Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 173: Seemingly Overwhelming Advantage, But Actually Bold and Weak: The Flaws in Han Tianyan's Choice (Bonus Chapter for 3K Chapters)

The banquet was French cuisine, also known as Gallic cuisine.

It is a general term for the traditional cuisine of Gaul.

It is known for its wide selection of ingredients, meticulous processing, and sophisticated cooking, and is generally regarded as the premier Western cuisine.

It is also recognized by the United Nations as a "Representative of Intangible Cultural Heritage".

Its cuisine originated in the imperial court, with a strict process used to demonstrate status.

Later, it spread to the general public, went abroad, and underwent several reforms.

The French cuisine that people commonly refer to now actually refers to "French dinner".

Because the Gauls generally don't care much about breakfast and lunch, and breakfast is often just something quick and easy.

However, they place great importance on dinner, which is related to their working hours.

The same dinner can be either ordinary or luxurious.

A typical dinner at home usually consists of either an appetizer and a main course, or a main course and a dessert.

If you're dining with friends, the meal might be upgraded to include an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert.

In China, when people take their girlfriends, wives, or attend important business banquets, they usually go to French restaurants for a meal, which is what is called a "banquet".

The most basic components of a "banquet" are four courses, known as a transitional French meal, which is essentially a test set by the judges.

After all, if you really want to make this as a "banquet" meal, the number of dishes can easily reach more than a dozen.

This is why, when you go to a good French restaurant, you can often eat for almost two hours straight.

To be honest, Xia Ming didn't have a comprehensive understanding of French cuisine.

Because his understanding of the world of food actually comes entirely from his memories, and his understanding of various aspects of cooking is concentrated before he was 9 years old.

All I remember is my mother taking me out to eat lots of food and then gently teaching me about these things.

As for the father's place in that memory, it seemed very faint, whether it was intentional forgetting or simply not existing.

However, thanks to the knowledge accumulated in childhood, coupled with the exposure to internet information as an adult.

His familiarity with Chinese cuisine was so great that he was able to handle all the problems Xia Ming encountered.

However, his understanding of Western cuisine, especially French cuisine, was not comprehensive. It came more from self-learning during his later development and did not form a complete systematic practice.

"This guy actually found an opening!"

Although the question was not in his favor, Xia Ming still looked relaxed.

He just doesn't have a comprehensive understanding; he still knows a bit more than most netizens.

“In a proper French meal, appetizers, soups, main courses, and desserts each serve a purpose.”

"First, there are appetizers, which mainly serve to attract attention and enhance the diners' experience."

"This is similar to the concept of 'color' in Chinese cuisine; the saying 'beauty is food for the eyes' captures this meaning."

"Appetizers are generally divided into hot and cold dishes. The flavors must stimulate the diners' appetites in order to allow the subsequent process to proceed."

Xia Ming exhaled softly, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"Then there's soup. Western cuisine defines soup differently from Chinese cuisine; the main distinction lies in 'appetizer soup,' 'main course soup,' and 'dessert soup.'"

"The 'appetizer soup' is served after the 'appetizer' and before the 'main course.'"

"Its main function is to soothe the throat and stomach, awaken the taste buds, and enhance the ability to perceive subsequent flavors."

"Generally speaking, appetizer soups are not very strong in flavor, because they often serve as a transition between the main course and the main course."

Xia Ming understood that all of this process was actually in service of the main course.

But in reality, many Western restaurants, and even French restaurants, do a good job with the main courses, but their main courses are disappointing.

Part of the reason might be to raise diners' expectations while also keeping costs in mind.
Some more affordable restaurants even list "appetizers" and "soup" as a single item.

The previous "appetizer soup" is considered the appetizer.

"But here the judges clearly gave two options: 'appetizer' and 'soup,' so the focus of the evaluation will definitely be different for each."

"Next comes the 'main course,' which is the core of the dish; theoretically, all dishes are created around it."

"It must both enhance diners' sense of fullness and stimulate their taste buds to elevate the theme of the dish."

"It can be said that the main course is a concentrated presentation of a Western chef's skills, aesthetics, and understanding of ingredients."

Of course, Xia Ming had doubts about whether the main course would be enough to fill him up.

After all, in his memory, many Michelin-starred restaurants today feed their customers with bread, and the main course is more of a supplement.
The role of the main dish.
Don't be fooled by this seemingly pointless statement; in fact, it is a pointless statement nonetheless.

Just like some Western restaurants that only care about the overall creativity and ignore the diners' sense of fullness, it makes no difference whether they have it or not.

Some netizens even joked, "Are you eating this main course before or after your meal?"

For many Chinese netizens, who are used to eating Chinese food, suddenly having a "small appetite" is a bit of a challenge.
Actually, Xia Ming had a question here.

That is, from what perspective are the seven judges on the stage evaluating "French banquet cuisine"?

"Theoretically speaking, the judges are all at least at the Chinese Level 7. Since they can pass the comprehensive assessment, they must know a lot about Western cuisine."

"Otherwise, remaining solely focused on their own limited perspective without aligning with international standards is definitely not what the culinary association wants to see." "Therefore, they certainly have some understanding of French cuisine, but how much do they understand, can they cook it, and do they personally have any opinions about French cuisine?"

"These problems are all like blind boxes."

Xia Ming can only make someone who is pretending to be asleep fall asleep forever, but he cannot wake them up.

Therefore, he doesn't think he can make the most authentic French cuisine in a field he's not very good at, so that judges who don't like French food will be impressed.

This is as absurd as sending him back to the Nine Provinces Continent, then using the flying swords of the Wanjian Pavilion disciples to fight against enemies.

"In this context, so-called 'fusion cuisine' and 'creative cuisine' can flourish more easily."

"The so-called 'adapting to local conditions' approach—I don't know the most orthodox methods, but I can find similar ways to compensate in cooking."

Don't ask, it's just "creative cuisine".

Xia Ming had read Han Tianyan's information and knew that he had studied abroad, but for a very short time.

He also cooked Western food in front of the camera, but judging from the judges' performance, it wasn't top-notch.

Therefore, Xia Ming viewed Han Tianyan's move of "French banquet" as a desperate attempt to try his luck.

"It means you think you're a fool, but you want to defeat an opponent who isn't a fool."

"So he ultimately chose to first bring his opponent's intelligence to the same level as his own, and then defeat him by relying on his rich experience."

Therefore, based on this theory, Xia Ming thinks that he will most likely make some more traditional French dishes, and even if there are fusion dishes, there probably won't be too many.

Because he needed to use the label of "authentic French cuisine" to connect with the theme.
This is the most reliable score he can get given the current situation.

"But on the other hand, in order to gain this advantage, Han Tianyan also paid the price of the judges' natural goodwill."

"He couldn't be blind to the consequences. He must have made this choice because he lacked confidence in other Chinese cuisines, which is why he resorted to this desperate measure."

Xia Ming knew that this meant he could broaden the scope of his answers.

If someone can embody more than half of the characteristics of "French cuisine," the judges will likely deem them to fit the theme.

"The main course needs to be made with meat sauce or glutinous rice."

"Under normal circumstances, meat sauce can only be used as an 'appetizer' or 'main course'; using it in soup would defeat its purpose."

"It's not that it can't be used in desserts, but it's absolutely never used in traditional French cuisine."

"They took a risk by using 'meat sauce' as an appetizer, then relied on 'glutinous rice' to fill out the main course and mask the flavor of the appetizer."

"If they really had that ability, they wouldn't have been forced to gamble on this topic."

Thinking of this, Xia Ming's lips curled up slightly.

He had realized that unless Han Tianyan gave up Bolai's advantages and made "fusion cuisine", he could only use "meat sauce" as the main dish.

"Actually, 'glutinous rice' is a difficult ingredient for Han Tianyan because it's rarely used in French cuisine."

"This is also because, in the long history of French cuisine, glutinous rice, which originated in 'Greater Asia,' is rarely used in 'Greater Europe.'"

"If the imperial court doesn't use it, then French cuisine will naturally be used less in subsequent developments."

In this context, from a probabilistic perspective, the only places where "sticky rice" would appear in traditional French cuisine are "main courses" and "desserts".

This ingredient is indeed not used much in appetizers and soups.
"Given the rule of 'eating together freely,' Han Tianyan will definitely seize the opportunity to use his cooking to control me."

"If we put both 'meat sauce' and 'sticky rice' in the main course, setting aside the fact that they are both themes, how difficult it is for a French cuisine to present them together."

"To put it simply, given the essay prompt that restricts both ingredients, it would be difficult for him to restrain me as much as he imagined."

Thinking of this, Xia Ming raised an eyebrow slightly.

After calculating it this way, he realized that Han Tianyan on the other side didn't actually have many options.

Putting aside the so-called "traditional French cuisine" filter, he is actually not as disadvantaged as outsiders perceive him to be.

He can even use the title of "creative French cuisine" to pull off some fancy tricks~
However, viewers in the live stream felt that Xia Ming's actions of constantly thinking in front of the stove indicated that he might actually be in crisis.

[Something's not right, something's extremely wrong, could Xia Ming really not do that?!]

[With such a high level of expertise in Chinese cuisine, it's understandable that he wouldn't have a complete understanding of Western cuisine; it just shows how challenging Han Tianyan's questions were.]

[French banquets have high standards for main courses; if Xia Ming can't prepare them according to certain standards, he might really lose.]

I'm not worried about Xia Ming's plating, but the question is, can he really distinguish between French sauces and Chinese sauces?

Oh, there's a difference between the two?

[Isn't this obvious? If there were no difference at all, Chinese cuisine would have already taken over the world!]

While netizens were discussing the matter, Han Tianyan on the other side had already prepared the ingredients.

Seeing that Xia Ming's stove was completely empty, he smiled with relief.

"I knew it, he's not good at this."

With his confidence soaring, he didn't become too arrogant and turned to start preparing his ingredients.

His "appetizer" was a classic French dish.
Pan-fried foie gras with apple

(End of this chapter)