Chapter 220
Hearing Mineo say he could give eight or nine points to his cooking, Yukihira Soma immediately showed a happy expression.
Meanwhile, Hisako looked at Mineo with a somewhat amused gaze and said:
"You can give a score that high? Didn't Instructor Takamine say earlier that all the dishes here were hard to look at? Why now... has your tune changed so quickly?"
Since earlier, seeing Mineo's indifferent attitude toward everyone, Hisako felt that this instructor invited by Lady Erina was a bit too arrogant.
So now, Hisako was quite happy to see Mineo eating his own words.
As it turned out, right after Hisako finished saying that sentence, Mineo looked up with a rather confused expression and said:
"When did I give him a high rating?"
"Wasn't that what you just said? Being able to give eight or nine points—isn't that already a rating close to a perfect score!"
"Please, my sweet Hisako, the eight or nine points I mentioned is a rating based on a 100-point scale, understand?"
"If using 100 as the highest standard, can eight or nine points be considered a passing grade??"
That one sentence from Mineo made Hisako freeze on the spot, and the smile on Yukihira's face also froze completely.
To be honest, Mineo giving a score of eight or nine points for Yukihira's cooking really wasn't a deliberate attempt to belittle him.
The dishes made by the other people at the exam site were, for Mineo, essentially a score of zero.
As the owner of a max-level God's Tongue, Mineo's evaluation ability could be said to be powerful to an incomprehensible degree.
As long as there was a flaw in any dish, it would be immediately caught by Mineo at the first opportunity.
Seeing Hisako looking a bit dazed, Mineo continued:
"The score I gave is basically very reasonable. Didn't I say it just now? The cooking made by this participant named Yukihira Soma is a bit too flashy in its technique."
"Adding imaginative creativity to your own cooking is fine, but there is one prerequisite that must be noted here."
"If creativity is added well, it's a plus for the dish. If creativity is not added well, it's just drawing a snake and adding feet."
"Dry-roasted sesame powder can indeed create a third fresh aroma through blending with certain special spice powders, but all of that is too showy. In reality, the flavor improvement isn't that big!"
"Furthermore, this participant didn't handle the timing well when roasting the sesame; he missed the phase where the sesame's aroma is at its fullest."
"If he could have taken the sesame out just one second earlier, the aroma this dish possesses should have been able to increase by at least another 20-30%."
Mineo's evaluation left Hisako a bit bewildered.
This kind of interpretation that could even be accurate down to seconds in cooking time—how could Mineo know?
He hadn't made this dish, and this man had been sitting there playing games from start to finish.
Even without looking, he had dissected Yukihira's cooking this deeply. Could it be that this person actually understood nothing and was just bluffing randomly?
Seeing Hisako's gaze full of doubt, Mineo smiled and said:
"Do you feel like I'm just making up stories?"
"You feel that since I clearly wasn't paying attention to the process of these participants cooking, and didn't even take a single bite, on what basis can I judge their cooking for no reason?"
Hearing Mineo's words, Hisako nodded slowly.
"That indeed confuses me!"
"Instructor Takamine has just been sitting on the side playing on his phone, not watching everyone cook, nor tasting any dishes. On what grounds did you hand down a decision for this participant named Yukihira!"
"Use your sense of smell!"
Mineo glanced at Hisako, then he lowered his head again to play his game.
"This kind of thing is very complicated to explain. Right now, you won't be able to understand it in a short amount of time!"
"As for this participant, let's leave it at that. Since you think he passed, give him the qualification to enter Totsuki Academy!"
"Alright, let's wrap this up quickly. After settling today's business, I still have to go back to take care of other things."
Seeing Mineo back to being absorbed in his game again, Hisako suddenly felt annoyed.
She bit her thin lips tightly, then turned her cute little head to the other side.
"Yukihira Soma, pass!"
"The next transfer student can bring their dish over here."
Hisako's evaluation ability and her standards for deliciousness weren't as high as Erina's. So, in this year's transfer student exam, the number of people who passed wasn't just one person like in the original story.
Out of dozens of participants, about seven or eight people passed. Seeing that Hisako had settled all the troublesome matters, Mineo put his phone away.
He stood up and stretched his body comfortably.
"Is everything finished?"
"I didn't expect you to be quite efficient, Hisako!"
"Our cooperation on today's job was pretty good. Let's add each other as friends later, and I'll take you to 'eat chicken'!"
"Take me to eat chicken?"
Hisako didn't quite understand what Mineo meant, but seeing Mineo had been playing games on the side the whole time yet could shamelessly say that his cooperation with her was good, Hisako really didn't want to spend any more time with the man in front of her.
Hisako's voice could be heard saying calmly:
"I do not have a great interest in things like games!"
"Next, I still have to report today's work to My Lady."
"The car is outside the door. If Instructor Takamine has no other business, you may return."
"Hisako, you were the one who picked me up yourself! Now that I'm going back, you're not coming with me?"
"I'll be very bored along the way if I'm alone. Being able to sit with a beautiful girl while chatting casually makes the time pass quickly, doesn't it...?"
"So how about stopping by my restaurant? My treat, I'll feed you something good..."
"I'm telling you, Erina really loves eating the specialty dishes at my shop. If you come for a visit, I guarantee good food and drinks will be available in abundance..."
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