Dylan was unaware of Ma Mei's thoughts.
Watching the contestants file in one after another, he pumped the bellows vigorously, turning the flame up to its maximum.
The next moment, the fattier parts of the beef scraps flew into the hot wok, tossed vigorously with the wok ladle. This was searing over high heat, rendering out most of the fat from the trimmings.
There was another reason he'd chosen this ingredient: it fit the theme perfectly.
For the dish he was about to make, using pure beef cuts would result in a tough texture, no matter how high the quality! The mouthfeel would always be lacking something.
In other words, only these beef scraps could perfectly meet his requirements!
"Is he searing beef? Preparing to make stewed beef? But using scraps like these, what kind of delicious stewed beef can he possibly make?!"
Just then, Mokujichi Sonoka and Kakuzaki Taki, having finished selecting their ingredients, entered through the Cooking Arena's doorway. Watching Dylan's actions, they speculated inwardly.
Dylan was unaware of this, and even if he had known, he couldn't be bothered to explain.
At this moment, his concentration was absolute, his foot rhythmically pumping the bellows to control the fire, maintaining the wok's temperature at the optimal level.
Searing out the moisture, rendering the excess fat, he added slices of ginger, segments of scallion, and cloves of garlic, stir-frying evenly to remove any lingering gaminess from the beef.
At the same time, during the searing process, the undesirable odors in the beef diminished as the moisture evaporated.
When cooking beef, removing the gamey smell is paramount. If a beef dish has a strong gamey odor, then the dish is a complete and utter failure!
Star anise, cinnamon bark, nutmeg, bay leaves, galangal, cardamom, white cardamom, Sichuan peppercorn, and black cardamom – Dylan skillfully added numerous spices to the wok, enhancing the meat's aroma and preventing the flavor from being too monotonous.
A ladle of soybean sauce added aroma and color. Then, using a small separate pot, he quickly prepared some caramelized sugar and added it to the meat wok for secondary coloring and fragrance.
After completing this step, Dylan observed the state of the beef in the wok, inhaled the aroma filling the air, and a precise measurement surfaced in his mind. He added a generous amount of sugar to enhance umami, a large quantity of salt for seasoning, and finally, splashed vinegar around the edge of the wok before adding enough boiling water to cover the beef!
That fragrance, whoosh, instantly intensified!
"Oh right, almost forgot about you, little guy."
Seeing the lone gardenia fruit sitting on the cooking station, Dylan tossed it into the pot to enhance the dish's color, making it more appealing. This represented the 'color' aspect of the ideal 'color, aroma, and taste'.
Sugar, salt, dark soy sauce, caramelized sugar – Dylan added each of these seasonings only once.
With the near-perfect combination of his super sense of smell and super sense of touch, he could usually add the exact amount of ingredients in one go, requiring no secondary adjustments.
This was the root of his ability to create 'flowing light cuisine' – polishing every single detail to the extreme!
After finishing the preparation, Dylan opened a pressure cooker and poured all the contents from the wok into it, ensuring the broth did not completely submerge the ingredients.
This is called braising.
If the liquid covers the ingredients, then it's called stewing.
The two methods look similar, and share some common steps, but are actually fundamentally different.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have two different names.
Besides the preparation method, the cooking time also differs significantly.
Traditional braised beef should be simmered slowly over low heat, using time to perfect its flavor. Using a pressure cooker is actually a shortcut – though, in a sense, it's also an innovative use of technology.
The braised beef produced this way, while perhaps not matching the flavor of traditionally made braised beef, would still be a top-tier 'glowing cuisine'.
Because all the other details were perfectly polished!
If made using the traditional method, it would take at least three hours. That approach is suitable for duels against experts, not for participating in an examination.
In any case, the priority was to meet the examination requirements first.
Dylan's gaze swept across the hall, observing the other contestants. By now, most of the cooking stations in the room were occupied and in use.
Only a few stations remained empty.
He guessed there weren't enough participants for the Special Grade Examination today. He wondered what it was like when it was crowded.
Would people arriving later not get a station at all?!
Thinking carefully, that didn't seem impossible. After all, the main purpose of the Special Grade Examination was selection.
It would be perfectly justifiable for latecomers, who dawdled during ingredient selection and fell behind others, to end up without a station and be eliminated!
"Beef, cuttlefish, rice, and you've also prepared cuttlefish ink."
"Besides that, you have chicken broth and beef bone broth simmering in the stockpot."
"Are you planning to make a Spanish-style beef stew with rice?" Looking at the various ingredients before him, Dylan immediately deduced the dish Kakuzaki Taki was cooking and started speaking while standing beside her station.
"You... That's right." Kakuzaki Taki, who was in the middle of cooking, was startled by the sudden address.
Annoyed, she looked up, ready to snap, but upon seeing it was Dylan, her tone shifted to slightly irritated questioning. "You're not at your own station, what are you doing over here?"
"I'm pretty much done. Mine will be ready in about an hour. Good luck to you," Dylan replied.
"Also, about the Spanish-style beef stew rice – round-grain rice would be better. Spanish rice dishes tend to have a higher proportion of broth."
"A four-star chef once wrote in his autobiography that during his childhood, he experimented with dozens of types of rice and found that round-grain rice absorbs broth better, making for a perfect Spanish rice dish."
Looking at the ingredients on Kakuzaki Taki's table, Dylan couldn't help but offer the tip. He'd read it in a magazine and later tried it out of curiosity; round-grain rice indeed absorbed broth better than pointed-grain rice.
Round-grain rice, saturated with broth, achieves a perfect fusion of texture and flavor with the other ingredients used in the cooking – that is a true Spanish rice dish!
"This is the roundest rice I could find around here! The others were all longer-grain rice."
"Who knew we had to source our own ingredients for the cooking exam! Back where I'm from, the organizers always prepare everything!"
Kakuzaki Taki pouted, her voice tinged with complaint.
Logically, the organizers should have consulted the contestants beforehand and prepared all the necessary ingredients to facilitate on-the-spot cooking!
They were chefs here to take a cooking examination! Skill should be the most crucial element, not running around sourcing ingredients themselves and nearly getting lost because they were unfamiliar with the area...
"The Guangchu Lian has its reasons, and they gave plenty of time. It's impossible that there's no round-grain rice sold in Guangzhou. You just didn't look in enough places."
Dylan now understood why Kakuzaki Taki and the others had arrived even earlier than him – they had slacked off! Round-grain rice wasn't uncommon. Even if one rice shop happened to be out of stock, other shops would surely have it.
"I wanted to, but I mainly didn't know the way..."
Kakuzaki Taki blushed. In the vast city of Guangzhou, she could only find rice shops by painstakingly asking passersby one by one; she couldn't read a map.
When she finally found one, it didn't sell what she wanted. And she couldn't spend all her time just looking for rice shops; she still had other ingredients to buy.
So, her strategy was to first buy the essential ingredients, find substitutes for anything she couldn't locate, and figure out the rest later.
"A little bit off here, a little bit off there – it adds up to a big difference in the end! Cooking isn't something you can just casually muddle through!"
"You clearly had plenty of time! Even if you resort to substitutes, it should only be when you're genuinely out of time, absolutely cannot find the ingredient, or have already tried your best."
"But the reality is, you arrived even earlier than me and must have been here for quite a while. You simply didn't put your heart into searching!"
Having taught Nakiri Alice for many years, Dylan had developed the unique aura of a teacher, along with the accompanying occupational hazard.
Faced with Kakuzaki Taki's attitude of not truly putting her heart into her cooking, he felt angry. Cooking wasn't something you could just treat casually!
As he lectured her, Kakuzaki Taki's expression visibly soured, but she didn't know how to retort. She could only lower her head like a scolded child, letting him speak.
"Forget it, I've said too much. Don't take it to heart. Just consider it nonsense."
Seeing Kakuzaki Taki's aggrieved look, Dylan suddenly realized she wasn't his student, and he had no standing to lecture her.
Understanding this, his expression turned a bit awkward. However, he didn't regret saying what he did, because it could potentially change a chef's entire life!
If she took it to heart, she could advance further. If not, then this might be her limit in life. Special Grade wasn't a title earned casually. Even Special Grade chefs in Japan were born from rigorous selection!
"No, you're absolutely right!" Kakuzaki Taki suddenly looked up, tear tracks glistening at the corners of her eyes.
"I admit, when I heard you mention the second round of the Guangzhou Special Grade Examination, I felt like backing down."
"So I was careless when selecting ingredients, constantly telling myself that failing the Guangzhou exam wouldn't be my fault – it would be because of the ridiculous rules, because I didn't know the way and lacked ingredients."
"In reality, there were many solutions, but I didn't want to... or more accurately, I was afraid to try."
"I was afraid that even if I found all the right ingredients, I still wouldn't pass this first round... That would shatter the confidence I've built up until now."
This was the first time she'd been reprimanded since becoming one of Totsuki's Elite Ten – scolded for her timidity, her cowardice, her ridiculous pride. This appearance was truly unsightly to the extreme!
"I understand now."
"Running away won't solve anything. I'll go buy the ingredients again, face the examination head-on, and make the best dish I possibly can!" Kakuzaki Taki looked at Dylan's face, speaking each word earnestly. Then, glancing at the broth simmering in her stockpot, she calculated the time in her head and ran out.
"Wow, Senpai, you actually made Kakuzaki-senpai cry! You're really something!"
Watching Kakuzaki Taki jog away, Mokujichi Sonoka from the adjacent station couldn't help but peek over, her expression surprised.
This was the first time she had ever seen Kakuzaki-senpai cry, especially from being scolded. Usually, Kakuzaki was the one doing the bullying!
Too bad that moment was too short, she didn't manage to take a picture. What a shame.
Mokujichi Sonoka thought with slight regret, only to then see Dylan arrive in front of her, fall silent looking at her station, and then let out a sigh.
"Gomen nasai for the red bean paste!"
Mokujichi Sonoka blushed slightly, bowed deeply at ninety degrees, revealing her ample cleavage, and sincerely apologized for her mistake.
After saying this, she jogged out of the examination hall to buy the new ingredients required, based on Dylan's reasoned analysis.
Dylan watched her retreating figure and couldn't help but purse his lips. He had ended up saying it – her cooking was terrible, riddled with all sorts of problems in the details.
Although an average person might find it delicious, for a professional chef, it was a complete failure!
It seemed the weakest contestant in this Guangzhou Special Grade Examination was this young girl who had just been promoted to a First-Class Chef in Japan!
"What's going on? Did he just make someone quit the competition with just a few words?"
A few Guangzhou chefs at nearby stations noticed this scene and exchanged bewildered glances. Because Dylan's voice wasn't loud, they couldn't hear the conversation.
They only knew that the young girl had blurted out something in Japanese, then suddenly bowed deeply and ran out, just like the girl before her.
"Intimidation tactics?"
"What on earth did he say to them...?"
Swallowing nervously, the surrounding chefs watched Dylan wander around idly. They kept a close eye on him, guarding their own dishes, afraid he might pull some trick to sabotage them.
However, they were indeed worrying too much. Dylan didn't say a word to them the entire time, merely glanced at them indifferently before continuing his pacing.
Seeing that he wasn't causing any further trouble, Ma Mei stopped herself from stepping forward to intervene. She stood silently, watching him pace back and forth, feeling rather puzzled.
Why was this guy wandering around like an examiner instead of focusing on his own cooking?
Just moments ago, too, he had suddenly gone over to talk to those two girls, and after he spoke, they gave up on the competition? One even cried?
What was going on?
Not just the surrounding chefs, Ma Mei herself was extremely curious. However, her position prevented her from asking.
She also didn't understand why her older brother valued him so highly, even asking her to give him special consideration.
Thinking of her older brother, the head chef at the 'Tianfu' Restaurant, Ma Mei couldn't help but sigh.
He was great in every way, except, unfortunately, he was completely henpecked.
Being henpecked was one thing, but the crucial point was that her sister-in-law was truly not a good person. She couldn't distinguish right from wrong at all and was useless apart from her good looks.
The two of them had argued frequently because of this, leaving her brother caught in the middle, pleasing neither side.
As if recalling unpleasant memories, Ma Mei's brow furrowed involuntarily. After a long moment, she let out a faint sigh.
"It seems that while there are definitely some slackers trying to slip through, there are also true chefs here, striving with all their might to pass the Special Grade Examination!"
A man known as 'Iron Arm' A Mu wielded an iron rod weighing 10 kilograms, pounding the beef hind leg meat before him at a rate of over a hundred strikes per minute.
Before pounding, the surface fascia needed to be removed; otherwise, it would affect the texture of the beef balls, lowering their quality.
Secondly, the pounding time for the beef balls had to be controlled within half an hour; otherwise, the collagen would rapidly deplete, affecting the texture.
Furthermore, as the beef was pounded, internal sinew would gradually become exposed and needed to be quickly picked out with an iron skewer.
Seasonings and ice water were added during the process.
Through pounding and slapping, the beef paste became resilient and elastic, creating beef balls that would be springy, smooth-surfaced, with meat sticky to the touch, firm yet yielding.
Dylan nodded inwardly. It was clear this guy was truly skilled at making beef balls.
Aside from some minor details being handled a bit roughly, this was being made entirely to the standards of 'glowing cuisine'; every step was handled very well.
Of course, precisely because those deeper details weren't refined, this Chaozhou beef ball dish definitely couldn't become 'glowing cuisine'! This was related to the chef's personality.
For 'Iron Arm' A Mu to create glowing beef balls, what he needed most wasn't constant practice, but worldly experience – to travel for a period, tempering and elevating his spirit. Only then could he succeed.
"Blond-haired, blue-eyed Frenchmen... came to China because they disliked their own country's chef armbands?"
"They each have a steak on their station, and the ingredients look identical."
"Judging from the ingredients, they're likely making Steak Diane, a classic French dish often ordered on dates, with over a hundred years of history."
"Are they planning to make the same dish, aiming for a stable victory? Normally, that should be fine, but unfortunately, the steaks on their tables are different."
"Because there aren't many shops in Guangzhou selling Western ingredients, by the time the two managed to gather everything they needed and return to the Cooking Arena, only one portion of ribeye – the most suitable cut for Steak Diane – was left."
Looking at the two who had finally managed to gather their ingredients and hurried back to the competition venue, and the ribeye and top sirloin respectively placed on their tables, Dylan sighed inwardly.
The so-called 'top sirloin' is actually the cut used for sirloin steak.
While it can also be used for Steak Diane, the difference in flavor compared to ribeye is quite significant.
"And this 'ribeye' doesn't actually refer to meat under the cow's eye."
"It's located at the front part of the cow's back, connected to the chuck eye roll at the front and the striploin behind it."
"The cross-section of the whole muscle is somewhat oval, with a ring of white fat resembling an eye, hence the name 'ribeye'."
After watching for a moment, Dylan shifted his gaze elsewhere. He then saw the mature woman from before. She was preparing a Huaiyang dish, incorporating some Guangfu culinary techniques – a Clay Pot Beef Stew!
Besides these, there were several other chefs completely focused on their cooking, undisturbed by external factors, like tightly wound strings. It had to be said, the atmosphere wasn't bad!
The Guangzhou Special Grade Chef Examination underwent reforms decades ago due to various reasons, including the excessive number of people in the culinary profession. It changed from being held once every four years to once a year.
This led many people to believe the difficulty had decreased, tempting them to try and bluff their way through.
But how could the Guangchu Lian possibly give them that chance? Apart from shortening the interval between examinations, everything else adhered to the original standards.
Only those whose cooking skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities met the standard, who could discern the quality of others' dishes, and who possessed a chef's pride and self-respect...
Only such individuals could be called Special Grade Chefs!
Thinking this, Dylan strolled back to his own cooking station.
Then, he kicked a man who was lurking around his station, preparing to stomp on the bellows to increase the fire and ruin his dish. Dylan's expression was terrifyingly cold.
________
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