Food Wars, My Dishes Don't Just Shine

　The ingredients on the cooking counter were quickly dwindling. Zhongyi managed to get carrots and celery, which are basic ingredients for risotto, but they are also delicious when used to make other dishes. They are versatile and can be used for both offense and defense!

　Alice Nakiri chose rosemary, thyme, and black pepper, a combination of spices that convinced Nakagi that she was making a Western-style dish.

　As the two of them selected one ingredient after another, when only a dozen or so ingredients remained on the cooking station in front of them, Zhong Yi suddenly stopped.

　A small box of saffron lay quietly on the table, its golden color gleaming brightly under the light. This is a key ingredient for making Spanish paella.

　The ingredients that Alice Nakiri just chose are probably what she wanted to make. Taking them away might disrupt her plans!

　A shrewd glint flashed in his eyes. Although they had just engaged in a heated debate, he had to admit that those who could stand here were the elite of the elite, selected through rigorous screening processes!

　Anyone who dares to underestimate their opponent is not far from losing the game!

　However, Zhongyi also hesitated.

　After all, everyone has a limited selection of ingredients. If he chooses this, he can't choose anything else, and saffron doesn't have much effect on his cooking.

　However, at that moment, Alice Nakiri suddenly looked up and glanced at Zhong Yi.

　Her eyes held a hint of mockery, as if she could see through his hesitation. Under that gaze, he gritted his teeth and reached for the saffron.

　Seeing this, Alice Nakiri's lips curled up slightly, like a cunning little fox who had succeeded in her scheme, and she picked up the last ingredient she wanted—a lemon.

　Seeing this performance, Zhongyi panicked and immediately thought of taking the lemon from the other side when they chose ingredients next.

　That smile is absolutely unsettling.

　Both sides have made their selections.

　The contestants from Zhongyi received prawns, mussels, round-grain rice, garlic, olive oil, carrots, celery, black bread, brandy, and saffron.

　The contestant with the code name "Love" chose prawns, peanut oil, cream, cheese, Spanish round-grain rice, scallions, sea salt, rice wine, eggs, and lemon.

　Both contestants should each choose three ingredients, and then proceed to the mutual selection phase.

　"I choose king prawns, peanut oil, and eggs."

　Alice Nakiri spoke first. These three ingredients make up everything in her cooking. If even the shrimp is chosen by the opponent, then this round is over.

　"I'll choose prawns, olive oil, and brandy!"

　Zhongyi's voice also came at this moment: no matter what, the first two items are absolutely indispensable, otherwise the dish will completely collapse!

　"Both sides have chosen their anchor ingredients. Now they can choose three ingredients from their opponent, but they cannot choose the ingredients chosen by their opponent."

　The host's voice rang out again, and the audience listened intently, all eyes focused on the two people below, wondering what ingredients they would choose from each other.

　"Carrots, celery, and black bread."

　Without any hesitation, as if everything had been planned in advance, Alice Nakiri pointed to the many ingredients in front of Zhong Yi and spoke.

　Zhong Yi was shocked by her words, and his face turned ugly. He needed these for his seafood risotto. Suppressing his anger, he pointed to Alice Nakiri.

　"I want cream, cheese, and lemon!"

　Zhongyi ultimately chose lemon. After Alice Nakiri took away his vegetables and the black bread that was meant to be a side dish, he had no choice but to change his cooking.

　The seafood risotto I was planning to make is definitely out of the question now. Without the vegetables, the risotto with only seafood will taste very unbalanced, which would give the competition an opportunity.

　"Here you go."

　He tossed the ingredients from his counter to Alice Nakiri, hoping to see her embarrass herself in a flustered manner. However, Alice didn't play by the rules at all and immediately attacked the carrots and celery with her knife.

　Under the stunned gaze of the audience, the carrots and celery that were originally intact were transformed into small, evenly sized cubes in a flash of silver light.

　"Don't think I'm just sitting around doing nothing while I'm with Master Bai Yuan! This level of provocation is nothing out of the ordinary for me!"

　Back when they were in Northern Europe, Bai Yuan did many similar things to train her reflexes. The most outrageous time was when he threw tofu at her forcefully and made her cut it into one-centimeter square pieces.

　As a result, she ended up with her face covered in tofu. The sticky texture and fishy smell left a deep impression on her, and from then on, she practiced her knife skills diligently.

　Now, even when faced with ingredients flying from behind, she can react quickly and handle them properly.

　Now, those efforts have paid off.

　"That's truly superb skill!"

　"This is amazing! No wonder it's a youth chef competition!"

　A gasp went up from the audience. At that moment, Alice Nakiri held a tray in one hand, on which were diced carrots and celery, her face relaxed.

　"Grandstanding!"

　"That's it? My brother is the best!"

　"The key to cooking is deliciousness, but it's just a matter of having slightly better knife skills. My older brother can do it too!"

　A sudden sound rang out from the audience. Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and found that it was a few chubby female fans with exquisite makeup in the center of the support flag.

　They were shouting in rough voices, which made the people around them frown, but they didn't say anything because these guys outnumbered them.

　When these chubby girls saw Zhong Yi casting an approving glance at them, they immediately burst into excited screams.

　"Yes, that fits my stereotype perfectly."

　Upon hearing the voice, Bai Yuan looked at them, pinched his chin, nodded seriously, and showed a mocking expression on his face.

　"The less capable a person is, the more enthusiastic they are about the people they pursue. If someone is capable, they should have a comprehensive view of things."

　Erina Nakiri glanced at them, and after seeing their fanatical expressions, her face turned into one of looking at a clown.

　Even though she admires Bai Yuan, it's a very restrained kind of liking; she knows when to advance and when to retreat, and would never do something as shameful as Zhong Yi's fangirls.

　If the opponent is strong, then we should praise them.

　Instead of trying to prove their idols' greatness by belittling their opponents, which would only make themselves and their idols look like clowns.

　Although no one spoke, their eyes told a story.

　They probably cursed their ancestors for eighteen generations in their hearts!

　"The competition time is one hour. Let the cooking begin!"

　As both contestants brought their ingredients to their respective cooking stations, the host picked up the microphone and announced the start of the competition.

　at the same time.

　Alice Nakiri and Nakaichi sprang into action, beginning to process the live shrimp in front of them.

　Alice Nakiri looked at the shrimp in front of her, first rinsing it with running water to make sure there were no impurities on it, then using scissors to cut off the shrimp whiskers and legs, and then making a long cut on the shell on the back of the shrimp, using the tip of the knife to remove the shrimp vein.

　At the same time, with a turn of the scissors, the connection between the shrimp head and the body is cut off, and the blade directly breaks open the shrimp shell, leaving the shrimp tail. Then, it is put into water to wash.

　"It's a fairly standard procedure, but they handled it very skillfully."

　I suppose you cook shrimp quite often.

　On the judges' panel, the three judges nodded in approval as they watched Alice Nakiri's approach. Although the method was ordinary, its skillful execution made it quite entertaining.

　"Live shrimp anesthesia method, I never thought anyone would use this method."

　Suddenly, Jinshan opened his eyes and exclaimed in surprise as he looked in Zhongyi's direction. The other two judges looked over and saw Zhongyi dumping all the live prawns into the ice.

　What is the live shrimp ice anesthesia method?

　Sitting next to Shiro Akimoto, Erina Nakiri asked in confusion. Having been in the culinary world for so long, this was the first time she had ever heard this term.

　"The live shrimp ice anesthesia method involves the chef soaking fresh live shrimp in ice for a few minutes, which can quickly put the shrimp into a 'dormant' state."

　This method not only calms the shrimp, making them easier to handle, but also locks in their freshness and prevents them from releasing excessive fishy-smelling substances while struggling.

　Bai Yuan's voice rang in her ears, and her face showed more interest. Alice seems to know a lot about shrimp this time; she's not a complete fool.

　But that's fine too. It's not interesting if the game is won too easily; there's no point in watching it.

　"Hmph, this is more interesting."

　After finishing processing all the shrimp, Alice Nakiri had time to look up and gaze at Zhong Yi not far away.

　It seems this guy isn't as bad as he appears; he actually has some skill.

　With that in mind, Alice Nakiri became even more serious. She didn't want to lose because of carelessness; that would be too embarrassing.

　After preparing the prawns, use scissors to make fine cuts on both sides of the tail. This will cause the tails to curl naturally into a beautiful "flowering" shape during cooking, which is not only aesthetically pleasing but also makes the tails easier to absorb flavor.

　Once this step is complete, pour the prawns into a bowl, add sea salt and chopped scallions, then add a little rice wine and mix well. Marinate for five minutes to let the flavors infuse.

　"bread..."

　He muttered to himself while glancing at the black bread not far away. He had taken it earlier thinking it would be useful to Zhongyi, but now it was proving difficult to deal with.

　"Wouldn't frying make it too greasy?"

　A solution came to mind, but she worried it would be too greasy. Just as she was hesitating, a sudden inspiration struck her.

　"I need a powerful electric fan."

　Besides ingredients, any assistance can be provided on-site. After all, you can't cook without a pot and you can't bake without an oven, otherwise it would be too much of a hassle.

　Soon, the staff brought up a powerful electric fan. Alice Nakiri strung the black bread with a thin rope, placed it in front of the fan, and turned the fan to its maximum speed to dry it quickly.

　"Using the air blown by a powerful electric fan to achieve a rapid drying effect, what is this for?"

　Erina Nakiri understood Alice Nakiri's intentions, but couldn't think of how she would use her, so she looked at Bai Yuan with a puzzled expression.

　"Air-drying bread will affect its texture, and dried bread won't absorb oil as easily. If I'm not mistaken, the next step should be deep-frying!"

　Bai Yuan's voice rang out. Judging from this step alone, he couldn't guess what was going on. However, the other party was, after all, his disciple, and his thoughts should be similar to his.

　Therefore, he had a vague answer in his heart.

　"That's right, she's planning to make shrimp stew. The ingredients she obtained from her rivals are perfect for this dish. So all of this was planned by you? As expected of Alice!"

　While drying the black bread slices, Alice Nakiri cracked the eggs into a bowl, separating the egg whites and yolks. Then, she used her superhuman strength to quickly whip the egg whites until they formed a meringue, and whipped the egg yolks until they were smooth.

　Once the meringue and egg yolk mixture are processed, the rest becomes much simpler.

　First, remove the dried bread slices and pour a layer of egg yolk liquid on them. Then, place the prepared prawns on top, add another layer of meringue, and finally top with diced carrots and celery.

　However, during this process, Alice Nakiri discovered another problem: the shrimp tails did not need to be fried, as that would affect the appearance of the dish. She had a preconceived notion, so she hurriedly wrapped the shrimp tails in aluminum foil to salvage the situation.

　Heat the oil to 30% of its maximum temperature, about 150 degrees Celsius. Place a slotted spoon at the bottom of the oil and add the shrimp in one by one. Fry until set, then flip and fry the other side.

　During the frying process, Alice Nakiri kept a close eye on the oil temperature to prevent it from getting too hot and causing the vegetables on top to turn black and bitter.

　That would be going too far!

　Based on the characteristics of shrimp, it does not need to be fried for too long or double-fried. It can be taken out when the aroma of bread fills the air.