In City B, outside a certain building, a black car slowly stopped.

Jiang Ci got out of the car and looked up. In front of him was a very imposing building. The glass curtain wall outside reflected the blue sky. There was a stream of people at the door, and the clear automatic doors opened and closed.

Qi Yan stood beside her: "It's here."

The office of the organizing committee of the Immortal Cooking Competition is located on the first floor of this skyscraper...

According to the figures displayed on the official website, as of the end of the registration for the Immortal Cooking Competition, a total of more than 5,000 professional chefs have passed the preliminary review by the organizing committee of the competition, and among so many chefs, only 48 have passed the preliminary competition and entered the semi-finals.

More than 5,000 people will be eliminated in the first round of the preliminary round, which is why the time span of the preliminary round will be as long as one month.

The preliminary competition is divided into two rounds. The first round is divided into more than 200 groups, and each group has 20 into 2. This round directly eliminated most of the chefs.

The second round will start after the first round. There are also 20 people in each group. The first place in each group will directly enter the rematch, and the second place will participate in a knockout round. Finally, 48 people will enter the rematch.

The hundreds of competitions in this primary election will end within a month.

Before the start of the preliminary competition, Jiang Ci received the schedule notice issued by the organizing committee.Her first game is scheduled for the third day of the preliminary round.

One day in advance, Jiang Ci arranged Feng Qianguan's work and set off for City B.Now that Mi Ting is in charge, even if she leaves for a while, the restaurant can still operate as usual.

To her surprise, Qi Yan, who was usually too busy to touch the ground, followed her.

"Thank you for sending me here." Jiang Ci turned her head to look, Qi Yan was watching the flow of people coming in and out of the door, her thin lips were tightly pursed, and her expression was serious.

Jiang Ci looked amused, she was more relaxed about the primary election, but Qi Yan seemed to care more about it than she did.

"Why do you look more nervous than me, don't you have confidence in me?" Jiang Ci's voice came with a smile.

"...No, I have confidence in you." Qi Yan sensed Jiang Ci's gaze, and a little redness appeared on the pinnae of his ears.He hesitated for a moment, then said softly, "Come on."

"I can win." Looking at his expression, Jiang Ci couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder and smiled, "Don't worry."

Jiang Ci's eyes were bright and full of confidence.Qi Yan was stunned for a moment when she looked at it—it was this kind of Jiang Ci who was full of charm, and she was always shining in her professional field.

Qi Yan couldn't help but also bent his lips: "It ends at four o'clock? I'll pick you up."

Jiang Ci nodded: "Well, about four o'clock."

...

Jiang Ci followed the crowd into the hall and registered at the front desk. Two minutes later, a staff member came to pick her up.

The organizing committee office is on the 17th floor of the building, and the competition venue is borrowed from the restaurant on the top floor.When Jiang Ci arrived, the first batch of contestants had already started the competition in the restaurant in the afternoon, and she and the remaining 19 chefs from the second batch were ushered into the waiting area.

The huge waiting area was a conference hall. The professional chefs knew that all the chefs present were competitors, and they were sparsely spaced apart, so they had no intention of chatting with each other.

Jiang Ci glanced around, found an empty seat and sat down, then flipped through the brochures handed to her by the staff.While flipping through, someone gave a soft "Hi".

Jiang Ci looked up, and a chubby young girl was standing next to her, pointing to the seat next door, with a tentative smile on her face: "Can I sit here?"

Jiang Ci nodded: "Yes."

After the girl sat down, she couldn't wait to say: "You are the only person of the same age I met here." After speaking, she belatedly introduced herself, "My name is Jiang Xiaotong."

"I'm Jiang Ci." Jiang Ci followed Jiang Xiaotong's line of sight. In their group, the other participating chefs were in their thirties to fifties, and everyone sat in silence.On the surface, it seems that the ones with the latest qualifications are indeed only her and Jiang Xiaotong.

Jiang Xiaotong is a self-acquaintance. Seeing Jiang Ci's friendliness, he couldn't help but continue: "I thought I could meet some newcomers in the preliminary round. This time it seems that I can only swim in one round."

"They are indeed veterans." Jiang Ci looked around.

Jiang Xiaotong sighed: "I just graduated from the teacher, and I have no qualifications to cook big dishes in our shop. I just came to see and see. By the way, how many years have you been in the industry?"

Jiang Ci thought for a while, counting her previous life, she had been in the culinary world for many years, but she was afraid of scaring people when she said it, so she could only say: "I started learning to cook when I was six years old."

Jiang Xiaotong couldn't help laughing after hearing this: "I'm talking about entering the industry. If it's cooking at home, then I started learning it at a young age."

Jiang Ci smiled and did not refute.

Jiang Xiaotong said to himself: "I didn't expect to be rated as 'Fairy Chef', I just came here to make a comment. This round of judges are all bigwigs in the food industry. If you can give me a few more pointers, I will earn a lot of money.".”

Jiang Ci asked curiously: "Do you know who the judges are?"

"You don't know?" Jiang Xiaotong looked at Jiang Ci unexpectedly.

Jiang Ci: "I didn't notice."

Jiang Xiaotong stared at her and sighed: "I found that you are different from me. You are really not nervous. The judges for this competition were announced on the first day of the preliminary competition."

Jiang Xiaotong introduced it, and Jiang Ci finally understood that the jury for the primary selection consisted of eight people, seven of whom were fixed judges, including international Chinese cooking masters, well-known food critics, state banquet chefs, kitchen association members and gourmet chefs.Scholars, etc., and the other person is the daily public judges.

Of course, there is also a threshold for becoming a public judge, and one needs to have published high-quality food reviews.The selection of public judges is random, which is also to provide an extra layer of supervision for the scoring of the competition.

Jiang Ci sighed after listening, "It's really a gathering of masters."

"Yeah, so many people can be invited just for the preliminary round. This may be the moment I am closest to the masters." Jiang Xiaotong's expression was full of admiration.

Probably because of Jiang Xiaotong's existence, the waiting time has become very fast.Jiang Ci felt that it didn't take long before the staff entered the waiting area: "All contestants, please follow me, we will go to the restaurant on the top floor."

Jiang Ci and Jiang Xiaotong got up, and the group followed the staff out to the top floor, just as the chef from the previous round came out in a mighty manner.Most of the people had serious expressions, drooping shoulders, and only two of them had smiles on their faces.

The strong contrast between the winner and the loser suddenly made the atmosphere of this group of contestants more serious.

Smiling on their faces were two dark-complexioned middle-aged men.Someone curiously asked them in a low voice: "Brother, what are your teams competing for?"

Unexpectedly, the middle-aged man glanced at him, and his expression changed from unconcealed joy to frost: "Every batch is different, so it's useless to ask me."

"C'mon, I know it's different, so what if I say I can lose a piece of meat." The questioner choked dissatisfied.

And after they walked into the back kitchen, they knew the exam questions of the previous batch of people.

In the hall of the restaurant, there are twenty dishes of different shapes, all of which are dried shredded pork.

Immediately, a chef guessed, "Today we have a heat test."

The most important test of dry-stirring is the heat. The heat should be just right, so that the ingredients are dry and fragrant, but not too old to lose the flavor of the raw materials.

The chefs saw several staff members packing these dishes, and asked curiously, "Is this still packing?"

The staff explained: "In order to avoid food waste, the remaining dishes after tasting will be taken away by the masters."

"A lot of dishes don't look like they've been touched, so the eight judges only tasted this?"

The staff didn't answer, just smiled and said, "Masters, please."

Jiang Ci and the twenty people were introduced into the back kitchen, and the judges were not seen during the whole process.According to Jiang Xiaotong, they couldn't see the judges on this day, and the judges didn't know the specific contestants. They only tasted the food and didn't see anyone.

In the back kitchen, the stove is very clean, and there are condiments by category next to them.There are twenty baskets on the table in the center, each containing about half a catty of blue-gray river prawns, which are very fresh and still alive and kicking.

The staff said: "Masters, the topic of our group is Fried Shrimp. The time limit is 30 minutes. After 15 minutes, the competition will officially start."

As soon as these words came out, many people had a "really so" expression on their faces - just as the master who made the guess just now thought, today's exam questions are indeed biased towards the heat.

Similar to stir-frying shredded pork, deep-fried shrimp is also a dish that needs to be cooked well.If the oil temperature is too high or too low, it will affect the final color of the food.If the degree of oil frying is not enough, the shrimp shells will not be crispy enough, and if the oil frying time is too long, the freshness, sweetness and crispness of the shrimp meat will be affected.

When making oil-fried shrimps in exquisite stores, in order to do a good job of quality control, they will also use professional instruments to measure the oil temperature, and the time of each oil-explosion is calculated in seconds.

But here, without the help of instruments, the masters can only rely on their own experience.

As soon as the staff finished speaking, the chefs quickly changed into their work clothes, washed their hands, and got ready for work. Fifteen minutes later, the timer started.

After Jiang Ci was ready, she quickly grabbed a basket of shrimps on the table.Shrimp fried in oil should be eaten together with the shell. The selected river prawns are small in size and have thin shells. Jiang Ci first cuts off the shrimp tails and feet that affect the taste. After a few minutes, the ingredients are ready.deal with.

She did not observe the other contestants, but focused all her attention on the river prawn in front of her.

Oil explosion, oil temperature is the key.Nowadays, some chefs are not very good at judging oil temperature without a thermometer, but for real insiders, judging oil temperature is actually a basic skill.

At this moment, the chefs are crossing the sea. Some chefs throw scallions and ginger into the oil to observe the changes of scallions and ginger in the oil. Some chefs directly hang their hands on the oil surface, like iron hands, and feel the temperature rise from a distance.high.

And Jiang Ci first smelled the rapeseed oil provided by the organizing committee, judged the quality of the oil, then turned on the fire and poured the orange oil.

After that, she just stared at the oil surface.

As the oil temperature rises, different signs such as smoke and tumbling will appear on the oil surface, corresponding to different temperature ranges.Experienced chefs can judge the heat by looking at it.

Undetectable blue smoke curled up from the oil surface, and small ripples appeared on the edge of the oil pan. After a while, Jiang Ci narrowed his eyes, and quickly poured the river shrimp into the pan, "Zlazila!"The sound exploded in the pot instantly.

The oil surface rolled rapidly to form dense bubbles, and the heat was steaming, but Jiang Ci seemed to be completely unaffected, standing calmly in front of the pot, watching the protein rapidly deteriorate under the influence of the heat, and the shrimp meat began to curl up.

A few seconds later, the strainer was turned over, and the crispy river prawns left the frying pan.The tangy aroma of fried shrimp quickly diffuses into the air.

Immediately afterwards, cooling, frying, stir-frying seasoning... In less than three minutes, a plate of golden red, crispy and fragrant river prawns came out of the pan.

...

Chen Siyu is a food lover and a heavy user of Food Review.com.Since college, she has had the habit of recording her food tastes. After several years of accumulation, she doesn't remember how many reviews she has posted.

She couldn't help but be thankful for her habit this summer.Relying on the account she operated, she successfully passed the review of the organizing committee, was selected into the public judge pool of the Immortal Cooking Contest, and was selected by the organizing committee to become today's judge.

This is simply the luck of koi!

You know, there are only a few dozen people selected by the public judges, but there may be more applicants than contestants!

Who wouldn't want to taste the craft of a top chef live?

At this moment, Chen Siyu was sitting upright, and while listening to the comments of the seven gourmet experts, he couldn't help touching his stomach that was a little stuffed.

In the afternoon, the chefs in the first group made a total of 20 dishes of dry fried pork slices. Even if they only tasted one bite of each dish, Chen Siyu felt that he was full.

The feeling of looking forward to the food an hour ago has subsided a lot. Thinking that there will be 20 more dishes to eat later, Chen Siyu can't help but regret the amount of food just now.

Chen Siyu took a sneak peek at her left and right sides. Li Sheng, a well-known food critic, was sitting on her left.Li Sheng is a woman in her fifties, but she looks only forty. She wears a cheongsam and has an elegant posture. She only tastes a small bite of each dish.

And on her right, sits the legendary culinary master Huang Zongxuan!Huang Zongxuan's hair was already grey, he tasted even less, and he didn't even start with dishes whose aroma was not up to standard.

At this moment, the judges are chatting with each other, waiting for the next set of dishes to come up.In the batch of chefs not long ago, there was only one outstanding chef, and the others were mediocre.The judges were also the tallest of the dwarfs, and barely picked out the two who advanced.

Listening to the comments of the masters, Chen Siyu couldn't help feeling embarrassed: The masters are demanding, so it's no wonder they eat so little, unlike her, who wished to have a big mouthful of every dish.

You must be more reserved later.

Thinking of this, Chen Siyu adjusted his sitting posture, and listened carefully to the comments of the masters.

The organizing committee gave the second group of chefs a time limit of 30 minutes, but deep-fried shrimp is a quick dish, and it takes a lot of time to pre-process the ingredients, but it doesn’t take much time to actually prepare the dish.About ten minutes later, a staff member came up with a plate.

"The first contestant took 13 minutes and 25 seconds."

The staff put fried shrimp in the middle of the table without introducing who the contestants are, and the judges will make comments without knowing the identity of the contestants.

Chen Siyu looked intently, and the fried shrimp oil on the table was shiny and shiny, exuding a salty and rich salt and pepper smell.She smelled the aroma and couldn't help swallowing heavily.The plate of salt and pepper shrimp in front of me looks really good!

Chen Siyu's right hand holding the chopsticks was eager to move, and she held back until the other judges moved the chopsticks before she picked up a shrimp and put it in her mouth expectantly.

Mmm, delicious!

Li Sheng next to him nodded and said affirmatively, "The pepper is rich in aroma, and the shrimp meat is soft and tender."

"Ruannen is soft and tender, but the water content is too much, and the shrimp shell is not crisp enough."

"This chef made it in the direction of serving wine and dishes. The salt taste is too heavy, and the sweetness of the shrimp meat is not reflected." The head of the kitchen association sitting opposite Chen Siyu followed suit.

"General." Huang Zongxuan cherishes words like gold.

Chen Siyu originally wanted to boast, but now he is glad that he didn't open his mouth and chewed the shrimp silently.She thought it was pretty good, and if it was placed in an outside restaurant, it would be the level she would recommend to her friends.

After the first bite, the eight judges quickly scored.With this little effort, four or five chefs have completed their dishes.

The deep-fried shrimp is extremely hot, and it is also the best when it is just out of the pan. It is steaming hot, crispy and fragrant.The staff simply brought several plates of shrimp to the table.

Suddenly there were five more fried shrimp plates on the dining table. The plates were arranged in different ways, but they were all golden, and there were labels with serial numbers on the edges of the plates.Chen Siyu was dazzled all of a sudden, and at the same time, he was also curious, if the aromas are intertwined when they are served together, won't they affect each other?

The answer is that it will affect, but at the same time the best dish is also highlighted in an instant.

Chen Siyu couldn't help looking at the second plate of fried shrimp on her left, and she could clearly tell that the aroma that attracted her the most came from this plate of shrimp.

"Smells so good!" Someone spoke out for her.

The fried river prawns are piled up in layers, forming a low pyramid shape, and the center of the tower is dotted with dried red pepper segments and emerald green scallions.Under the light, the river prawns show a charming golden red color, like the color cast by the setting sun on the clear river in the evening.

The aroma of this plate of deep-fried shrimp is not the most overbearing, but it is the most attractive. It seems to have magical powers, tempting everyone's appetite.

Unable to hold back, Chen Siyu stretched out his chopsticks, crossed the dishes in the center, and went straight to the plate of shrimp.

Not only her, several other judges also stretched their chopsticks towards the plate of shrimp.

The shells of the river prawns had been fried very crisply. When the chopsticks picked them up, Chen Siyu even felt that she could hear a cracking sound, as if she would crush the shells with a little more force.

Shrimp meat is slightly separated from the shrimp shell due to shrinkage during frying, creating a transparent gap.The shrimp shell is oily and golden, and the shrimp meat is orange and white. With just one glance, Chen Siyu has already begun to outline the unique delicacy of fresh shrimp, and when he lifts the fried shrimp close to him, the attractive aroma becomes more obvious...

Chen Siyu didn't have time to think about it, and couldn't help but put the deep-fried shrimp with shell and meat into his mouth——

"Click—"

With a light bite, the shell of the shrimp in the mouth will be broken. It is not as hard as the shell of ordinary shrimp, but it is extremely crispy and fragrant, and it is effortless to chew. It even makes people obsessed with the thin and crisp taste.

The shell of the shrimp is like the outer layer of a delicious fried bomb. After being easily smashed by the teeth, the crispy shrimp meat inside comes to the tip of the tongue——

Chen Siyu's eyes widened in an instant.

Even though the prawn meat has shrunk and curled up after being deep-fried, it doesn’t taste dehydrated at all!On the contrary, it is full and charming, with a crisp and firm taste. The gravy of river prawns fills the mouth in an instant, mixed with the crushed shrimp shells, fresh, sweet, salty, fragrant, numb, hot... all kinds of tastes seem to beRolling vigorously on the tip of the tongue!

This is too, too, too... so delicious!

"The outer shell is crispy and fragrant, the shrimp meat is crispy, soft and refreshing, and the heat... is very well controlled!" The head of the kitchen association's eyes lit up, and he moved the bowl to the dinner plate, and directly put several deep-fried shrimp in the bowl.

Cooking master Huang Zongxuan frowned tightly, chewing the shrimp in his mouth carefully, and said after a moment of silence: "Not bad."

"Is this the seed player for this year?"

"This person can enter the finals." The chef opposite Chen Siyu said while eating, "This kind of fire can be mastered, and it won't take ten years to practice."

"The seasoning is also very amazing." Li Sheng continued, "The salty aroma is just right, it doesn't cover the taste of the shrimp itself at all, but it brings out the umami taste even more."

"Yes! It's just that the umami taste is very prominent, and I don't know how to keep it after the frying pan."

Everyone said what they said, but Chen Siyu felt that it was all noise when facing the boss's comments at the moment, and there was only one voice echoing in his mind-delicious, delicious, delicious...

Moreover, the deep-fried shrimp has a strong taste and full of flavor, so she doesn't even feel full, she just wants to cook rice!

"Miss Chen, what do you think?" someone asked.

Chen Siyu suddenly came back to his senses, his mind went blank, and after holding back for a few seconds, he said: "Good... delicious!"

The moment the words came out, Chen Siyu burst into tears in his heart.

What about the feeling of writing a review?Is he actually a good eloquent chatterbox?How can I be so poor at the moment!

Chen Siyu's straightforward comment drew laughter from the table.

"Siyu is right." Li Sheng said, "When eating this plate of shrimp, the first word that comes to mind is delicious."

"That's right, Ms. Chen's comments on food are back to basics. No matter how much you say, the essence is whether it is delicious or not."

Chen Siyu glanced gratefully at the two people who were talking, and felt that it was really flattering, she just couldn't say anything else.

This plate of delicacy that turned out to be delicious immediately ignited the enthusiasm of the judges, and everyone talked about it.

On the side, the staff reminded professionally: "Every judge and teacher, there are other contestants' dishes waiting for comments."

After the judges came back to their senses, Huang Zongxuan hesitated, and said, "I'm done commenting on this dish, please take it down. Keep it here to distract attention."

The staff brought the prawns down, and the judges managed to hold back their gazes and turned their attention to the remaining dishes in front of them.

However, after experiencing this plate of deep-fried shrimp, the following dishes have become difficult for water.

Chen Siyu tasted it seriously, and gave the score prudently, but thoughts still popped up in his mind from time to time——I really want to taste it again!

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See you tomorrow!