Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 209 - 208: The Unassessable Cuisine

Chapter 209: Chapter 208: The Unassessable Cuisine

"Special Grade Cuisine wouldn’t be this perfect!"

Dojima Yin said.

"What do you mean?"

The graduates were puzzled, "Isn’t this Mapo Tofu a Special Grade Cuisine?"

Shigong Xiaoci Lang was equally astonished as he fixed his gaze on Dojima Yin, waiting for his explanation.

"Main General Liangzi, I think you are the most qualified to speak," Dojima Yin said, turning his head toward the woman wearing sunglasses. "According to IGO’s detailed criteria for culinary grading, this Mapo Tofu has, in fact, already achieved the quality of ’Special Grade One Star’, hasn’t it?"

"But in my personal tasting, it’s not simply Special Grade One Star quality," Dojima Yin shook his head, his eyes filled with solemnity.

Everyone’s eyes, including Xia Yu’s, were on Liangzi Lina, all ears for her explanation.

She held up three fingers.

"Taste, Heart of Cooking, Creativity."

Liangzi Lina’s voice had a slight tremble, "Taste, that is the ultimate flavor, like Shigong’s French cuisine, which uses vegetables to create the ultimate flavor and has reached the ’Special Grade One Star’ quality standard."

"Heart of Cooking, you could see it simply as intention, Shigong’s ’original flavor’ signature is still too weak, therefore it doesn’t meet the ’Special Grade One Star’ quality standard."

"And in terms of creativity, Shigong’s cuisine barely makes the grade... Meeting two criteria but missing the important ’Heart of Cooking’, thus Shigong’s work is only deemed ’secondary’ within Special Grade Cuisine."

"But Chef Xia Yu’s cuisine perfectly matches all three conditions!"

Liangzi Lina said, "The ultimate taste, the Flame’s Heart, and then, the creativity of altering recipes to integrate ’Shuangjiang Tofu’ into traditional recipes, no matter which aspect, they are impeccable!"

Shuangjiang Tofu?

Tiqie Eriina exclaimed, "Isn’t that the new ingredient IGO only started promoting last month?"

"Yes!"

With that affirmative response, the expressions of everyone in the kitchen collapsed.

The frightening thing wasn’t just the Special Grade Cuisine, but that the extreme taste within the cuisine was created using an entirely new Fantasy Ingredient!

Creating your own recipe with a new ingredient!

No wonder they say it possesses ’perfect’ creativity!

Shigong Xiaoci Lang leaned heavily on the table, deeply shaken.

Indeed, just a while ago, gastronomic publications and magazines worldwide had been heavily covering the launch of ’Shuangjiang Tofu’. Many food experts had predicted it would take at least half a year for chefs to develop a Special Grade Recipe for the new ingredient. But unexpectedly, in just one month, a young chef from Neon Tokyo, who was still a minor, had created the recipe!

If this news spread, within a few days, the world media would swarm, and Xia Yu would immediately become a global culinary sensation, with his photo frequently appearing in top news headlines.

This kind, was what truly deserved to be called "creation"!

The creation that utilizes Fantasy Ingredients!

"So, so does that mean Instructor Xia’s cuisine is ’Special Grade One Star’ quality?" Qian Rixiangzi asked timidly.

Dojima Yin shook his head.

Liangzi Lina continued to shake her head.

"No!" Liangzi Lina’s voice was laced with an indescribable excitement, "What seems to be a singular ultimate flavor, actually contains multiple groups of contradictory tastes - hot and cool, spicy and mild, numbing and natural... It is precisely this entanglement of flavors that form the golden ultimate key, prying open the doors to the treasury of taste!"

"And then, the ’Heart of Cooking’!"

Dojima Yin continued, awestruck, "Tanaka Hikari’s stamp is of a mother, of home. Morioka Makki’s stamp is of a dog... Ahem, no, of sweetness and romance. Shigong’s stamp is of the original flavor."

"Based on the intensity of the stamps, the ranking is Tanaka Hikari, Morioka Makki, and Shigong."

"But, a stamp is just a stamp; it can’t be called ’Heart of Cooking.’" Dojima Yin took a breath and said, "The true Heart of Cooking melds with the cuisine, inseparable. Like Instructor Xia’s ’Heart of Flame,’ which perfectly matches his cuisine, that’s why our souls tremble when we taste it!"

Heart of Flame!

Aside from Dojima Yin and Reiko Liangzi, there were no other Special Grade chefs present.

Thinking of the giant Flame Demon’s head that appeared in their minds while tasting the cuisine, Xingping Chuangzhen and Tiqie Helinai both nodded subconsciously, filled with longing, so that was the Heart of Cooking!

"..."

But a bunch of garbled thoughts drifted through Xia Yu’s mind.

What the hell is this all about?

What in the world is the Heart of Flame? The "Heart of Cooking" (Intermediate) that the system had awarded him had no such stamps. He just incorporated his wild imagination while cooking, and the combination of cuisine with fantasy seemed so cool. He hadn’t expected Dojima Yin to misinterpret it as the so-called ’Heart of Flame’.

What Dojima Yin had once demonstrated with the ’Spice Nine-layered Egyptian Roasted Chicken’ was the ’Heart of Travel’ in cooking.

But Xia Yu felt certain that a Special Grade chef couldn’t possibly possess just one Heart of Cooking, just like ultimate flavors, multiple Hearts of Cooking could be applied and blended into different styles of cuisine.

Thus, the free-spirited "Heart of Cooking" bestowed by the system suddenly seemed very grand.

Xia Yu didn’t plan to explain the others’ misinterpretations; to cover up with lies would only require spinning even more lies later on. Rather than that, it was better to let them run wild with their imagination.

"The ’perfect’ cuisine beyond evaluation!"

In the end, that was Dojima Yin’s conclusion.

"A cuisine that can easily defeat the quality of ’Special Grade One Star’ and, if the ’Special Grade Two Stars’ recipe is too ordinary, it too would be crushed." Reiko Liangzi said.

The crowd was astounded upon hearing this.

"Doesn’t that mean Instructor Xia is already a Special Grade chef?" Tanaka Hikari muttered, her face full of admiration and aspiration.

"It only means he has the potential to pass the Special Grade examination," Dojima Yin patted Xia Yu’s shoulder, passing a look of encouragement and appreciation, "Instructor Xia, I hope you’ll delve into other areas next, like French cuisine, like Japanese cuisine. You don’t have to master it to an expert level, but at least be able to present decent works."

"Because the Special Grade examination involves using a certain kind of Special-grade Fantasy Ingredients provided by IGO, concocting one’s own Special Grade Recipe on the spot, and the time limit is one day!"

Dojima Yin held up a finger and said solemnly, "In the same day, to create a recipe and cook it well, to have the judges taste and evaluate it!"

Xia Yu pondered.

It seemed the Special Grade examination wasn’t just about culinary skills; it was also an evaluation of the chef’s knowledge and application of Special Grade Ingredients.

The key was in the creation of the recipe!

In just one day, to use Special-grade Fantasy Ingredients to create one’s own recipe, and to present the executed dish before the examiners, that truly was the comprehensive test of a chef’s foundational skills.

Thinking slightly more about it, Xia Yu couldn’t help but smile bitterly. If he were to take the Special Grade examination now, the chances of passing... were likely close to zero.

"Magic Mapo Tofu" had taken him a full month to integrate the ’Shuangjiang Tofu.’

And without an existing glowing recipe to modify, could he hope to create his own purple recipe from scratch? He had not even an ounce of confidence. Even the "Nine Feathered Phoenix" recipe was a reference from Dojima Yin’s roasted chicken.

Creation required the piling up of substance and wisdom.

What Xia Yu lacked at the moment was precisely that substance as a "chef."

He could count the number of Special Grade Cuisines he had tasted on one hand; where to start with creation?