Today's Sichuan cuisine boasts over twenty-four common flavor profiles.
Salty-savory, fermented black bean, tomato, sweet and sour, sesame paste, savory sauce, five-spice, salt and pepper, spicy, red oil, dried chili, hot and sour, prickly ash, fish-fragrant, tangerine peel…
Among them,
Lychee flavor
is achieved by harmonizing salt, vinegar, white sugar, sauce, and cooking wine.
It uses aromatic ingredients like ginger, scallions, and garlic to mimic the sweet and sour taste of lychee, resulting in a dish with a sweet, sour, salty, and savory sensation.
It is divided into two types: large lychee flavor and small lychee flavor. The large lychee flavor is slightly sweeter, simulating the taste of ripe lychee, while the small lychee flavor has a slightly sour aftertaste, emphasizing the tartness of young lychee.
For instance, Sosuke's Gong Bao Chicken dish is a dried chili small lychee flavor, a composite flavor profile combining dried chili and lychee.
…
"Chef."
"You are the first chef to create Chinese cuisine that isn't spicy yet has completely won me over."
Finally, Kuga, having finished eating, looked utterly content, yet a secret alarm rang in his heart!
He racked his brain, trying to deduce whether a spicy Gong Bao Chicken could surpass Sosuke's small lychee flavor Gong Bao Chicken.
But no matter how many times he simulated it in his mind, he felt utterly powerless.
Moreover,
let alone spicy Gong Bao Chicken,
even the spicy Sichuan dishes he had stubbornly adhered to, such as Mapo Tofu, Saliva Chicken, Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork, and Dengying Beef, seemed completely inferior.
This bruised his self-esteem and even made him begin to doubt himself.
Was his long-held belief that "only spicy dishes in this world can conquer everything" truly correct?
In fact, his devotion to spicy Chinese cuisine was purely a matter of personal preference; Kuga simply enjoyed seeing diners' expressions change as they were hit by the spice of his dishes.
Whenever he saw diners experience pleasure from the "spiciness," he felt a profound sense of accomplishment.
"In Tianchao, many places nowadays can't do without spice."
"Just as Western cuisine doesn't use dairy or cheese, so adhering to spicy Sichuan cuisine is not necessarily unfeasible."
"It's certainly best to create dishes and make gourmet food according to the diner's requests, as I do, but it's also not a problem to follow your own ideas and be completely self-centered!"
"The premise is that you just have to be good enough and satisfy the diners."
"I think it's precisely because you can do well that you've entered the path of the Elite Ten, but you still can't do your best in this regard, so it's difficult for you to climb another step higher."
Sosuke pondered for a moment before expressing some of his thoughts.
Upon hearing this, Kuga Terunori's gaze deepened, and he once again fell into silence.
…
Sweet.
Salty.
Sour.
Umami.
These flavors are generally mild and do not provide a strong stimulus.
To put it bluntly, their so-called impact is not enough; only "spiciness" can truly capture people's hearts, so Sosuke could understand Kuga Terunori's approach.
From the Moon Feast Festival recollections in the original work, his willingness to do the same things as Sōma reveals his casual and straightforward personality.
Therefore, when facing the Totsuki coup,
and needing the powerful Elite Ten to make their choices, he resolutely became a rebel, cooperating and resisting alongside Sōma and Erina!
During the period after school started, he often acted recklessly at Totsuki Culinary Academy, indeed using many underhanded methods to force students to join the Chinese Cuisine Research Association.
However, unlike Nakiri Azami,
Kuga used the Research Association as a platform to cultivate a group of Elite Ten Eighth Seats who "studied" spicy Chinese cuisine.
He did not instill in students the absurd culinary philosophy of "you untalented good-for-nothings, just make dishes, there's no need to create them!"
At the same time, what Kuga Terunori implemented was foundational.
He focused on practical, no-nonsense work.
He primarily emphasized the chef's basic skills, requiring all his subordinates to be rigorous and conscientious in their cooking.
However, the reformed Totsuki Culinary Academy directly ignored the cultivation of students' basic skills; as long as one sided with Nakiri Azami and the Elite Ten who supported the reform, one could skip practice.
Then, by simply copying a complete set of answers provided by the Elite Ten, one could create perfect dishes not inferior to those of the Elite Ten.
In short,
Kuga, in fact, greatly valued the "creation" of dishes.
In contrast, Nakiri Azami and his group simplified cuisine, demanding that everyone be exactly the same!
Perhaps this was also one of the reasons Kuga Terunori consistently did not support Nakiri Azami.
But it must be said that the different philosophies of the two can only be considered a minor factor.
After all, his personality, destined to be as arrogant and reckless as Sōma's, meant he would certainly not serve as Nakiri Azami's minion.
As for cultivating students and expanding the influence of the Chinese Cuisine Research Association, it only indicates that he sought to standardize the cooking process, which is almost identical to Shinomiya Kojiro, who was stuck in a bottleneck.
And the reason for doing so was simply to fulfill the agreement made after his defeat by Eishi Tsukasa.
He truly wanted to challenge the First Seat again at this year's Moon Feast Festival.
…
"They say spiciness can cover up flaws."
"But one must know that ingredients are equally important; even if I were to use dead fish or dead shrimp to make boiled fish or spicy shrimp, the taste would still be far inferior."
"Spiciness is just one cooking method; if I always use spicy, does it mean my own culinary skills are poor?"
"If other cooking methods are not perfected, wouldn't they also disgust diners?"
Gazing at the empty plate and ceramic bowl, Kuga Terunori finally sighed deeply.
Afterward, he composed himself, looked up at Sosuke, and said, "Chef, Hojo Miyoko indeed did not deceive me; you are truly a great Chinese cuisine chef!"
"From your cooking, I can somewhat understand that Chinese cuisine actually has many choices. Blindly pursuing spicy Sichuan cuisine and attempting to conquer human taste buds with just two flavors—numbness and spiciness—is not unfeasible."
"However, other flavors of cuisine also have their advantages. What I should do is combine them with other dishes to create and innovate!"
"Just like your small lychee Gong Bao Chicken, it's not entirely spicy, but rather sweet and sour with a hint of spiciness."
"Hmm!"
"I can't say whether this path you're on is ultimately right or wrong."
"But if it offers an additional choice, an additional attempt, it's always good."
Sosuke, hearing this, merely replied with an expressionless, faint voice.
…
At 12 AM, the Izakaya finally closed.
Kuga Terunori, having finished his Gong Bao Chicken, soon left.
After witnessing Sosuke's culinary skills, he couldn't help but feel admiration, and his understanding and views on Chinese cuisine subtly gained a completely new insight!
This laid the foundation for him and Hojo Miyoko to thoroughly popularize Chinese cuisine at Totsuki Culinary Academy in the future.
"Mom, are you going back?"
"Actually, if you're willing, you could temporarily stay at the Izakaya like me, so we mother and daughter could also…"
Erina's bright eyes were glistening with water as she looked at Nakiri Mana, who was preparing to leave, seeming a bit reluctant.
"Erina."
"The WGO Gourmet Organization cannot be without me."
"Moreover, there's a major matter concerning the entire culinary world waiting for me to continue planning."
After a slight hesitation, Nakiri Mana finally mustered the courage to reach out and gently caress Erina's forehead, then smiled and said, "Anyway, there's plenty of time ahead; we'll have many more opportunities to meet, mother and daughter."
"As for you, study hard at the Izakaya."
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