Many people simply cannot afford to participate in a star chef competition every year, so most people cherish every opportunity to take the exam.
Moreover, there are still some chefs who will show up and cannot find recommenders, so they need to buy referral quotas from people on the black market, which is also a considerable expense.
Li Xiao checked while in the car and found that the registration for this year's one-star chef exam has ended, with a total of 3,220 people applying.
The number is not very large, after all, people from all over the country need to come here to take the unified examination.
In fact, if the prerequisites for the exam were not so high, there was no need for so-called recommenders, and there was no need to focus on competing in the capital, I am afraid this number would have increased several times.
The venue for the written examination is ten lecture theaters. Each lecture theater can accommodate about 500 people. However, due to the need to separate certain spaces, the number of people admitted to each lecture theater is 350.
After taking a look at Hall 2 where he was, he immediately walked towards the examination venue for the second exam.
A flat-story building as big as a football field is a bit like an indoor gymnasium, but instead of indoor basketball hoops or badminton nets, there are neatly arranged stoves.
There is also a 1.5-meter-long workbench next to the stove, which allows the chef to work next to it.
Moreover, you can see that these workbenches are already neatly placed with tools.
The tools are very complete, basically everything that can be used is available.
Of course, some strange special tools are not provided by the venue, but they can be proposed to the organizing committee and brought into the venue.
Plus, for the third game, you can even bring your own special sauces and toppings.
After all, the Han Dynasty has a huge land area and thousands of secret seasonings. It is impossible for the organizers to find all the ingredients.
Perhaps, some people may feel that this is unfair to some ordinary chefs.
Because if those people are born into a family of famous chefs, they will have elders with six or seven stars in their family.
By just making some secret sauces or seasonings, wouldn’t it be easy for your children to win at the starting line?
Such problems certainly exist and are widespread.
However, finding the right ingredients, having secret seasonings, and knowing how to find a more cost-effective supplier are also abilities that a star chef should have.
And these abilities are especially obvious in chef families.
Of course, these statements are all high-sounding.
The main reason is that the people who make the rules will benefit from it.
Those who make the rules are star chefs themselves, and many of their descendants will engage in chef careers or chef-related professions.
Therefore, when they formulate rules, they must be biased towards their own people.
Of course, this loophole in the rule is not serious. If a chef has poor cooking skills and one or two secret spices, it will not have much effect at all.
The effect of these secret condiments is equivalent to extra points for the college entrance examination. Under the same circumstances, the children with extra points must be better.
Of course, Li Xiao did not have any elders to provide him with any secret seasonings.
No one had ever reminded him of these things. After all, everyone felt that the one-star chef exam was not difficult at all for him.
At this time, Li Xiao's eyes fell on the surroundings of this rectangular flat-story building.
There are rows of tall freezers placed around the venue, but there are no ingredients in the freezers at this time.
Li Xiao counted carefully and found that there were more than 200 stoves in total, which meant that they could be provided to 200 candidates for the exam at one time.
There are a total of 5 such large flat-floor buildings in this school, which means that 1,000 examination places can be provided each time.
It only takes about three times to completely test all candidates.
Similarly, these large flat floors are also the testing venues for the third exam.
While Li Xiao was observing the second and third exam sites, he heard someone next to him say hello:
"Hello, are you a candidate this year?"
Li Xiao looked towards the source of the voice and saw that the person speaking was an uncle with darker skin but a naive expression.
Wearing a blue dress and carrying a gray-green canvas bag slung across his body, he looked very amiable.
Li Xiao is not an arrogant person. When someone greeted him, he quickly responded:
"Hello, hello, yes, I am a candidate for this session. I wonder who you are, uncle?"
Li Xiao didn't dare to confirm the identity of the other party. After all, there is no age limit for the chef exam. As long as you are over 18 years old and willing to take the exam, you can take the exam until you are 80 years old.
Of course, if you can hold a spatula, there will be no problem when you are 99 years old.
So he didn't know whether this uncle was a staff member in the examination room or a candidate like himself.
Although he looks to be in his forties or fifties, he doesn't rule out the idea that he is an old man, or that he suddenly gets enlightened by cooking and wants to come and take the exam.
After all, the star chef exam has never been exclusive to young people. Many older people come to compete every year.
Sure enough, when the other party spoke, Li Xiao was glad that he didn't talk nonsense and listened to the other party introduce himself:
"Hello, hello, I am also a candidate of this class. My name is Badong, a native of the capital. But actually I am not just a candidate of this class. In fact, I have taken the test 20 times this year!"
!!!
Li Xiao took a breath. Fortunately, he has been doing live broadcasts for so long, and his expression management has been quite good, otherwise he would definitely be very rude.
Boy, 20 times?
This... is a bit outrageous. The number of exams the other party has taken is almost older than your own age. What kind of perseverance does this allow the other party to take the exam 20 times?
He swallowed hard and spit, reaching out his hand to shake the other person's hand.
"Hello, hello, Mr. Badong, I am Li Xiao from Dongguan, Guangdong. Nice to meet you."
"Hey, it's in Guangdong. It's quite far away. Why did you come over to see the examination room today?"
"That's right, come here to explore. After all, it's my first time to take the exam and I don't understand anything."
"Hey, isn't this a coincidence? I've taken a lot of exams and I'm familiar with this place. Can I show you around?"
Seeing how enthusiastic the other party was, Li Xiao couldn't resist, so he had to go shopping with the other party again.
In fact, he really wanted to say that he had finished shopping, but he also wanted to hear from this solid candidate who had taken the exam 20 times.
What other insights do you have here? Maybe you can hear some secret exam information from the other party.
Li Xiao's expectations were not disappointed, and he saw Badong leading Li Xiao to the flat floor marked with Examination Room No. 4.
Badong showed a mysterious smile on his face, pointed at Examination Room 5 and said:
"Among so many examination rooms, the equipment in Room 5 is the best, because it is newly built, so you can choose this room when the time comes, and you will definitely get better results."
Although this kind of secret information was not of much use to Li Xiao, Li Xiao still politely greeted the other party gratefully.
The two left each other's contact information and agreed to take the exam together in Examination Room 5 tomorrow, and then they parted ways.
Watching Badong walk back into the school, he said that he was going to help some new candidates and get familiar with the examination room.
After all, it is quite difficult for many candidates to take a test. Unlike him who lives locally and comes here, it only takes half an hour.
If you fail to pass the exam this year, you can continue to come next year without any pressure at all.
But these brothers from all over the world are different. They spend a lot of time and money every time they come here.
By taking everyone to familiarize themselves with the environment, he can also make these people's exams go smoothly. They won't be like me who failed the exam many times.
Li Xiao felt a little emotional. The people in the capital were so honest and honest. They could be so enthusiastic when meeting someone casually. It was indeed the most kind capital.
Even if I fail the exam, I won't feel resentful.
Instead, I took the next batch of candidates to get familiar with the examination room environment. I never thought that such a selfless person actually existed in this world.
In fact, if others are not familiar with the examination room, but if you are familiar with it, you will definitely have a great advantage there. Maybe just because there are a few more people who are not familiar with the examination room, Badong will be able to pass the exam.
But it’s also because of the existence of such people that this world is so beautiful and lovely.
Li Xiao sighed while doing warm-up exercises. After finishing the warm-up exercises, he started running.
The way back was much easier than he thought, even though there was no greenway like Dongguan's for jogging.
However, the construction of sidewalks has been very complete, and there is no situation where there is no road left while running.
There are fewer traffic lights than expected, and more pedestrian zebra crossings than expected.
It only took Li Xiao about 50 minutes to run back to the hotel from the school where he was taking the exam. This time was nearly half faster than taking a car, which made Li Xiao feel helpless to complain.
After returning to the hotel, Li Xiao put on the live broadcast equipment and started walking out. The competition will last for 3 days, because the competition venue for the second and third games cannot support the completion of the test in one go.
Therefore, the competition will be divided into two days, and Li Xiao was scheduled to play the second and third games on the third day.
Since the live broadcast time may become irregular, Li Xiao can only seize the time to make time for everyone to live broadcast.
He had already planned where he would go at noon today.
【Heart and Home】
There is a Sakura Restaurant less than 900 meters away from the hotel. In fact, Li Xiao wanted to go there first yesterday, but unfortunately the table needs to be reserved a week in advance.
So we can only arrange it at noon today, and Li Xiao really wants to reserve a place for dinner at this restaurant.
I guess you have to book a month in advance, otherwise you won't be able to choose your favorite time to dine.
Since the distance was very close, Li Xiao walked over directly.
This store is located in the city center and does not occupy a very large area, but it has two floors. The second floor is a small private room, and the first floor is a table surrounding the workbench.
The decoration style is very cherry blossom style, with blue and white patterned flags hanging on the left and right sides.
Above the signboard of "Heart Together" is a model of a tuna that is as big as two people.
The model is so vivid that it seems to come alive under the light.
The waitress who came out to greet the guests was also wearing a traditional cherry blossom costume.
As soon as Li Xiao entered the door, two waitresses came up to her with small steps and half-hunched bodies.
One of the ladies came up with slippers in her hands, and the other one was holding a hot towel that exuded heat.
The young lady holding the slippers bent over and walked to Li Xiao and said:
"Hello, customer, these are our slippers."
"Try to see if this pair fits your feet first. If it doesn't fit, I can help you replace it immediately."
Li Xiao had already seen this store rule when she received the reservation notification.
Since the floors inside Galaxy Residence are all Japanese-style tatami, you need to put on special slippers or wear the socks provided by the store before entering.
If you feel something is wrong, please book with caution. Li Xiao is a gentleman and doesn’t have foot odor, so he naturally doesn’t have to worry about this rule.
Taking the slippers from the other party with both hands, Li Xiao bent down and took off his own shoes, then put on the slippers provided by the other party.
I didn't expect it to fit surprisingly well, and the slippers made of hemp bamboo silk have a very good texture, they are very soft when you step on them, and they don't irritate your feet at all.
The place where the toes are pinched is not too uncomfortable, it is very soft and elastic.
You know, if you don't usually wear flip-flops like this, you will feel a little uncomfortable when you first wear them.
After all, there is suddenly a cylindrical gap between the toes, and it does take some time to get used to it.
However, this slipper does not. It is obvious that a lot of thought has been put into the design and use of materials.
The waitress who was holding the slippers immediately took the shoes from Li Xiao and put them into a separate shoe box.
Then he immediately withdrew, and the young lady holding the hot towel next to him also came up and handed the steaming towel to Li Xiao's hand.
He greeted in a gentle tone:
"Dear guest, this is a hot towel for disinfection. Please wipe your hands, and then I can take you to your seat."
This procedure is mainly because putting on and taking off shoes when entering the door may cause your hands to touch the shoes and cause contamination. Li Xiao also smelled a faint smell of disinfectant on this steaming towel. I guess it must be certain.
Sterilization function.
Wipe your hands clean carefully with a hot towel. After all, you will be eating the sushi with your hands later.
The chef and a culinary consultant of this restaurant are in charge of making sushi today, and this technical director is also one of the main reasons why Li Xiao comes here to eat.
Senbon-Hashigami is a culinary consultant at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo. You read that right, he is a culinary consultant, not a sushi chef or head chef. The difference between the two is huge.
This difference is probably like the difference between Teacher Tony who helps with haircuts in a barber shop, and the instructor who teaches Teacher Tony how to cut hair.
The reason why Li Xiao knew about it was because he saw on the Internet that the owner of Xinheju spent a lot of money to send out hero posts.
In the end, a total of 600,000 was spent to invite a culinary consultant named Senbonhashigami to come here and provide guidance for 20 days, which is an invitation fee of 30,000 per day.
This directly made the name of this newly opened Shinwaju Sakura Cuisine even though it is a newly opened store.
But the date to reserve a seat has been postponed to fifteen days, and it will take another month to reserve a place for dinner.
It can be said that buying horse bones with thousands of gold will make other people take notice.
After all, it is Sakura cuisine, so it still needs to find a Sakura chef to support the appearance.
Although the Sakura Kingdom is a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, after all, a ruler is short and an inch is long. It is indeed a bit meaningless to find a master of the Han Dynasty to make Sakura cuisine.
So in addition to Senbonhashi Ue as a guide, the boss also directly hired four local chefs from Sakura Country to come here to make dishes.
I heard that these four chefs from Sakura Country are all star chefs, and there are rumors on the Internet that after next month all the waiters will be girls from Sakura Country who can speak Chinese.
Of course, since the Han Kingdom is the suzerain of the Sakura Kingdom, there are still many people from the Sakura Kingdom who want to come and work here.
After all, if nothing else, your income alone will be much higher.
Therefore, citizens of Sakura Country need quite complicated procedures and guarantee conditions to come to Dahan, so these young ladies will not be able to come over for a while.
However, Li Xiao didn't care about these dispensable things. After all, he was here to eat sushi and cook food, not to see the young lady.
Sitting at the bar, Li Xiao nodded politely to the Senbonbashi and Kame Yuanchun, who was also from the Sakura Country.
Senbonbashi also said hello politely in Chinese:
"Hello, is this VIP the single package you booked?"
Li Xiao was a little surprised when he heard the other party's words, because Mr. Senbonqiao spoke Chinese unexpectedly fluently.
I couldn't even hear their unique accent from Sakura Country.
He praised.
"Mr. Senbonhashi's Chinese dialect is truly standard."
Senbonbashi seemed to be very proud of himself for speaking such fluent Chinese. He bowed slightly and said:
"During my studies, I studied under Mr. Ouyang Zhenhua, a seven-star celebrity chef from the Han Dynasty, so I studied Chinese for a period of time, so I can speak it pretty well."
Hearing Qianbonqiao's words, Li Xiao took a breath, good guy, this guy's teacher is actually a seven-star chef?
Seven-star chefs can indeed be regarded as famous chefs. After all, six-star chefs are very rare, let alone seven stars above six stars.
It turns out that he actually studied under such a teacher. No wonder he became a technical consultant for a Michelin three-star restaurant.