NOVPUBChapter 819: Chapter 818: Enough Interference!
Chapter 819 -818: Enough Interference!
When Chef Arno drank his third bowl like a child who hadn’t eaten for three days, everyone came to their senses, or more precisely, they finally realized that everyone was equal. Why should you get to drink so much while I haven’t even had a taste?
Pei Shenghua put down the shark fin in his bowl, and Master Xu swallowed the duck meat in his mouth, both of them sprinting towards the Taifeng Building cooking station as if they had wheels on their feet. Han Guishan, from a distance, also realized it was time to exercise his Sugar Daddy privilege and, masquerading as a contestant, hurried towards the Taifeng Building cooking station.
The scene was momentarily chaotic.
The cameraman really wanted to go on strike.
Having come to his senses, Jiang Feng quickly scooped two bowls of porridge, one for himself and one for Wu Minqi, before decisively withdrawing from the battlefield, leaving the space for others.
“Pei Shenghua, a generous half bowl is enough, don’t be too greedy. You’ve already eaten so much, why do you need it so full?” Master Xu’s voice rang out.
“I’m young, I can eat!” Pei Shenghua shouted back.
“Leave some for me!” came Han Guishan’s resigned plea.
“Han, save me a bowl!” Xu Cheng’s scheming request followed.
“Dad, I want some porridge too!” Han Youxin’s desire chimed in.
The situation became so disorderly that the cameramen on site didn’t know whether to seize this promotion and raise opportunity by capturing these precious shots and footage or to follow their innermost primal desire for delicious food and tell the damned money to take a hike.
You damned dollars, get lost; I want to strike for porridge!
Of course, in the end, all the cameramen chose to be professional, as they wouldn’t have been able to get any porridge even if they had tried.
Even Sun Maochai failed to grab any.
Rolan, who had been assisting Chef Arno, said that if he wasn’t really in need of money, he would have wanted to switch from the top-floor restaurant to Taifeng Building to assist Jiang Feng. After all, whose assistant would he be if not an assistant?
Pei Shenghua also stated that if he weren’t a shareholder of Huaiyang Building, he would have certainly defected to Taifeng Building.
Wait, why can’t he switch just because he’s a shareholder?
After careful consideration, Pei Shenghua thought it was a bit rash to switch jobs over a bowl of porridge and abandoned this absurd idea. The owner of Huaiyang Building was blissfully unaware that he almost lost his head chef and shareholder over a bowl of porridge.
It could be said that this pot of extraordinary preserved egg and lean pork porridge made all the other dishes, which could be termed as delicacies, pale in comparison.
The “three sets of duck,” so-called despite having only two legs and now lying upside down, wept.
Wept from craving.
This time, Jiang Feng used a medium-sized clay pot to cook the porridge and not a particularly large one, which limited the amount and consequently meant that not every chef got to taste it.
Those who did get some felt that merely a small bowl was not enough, barely giving them a taste without even leaving room for aftertaste, while those who missed out were even worse off, not having any chance for an aftertaste.
The porridge was gone.
Rationality returned.
Everyone behaved as if nothing had happened, continuing to eat and evaluate as before, though the dishes that followed seemed somewhat bland.
Tofu with literary thoughts didn’t taste even as good as a bowl of preserved egg and lean pork congee. What’s up with that?
Everyone quickly gave their rankings and submitted their forms to the show’s staff. While the staff compiled the overall rankings, people began to exchange thoughts with each other. Those who hadn’t tried the dishes yet took this opportunity to taste the dishes they were interested in, as if it were a large culinary exchange meeting.
Xu Cheng, Peng Changping, and the Han Guishan family, who came for the free meal, also joined the tasting queue at this time. Among them, only Peng Changping was here to genuinely critique the dishes. He tasted every dish that was still edible and gave relatively fair feedback, allowing everyone to experience what it was like during the finals and semi-finals.
Only in the finals and semi-finals would Peng Changping act as a judge, tasting each dish and giving evaluations.
While everyone was bustling around, Chef Arno was the exception, as he hadn’t moved since finishing his third bowl of congee. He stood in front of Taifeng Building’s cooking station, cradling his bowl and staring at the pot used to cook the congee, deep in thought. Those unaware might have thought he wished to lick the pot clean.
What Chef Arno was thinking, Jiang Feng couldn’t figure out, nor was he particularly concerned. What he cared about now were the flavors of the three-structured duck and crab roe shark’s fin, just like the other chefs who hadn’t joined the tasting, rushing toward Yonghe House’s cooking station to try the crab roe shark’s fin.
Perhaps due to Jiang Feng reshaping every chef’s understanding of congee with a bowl of preserved egg and lean pork congee earlier, everyone was very respectful towards him at this moment, regardless of seniority or age.
When Jiang Feng wanted to try the crab roe shark’s fin, others who wanted to taste it as well waited patiently aside, letting Jiang Feng try it first before going up themselves.
Even Chef Arno didn’t have this level of deference—perhaps only Peng Changping in today’s culinary world could command such respect.
Jiang Feng managed to effortlessly taste the three-structured duck and crab roe shark’s fin he had been curious about.
To be honest, he was a bit disappointed.
The three-structured duck and crab roe shark’s fin he tasted were not even as good as the preserved egg and lean pork congee he made himself today.
But when he thought about it carefully, there were reasonable explanations for this. Both the three-structured duck and crab roe shark’s fin had clear flaws and mistakes. Due to Pei Shenghua’s misjudgment of his own abilities, he made an extra cut when preparing the duck, leading to flavor loss. The juices and flavors weren’t fully retained during steaming and cooking, making the dish somewhat lacking in the end.
The shortcomings of the crab roe shark’s fin were even more evident, as it was under-prepared and the shark’s fin hadn’t fully expanded.
Using Yonghe House’s signature and most stunning braised shark’s fin as an example, theoretically, if one wants to make a truly perfect braised shark’s fin, the fin needs to be soaked seven days in advance. Peng Changping had the skill to make an astonishing dish even with under-soaked shark’s fin, but Master Xu clearly wasn’t at that level yet.
All one could say was that he did his best, making the best crab roe shark’s fin he could within such a short time frame.
Neither dish reached the level of S+.
Possibly, a dish of the same rank as the preserved egg and lean pork congee might seem slightly inferior, after all, due to the raw ingredients being less impressive. But under such rank suppression, the deliciousness of the preserved egg and lean pork congee would be infinitely elevated, making it unfair for a professional food critic to favor the congee over such a sophisticated and difficult dish.
Jiang Feng felt that among these dishes, aside from the preserved egg and lean pork congee, the only one that might have reached S+ level was Chef Arno’s beef tartare tower. Unfortunately, the dish had such a small portion that he didn’t even get a chance to taste it.
But no matter how delicious Chef Arno’s beef tartare tower was today, it couldn’t overshadow the splendor of the preserved egg and lean pork congee, nor could it surpass it.
It was simply too sensational.
Jiang Feng’s preserved egg and lean pork congee was truly too sensational.
If everyone wasn’t tasting such a caliber of congee for the first time, perhaps their reactions wouldn’t be so exaggerated. But it was exactly this unprecedented first-time experience that raised the deliciousness of the preserved egg and lean pork congee to new heights.
After tasting the three-structured duck and crab roe shark’s fin, Jiang Feng looked around and finally decided to try the Straw Holder Duck, which he never had before. When Jiang Feng approached it, Han Guishan was also standing in front of the Straw Holder Duck, plate in hand, eating. When he saw Jiang Feng coming, he moved aside and left two pieces of meat for him.
Jiang Feng thanked him and picked up a piece of duck meat.
“Ding, memory acquisition of [Han Guishan’s Segment].”
Almost simultaneously, as Jiang Feng was picking up the meat with his chopsticks, the game’s prompt sounded in his mind.
Jiang Feng glanced at the duck meat he was currently holding with his chopsticks, which had just been touched by Han Guishan’s chopsticks. It was duck leg meat, originally coveted by Han Guishan but he had moved his own chopsticks aside to let Jiang Feng have it.
Is that even possible?!
Jiang Feng gave Han Guishan a look. Han Guishan was concentrating on eating, obviously very hungry.
You’ve got quite the strategy, Mr. Han!
Never forgetting to gift memories even while eating!
Jiang Feng silently gave Han Guishan a thumbs-up in his mind.
While everyone was exchanging thoughts and tasting the dishes, the test rankings were announced.
Without a doubt, Taifeng Building came first, and the top-floor restaurant came second. According to the data released by the show’s crew, even Chef Arno had voted for Taifeng Building as number one.
It could be said that Taifeng Building rightfully, unashamedly, and confidently secured first place in this points competition.
As the crew announced Taifeng Building as the winner of this test, an unprecedented roar of applause like thunder erupted throughout the venue.
This was the first time everyone had clapped, but not the first time they had all come together for a test.
During the previous snack street test, Taifeng Building had also come first with a vast points margin, but no one had applauded because back then, everyone felt Taifeng Building hadn’t won solely based on skill—luck had played a significant role.
But this time, the first place was all about skill.
Jiang Feng’s skill.
Jiang Feng carried the entire event.
Everyone accepted their defeat wholeheartedly.
This round of applause, which lasted nearly three minutes, brought a perfect end to the month-long points competition.
Taifeng Building and the top-floor restaurant advanced, set to compete with two restaurants from the American division for the championship. The other five restaurants just came for the ride, especially those not from Beiping who had traveled far just for the experience.
But everyone was happy.
They had lost, and they were content in accepting their defeat.
They had all witnessed the rise of a true Chinese cuisine master who was bound to outshine Peng Changping in the future.
Perhaps it was the atmosphere, but as the applause died down, a seemingly inconspicuous chef from Cheng Ji Restaurant, who had been silently participating, suddenly shouted out.
“Since Taifeng Building won the points competition, shouldn’t they treat us chefs who didn’t advance to a meal?”
As soon as these words were out, everyone got excited and joined in the chorus.
“Yeah, yeah, you’ve got to treat us for winning first place!”
“We’ve come all this way; it would be a huge loss if we didn’t advance and also didn’t get a meal!”
“Treating us is a must.”
Logically, Sun Maochai should have been the one to speak since he was the head chef of Taifeng Building, with Jiang Feng being just the young proprietor and the behind-the-scenes boss. Sun Maochai should have responded in such a situation, and Jiang Feng had no experience in this matter.
But for some reason, Sun Maochai kept smiling and looking at Jiang Feng, waiting for him to speak, perhaps due to the frustration of not having a chance to eat the century egg and lean pork congee as the main chef of Taifeng Building.
With no other options, almost like being pushed onto the stage, Jiang Feng reluctantly said, “Of course, we should treat you. I just don’t know what everyone would like to eat.”
“Century egg and lean pork congee!”
“Made by you!”
There we go, they were all just not satisfied with that one bowl of congee from earlier.
“There’s no problem with century egg and lean pork congee, but it’s already six o’clock, and we haven’t really eaten much all day. It takes time to cook congee, and by the time it’s ready, it would probably be around nine or ten o’clock at night. We can’t go on starving. How about eating something else first to tide us over, tide us over, and tomorrow I will cook the congee so everyone can have a good taste,” Jiang Feng suggested.
Jiang Feng was right, but everyone’s cravings for the century egg and lean pork congee had been whetted, and now they didn’t want to eat anything else—willing to stay hungry just for the congee.
Everyone disagreed with Jiang Feng’s suggestion, leaving him with no choice but to cook congee on the spot, all while being closely watched by a crowd.
Jiang Feng used all the stoves at seven cooking stations to cook more than a dozen pots of congee, all century egg and lean pork congee. Even the large clay pots prepared by the program crew weren’t enough; Han Guishan had to call someone to rush over to the nearest mall to purchase two more large clay pots and send them over.
They had to be large ones because nobody was satisfied with medium-sized pots.
Even the camera crew was among the first to refuse.
That night, everyone, including the program staff, freeloaders, contestants, and cameramen, enjoyed the century egg and lean pork congee to their heart’s content.
Drinking until they were stuffed, until they were thoroughly satisfied.
They drank so much that they dreamt of swimming in century egg and lean pork congee that night!
That night, all the contestants coincidentally posted a similar update to their social media.
A pot of century egg and lean pork congee.
Accompanied by emojis or words like thumbs up.
Later, the program crew took screenshots of these social media updates, and they were aired as Easter eggs at the end of the episode.
After this episode aired, century egg and lean pork congee almost sold out across congee stores nationwide. Jiang Feng single-handedly boosted the GDP of century egg and lean pork congee across the country.
From then on, at Taifeng Building, century egg and lean pork congee had to be reserved in advance—a new era of congee reservation.
Of course, that was a story for later.
After the points competition ended, Jiang Feng began his seclusion.
To study Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup.
