Chapter 427 - 163: Dishes? I Only Need One.

Chapter 427: Chapter 163: Dishes? I Only Need One.

Su Chen grinned. "If anyone makes fun of you, just tell them, ’If you’ve got a problem with it, go find your own world champion!’"

"But..." Zhang Jiayi’s face fell. "No, no way, absolutely not! I can’t translate that!"

Su Chen couldn’t be bothered to deal with her.

’You’ve boarded my pirate ship and you still want to resist?’

"Ah Bao and Old Er, your task for today is pretty simple. To be precise, it’s for the three of you!"

Including Zhang Jiayi.

Su Chen called the three of them over and spoke for some time. He only stopped when their expressions had shifted from excited, to calm, and finally, to horrified.

"Wait... Boss, are you for real?"

"Holy shit, this is insane! Making something like that at the world championships?"

"We’re done for, we’re so done for!" Ah Bao clutched his head. "This time, whether we place or not, we’re going to be infamous!"

Zhang Heping was speechless, too.

"With a creation like Magnolia, even if we didn’t place, we would have lost with dignity! But this stuff... if we don’t place, we’ll be a complete joke!"

Su Chen really couldn’t be bothered to explain.

’I can’t just tell them I’ve already created an SS Level dish back in the practice room, so what the hell are they still hesitating for?’

Feeling anxious, they waited until a staff member came to the lounge and told everyone it was time to enter the venue.

Su Chen walked in front, followed by his three teammates, all wearing complicated expressions. And Zhang Jiayi was even carrying a damn megaphone!

With many contestants eliminated, there were now only eight workstations on stage, so the area looked much more spacious.

After the contestants from every country took their places, the six original judges returned to the panel. This time, however, they were joined by six young children sitting in front of them!

Three boys and three girls.

They all looked to be about five or six years old.

The one thing they had in common was that all six were very thin, giving an overall impression of being small and frail. Normally, children their age should be in the middle of a growth spurt.

Such is the horror of anorexia.

The host took the stage.

"Welcome to our audience here in the venue, and welcome to our viewers watching from all around the world! You are now watching the grand finals of the Bocuse d’Or World Cooking Competition!"

"Childhood nutrition has always been a global concern. Anorexia, an as-yet-unconquerable affliction, has been a source of distress for countless parents around the world!"

"According to statistics from the World Health Organization, the mortality rate among those suffering from anorexia has reached a terrifying fifteen percent!"

"Helping every child who dislikes eating is a goal we must all strive for! Today, the theme of our competition is anorexia. Now, allow me to explain the rules!"

The rules for the grand finals were much simpler than before.

The power of scoring was taken from the judges and given to the six children.

Each contestant could prepare three dishes. The dishes would be presented to the children in rotation for tasting. If just one child was willing to take a single bite...

...that contestant would receive one point!

In other words, the highest possible score was 18 points.

After hearing the rules, Liu Ahbao quietly broke out in a cold sweat.

’Everyone else’s maximum score is 18, but ours is a measly 6. How the hell are we supposed to compete?!’

He snuck a glance at Su Chen, who remained as unmovable as a mountain, the picture of composure.

But with that one glance, Ah Bao’s heart sank.

"Holy shit, Boss! Boss!" Ah Bao gestured with his eyes. "Look who that is! Those sons of bitches actually managed to get *him* here?"

Su Chen glanced at the workstation for the team from Japan, not quite understanding Ah Bao. "Who?"

"You don’t recognize him?"

"Why should I?"

Ah Bao grew frantic. "Yoshikazu Ono! The eldest son of the Sushi God, Jiro Ono! Holy crap! They must be making sushi today."

Only then did Su Chen take a proper look. He saw a bald man wearing glasses. "Is he that amazing?"

Ah Bao gulped.

"Are you kidding? For the sushi restaurant their family runs, just making a reservation costs over two thousand, and a single meal is at least five thousand! On top of that, they don’t serve strangers, only regulars and friends introduced by regulars."

"Plus, they have a rule: you can’t order from a menu. What you eat depends entirely on the chef’s mood that day and whatever ingredients they have on hand! But even with all that, it’s almost impossible to get a seat! A lot of people can’t get a reservation even if they try to book six months in advance!"

Su Chen was a little surprised, not that the restaurant was so incredible, but at something else. "Holy shit," he said. "This... whatever-his-name-is Ono, how is he even more pretentious than our own company?"

Ah Bao retracted his gaze, not expecting his boss to blurt out something like that.

But then he thought about it.

’Delicious seems to operate on a similar model, doesn’t it?’

’You can’t order specific dishes, but you can at least state your preferences!’

’You have to book in advance, but you can usually get in within two or three days.’

’The prices are high—a bit higher than the Sushi God’s, even.’

’When you think about it like that, we are pretty damn pretentious!’

"Don’t listen to all their hype," Su Chen whispered to Ah Bao. "All that talk about reservations and ’gods’ of this or that... it’s all just a gimmick. To put it bluntly, it’s still just food. It’s not like he can make a shrimp taste like something that isn’t a shrimp, can he?"

Ah Bao opened his mouth to say something but found he had no rebuttal. Fortunately, just then, the host gave the signal for all contestants to begin!

The allotted cooking time was, once again, six hours.

Contestants who finished their dishes before the six hours were up were allowed to present them to the children for tasting immediately.

With the host’s signal, Su Chen knew he couldn’t afford to be careless this time.

Six hours was not a lot of time.

"You all can start prepping the ingredients. The work itself is simple, but there are a lot of ingredients, so it’ll be time-consuming."

The three of them nodded and immediately began pulling ingredients from the refrigerators beneath their workstations and starting the prep work.

Su Chen, meanwhile, pulled a large plastic container from a cabinet beneath his workstation.

He opened it to reveal an assortment of small, compartmentalized plastic boxes, each containing a different spice he needed.

The moment Su Chen began opening the lids of the spice boxes one by one...

...the six children, who had already grown bored and started playing games, all reacted at the exact same time, making the exact same motion.

Not just them, but also the other contestants who had already begun cooking and a great many members of the audience—all of them turned their gazes toward the workstation of the team from Huaxia Country.

"What is that smell? It’s incredible!"

"It’s not just fragrant; it has a kind of medicinal scent to it. What on earth is the team from Huaxia Country doing?"

Whispers had already started to ripple through the audience.

Meanwhile, the contestants from the other countries could only stare at Su Chen, completely dumbfounded.

’He hasn’t even started cooking yet, and it already smells this damn good?’

’That’s cheating! It has to be cheating!!!’