A Bite of Douluo Continent

"Hoo..." Taking a deep breath, Zhang, the head of the department, shouted, "The food competition begins! The two sides are Hanshi and Mingtingque, competing for the first theme: beef! Both sides must use beef as the main ingredient in their dishes, otherwise it will be considered a foul."

After Director Zhang made the announcement, Qi Han turned around, pushed open his own temporary kitchen, and then closed the kitchen door.

After watching Chef Song enter the kitchen, Zhao Yangfan's gaze lingered on the tightly closed kitchen door of Hanshi.

Qi Han... your first dish must have been tomato beef brisket, right?

Otherwise, my plan would be difficult to implement.

However, Zhao Yangfan's expression relaxed a bit after a moment's thought.

It should be true. Hanshi Restaurant has only been open for a short time, so if there were any new dishes, they should have already been launched.

Only restaurants that have been operating for several months or more are likely to retain a few dishes and introduce them gradually later.

According to Zhao Yangfan's investigation, Hanshi had been open for business for less than half a month.

Given that the business has been open for such a short time, it's impossible that there haven't been any new dishes introduced yet.

If it's tomato and beef brisket, Qi Han is destined to lose the first match.

Last night, Chef Song racked his brains all night on how to improve the secret-recipe beef tenderloin dish. In a flash of inspiration, he thought of tomato beef brisket and added some sweet and sour flavor to the secret sauce used to cook the beef tenderloin. He used the sweet and sour flavor to bring out the fresh and delicious taste of the beef, taking the taste of the dish to another level and giving Zhao Yangfan a pleasant surprise.

Although, according to Chef Song, the secret-recipe beef tenderloin still couldn't surpass the tomato beef brisket, the gap between the two did indeed narrow further. Coupled with Zhao Yangfan's some backup plans, as long as Qi Han didn't change the dishes in this first round…

Stable.

...

Although Zhao Yangfan's understanding of Hanshi was only superficial, he was right about one thing: Qi Han did not change the dishes.

In the makeshift kitchen, Qi Han first arranged and organized his various kitchen utensils, and then began to prepare the tomato beef brisket.

In food competitions, there aren't many requirements regarding the portion size of the dishes, but at least you have to make sure that every judge can taste them, so making just one serving of tomato beef brisket is definitely not enough.

After all, there are forty-nine judges, and according to the competition rules, in order to convince the opponent, the opponent must also taste the food.

Based on this calculation, enough tomato beef brisket needs to be prepared for more than fifty people to enjoy.

Fortunately, it was just for tasting, not for the judges to eat their fill, so making ten servings should be enough.

This highlights another benefit of tomato beef brisket.

This dish can be cooked in multiple portions at once. Given Qi Han's proficiency with tomato beef brisket, he could easily cook ten portions at once, and the taste would be no different from cooking one portion alone, which would greatly reduce the cooking time.

In fact, Qi Han cooked multiple portions together at the same time in order to save time at the store.

Cut the beef brisket into chunks, score the tomatoes with a cross, peel and cut into chunks, blanch the beef brisket and set aside, sauté the tomatoes until fragrant, then add the beef brisket and water to cover the ingredients, season, and simmer over low heat until the sauce thickens…

Qi Han had already gone through each cooking step countless times, and was now so skilled that he could do it with his eyes closed. Soon, a pot of tomato beef brisket appeared in front of Qi Han, with the lid closed and the heat on the lowest setting, slowly simmering and reducing the sauce.

After the sauce has reduced, the tomato beef brisket is ready to serve.

Before that, Qi Han needed to wait patiently for an hour.

If this stewing and reducing process were in the kitchen of the Cold Food Restaurant, it could be reduced to three minutes using advanced technology. However, this advanced technology cannot be brought here, so Qi Han can only wait patiently.

However, he wasn't completely idle.

The second theme is fruit, and he had already decided what kind of dishes to choose for this theme.

Choose crab-stuffed oranges for your grains.

Whether it's scooping out the pulp from an orange, carving landscapes on its surface, or separating the meat, roe, and fat from a crab, it's all tedious and time-consuming work.

All these preparations must be completed inside the temporary kitchen. Before entering the venue, special personnel will check the storage soul tools to ensure that there are no semi-finished ingredients or cooked dishes inside. When entering the kitchen, you can only bring the storage soul tools that have been checked.

With the system space available, Qi Han could actually cheat, but he didn't need to.

Please, he's a man destined to become a culinary master!

Currently, all the processing work for the crab-stuffed oranges can be done within this hour, thus shortening the preparation time.

This is also a small advantage of completing three themes by one person.

If it were Chef Song from Mingtingque, he wouldn't be able to do this, because the next dish, Lotus Fragrance Fruit Flavored Fish, wasn't made by him...

Setting the stewed beef brisket aside, Qi Han turned to the other side, took out the ingredients for the crab-stuffed oranges that Ruyi had prepared, and began to skillfully prepare them.

...

The specially designed temporary kitchen for the food competition can shield the chefs from external soul power perception and any external noise, allowing them to focus entirely on cooking without being affected by the outside world.

So, busy as Qi Han was unaware that the judges in the arena had already begun to savor the secret-recipe beef tenderloin prepared by Ming Tingque.

Each kitchen door has a light, and the control button for this light is inside the kitchen. When the chef finishes cooking, pressing the light button will turn the light green.

At that moment, as the judges waited anxiously, the lights in front of Mingtingque suddenly emitted a bright and clear green glow.

Several staff members from the catering association walked in and began to serve plates of their secret-recipe beef tenderloin to the judges.

This process will take some time because the Ming Ting Que dish is made separately. In order to ensure that the food is presented to the judges in its most perfect condition, one batch will be made and served at a time.

The moment the green light ignited, Zhao Yangfan's joy intensified.

This is a sure thing.

Although the speed of preparation is not used as a scoring criterion in food competitions, dishes prepared first may have some advantage in the subsequent judging process.

After tasting the first dishes, judges have higher expectations for the subsequent dishes. If the later dishes fail to meet these expectations, the judges are likely to be at a disadvantage during the voting process.

Wu Henian's brows furrowed slightly at that moment.

He ate at Hanshi yesterday at noon. It didn't take much time from ordering to the food being served. Why is it still not finished?

Is it because this tomato beef brisket dish takes a lot of time to prepare, and the restaurant prepares it in advance, while this place can't?

Sigh, I should have reminded Qi Han of these precautions yesterday.

Wu Henian shook his head slightly, feeling somewhat annoyed.

Hopefully, Qi Han will pay attention to this point in his next dish. Although going first or second doesn't determine the voting result, it still has an impact.

"This secret-recipe beef tenderloin looks quite impressive. The beef aroma is so rich; it must taste absolutely wonderful." Sitting next to Wu Henian, Ye Ansheng exclaimed in surprise, "I never expected Ming Ting Que to have such a dish hidden away. Brother Henian, how about we share a portion?"

Although a serving of braised beef tenderloin isn't very large, there are still many dishes to try afterward, so you should control your portion sizes.

"Okay." Wu Henian nodded, took the braised beef tenderloin handed to him by Ye Ansheng, cut it into small pieces with a knife, and then put it in his mouth with a fork to taste it. His expression became more serious.

This round...

It's dangerous to eat cold food.

(P.S.: I'd like to recommend my younger brother's book, "Douluo: My Mom is the Transmigrator." It's a rare lighthearted and humorous Douluo fanfiction, and the only one I dare say most of my readers will like. Aside from a tiny bit of secondary setting, it's flawless!)

Chapter 513 Wu Henian's Assistance (Seeking monthly tickets and recommendation votes!)

"Phew, finally finished."

Lifting the lid to look at the tomato beef brisket inside, which had already reduced in sauce, Qi Han's face showed a satisfied expression.

Beside him were various prepared and separated ingredients for the crab-stuffed oranges. The cooking time for the crab-stuffed oranges could be shortened to less than half an hour. Thinking of this, Qi Han's smile deepened.

Indeed, every chef is a master of time management.

Divide the tomato and beef brisket in the pot into ten plates. Qi Han casually pressed the light switch that indicated the dish was finished, then opened the door. Soon, several staff members from the catering association followed Qi Han's instructions, dividing each plate of tomato and beef brisket into several portions and serving them to the judges. Qi Han then walked out of the kitchen to wait for the results of the first round to be announced.

Suddenly, he sniffed.

The air was filled with a rich, savory aroma of beef. This aroma did not come from his tomato beef brisket, but from another beef dish.

It seems the dishes at Ming Ting Que are finished?

Qi Han wasn't too surprised, after all, his tomato beef brisket had taken more than an hour to cook, so it was normal for the other person to be faster than him.

I just don't know what kind of beef dish they have.

"Boss Qi has finished?" Zhao Yangfan had already seen the dishes brought out by the staff. Although he had never eaten the delicacies of the Cold Food Festival, based on Chef Song's description, Zhao Yangfan could conclude that this was tomato beef brisket.

As expected.

His smile deepened.

Just now, Chef Song's secret-recipe beef tenderloin dish received unanimous praise from the judges, and many judges even showed expressions of utter delight after tasting it. Under such circumstances, if the tomato beef brisket dish that comes out later does not have a clear advantage, it will naturally lose favor with the judges.

The current gap between the two is not that large, so this situation does not exist.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yangfan's face immediately became more composed. "Our head chef is just cooking the last batch of our secret-recipe beef tenderloin. Would Mr. Qi like to try it?"

"Great!" Upon hearing the name of the dish, Ming Ting Que, Qi Han immediately showed interest.

He really wanted to try Ming Tingque's cooking skills.

Beef tenderloin may sound unfamiliar, but if you mention its other name, probably no one will not know it.

Philip.

The tenderloin, located near the spine in the lower back, is the cut of beef with the least amount of connective tissue and is considered the most tender cut of beef. It's the filet mignon that's almost always mentioned when talking about steak.

I wonder what a dish made with beef tenderloin would actually look like?

In the center of the arena, Qi Han was expressing his anticipation for Ming Ting Que's secret-recipe beef tenderloin, while in the judging area at the edge of the arena, Wu Henian breathed a slight sigh of relief upon seeing that Qi Han had finally finished cooking the dish.

It's finally finished.

He had just heard many judges praising the secret-recipe beef tenderloin, and if the situation continued to escalate, it would only be more detrimental to the tomato beef brisket.

After skillfully using his chopsticks to pick up the tomato beef brisket from the small bowl that had already been portioned out and put it in his mouth to taste, Wu Henian nodded slightly.

The flavor of the braised beef tenderloin is slightly inferior to that of the tomato beef brisket.

"Uh... Brother Henian, what kind of tableware is this, and how do we use it?" Ye Ansheng swallowed hard as he looked at the incredibly tempting tomato and beef brisket, then looked at the pair of chopsticks on the small bowl with some difficulty.

The grain was spoiled. Wu Henian suddenly remembered that the cold dishes were served in a completely new set of tableware, and the judges, who didn't even know how to use the tableware, would naturally not have a good impression of the dish.

However, this problem did not stump him.

He smiled slightly at Ye Ansheng, then stood up.

At this moment, servings of tomato beef brisket were being delivered to the judges. Many judges were discussing the chopsticks that had never been used before, and Wu Henian's timely rise drew everyone's attention.

"I imagine you all have some questions about these two small wooden sticks in front of you," Wu Henian smiled slightly, picking up chopsticks and gesturing in the air. "These are called chopsticks, and they are unique to the Cold Food Festival. Their specific usage is as follows..."

He then gave a detailed explanation of how to use chopsticks.