Shokugeki: Start with an izakaya, making everyone cry

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine says: People are born from the energy of heaven and earth and are formed by the four seasons.

The wise ancients extracted the twenty-four solar terms, and at that time they realized that life and health are closely related to the natural solar terms.

go and see.

Go smell it.

Go touch.

Finally, go and taste…

The perfect fusion of food, science and art, the so-called molecular cuisine is so magical.

Although comparing a cooking pot and a test tube seems to be unrelated, with the rise of "molecular gastronomy", the distance between cooking technology and science has been greatly shortened!

Nowadays, molecular cuisine may not be a new term.

More and more chefs are beginning to study it and continue to innovate.

……

At this moment, in a cooking laboratory at Totsuki Academy.

Alice Nakiri, wearing a neat lab coat, stood in front of the cooking table, looking focused and calm.

Afterwards, she placed her hands lightly on the smooth marble cooking table, her fingertips trembling slightly and her brows furrowed, as if she was sketching out exquisite molecular gastronomy dishes in her mind.

Her eyes shuttled through every corner of the kitchen.

As if he was looking for the spark that could ignite his inspiration!

Simultaneously.

Every breath.

They all seemed to be empowering him for his upcoming culinary journey.

Finally, she seemed to have thought of something, and quickly prepared these things:

70g low-gluten flour, 150g purple sweet potato, 150g yogurt, and ingredients oil, eggs, white sugar, milk, gelatin powder g, light cream g, lemon juice...

……

Just see.

She put the eggs in the basin.

Use a hand whisk to beat the mixture rhythmically.

An egg beater is a cooking tool that can easily and quickly beat egg whites and egg yolks into egg liquid.

Generally speaking, except in molecular cuisine, chefs often use a whisk to save time and convenience.

Start by stirring at high speed, and place the bowl at an angle while stirring. When you lift it up, the material will slowly flow down. After it has a certain hardness, start turning the blender to low speed and adjust the bubble size and fineness.

Finally, beat the eggs and add sugar.

Heat over water to allow the sugar to fully dissolve and mix.

After this step is completed, stop heating!

As the whisk and mixer keep working, the mixed materials become more and more mushy after a while.

……

At this time, Alice Nakiri was quick-eyed and quick-handed.

She started by inserting a small toothpick into the egg batter about 1 cm. Looking at the toothpick that remained vertical, the nervous girl finally smiled.

Ah!

This means:

The egg batter was already quite successful.

"Could it be that the new dish she is trying out is Moss Cake?"

Next to her, her mother Leonora, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly remembered something when she saw her preparing the cake.

mousse cake.

This is a pastry with mousse powder as the main ingredient, and it is also a jelly-like dessert.

It can be eaten directly or used as a cake layer. Usually cream and solidifying agent are added to create a thick frozen effect!

Mousse, like pudding, is a type of dessert.

But it is softer than pudding and melts in your mouth.

Because of the addition of gelatin powder, it is not much different from jelly.

As we all know, the definition of molecular cuisine is to use chemical or physical theories to cook food and reorganize the molecular structure of food. Therefore, making egg batter into jelly or mousse cake is itself a category of molecular cuisine!

……

I ignored Leonora.

The next moment, Alice continued to restrain her facial expression, becoming more serious and cautious, and began to concentrate on the preparation of the next dish.

She slowly poured the sifted low-fraction flour into the egg mixture, and then mixed it over a large area using a cutting and stirring method.

Then, add vegetable oil and mix well.

Pour the batter into a 6-inch mold and tap it on the table a few times with a little force to eliminate large bubbles and make the surface smooth.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake on low heat for about 25 minutes.

After baking.

Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

It’s true that making such food is not that easy.

It would be difficult to complete without two or three hours.

But now Alice seems to enjoy it very much. The busier she is, the more energetic she becomes. After all, ever since she came back from the promotion exam, she has become more and more confident!

……

Time passes a little.

It was getting darker and darker, and Alice's cooking was gradually coming to an end.

Slowly pour it into the yogurt, stirring constantly. After mixing well, put it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to make the yogurt have a certain hardness.

After taking it out from the refrigerator, add the whipped cream and mix well.

With gentle movements and deft hands, it gradually became what she expected.

During this process, her body and mind were relaxed and relieved without her realizing it.

At last.

A glass of two-color mousse quartet, done!

The reason why it is called a quartet is that this ice drink has four layers, two of which are jelly and two are ice-cold cocktails.

"Okay, Mom, please taste it."

"I named this ice drink Double Mousse Quartet, but it's a new dish that I just came up with on a whim!"

Take a closer look.

The soft mousse is like a summer breeze.

While bringing a hint of coolness, it also feels like wandering in a fairyland in the clouds, which can bring a pleasant visual enjoyment.

I have never seen food so beautiful, so beautiful that people can't bear to eat it, and so delicious that it makes people feel that it is the taste from the depths of the soul of nature.

maybe.

The closer I get to molecular gastronomy, the more I feel that life is an art.

In the past, we ate to fill our stomachs, but we never thought about spending a lot of time looking at the ingredients, choosing the utensils, and pondering the taste...

And when I got into molecular cuisine, I gradually understood the law of harmony between man and nature.

The more I love.

The deeper the love.

The deeper, the purer.

All the deliberate efforts are not as good as the pure beauty of returning to nature.

Just like the dishes presented by Alice, some techniques of molecular cuisine are illustrated.

It can help chefs ensure the uniformity of taste and quality at the most core steps, use scientific methods to make the characteristics of certain ingredients more stable, improve efficiency, and present a beautiful plating effect.

But if we only focus on so-called gimmicks, fancyness, and high-endness, we may sometimes lose sight of the original appearance of the food.

You know, the highest level of taste is the natural taste.

Leonora Nakiri just smiled slightly, then picked up the glass of ice drink and took a sip.

"how to say?"

“The wine is not strong and has a soft texture.”

“It may seem like a simple cup, but it actually involves a lot of complicated processes.”

Closing her eyes and savoring the dish, Leonora gave a fair evaluation: "The color is bright and the texture is soft and smooth. It is made entirely by the gelling effect of gelatin. The egg batter is used to create a jelly texture. This is the highlight of this dish."

"However."

"Mom, the highlight is still the ice-cold cocktails."

Alice couldn't help but laugh when she heard this. She looked at Leono who was feeling it with her eyes closed, and her heart couldn't help but get excited.

Then she explained.

“A cocktail based on gin, with freshly squeezed lemon juice and topped off with soda water.”

“Indeed, this cocktail has a very refreshing taste and can enhance the taste of this two-color mousse quartet to a very good level.”

"Especially when you savor it carefully, the first thing you notice is the sweet fruit flavor spreading in your mouth, followed by the soft wine aroma dancing gently on the tip of your tongue, and finally the light aftertaste that leaves you with an endless aftertaste."

"Let's put it this way."

"The mousse cocktail you made has a rich and unique taste."

“It has both the smooth texture of jelly and the mellow taste of cocktail. When these two tastes are intertwined in the mouth, it gives people a wonderful taste experience!”

"But... cocktails aren't the best choice!"

Leonora opened her eyes and responded.

"why?"

Alice was stunned.

……

"You used the Gin Fizz cocktail, didn't you?"

"This kind of wine is very irritating and will continuously impact the two layers of jelly, causing them to gradually become acidic and their quality will deteriorate."

Leonora, explained.

"What should I do?"

"I said that the effect of the cocktail should be very good, but when I made it myself, it felt a little lacking!"

Alice expressed the doubts in her mind.

"Champagne, for example."

Leonora looked at her daughter and said softly, "Well, there is nothing wrong with the technique of using egg batter to make it taste like jelly. It's just that when paired with a cocktail, it affects the taste."

“So, just replace the cocktails with champagne!”

……

At last.

The champagne is full of bubbles and tastes very fresh.

After Leonora's slight improvement, this two-color mousse quartet is a manifestation of exquisite craftsmanship and a double enjoyment of both vision and taste.

Take another small sip and you will feel refreshed and your whole body will feel as delicate as a lover's kiss. Close your eyes and enjoy the comfortable and intimate feeling brought by nature.

In this mousse cocktail, you can seem to feel Alice's ingenuity.

She carefully selects each ingredient and blends each flavor with care, just to create this perfect molecular cuisine drink.

It is like an elegant dancer, showing off its elegance on the stage of light and shadow. Everyone who has tasted it will be attracted by its charm and indulge in this wonderful world of taste.

mild.

Cool.

This is the first taste.

"Really? Even I wouldn't have thought of that."

“Just by replacing the cocktail with champagne, the whole iced drink can become so delicious.”

"Uuuuuuu..."

"This taste is something I never imagined."

Alice made another glass of mousse champagne ice drink and said in disbelief after tasting it herself.

“While maintaining the original taste of not being too strong in wine and having a soft texture, it is even drier and more delicate.”

"What you are doing now is much better than before."

Leonora, also took a sip.

Suddenly, she felt her whole body light and this cool feeling went straight to her heart.

For a long while, she was unable to come back to her senses and fell into deep intoxication.

……

Natural hot springs.

There is not a single artificial ingredient in it, and its salty taste is mixed with a hint of sulfur.

It was this pure and natural clarity that made Leonora and Alice unable to help but take off their clothes and soak their busy and tired brains in the hot spring.

water!

It was only waist-deep, warm, smooth and clear.

But it cascaded down like a waterfall, hitting the body, splashing large amounts of water, and the body received a refreshing baptism under the impact of the water column.

Apparently at this moment, the mother and daughter were both imagining such a hot spring bathing scene in their minds.

"Comfortable!"

"It's really...comfortable."

"I can't believe it myself. Am I so terrifyingly strong now?"

Alice was so obsessed with her new cooking that she couldn't help herself.

But in the end, her face slightly blushed, and she said: "However, I am still too smart. The flaw of the whole dish is the cocktail, but I didn't know it. On the contrary, I thought that this kind of wine pairing is the best!"

……

In fact.

After the Totsuki Reform event, the candidates for the new top ten have been finalized.

At least in Alice's eyes, she felt that the current top ten were ranked like this:

First Tier:

Nakiri Erina.

The second team: Isshiki Hui

The third team: Teruki Kuga, Ryo Hayama, Ryo Kurokiba, and Takumi Aldini.

After all, Ryo Hayama, Kurokiba Ryo, and Takumi Aldini are indeed strong, but Takumi has undergone special training, so his strength is hard to say and we can only judge based on the seat.

According to Eiji Tsukasa, Kuga Teruki's progress has been huge, especially his performance in this regiment's food battle, which was also remarkable.

Then, there are Kinokununi Nene and Nakiri Alice.

Ning Ning of Jizhiguo is very capable, but Isshiki also thinks that she has spent too much time following the textbook to cook, which means that she has not laid a good foundation for innovation. This is indeed a flaw.

After receiving some admonitions from izakaya owner Zhang Fan, Alice Nakiri's molecular cuisine has become more and more down-to-earth.

Moreover, it can also begin to develop from an emotional perspective.

It's just a pity.

Her molecular cuisine is still a little underdeveloped, and the growth rate is a bit worrying...

The next in line should be Tadokoro Megumi.

Indeed, the skills of Alice and Kinokununi Ningning should be stronger than those of Tadokoro Megumi.

In the original novel, when Xiaohui was making apple Dorayaki, she failed because the transition between the astringent taste and the sweetness at the end was a bit abrupt. However, it was really not easy to win the respect of Momo Akane Kubo, a dessert master who even Muneaki Saito looked down upon.

Moreover, from the beginning to the end, Xiaohui's ability is empathy. Some people say that Soma's cooking is an acute medicine, while hers is a chronic medicine.

Even Zhang Fan agreed with this point.

Because there are many chefs who can make gourmets burst their clothes.

But there are very few chefs who can make a tsundere like Shinomiya cry.

This kind of consideration and empathy for diners is something many people will never achieve in their lifetime.