Chapter 596: Honest Man

"Do these shapes you made have any deep meaning?" Rocky Chen asked.

"No," Malu lied, "I just remembered the cartoon "Pokémon" I watched when I was a child, and I made them casually."

"Oh, I said why the one with many hands in front of me looks familiar, it turned out to be Wukong," Gaggan Anand suddenly realized, but soon fell into deep thought.

"But why don't I remember the other ones? The lead apple tree, is there such a Pokémon in "Pokémon"?"

"This is not the point, it may be that I remembered it wrong." Malu said, "Eat it quickly, or the food will melt if you don't eat it."

The four judges took out their mobile phones and took pictures first, and even took pictures of others, and then picked up the spoon to eat.

Originally thought it was just ordinary ice cream, but everyone was surprised after eating it.

"Hey, why is this ice cream still coconut chicken flavored?"

"Speaking of which, the Fat Duck restaurant seems to have a similar dish, which makes bacon and scrambled eggs into ice cream."

"Food & Wine" magazine editor-in-chief Violette Huppert thought of something and pushed her glasses.

"In addition to the excellent shape, the taste is also not bad, and it is once again closely related to the theme." Chef Rocky Chen sighed again, "Too good, I can't find any reason not to give it full marks."

"In addition, this dish is definitely impossible to make in two minutes. It seems that Chef Yoneda Hajime's guess was right before. In the first round of the competition, you had already planned to adopt a dual theme and were well prepared.

"But even so, your product is a bit scary. There is no trace of improvisation. It can be sold directly in any restaurant."

Yoneda Hajime nodded and said, "Impeccable. ”

The next person to come on stage was Sun Mei. She performed brilliantly in the previous three rounds, second only to Malu, but her performance declined in this round.

But it is understandable. After all, she is different from Lao Wang. She is still a human being, so she will naturally have ups and downs.

And Sun Mei probably realized that it is not easy to beat Malu, so she stopped rushing and adopted some strategies.

It seems that she plans to switch from offense to defense, prioritize survival, and then accumulate as much time as possible until the last round of the showdown, and then fight Malu again at that time.

So this time she served a cold dish - meat jelly.

Even if it is a cold dish, Sun Mei has spent a lot of thought on it. The meat jelly is specially made with wild yellow croaker, and perilla, codonopsis, and saffron are added to it, so that the finished product still has a faint herbal flavor.

Although the theme of this competition is coconut, considering that the judges have eaten more than a dozen coconut-flavored dishes in a row, their taste buds are probably almost numb.

More different flavors can also enhance the dish , Sun Mei finally put coconut crisp sticks on the bottom and paired it with aspic.

The third person to come on stage was Luo Junkang.

He still had a blank expression on his face, but Sun Mei and Kawano Zhengming noticed that the inheritor of Huaiyang cuisine had washed his face and was in a daze before.

Knowing that Luo Junkang should be reaching his limit, this is why Sun Mei and Kawano Zhengming chose to speed up at the same time.

Since there are already eliminated in this round, they can also let him go appropriately and grab some time.

Even though they have seen the strength and overwhelming strength of Malu, both of them are arrogant and talented chefs. They don't want to admit defeat so quickly and hand over the championship to others.

Luo Junkang walked up to the podium with heavy steps as if he was going to the execution ground.

As if they felt the despair emanating from him, the four judges also knew that this should be the last round for this contestant.

However, when they looked at the dishes handed in by Luo Junkang, they couldn't help but exclaimed.

"This is..."

"Peony. "Luo Junkang said in a muffled voice.

A peony carved out of tofu stood gracefully at the bottom of the bowl. As the judges turned the soup bowl, the petals of the tofu would sway gently with the water.

"Good knife skills." Mi Tianzhao praised, "As expected of the inheritor of Huaiyang cuisine, the carving skills on this tofu are really amazing."

"But this dish is a bit too simple." Gaggan Anand then added, "Although your tofu is carved very beautifully, it is served with only a bowl of water, without even any sauce. This is a bit too plain. Is there no time?"

Olette Huppert put her nose to the soup bowl and sniffed it, but suddenly exclaimed, "Wait, this, this is not water, it is broth, but the color is indeed very light."

Rocky Chen's heart moved when he heard this, "Could it be... that dish? ”

“It’s not boiled cabbage,” Luo Junkang quickly clarified, “To boiled cabbage, you need to cook chicken, duck, elbow and ham together, and it takes a long time to cook. There is no time at all.

“I only have the chicken soup that was discarded in the previous experiment. I added some ham and deer antlers, and then swept the soup with minced meat to make the soup clear. It can be regarded as a simplified version.

“As for this piece of tofu, it was discarded in the last round. I added coconut milk to it, but later I found that there was no time, so I didn’t use it. However, I did point out the tofu. ”

“I really had no choice this round, so I tried to combine these two things.”

Luo Junkang is an honest man and did not shy away from using scraps.

Several judges did not care. As long as the dishes themselves were not bad, they were not opposed to the reuse of kitchen waste.

In fact, in recent years, many chefs of top restaurants have been working hard to solve the problem of waste and establish a more environmentally friendly and sustainable menu.

Gaggan Anand also changed his attitude and praised this "Peony" after tasting it.

"In addition to its good appearance, this dish tastes good. Chef Luo Junkang, I feel that everyone seems to have underestimated your ability to respond."

Luo Junkang didn't say anything, just wiped his sweat.

After him, Kawano Zhengming frowned slightly, but soon relaxed again.

He served the coconut grass cake he made.

Grass cake is a specialty of Kansai. The method is a bit like the Hakka snack Qingtuan. They are all made by mixing mugwort with stalk rice or glutinous rice to make rice cakes, and then wrapping the fillings in the middle.

Kawano Zhengming wrapped the crab legs of the king crab in it, and then brushed a layer of sugar shell on the grass cake with coconut milk.

Gaggan Anand was a little surprised when he ate it, "Your sweetness is actually layered, how did you do it?"

"I used coconut milk and king crab legs to provide sweetness for this dish," said Kawano Zhengming, "In addition, I also poured some sea water before serving."

"The saltiness of the sea water can balance the sweetness of the upper layer of the shell and distinguish it from the lower layer. Finally, the king crab legs inside the grass cake form a progressive relationship."