Chapter 431 - 164: One Yuan a Skewer...

Chapter 431: Chapter 164: One Yuan a Skewer...

They could only choose one cold appetizer, one main course, and one dessert.

When the three French dishes were placed in front of the six children.

Faced with the oyster appetizer and snail main course, the six children showed obvious disgust.

The final dish, a strawberry tart, consisted of a puff pastry base, vanilla cream, and fresh strawberries. The creative France contestant had cut the tips off the strawberries, piped another layer of vanilla cream onto the cut surface, and then put the tips back on top.

A small dab of cream was added to the top, making each strawberry look like a little Santa Claus wearing a white scarf.

Faced with such a novel dessert, two of the children couldn’t contain their curiosity, picked up a fresh strawberry, and popped it into their mouths.

And then... adorable smiles appeared on their faces.

"The France contestant’s final score is... 2 points!"

The contestant from France shook his head in regret, while his teammate patted his shoulder and offered some words of comfort.

This time, the pressure was on the contestant from Japan.

After the Sushi God’s creation failed, the team had hastily prepared another famous dish: tempura!

Since it was summer, the contestants chose eggplant, edamame, and pumpkin as their ingredients.

When the vegetable tempura was placed before the six children, they faced the colorful delicacy, only to turn their heads away in disgust once more.

"What a waste..." This time, even Su Chen couldn’t help but shake his head.

"Tch, it’s just fried vegetables. What’s there to waste?" Ah Bao seemed to look down on the Japanese contestant.

Su Chen didn’t say anything.

He had been idle just now, so he had been paying attention when the contestant from Japan was Blasting the tempura.

Unlike how Blasted foods are made domestically, their batter was extremely thin, and they didn’t use vegetable oil, but sesame oil directly.

This Blasting method was a major test of the cook’s control over the ingredients and oil temperature; the ingredients were cooked entirely by the heat of the oil.

’With food made this way, you don’t taste the outer layer of batter. All you taste is the flavor of the ingredients themselves.’

’The contestants from Japan really know their stuff... It’s just a shame they didn’t grasp the key to this theme.’

Watching the cooking processes of the Japanese and French contestants, Su Chen felt he had learned a great deal.

Next up were the contestants from Australia.

They planned to win with their ingredients, selecting their country’s highest-grade beef to make three local dishes: specialty beef tenderloin, pan-fried veal cutlets, and clear-broth stewed beef.

Faced with nothing but beef, the six children shook their heads in unison...

As one fine dish after another was brought up and then taken away, what was astonishing was that the French contestant’s 2 points was somehow still the highest score!

Just as the audience was feeling regret for all the discarded food, Liu Ahbao pulled out two large handfuls of skewers from the pot.

"Boss, they’re ready!"

"Perfect!" Su Chen immediately took his pre-seasoned soup base out of the cooler. The soup base was now completely chilled!

"Put the skewers in cold water to cool them down, then hurry up and dry them with the hairdryer!"

Normally, this step would be completely unnecessary. You would usually just soak all the ingredients directly in the soup base for a few hours.

But time was limited now, so they had to use this clever shortcut.

Liu Ahbao grunted in acknowledgment and quickly did as he was told. There was barely any time left before the end of the competition!

The sound of the hairdryer from their station immediately attracted a lot of attention.

’People use hairdryers for cooking?’

"Jiayi, you can start your job now!"

Zhang Jiayi reluctantly took out the megaphone. "Boss, do we really have to do this?"

Su Chen nodded firmly. "You have to remember, we’re dealing with a group of six- and seven-year-olds! Making it delicious is only one part of it. It also has to be appealing enough to get the kids’ attention!"

Zhang Jiayi heaved a heavy sigh.

’Dad, Mom, I’m so sorry you invited so many relatives over to our house to watch this on TV!’

She cleared her throat.

"Bo..."

Then she pressed the delete button and started recording again.

"Bobo chicken, bobo chicken, one yuan a skewer..."

On the stage, Zhang Jiayi’s voice wasn’t too loud or too soft; only the people on stage could hear her.

The live audience couldn’t help but get curious, straining their ears to hear what was being said. Unfortunately, the distance was a bit too far, and combined with the language barrier, they couldn’t hear clearly.

Immediately, Zhang Jiayi switched to French.

"Bobo chicken... bobo chicken... one yuan a skewer..."

English!

Japanese!

"..."

After running through it in eight different languages, she saved the recording she had just made. In a moment, she would only need to press the play button, and that bewitching sales pitch would instantly echo throughout the entire studio!

"Boss, they’re dry!"

The skewers in Ah Bao’s hands were now cooled, their surface moisture blow-dried away. The main purpose of this step was to allow all the ingredients to immediately absorb the savory soup base onto their surfaces upon being submerged.

This would speed up the process of the flavor soaking into the ingredients.

Su Chen took all the bamboo skewers from Ah Bao. In front of him was a huge stainless steel basin holding the soup base. He submerged all the ingredients in the basin at once.

Then he took out the chili oil he had made earlier, scooped up two massive spoonfuls, and poured it all into the basin!

"Alright, if this weren’t a competition, we’d be tasting this first."

Zhang Jiayi had already forgotten her embarrassing behavior from moments ago. Her eyes were fixed on the chili oil in the basin, upon which a layer of white sesame seeds floated.