Chapter 248 - Dark Horse (1/2)

The round started after everyone got into position. They had placed twenty platters on every single kitchen counter. Each platter contained an ingredient that the contestants would need to identify. Even though the platters were covered, everyone in the room could smell a strong herb like smell.

Standing on stage this time, Wang Ming felt so much better. All the other contestants all looked at him with respect and admiration. Except for a few cases, though the one he felt the hardest was Cheng Kecheng's stare. Though what was weird is the emotion he exuded, he looked happy, even ecstatic. Why would he look at him like that? But Wang Ming just chalked it up to that he felt happy he didn't get disqualified and that he made it through.

”Let's start the round.” Meng Zhong announced, which snapped Wang Ming's attention back. Luckily, no one noticed Wang Ming and Cheng Kecheng staring at each other. There would probably have spawned some nasty rumors from it if anyone had noticed. Everyone at home had their eyes plastered to their tv screens. This is the first time there's been so many rule changes in the competition. Even though there were some that didn't like it, most especially younger audience loved the idea.

Opening the first platter, Wang Ming could hear gasps around him. Even he had a weird look in his eyes, seeing the first ingredient they needed to identify. Isn't this a bit too easy he thought? The first ingredient is an ingredient he had cooked so many times these past few months that honestly he was getting sick of it, pork belly.

Though what's interesting is that they want to know how you would prepare it, as there's so many answers. Wang Ming felt like it's almost impossible to answer the question wrong, as long as you can justify your answer and it's logical.

Writing his answer down on the paper, Wang Ming smiled at his answer, he simply wrote that pork belly is a very dynamic ingredient we can cook it many ways, like braised, slow roasted, fried, air-fried, grilled and even more. The only thing that limits the ways of cooking the pork belly is the human imagination. Wang Ming felt maybe he was a bit too c.o.c.ky in his answer, but he felt confident.

”It doesn't seem like anyone had any hesitation on this one, probably not even you guys at home. Remember this is just the warmup the difficulty will soon ramp up. For anyone at home who didn't know the answer this round it is pork belly. One of the most used ingredients in the country, the average Chinese person consumes about 25kgs a year. Production please check the papers.”

After getting a confirmation that everyone had answered correctly, Meng Zhong then moved on to the next ingredient. This kept going for a few more rounds. No one had yet to fail. Many had never heard about the ingredients before, as most of them don't cook at home. They buy food at a restaurant as it's most times even cheaper to eat out than to make the food at home. For professional chefs like them, though, it's still a piece of cake.

The suspense got higher and higher for every question that the chefs got right. This was truly the elite of the competition. Even though there were still 16 competitors on the stage, each and everyone got their chances to show off their abilities. Meng Zhong would select 3 to 4 answers every round and read them out loud, so the people at home could see and understand how a professional chef thinks about their ingredients.

What fascinated them the most is to see how different every chef's approach is. None of the 16 chefs had the same steps in their answer even though the end product was the same. Most had small quirks they would do to make the recipe taste better and have a touch of them.

One such ingredient was none other than frying powder, even though this sounds like an easy ingredient to recognize, it's a tricky ingredient to get right especially when you don't have a label on it. Only a trained eye could discern frying powder from normal flour or other powders. Each chef on that ingredient gave different answers on how to handle and season the frying powder but it still accomplishes the same thing.

Every contestant was still going strong, including Wang Ming. Everyone celebrated every round since no one had failed yet, but that changed on question 8. When the results got announced, everyone went quiet. Everyone thought that this would be a flawless round as well, but there were only two contestants who answered correctly. Everyone else failed. The ingredient they had to examine was a clementine.