The judges' list on the preliminary day will be kept confidential. This is the answer that Lu Sanlang, who is fully responsible for organizing the Royal Chef Selection Competition, has never changed when facing many people who have inquired about the news.
Therefore, before the three old gentlemen including Ge Yong and the three nobles including Duke of Zhao Zhu Jing arrived, when they saw that only Wan Yuanbao and two other wealthy merchants from the capital had gone up to the tower, and there were three common people looking around behind them as judges, many chefs thought that there were only six people coming to judge, and their initial disappointment was tangible.
After all, no one was sure that they could pass the selection and finally enter the imperial kitchen and get the title of imperial chef. Their greater hope was to win the favor of the powerful. Then a word of praise could earn them great reputation and give them something to brag about when they opened their own restaurant in the future.
But as the important guests arrived one by one, the chefs began to get excited. When they heard that Princess Yongping was coming and would even celebrate her birthday in the Xinglong Teahouse today, they were not just excited, but excited!
No matter what the result of the imperial chef selection is, when the time comes they will say that they were the ones who organized the princess' birthday banquet. How prestigious!
Not only the chefs were excited, but the common people who had come today specially to join in the fun were equally excited, because Chu Kuan, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department who was ordered to accompany Princess Yongping, announced with a smile that it was the princess' birthday, and Princess Yongping had personally posed a question, asking all the chefs who were taking the imperial chef examination today to prepare a birthday dessert that could be eaten in just one bite, and also that the cost had to be controlled, the lower the better.
However, in addition to the food being tasted by the many guests upstairs, forty people present will be randomly selected to taste and judge the food.
Hearing the thunderous cheers below, Princess Yongping, who was staying alone on the third floor, smiled faintly and said to Chu Kuan, "Zhu Ying and Zhang Shou, the two birthday boys, have not come yet, and I feel bored staying here alone. Besides, although this is the place where my father wanted to enjoy the scenery, it doesn't make sense to keep it empty all the time. How about inviting Grand Tutor Ge, Duke Zhao and the others to come up?"
Although the Queen was deposed and the Emperor even personally ordered Princess Yongping to help the Queen Mother with palace affairs, Princess Yongping strongly refused in front of the Queen Mother. Her reasons were ready-made - there were female officials in the palace and she didn't need to get involved. And most importantly, since the Queen was deposed, the other concubines in the harem were all living in peace and there was not much to take care of. She couldn't be asked to supervise the payment of monthly wages to the concubines, right
Thinking of how he secretly admired Princess Yongping's wisdom when he heard this, Chu Kuan smiled and said, "Princess is right, it should be so."
With Princess Yongping's order, he naturally had to go there in person. After all, those people were all famous old ministers and nobles. Even the emperor would not neglect them, let alone him? Although it took a little time to talk, he finally invited them up quickly. As for the fat guy Lu Sanlang, he smiled and said that he would stay downstairs to take care of it, so he followed him.
When these top dignitaries went to the third floor, the heads of the association and wealthy merchants on the second floor could not help but feel a little regretful. However, including the two richest men, Wan Yuanbao and Hua Siye, no one felt that they were really qualified to have a banquet with a princess like Princess Yongping. Even though Emperor Taizu had always sneered at the idea of sex, there was still a difference between men and women.