Food Wars, My Dishes Don't Just Shine

"The name of this dish is Hand-Shredded Vegetarian Beef."

I soaked the dried shiitake mushrooms until they were rehydrated, then tore them into small strips of roughly the same size by hand. After trimming off the excess parts, I squeezed out the excess water. Then I added soy sauce, salt, sugar, five-spice powder, chili powder, and cumin powder, and mixed it well.

Marinate for 10-15 minutes to allow the soaked and squeezed shiitake mushrooms to fully absorb the flavor of the seasonings. Then put them in the oven and bake for 40 minutes, turning them over occasionally to ensure even heating.

This hand-shredded vegetarian beef, fresh from the pot, tastes and feels exactly like real beef jerky! This is my answer to whether it's beef or not; please try it.

As Iron-Armed Amu spoke, he stretched out his large palm and gestured for the group to join him. Bai Yuan picked up the vegetarian beef jerky from the plate the instant Amu finished speaking.

After observing it for a while, I put it directly into my mouth and started chewing.

"The taste is quite good, with a refreshing flavor and a slight spiciness. Because it uses high-quality ingredients like shiitake mushrooms, it has a slightly chewy texture, giving you the feeling of chewing real beef."

And with every bite, you can feel its richness and fullness, giving you the satisfying feeling of eating a big chunk of meat, and it won't get stuck in your teeth!

As he savored the taste in his mouth, Bai Yuan nodded. Although the method of making this hand-shredded vegetarian beef jerky was not complicated, the taste was surprisingly good, truly showcasing the chewy texture of beef jerky.

"During the baking process, the edges of the vegetarian beef jerky become slightly crispy, which contrasts with the chewy interior and greatly enriches the overall taste."

After swallowing the vegetarian beef jerky in her mouth, Jin Lanyu also gave it a good review, saying that simple cooking does not mean that the food will taste bad.

This vegetarian beef jerky is a great snack.

"Shiitake mushrooms, as a vegetarian ingredient, have a certain aroma."

After roasting, the aroma becomes even more intense and blends with the flavors of the seasonings, creating a uniquely rich and delicious flavor.

With her fingers pressed against her chest, Kakuzaki Taki opened her eyes and spoke of everything she had felt, her cheeks flushed slightly.

"It feels slightly different from real beef jerky, but overall it's a very good imitation and it's really suitable for this subject."

Lia spoke up, saying that after Bai Yuan's explanation, she had completely understood the meaning of the theme of this assessment: to make a dish that tastes like beef using non-beef ingredients.

It turns out she made such a big mistake before. No wonder the examiner was so angry. Using snail meat as the subject matter was way too far off-topic!

Damn it, it's just a few Chinese characters, why is it so hard to understand!

"Did all the contestants use soybeans and mushrooms to make their vegetarian beef...?"

Even if vegetarian beef is the best solution for tonight's theme, it would be a bit too rigid for all chefs in China to think this way.

Looking at everything before her, the skillful old woman couldn't help but sigh inwardly. She actually longed to see something different from the traditional beef—not beef at all.

It seems unlikely that this will happen this year.

"Now, let's have the last one come up, Japanese chef Kakuzaki Taki."

Seeing that everyone had finished tasting, the skillful old lady turned her attention to the last contestant, Kakuzaki Taki. What kind of dish would this young girl from Japan bring? Would it be a surprise or a shock?

"Go ahead and let me see what you're capable of."

Seeing that Kakuzaki Taki was slightly nervous and was constantly taking deep breaths, Bai Yuan raised his hand and patted her back, his inner force circulating through her body.

In an instant, the feeling of tension vanished completely.

"My dish is called Spanish Nut Vegetarian Beef Stew."

It involves mixing chopped walnuts, almonds, flax seeds, and chia seeds, then adding cornstarch, soybean pulp, and seasonings, stirring until the mixture is slightly bound together to create a texture similar to beef chunks.

Kakuzaki Taki stood beside Shiro and began to talk incessantly. She had thought about this dish for a long time and finally came up with the idea of ​​using various nuts, adding water starch and seasonings to make vegetarian beef that had a similar texture and taste to beef.

However, she later found that this method did not work. The mixture of water starch and nuts tasted worse than she had imagined. Just when she was puzzled, she discovered that Jin Lanyu used soybean residue.

As if by some strange twist of fate, she ran to the ingredient section, grabbed a bowl of soybeans, quickly extracted soy milk, and added the soy pulp to her nut-based vegetarian beef. The taste improved noticeably! So she adjusted the proportions and created the second-generation nut-based vegetarian beef.

"To make the vegetarian beef chunks more uniform, I pressed them slightly with a mold during the making process, and then cut them into small pieces of nut-based vegetarian beef about one centimeter wide with a knife."

The rest is cooked using the Spanish stew method, heating olive oil in a pot, sautéing onions and minced garlic until fragrant, then adding paprika and spices such as rosemary and thyme to enhance the overall flavor.

Next, add the chopped tomatoes, red bell peppers, and green bell peppers to the pot and stir-fry. Once the vegetables have softened slightly, add the potato chunks and continue stir-frying.

Once this part is done, add vegetable broth, salt, black pepper, and a little red wine to enhance the flavor. Then add the previously prepared nut-based beef cubes, spread them evenly over the vegetables, cover the pot, and simmer over low heat.

Stir occasionally during the stewing process to ensure that the nut-based vegetarian beef can fully absorb the flavor of the broth.

Turn off the heat when the broth has thickened, the vegetables are cooked through, and the vegetarian beef with nuts is tender yet chewy. Transfer the dish to a plate.

This is Spanish nut-based vegetarian beef stew, and also my understanding of the concept of "beef and non-beef" in this dish. I hope everyone can give it a fair evaluation.

Since it was his first time participating in this kind of assessment, Kakuzaki Taki explained the entire cooking process directly, and finally bowed deeply to everyone.

After finishing these tasks, she looked at Bai Yuan, her eyes filled with anticipation.

"Using nuts to make vegetarian beef is a very good idea in every respect."

First, nuts can give vegetarian beef cubes a unique texture.

Secondly, different types of nuts have their own unique flavors; the sweetness of almonds and the richness of walnuts intertwine and blend in the vegetarian beef cubes, significantly enhancing the overall flavor and making it even more delicious.

Bai Yuan didn't disappoint Kakuzaki Taki, speaking up for her very actively. However, he didn't make things up; using nuts to make beef was indeed unique to this place.

Putting everything else aside, the creativity is absolutely top-notch!

Take a spoonful and savor the vegetarian beef with nuts, simmered in a Spanish-style broth. The sweetness of the onions, the acidity of the tomatoes, the spiciness of the red and green bell peppers, and the softness of the potatoes blend together during the stewing process, creating a harmonious balance of flavors.

"The unique crunch and chewiness of nuts, combined with proper processing, are integrated into this vegetarian beef. The nut particles form a structure similar to beef fibers, bringing an incredibly rich and intoxicating texture."

Iron-Armed Amu savored the taste in his mouth, his expression slightly surprised, as if he had never expected that nuts could have such a texture similar to beef.

"Moreover, the oil content of nuts makes this vegetarian beef more moist and less dry."

During the stewing process, these oils permeate the entire dish, blending with the other ingredients to infuse every sip of the rich broth with a nutty aroma.

As she savored the rich broth and the unique texture of the nut-based vegetarian beef, Jin Lanyu's face lit up with enjoyment.

"These two go so well together! They complement each other perfectly."

As Lia tasted it, she nodded in agreement. The dish was undeniably delicious; the flavor of the nut-based vegetarian beef blended perfectly with the broth, influencing each other to achieve a synergistic effect.

"Boom"

A drumbeat sounded, and the scene instantly fell silent. The skillful old woman strolled over to the group, glanced at the dishes on the plates, and began to speak:

"All tastings are now complete. We will now proceed to the scoring stage. Please score the work of your two competitors (excluding yourself) out of a maximum of 10 points and write your scores down."

At the same time, several staff members came up and placed scrolls and brushes in front of Jin Lanyu, Amu, and Kakuzaki Taki, respectively, so that they could rate each other's dishes.

As for Leah, because she misunderstood the question from the beginning, she did not participate in the cooking scoring and was directly disqualified from the competition.

Logically, she should have left after the defeat, but Bai Yuan had just agreed to lend her the dragon-shaped armband, so she chose to stay and leave after the competition ended.

Needless to say, Bai Yuan's cooking is beyond the comprehension of these people, let alone their ability to judge others. Frankly, it's not very meaningful.

This assessment is more about evaluating each other among the contestants.

It is important for master chefs to see if they can correctly understand themselves and have the ability to properly evaluate the work of others.

"score..."

Looking at the scroll in front of him and the ink-stained brush, Amu leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed, a look of struggle on his face.

"To properly evaluate others' work, both of these works are excellent. If that's the case, then I think this score is the fairest..."

Without much hesitation, Kakuzaki Taki closed his eyes to savor the taste of the dish he had just prepared, and then opened them to begin writing on the scroll.

"In that case, then..."

Jin Lanyu closed her eyes and pondered for a long time before finally picking up her brush and writing a six on the scroll, and a four on the other.

"Okay, now hand in your scores."

After watching the three of them finish writing the contents of the scroll, the skillful old woman instructed the servants around her to collect all the marks and put them into a small box.

"Please wait here for the announcement."

After saying this, the skillful old woman left the competition venue with her two servants, leaving the others looking at each other in bewilderment.

Do we really need to go back and tally these few scores separately? Is it just for the sake of ritual?

"Kakuzaki-senpai, everything should be alright, right..."

As the skillful old woman left, Kikuchi Sonoka, who had been watching from a distance, came up and looked in the direction of Kakuzaki Taki with a worried expression.

Although Kakuzaki Taki performed very well at Totsuki Academy, this is Guangzhou, after all, the place with the highest difficulty of the Special Grade Examination!

Those who can stand here are all top-notch chefs; it would be incredibly difficult to defeat them.

"Gudu..."

Kakuzaki Taki swallowed hard, feeling extremely nervous. She wasn't even this nervous when she was competing with Yueyue for the first seat of the Elite Ten.

The same applies to others; despite being very confident in their cooking, the waiting process is undoubtedly agonizing.

This was also the skillful grandmother's purpose: to help the group recognize their own shortcomings while waiting, and through anxious anticipation, to recall their own deficiencies in cooking.

After the recollection ends, you will make some progress, which can be considered the final reward of this top-level assessment!

the other side.

Bai Yuan was also resting with his eyes closed, but compared to the others, he appeared relaxed and at ease, because he already knew who the final winner would be.

With his superhuman sense of taste, he could easily tell the difference between good and bad food, and the difference between the three people in front of him was not small.

Chapter 71 The Crown of Kings, the Badge of Glory

"Boom"

A crisp gong sound startled the crowd who were slumped over the table. They looked up and around, finally gathering on the city tower in the direction of the skillful old woman.

"I will now announce the total scores of the three of you."

As soon as the skillful old woman finished speaking, Kakuzaki Taki, Amu, and Jin Lanyu all stood up, their hearts racing in unison, their eyes fixed on the city tower.

next moment.

Three staff members dragged the white banner onto the city wall and then let go, causing the banner to cascade down like a waterfall.

Jade Fourteen

泷八

Wood Eleven

"Jin Lanyu, a Hunan cuisine chef, scores 14 points."

"Chaoweifang Amu, eleven points."

"Japanese chef Kakuzaki Taki, 8/10"