Punch: From third-rate anchor to top chef

Chapter 347
Luo Haoran is a three-star chef from Shandong, and he has stayed at the three-star chef for 12 years.

Back then, he was also high-spirited and young and frivolous, who knew that he didn't make much progress after stepping into Samsung.

Over time, he gave up the idea of ​​continuing to advance, and began to manage some contacts and relationships in the industry to facilitate his transfer to management positions in the future.

He originally thought that he had long since given up his pursuit and love of cooking, until today he met the candidate who surprised him.

Luo Haoran held a piece of crystal clear perilla sea urchin tempura with his chopsticks, and couldn't help but marvel at it.

This piece of tempura is a bit different from traditional tempura in that there is no obvious fringed coat.

The clean batter is translucent, allowing people to clearly see the perilla leaves inside through the batter.

There are delicate lines of perilla leaves on the batter, just like the chef's hand-painted in the batter, very delicate and ingenious.

I glanced at the menu handwritten with a black oil-based pen under the dishes, [Perilla Sea Urchin Tempura].

He stuffed the tempura into his mouth, the instant the batter touched his lips.

The transparent batter is like a thin layer of icing, which shatters in an instant.

The lips did not feel any hindrance, directly touching the crispy perilla leaves.

The perilla leaves are fried at a high temperature and become crispy. When you bite off the purple perilla leaves, they are immediately broken into powder and evenly distributed in the mouth.

The creamy sea urchin inside bursts out from the cracked perilla leaves immediately.

The strong breath of perilla leaves wraps the salty sea urchin, and a strange fragrance permeates the whole mouth.

Luo Haoran couldn't help closing his eyes, and focused more on his sense of taste.

Fantastic texture, crazy taste.

Since he was responsible for the procurement of some ingredients, he knew very well that although the materials available to candidates in the final round were very rich, their quality was very average.

The number and types of ingredients to be prepared are too many and too cumbersome.

If you choose the best for everything, it will cause a huge waste.

After all, there is a large surplus of ingredients prepared each time to ensure that all candidates can make their favorite dishes.

As a result, there is nothing very good in the ingredients area.

However, the sea urchin in the mouth has a strong salty and fresh flavor, which is not what ordinary quality ball sea urchins can achieve.

Even many horse dung sea urchins of average quality may not reach this level.

He frowned deeply, the gap in the quality of different ingredients was an insurmountable gap.

It is impossible for ordinary chefs to make it possible for ingredients to cross a level only by relying on cooking skills.

He looked down at the remaining half of tempura.

He stuffed it into his mouth without hesitation. He tasted it more carefully this time, and soon discovered the clue.

In the middle of the original crispy perilla leaves, not only the sea urchin is wrapped, but also the salted egg yolk that has been crushed into fine powder.

After tasting it carefully, Luo Haoran also found that the creamy sea urchin still had a little taste of fish sauce.

Although the taste of fish sauce is very thin, it is not easy to detect when it is mixed with rich sea urchin, but years of experience let him discover the clues.

Through the diluted fish sauce, the umami and sweetness in the sea urchin are fully mobilized, and the quality of the sea urchin has been improved to a higher level. This technique is really clever.

But not everyone dares to use such a bold treatment method. After all, the taste of fish sauce is too strong, and if you are not careful, the taste of the ingredients themselves will be covered.

He nodded in satisfaction, the first dish made him feel so amazing, he began to look forward to other dishes.

The chopsticks stretched out to a side dish, 【Smoked Honey Sauce Char Siu】.

The appearance of the char siu made him a little surprised, because he had never seen such a gray char siew.

But when he saw that the name of this dish was [Smoked Honey Sauce Char Siu], he understood why the color of the char siu was a bit dull.

A large piece of char siew dripping with fat is put into the mouth, and a strong smoky aroma floods into the nostrils.

However, Li Xiao controlled the smoky atmosphere very cleverly, and did not let the smoky taste overwhelm other flavors.

When the char siu is bitten open, the fresh and sweet gravy spreads on the tongue immediately, and the sweetness of fat and honey mix together to form a sweet bomb.

The fiber of the char siu is completely destroyed by the meat loosener, and the fat and lean plum meat has an excellent taste.

The outer skin of the char siu is roasted at a high temperature to become crispy, but the meat there is very delicate.

Teeth chewing lightly, it can easily fall apart.

Now Luo Haoran has a new understanding of Li Xiao's culinary skills, the cooking of char siu seems to be very simple.

Even any housewife can easily make it as long as there is an oven in the house.

But the simpler the food, the more difficult it is to do it well.

The lower the lower limit of the food, the higher its upper limit, and the greater the difficulty of the same improvement.

Candidate No. 26's smoky and secret barbecued pork tastes sweet, but it tastes sweet and salty, with a sense of smokiness.

However, the original monotonous char siew became very different after simple smoking.

Soon, he tasted the other 6 dishes separately, and the more he ate, the more surprised he was.

The No. 26 candidate in front of me has far surpassed one-star culinary skills.

He even felt that even if these dishes were made by himself, he might not be able to reach this level.

No, it should be said that it is absolutely impossible to reach such a level.

One is that I am not good at Cantonese cuisine,

The second is that the opponent's mastery of certain skills, the control of the heat, the precision of the seasoning, and the sharpness of the knife are not comparable to him.

Such a person participating in a one-star chef competition is simply killing a chicken with a sledgehammer, let alone a one-star chef.

Even if he took Samsung, he could easily pass the exam. He was typing the score of this exam on the tablet in his hand.

While listening to the discussions of other judges around:
"I think I can give it full marks, every dish is amazing."

"My favorite is his eight-treasure rice. It's really ingenious. The eight-treasure is broken and re-kneaded into the shape of rice grains and steamed together with the rice. The taste of the eight-treasure is completely integrated into the rice. It's amazing!"

"Winter melon and yuan scallops are stewed in original juice, and the sweetness makes me linger."

"I think the most amazing thing is the glutinous glutinous pork. The gravy in this bite immediately conquered my taste buds."

"I think the ancient method of glass prawn balls is the best. All the tendons in the shrimp meat have been removed, but the structural integrity of the shrimp meat has not been damaged too much! I think it can also be given full marks!"

"Actually, I think everything is very good overall, but would it be too outrageous to give full marks? After all, shouldn't the final exam be stricter?"

"I don't think it's necessary. With the level of candidate No. 26, getting a full score is really well deserved."

"Indeed, I even think he's a little bit stronger than when I'm fully fired. If such a person can't get full marks, I don't think it's reasonable."

The discussion ended quickly, and so did the grading by the 10 judges.

Up until this point, I'd had over 48 hours with no official sleep.
I barely slept for an hour today, my mind is muddy but I don't feel sleepy at all
If there is no update tomorrow, it should be sudden death.

(End of this chapter)