopsticks, and put it directly into his mouth.

The next moment, his eyes widened.

Rich…

An incredibly rich meaty aroma.

At that moment, Zhou Hongtao felt a strong man rushing towards him, hugging him tightly with his strong muscles. When he looked up, he saw that the strong man had a cute pig's head on his head.

"Delicious, so delicious!" Zhou Hongtao's eyes reddened as he chewed repeatedly. "Fat but not greasy, lean but not dry."

"What an exquisite flavor! This is the most delicious pork belly I've ever eaten, bar none."

"Being able to eat this makes me feel like I've lived a lifetime of happiness..."

"It's worth it!"

"Um, Judge Zhou..." Qin Lang rubbed his hands together, "My advancement card..."

"Take it!"

Zhou Hongtao shoved the advancement card into Qin Lang's arms, then hugged the whole plate of Dongpo pork and began to eat it by himself.

As for returning to the judging panel?

He is not a fool!

Once he's back on the judging panel, won't those bastards be fighting him for food?
Only after finishing the entire plate of Dongpo pork, even rinsing the soup with blanched lettuce to make the plate spotless as if it had been washed, did Zhou Hongtao return to his seat with a smile. "Burp~"

He patted his stomach, let out a burp, and ignored the envious looks from the other judges, leaning back lazily in his chair.

"I'm stuffed."

"Then it's up to you."

Although there is no rule that each judge can only give one advancement spot, there are only 16 advancement spots in total, but there are 20 judges, so everyone agreed in advance that each person could give one spot until all spots were given.

Only twenty minutes into the preliminary rounds, Zhou Hongtao had already given away his spot. Seeing that the first spot had been claimed, the other contestants quickened their pace.
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"Such a large fish market, it's truly teeming with talented people."

On a bleacher stand not far from the competition venue, a middle-aged man in a suit and tie, with his hair neatly combed back and only a wisp of hair falling naturally across his forehead, stared intently at the field and suddenly smiled.

"You've taken a liking to that kid who just advanced?"

A voice came from behind the middle-aged man.

He was a young man with short, fiery red hair. He was leaning against the railing on one side of the stands with his arms crossed, one leg slightly bent and his foot against the railing, striking a nonchalant pose.

“Two Food Spirits, one three-star and one two-star,” the middle-aged man said slowly. “This strength is comparable to our own strong members, plus their superb culinary skills.”

"More importantly, he is very young."

"Such a person is undoubtedly an excellent recruitment target."

“But they might not even look at us.” The red-haired youth sneered, showing no respect for the middle-aged man. “A guy like that would be valued anywhere, but we’re a notorious treasure hunting team.”

"Joining us, isn't this abandoning darkness for light?"

"It seems you're still holding a grudge about what happened back then." The middle-aged man turned his head and looked at the red-haired youth with a complicated expression.

"Meng Yan, back then..."

"Don't bring up the past with me!" Meng Yan's face instantly turned cold as he glared fiercely at the middle-aged man. "If it weren't for you, I would have had a bright future ahead of me, and I would never have joined the treasure hunting team."

"Let's not talk about it anymore," the middle-aged man sighed softly. "Let's get back to the matter at hand."

"The members of the Mingjing State organization have suffered heavy losses due to the association's intensified pursuit during this period. Our backup base has managed to survive until now without being discovered by the association for various reasons."

"The organization's higher-ups value us highly and hope that we can secretly recruit some new blood for the organization, which is why this competition came about."

"The Treasure Hunting Team has corresponding recruitment methods for those with poor cooking skills who are eager for quick success and power. For those with good cooking skills who pursue even higher levels of culinary expertise, the Treasure Hunting Team naturally has corresponding recruitment methods as well."

"No chef can refuse the finest ingredients."

If you have it, give him more.

At this point, the middle-aged man's eyes shone with intense confidence.

"Tch..." Meng Yan shook his head and smiled, showing great disdain for the middle-aged man's confidence. He turned and left the stands, saying, "I'm going to catch Zhen Ling."

"That chili pepper spirit is really good at escaping."

"Go ahead, but be careful," the middle-aged man said in a deep voice. "I've taken care of the cleanup for the fire in the square."

"If a similar situation were to occur again, it might not be possible to handle the aftermath."

Meng Yan continued walking, seemingly oblivious to the middle-aged man's words, until he disappeared into the distance.

Watching the other person's back, the middle-aged man sighed slightly and turned his attention back to the match in front of him.

(End of this chapter)