Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 133 Terrifying Confidence: In His Eyes, Everyone Else Was a Star-Paid Piglet (4K Bonus Chapter)

That's right, just as Yin Shengjiang said, Xia Ming was actually consciously balancing the probabilities.

Many of the contestants present are not mathematicians, nor do they necessarily understand game theory. Perhaps at first they will consider how to maximize their interests, but later they will find that these things are not as good as luck and hard skills.

Of course, luck here only refers to those players who want to stay but are not outstanding in any aspect and are only at the level of securing a ranking.

After all, those who have gone through so many rounds of selection are no less capable than others in terms of basic comprehensive skills and luck.

To continue the screening process under these circumstances and select the most capable individuals, we need to give them opportunities to showcase their strengths.

Just as fingers vary in length, people naturally have varying levels of skill. Apart from a few exceptional individuals, most people use their strengths to cover up their weaknesses in the kitchen.

The different exam questions, more often than not, give them an opportunity to choose their strengths.

If a contestant feels that their stir-frying skills are good, then choosing stir-frying will give them a higher probability of getting a high score than choosing frying.

This means discussing hard power without considering probability.

Although the star contestants performed very well overall, just as He He himself knew that he might not necessarily gain an advantage in hype, other contestants might not necessarily be weaker than the so-called star contestants when it came to individual questions.

From the perspective of the competing teams, this is where the game of strategy comes into play.

From the perspective of a player with strengths, since the probability cannot be calculated, they should bring out their best skills, which may not be entirely without a chance.

From the perspective of star athletes, although they have strong overall strength, when it comes to a single event, unless all their hexagonal scores are extremely high, they may still fail in certain situations.

From the perspective of a player with some overall strength but no obvious strengths, every door is hell.

This also perfectly reflects the current state of the Chinese culinary world.

How many skills does a chef need to be considered a top chef?
Just how deeply must a chef study a dish to be considered to have reached the pinnacle of mastery?
Chefs are not a card game, and the battles cannot be solved by simple numerical values.

The eight major cuisines, from north to south, each have their own audience, not to mention countless subordinate cuisines or local specialties.

Everyone has their own taste, and for many, reaching the pinnacle of culinary skills is an unattainable dream.

However, just like the rating system in China, how far an ordinary person, or even someone with a little talent, can go can be influenced by their choices and the degree of their effort.

Despite Wang Qingrui's lack of talent, he was still able to achieve a "Level 6" in the Chinese language exam, which proves just how important it is to leverage one's strengths.

According to the current hierarchical distribution in China, "Hua 6 level" is definitely considered the upper echelon of the culinary world. As long as you don't go to a few holy sites, most restaurants will reserve a place for you.

The "Hua Level 6" assessment does not include a "comprehensive assessment" component.
Therefore, as long as you don't have any particularly bad weaknesses in other areas, and you can excel in one or two areas, or even reach the extreme, you will most likely be able to reach the "Huawei 5" to "Huawei 6" level.

Once you reach this level, the local culinary association will take the initiative to recruit you. You can also open a restaurant based on your reputation, take on apprentices, and even appear on TV programs.

For ordinary people, this is equivalent to reaching the upper echelons of the industry.

Although the "New Chef Competition" has always aimed to select outstanding chefs from across the country, it is held annually with a selection rate even higher than some music variety shows. There are certainly geniuses, but don't expect new geniuses to emerge every year.
That's incredibly difficult; after all, even geniuses aren't like leeks growing in the ground.
Therefore, when the competition organizers are looking for the top all-around fighters, they will also screen for players who are strong in certain aspects.

Using these players to hone your all-around skills is like saying that if you want to win the competition without any controversy, you need to overpower or crush other players in every aspect.

In the past, it would have been difficult, but it wasn't entirely impossible.

But the number of contestants this year has increased eightfold, so the difficulty has increased by far more than eightfold.
It can be said that if this champion can completely suppress others and reach the top, his future achievements will be greater than any other champion in the past 15 years, because the intensity of the competition is completely different.

In Yin Shengjiang's eyes, Xia Ming clearly wanted to skip the competition rules and dominate from start to finish.

Whether it's for the sake of popularity or because of someone's boundless arrogance, achieving this requires almost superhuman hard skills.

Of course, looking at the issue from the other side, if Xia Ming really has such solid strength, would he definitely be able to get the top spot in the overall star ranking?
That's not necessarily true.
Because when you have enough strength, luck becomes especially important.

This doesn't mean Xia Ming intentionally avoids running into anyone; rather, he has discovered a problem that is bound to arise in the future.

Backstage, in the judges' room.

Yin Shengjiang continued speaking.

“In the first round, the contestants are not familiar with the rules and will subconsciously choose their strongest items or take a cautious approach and observe. This is equivalent to a trial phase.”

"Once everyone understands in the second round that strength can sometimes overcome probability, they will start to think about the rules after disregarding probability."

"The simplest option is to choose when to participate."

"Because the score table calculated by AI is generated based on the final number of registered contestants."

"To advance, you only need to make sure you can beat 50% of the people in each game, and you have a chance. But to get a high star, you need to calculate the benefits of each game."

"In the same competition, the prize money for first place differs depending on whether there are 10 or 20 participants."

"Similarly, the rewards for participating in the competition are different for those from one-star sects and those from two-star sects."

At this point, Yin Shengjiang raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Now, many people sign up as soon as the door opens, but in the next round, everyone will realize that the number of people inside the door will affect the star contestants' judgment."

"If a two-star sect has only 8 participants, but a one-star sect has 35 participants, then in terms of overall benefits, participating in the one-star sect might actually earn more."

"Since the registration process allows for registration within 3 minutes, there will definitely be many contestants registering at the last minute in the next round."

At this point, Yin Shengjiang glanced at Wei Yan.

"Some people treat this round as a game of probability, some as a game of survival, and some as a game of scoring. Different judgments of one's own ability lead to different choices."

"In this situation, if the competition proceeds at the normal pace, the final first place winner will be subject to luck."

But if

Wei Yan gritted his teeth.

"If a player participates in far more matches than other players, and he can guarantee that he will always be in the top five, then he will have a very high probability of racking up more stars under this rule."

"Xia Ming probably had a guess from the beginning. After entering the first round, he saw that the difference between the first and second place scores in the AI ​​statistics was smaller than expected, so he immediately decided on this idea."

"Whether it's first place, second place, or third place, the difference in earnings between a one-star sect member and a two- or three-star sect member is only 2 to 3, but participating in one more competition will definitely yield greater earnings."

"He used his superb skills, combined with his incredibly fast food handling ability, to turn the odds in his favor right in front of all the other contestants."

"Unless other players can be this versatile and efficient, even if he beats Xia Ming in a match, it's just a small victory." "But what if he encounters a particularly difficult opponent? Won't that have an impact?"

At this point, Wei Yan gasped.

"Is this kid going to skip some questions to boost his score?! He went in, took too long, and decided to just give up his ticket."

"I feel like this kid is really capable of doing something!"

"Holy crap, this is insane, insane! This isn't just a bug, this is blatant cheating!"

Tan Zhifeng smiled calmly.

"Trying to show off, huh?"

"Maximizing profits, showcasing the best in all aspects of culinary skills, and controlling time most precisely will get you the most screen time."

"He understands very well that striving for first place in every competition is to maximize profits. National culinary competitions are rare, and he's doing everything he can to capture every bit of viewership from each live stream."

Wei Yan took a few deep breaths. He had previously thought that Xia Ming's arrogance was far too subtle compared to his own.

Now it seems that I was overthinking it.

The way they play is like treating the other players like pigs, only thinking about how much flesh they can cut off them, without caring about their feelings at all.

Just as he was surprised by Xia Ming's move
On the backstage display screen, Xia Ming had already brought out the "scrambled eggs with tomatoes" he was holding.

That's right, the title of this quick and easy dish is the simplest one: "Tomato and Egg Stir-fry".

To accommodate the tastes and cooking habits of the contestants, tomatoes, eggs, scallions, ginger, garlic, tomato sauce, and various seasonings were provided on-site.

The time limit for this question is 15 minutes.
Xia Ming took a total of 7 and a half minutes.
The judges were somewhat dazed when they saw the "tomato and egg stir-fry" in front of them, which was already completely sandy.
Stir-fried tomatoes and eggs, like stir-fried green peppers and pork, are common home-style dishes that everyone is very familiar with.

The cooking methods vary from place to place, with or without scallions, ginger, and garlic; some are stir-fried with a sandy texture; some have tomato sauce; some have star anise—you name it, they have it.
But at its core, scrambled eggs with tomatoes is a dish with zero entry barrier, easy to master, but difficult to perfect.

In fact, it is often these simplest dishes that best demonstrate a chef's basic skills.

Tomato and egg stir-fry is simple – just stir-fry tomatoes and eggs in a dish – but why is it so difficult for most people to recreate the taste of dishes served in fancy restaurants? Often, the problem lies in the details.

First, there are tomatoes. Due to urban transportation, supermarket tomatoes tend to be firmer in order to ensure they sell.

To make the sandy version, you need to choose slightly pinker tomatoes or fully ripe tomatoes.

The former is a different variety, naturally having denser flesh, while the latter has a softer skin and higher internal moisture content, making it suitable for quick processing of the fruit into a sandy texture.

The stove that Xia Ming chose was made with pink tomatoes (there are many varieties, and some are not completely pink, so I won't list them separately).

The second step is to peel the tomatoes. While it's not impossible to make scrambled eggs with the skin on, it's definitely a minority.

The most common method people choose to peel skin is to use a cross-shaped knife combined with boiling water, which makes peeling easy and convenient.

However, the match only lasts 15 minutes. Considering the time it takes to boil a pot of water on a stove, using this method is too extravagant. Therefore, there is also the method of baking the skin.

The method involves stabilizing the tomato with chopsticks and then roasting it over a flame on a gas stove. This method is much faster than scalding it with boiling water.

However, there are naturally some problems. Since liquefied petroleum gas or natural gas is used, the tomatoes will carry a slight odor after roasting.

If you want to peel quickly and without any odor, you can use a Western-style fork as a peeler and peel the skin directly from the cross-shaped cut. This requires some skill and practice.

Xia Ming didn't use any of the three methods mentioned above. He directly took out a multi-purpose knife, made a cross-shaped cut on the tomato, and then skillfully hooked the skin off the tomato from the side.

That speed is faster than baking!
Making the most of his time, he started cooking, then heated the pan and oil. While waiting, he placed half a tomato directly on a plate and cut it into small pieces.

Cut the other tomatoes into medium-sized pieces and then mix them together.

Then crack five eggs open instantly, remove two egg whites to ensure a yellower and more appealing color, then whisk them without adding anything inside, and then put them directly into the pot.

The eggs are quickly cooked in hot oil in a pan. Xia Ming neither tosses the pan nor uses a spatula. When the eggs are at their freshest, he directly scoops them out with a slotted spoon.

Then stir it in the strainer with chopsticks to remove the oil.
After removing most of the oil from the pan, add the tomatoes. Small pieces of tomatoes quickly release their juices, while larger pieces gradually soften. Finally, add the eggs and seasonings, and quickly reduce the sauce.

The entire action was completed in one smooth motion, without wasting a single second. The viewers in the live stream felt as if watching Xia Ming cook was like watching an artist dance, with every movement elegant and natural.

[Heh, it's really unfortunate for the other contestants to run into Xia Ming. His strength is probably enough to beat their teacher.]

[Be bold, why not just become their teacher?]

[At the age of 20-something, with the strength of someone in their 50s—did he refine that strength in an instant over those 30 years?]

[This is the first time I've realized a chef can be so elegant. Seriously, is there really no way to eat his food? Money isn't an issue.]

It's definitely difficult for ordinary people, but if you have a lot of money, you should be able to hire an industry bigwig!

Shouldn't this kind of chef have a heart for the world, open a small roadside restaurant, and benefit all viewers?

[You've been reading too many novels, haven't you? Even if a chef owns his own restaurant, the food you eat might not necessarily be cooked by the chef himself. What makes you think you can get a chef's meal for the price of a regular chef? Is culinary skill worthless?]

【No, he hasn't been ranked yet, has he?】

[Damn, Xia Ming is famous on Douyin (TikTok). With this level of skill, does it even matter if he's ranked? Guess how many restaurant owners want to hire Xia Ming right now? I think you have no concept of nationwide live streaming.]

While viewers in the live stream were still discussing how much Xia Ming's dishes should be priced, Xia Ming, who had just seen the judges put scrambled eggs with tomatoes into their mouths, had already left the room.

According to his calculations, if the door opens periodically, he should be able to reach the second round, the third round of questions, when the seven-minute time limit for this test ends.

Sure enough, after going outside, two two-star doors lit up, one with the title "Chicken Cubes" and the other with the title "Eggplant".

Adhering to the principle of choosing meat whenever possible, Xia Ming directly selected diced chicken.

Li Yuan, who had also chosen diced chicken, was about to greet Xia Ming when he suddenly sensed something was amiss.

"Wait a minute. Why is this guy coming out of the exit tunnel after the match? Shouldn't he have finished long ago?"

Just then, Li Yuan smelled a faint tomato scent on Xia Ming.
A terrible thought exploded in his mind.

"This guy, did he participate in two matches in the time it took me to participate in one???"

(End of this chapter)