Luo Haoran is a three-star chef from Shandong. He has stayed at the three-star level for 12 years.
I think he was young and frivolous back then, but he didn't make much progress after joining Samsung.
Over time, he gave up the idea of continuing to advance and began to develop some contacts and relationships in the industry to facilitate his transfer to management positions in the future.
He originally thought that he had given up his pursuit and love for cooking long ago, until today he met the candidate who amazed him.
Luo Haoran picked up a piece of crystal clear perilla and sea urchin tempura with his chopsticks and couldn't help but marvel.
This piece of tempura is a little different from traditional tempura in that it does not have obvious tassels.
The clean batter is translucent, allowing people to clearly see the perilla leaves inside through the batter.
The batter has delicate lines of perilla leaves on it, as if the chef had carved them into the batter with his hands. It is very delicate and ingenious.
I glanced at the menu label handwritten with a black oil-based pen under the dishes, [Perilla Sea Urchin Tempura].
He stuffed the tempura into his mouth, and the moment the batter touched his lips.
The transparent batter is like a thin layer of sugar coating that breaks apart instantly.
My lips didn't feel any obstruction and directly touched the crisp perilla leaves.
The perilla leaves are fried at high temperatures and become crispy. When you bite into the purple-red perilla leaves, they are immediately broken into powder and evenly distributed in your mouth.
The creamy sea urchin inside immediately bursts out from the broken perilla leaves.
The strong smell of perilla leaves is wrapped in the salty sea urchin, and a strange and fragrant fragrance fills the entire mouth.
Luo Haoran couldn't help but close his eyes and focus more on his sense of taste.
Amazing texture, crazy flavor.
Since he was responsible for the purchase of some ingredients, he knew very well that although the materials available to candidates for the final round of examinations were very rich, the quality was very average.
The number and types of ingredients to prepare are simply too many and cumbersome.
If you choose the best for everything, it will cause a huge waste.
After all, there is a large surplus of ingredients prepared each time to ensure that all candidates can make their favorite dishes.
This leads to the fact that there is no good stuff in the food section.
However, the strong salty flavor of the sea urchin in your mouth is simply not what ordinary quality ball sea urchins can achieve.
Even many horse dung sea urchins of average quality may not reach this level.
He frowned deeply, the difference in quality between different ingredients was an insurmountable gap.
It is simply impossible for an ordinary chef to make ingredients jump to a higher level just by relying on cooking skills.
He looked down and saw the remaining half piece of tempura.
He stuffed it into his mouth without hesitation. He tasted it more carefully this time and soon discovered the clues.
It turns out that in the middle of the crispy perilla leaves, not only sea urchin is wrapped, but also salted egg yolk that has been ground into fine powder.
After tasting it more carefully, Luo Haoran also found that there was a little fish sauce flavor in the creamy sea urchin.
Although the taste of fish sauce is very thin and difficult to detect when mixed with the rich sea urchin, his years of experience have allowed him to discover the clues.
Through the diluted fish sauce, the umami and sweetness in the sea urchin are fully brought out, which improves the quality of the sea urchin to a new level. This technique is really clever.
But not everyone would dare to use such a bold processing technique. After all, the fish sauce has a strong taste, and if you are not careful, it will overwhelm the taste of the ingredients themselves.
He nodded with satisfaction. The first dish made him feel so amazing that he began to look forward to other dishes even more.
The chopsticks reached towards the dish next to it, [Smoked Honey Sauce Barbecued Pork].
The appearance of the barbecued pork made him a little surprised, because he had never seen such a gray barbecued pork before.
But when he saw that the name of this dish was [Smoked Honey Barbecued Pork], he understood why the color of the barbecued pork was a bit dark.
A large piece of barbecued pork dripping with grease was put into your mouth, and a rich smoky aroma flooded into your nose.
However, Li Xiao controlled the smoky atmosphere very skillfully and did not let the smoky taste suppress other flavors.
When the barbecued pork is bitten into, the fresh and sweet gravy immediately spreads on the tongue, and the sweetness of the fat and the sweetness of honey mix together to form a sweet bomb.
The fiber of the barbecued pork is completely destroyed by the meat loosener, and the fat and thin plum meat tastes great.
The skin of the barbecued pork becomes crispy after being baked at high temperature, but the meat inside is very delicate.
Teeth can easily break it apart by chewing it gently.
Now Luo Haoran has a new understanding of Li Xiao's cooking skills. Food like barbecued pork seems to be very simple to make.
Even any housewife can easily make it as long as she has an oven at home.
But the more simple the food, the more difficult it is to make it well.
The lower the lower limit of a food, the higher its upper limit is, and the more difficult it is to improve it.
Although the smoked secret barbecue pork served by Candidate No. 26 is on the sweet side, it tastes sweet and salty, with a smoky flavor from the grass.
However, the originally monotonous barbecued pork becomes completely different after simple smoking.
Soon, he tasted the other six dishes each, and the more he ate, the more surprised he became.
The candidate No. 26 in front of me has a cooking skill that far exceeds one-star level.
He even felt that even if he made these dishes himself, he might not be able to reach this level.
No, it should be said that it is definitely impossible to reach such a level.
First, I am not good at Cantonese food.
Secondly, the other party's mastery of certain skills, control of heat, precision of seasoning, and sharpness of knife skills are all beyond his own comparison.
For such people to participate in a one-star chef competition is simply killing a chicken with a knife, let alone one star.
Even if he takes the Samsung test, he can easily pass it. He inputs the scores of this test on the tablet in his hand.
While listening to the discussions of other judges around me:
"I think I can give it full marks. Every dish is cooked to perfection."
"My favorite is his rice pudding. It's so clever. The rice pudding is broken into pieces and kneaded into rice grains, then steamed together with the rice. The flavor of the rice pudding is completely integrated into the rice. It's amazing!"
“The original stew of winter melon and scallops is so fresh and sweet that I won’t want to go back.”
"I think the most amazing thing is the fried meat. The meat juice inside immediately conquered my taste buds after I took a bite."
"I think the ancient glass prawn balls are the best. All the tendons in the shrimp have been removed, but the structural integrity of the shrimp has not been excessively damaged! I think it can be given full marks!"
"Actually, I think the overall results are very good, but wouldn't it be too outrageous to give full marks? After all, shouldn't the final exam be more rigorous?"
"I don't think it's necessary. With the level of candidate No. 26, he really deserves a perfect score."
"Indeed, I even think he is a little more powerful than me when I am at full strength. If such a person can't get full marks, I think it is unreasonable."
The discussion ended quickly, and so did the scoring by the 10 judges.
Up until this point, I had gone over 48 hours without official sleep...
I barely slept for an hour today. My brain is foggy but I don't feel sleepy at all...
If there is no update tomorrow, it should be a sudden death.
