Phainon skillfully chopped the vegetables, beat the eggs, heated the wok with oil…
Every movement was etched into his bones, reaching the pinnacle of precision.
From the day he entered the Arbor Academy to study, he had only ever worked with one dish—egg fried rice.
He might not be the person most familiar with egg fried rice, but egg fried rice was undoubtedly the dish most familiar to him.
"Stir the egg liquid exactly 43 times—no more, no less—just right to maintain the egg in its optimal state…"
"Oil at eighty percent heat, add to the wok at the perfect moment…"
"Stir-fry exactly 12 times to lock in the absolute best flavor of the ingredients…"
Phainon was like a machine incapable of error—his brain issued commands, and his body executed them flawlessly.
...
"Time's up!"
Owlbert shouted, declaring the end of the entire competition.
"Now, please have both contestants bring their dishes to the judges' table. The judges will taste them and decide the final God of Cooking!"
——
"Boss Su Chen, what do you think?" Kiana leaned over the back of Su Chen's chair and asked.
Su Chen thought for a few seconds. "I don't know. Anaxa and Ratio have their own principles for how they conduct themselves. It's not something I can influence alone. Ultimately, the iron still needs to be forged by its own hammer. If Phainon really can't outdo that fat pig, then he'll have to stop here."
"But I think Phainon's egg fried rice is the best egg fried rice in the world."
"That's just because he cooks it for you a lot."
"No, really—it's not. I even think it tastes better than Mei's fried chicken legs."
Su Chen raised an eyebrow. "You actually dare say something like that? Aren't you afraid I'll tell Mei?"
Suddenly Kiana made a chopping-hand gesture and placed it against Su Chen's neck. "Then I'll just have to take you out too."
Su Chen gave a perfunctory plea. "Mercy, mercy! I was wrong."
"You're way too half-hearted. This isn't fun." Kiana seemed to remember something and suddenly asked, "By the way, where did you find that M-version Elysia?"
"Her name is Cyrene, but the whole story is a long one." Su Chen glanced toward the judges' table. "Enough messing around—watch the competition."
——
At this moment, Tang Niu carried his dish to Anaxa and Ratio. "Fellow judges, we've been colleagues of a sort. This dish is the Imperial Fried Rice I've pondered over for so long!"
With that, he removed the cover, revealing a golden fried rice before the two of them.
"You actually chose fried rice too?" Anaxa looked at Tang Niu's jiggling fat cheeks and naturally guessed—he had received advance information.
More precisely: the countermeasures prepared against the Phainon trio. Soup against Castorice, dessert against Mydei, fried rice against Phainon.
Hmph, Caenis, you're as despicable as ever. No wonder you suffer from insomnia and can't sleep at night.
But during the cooking process, he used so many high-end ingredients—yet none of them were visible?
Could it be…?
Anaxa scooped up a spoonful and tasted it. While chewing slowly, he revealed the secret behind the Emperor Fried Rice.
"Abalone juice, mixed with Sri Lankan mud crab and native chicken eggs, Vietnamese fish sauce, aged Shaoxing Huadiao wine, American wild rice and Thai jasmine rice, and finally a peculiar seasoning—that must be the secret soy sauce you used when you won the championship last year. Am I right?"
Tang Niu gave a thumbs-up. "As expected of Judge Anaxa."
"Please use my full name—Anaxagoras."
"Huh?" Tang Niu froze for a moment, but quickly recovered. "Alright, Judge Anaxagoras. This seemingly ordinary Imperial Fried Rice is perfectly suited for someone like you."
"Tastes good. The rice grains have excellently absorbed the essence of all the ingredients, and the entire dish presents a uniform golden hue. Served in a silver bowl—it can be called top-tier."
Hearing this, Ratio also took a spoonful and put it in his mouth. After chewing a few times, he said simply, "Very good. From a purely culinary perspective, the color, aroma, and flavor complement each other perfectly. Well done."
The audience below the stage heard this evaluation and immediately lost confidence.
Hyacine asked rapidly—clearly anxious—"Lady Aglaea, if even Teacher Anaxa and Professor Ratio gave such praise, can Phainon really do it?"
"He's always been that kind of person—judges matters, not people!" Honestly, seeing Anaxa perform like this made Aglaea worry; it would be a lie to say she wasn't concerned.
Unless Phainon could truly make a fried rice tastier than that fat pig's.
Unfortunately, Phainon had chosen plain egg fried rice. Just in terms of flavor complexity and layering, it was already far inferior.
Seeing this, Caenis immediately got smug. "Success and failure both come from the same source. Anaxa's personality may be annoying, but I have to admit—he's one of the few who will insist on fairness."
"I don't think Phainon will lose♪" Cyrene walked up in front of Caenis.
Su Chen immediately gave up his seat and moved next to Kiana. "Cyrene, take my spot. Kiana, scoot over a bit—we'll squeeze together."
"Thank you, Boss Su Chen♪" After thanking Su Chen, Cyrene sat beside Caenis. "Actually, egg fried rice is really delicious. Just now I also heard Judge Anaxagoras say that a single bowl of Imperial Fried Rice required so many top-grade ingredients♪
Let's do the math: how many pounds of rice, how many eggs, how many pounds of oil could this bowl of fried rice be exchanged for♪
Ms. Caenis, do you know how many people in the world still go hungry to this day♪"
Caenis looked at Cyrene's innocent face and sneered. "Little girl, spare me the lecture—it has nothing to do with the competition. We can stop this pointless argument right here."
Cyrene ignored Caenis and continued on her own: "The answer is 733 million. On average, one out of every eleven people suffers from hunger, and that number shows no sign of decreasing♪
Ms. Caenis, you've probably never gone hungry, so you may not know the feeling. It's a twisting pain in the stomach, a mad craving for food that can even distort human nature♪
Phainon and I once kept experiencing that—until a kind-hearted chef came to our village and changed everything♪
The first dish we ever ate that could truly be called culinary art… was egg fried rice♪
He told us that egg fried rice may be the simplest dish, but the most important purpose of cooking is to fill people's stomachs♪
Unfortunately, nowadays the starting point of cuisine is no longer to make sure customers are full—it's all about dazzling techniques. Ms. Caenis, wouldn't you say that's putting the cart before the horse♪
After that, Phainon made up his mind to become a chef who creates affordable, simple dishes so that everyone in the world can fill their stomachs. No one—or rather, no one should—have to endure the pain of hunger♪
From that day forward, he called himself the Deliverer of the Kitchen♪"
Cyrene's lips curved upward slightly, her face full of pride. "Deliverer —saving every person suffering from hunger♪"
At that moment, Caenis fell silent. She didn't refute—or rather, she didn't know how to refute.
——
After finishing tasting Tang Niu's fried rice, Anaxa turned his gaze toward Phainon.
"Your turn now, my student! You left Arbor Academy before graduating. Now it's time to submit your graduation thesis."