NOVPUBChapter 871: Chapter 871: Total Score_1 Chapter 871: Chapter 871: Total Score_1 The entire audience was shocked!
Everyone was surprised.
They assumed there would be more rounds of the competition yet.
This was supposed to be the semi-finals featuring the top ten.
How did it turn into a final so suddenly?
Which implies, the tickets they are holding are for the grand finale!
A viewer who purchased the season ticket finally got it, “No wonder my ticket is only valid until today’s event, there are no more tickets left.
...
I was wondering if Pingla was going to release another batch of tickets to make more money.
Who knew, today is the final magic contest.”
“This is too abrupt!
Today’s only the top ten!
Is the champion to be selected from these 10 contestants already?” a member of the audience exclaimed, “This is too difficult!
The ones who get eliminated, they don’t even get a chance to struggle back?”
Typically, one or two contestants are eliminated at a time.
The contestants who barely made it through the round would have another chance to struggle on.
Maybe next round, they would stand a chance to get a theme they are good at.
But by immediately switching to top 10 entering finals, basically, it’s like knocking down all contestants with one stick.
This approach does increase the difficulty of the competition, but it also appears somewhat unfair.
Not only the audience, but even the competitors themselves were taken aback.
Both the members of Pingla Academy and Cindy Clarke are generally good sports.
However, even they displayed a hint of surprise on their faces upon hearing Grace Green’s announcement.
None of them, either Cindy Clarke or the person from the Pingla Academy, had known about this twist.
Hearing Grace Green’s announcement, everyone was shocked.
They hadn’t expected that this round would be the championship round.
The top 10 entering finals was indeed a rare sight.
“The rules for this championship round are different from the previous ones.” Grace Green stated, “For this round, we will implement a scoring system.”
“Each judge has 10 points to assign, with 10 being the perfect score.” Grace Green explained.
“In the end, we will determine the ranking of the championship round based on each contestant’s scores.” Grace explained.
“Next, we would like to invite our judges: Chef Michael Greene, Chef Rosaline Parker, Chef Charles Dean, Professor Wesley Gordon, and Professor Hunter Clarke.” Grace Green announced.
The five judges walked out together.
Grace Green then said, “Professor Wesley Gordon will explain the specific rules for this round.”
Grace Green nodded and then stepped off the stage.
The stage was given over to the five judges for explanation.
Wesley Gordon started, “Originally, this round was not meant to be the final.”
“According to the previous years’ competition rules, although the structure of each round might undergo some changes, we would never resort to such a radical method as immediate entry to finals,” Wesley said.
“However, this time, the Cooking Competition is linked with the International Culinary Competition.” Wesley announced, “The timetable for the International Culinary Competition was suddenly advanced.”
“If we continue with the normal promotion system of the Pingla Culinary Competition, our competition will still be ongoing when the International Culinary Competition begins, with no champion decided yet.” Wesley explained.
“However, at this International Culinary Competition, the Pingla Culinary Competition does have a perk.
That is, the champion of the Pingla Culinary Competition will earn the right to participate in the International Culinary Competition directly, without needing to compete in the auditions and preliminary competitions.” Wesley informed.
“But if our own competition hasn’t concluded and no champion is decided by the time the International Culinary Competition begins, we stand to lose this privilege.” Wesley stated.
“Moreover, it’s not just about the champion’s spot; we also need to give the contesting chefs adequate time to participate in the International Culinary Competition’s preliminary stage.
If the two sets of competitions take place simultaneously, it would not only distract the contestants but also greatly affect their performance in either competition.”
“The top 10 contestants who have advanced so far are all top young chefs at a national level; they’re an important force for us to achieve great results at the International Culinary Competition.”
“As such, the organizing committee has deliberated over this for a long time and concluded that it would be detrimental to their performance in the International Culinary Competition to let the Pingla Culinary Competition go on.
Thus the decision to wrap up the Pingla Culinary Competition ahead of time.”
“Of course, we’ve tried our best to safeguard the contestants’ interests.” Wesley explained, “Overly risky it may seem to decide winners in one round, this has its own problems.”
“For example, some contestants with great potential might unfortunately stumble upon a theme they’re not good at, leading to failing the competition which is just one among many issues.
We’ve taken all of these into consideration.” Wesley added.
“A seasoned chef should have experience in all types of cuisines.
However, experience doesn’t necessarily mean proficiency.
Speaking of the major cuisines in our country, each one is complex and mastering a single one is pretty challenging.”
“Expecting proficiency in every cuisine is clearly unrealistic.
Some of them might know how to cook a cuisine but they’re not perfect at it.
That’s what we meant.” Wesley elucidated.
“Considering all these factors, we’ve discussed the theme for this round for a long time to ensure maximum fairness.” Wesley stated.
“Today’s competition does not mandate any specific dishes.” Wesley announced.
“But we have mandated some ingredients.” Wesley explained, “Today, you have to cook the dishes based on the ingredients we provide.”
“Each contestant is to make one soup dish, one meat dish, one vegetarian dish, one Chinese dessert, and one Chinese sweet dessert.” Wesley laid out the rules, “A total of five dishes.”
“There’s no cuisine restriction, you can choose the cuisines you’re good at based on the ingredients.” Wesley instructed.
The audience and contestants both calculated; there were a total of five judges and five courses.
Wesley is proficient in Cantonese cuisine; Hunter Clarke excels at Chinese pastry, which naturally also includes Chinese desserts.
Being the head chef of Quire, Michael Greene focuses on Chinese cuisine.
Meanwhile, Rosaline Parker owns a French restaurant and also serves as its head chef.
If it were some previous contestants, they would probably interpret this challenge’s theme as being catered to the cooking styles that each of these five head chefs excels at.
Wesley specializes in Cantonese cuisine, so they would choose to cook a Cantonese dish.
Hunter Clarke is good at Chinese pastries, hence one of the challenges naturally corresponds to his specialty.
In that case, they would attempt the five dishes based on the cuisine types these panelists were responsible for.
Ordinary contestants might think like this.
But the contestants present at this moment thought otherwise.
“Each contestant is to prepare a total of five dishes.” Wesley clarified, “Given time restrictions, different dishes take different amounts of time.”
“Therefore, after each contestant finishes a dish, we will temporarily halt the competition to proceed with the judges’ evaluation phase.” Wesley explained.
“Each dish gets scored once, with a perfect score of 10 points.” Wesley continued.
“After five rounds, the total score will be calculated by adding up the points earned from all the dishes, which will then determine the placings.”
Be it the contestants or the audience, everyone now knew that the organizing committee had done their best to make the competition as fair as possible, seizing every possible opportunity.
A chef might not excel in every type of cuisine.
