Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 506 - 505: The Duel of Ancient Recipes (Part 2)

Chapter 506: Chapter 505: The Duel of Ancient Recipes (Part 2)

Xia Yu meticulously seared the beef repeatedly, a detail captured on camera that inevitably attracted puzzled looks.

In the judging panel, an examiner with blond hair and blue eyes, resembling a professor, took the initiative to explain, "The finer the beef, the more delicate it is. If the pan is too hot, it’s hard to control the heat. Sear it a few seconds too long, and one side will differ greatly in doneness from the other..."

"Take notice of Xia Yu’s timing in flipping the meat. That piece of Kobe beef was seared four times on each side, 30 seconds each..., no wait, the searing time decreased, from 30 seconds to 10 seconds by the fourth flip..."

Many professional chefs watching this displayed thoughtful expressions.

At Shu Restaurant, Xia Qing chuckled, "It’s about the uniformity of the heat!"

"Uniform heat!"

At the venue, Tang Shan and Yu Hong, experts in Fire Control who were among the Lin giants, were secretly astonished.

"Never underestimate the details!"

Tang Shan said to a dismissive Tang Jingtao, "This is the pinnacle of heat control mastery!"

Amidst everyone’s analysis, a whole steak was taken out of the pan.

Seeing Xia Yu place the steak on a square, white plate and turn to other tasks, the chefs all paused slightly, speculating, "Is he planning to let it rest and cool?"

Xia Yu used a clean pot to boil some water, setting it on the stove.

However, once the water in the pot began to bubble, Xia Yu astonishingly threw in some beef bones and offal. After a while, he removed them and rinsed them with cold water, a scene that intrigued the professionals.

"Is he intending to make beef broth?" Eriina expressed her astonishment.

Zhu Qing appeared reflective, a feeling of excited anticipation stirring within him, "A modified recipe... It seems he’s truly getting serious!"

Indeed.

Xia Yu was indeed preparing a pot of broth, which would greatly influence the completion of the dish and could not be taken lightly. The beef bones and offal, as noted on a note he kept, were also from Kobe Beef, ensuring there wouldn’t be any issues with the compatibility of the beef, bones, and offal.

After scalding and rinsing the beef bones and offal in hot and then cold water, he placed them into the broth pot, followed by the crucial herb bundle needed for making the broth.

"Hmm..."

"Half an onion, 15 cloves? No, reduce by 3, use only 12, a quarter of a carrot, celery, bay leaves, thyme, green garlic..."

With colorless cotton twine, he tied the various herbs into one bundle, wrapping the smaller, finer herbs separately in cheesecloth.

Once the lid was secured, Xia Yu clapped his hands, glanced at the dough still resting on the damp cloth on his chopping board—resting the dough wasn’t urgent; 30 minutes was the bare minimum, and given time, one or two hours wouldn’t be too long.

Having completed these tasks at a leisurely pace, he cast an attentive gaze toward his opponent’s cooking station.

Yuqiong had already chopped the fish into minced meat.

Next, she wielded Tang’s Double-edged Saber to process bamboo shoots, green peppers, mushrooms, carrots, and cabbage—all sorts of vegetables.

The vegetables needed to be finely chopped. At this point, Yuqiong, with a serious expression, showcased her knife skills anew, the rhythmic banging of the knife against the cutting board creating a suffocating tension, as if drums were sounding a rapid march on a battlefield.

The mushrooms, bamboo shoots, Chinese cabbage, and carrots all needed to be blanched.

"Whoosh—"

She placed a genuine iron Chinese stir-fry pan on the stove, and after heating the pan, with a flick of the stir-fry spatula, the fat immediately washed away, turning the inner wall of the pan bright. When the sizzling of the fats ceased, Yuqiong poured in the sea bream mince and began to stir-fry!

Salt, cooking wine, and black pepper for seasoning!

The sea bream mince shouldn’t be cooked fully—this control of the heat was also extremely crucial. Yuqiong’s cheeks glistened with fragrant sweat, her face flushed with the fierce heat from the professional stove which roared intensely.

However, Tang Shan shook his head, silently thinking, "In terms of Fire Control, Yuqiong is not his equal!"

After brief frying, the aroma spread.

The female chef then mixed salt and sesame oil into the minced vegetables including mushrooms, green peppers, bamboo shoots, and carrots.

At this point, it was time to wrap spring rolls!

Bang!

Tang Yuqiong moved the prepared spring roll wrappers onto the cooking station, and the camera focused in, causing an immediate outcry from the audience.

"Is, is that spring roll wrapper?"

"Idiot! Do spring roll wrappers look like this?"

"Ordinary spring roll wrappers are made of high-gluten flour kneaded with cold water, essentially, made from flour. They can’t possibly look this wet!"

The audience actually started arguing, noisy as a marketplace.

The judges couldn’t help but speak up, asking through the microphone, "Contestant Tang Yuqiong, can you tell us about your ’spring roll wrapper’?"

Tang Yuqiong didn’t mind the judges interrupting her cooking rhythm, having processed the ingredients continuously without a break until now. Finally able to take a short rest during the spring roll wrapping stage, she responded with a slight smile, "Actually, this isn’t really a spring roll wrapper but... fish skin!"

With that, she grabbed the ’spring roll wrapper’ on the plate and shook it vigorously, unfolding a large, long piece of fish skin like a scroll.

"It’s ’Starry Sea Bream’ fish skin!"

"Intact! A whole piece!"

The questioning judge, slightly dazed, finally remembered the scene from half an hour ago when Tang Yuqiong had carefully skinned the fish with the "Mandarin Duck Knife." The judge couldn’t help but tremble as he asked, "So, you plan to use fish skin to wrap the spring rolls?"

"Yes, this is an important part of bringing the sea bream to life!"

Tang Yuqiong said this and instinctively looked towards her opponent’s cooking station, only to find Xia Yu also looking back. Their gazes collided across the stage, and seeing the admiration in Xia Yu’s eyes, she raised the corners of her lips in an excited tone, "I’ll let you taste the ’revived’ sea bream spring rolls!"

She began wrapping the spring rolls.

The seasoned minced sea bream, mixed with various vegetables, was enveloped by a thoughtfully tailored piece of fish skin, layer upon layer.

By the time Tang Yuqiong had piled up a whole plate of spring rolls and used up all the ingredients, half an hour had passed.

"Next up is frying!"

Tang Yuqiong wiped the sweat with a handkerchief from her pocket, moved the oil drum over, poured the fat into the frying pan, and curiously looked around, "Where has that guy gotten to?"

She was stunned by what she saw.

In this half hour, Xia Yu had also used dough to wrap diced Kobe beef and noodles soaked in broth, creating some round, plump, strange dumplings.

Then, the steps mirrored each other.

The young chef also moved an oil drum over to the frying pan.

On the big screen at the venue, the camera switched back and forth between the two cooking stations, clearly confusing even the cameraman—

This timing, this frying step, was just too mirrored!

However, this was a crucial final step; both Xia Yu and Tang Yuqiong were immersed in their cooking, with no spare attention to listen to the noise from outside.

"The oil temperature is right!"

Tang Yuqiong thought to herself as she picked up a fish skin spring roll with steel chopsticks and sizzled it into the oil pot.

"Good, the oil temperature has risen by 2 degrees, now around 170 degrees, the most suitable oil temperature I’ve found in practice—!"

Using a small brush, he dabbed thick egg liquid in a bowl and soon brushed a layer of egg yolk on the plump dough. Xia Yu then calmly dropped the slightly opened weird dumpling into the oil pot.

"Done!"

"Finished!"

Another quarter hour passed, and Xia Yu and Tang Yuqiong put down their steel chopsticks simultaneously.

Seeing this, the eagerly waiting hostess Chiyoda Aichi exclaimed, "Oh oh oh oh, it seems both contestants have finished their dishes, so let us invite both..."

Her voice abruptly stopped.

Chiyoda Aichi was near the cooking stations, and suddenly, a strange clicking noise, coming through her microphone, spread around.

Everyone was shocked.