Food Wars, My Dishes Don't Just Shine

"Is that Wanqing? It's not even lunchtime yet, why are you here so early today?"

Bai Yuan glanced at Kikuchi Sonoka, who had picked up a wok full of sand and gone to the corner of the kitchen to practice tossing the wok, before leaving the kitchen.

Soon, he arrived at the villa's gate, but it wasn't Wang Wanqing who opened it, but a middle-aged man around 40 years old.

"Uncle, who are you looking for? Or have you come to the wrong place?"

Looking at the serious-looking stranger in front of him, Bai Yuan scratched his head in confusion, unable to help but wonder what was going on in his mind.

"I've come to find my daughter, Li Wanwan. She should be here."

"It's in the kitchen, come with me."

Upon hearing the middle-aged man's words, Bai Yuan slapped his head as if suddenly realizing something, and then led him toward the kitchen.

The middle-aged man was taken aback by Bai Yuan's straightforwardness, then nodded and strode after him.

Soon, he saw several young women working hard in the kitchen, sweating profusely as they tried their best to perfect the dishes in front of them.

"Dad, why are you here?"

As soon as the middle-aged man appeared, Li Wanwan noticed him, immediately put down the spatula in her hand, and ran to him.

"You're not focused enough on cooking. How can you possibly cook well if you keep looking around like that!"

Just as Bai Yuan was about to speak, the middle-aged man sternly reprimanded him, his brows revealing a hint of reproach.

As a chef, the biggest taboo is looking around while cooking. You can't make good food if you're not focused!

"I understand! Dad, what are you doing here?"

Li Wanwan was not discouraged by his words at all. Instead, she asked about her father's purpose in coming. As she spoke, she glanced in the direction of Bai Yuan, her eyes showing worry.

"I heard you found a teacher who passed the Guangzhou Special Grade Examination before he was even twenty years old, so I came here specifically to pay him a visit. Is this the one? He's truly a handsome man."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man looked at Bai Yuan, gave him a slight bow, and his eyes revealed scrutiny. This young junior had actually passed the most difficult Guangzhou Special Grade assessment!

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Bai Yuan. May I ask your honorable name?"

Seeing that the other party was so polite, Bai Yuan naturally wouldn't be cold to him either, and he also raised his arm and cupped his hands in greeting.

"Li Xiang is currently the head chef of Xianglan Restaurant. I hope we can exchange culinary skills this time."

You've just reached the Special Grade level, so you probably haven't fought against any Special Grade chefs yet, right? Fight me, and you'll see what a Special Grade chef is all about!

Li Xiang explained his purpose for coming, and knew that his daughter had found a top-level chef to be her teacher. At first, he was worried that she was being scammed.

However, after inquiring with the Guangzhou Culinary Association, it was discovered that there was indeed such a master chef who was under twenty years old.

But he was still a little worried.

After much deliberation, he went to their door.

For a chef, the best way to put him at ease is to have a match against him, to see each other's skills and experience each other's cooking.

"Want to spar with me? Sure, I've been feeling really stressed lately! I'd like to find someone to compete with! Since you run a Hunan cuisine restaurant, let's focus on Hunan cuisine. You can decide what ingredients to use."

If I win this match, I hope you can answer one question for me.

Bai Yuan said excitedly, "For so many days, everyone I've encountered has avoided fighting for various reasons. Now I can finally have a match with a top-level chef."

Furthermore, the other party has been in Guangzhou for so long, they might know the whereabouts of what he is looking for!

"Okay, let's do as you say."

At that moment, Li Xiang felt that this kid was incredibly arrogant, so she decided to teach him a lesson with all her might before taking her daughter away.

Such an arrogant and conceited young man will definitely not be able to teach his daughter well!

Chapter 74 The Combination of Hunan and Cantonese Cuisine

"The location is in this kitchen."

The competition involves creating a Hunan dish using everything available in the kitchen; the type of dish is not limited, and whoever's dish tastes best wins.

With her gaze sweeping across the kitchen, Li Xiang explained the content of the competition: to use everything available in the kitchen to create a delicious Hunan dish.

Since Bai Yuan is so arrogant, he must have something to rely on, so he won't underestimate him. However, as a top-tier three-star chef, he has been based in Guangzhou for more than ten years and has a great reputation.

If we dare not accept the challenge from a junior, wouldn't we become a laughingstock?

Wait a minute, something seems off... Wasn't he the one who came to challenge us in the first place? How did the roles of offense and defense switch so easily?

Suddenly, Li Xiang realized something was wrong. Wasn't he supposed to be testing Bai Yuan? Why was this guy even more excited?!

That expression... is like a ferocious beast that has been starving for a long time, suddenly seeing a plump sheep; it's the desire to hunt!

Thinking of this, Li Xiang swallowed hard.

No, how could he be scared! This guy is just a junior at most; where would he get such a hunting instinct? He's just a warmonger!

The fact that there are many warlike people in this world does not mean that they are powerful.

Cheer up and take him down in one fell swoop!

"Using all the ingredients in the kitchen as test questions is quite novel."

Unfortunately, it's almost evening now, and after an afternoon of practice, we've used up most of the ingredients. But what's left is enough; it's just a small competition, so let's use it for the duel!

Bai Yuan nodded, looked around, quickly counted the remaining ingredients in the kitchen, and immediately thought of more than a dozen dishes.

Besides the ones that are commonly known to the public, there are also a few original Hunan dishes, all of which were ideas that flashed through my mind in an instant.

Hunan cuisine is known for its unique spiciness, rich seasonings, diverse cooking techniques, and profound cultural heritage.

In other words, as long as a dish contains these elements, it can be called Hunan cuisine, which greatly expands the range of choices!

"Wanwan, call Wanqing over. With her, there will be five people here, who can serve as judges for this competition."

"Wanwan..."

Upon hearing Bai Yuan's address to her daughter, Li Xiang's brow twitched, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she found a seat, closed her eyes, and began to think.

He had never heard of Bai Yuan before, so he was obviously not a local from Guangzhou.

This time, during the special chef assessment, a chef who has successfully combined Cantonese and Hunan cuisines has emerged. Could it be him?!

The question popped into Li Xiang's mind, and the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. If Bai Yuan wasn't good at Hunan cuisine, how could he dare to challenge her on the topic of Hunan cuisine?

"I admit you have some talent, but after decades of hard work, even someone with more talent can only bow down now!"

Hopefully, you can use this match as an opportunity to temper your temper.

Watching the man laughing and joking among the girls, Li Xiang thought to herself, "It's really remarkable that he became a top-level chef at such a young age."

But aren't all those who become master chefs geniuses?!

The depth accumulated over time cannot be made up for by a little talent!

"We can begin. I've already decided what to make. There's no time limit. If you can come up with a dish that's equal to mine, I'll consider it a loss."

As Li Xiang spoke, she stood up and walked around the kitchen, taking any ingredients she needed from the various counters. Finally, she took the ingredients to a new counter.

"Let's get started then. I happen to have some ideas, but I don't know if they will be successful. It's a trendy dish that combines the characteristics of both places."

Just as Li Xiang guessed, Bai Yuan planned to combine Cantonese and Hunan cuisine.

This dish is an innovative new style of Hunan cuisine, with Hunan dishes as the main focus and Cantonese dishes as a supplement.

Having been in Guangzhou for so many days, tasting and learning about Cantonese cuisine, Bai Yuan's understanding of it has reached a new level.

Many of these dishes are unique Cantonese cuisine. Instead of adhering to tradition, they innovated on the basis of tradition and finally launched amazing new-style dishes.

The so-called "extracting the essence" refers to taking the best parts.

Just looking at these new-style dishes, Bai Yuan felt his mind was expanding, and he even used his super sense of taste to secretly learn how to cook a lot of dishes.

No matter how complicated the preparation is, it's just a matter of eating a few more bites for Bai Yuan. As long as the food passes through his mouth, he can easily figure out the recipe without much effort.

This is what they call super taste!

"Fresh shrimp, squid, scallops, fresh abalone, enoki mushrooms, a few shiitake mushrooms, half a head of baby bok choy, and then the seasonings specializing in both regions..."

Looking at the few ingredients in the basket, Bai Yuan quickly began to select them.

Because Guangzhou is located by the sea, seafood is particularly abundant, and most of the ingredients they buy during the day are seafood.

Although a lot was used up, it was still enough to make one meal.

"Want to use seafood? Hunan is located inland, without a coastline. Although it borders Guangdong, its cuisine is still mainly based on land-based ingredients. Trying to beat me with Hunan cuisine featuring seafood is simply a pipe dream!"

Seeing the ingredients Bai Yuan had found, Li Xiang's previously anxious heart immediately settled down. This guy is too young; it's normal for him to make such a mistake.

However, cooking competitions don't offer preferential treatment for such reasons! The moment Bai Yuan chose to use seafood, he had no reason to lose this competition!

Thinking of this, Li Xiang looked at the stove in front of her.

After cleaning the one-year-old hen, put it in a pot with cold water, ginger, peppercorns, and rice wine, and bring it to a boil over high heat until the hen is just cooked.

Clean the cutting board thoroughly and cut a large amount of ginger shreds, scallion shreds, and green, red, and yellow bell pepper slices for later use. With this, the preliminary work can be considered complete.

"This side dish is Dong'an Chicken, right?"

Looking at the side dishes prepared by Li Xiang, Bai Yuan said directly that although he was not very good at Hunan cuisine, he still knew about famous dishes of this level.

"That's right, what I'm making is Dong'an Chicken. The ingredients are relatively simple, and all the side dishes in the kitchen are available, which is the soul of Hunan cuisine!"

Upon hearing Bai Yuan's question, Li Xiang nodded in response, saying that this was the most suitable dish to make right now, since all the necessary ingredients could be found here.

If this dish is made perfectly, no matter how powerful Bai Yuan is, he has no chance of winning.

After all, there aren't many ingredients available in this area, and there aren't any high-end ingredients to use. Under these circumstances, Dong'an Chicken is the only solution!

"I see, I'll look forward to it."

Bai Yuan nodded, a faint look of anticipation on his face. What would Dong'an Chicken taste like if it were cooked by a master of Hunan cuisine?

Thinking of this, Bai Yuan's mouth began to water. Li Xiang saw him standing in front of his kitchen counter for a long time, reluctant to leave, and frowned: "Aren't you going to cook your food?"

"Mine is pretty simple, it only took about 20 minutes to finish, no rush. Let's taste each other's later and see what the pros and cons are."

"Let's talk about it after you've cooked the dish!"

Li Xiang said irritably that he found Bai Yuan to be quite unreliable and wondered how someone like him could pass the top-level chef assessment.

His daughter, too, where did she find such a gem? And how did these two meet? Given their circumstances, it seems completely impossible for them to have any connection.

"Row."