Chapter 998 - Big Crabs (1/2)

“Finally, we reached the final dish. How are you feeling, Head Chef Zuo?” Chef Li asked.

“How is Ao Pi feeling?” Instead of answering, Head Chef Zuo frowned and asked Ao Pi, his partner for today.

That’s right. This Rolling Crab Dumpling dish was supposed to be Head Chef Zuo’s signature dish, yet Ao Pi happened to be good in crabs as well. Since this dish was very troublesome to make, the two decided to work together.

“Everything is perfectly fine,” Ao Pi was filled with confidence. He felt that his cooperation with Head Chef Zuo was not as simple as one plus one equals two.

But after hearing Ao Pi’s words, Head Chef Zuo’s frown deepened.

“Head Chef Zuo?” Chef Li could not understand what was going on with Head Chef Zuo.

“I’m somewhat worried,” said Head Chef Zuo seriously.

He was a comparatively older chef among them and he had been in the industry for a long time. Even his restaurant was opened when he was young and had been in business for about 20 years.

Naturally, he was no longer leading the kitchen of the restaurant nowadays. Instead, it was his best disciple, his pride and joy. The disciple was no worse than him in cooking skills and he had only decided to participate in this match to teach Yuan Zhou a lesson since the online reviews were really too critical.

However, although the disciple was quite good, the issue was that this disciple would normally manage the kitchen instead of personally cooking. He would only cook for special occasions or important guests.

And that was unknown to Head Chef Zuo. Now, Head Chef Zuo was worried that he would be the one to be taught a lesson instead.

“What are you worried about? I’m also good at cooking crabs. With the two of us working together, there won’t be any problems,” said Ao Pi confidently.

“I’m not worried about our dish. But that Yuan Zhou does not look like a pushover either,” said Head Chef Zuo.

“Did you discover anything, Head Chef Zuo?” asked Chef Li.

“Not really,” Head Chef Zuo shook his head.

“What are you worried about, then? You must have been thinking too much about this and got yourself worried. We have to thank that Head Chef Yuan for providing us the first opportunity to participate in a match as an alliance like this,” said Chef Li teasingly.

“I think our seafood alliance should work even more closely together after this match,” said Ao Pi.

Chef Li nodded in agreement, “Yes, we can turn the alliance into a brand.”

In his opinion, so long as a brand was popular, there would be customers. The actual taste of the food was of secondary importance.

This thought originated from the sheep mentality of the masses. If a day arrived when the masses became thoroughly skeptical, things would prove to be interesting.

“Forget about the match. Look at Yuan Zhou, he’s not the least bit worried. From the start till now, his expression has never changed. Looks like he is very confident as well,” said Head Chef Zuo. Even with his rich experience that came with age, he was unable to stay as calm as Yuan Zhou.

But he was correct. Regardless of when Yuan Zhou was cooking or when the judges were tasting the dishes, he maintained a deadpan face, a face neither anxious nor happy.

“Haha, Head Chef Zuo is worrying too much. I heard before that this fellow never has any expression on his face, the so-called deadpan face is very suitable for him,” said Ao Pi with a laugh.

“I hope so,” said Head Chef Zuo. Inwardly, he was still slightly anxious.

Little did they know that Yuan Zhou’s mind was actually very busy. He was hard-pressed for time for dinner preparations of the restaurant and thus was busy thinking about that.

Soon, they stopped talking as the judges were starting to eat.

This time, the assistant did not need to divide the dish. Rather, the entire plate was served, with the judges reaching to the dish with their respective chopsticks.

As usual, prior to eating, they would first rinse their mouths with green tea, wash their hands and finally removing any lingering flavor with warm water before starting to eat.

Yuan Zhou’s dish was served on a large round plate. There were markings of cyan sea waves on the bottom half of the plate, with the crab resting on the waves.

In a way, the dish looked like the crab were floating up and down on the waves, giving off quite an artistic feeling.

The dish’s name was Big Crabs and hidden underneath the shells were the crab dumplings. The dumpling had the color of white jade, soaked amid the red gravy.