Chapter 418 - 162: Su Chen’s Defeat

Chapter 418: Chapter 162: Su Chen’s Defeat

Su Chen tilted his head to look, curious about the Australian team’s creation.

Their station was already clean, with only the finished dessert on display.

It was a...

An egg!

And a whole one at that!

In front of the creation, a small placard displayed its name.

"Translate that for me."

Zhang Jiayi murmured, "Verjus in Egg? It translates to ’verjus on an egg.’"

Liu Ahbao overheard and said, "That’s a very common recipe."

Su Chen felt a little embarrassed. ’How have I never heard of this recipe?’

"In the seventeenth century, people in the United Kingdom would eat boiled eggs drizzled with verjus. That’s that ’in egg’ thing Jiayi just mentioned."

"It’s ’Verjus in Egg’!" Zhang Jiayi corrected his pronunciation.

Su Chen took another look. Beneath the whole boiled egg was a small bird’s nest—or at least, it looked like one. He hadn’t paid attention to how they made it earlier.

"Alright, next up, let’s have a look at the dessert created by our contestants from Australia!"

Zhang Jiayi’s lips moved, translating the host’s words in real-time.

This was how the competition worked: whoever finished first got judged first.

Otherwise, it would be pretty awkward for a contestant who finished in an hour to have to wait on stage for four or five hours.

Besides, some dishes needed to be tasted immediately after they were prepared. If the wait was too long, both the flavor and texture would change.

"Contestant, would you please start by introducing your dessert?"

Su Chen shot a glare at Liu Ahbao. "Get back to work. What are you looking at?"

Only then did Ah Bao run over to the cupboard to look for vegetable oil.

Su Chen, meanwhile, kept his eyes fixed on the Australian team’s every move.

A female contestant in a white chef’s uniform stood confidently before the camera. "The dessert we’ve created is a modern take on Verjus in Egg."

With that, she took a small silver spoon and tapped it directly on the egg!

A gasp rippled through the audience.

They had suspected there was some trick to the egg, so they were all stunned to see the contestant simply tap it.

The eggshell cracked. The contestant carefully used a pair of tweezers to pick off the broken pieces of shell and arrange them on the plate.

Then, she used a spoon to scoop out a small piece of the egg white, revealing a cross-section of the "boiled egg."

It looked just like a simple egg... and the yolk even had the soft, runny consistency of a soft-boiled egg.

"Excuse me, contestant, what’s so special about your dessert?"

After all... other people cooked with all sorts of regular kitchen utensils, but this Australian team had been using things like compasses and calipers. It was all very bewildering to watch.

The female contestant smiled. "What you see as the egg white is actually a coconut-flavored panna cotta, and the yolk is verjus that has been cooked with spices."

"That’s the sour grape juice," Zhang Jiayi added in a whisper, then quickly resumed translating for Su Chen.

"Panna cotta... hmm, that’s a type of... milk jelly."

Su Chen cut in, "Just use the original words. I can basically understand."

Only then did Zhang Jiayi continue, using the English terms for words that were difficult to translate. "Beneath the panna cotta, there’s a coffee-flavored mousse. The bird’s nest base is a Turkish dessert made with honey and syrup, spun to look like dragon’s beard candy."

"The nest is garnished with Kabosu jelly, and as for the eggshell... it’s made of chocolate."

Hearing the female contestant’s explanation, even Su Chen couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath.

’This is no ordinary egg!’

In other words, while it looked like an egg, it was actually made entirely from the components of various other desserts!

When the camera zoomed in for a close-up of the eggshell, Su Chen’s gaze was fixed on the large screen.

"Whoa! These guys are insane!"

The eggshell looked to be less than a millimeter thick.

No wonder they had to use all sorts of strange molds and tools. Without instruments of extreme precision, it would be impossible to create something like this.

The process for making the "egg white" and "yolk" inside was a bit like a method Su Chen had once used for a dessert he made specifically for Ling Shuyu.

You put the panna cotta into a mold, and after it sets, you scoop out a round hollow and fill it with the spiced verjus sauce.

All six judges unanimously gave it a perfect 10 for creativity!

Su Chen silently agreed.

’For creativity? Yeah, giving this egg a perfect score is fair.’

Amid the cheers of the Australian team, the six judges stepped down from the stage. Next was the tasting portion.

After each of them had a taste, the dessert received an average score of "9.9" for flavor.

Su Chen felt there was nothing wrong with that score.

After all, the ingredients they used were plain to see. Although he didn’t get a chance to taste it himself, just looking at the components...

The eggshell was just simple chocolate.

The "egg white" inside would have a pudding-like texture. The sour verjus of the "yolk" combined with the coconut flavor of the "white"... he didn’t even have to taste it to know the aftertaste.

It was bound to be cloyingly sweet—a level that the average person from Huaxia would find difficult to stomach.

But the judges still gave it a very high score. This was simply a difference in how Eastern and Western palates perceive desserts.

’Westerners really go hard on the sugar...’

And in the end, the dessert received a 9.9, the highest score of the entire competition so far!!!

Amid the cheers, the Australian team left the stage, leaving only the contestants from Huaxia Country.

With nothing else to see, the audience and judges alike could only turn their attention to Liu Ahbao’s group.