Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 114 New Chef Competition Semi-Finals: The Simplest Ingredients Create the Most Top-Tier Spectacle (5K Second Update)
Xia Ming walked out of the competition venue and arrived at the place he had initially agreed to meet with Gao Yonghao.

At that moment, Gao Yonghao was seen squatting by the wall, intently watching the ants on the ground.

Xia Ming walked over upon seeing this.

"What are you doing?"

Gao Yonghao realized what was happening after hearing Xia Ming's voice.

"It's nothing, I just spaced out for a moment. Oh, right, Brother Xia, I passed the audition!"

Xia Ming nodded. Gao Yonghao was barely considered average in "One Meal to Fame," but in this competition, passing the preliminary rounds shouldn't be a problem.

As for how far he can go, that depends on his own fate.

Gao Yonghao didn't ask Xia Ming whether he had passed or not, because in his opinion, this question was child's play for Xia Ming.

Afterwards, the two took the same ride-hailing car from the competition venue. They chatted casually in the car for a while before Xia Ming returned to his hotel room.

He opened the video report about the "New Chef Competition" and quickly found the part about himself.

Seeing a bunch of "?" comments on the screen, Xia Ming felt relieved.

"After the preliminary selection, the next round of auditions is in 7 days. The house is a bit expensive, but I have enough money for now, so I'll continue. The only problem is that I'm having trouble getting pig blood. I'll see if there's a large slaughterhouse around here!"

As Xia Ming began searching for large slaughterhouses, the results of the first day's competition were also revealed by various media outlets.

A total of 11492 contestants attended the first day. After the preliminary selection, 616 people passed, resulting in an elimination rate of 94.7%.
The "Comprehensive Basic Cooking Techniques" section alone eliminated 18% of the participants, earning it the nickname "hell level".

Furthermore, because the questions were randomly selected throughout the competition, even if later contestants knew the process, they were unable to conduct targeted training.

Because you really don't know what you'll draw.
That night, there were more than 50 entries about the contestants of the "New Chef Competition" on Douyin, with Xia Ming getting three of them.

[Extreme Cucumber Salad: A Young Chef Showcases Top-Tier Knife Skills]

[A grand Versailles-style scene, my culinary journey has no bottlenecks!]

[The dark horse from the audition is suspected to be the variety show champion~]

Although none of the other entries ranked very high, a large number of netizens still learned about Xia Ming's name through the video clips.

This also means that he has taken the first step towards fame in the "New Chef Competition".
"One week later, at the semi-finals of the New Chef Competition"

Compared to the previous frenzy of tens of thousands of people taking the exam, the venue is still crowded, but it is much better than a week ago.

After a week of intense preliminary rounds, more than 87,000 people participated, but only 4189 advanced to the semi-finals, a success rate of less than 5%. However, for a competition, a scale of 4000 people is still a bit too large.
Therefore, today's second round of selection may be more brutal than imagined.

Entering the familiar Area A, Xia Ming quickly found the corresponding area based on his number.

The entire venue was divided into 42 zones, each capable of accommodating 100 people.

Xia Ming was assigned to Zone 7. After looking around at the other players, he realized that several of the players he had interacted with before were not in this zone.

"Wait, that's not right, it's the hair color."

Xia Ming raised an eyebrow as he looked at the strikingly gray hair in the crowd.

"Remember that girl's name was 'Bai Heng'?"

As a former contestant who achieved a highest ranking of 17th in the New Chef Competition, Xia Ming felt that she was still worth paying attention to.

After all, gathering information in advance has always been his habit.

Xia Ming paid special attention to it for a moment, then looked away.

After all 100 people arrived, they were led by staff to receive new armbands. Since they had already advanced, everyone's armbands were marked with a yellow star to distinguish them from the preliminary round contestants.

After the staff confirmed that everyone was wearing their armbands, they led their respective teams into the examination room.

This time, the exam was held simultaneously in 42 regions, and the number of candidates advancing to the next round was limited for each region.

In the district with a full capacity of 100 people, only 12 contestants will advance, while in the district with 89 people, only 11 will advance.

The final number of contestants was 503. The three contestants with the lowest scores were eliminated, while the others went on to compete in the semi-finals and become one of the top 500 contestants in the country.

As Xia Ming entered the examination room, he looked up and saw eight judges standing in front of him.

The screens in front of them displayed their respective cuisines, representing one of the eight major Chinese cuisines per person, a truly balanced approach.

Unlike the preliminary rounds, each round of the semi-finals will have a dedicated staff member acting as the host, responsible for basic announcements and guidance.

The room is currently filled with 100 small stoves, which are basically separated by transparent glass. There are also several large exhaust systems overhead.

Each stovetop is equipped with a corresponding "raw and cooked cutting board", "a basic wok", "a frying pan", "a strainer", "several iron bowls of different sizes", "a 1000ml unopened container of cooking oil", and "a can of basic salt".

The glass cabinet under the stove is also equipped with plates, bowls, chopsticks, soup spoons and other utensils for displaying the dishes.

The plates and bowls are all in the most basic shape, that is, without any obvious patterns.

After all the contestants found their places and stood still, the staff wearing yellow vests began distributing test questions to each person.

The test question was a sealed box. Judging from the staff's actions, Xia Ming deduced that there should be fragile ingredients inside the box.

With boxes placed on everyone's tables, the host led everyone in opening the boxes together.

As the lid was slowly lifted, viewers in front of the camera saw what was inside the box.

Contrary to what most netizens expected, there was no fresh seafood or unusual ingredients inside; it just lay quietly.
5 eggs, 1 bowl of fresh rice

The host then announced the rules for this round of advancement.

"Please use the ingredients you have as your theme and do your best to create a dish that suits the judges' tastes within one hour."

"Note that all ingredients must be used, and each ingredient must make up at least 15% of the final dish. Any dish that makes up less than that will be disqualified."

"At that time, the eight judges will give their scores based on their professional judgment."

"Remove the highest score and the lowest score, and the final average score is the score you can get in this round."

As the host finished speaking, Xia Ming looked at the eggs and rice in front of him, then glanced at the bottled oil and salt on everyone's table, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Is this recipe meant for every contestant in the competition to make 'Golden Fried Rice'?"

"That's interesting. The preliminary rounds used extreme randomness, but in the second round, they brought all the contestants to the same starting line."

"Is it just a test of basic skills? I'm afraid it's not that simple."

Upon seeing the ingredients, viewers in the live stream widened their eyes in astonishment.

[This rice, eggs, salt, oil—wow, golden fried rice! It brings back memories of learning to cook in MasterChef!]

[This recipe is a bit too simplistic! Is it all about the raw skill of making fried rice? The ultimate basic technique?]

More than that, I'm interested in how the judges will manage to eat 100 servings of fried rice.

[Each person might only get one bite.]

No way, you can't possibly eat one bite per person! 100 bites would make two big bowls of fried rice.

While netizens were discussing it heatedly, Xia Ming was also pondering the same thing, looking at the eggs and rice in front of him.

While his comment about "golden fried rice" was partly a joke, it wasn't entirely without merit.

When only salt is available for seasoning and ingredients are limited, making a familiar fried rice is definitely the best choice for most people.

He was certain that at least 90% of the 100 contestants present would ultimately choose fried rice.

Even though they know this might be repetitive and require a contest of hard power.

However, for most people who do not possess extremely high creativity, seeking stability is also a viable approach.

Otherwise, if the production process fails and there is only one set of raw materials available, it is essentially a failure.

Under normal circumstances, Xia Ming would also consider choosing golden fried rice, because in terms of both skill and seasoning ratio, he is far superior to ordinary players.

The fried rice he makes is absolutely the best of everyone else's ability.
However, everything has its advantages and disadvantages. Choosing fried rice is like choosing a safe option. Even if you can make your fried rice in the most elaborate way, with the perfect proportions and the most delicious taste, it will still be difficult to get it on camera.

This is because "Golden Fried Rice" is a basic skill for Chinese chefs, but its actual skill ceiling is not as high as depicted in the comics.

Without adding any other ingredients, viewers off-camera would not notice any unique features based solely on the aroma and appearance.

It's like a garden where all the peonies are the same color; even if one is more beautiful than the others, it won't be noticed at a glance.

It's important to know that this is an exam being held simultaneously in 42 districts, and for the sake of fairness, it's highly likely that the same questions will be used.

Even if Xia Ming could fry the egg fried rice until it glowed, with such a high repetition rate, netizens would most likely only be attracted to more creative dishes.

This contradicts Xia Ming's initial goal.
He was determined to leave a deep impression on netizens in every round of the exam, and ideally become a frequent trending topic during the "New Chef Competition" to make a name for himself.

Therefore, in this situation, he must do something different from other contestants in order to attract more attention.

Moreover, he discovered something interesting: the judging criteria described by the host in this round were actually quite interesting upon closer examination.

"Considering the reality, the average age of the eight judges is between 35 and 50. It's absurd for them to eat 100 servings of staple food. They might not even be able to finish 100 bites."

"Moreover, the host never said 'after the judges tasted it,' but used 'at that time,' which means that if the judges have rich experience, they may score ordinary groups without tasting them."

"In this situation, it basically comes down to testing the appeal of the dish itself to the judges."

The problem is that this is a shared kitchen for 100 people, and there are no other barriers in the room except for basic splash guard glass.

Even if you make a fragrant dish, if it's just a combination of eggs and rice, unless the judges have a "divine nose," they will definitely be influenced by the other contestants.

"Once everyone has started cooking, the entire room is basically filled with the aroma of eggs. At that point, trying to rely on aroma alone won't guarantee a high success rate."

Moreover, the aroma cannot be conveyed to the audience on site through video, and the judges are unlikely to give their evaluations while other contestants are preparing their dishes.

"In a situation where it is almost a silent film, what netizens cannot feel is naturally difficult to attract them."

"So, if you want to stand out, is the best way still through its appearance?"

Xia Ming narrowed his eyes slightly. With the scent of the masses being so common, appearance becomes the best weapon to stand out.

The fragrance can be spread out or even erased during a live stream, but the visuals will remain clearly visible.
"So, in other words, I need to use eggs and rice to make a dish that is not only visually appealing, but also tastes incredibly delicious to the judges and is full of creativity."

"Perhaps skills will also be included in the scoring category, so we'll need to showcase something unique!"

After all, it's a competition that eliminates more than 80 people from just one district. The questions are simple, but that doesn't mean the evaluation criteria are simple.
Looking at the four eggs in front of him, and then at the rice, Xia Ming suddenly felt that these things could be deconstructed in a completely different way.

"Appearance, cultural significance, eggs, rice."

Xia Ming recalled the twenty-third elder of the Blood Blade Sect, who was an exceptionally beautiful woman.

Everyone who has seen her true appearance marvels at her beauty, but at the same time, she is also an extreme madwoman.

She doesn't love anything in the world, only herself in the mirror.
She also demands that food be as beautiful as herself, or she will fly into a rage.

Before Xia Ming, only the head chef and Chef Thirty-One had been in charge of her dishes, because she was so picky that they dared not entrust the task to anyone else in the kitchen.
However, the master chef had specifically trained Xia Ming in this skill.

He had a broad range of knowledge, from visual structure to intricate carving techniques. Otherwise, Xia Ming wouldn't have been able to access the eighth cut of the "Blood Gate Nine Cuts".
【Blood Candle (Carving Knife)】

He mentally reviewed all the dishes that the head chef had prepared for the 23rd elder.

Then, combining this with the eggs and rice he was eating now, a scene from a certain place on the back mountain suddenly came to mind.
"I understand. If that's the case, then everything should be fine, right?"

Having made up his mind, Xia Ming reached out and picked up the egg in front of him.
The final result will be absolutely stunning; it just needs a little time now.
"Inside Zone 18"

Guan Chongyun hesitated for a long time as he looked at the eggs and rice in front of him.
In the end, I decided to make a dish that was different from fried rice.

He first boiled a pot of water on the stove, then put the rice in it to rinse it slightly, then put it on the cutting board and repeatedly pounded it with his hands.

With each punch he threw, the rice was quickly broken up, and then, seeing that it was about right, he kneaded it into small balls.

Eventually, the rice grains gradually transformed into a sticky clump of rice. He then kneaded it tightly by hand until the surface was completely smooth. He took the kneaded rice clump and rolled it into a long strip.

The judges on stage could observe the progress of each exam through the tablets in front of them. Upon seeing Guan Chongyun's actions, two of the judges nodded in approval.

"Making rice cakes with rice? That's a good idea, but without gloves and tools, it'll take some effort to completely break up the rice!"

Clearly, compared to the vast majority of fried rice dishes, Guan Chongyun's act of making "rice cakes" garnered extra attention from the judges on that day.

"Inside Zone 22"

Qiao Ruoning stared at the rice in front of her for a while, and finally decided to add salt to it, press it down, and then fry it in a pan until both sides were slightly golden brown.

She then coated the eggs with the separated pure egg yolk liquid, fried them again until both sides were a beautiful golden brown, and then fried the eggs in the pan until fully cooked, and then cut them in half.

A simple "rice burger" made with golden-brown fried rice and an egg.

After adjusting the rice burger to the desired shape, she breathed a sigh of relief and then pressed the button in front of her.

"Inside Zone 24"

Qian Youdao swung the spatula rapidly.

He didn't have the same concerns as Xia Ming. In his opinion, as long as his fried rice could get the highest score among all the contestants, that would be enough.

After all, most novice chefs are used to making fried rice with processed rice or leftover rice.

Turning freshly steamed rice into "perfect golden fried rice" is not something an ordinary person can do.

As for attention? As a star player, he already receives a lot of attention, so he doesn't care about getting a little more screen time.

Having experienced countless battles, he knew that only consistent advancement was the key to success; everything else was secondary.
As the fire in the stove rose, the rice and eggs took on a dazzling, vibrant color as he tossed them in the wok time and time again.

Looking at the fried rice, which was as bright as the blazing sun, Qian Youdao smiled slightly.

"Inside Zone 28"

Qin Liansi boiled the eggs until they were soft-boiled, and then carefully separated the egg whites from the yolks.

He then chopped the cooked egg whites into small pieces, added salt, and mixed them with heated rice. He then used the soft-boiled egg yolks as filling and began making rice balls with the remaining rice.

"Inside Zone 7"

Bai Heng skillfully used a frying pan to make small, palm-sized egg crepes from the egg yolks, then whisked and filtered the egg whites, and added salt.

Finally, boil half a spoonful of water in a pot, push the egg whites into a lotus-like shape, and then remove them for later use.

Then, stir-fry some of the rice with salt until dry, and mash the rest into a paste. Add both to egg whites to make filling, and wrap them into egg dumplings.

Finally, all the egg dumplings were fried in a pan to create "Hibiscus Egg White Rice Dumplings".

Off-camera, while most people were making the simplest fried rice with eggs, some were racking their brains to create creative dishes with eggs and rice.

Netizens were amazed by the players' amazing skills.

This rice cake is so stretchy you can see it stretching into strings! That takes so much strength!

[This is hilarious! That rice burger looks exactly like a "cheese omelet panini". I have to order one before 10 o'clock.]

[No, what's so special about a rice ball with an egg on camera? My kids could make that.]

Egg dumplings are great, but "Mengbai's" cooking always looks the most appetizing!

Who is Meng Bai?

[That's Bai Heng with completely white hair. She's a popular online chef! She often plays online games, and her ID is "Mengbai Loves Spicy Food," so her fans call her Mengbai.]

While netizens were discussing, a judge in Zone 7 noticed Xia Ming's actions.

At that moment, he raised the beaten egg yolk mixture above his head and then poured it into the pot.

As the egg mixture formed a thin thread in the air, the judge frowned slightly.

"Could this be 'golden egg shreds'?"

(End of this chapter)