Fortunately, there were still people who knew their stuff on the scene.
The food critic, Mr. Qiao, spoke up, "I would like to ask, the seasonings used in these two dishes probably aren't from the production team, right? Because I usually eat this brand at home, and the taste is clearly different."
Mrs. Zhuang nodded honestly and said, "You are right. I used our own brand's braising sauce and steamed fish soy sauce."
As she spoke, she even tried to sneak in an advertisement for herself, "They are available in my online store. If you guys are interested, you can go and buy them. It's very convenient. Once you add it, you don't need to put in any other seasonings."
However, as soon as she finished speaking, Mr. Qiao looked at the host and said, "Isn't this a bit against the rules? I see our show stipulates that you must use the ingredients and seasonings provided by the team."
This made Mrs. Zhuang on the stage and Mr. Zhuang, who was accompanying his wife offstage, freeze for a moment.
Another master chef, Chef Zeng, also nodded and said, "Isn't this unfair to the other contestants?"
"Yes," a public judge echoed, "It's better to follow the rules."
In this situation...
The host paused and had to suspend the recording to consult the director and producer.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Zhuang's husband was still trying to argue offstage, saying, "When chopping the meat just now, my wife also told the host that it was our own exclusive secret sauce. If it wasn't allowed, you should have reminded us in time!"
"Uh..."
The host said with a helpless face, "I'm sorry, brother. At that time, I thought the secret sauce you mentioned was made with the seasonings we provided. I didn't know you brought it in yourself."
After he spoke, the directing team also came up with a countermeasure and said, "Considering that today is the first recording, and the dishes of other guests still need to be reviewed, let's not be too fussy about it. For the sake of fairness, we will deduct two points for materials."
"Please also note, this is not to be repeated."
After that, although Mrs. Zhuang and her husband were still a little unconvinced, they could only continue to cooperate with the recording.
Mr. Qiao then directly gave a score of three.
Immediately after, the master chef, Chef Zeng, commented, "Actually, apart from the sauce, the heat control for these two dishes today is also slightly overdone. The chicken is a bit too loose, and the steamed fish is also a bit out of shape, so I will deduct some professional points."
Saying so, he also gave a three.
Next, it was the public judges' turn to score.
Whether it was because the sauce incident left a bad impression on everyone, or they were simply dissatisfied with Mrs. Zhuang's dishes, out of a perfect score of eighty, the sixteen judges gave a total of sixty points.
Adding the scores of the four main judges, Mrs. Zhuang's first appearance received a score of seventy-six.
This obviously did not meet the expectations of Mrs. Zhuang and her husband.
The expressions on their faces suddenly became less pleasant than before.
But no one paid attention, because next, everyone's attention turned to the dishes of the borderline... oh no, the fitness expert, Brother Song.
As mentioned earlier, this highly popular Brother Song made sea urchin fried rice and charcoal-grilled oysters.
Actually, without even tasting it, just looking at the presentation of these two dishes, Xu Yanxia knew they wouldn't taste good.
Not to mention anything else, the sea urchin fried rice was fried into a porridge...
The straightforward food critic, Mr. Qiao, immediately said, "You used quite a lot of sea urchins in this fried rice, at least five or six, right?"
Brother Song nodded quite honestly and said, "Yes, I used six sea urchins. After all, if you make it yourself, it has to be genuine. It's not like some sold outside where you can't even find where the sea urchin is."
Hearing this, Mr. Qiao was amused by his humor but still said bluntly, "Having enough ingredients is a good thing, but to be honest, this rice is fried so sticky that it's definitely not up to standard, and it should be related to the excessive use of sea urchins."
"That's right,"
Another judge, Chef Zeng, hurriedly explained to him, "There is a lot of moisture in sea urchins. If you use too much and fry it for too long, it will cause water to seep out in the pan and make the rice sticky."
"So sometimes it's not that the ones sold outside are reluctant to put in ingredients, it's really that you can't put in too much. Especially today, the production team prepared large sea urchins. For this size, putting in two is enough."
"In addition, there is also a small problem with this charcoal-grilled oyster,"
Chef Zeng further explained, "The minced garlic was fried a bit too thoroughly at the beginning, and combined with the roasting heat, it became a bit overdone, with a slightly burnt taste. Next time you make it, just fry it until it's half-cooked, or mix in half raw minced garlic."
"Oh, okay, okay, thank you, teacher."
Unlike Mrs. Zhuang just now, unexpectedly, this Brother Song was quite modest. He nodded repeatedly, looking like he was sincerely listening to the teachings.
As a result, although there were major problems with the dishes, he still won a lot of favor from the judges. The score he received was only one point less than Mrs. Zhuang, totaling seventy-five points.
...
And next, it was Xu Yanxia's turn.
Xiaozhen and Ye Shu offstage were both a little nervous.
The other staff members were full of anticipation.
Because after the last recording, they all truly saw Xu Yanxia's skills, and they all wanted to know what kind of evaluation these professional judges would give her now.
As everyone tasted her dishes, before the judges could speak, Brother Song gave her a thumbs up first and praised her with a look of surprise, "You are amazing, miss! This fried oyster is so delicious! And this abalone is cooked so fragrantly!!!"
His overflowing praise made it seem like he forgot they were competitors.
It caught Xu Yanxia a bit off guard, and she could only smile and say thank you to him.
Seeing this scene, Ye Shu, who was filming Xu Yanxia offstage, also whispered to Xiaozhen, "Not gonna lie, this borderline guy is quite honest. I'm starting to like him a bit."
"Right, right, I'm about to become a fan too."
Xiaozhen also smiled and nodded, signaling her to quickly watch the judges' reactions.
They saw the food critic, Mr. Qiao, immediately nod and say, "Delicious! Really delicious!!! It's been a while since the dish was finished, yet these fried oysters can still maintain such a crispy crust, and the oysters inside are very tender, not dry at all. This is very rare!!!"
Saying this, he also asked Xu Yanxia, "May I ask how you did it?"
"Of course,"
Xu Yanxia smiled and said, "There are two key points. One is to increase the proportion of starch when mixing the batter. The other is that you must control the seasonings and time for marinating the oysters, as well as the heat when putting them into the pan."
"Excellent."
After she spoke, the other master chef, Chef Zeng, also hurriedly nodded and said, "Only when the heat and time are controlled extremely precisely, so that the oysters are just cooked through without releasing water, will the outer batter not turn soft. This requires a lot of skill!"
As he spoke, he also gave Xu Yanxia a thumbs up. "For this dish alone, I'm going to give a perfect score. Very impressive!"
"The other dish is also absolutely stunning!"
Mr. Qiao immediately followed up with an emotional sigh, "I truly never expected that fresh abalone could be cooked to have the exact same texture as dried abalone! The density of this gelatinous texture, how deeply the flavor has seeped in, and the taste of the scallion braise! This dish is absolutely incredible! Both dishes are incredible! I give it a perfect score!"
Saying so, he immediately gave out his first perfect score of the day.
This prompted the off-stage staff to burst into spontaneous applause.
Immediately following, the nearly seventy-year-old Chef Zeng also gave his first perfect score of the day. Speaking in Mandarin with a heavy local accent, he said to Xu Yanxia, "I truly didn't expect to eat two dishes with such solid foundational skills on a variety show. I looked at your profile, and you work at a local restaurant? I am very gratified; this shows that our local Chinese cuisine has great hope! I look forward to having the opportunity to properly exchange pointers with you."
As his voice fell, Xu Yanxia humbly bowed to the two judges.
Taking the opportunity to slip in a bit of advertising, she said, "Thank you for your recognition, teachers. I currently work for the Lu Catering Investment Company. We have two brands under us: the time-honored local Chinese restaurant Jiuzhen Zhishan, and the new-style affordable Chinese restaurant Xu's Teppanyaki. I hope to have the opportunity to invite the two of you and more friends to visit our restaurants and give us your guidance."
"I am also very much looking forward to exchanging culinary insights with everyone!"
After she finished speaking, Ye Shu and Xiaozhen off-stage took the lead in applauding her.
Seeing that the two professionals had given such high praise, the other two agreeable judges naturally didn't dare to say anything to the contrary and consecutively gave perfect scores as well.
Next, the public judges also gave their scores one by one.
Aside from an unknown judge who left Xu Yanxia a tiny bit of room for improvement, she received a total of ninety-eight points, the highest score of the entire event.
Applause erupted across the venue once more, and Xu Yanxia smiled and bowed again to express her thanks.
Immediately after, the pressure of the entire room fell onto the shoulders of Master Jin, the descendant of an imperial chef.
To be honest, Xu Yanxia was actually quite looking forward to his creations.
After all, she wanted to know what these two imperial dishes, which she hadn't even heard of before, tasted like.
However, after tasting both dishes once, she frowned again.
It seemed her earlier anticipation had been a waste.
Yet, this Master Jin was still smugly inviting everyone to give their evaluations.
"The fact that Comrade Xiaoxia's dishes just now received so many high votes makes me very gratified. This shows that our Chinese cuisine has great hope. I wonder if my two exquisite imperial dishes can win everyone's favor? If you have any opinions, please feel free to share them."
As soon as he finished speaking, Mr. Qiao, after taking a taste, was the first to speak. He said, "I have long admired Master Jin's great name, and the presentation of today's two dishes is also quite good."
"It's just that I have a small question. When you made this sea urchin stuffed with mountain delicacies, why did you choose porcini mushrooms and butter?"
Exactly.
Xu Yanxia also looked toward him.
One must know that both porcini mushrooms and sea urchins are extremely umami-rich ingredients. In the world of Chinese cuisine, it has always been rare to use these two together.
What's more, he even used butter and minced garlic to pan-fry the porcini mushrooms beforehand.
And it wasn't just this dish; the other so-called tribute eight-treasure braised rice also had it.
It should be noted that the last feudal dynasty, where Master Jin kept claiming his ancestors had served, actually had extremely strict regulations regarding the combination of ingredients for imperial meals.
When cooking seafood ingredients like sea urchins and abalones, garlic and butter were absolutely forbidden.
