Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 163 Joint Venture Acquisition of Wilderness Kitchen: If Successful, It'll Be the Holy Grail of Culinary Fun. (First Update, 5K)
Inside the players' lounge

Watching Sun Xingyao obediently washing dishes and tidying up the stove at Xia Ming's place, and even putting the stools back in their places...
A sense of unreality welled up in everyone's hearts.

"No, a large-scale dog training session?"

"It seems like he's been completely defeated. I remember Sun Xingyao used to be so dismissive of Shuai Xiaojian, saying his skills were just so-so."

"This is terrifying to think about. Does this mean that Xia Ming has already surpassed Shuai Xiaojian?!"

"It's hard to say, but it seems like that's the trend. If Shuai Qixing can't beat his father, and his father can't beat Xia Ming, then isn't he just a living, breathing clown king?"

"Stop talking, he already is. There are even bloggers on Douyin (TikTok) who have made playing cards for him, he's the King!"

While everyone was discussing, Xia Ming and Sun Xingyao, led by staff, walked along the competition field towards the lounge.

Throughout the journey, Sun Xingyao remained remarkably calm, which was probably the most emotionally stable he had been during the competition so far.

Sensing the change in Sun Xingyao's attitude, Xia Ming slightly curled the corners of his mouth.

The only sound in the corridor was quiet footsteps. After walking a short distance, Xia Ming returned to the door of the lounge.

Xia Ming reached out and pushed open the door. Sun Xingyao silently stepped back a little, and only followed him in after he went in.

Everyone fell silent as they watched the two of them enter.

At this moment, Xia Ming was no different from Wei Yan back then in their eyes. Even if they had their own thoughts, they dared not express them in front of Xia Ming.

Xia Ming looked up, and after confirming Qian Youdao's location, he walked straight over.

Sun Xingyao originally wanted to go over as well, but after exchanging glances with Qian Youdao, he quietly sat down in a secluded corner.

He has actually been eliminated, but he's still in there, just waiting for the reward for the 32-to-16 elimination round.

Seeing Sun Xingyao looking like a defeated dog with a broken spine, those who initially wanted to mock him gradually lost interest.

In their view, Sun Xingyao was already someone who was going to be eliminated anyway, so mocking him in front of the camera would only damage their public image.

Bai Heng, Zhou Jing, and Li Yuan, however, were quite interested in Sun Xingyao.

Although in the last battle against Shuai Qixing, Sun Xingyao made an inappropriate and lewd joke to Bai Heng.

Bai Heng was only angry for a moment. Her mentality was much better than Sun Xingyao's. If she took all these things to heart, she wouldn't be a chef. All she would do every day is get angry.

At this moment, Bai Heng hoped to hear more detailed information about Xia Ming from Sun Xingyao.

Because Sun Xingyao is the first contestant to have tasted Xia Ming's cooking since the start of the "New Chef Competition".

Judging from the change in his attitude, it was obvious that Xia Ming possessed terrifying strength.

The other two had the same idea, so the three of them set off together towards Sun Xingyao. Sun Xingyao, who sensed their movement, just smiled self-deprecatingly.

The first person to approach him was Zhou Jing. He first greeted him politely, and then asked a question.

“Sun Xingyao, I won’t beat around the bush. You know Xia Ming’s strength best right now, and I’d like to hear your opinion.”

Sun Xingyao didn't even lift his eyelids when he heard this, completely ignoring Zhou Jing, which made him extremely embarrassed.

Just as Zhou Jing's expression turned somewhat unpleasant, Bai Heng and Li Yuan arrived together.

Looking at the three people beside her, Sun Xingyao couldn't help but want to laugh.

"Hehehe, I know what you want to ask, and I can give you the answer."

"But you! You're too incompetent, you don't deserve to listen."

As Sun Xingyao spoke, she pointed at Zhou Jing. Seeing the glances that Bai Heng and Li Yuan were giving him, Zhou Jing's face immediately fell.

"Why do you say that!"

"Just because your opponent in this match is Qian Youdao, don't be unconvinced. You might not even make it into the top 16. Xia Ming is not someone you should be concerned about!"

Hearing Sun Xingyao's words, Zhou Jing was completely stunned. He realized that the mad dog was still the same mad dog, and his good temper depended on the person he was talking to!

At least in his eyes now, Zhou Jing is not qualified.

There's no point in arguing when you can't see eye to eye. This is Zhou Jing's last year, and he can't possibly fight with Sun Xingyao, who has already been eliminated. In the end, he can only turn around and leave with a dark face.

Looking at Bai Heng and Li Yuan, Sun Xingyao waved his right hand and pointed at Li Yuan.

"Get away from me!"

Li Yuan frowned. He realized that Sun Xingyao's wave meant that he was holding a grudge.

He remembered the vending machine incident and the time he was stopped from going to find Xia Ming, so even though he knew that Li Yuan was likely to advance, Sun Xingyao didn't want to tell him.

Unlike Zhou Jing, Li Yuan turned and left after figuring out the reason. He had only come out of curiosity to ask, and if he didn't get an answer, he would just leave it at that.

In the end, only Bai Heng was left. Sun Xingyao glanced at her, then patted the seat next to him. Bai Heng understood what he meant, and after thinking for a moment, she sat down.

Seeing this, Sun Xingyao slowly moved his head closer, stopping at a fist's distance from her ear.

"Bai Heng, right? I've watched your competition. If I'm not mistaken, you should be like Wei Yan from the New Chef Competition back then."

"Currently, our strength is around 'Level 5 in China'!"

Bai Heng nodded, which was taken as tacit agreement.

Sun Xingyao snorted upon seeing this.

"It's a coincidence that Xia Ming is the same as 'Wei Yan,' but unfortunately, he's just like the current Wei Yan!"

"In fact, I think Wei Yan is not as good as him now!"

"So, pray you get a good draw! Don't run into Xia Ming too early, or your match will be over~"

Hearing Sun Xingyao's slightly sarcastic words, Bai Heng was not angry. Instead, after a moment of silence, he said thank you.

Sun Xingyao was visibly stunned upon hearing "thank you," pulled herself back, and gave Bai Heng a meaningful look.

Bai Heng had already gotten the answer she wanted, so she didn't linger any longer and turned back to Qiao Ruoning and He He's side.

Seeing Bai Heng return, Qiao Ruoning quietly approached him.

"Bai Heng, 6 or 7?"

"7"

Upon hearing this simple number, Qiao Ruoning couldn't help but gasp.

Although she had a vague feeling about it, she had never been sure. Now that she understood everything, she was first surprised, and then felt a sense of relief.

"Wow, that's impressive! So, I really did get dealt a great hand!"

Indeed, Qiao Ruoning was one of the contestants Xia Ming was closer to in the New Chef Competition. Apart from Qian Youdao and Zheng Zeqian, she was the one he had the most contact with.

Although most of the questions were intelligence-related, Qiao Ruoning felt that Xia Ming was actually quite easy to get along with.

Just as the three women were discussing Xia Ming...
"Inside an apartment building in Brookline, New York's sleepless city."

A dark-skinned chef was cooking while watching the live broadcast of the "Chinese New Chef Competition" in the apartment.

Just as he was concentrating, a woman suddenly opened the door to the room.

"McDycombe, I knew you'd be holed up here again!"

Seeing the woman's angry face, the dark-skinned chef smiled and laid out three dishes.

"My beloved Eleanor, you've arrived just in time! Fresh 'Kale Trilogy,' would you like to try some?"

Upon seeing the dish, the woman named Eleanor not only failed to show a pleasant expression, but instead became even more agitated.

"McGrady, you even used fresh salmon? Don't you know what's going on with us? We haven't paid rent for 26 months! If this keeps up, we'll be evicted!"

"Can't you just put aside your worthless pride and honestly find a job?"

“I know that you were once a world-class chef, had your own restaurant brand, and even received a Michelin rating.”

"But McGrady, that damn global pandemic destroyed everything. Now, you, me, all of us are unemployed, you understand?!"

As she spoke, Eleanor looked at the broadcast.

"Oh my god, the 'Chinese New Chef Competition'?"

"Is that something you should be looking at?"

"A new chef in China, just like the apprentices in your previous restaurant!?"

"Instead of wasting your time watching this kind of boring show, you should be thinking about how to deal with your landlord!"

Seeing his lover and agent so impatient, McGrady first sighed, then smiled.

"Honey, calm down. Maybe things aren't so bad!"

"I hear this every day, but things are getting worse every day!"

Eleanor took a deep breath and was about to walk up to turn off the screen mirroring.

Unexpectedly, just as he reached the middle, McGrady hugged him from behind.

"Honey, don't panic. I originally wanted to give you a surprise, but since that's the case, I have to tell you in advance."

"I found a job!" Upon hearing Maddie's words, Eleanor's face lit up with joy, and she turned around to ask eagerly.

"Which restaurant? Michelin? Forget it, those guys aren't having an easy time either. Right now, I'll be happy with just a decent restaurant!"

"How much is the salary? Are there any other positions available? I'd like to be a manager too!"

Looking at Eleanor's smiling face, Maddie shook his head.

"No, even better than that is a variety show! A chef variety show!!!"

Upon hearing about the cooking show, Eleanor was so happy she almost jumped for joy. She knew very well that her husband, Maddie, was a chef who had risen to fame through the world of cooking shows.

She started by running a small restaurant that was featured in The Times, then participated in the Top Chef Challenge in the UK, and won the first championship.

Later, he participated in "Ironman Cooking: Eagle Nation Edition" and won the single-round championship.
After that, she continued to participate in variety shows and competitions, including "Extreme Wilderness Kitchen" and "Wildlife Survival Chef Guide".

He gained immense popularity back then and was even once hailed as "the best wilderness chef in the United States"!
Of course, there was some publicity involved, but it's undeniable that he was very successful during those years.

Despite the restaurant's failure and other problems in the environment, Eleanor always believed that the difficulties were only temporary.

Finally, now, the dawn has broken for her!

"A variety show? That's great! But wait a minute, McGrady, I'm your agent. Shouldn't you have contacted me first?"

Maddie smiled. Actually, he did contact Eleanor at first, but she was out working as a translator and was too busy to receive the message.

McGrady, who was staying at home, saw the prize money and the appearance fee, and naturally had no reason to refuse.

After reading the email, Eleanor was relieved.

She was very familiar with this competition.

Wilderness Kitchen

This was originally an adventure cooking show produced by BBA. Maddie had participated in the first and second seasons of the show, but it was canceled for some reason later on.

Unexpectedly, many years later, a Chinese company bought the rights to a sequel to the show, and coincidentally, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the United States of Canada, and the "Island of the Rising Sun" also invested in the project.

So the project, which had been dormant for more than a decade, has been restarted, and this time there will be more participants in the wilderness competition than before.

Of course, the program is more challenging, but the rewards are also more generous.

As a regular guest in the first two seasons, McGrady was naturally invited this time as well. Although more than ten years have passed and he is no longer the lean young man he once was, he is still able to face the challenges of the wilderness even though he is not yet 40 years old.

In addition, this event involved multinational participation, and the contestants, judges, and culinary categories were all exceptionally strong, so even Maddie dared not take it lightly.

However, he didn't really know much about Chinese cuisine, so when China was holding a national new chef competition, he wanted to use it as a starting point to understand the current state of Chinese cuisine.

Moreover, the program also features Tan Zhifeng, whom he admires.

In the eyes of most overseas people, Tan Zhifeng is the number one chef in China after the God of Cookery.
Although he never said it, it was enough to show Tan Zhifeng's influence overseas after years of hard work.

He initially thought that this championship in China, like many of the "regional" competitions in the United States, was rather amateurish, since they were all marked as "new."
But to his surprise, watching the video sparked a lot of inspiration for McGrady.

More importantly, he discovered that in this competition, a young chef named Xia Ming had received high scores from Tan Zhifeng on multiple occasions.

In McGrady's eyes, this basically meant a senior mentoring a junior.
Putting aside the inspiration he found in the "New Chef Competition," McGrady has also begun preparing for physical recovery exercises.

Although he is currently in dire financial straits, he still attaches great importance to this battle to turn his life around.

Like him is former private elite chef "Carly Monn", who and Maddie are old rivals on the show. In addition to them, there is also Michelin chef "Michael".

However, Michael is much better off than the two of them, both in terms of age and his circumstances over the years. Although he also accepted the invitation, he chose to decline.

Of course, in addition to "McDie" and "Carlyle", many other excellent chefs from various countries also accepted the invitation.

China is no exception.
Young chefs like Chen Xiaodong and Yang Yanbin have all received the news.

After all, if you're going into the wilderness and your physical condition is too poor, you'll collapse before you even get any food.

Because of the show's format, contestants from multiple countries are first parachuted into a region, where they experience the local specialties and traditional cuisine for a day under the guidance of locals before competing under a special format.

The judging panel was also quite interesting.
Each country will send one judge, for a total of six, plus five local judges.

An 11-person judging panel scored the dishes.

However, these were just the initial drafts of the basic format, and McGrady was not actually aware of the specifics.

Having learned the details, Eleanor excitedly shared his cooking with Maddie.

According to the time in the email, the competition will officially start after the Chinese New Year, which is about two months from now.

During this period, in order to better prepare for the competition, Eleanor decided to take on the financial burden herself.
Just as a romantic scene was unfolding in the "New York City Never Sleeps Apartment"...

In a café just two streets away from them, Xia Yitian sat next to Wen Zhixia, his eyes sparkling with contemplation.

"A perfect 15-second stir-fried pork kidney. The water chestnuts are glossy and white with a hint of pink."

"That's strange, so very strange."

Seeing Xia Yitian's appearance, Wen Zhixia, who was standing to the side, clipped her sunglasses between her eyebrows and asked.

"What's weird?"

"You don't know, this description means that this kid has perfected both the crispness and tenderness of stir-fried pork kidneys. That's not too difficult. What's difficult is that while achieving that perfection, the dish didn't turn red."

Xia Yitian frowned. Theoretically speaking, he couldn't do that either.

"Is the final part reheated by the temperature of the plate before it's brought to the table?"

"Or is there really some hidden meaning behind that so-called sieve dance?"

For the first time in so many years, Xia Yitian felt that he didn't understand his son at all.

Wen Zhixia, who was standing to the side, also realized that Xia Yitian's current state meant that he couldn't do it either.

Wen Zhixia blinked slightly and asked.

"So, in your opinion, where does Xia Ming's current strength stand?"

Xia Yitian raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Although I've never seen him make pastries, judging from the current situation, he's at least a Level 7 Chinese."

A look of surprise appeared in Wen Zhixia's eyes.

"Hua 7th grade, how old is he?!"

"Just turned 24 a few months ago"

"No, even better than you were back then."

At this point, Wen Zhixia covered her mouth in disbelief.

Xia Yitian understood what she meant and nodded.

"Yes, she's four years younger than me back then. If we calculate based on the current exam schedule in China, starting from Level 3..."

Just as Xia Yitian began to calculate in his mind, Wen Zhixia, who was standing next to him, answered first.

"I will be at the Level 3 Chinese competition in November. I can participate in the Level 4 Chinese competition at the beginning of next year. If I pass, I can participate in the Level 5 Chinese competition as early as autumn. There should be a Level 6 Chinese competition at the end of the year."

"After another year's break, I will be able to participate in the Hua 7 level competition the winter after next."

"In other words, Xia Ming will be able to pass the Hua 7 level exam in just 3 years, which means that your record will be broken in a day."

Xia Yitian didn't seem to care that his son might break his record.

After Wen Zhixia finished calculating, she felt a little regretful.

"It's such a pity. If I had won the New Chef Competition, I could have directly passed Hua Level 4, since Hua Level 5 competitions are held twice a year, in the spring and autumn."

"The timing of the Hua 6 level competition is uncertain, but what's amazing is that there are two competitions in a row this autumn and winter. This is the first time I've ever seen such a situation."

"The Hua 7 level competition is held every two years, always in winter. I heard there will be more spots this year, but I don't know if the news is true or not."

"If I can pass the Chinese Level 5 exam next spring and the Chinese Level 6 exam next fall, then I can make it in time for the Chinese Level 7 exam in early winter next year."

Thinking of this, Wen Zhixia's eyes widened.

"In this way, Xia Ming can quickly advance from Hua Level 5 to Hua Level 7 within a year. I hadn't even realized it until you mentioned it. It turns out that this year's Hua Level 4 chefs, if they have enough ability, can potentially advance directly!"

However, Wen Zhixia also knew that the New Chef Competition had always been a direct path to Level 3 in China for many years, and that had never changed.

Therefore, Xia Ming's direct entry into the 7th grade of Huazhong University is just a fantasy.

After listening to Wen Zhixia's words, Xia Yitian fell into thought.

"In previous years, this kind of thing probably wouldn't have happened. But this year might be different."

With the thoughts of the "exchange competition" and the "Chef's Cup" flashing through his mind, Xia Yitian suddenly smiled.

"Everything is perfectly timed; now it all depends on whether Yin Shengjiang can move this matter forward."

"If this really happens, then this year's 'Culinary Saint Cup' will be quite interesting."

(End of this chapter)