Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 120: The exam questions were strictly limited? No, the second round of selection actually started long ago! (3K Second Update)
While the judges' photos were displayed on the big screen, the staff on site didn't stop for a moment.

They skillfully unloaded the ingredients from the truck and neatly arranged them in baskets on a low table. In the blink of an eye, the empty table in front of them had been transformed into a farmers' market.

But at that moment, many contestants also noticed something unusual about the ingredients.

Qian Youdao looked at the pile of fish that had long since stopped breathing, and his expression turned somewhat grim.

"Are we supposed to find treasure in the waste?"

Zhu Wuneng looked at the vegetables beside him with a headache.

"Not very fresh~"

Bai Heng looked at the rotten tomatoes and other fruit, and his expression was not good either.

Han Tianyan had a thoughtful expression on his face, as if he was thinking about something.

Back to Xia Ming, after confirming the condition of the ingredients and addressing a minor issue raised by the judges, he began to frantically ponder during the preparatory time before the competition started.

"From the current perspective, this test question presents at least several hurdles to overcome."

"The first step is to find suitable and usable ingredients from this pile of ingredients that are essentially waste."

"This is easy for me, but it would take a lot of effort for others."

"The competition lasts for 3 hours, but it's not that easy to get the best out of this pile of stuff."

Xia Ming narrowed his eyes; he knew very well what was going on.
The food is still sitting there in good condition; the best that can be is that it's rotting.

Once the 500 contestants swarm like locusts and start picking through the ingredients like "end-of-the-line aunties," the ravaged ingredients will only look even worse.

Even some ingredients that would normally be usable can be damaged by human intervention under these circumstances.

It may seem like there are many sections, but in reality, the contestants have very few choices.

Although the competition organizers stipulated that one person could not grab multiple of the same ingredients at the same time and then slowly select them, they could only purchase one box or one piece at a time.

However, there are still too many people. If you stagger your time by even a few minutes, some areas may be ransacked, making it even more difficult to find anything left over.

The best approach is to decide on the dishes you need from the beginning, then act quickly, and start preparing the ingredients as soon as you get them.

"Selecting ingredients is to verify the contestants' familiarity with fresh ingredients in actual practice. After all, as a chef, if he cannot judge the condition of the ingredients, he is definitely unqualified."

“The selection of 500 people basically simulates a large farmers’ market.”

"This means that you need a deeper understanding of ingredients, or a bit of luck to find relatively fresh ingredients."

"Otherwise, we'll have to take another approach."

Xia Ming rubbed his nose with the back of his finger and then said with a smile.

"Another approach is to use your culinary skills to make up for any deficiencies in the ingredients."

"This requires chefs to have a precise understanding of their own culinary skills and to know how to cover up the shortcomings of slightly inferior ingredients."

"Of course, taking this path also means that contestants need to use more flavorful ingredients to make up for the lack of the original main ingredient."

This proves that he needs to grab more ingredients.

Thinking of this, Xia Ming smiled.
If it were just these two things, it wouldn't be enough to stop most people. After all, those who have made it into the top 500 have a decent basic understanding of ingredients.

Therefore, the organizers implemented other restrictions to ensure a high elimination rate.

"In this situation, most people will focus on the ingredients, but will overlook the traps that the question setter has hidden in the kitchen."

Yes, the kitchen is neatly arranged with spice containers.
But the organizers didn't say that there would definitely be seasoning in the seasoning box!

Xia Ming frowned because he couldn't smell pepper and chili powder.

Upon opening, I found that the boxes were indeed neatly arranged, but there were no seasonings at all.

With the pile of soon-to-be-discarded ingredients in front of him, Xia Ming understood the question setter's intention.

This thing is essentially a chain reaction.

When faced with ingredients that aren't in good condition, most people's first reaction is to "use heavy seasonings".

Whether it's extremely spicy or sour and spicy, as long as it can cover up some of the flavor, this problem can be solved.

Most restaurants handle ingredients they can't bear to throw away in the same way.

But this is on the premise that there are enough spices or seasonings to mask the problem. The problem now is that these 500 contestants can't even produce salt.

"This is the second trap!"

"If you don't discover the hidden secrets in the kitchen, then even if you manage to pick out your favorite ingredients from this pile, it's still not enough."

"When we actually start making it, we'll be plunged into despair."

"Some people even choose to make a certain dish because of certain seasonings. In such cases, they will be dumbfounded when they come back and find that the original seasonings have disappeared."

"So, this one tests the chef's observation skills."

"A good chef must know his stove inside and out, after all, it's the food he eats."

"The time allotted at the beginning of the broadcast was actually deliberately left by the organizers. Under these circumstances, contestants who carefully inspect the stove will have an advantage over those who are careless."

"After all, the kitchen can get very chaotic when things get busy, so it's good if the chef can be more meticulous and organized."

"That is enough to prove that it has excellent qualities, at least that's how the question setter sees it."

Of course, in Xia Ming's view, "insufficient seasoning" and "limited freshness of ingredients" are just the premises.

The problems that arise from this are even more intractable. "Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty—a dish that has no flavor at all is simply unacceptable."

"But at this moment, there were no seasonings on site."

"This also means that many production techniques are limited!"

"First of all, there's the acidity. From my perspective, I can see the tomato, and from this angle, the acid can be extracted on-site."

"If you want something sweet, there's fruit on the side. Although it's not as sweet as white sugar, it's just enough."

"As for bitterness, I didn't see bitter melon. It's probably difficult to find bitterness in other ingredients."

"As for spiciness, there are chili peppers, but among all these vegetables, the chili peppers are the most rotten. It's probably because the production team intentionally limited the options for those with a strong palate."

As for saltiness

Xia Ming slightly raised his head.

"Among natural ingredients, there aren't many that are salty, but there aren't too few either."

"Compared to table salt, it is mostly potassium salt, which is difficult to extract. Small amounts are fine, but large amounts can cause problems."

If this were the Nine Provinces Continent, Xia Ming could find a kind of ultra-low-end spiritual material called "negative crystal" to solve this problem.

Salt can be extracted from it using certain techniques!

If it were this situation, based on my recollection, I'd probably have to snatch the straw covering some of the food and extract it through the ashes.

It's not that it's unusable; it's fine to use it in an emergency, as it won't kill anyone.

Xia Ming seriously doubted whether these contestants knew how to extract salt from plant ash.

This doesn't mean that Xia Ming suddenly became kind-hearted and took the initiative to care about the situation of his competitors.

From the program team's perspective, given that the broadcast clearly stated that the top 200 would advance, they would not have presented such an extreme question.

"Of all flavors, salt is the most important. This principle applies to both the mortal realm and the cities of the Nine Provinces. Even when making a sour dish, salt is indispensable."

"No, these rules seem strict, but there must be a way to work them out. Otherwise, the production team wouldn't have made all these contestants make desserts or tomato soup."

After carefully recalling everything that had happened since he entered the venue, Xia Ming's eyebrows suddenly twitched.

"Wait... all the ingredients in the competition area!"

Recalling the description in the broadcast, and thinking about the rigorous machine checks that came before, I realized that...

"I see, I finally know why the lunch was too salty."

"Actually, the so-called 'second round of selection' had already begun the moment we entered Zone D to rest after the initial selection process."

Just as Xia Ming was pondering, He He also noticed some problems.

Upon discovering she had no seasonings, her first thought was to make dessert.

Looking through the glass, I could see that there was only rice on site, and it was most likely old rice; there was no flour or sesame oil.

Of course, she could use lard for the pastry, since she saw pork; if all else failed, she could use the oil in the bucket in front of her.

But where does the flavor of the filling come from?

"For desserts, you can use grapes, but you need to be selective."

"There seems to be some sugarcane over there, but the quality isn't very good."

"If you want it salty, you don't have salt! How can you make something salty without salt?"

Like Xia Ming, she didn't think the production team would do something like making all the contestants cook fish or poached chicken.

"There must be something I've overlooked. What could it be?"

Qiao Ruoning frowned as she looked at the empty condiment container in front of her.

"Luckily I checked it, otherwise I would have been scammed!"

"This is troublesome. Without seasonings, it means it will be difficult to choose pork."

"After all, fresh pork has a fishy smell, not to mention these spoiled parts, they might even have gone bad."

"Should we fish in the sea? That means we have to gamble that these fish haven't been dead for long."

"No, there must be something I've overlooked!"

Zheng Zeqian was not flustered at all after he had completely structured the exam questions, because he already understood what the competition organizers wanted to do.

"Actually, the seasonings have always been there. If you don't see them, it means you've fallen into a blind spot in your thinking."

"After all, almost everyone has paid attention to that thing. Of course, if you accidentally forget about it, you can only blame your poor observation skills."

"As a competitive athlete, if you want to go all the way, you must not let go of any opportunity!"

"Xia Ming, is it? Let me see if you've even noticed the seasonings here!"

Han Tianyan and Bai Heng's expressions had returned to normal, because they had seen through the competition organizers' tricks!

As the bell rang signaling the end of preparation time, the 500 athletes, like track and field athletes on a track, instantly rushed towards the foremost fence.

Xia Ming entered the food area without much effort because he was closest to it!

Just as viewers in the live stream were wondering which ingredient he would buy first, he suddenly turned and dashed to the side!

Everyone in the live stream was stunned, not knowing what Xia Ming meant!
Question marks immediately flooded the screen!
But in Xia Ming's eyes, his purpose was very clear: the four units placed around Zone D.
"Vending machine!"
(End of this chapter)