Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 122 You're taking so much, are you leaving any room for the other contestants to compete?! (3K First Update)
[No, everyone else was picking out ingredients, what was Xia Ming doing? Was he just grabbing them?]

It seems like they picked through it quickly.

"You call this picking? I can't even pick them out faster than him at the market! This is a pile of rotten vegetables!"

[Maybe they have a unique method for selecting ingredients, but this vegetable is really rotten! Much worse than the ones I see at the farmers market!]

Hey, I actually watched a chef picking through a pile of rotten vegetables on a live stream! Anyone who didn't know better would think it was some kind of mass hype from those short video groups!

[The person upstairs is talking about the short video of people picking vegetables after get off work, right? I saw that one too, and some of them are really edible! They look much better than this one!]

Aren't the exam questions here another form of "careful selection"?

The live stream was filled with a pleasant atmosphere, and Xia Ming, who was also present, was quite happy.

Perhaps because city life is so good, he found that many contestants simply couldn't quickly judge the quality of the food.

"Maybe they're using supplies provided by the purchasing department, or maybe they just started practicing in their own kitchens and have no experience at all!"

I was told that I went to a "vending machine" and some of the items I selected at the beginning would be taken away, so I would have to make backup options depending on the situation.

It seems that, apart from a few people who are truly good at picking ingredients, the vast majority of chefs judge the quality of ingredients by their appearance.

He witnessed a female contestant excitedly stuffing a cabbage into her basket.

What she didn't know was that the cabbage was only slightly better on the outside; the inside was completely rotten!
The cabbage that Xia Ming took away looked terribly damaged from the outside, but it was actually the freshest and best-preserved inside.

Just because it wasn't good-looking, one of the male contestants took a look at it, but then immediately threw it back.

The same goes for chili peppers. It seems like many chefs just pick the ones that look the neatest, completely unaware that there are often many better ones among the seemingly misshapen ones.

"These are all chefs spoiled by supermarkets~"

Smiling, he picked out what he needed and then wandered around other areas.

The whole chicken turned out to be mostly rotten!
Apart from two or three that were relatively healthy, the rest all suffered from internal bleeding.

Most importantly, almost all the chickens have been refrigerated; the only difference is the time.

"These two chickens look like they have ice crystals on them, but they were actually cleaned very thoroughly inside, so they were minimally affected!"

Xia Ming grabbed one and stuffed it into his vegetable basket. If he took one more good one, there would be one less person to make poached chicken.

After all, the image of making poached chicken with a frozen chicken that hasn't been properly bled and without ginger slices is simply too unpleasant.

After getting the chicken, Xia Ming went to the bone counter.

This place is quieter than other places because the quality of these bones is very poor.

Visible difference
Even if someone wanted to use the bones to make soup, they gave up after smelling the aroma.

Xia Ming knew that there was a bone in there. It looked like the marrow on the side was covered in dirt and the cavity was a deep red color, but in fact, the inside was the freshest one in the pile.

"Sometimes you can't judge a book by its cover. A little blood on the surface can easily be overlooked."

"How can I be a chef like this?"

Just as Xia Ming was quickly selecting fish, Qian Youdao finally scooped a normal fish out of the tank.

Compared to the other fish that were either already dead or half-dead, this fish was fine; it was just a bit lazy.

"Goodness, I went through a lot of trouble to get you out!"

As he spoke, he directly used the edge of the net to swat the fish's head twice.

"Go to sleep. Dizziness is normal; it will pass quickly!"

Han Tianyan was touching the ducks in front of him all over; these ducks were even worse than the pile of bones Xia Ming had seen.

Before being sent to a shady braising pot, everything needs to be deodorized first.

Other contestants hesitated to even approach the duck section, but Han Tianyan searched for a long time before finally managing to pull out two duck gizzards.

"This was obviously put in later. That's ruthless! We almost missed it!"

Although it had picked up a bit of the unpleasant smell of outside ducks, Han Tianyan was fully confident that he could remove it.

Compared to the contestants who were picking and choosing in the meat section, Zhu Wuneng in the vegetable section seemed much slower.

At this moment, he was searching through the three baskets of vegetable leaves that had already been selected twice, looking for each leaf one by one, as if the noise outside had nothing to do with him.

Finally, after taking about 20 vegetable leaves, he turned around and started flipping over the onions.

Among the vegetables, the onion was one of the better-looking ones, and he quickly picked a decent one before turning back to look at the radish next to it.

Perhaps because radishes are easier to distinguish, by now, all the slightly better ones have already been picked out, leaving only a pile of radishes with holes rotten at the bottom.

He carefully searched through the contents and picked out a radish that was rotten at the bottom, then held it in his hand.

Some viewers in the live stream were a little confused by his choice.

That radish must be rotten!

Even if the Heavenly King himself came, it would still be rotten. Although it doesn't seem to have been rotten for long, the situation is not good.

What does it mean to choose this? I don't understand!

[They probably have other plans.]

Compared to the controversial Zhu Wuneng, Bai Heng's choice was more prudent.

First, she picked out a relatively fresh one from a pile of rotten eggs, but there was only one, which was definitely not enough to be used as the main ingredient.

So she picked out a lot more fruit; although the degree of rot varied, most of them were still edible.

Just when everyone thought she wouldn't be picky about meat, she picked out a lot of prawns from the seafood section right in front of everyone. Most of them were already dead, and some even had broken legs, but she still put them in her basket.

Just then, Xia Ming happened to be passing by the seafood section and found the best part of the innermost seaweed among a pile of spoiled fresh seaweed.

It's only the size of a bottle cap. Let alone a contestant, even Xia Ming would have a hard time finding it if he didn't activate his Blood Eyes.

“Once fresh seaweed spoils, it will quickly cause other seaweed that is fine to spoil as well, so it is difficult to tell the difference.”

"Moreover, in my memory, the people inland all ate dried seaweed, so it's normal that no one was interested in seaweed there."

Although it's only a small clump, it's a good thing!
This is definitely top-notch among all this rotten food!
Xia Ming carefully placed the bundle in a corner, squeezed through the crowd, and arrived right next to Bai Heng.

Looking at the ingredients in her basket, Xia Ming raised an eyebrow slightly and muttered to himself.

"Potato chips, shrimp, eggs~ I must say, the shrimp they chose are really good~ They've basically kept their original appearance."

Xia Ming was looking at him when Bai Heng turned his head to look over.

When Bai Heng noticed Xia Ming staring at her basket, she frowned slightly, looked into Xia Ming's basket, and then froze.

Xia Ming's basket was piled high with vegetables, fruits, meat, bones, and chicken, all of which looked extremely fresh.

Compared to the materials Xia Ming had, the items in her basket could be described as meager.

Bai Heng snapped out of his daze and came back to his senses.

"No, where did you get so many ingredients?!"

Xia Ming smiled when he saw Bai Heng speak.

"You picked these out? There are quite a few more over there, and they all look pretty good. Why don't you go take a look?"

As he spoke, Xia Ming walked past her and went to other areas.

Bai Heng looked at the location of his starting vending machine, then at the shrimp in his hand, and pondered for a moment.

"Could it be that the situation at the vegetable section is really that much better than at the seafood section? No, I still have to go check it out."

After tricking Bai Heng in a little way, Xia Ming went to the location of the eggs, glanced at them, and left.

Perhaps because chefs handle eggs so much these days, almost none of them look decent anymore, and the last one was even taken by Bai Heng.

But it doesn't matter, he doesn't actually need eggs, he just wants to increase the intensity for the other players.

After that, he went to the fruit section and took all the remaining good stuff he could find. Then, with his basket overflowing with fruit, he was the first to leave the "vegetable selection area".

To be honest, many contestants on the street were envious of his shopping basket. It was only because the competition was being broadcast live that someone would have considered exchanging benefits or even robbing him outright.

However, because there were regulations in place from the beginning, and because of constant surveillance, no matter how envious they were, they could only go back and rummage through their pile of rotten vegetable leaves.

Xia Ming was naturally not letting his guard down. He was now quite confident in most of the rules in China and the competition organizers.

However, one should always be wary of others. If someone is willing to risk their own elimination to drag you down with them, then you'll be in serious trouble if you're not prepared.

After all, he had witnessed the entire process of how "Miao Zeyang" was tricked before the match.

“There must be a group of people hiding in the shadows in this city, and the New Chef Competition must be related to their interests.”

"Although we don't know if their abilities can extend to the competition field, we must be extremely careful about this!"

As Xia Ming returned to his room with the ingredients, Wei Yan, who was in the judges' room backstage, was completely unsettled.

"No, Brother Tan, what's going on? This kid has definitely opened fire!"

"One or two items would be fine, but this is a whole basketful!"

"You know, the good quality rate of this pile of ingredients is less than 5%, and the excellent quality rate is only 1%. He took so much by himself, how is the other contestants supposed to survive!"

After speaking, Wei Yan stood up from his seat.

"No, I have to go to the control room to check. If there's no problem, then... then I'll dye my hair back!"

"I don't believe it! There really is someone who can achieve precision comparable to a scanner!"

Just as he was walking toward the door, the door to the room was suddenly opened again.

A middle-aged man, about 1.9 meters tall, wearing a suit and with a serious expression, walked in.

"Wei Yan, where are you going?"

Wei Yan saw the man and immediately straightened up.

"Hey, Brother Jiang, I'm going out to check on the situation at the competition."

"Alright, I heard everything. We're just going to see Xia Ming. Sit down first."

Hearing Yin Shengjiang's words, Wei Yan silently sat back down at the table.
Then Yin Shengjiang continued to speak.

"I just checked over there, and all his actions are within the normal range. His speed in picking is due to his excellent personal skills, and there are no other external factors."

Wei Yan wanted to say something, but after opening his mouth twice, he ultimately remained silent.

Seeing this, Tan Zhifeng smiled slightly.

He had known Wei Yan for several years. This genius, who had emerged from the "New Chef Competition," always believed in letting ability speak for itself.

At the age of 31, he passed the "Level 7" exam and addressed "Sui Wubai" by his given name. He even called "Luo Shurong" by his real name in private, clearly taking advantage of his advanced age.

But even such an arrogant person dared not say a word when scolded by "Yin Shengjiang".

Not only because Yin Shengjiang is a "Level 8" chef and the honorary chief judge of this competition, but more importantly...
Yin Shengjiang's mentor was Wang Yijun, a master of Shandong cuisine.
That's a living, breathing culinary master.
(End of this chapter)