Chapter 520: I'm in a Hurry
"Low-spec version?"
Although he had never heard such a concept before, Chef Jin could easily infer its meaning from Qi Han's words.
As a result, he fell even deeper into silence, his breathing seeming to grow heavier.
Quietly setting down the now-empty bowl of Wensi Tofu, Chef Jin could not help clenching his fist.
For some reason, this young man standing before him felt incredibly punchable!
Qi Han, however, had no awareness whatsoever that he was on the verge of getting beaten up. At this moment, he was carefully examining Chef Jin's Emerald Jade Dew.
On the plate sat nothing more than a simple cabbage.
The cabbage looked almost no different from one freshly harvested from the field. Its leaves were spread naturally rather than wilted, while the stems fit tightly together. Tiny crystal-clear droplets clung to the leaves, sparkling beneath the lights with a vivid pale green hue that gave off a feeling of vitality and life.
After observing it for quite some time, Qi Han finally used his fork to pick up a cabbage leaf and place it into his mouth.
The pale green-white stem was thick, tender, and crisp. There was not the slightest trace of the raw grassy odor unique to vegetables, yet it retained an elasticity and fullness that ordinary blanching could never achieve.
That point alone already amazed Qi Han.
Most freshly harvested vegetables naturally carried a faint grassy smell. This odor, known as "rawness," needed to be fully released and dissipated through boiling. The process of removing that rawness was called blanching.
Although blanching eliminated the raw flavor, the downside was that vegetables inevitably lost some of their fresh crispness after being boiled for a period of time.
Yet this Emerald Jade Dew removed the rawness completely without changing the texture at all.
To achieve such a result, the cabbage itself must have originally possessed almost no grassy smell to begin with. It had clearly been cultivated through some special growing method and then meticulously selected.
What did a cabbage taste like when it had no raw grassy odor, yet still retained the crisp tenderness of freshly picked vegetables?
Qi Han now knew the answer.
With every bite, juice burst effortlessly from the thick cabbage stem, instantly flooding his mouth with a strange yet unique fresh sweetness.
The flavor was not rich or greasy, but rather clean, sweet, and refreshing.
At the same time, the droplets clinging to the cabbage leaves slowly melted across his tongue. That flavor possessed an ultimate level of freshness, somewhat similar to the vegetarian supreme broth in Dinghu Shangsu, yet even more layered and complex.
And the slightly thickened texture caused Qi Han's heart to jolt slightly.
A starch-thickened sauce?
This was the first time he had discovered a technique in this world similar to thickening sauces with starch.
The thin layer of thickened broth altered the viscosity of the liquid while also allowing it to cling perfectly to the cabbage leaves like dew drops. Both visually and flavor-wise, this made the dish feel even more harmonious and complete.
This dish… was absolutely no inferior to Crab Stuffed with Orange.
After swallowing the mouthful of cabbage, Qi Han silently rejoiced at his good fortune.
If he had used Mapo Tofu in this round, he probably would have lost outright.
…
Among the judges, countless people could not help but gasp in amazement at the appearance of these two dishes.
Sitting at the very front, Wu Henian's expression was extremely complicated.
Never in his wildest dreams had he expected the final outcome to turn out like this.
Of the two dishes, the first one he tasted was Bright Court Pavilion's Emerald Jade Dew. That dish, resembling a freshly harvested cabbage, had left him utterly astonished.
Chef Jin truly lived up to his reputation. After dedicating more than thirty years exclusively to vegetable cuisine as an imperial chef, he had already reached the pinnacle of vegetable cooking. Wu Henian admitted that it would be difficult for any dish he made to surpass Emerald Jade Dew.
This dish was practically equal in quality to Han Shi's earlier Crab Stuffed with Orange.
Defeating it would not be easy at all.
And yet at such a critical moment, Qi Han had seemingly grown careless instead of bringing out Ginkgo Biloba Dish, choosing instead to present an ordinary-looking soup.
How could Wu Henian not feel anxious?
However, after rinsing his mouth and tasting a spoonful of the low-spec Wensi Tofu, all of Wu Henian's frustration vanished completely.
So Qi Han hadn't become overconfident at all.
Instead, he had brought out a completely new dish that wasn't even on the menu?
The flavor of this Wensi Tofu was unlike anything Wu Henian had tasted in his entire life. Its marvelous taste was simply irresistible.
Even more astonishing was Qi Han's knife skill.
To cut something as soft and fragile as tofu into strands as fine as hair—what kind of incredible knife technique was required to achieve that?
Just imagining it made Wu Henian sigh in admiration, fully aware that he could not compare.
And yet someone possessing such knife skills and culinary ability had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The more Wu Henian thought about it, the more mysterious Han Shi began to seem.
"Brother Henian, just what is the background of this Han Shi?" Ye Ansheng asked curiously after taking another blissful sip of Wensi Tofu. "Looks like I really misjudged him. I never expected him to actually defeat Bright Court Pavilion."
"I don't know either." Wu Henian gave a bitter smile. "This young man seems to have appeared from nowhere. Chefs usually have clear culinary lineages and masters, but I've never even heard of the dishes he creates throughout all these years."
"That really is strange." Ye Ansheng sighed softly. "Well, perhaps true geniuses really do exist in this world. Tonight I'm definitely going to try Han Shi's other dishes. I have a feeling there will still be more surprises waiting for me."
"That's true." Wu Henian smiled faintly. "But shouldn't the voting begin now?"
"About time." Ye Ansheng nodded and gave Manager Zhang on the stage a meaningful glance.
Manager Zhang immediately understood and loudly announced,
"The judges will now begin voting for the third round of the culinary showdown!"
The judges stepped forward one after another and cast their ballots into the voting box. Very quickly, the results were counted.
Han Shi once again won the third round of the culinary showdown by an overwhelming margin of thirty-seven votes to twelve.
"Now I announce that the winner of this culinary showdown is—Han Shi!"
Manager Zhang shouted Han Shi's name at the top of his lungs, his emotions incredibly complicated.
The first time he had met Qi Han was only yesterday morning. At that time, the young man had arrived and immediately declared that he wanted to challenge Heavenly Star Palace. Manager Zhang's impression of him back then was simply that of a newly opened restaurant owner who didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth.
Then Bright Court Pavilion had appeared, making Manager Zhang silently mourn for this newly opened restaurant.
A culinary showdown against Bright Court Pavilion?
Wasn't that just courting death?
And yet the facts had now proven that someone indeed had been courting death—
Only it wasn't Han Shi.
It was Bright Court Pavilion.
That was the Bright Court Pavilion!
A restaurant whose history could be traced back five hundred years, backed by the colossal force of the imperial family itself. From the moment it was established, it had stood at the pinnacle, the only restaurant in all of Mingdu City qualified to employ retired imperial chefs as Chefs.
Even the Heavenly Star Palace, which had rampaged through countless culinary showdowns a hundred years ago, ultimately never dared challenge Bright Court Pavilion's authority. At most, it transformed Bright Court Pavilion from the one and only into one of two supreme restaurants.
And now, a restaurant like Han Shi had appeared out of nowhere and defeated it in a culinary showdown the moment it arrived!
Zhao Yangfan collapsed weakly onto the ground, looking utterly dejected. Yet no one present had the time to pay attention to him.
Every gaze in the venue was fixed upon Qi Han.
Defeating Bright Court Pavilion one against three—such a miracle would likely never be replicated again.
"Um… the culinary showdown is over now, right?"
Faced with the crowd's burning stares, Qi Han scratched his head awkwardly.
"Then I'm heading back to open the restaurant. I'm in a hurry."
With that, he waved toward Meng Yun in the audience and quickly left the venue.
Manager Zhang: "…"
The four people from Bright Court Pavilion: "…"
The judges and audience members: "…"