The Spirit of Gourmet

Chapter 543 Food Marathon

"Total number of participants advancing..."

"1321 people?!"

Looking at the official announcement of the first round of the "Enjoy Time" competition from the Guanling City Food Festival, Zhao Qian couldn't help but gasp. "The 'Enjoy Time' competition is like a preliminary round; the elimination rate is just too low!"

In the preliminary rounds of most large-scale competitions, it's not uncommon for the elimination rate to reach 100, with only one advancing out of every 100. However, at Enjoy Moment, the number of people advancing exceeded one-tenth.

"There are indeed quite a few, but that will make it more lively." Qin Lang smiled, not surprised at all. "Today we saw the grand scene of nationwide participation on the streets, so it's normal for more than a thousand people to advance."

"Compared to regular cooking competitions, the atmosphere at food festivals is more relaxed."

“Indeed.” Cao Dongdong nodded in deep agreement. “This will be evident in the second round of activities.”

"This is the first time in my life that I've ever seen food and a marathon combined."

Upon hearing this, Qin Lang chuckled.

Indeed, this second round of activities was even more novel than he had anticipated.

After the initial enjoyment, the second round of the food festival is called the Food Marathon.

In its previous life, the marathon was a long-distance endurance sport, and in this world, it has the same meaning. The combination of food and marathon is naturally quite unusual.

Participants in a culinary marathon don't need to run a long distance, but they do need to undergo the same challenging tests from diners in terms of cooking.

All participants will cook together in the largest square in Guanling City, and their diners will be everyone in Guanling City at this moment.

On the day the food marathon begins, all ingredients will be paid for by the organizers of the Guanling City Food Festival. Diners can choose any participant present to cook the food they want to taste for free.

In this scenario, each participant will be greeted by a large number of diners and their diverse needs, which they will have to satisfy through their cooking.

Of course, not every participant is a jack-of-all-trades and can meet everyone's needs, so participants also have the right to refuse diners when faced with requests they are not good at or unable to fulfill.

This brings us to the elimination process of food marathons.

In a marathon, giving up halfway means elimination. In a culinary marathon, if a diner's request is reasonable within the rules, and the participant refuses or is unable to meet the diner's request after cooking 100 times, they will be eliminated.

The worse a chef's culinary skills, the faster they will be eliminated.

When only 100 participants remain, the remaining participants advance.

"Of the three of us, Qin Lang is definitely the best," Zhao Qian said, shrugging. "He can cook so many dishes that he can definitely satisfy the needs of most diners. He'll advance to the next round without any problem."

"As for me... I'm afraid it depends on luck." As she said this, Zhao Qian's face showed a bit of nervousness.

She can only cook a little over a hundred dishes at most, which seems a bit overwhelming when trying to meet the unpredictable demands of various diners.

There's no way to prepare for such a completely unknown challenge; we can only leave it to fate.

"At least you'll have some luck and pass, but I have absolutely no hope." Cao Dongdong rolled his eyes and slumped back on the sofa in a resigned manner.

"If a customer doesn't want dessert, I have to refuse them."

At this point, the limitations of being good at only one type of food become much greater.

"Actually, there is a way." Qin Lang smiled. "Have you forgotten? In the food marathon, each participant has one chance to use a cue card."

The so-called sign is a sign placed in front of your cooking area, facing the diners. Participants can choose to leave a message of no more than five words on it, but once left, it cannot be modified throughout the entire marathon.

According to marathon rules, diners' requests cannot contradict the information on the signs; otherwise, they are invalid, and participants' refusal will not count towards the elimination count. "Yeah," Zhao Qian patted Cao Dongdong on the shoulder, "why don't you just write 'dessert' on the sign?"

"This way, diners can only make requests within the dessert category."

"...You can do that?"

Hearing their words, Cao Dongdong slowly sat up from the sofa.

Based on this analysis, it seems that he does have a chance.

"Just wait, I'm sure I'll make it to the third round!"

In an instant, Cao Dongdong perked up again. "As long as the other party's request is for dessert, I, Cao Dongdong, can easily handle it!"

"Don't be too sure of yourself now," Zhao Qian rolled her eyes. "You seem to have already proven yourself wrong several times already."

As she spoke, she couldn't help but show a troubled expression.

"What do you think should I write on my sign?"

“I suggest we don’t write it,” Qin Lang said abruptly.

"Not writing?" Zhao Qian blinked. "This is one of the few powers a contestant has left. Are you just going to give it up like this?"

“That’s not what you just told me,” Cao Dongdong couldn’t help but say.

"Our situations are different," Qin Lang said, both amused and exasperated.

“Dongdong, you don’t know how to make anything other than desserts, so we have to write down the types of desserts on the sign to limit the range of customers’ requests.”

"But Zhao Qian is good at cooking a wide variety of dishes."

Zhao Qian's situation can be described as having a smattering of knowledge in each area, but she is not an expert in any of them.

“In this situation, using signs to restrict the types of requests diners can further shrink Zhao Qian’s recipe library, which would actually increase the risk of her being eliminated.”

"That's really true!" Zhao Qian nodded in agreement.

She already only knows about a hundred dishes. If the restrictions are imposed, she might only have a dozen or twenty dishes to choose from. Wouldn't that be even worse?
"Furthermore..." Qin Lang paused slightly, "Put yourself in the shoes of a food marathon participant. Knowing the rules, what would you want to do if you stood in front of a contestant?"

"Of course it will stump them!" Cao Dongdong said without hesitation, and Zhao Qian nodded in agreement.

In some situations, people are even unable to empathize with themselves from the previous second.

Qin Lang suppressed a laugh and shrugged, "That settles it then."

"What you wrote on the sign, while limiting diners, also revealed your strengths and weaknesses."

"It will be easier for the other party to find ways to make things difficult for you within the rules."

"On the contrary, if you don't write anything down, the other party won't know your situation and will make more conservative requests."

"So it's suitable for neither Zhao Qian nor I to write it." At this point, Qin Lang looked at Cao Dongdong, "Don't be too happy yet."

"What do you do if a customer wants to try a spicy dessert?"

(End of this chapter)