Mage And Wolf
Chapter 179

Chapter 179: Chapter 179

Karl has made me a glorious smoker. It’s huge, black, looks like it was formed from an oversized oil drum, and is easy to add wood to for smoking without having to open the lid. Not something that usually matters, but if I load it now, with two category 2 boar beasts, nobody will know what I’m smoking until they start to smell it.

I’m currently getting prepared for the cooking tournament, Karl has provided me plenty of ingredients to feed a hundred, I’ve prepared Karl’s favorite homemade barbecue sauce that was perfected over the course of a century by Alpha Petros’ kitchen staff, and I’ve got all the necessity dishes. Maybe I should add more potatoes? I’ve got a total of 300 kilos of boar in that giant smoker, my portion sizes are off. But it’s a tournament not a feast, just having sufficient boar meat for samples is more than most would expect.

We head over and I get set up, chatting with the other competitors nearby.

[Brisket, ribs or burnt ends, which is your favorite?] I mentally link to Karl

[Save me lots of brisket for sandwiches. Are you making bacon? Those boars are huge.]

I want planning on it, instead I was going to braise the pork belly in a sweet barbecue sauce. But I can make some fresh bacon, I’ll have plenty of time to separate some off.

[Alright, I’ll make fresh bacon, but it will take a little extra time.]

"Welcome everyone to the annual cooking skills competition. I see a lot of you have brought custom cookware this year, so I’m looking forward to seeing whose faction eats the best." The announcer signals the start of the competition and the judges come by to check my smoker, making sure I haven’t cooked anything in advance. The look they give the boars is both curious and worried, since smoking is usually an overnight endeavor, unsuited for this two hour competition.

I add the cherry wood and light an alchemy flame under it, before dividing my energy into a hundred weak blades and bringing them down on top of the potatoes. I washed them in advance, and for this recipe they’ll be used with their red skin on. It adds a bit of extra texture to the dish, but not much, as everything cooks smoothly this way. Cream sauce, bacon, extra cheese on top, and the four huge trays of potatoes are into the smoker to pick up some extra flavor.

I do the cornbread and Mac and Cheese in covered dishes over an open fire, before again using the energy blades, this time to dice cabbage for coleslaw. It’s such a weak technique, but it really taxes my energy attack dividing ability as a physical cultivator, even with the alchemy practice to help train my control.

The side dishes are done and resting, so I put my energy into cooking and perfecting the meat, only opening the smoker a few times, to slice the boars for final roasting and sauce application, and to cut off the portion for bacon, that I pull into my storage ring when it’s finished so I can give it to Karl later.

The faces of the judges kind of remind me of hungry pups back home, hanging around the kitchen door so they can get a snack the instant it’s approved. They just lack the adorable essence the begging faces of toddlers have.

An hour and a half in, I’ve begun plating dishes for the six judges and I leave the lid of the smoker flipped open while I work, allowing the morning breeze to spread the smell of barbecue all through the stands, making Karl and Elder Song laugh. It’s got to be hard being in the stands here, just waiting with all the smells of food around as it approaches lunch time.

As a competitor, I’ve got to taste test my creation right? What if I’d made a mistake? Just to be sure, I add honey butter to another slice of corn bread while I wait on the judges and smirk at the impatient Karl.

Yep, just as good as the first slice.

"Next up is Young Miss of the Shadowed Blade Sect. Oh, I’ve heard great things about you, and this smells amazing." The head judge says, walking up to my station while the other judges look at the plates eagerly.

"I’m glad to hear that. I’ve got a few different cuts prepared for you, along with the essential side dishes. Enjoy, sirs." I smile at the judges who are still staring at the food.

They look very pleased when they finally snap out of their trance and try it, quickly cleaning the sample plates before moving on to the next competitor to signal that they’re ready.

A young woman a few stations over waves happily when she catches my eye and I recognize her from the life skills competition just a few weeks back. She’s made some sort of fruit cobbler and a sausage dish, that have already been judged.

"Trade?" she calls with a grin, packing up some food into a disposable paperboard box.

I don’t have any butcher paper to wrap mine up, but I get a great idea, I make up a plate, then put it inside a cheap storage ring and toss it to her. We’re not supposed to leave our stations, but there’s no rules against this, in fact a number of contestants have borrowed ingredients in similar fashion.

She collects my gift and places hers inside, tossing the ring back. The sausage dish is pretty good, creamy with mushrooms. The cobbler though, is amazing. I want to congratulate her, but she’s got sauce on her face and she’s licking a rib bone clean when I look over, so that can wait.

Instead, I break out the little paper plates and start making two hundred samples for the viewers that will soon be joining us on the grounds. That might seem optimistic, but it’s a tenth of the people watching, this year the cooking competition has become incredibly popular, filling stands like Alchemy and Inscription do.

The judges call out that all dishes have been judged and Elder Song appears at my side, with Karl a second behind, while they’re still declaring that spectators can now come down to receive samples from any contestant offering them.

They both work crowd control, keeping the pushing and shoving to a minimum with their combined aura as the wave of spectators surges towards the promise of food.