1805 Four great achievements in the cooking world
Following that, the flower bud, which originally had layers of petals tightly wrapping around the pistil, now had an animation-like effect with the help of external forces. First, the outer layer of petals unfolded, then the second layer, and finally the third layer, revealing a round ball of meat inside. It was as if the pistil was embellished in the middle.
Then, a little bit of sauce-colored juice slowly flowed out from the gap. In a short while, the sauce wrapped around the flower. The dark-colored sauce contrasted with the White jade-like lily petals and the meat-colored round balls. It looked “fragrant” and was at the peak.
“Be obedient and dig a hole. Stir-fry peanuts and scallions. Old Zeng, you’re at a disadvantage with such clever thinking.” Li Youcai couldn’t hide the pride in his tone, and then he thought hard about a sentence. In the end, he still thought of it: “Just like what my grandson always says, life is full of ups and downs. Don’t look down on the young and poor. Oh, no, I’ll say skewers. Some things look similar, but they are fundamentally different. For example, a Husky and a Wolf. No matter how similar they are, they are not the same species.”
The face slapping came too fast like a tornado. Zeng Youwei looked at Yuan Zhou’s steamed meat with Lily and then at his own steamed meat with Lily. When he saw this beautiful scene, he actually agreed with Li Youcai’s statement a little bit. Not to mention the alluring fragrance lingering at the tip of his nose, which constantly reminded him to salivate and want to eat.
“Steamed pork with Lily is just a home-cooked dish, so I made it relatively simple.” Yuan Zhou said honestly.
“Even home-cooked dishes need to be cooked to this extent?” Zeng Youwei muttered in his heart,”which family in Dian province can do this?”
“As expected of head chef Yuan. This Grandmaster-level home-cooked dish is truly admirable.” Zeng Youwei could only sigh.
“I kind of agree with old man Wang. If you don’t watch head chef Yuan cook, you’ll never know how high the ceiling for this dish is.” Li Youcai poked the remaining two lilies, causing them to bloom.
The black plate, the brown sauce, the fragrant lilies, and the meat-colored minced meat seemed to stimulate people’s appetites. They wanted to eat it at first sight and probably couldn’t stop once they started eating. No matter if it was the plate arrangement, the color, or the fragrance, there was nothing to be picky about.
“It’s not bad for now, but there’s still room for improvement. ” Yuan Zhou said earnestly. After all, he was only 28 this year and had only obtained the system for four years. He believed that as time went by, his culinary skills would become better and better.
There was still room for improvement? Would they dare to leave a way out for the other chefs?
Zeng Youwei took a deep breath. Now, Yuan Zhou had already obtained the knife King’s horizontal board. As for the “master chef achievement” of Sichuan cuisine, even Yuan Zhou’s apprentices were now the chairman of the Sichuan cuisine Association. The master chef achievement was just a matter of age. It was the so-called four highest honors in the domestic cooking circle: the horizontal board of Jiangsu cuisine, the silver spoon of Shandong cuisine, the waste stove of Cantonese cuisine, and the master chef achievement of the Sichuan cuisine Association.
Well, strictly speaking, these four honors were actually not related to each other at all. The origin of the saber King’s horizontal board had been explained earlier, and the other three had their own origins. For example, the “old chef achievement” of the Sichuan cuisine Association was in memory of a famous chef, who was Zhang Yan’s master. To put it simply, almost all the famous Sichuan chefs in the 1980s and 1990s had been taught by this famous chef. Therefore, the “old chef achievement” did not refer to age, but to the teacher. This award was given out by the Sichuan cuisine Association to chefs who had made great contributions to Sichuan cuisine. It was only held once every few years. If such a talent held it once, the old chef had only been awarded to six chefs in the past 20 to 30 years.
After all, this award wasn’t just about cooking skills, but more about cooking ethics. From this, it could be seen that Sichuan cuisine had not only inherited cooking skills from a long time ago, but also the ethics of cooking.
The four highest honors in the circle of chefs were actually forcibly combined by some new chefs who didn’t know the history of the awards. They even posted that “the horizontal board represents cutting skills, the silver spoon represents cooking skills, the waste stove represents heat control, and the achievements of old chefs are about cooking virtue.” If four were gathered, one could be called the Chinese God of Cooking. However, in fact, this kind of statement was completely unreasonable, because the four awards were very confined. For example, the chef’s achievement would only be awarded to chefs of Sichuan cuisine. To put it more bluntly, not to mention all four awards, after so many years of reform and opening up, there had not been a chef who had won two at the same time, not even one.
Until Yuan Zhou came … This young man who was less than 30 years old had not only achieved something that others could never achieve in their entire lives, but he was also constantly making progress. No one could predict how far he could go in the future, but he would definitely reach the top.
“Then, head chef Yuan, let’s start to taste it.” Zeng Youwei asked.
“Please, head chefs.” Although Yuan Zhou had noticed Zeng Youwei’s increasingly respectful attitude, he couldn’t figure it out for a while.
“Then let’s start.” Li Youcai’s attitude also changed, and he became more cautious.
The two of them were used to cooking this dish, so they naturally knew that the essence of this dish was in the middle of the pistil. They were determined to pick the pistil together.
The meatballs cooked by Yuan Zhou were exquisite and small, about the size of two peanuts. One bite was just right.
“Awoo!”
After putting it into his mouth and gently biting it with his teeth, the juice came out. Mixed with the rich gravy was a little sweet and astringent taste unique to the lily, which became very wonderful when mixed together.
“I see. It seems like we’ve all been mistaken.” Zeng Youwei said.
“That’s right. This is the most authentic way of cooking. You make full use of the lilies and lock the delicious taste of the entire Lily in it. Steamed meat with lilies is truly worthy of its name.” Li Youcai agreed.
This time, the two of them had the same opinion. As famous Dianese chefs, they had been arguing about this dish for decades. They knew the difference as soon as the dish entered their mouths. If their skills were not good enough, they would make up for it with their experience.
When Yuan Zhou cooked this dish, he was different from how Zeng Youwei directly pieced the lilies together. Instead, he directly pulled out the few pieces of lilies in the middle and mixed them with the minced meat. Then, he put them in the middle and slightly cut up the lily petals that were combined with each other with a knife. After some calculation, he steamed them to the extent that they would spread out at the first touch. Without considerable knife skills, it was impossible to achieve the degree of blooming.
The saber King’s horizontal board was clearly displayed.
“But why does it taste so good? the more I eat, the more delicious it is. Wait … This is mine.” Li Youcai’s mouth kept moving, and his chopsticks also didn’t stop.
Seeing that there was only one piece left, who knew that because he was fat and his arms were short, there was only a small distance between them? he watched helplessly as the last piece was picked up by Zeng Youwei’s chopsticks. He was so angry.
No wonder he could still fight for so long even with such a huge difference in body size. It turned out that he was a nimble assassin. The matter that Yuan Zhou had always been concerned about had finally come to an end.
[Ps: the noob cat has obtained the evolution key. Today, it still wants to evolve into a Third Watch cat!]