The five gourmets gave Ye Chui five points. Just when Lin Li, Zhang Jiahui and others were looking surprised and thought they had made a comeback, Michelle said, "This is the score for Mr. Ye, and the following is Mr. Zhang's score. I think Mr. Zhang's dishes taste very good. If I had eaten them normally, I might have given them four points. But after having eaten Ye Chui's dishes and then Mr. Zhang's dishes, I felt the difference, so... I'll give them three points."
"I have the same feeling. I can sense that Mr. Zhang's dish should have pork in it, and the pork was cut into small pieces. However, the meat did not play any role. Since the focus of this dish is eggplant, I should be able to taste the aroma of pork when I eat the eggplant. But your eggplant does not have this flavor, which makes the pork seem a bit redundant." Hannah continued.
"I agree with what Hannah and Michelle said." Chris nodded and said, "So, I can only give this dish two points."
Hannah nodded: "It still has its merits... so I give it three points."
Tony was the next to speak: "You are right. If I hadn't eaten it with Mr. Ye's dish, I might have given it a higher score, but after eating Mr. Ye's dish just now, I can immediately feel the huge gap when tasting this dish, so... I will give it two points."
"One point." Sid said immediately. He didn't have any extra introduction. The comments of the first four judges already represented a lot.
Chen Tian, Jiang Yuemei, Shen Zhongda and others all showed happy expressions. They were supporters of Ye Chui and originally belonged to one of the seven major restaurants in Chinatown. They had some nostalgia for the Chinatown side in this cooking competition, but after seeing Lin Li's shameless behavior before, now that Ye Chui's salted fish and eggplant pot won a great victory, they only felt very happy.
Mrs. Gao, Huang Yiyuan and others all looked very unhappy.
Nick Cheung's whole body became stiff, and the expression on his face was as if he had completely lost his soul, as if he couldn't believe this.
Robert smiled and said, "So, Ye Chui's dish received a full five points, and Mr. Zhang's dish... I don't need to collect the details. The first dish of this cooking competition is naturally won by Mr. Ye."
"Wait a minute..." Lin Li shouted unwillingly.
Robert looked at Lin Li with some displeasure: "Mr. Lin, are you dissatisfied with this result? Do you want to question the fairness and justice of these five gourmets?"
“No, no…” Lin Li denied hastily, but he immediately added, “I just… just… just… Mr. Ye’s dish uses a unique ingredient, which makes it popular among gourmets. But when we decided on the rules of the cooking competition, we made it clear that the ingredients used in this cooking competition are only eggplant and mutton. Ye Chui’s dish is not a dish with eggplant as the main ingredient, so… his dish is not eligible for the competition!”
Lin Li was still stuttering at first, but the more he spoke, the more confident he became. The highlight of Ye Chui's dish was the salted fish. The five gourmets just now all praised the salted fish in the dish, and they were competing for the eggplant, so Ye Chui was not eligible to participate with this dish.
After hearing Lin Li's words, everyone was silent. Lin Li's words sounded a bit far-fetched, but... they also made sense, so everyone looked at Ye Chui, wanting to know what Ye Chui had to say.
Ye Chui smiled.
"Salted fish is just a side dish, there's only a small amount. The highlight of this dish is the eggplant." Ye Chui smiled calmly and continued, "Didn't Master Zhang also put pork in this dish?"
Tang Shanshan hurriedly translated Ye Chui's words to the five gourmets.
(ps: There is a mistake in the previous chapter. Han Yuyan was in the kitchen, so the one who helped Ye Chui translate English should be Tang Shanshan... Sorry.)
“But Miss Hannah has just said that the pork in Chef Zhang’s dish is redundant and the taste is not reflected, so Mr. Zhang’s pork should not be counted.” Lin Li said hurriedly.
Ye Chui looked at Lin Li with a competitive look on his face and said, "It's put in, it's put in, it doesn't count? You think this is just a child's play, as for the lack of pork flavor... This can only mean that there is something wrong with Chef Zhang's cooking skills. As I said before, there is something wrong with the way you cook this 40-year-old eggplant stew!"
Zhang Jiahui originally had a dejected look on his face, but when he heard Ye Chui accusing him of having problems with his cooking skills, he inevitably became angry. He was an eight-star chef and a famous chef all over the world, but now he was being accused by Ye Chui like this. Anyone would have reason to feel angry!
He looked at Ye Chui coldly: "Then I want to ask Ye Chui, what's wrong with my cooking skills!"
Ye Chui walked to the dining table and took a look at Zhang Jiahui's dish. He had never tasted the Lin family's eggplant stew, but through the comments of several gourmets just now and the quality of the dish, he already understood a lot, so he continued: "There is something wrong with the way you cook the eggplant. Although my salted fish and eggplant stew has more salted fish, the salted fish is just for seasoning. If I also replace it with pork, then my eggplant stew will still have a strong pork aroma after it comes out."
Tang Shanshan hurriedly translated these words.
Michelle was very interested and asked, "Mr. Ye, may I ask why? Oh, if this is a confidential recipe, Mr. Ye, you can refuse to answer."
"No, this is just some common sense in cooking." Ye Chui said with a faint smile. His little common sense made Lin Li, Zhang Jiahui and others look even uglier... Ye Chui continued, "The texture of eggplant makes it easy for it to absorb the taste of other ingredients. Chinese cuisine has discovered this feature a long time ago and has developed many delicacies because of it. For example, the palace eggplant fish in the Manchu-Han Banquet is one of them. The Lin family eggplant stew appeared in the era when meat was poisonous. At that time, there was no meat ingredient in cooking. The feature of this dish is the stew. The taste of the seasoning is easy to absorb in the casserole. However, after the ban on meat was lifted, I think it was Mr. Zhang who improved the recipe and added pork, but he obviously continued the original method of eggplant stew. Although the addition of pork improved the taste of this dish, it failed to make the pork flavor blend into the eggplant. This is a big failure!"
Zhang Jiahui actually knew the problem that Ye Chui mentioned. Adding pork to the eggplant stew made the dish taste more delicious, but the pork could not be flavored. His method of improvement was to cut the pork into small pieces. When diners picked up the eggplant, the pork pieces would stick to the eggplant, and they would naturally be able to taste the aroma of pork at all times. However, this pleasing method obviously failed to impress the five gourmets.
Zhang Jiahui said to Ye Chui with some annoyance: "I have tried many times, and the taste of pork is simply impossible to blend into eggplant. This is probably determined by the characteristics of pork. Even if you, Mr. Ye, were to cook this dish, I'm afraid it would be the same."
"It's not that difficult to make pork tasty. In fact, it's just common sense." Ye Chui said with a faint smile, "If I'm not mistaken, the most important thing about the Lin family's eggplant stew is that the eggplant is steamed before cooking to soften the texture, right?"
Lin Li and Zhang Jiahui's faces turned pale. This was indeed the most important secret recipe for eggplant stew. They didn't expect Ye Chui to reveal it directly.
Ye Chui continued, "This approach is totally wrong. Steaming or boiling eggplant will cause it to absorb moisture, destroying its original sponge-like texture and making it difficult to absorb other flavors. This is why, Master Zhang, your eggplant stew doesn't have the flavor of pork even though you added it to it. Solving this problem is actually very simple. Don't steam or boil the eggplant before cooking. Instead, stir-fry it to allow it to absorb oil. This way, it can absorb the extra flavors."
There was a dazed look on Nick Cheung's face, as if he suddenly thought of something, and he rushed into the kitchen impatiently, apparently to do an experiment.
Lin Li's face became even uglier. He lost the first match, and it was such an ugly loss. However, a ray of light suddenly flashed in his mind: It seems that Ye Chu really knows this eggplant stew. The eggplant stew made by his method will definitely be very delicious...
Even if he lost the competition today, his Lin family pot got a better eggplant pot recipe, so it wasn't a big loss.
As a restaurant owner, profits are the most important thing. Lin Li himself doesn’t care about the independence of Chinatown cuisine. What he cares about is the interests behind it.
It was just that Lin Li had just thought of this idea, and before he could be happy, he heard Ye Chui continue to say: "Boss Lin, although the method of making eggplant stew I mentioned is only a small change, you should know how valuable this change is. Five gourmets are here, so I don't think you will rashly plagiarize it, right?"
“…” Lin Li’s expression suddenly became even uglier.
"Of course." Ye Chui smiled again, "I don't really value this little bit of common sense. If you are willing to admit defeat, it's not a big deal to tell you..."
Lin Li showed hesitation on his face.
"Lin Li!" Mrs. Gao suddenly shouted angrily.
Lin Li finally came to his senses and snorted, "Master Ye, this game is only halfway through. The mutton stew that my Lin family makes may not lose to yours."
"hehe."
Ye Cui smiled faintly but said nothing.
A hint of hesitation flashed across Lin Li's face again, and he walked back to Madam Gao and Huang Yiyuan. He was now attracted by Ye Chui's little common sense... The art of cooking, even a little common sense, can have a huge impact on the taste of food.
The value is immeasurable. (~^~)