Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 172 The most outrageous theme of the championship, this bug really got Han Tianyan stuck (2K Second Update)
While Xia Ming was studying Han Tianyan, Han Tianyan was also watching Xia Ming's match videos over and over again in his room.

He spent real money to get this from Qiao Ruoning, and it basically includes all the videos in which Xia Ming appears.

Some copies even included some professional annotations.

But the more Han Tianyan watched Xia Ming's actions in these videos, the more alarmed he became.

"Roasted scorpion", "Fermented mung bean soup with balut", "Fried pork chop", "Pork blood and tofu soup".
These delicious dishes made him furrow his brow completely. For a moment, he even thought that Xia Ming might really be invincible.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Nobody's perfect! He must have weaknesses, I just haven't discovered them yet!!!

Han Tianyan took a deep breath, then poured himself a glass of water and walked to the windowsill.

Looking down at the bustling streets, he began to dissect Xia Ming's information in his mind.

"Dishes that demonstrate skillful knife work: Pass."

"Even Chinese pastries are out of the question, he's gone too far! Nobody can beat him."

"Frying won't work, and frying vegetarian fish is also difficult to handle."

"Bake it, that won't work either."

"Damn!!! It seems like it has no weaknesses at all!"

Han Tianyan let out a long sigh, feeling a sense of powerlessness and defeat. For the first time, he realized that strategy might be useless in this situation.

Just as he was struggling with this decision, a friend suddenly made a video call to him.

He answered the phone and saw that his friend was having French food with his girlfriend.

The reason I called via video was because I noticed something wrong with the food at this restaurant while I was eating there, and I wanted to ask about it via video.

"Old Han, can you take a look? Isn't this picture a little different from the dish?"

"I feel like he forgot to put in the smoked beef crisps!"

Han Tianyan looked at the picture carefully and then nodded.

"It's true! Not only did they forget the beef crisps, but they also forgot the Allemande sauce. What kind of French restaurant is this?! Isn't this ridiculous?"

The person on the other side was furious after hearing Han Tianyan's affirmation.

"I knew it! Something was definitely missing. I felt something was off while I was eating. The chef had this whole 'cheap Chinese street food stall' vibe. I have to find their manager."

"Now I'm going to go to the kitchen and see if they really gave me a bunch of newbies to do this."

As he was speaking, Han Tianyan froze completely.

He quickly reviewed Xia Ming's match trajectory in his mind and suddenly discovered a fatal flaw in it.
"Although it's not good to do this during the competition, we can't worry about that right now."

A night of silence.
The next day, only 8 people remained in the competition venue. Apart from Xia Ming, Qian Youdao, and Zheng Zeqian, the rest of them stood to one side and did not speak to each other.
This resulted in an eerily quiet atmosphere in the players' lounge.

It seems everyone is under a lot of pressure now that we've reached the quarterfinals.
The rules for today's competition are the same as yesterday: there are nine themes, which will be drawn on the spot.

Xia Ming and Han Tianyan were the first contestants to go on stage. After a short preparation, the two came to the judges' table.

Nine themes began to rotate within them, and for the first time since the start of the competition, Han Tianyan showed an expression of extreme tension.

"I have to get it! I absolutely have to get it!"

Looking at his expression, Xia Ming on the other side narrowed his eyes slightly. Judging from Han Tianyan's dark circles, he guessed that he must have been thinking of a plan all night.

"Judging from this guy's expression, the topic he's going to write about must be very important."

With a slight smile, Xia Ming reached into the box and randomly pulled one out.

There were too many possibilities, and he couldn't guess Han Tianyan's thoughts, but he knew that to realize his ideas, he first had to extract the subject from the box.

As Yin Shengjiang opened the ball, the first theme of the match was revealed.

Meat sauce

Viewers in the live stream were a bit confused by this topic.

[Who wrote this? Can meat sauce even be considered a separate topic?]

[Meat can be counted, and meat sauce should probably be included too.]

[It definitely couldn't have been written by Xia Ming. A blogger has already analyzed it; Xia Ming's most amazing trait right now is that he can keep throwing out blank notes. The fewer restrictions, the more monstrous he becomes.] [It feels like it was written by Wei Yan.]

Hey, isn't that a coincidence? I'm eating noodles with soybean paste right now!

Just as netizens were celebrating, Han Tianyan opened the small ball in his hand.

The second theme was, surprisingly, glutinous rice.

Seeing that it wasn't the theme he had put in, Han Tianyan tensed up. He was certain that he was unlikely to be able to beat Xia Ming when it came to "sticky rice" and "meat sauce".

"You absolutely must pull it out!"

"Otherwise, I'll just have to bite the bullet and go for it."

Just as he was getting nervous, Xia Ming opened the small ball in his hand.

Upon seeing the words written above, a look of doubt appeared on his face.

Han Tianyan, sitting opposite Xia Ming, keenly noticed Xia Ming's expression and was secretly pleased. This could only mean that Xia Ming had drawn his question.

At that moment, the AI ​​camera also gave a close-up of the question, and on the slip of paper, it was clearly written:
[French Banquet]

Upon seeing the subject matter on the big screen, the netizens who were just moments before were all filled with questions.

【No way, man, who is this?! Who the hell is this? Writing this topic in the New Chef Competition, what's he trying to do?】

【No way, this is allowed? Can I write "Manchu Han Imperial Feast" then?】

[Don't even mention it, I also want to write about the "Manchu Han Imperial Feast"!]

[I feel like the judges couldn't possibly come up with such an outrageous topic. Did Han Tianyan write this?!]

[It seems like he's the only one left, but no, this question is too dirty. Without prior preparation, who could possibly complete the process on the spot!]

[This seems like a more formal setup, right? At least four rounds, right? What, are you trying to feed the judges? Are you even going to compete anymore?]

[Is this considered exploiting a bug? If you were to actually make this on the spot, it could take more than a dozen steps. Shouldn't the rest just leave it until tomorrow?]

Netizens were completely bewildered, and the judges weren't much better off.

Upon seeing this topic, they immediately focused all their attention on Han Tianyan.

The seven of them discussed the topic together, and Xia Ming definitely couldn't have written something like that. Who else could it be but Han Tianyan?

Han Tianyan was also a little embarrassed at this moment.
He was indeed exploiting a bug. After all, no one stipulated what the theme had to be. Some people can keep throwing blank slips of paper, so why can't he write something other than Chinese cuisine?

But perhaps it was too unexpected for the judges, because after the seven people realized what was happening, none of them continued with the next step.

There was a tense silence for about 10 seconds before Yin Shengjiang, with an incredibly complicated expression, finally announced that the topic was valid.

"Of course, the theme is valid as long as it is allowed by the rules, and we respect the contestants' choices on the field."

"But since it's a competition, we have to impose some restrictions."

He then pulled the other judges aside, and after a brief discussion, they finally settled on a compromise.

"According to the French culinary standards, the two contestants need to prepare four courses: an appetizer, a soup, a main course, and a dessert."

"Because the process is too long, the previous tastings are not suitable for the current evaluation."

"Therefore, we've decided that, for the sake of fairness, we'll use a 'mix-and-match' model for this round."

"In other words, after it's made, it's served directly to the table, without following a separate tasting process for each individual."

"The competition is limited to 8 hours. The ingredients must include 'meat sauce' and 'glutinous rice,' and at least one of them must be used in the main course."

After hearing the rules, Han Tianyan's face showed an excited expression.

This wasn't just because he successfully exploited the bug, but also because he correctly predicted the "free win" mode.
He worked all night to put together enough dishes specifically for Xia Ming.

Although he wasn't a professional Western chef, he believed that Xia Ming was even less experienced than him.
Even if Xia Ming could cook them, they would only be a few common dishes.

"As long as I can cater to his tastes, just as he caters to everyone else, then..."

"He could only watch helplessly as I gained the upper hand and won the game."

(End of this chapter)