Chapter 42: Cooking Contest Battle - Salad Edition
The handsome blond man cooks the first salad dish. He's a chef, after all. His choice of ingredients and his knife skills were superb. The blonde handsome man chose a salad with lettuce, baby leaves, purple onions and tomatoes. The dressing is French dressing. It's made with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, water, mayonnaise and salt.
"It's ready. It's a French salad"
Is the name of the dish the same? And it's surprisingly simple.
The judges looked at the salad before eating it and after one bite, they commented on how delicious it was and how beautiful it looked. Hee, this kind of salad is fine.
As a result, the blonde handsome man got all 10.
I guess it's my turn now. Lily and the others are looking worried. I said I was fine.
"Then please start cooking"
I chose the following ingredients: bread, lettuce, corn, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, prosciutto and paprika.
Then I prepared ten plastic cups. The preparation was complete. The scene must have looked very strange to the cooks who didn't know the reality. All the judges seemed to be curious.
First, boil the corn in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Take out the corn and cut it into four equal pieces. Cut it in half lengthwise. Then use my thumb to dexterously remove the corn.
Next, cut the bread into small cubes, place them on a piece of aluminum foil, pour olive oil over them and toast them in a toaster until they are browned. These are called croutons and are often used in Caesar salads.
Next, tear the lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Next, quarter the paprika lengthwise and cut out a star shape with a knife. Normally, I would use a cookie cutter, but I didn't have one.
Cut the cucumber diagonally and cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Now all I had to do was decorate the cups, alternating between lettuce, corn and croutons.
I stopped before the cup was full and added paprika, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and corn. Finally, fold the prosciutto in half and twist it around to form a rose.
Serve it in the center of the cup and done. This is a cup salad with prosciutto.
Finally, make the dressing. Mix mayonnaise, cheese powder, lemon juice, milk, salt and black pepper to make Caesar dressing.
Another Chinese dish is made with vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, ground sesame and chili. Italian with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I made a yogurt dressing with yogurt, mayonnaise, sugar and salt and brought it to the judges.
"Here you go. It's a cup salad with prosciutto. I have prepared four different dressings, so please enjoy the different flavors"
"Hou, you made four different dressings...you put a lot of time and effort into it"
"Each one has a different taste?"
A young female chef asked me.
"Yes. This Caesar dressing is less acidic, richer and creamier than the French dressing"
"Hou...is that because you added cheese?"
"That's right. This Chinese dressing is spicy, this Italian dressing is more acidic and the yogurt dressing is sweet"
"That's wonderful"
"It looks so pretty, doesn't it? I hadn't thought of using cups instead of plates"
It's something that hasn't penetrated reality yet.
"The decorations are also very elaborate. The way you cut the paprika into stars and the way you made the prosciutto look like roses is amazing"
"Thank you very much"
Well, to tell you the truth, I just made what they serve in real restaurants.
"Shall we try it then?"
"Yes. Please eat"
The judges used the different flavored dressings and ate the salad one bite at a time. And although it is scored, the judge chef Glass who explained the rules here opens his mouth.
"I would like to take the liberty of raising the maximum number of points for scoring"
"I agree"
"We have no choice but to do that"
Hmm? Raise the upper limit of points...no way...
The judges all gave me a 20. I won. But of course, there's someone who's not satisfied.
"Wait a minute! That's not what you said!"
The female judge speaks on behalf of the judges.
"If we're going to give him a score of ten, then we'll give your dish a score of one, is that correct?"
"What do you mean?"
"His dish is very beautiful and fun to look at, with the paprika and prosciutto, the cup looks good from the top and the lettuce and corn alternate on the surface. On the other hand, yours is just a salad on a plate. Can't you see the difference?"
This guy must be a chef specializing in salads if he's talking about salads this much.
"Gu...but I should be better in taste"
"It's true that you are evenly matched in taste. But I have to give him credit for trying to cater to all of our tastes by preparing four different flavors of dressing. There's a big difference between being able to do this and not being able to do it"
"Gu...cowardly move..."
Cowardly? It is a natural thing for a chef to provide the customers with their favorite dressing, right? In fact, four kinds is not enough. That's what I thought, but it seems I don't need to say anything.
"I guess I need to say more. Did you see the bread he was making?"
"Yes, I saw it. What's wrong with that?"
"That bread is crunchy and enhances the taste of the salad. I dared say you were evenly matched earlier, but you're losing to him on the taste of the salad, regardless of the dressing”
"What!?"
You're a top-notch chef. You're being watched this much. You'll have to brace yourself for this.
"The originality is obvious. The idea of stuffing the salad inside the cup. It was brilliant. I'd like to refer to it. That's all from me"
"Thank you for your accurate comments. Let's move on to the next event"
The response was that no more bullshit would be accepted. I'm sure you'll agree that it's not surprising to see a guy like him...anyway, the cooking contest battle started with my overwhelming victory in the first match.