Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 138 The shimmering "abalone"—a dish impossible to prepare on-site! (3K Second Update)
Why is Xia Ming standing still? Has he fallen asleep?

[It seems like he got lost halfway through; could he have made a mistake?]

No way! I thought it looked pretty good!

What can you tell just by looking? Whether it's good or bad, the judges will only know after they've tasted it!

[The soup Qian Youdao made looks delicious!]

When Xia Ming closed his eyes, the viewers in the live stream were somewhat surprised and didn't know what had happened.

But Fang Xu only felt a sense of exhilaration throughout his body.
"Out of options, huh? Let's just grit our teeth and keep cooking! At least we can earn a few stars!"

After stretching his neck, Fang Xu ignored Xia Ming and focused all his attention on Qian Youdao.

It has to be said that Qian Youdao was indeed showing the demeanor of a master chef at this moment. In Fang Xu's opinion, if he could maintain this state, Han Tianyan would definitely be unable to do anything about him.

"There's still a little while left, it's time to put my fish in the pot!"

After saying that, he ignored Xia Ming and began to seriously prepare his own dish.

As time passed, fewer and fewer contestants remained in the arena without having finished their dishes.

But most people didn't choose to go out because they wanted to spend a few minutes seeing who the final winner of the game would be.

Shuai Qixing was still in first place. It looked like his nose was almost sticking out. He knew that more than ten minutes had already passed, but there was still no sign of him leaving.

It seems he can't feel right unless he sees Xia Ming make a fool of himself.

Conversely, Ma Lei, who is currently in second place, left right after the exam. He has a clear understanding of himself and knows that he cannot keep his second place, so he is not conflicted at all.

With just over two minutes left, Fang Xu noticed that only he, Qian Youdao, and Xia Ming remained in the room, and the dishes had not yet been served.

Feeling the time was right, he poured the plated coral fish with sweet and sour sauce and served it without hesitation.

Seeing this, Xia Ming tidied himself up and then took the plate he was holding over.

Seeing Xia Ming follow, Fang Xu chuckled to himself.

"So you've finally chosen to follow behind me? Well, that makes sense. That way, I just need to control the flavor of my cooking, and maybe if my skills are good enough, I can even surpass Shuai Qixing and take second place~"

The aroma of Qian Youdao's "Fish Soup" had already filled the entire room, but Xia Ming's dish did not have a noticeable aroma.

He could only conclude that Xia Ming was focusing all his energy on dealing with him and had no time to care about Qian Youdao.

And that's exactly what he wanted to see.
Smiling, Fang Xu placed the coral fish in front of the judges and politely stepped aside, giving Xia Ming the best viewing spot.

At this moment, he felt like a strategist who had finally uncovered a scheme, watching as Xia Ming was about to be destroyed by the vortex he had set up, and an indescribable sense of control rose in his heart.

From the moment he entered the room, everything proceeded according to his plan.

Even Xia Ming's struggle at this moment seemed to be adding a footnote to this "victory".
Seeing Xia Ming's cold gaze, he couldn't help but smile, enjoying the sense of accomplishment that came from his meticulous planning.
At this moment, his own score was no longer important; he was about to witness a victorious general suffer a crushing defeat before him, which was far more meaningful than a few stars.

As expected, the five judges were quite puzzled by his dish of coral fish after tasting it.

On one hand, there's the exquisitely arranged plating and the perfect frying technique; on the other hand, there's the slightly strange-tasting, yet overall sweet and sour sauce that maintains the basic flavor.

The judges all felt that if the recipe for the sweet and sour sauce were changed, the dish would be even more outstanding.

Of course, compared to other contestants, his dishes are already quite good.

After careful consideration, they finally gave Fang Xu a total score of "411", which ranks him 6th in the current competition.

The viewers in the live stream were abuzz with discussion when they saw Fang Xu's score.

The judges weren't surprised, since it was like sacrificing a portion of their flavor, so a lower score was to be expected.

After Fang Xu's cooking score was announced, it was Xia Ming's turn next.

To leave some suspense, the judges in the room had just switched their screens to Qian Youdao's.

Even they didn't know what was in Xia Ming's plate at that moment.
Without much hesitation, Xia Ming lifted the bowl covering the plate. The judges looked on curiously and discovered that there were five egg-like things wrapped in fish skin on the plate.

There was also a small soup bowl with a lid on next to it.

The air fell silent for half a second. The five judges exchanged glances, completely bewildered as to what Xia Ming was trying to do.
But they couldn't speak, so they could only look at Xia Ming and signal him to do something.

Fang Xu, standing to the side, was also taken aback when he saw Xia Ming's dish. If he couldn't sense that something was wrapped inside the fish skin, he would have thought it was just fried fish skin.
Just when everyone was completely confused.

Xia Ming took out the blood-stained fish skin wrapped in a clean cloth from his pocket, and then raised his hand to cut the fish skin.

As he wielded the knife, a refreshing aroma of fish exploded in front of the judges.

The judges stared intently and, after removing the top layer of fish skin, discovered that inside the fish skin mass was a shimmering, golden "abalone"!
The judge had a question mark hanging above their head. Their first reaction was that they must have misread it, and they subconsciously rubbed their eyes.

Looking again, the golden light had vanished, leaving only the "abalone" quietly sitting on the plate. The moment they saw the "abalone," not only the judges but also the viewers in the live stream were stunned!

What is that? Abalone?!

[You expect me to cook a live fish, but you want me to cook abalone?! That's bullying!]

[The use of artificially inflated ingredients makes the victory unfair!]

[Wait a minute. Why was abalone placed in the live fish section of the test? Did the show give Xia Ming special treatment?]

[The above program is not for reference; you can't just say whatever you want. And who says abalone isn't a fish!]

[The biology teacher upstairs would probably jump out of bed in anger if they saw this!]

While the live stream was in full swing, the judges, who were carefully examining the dishes, noticed something amiss.

What you see before you is not "abalone" at all, but fried fish meat with all its textures and wrinkles restored to look extremely similar to abalone through exquisite knife skills!

The fish skin looks like the bottom shell of an abalone, and inside is the abalone meat, with extremely delicate squirrel-shaped cuts on it.

Even the most knowledgeable judge among the five had never seen such an outrageous squirrel-shaped knife before.

If Fang Xu's coral carvings represent the pinnacle of knife skills, then Xia Ming's technique of using fish meat to mimic fine hairs would put many knife masters to shame.

Just then, the AI ​​camera gave Xia Ming's dish a close-up.

Seeing the intricate patterns inside the abalone, revealed to be the result of skillful knife work and frying, everyone was speechless with astonishment.

Fang Xu, who was standing to the side, was also a little flustered at this moment, because Xia Ming's performance had exceeded his understanding of ordinary geniuses.

Even if he had another 10 years, he might not be able to reach that level of knife skill. Looking at the coral fish that had been placed aside, he felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart.

"Impossible! How could anyone possess such astonishing knife skills? More importantly, he shouldn't have anticipated this plan from the start!"

"I understand now. He's actually run out of tricks. He's showing off his knife skills with all his might right now, clearly just to squeeze out the last bit of value from this shot!"

Fang Xu knew that Xia Ming liked to steal the spotlight, so he subconsciously thought that Xia Ming was trying to save face for him!

Xia Ming ignored all of that. Seeing that the judges were gradually becoming curious, he quietly picked up a small soup bowl from the side, opened the lid, and smelled an extremely rich abalone sauce aroma.

Upon tasting this flavor, the judges' eyes lit up!
They've realized now that Xia Ming is recreating abalone using the method of frying fish. And let me tell you, both the appearance and the sauce are incredibly lifelike.

As Xia Ming poured the imitation abalone sauce onto the plate, the traces of fried fish were completely removed.

If this dish were served in a high-end restaurant, it would definitely be mistaken for real abalone, because it looks so much like it!
As the abalone sauce was poured over the dish, the aroma of Xia Ming's cuisine exploded. The contestants below couldn't see the specifics, but they could feel the aroma!
All the contestants were captivated by the flavor, but Fang Xu, who was standing to the side, was delighted instead of angry after experiencing the rich aroma of Xia Ming's cooking.

Because his flavor profile is "umami," but from what we've experienced so far, Xia Ming's umami flavor seems to exist to imitate abalone, without any real exploration of the umami flavor of fish.

It doesn't really go well with his sweet and sour sauce! He could already imagine the disappointed looks on the judges' faces when they tasted it!
"Simply put, it's just a dish that imitates abalone to the extreme in terms of appearance. Even with the so-called abalone sauce, it can't replicate the texture of abalone!"

"After all, the freshness of fish and the richness of abalone are worlds apart. A fake is still a fake, and it won't taste real even if you put it in your mouth!"

Fang Xu actually admired Xia Ming quite a bit at this moment. To be able to come up with such a solution in such a predicament, his talent had already reached its peak.

Unfortunately, the trap he set by igniting himself had no way to be broken!
After all, even the most elaborately designed dishes must ultimately convey their theme through taste!
The judges had no idea what Fang Xu was thinking, but the abalone in front of them certainly made their mouths water!

Without knives and forks, they each used chopsticks to pick up the abalone, examined it carefully, and finally put it in their mouths.

Xia Ming prepared the abalone sauce for them while it was warm, which was just right for the fried abalone fish that had been sitting for a while.

After testing it with their tongue, the judges confidently took a bite of the abalone.

Seeing the judge's action, Xia Ming's lips curled up slightly, but in an instant, he returned to normal!

Before the five judges could even taste the freshness of Xia Ming's fried fish, they felt an intense umami flavor bursting forth from the abalone, carrying with it a fiery passion.

Like suddenly eating a freshly baked soup dumpling, the judges felt their tongues burning hot, making them unconsciously want to spit it out.

But the umami flavor seemed to tug at their souls, making them refuse the action. In the end, caught between the two, they hesitated, wavered, and finally compromised.

Even though his face was distorted from the heat, he still grimaced as he savored the unparalleled flavor of Xia Ming's cooking.

Seeing the judges' electric shock-like reaction and smelling the strange fragrance that suddenly wafted from the stage, Fang Xu's eyes widened in shock!

"This fried fish is stuffed! And it's stuffed with soup!"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"With only 20 minutes and without a refrigerator, even a miracle couldn't possibly prepare all the ingredients for this soup jelly!"

(End of this chapter)