WGO Gourmet Organization Headquarters.
Nagiri Mana, dressed in silk pajamas, sat elegantly by the window, her gaze slightly distant as she stared into the distance, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
A graceful figure silently entered her room.
"You're back?"
Hearing the light footsteps, Nagiri Mana snapped back to reality and turned to look at Anne.
"Yes."
"Mana-sama."
Anne's face was filled with admiration and excitement as she looked at Nagiri Mana.
"What have you gained from your recent inspections of various restaurants?"
"Well…"
Anne dared not delay and quickly opened the thick "THE BOOK" in her hand, continuing, "This time, we inspected 1,035 promising restaurants, and 34 of them were promoted from one-star to two-star!"
"34 restaurants?"
"That's fewer than in previous years!"
Upon hearing this, Nagiri Mana frowned deeply and then asked, "How many new three-star restaurants are there?"
"1!"
"Only 1 new one?"
Mana immediately felt very disappointed.
Could it be that there was no hope left in the culinary world now?
Thinking this, she felt even more physically and mentally exhausted, her bright eyes filled with disappointment: "If I still can't find a dish that can conquer the God Tongue, with my current physical condition, I'm afraid I won't last until next year!"
"It seems I can't wait any longer. This year's THE BLUE Chef Tournament must be held early."
"We even need to further relax the entry requirements to allow more talented young chefs to participate."
"If that doesn't work."
"We'll just have to support those Midnight Chefs!"
…
Seeing Nagiri Mana's face full of disappointment, Anne, beside her, could only sigh softly.
Promising chefs had already been thoroughly investigated by their executive officers over the years.
Ultimately, the conclusion reached was that there were no chefs or dishes in this world that could break the curse of the God Tongue!
At the same time.
Judging from this year's situation.
The overall decline of the culinary world was more severe than they had predicted.
After all, with the advancement of supply chain and logistics technologies such as food processing, refrigeration, and preservation.
More and more restaurants, ingredient suppliers, and so on, were beginning to adopt a standardized process to produce products and achieve rapid development through it.
The most typical example was the emergence of pre-made dishes.
This kind of product often only required the vegetables to be washed and cut in advance, the meat to be marinated in advance, and then delivered in bags to various stores.
Then, the staff only needed to cut open the bags, put the processed ingredients into a steamer, and simply steam them before serving.
Indeed.
Pre-made dishes were very convenient and standardized.
However, under this model, the entire society's reliance on and demand for chefs would be greatly reduced, which was extremely detrimental to the future of the entire culinary world.
Although pre-made dishes were often advertised as similar to home-cooked meals when packaged and sold.
In fact, their taste and texture should be far inferior to naturally cooked food.
Especially during the processing, a large number of preservatives and seasonings were required, which could make the food's taste impure and lack freshness and naturalness.
So, in Anne's opinion, even if the THE BLUE Chef Tournament was held early, it would probably be in vain!
In her helplessness, she began to furrow her brows and lower her gaze, seemingly pondering how to speak.
That Shopkeeper of the Izakaya, without a doubt, should be able to break the curse of the God Tongue with his cooking!
However, the biggest problem at the moment was how to persuade Nagiri Mana to humble herself and go to the Izakaya?
…
"Anne."
"You've worked hard during this time. Go back and rest early!"
Finally, looking at the absent-minded Anne.
Nagiri Mana thought she was tired, so she got up and gently patted her shoulder, signaling her to go back and get some good rest.
"Al… All right."
"Mana-sama, you should also rest early."
Anne, who was about to tell Nagiri Mana everything she had seen and heard at the Izakaya, could only respectfully respond.
Then, she turned slightly, intending to leave the room.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, a sudden dizzy spell rushed to Nagiri Mana's head, making everything in front of her spin.
Bang!
After a sound.
She fell to the ground in Anne's astonishment.
"An… Anne, quick… quick, give me the nutrient solution, I… I'm almost done for…"
Involuntarily, the weak and powerless Nagiri Mana slightly pointed her finger at Anne, who had not yet left.
And in her eyes, which were almost rolling back, a strong "will to live" began to fill, clearly, the loss of her own life made her fear the impending death!
"Mana-sama."
"You… you… you must hold on."
As Nagiri Mana's attendant and secretary, Anne knew how dangerous the current situation was.
Therefore, she ran out in a panic, and then quickly brought a nutrient solution and injected it into Nagiri Mana's body!
…
"Phew~"
"Full HP restored."
"Indeed, foreign nutrient solutions are of the best quality!"
"At this moment, I can feel the glucose, vitamins, and mineral electrolytes in my body rapidly spreading and flowing!"
After one injection of the nutrient solution, Nagiri Mana, who was originally on her last breath, immediately stood up.
She shook her hands a few times, and after realizing that her body was full of strength again, a look of satisfaction and comfort couldn't help but appear on her face.
"That."
"Mana-sama."
"Did you not inject the nutrient solution on time?"
Looking at Nagiri Mana, whose complexion had somewhat returned to normal, Anne here might have guessed something and couldn't help but ask with a frown.
"Anne!"
"You know."
"I had someone find the largest and longest-lived white sturgeon in the world, and extracted caviar from its body…"
"Mana-sama."
"Injecting the nutrient solution on time was something the doctor repeatedly emphasized."
"Please, you must not be so willful again. Fortunately, I was here this time, otherwise, I wouldn't dare to imagine how this tragedy would have ended?"
Listening to Nagiri Mana's words, Anne quickly understood what was going on.
Although caviar was a particularly precious ingredient, especially caviar extracted from such a large white sturgeon, it was even more of a delicacy!
But Anne knew very well that let alone caviar, even a celestial peach falling from the sky probably wouldn't satisfy the God Tongue.
"Alright."
"This time, I was careless."
"Anne, I promise you it won't happen again next time."
Seeing Anne's sorrow and helplessness, Nagiri Mana could only softly say.
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