Chapter 62: Smoked Duck!

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

He thought back to that year when he was in front of his wife’s hospital bed. She had said that she wanted to eat this dish, and he had rushed to make it himself. However, due to the complicated craftsmanship and many steps required, it was already too late to bring it to the hospital after it was done…

This became Old Master Song’s lifelong regret. He looked at Xu Le, who was busy with his work, and sighed.

If he didn’t make it in time, would it also become this child’s regret?

Xu Le didn’t know what they were talking about. He only lowered his head and focused on making his smoked duck. He casually grabbed the seasoning and accurately applied it to the milligrams. Then, he concentrated on making a small sauce bag for braising the meat and put it into the boiling water.

He followed the steps he had practiced many times and operated with ease.

It was only when he placed the duck meat into the air-dryer box that a judge on the stage exclaimed, “How smart! Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Don’t celebrate too early. How can the air-dry machine produce the same effect as waiting for two days?”

As they spoke, Xu Le poured some glutinous rice and oil into the smoking pot. Then, he added half of the tsaoko, fragrant leaves, and rice wine into the pot to stir-fry it.

The bullet screen immediately exploded.

“This method is wrong. My family sells roast duck!”

“Anyway, my house uses wood shavings and pine leaves for smoking. How can you use glutinous rice?”

“There’s no such things on the competition grounds. Do you guys think you are the only knowledgable ones>”

“Hehehe, I think he’s going to fail this time.”

“He will definitely be eliminated.”

“Finally there’s a backlash from excessive marketing. This won’t do.”

“Xu Le, you can do it. I believe in you.”

“We will only know if this method is feasible when the results are out. The Smoking Duck itself is a recipe that has incorporated methods from several cuisines. It’s only available in the Qing Dynasty.”

“Yo, the bullet screen is filled with a bunch of smart-alecks. They don’t even allow people to use their home-cooked techniques. In that case, don’t eat your own family’s cooking it’s too ordinary.”

Everyone was talking about Xu Le’s smoking method and steps. No one cared about the other contestants.

The main director knew that he was the key to high viewership during the live broadcast, so he turned half of the cameras to Xu Le.

He was young and was pursing his lips. But he was exceptionally skilled. He put the smoked roast duck into the braising pot and started a small fire.

The first time he made it, the fire was too small, causing it to not be braised thoroughly. This time, he learned his lesson. He turned the small fire to medium heat, which emitted a ring of blue flames.

After 10 minutes, the fire would be turned off and the dish would be ready. Xu Le looked at his watch. The timing was just right.

Only then did he begin to process the watermelon skin. It was originally a cool and simple side dish, so there wasn’t much difficulty. He poured some oil into the pot, heated it, and then rinsed the marinated watermelon skin with water. After removing the salt on it, he poured it into the pot and stir-fried it. This way, it would be even more refreshing and crispy. After a few seconds, he added a little salt, ketchup, and seasoning, and it would be ready.

Xu Le took a bite. The watermelon skin was very fresh, crispy, cool, and delicious. It was finally related to the “theme” of summer.

He looked at the sliced watermelon at the side. He was thirsty and had endured it for a long time, so he quickly poked a piece with a toothpick and put it into his mouth.

At the same time, the team next to him started arguing because of the uneven division of labor and the lack of time. A transparent glass blocked the way, and the two sides were completely different worlds.

Xu Le seemed nonchalant as he secretly ate, but the camera was focused on him. Many netizens saw him puff up his cheeks and flashed his big eyes as he was afraid of being discovered. Then, a wave of screams flooded the screen. One after another, they expressed that they wanted to become into his motherly fans.

“Time’s up!” The host stood on stage and looked at everyone’s works one by one. He said, “I see that the contestants’ choice of dishes are quite diverse. Some…”

He held back his laughter. Xu Le followed the host’s gaze and saw a team carving a dish that looked like a cockroach with potatoes. Even the tentacles on it were vivid and lifelike. Then, they colored it with soy sauce.

At first glance, it looked like it was real.

The entire crowd roared with laughter. That team of chefs had unexpectedly advanced, and they were already satisfied. In the selection of ingredients, they didn’t have a uniform discussion, and what they took back were all ingredients that they weren’t good at preparing. Thus, they decided that they might as well take a different path.

After all, in this era where anything could rapidly change, as long as they could attract attention and attract customers to the hotel, their goal was already achieved. The host handed the microphone to the head chef and asked, “May I know what your experience in cooking this dish is? It doesn’t seem to fit with today’s theme.” A young chef in the team answered first, “It’s an idea that I came up with. When it’s summer, there are many cockroaches. Once that thing starts camping at our homes, we won’t be able to clean it up.”

The host laughed until he was trembling and nodded repeatedly. Finally, he concluded with a sentence of “This young man is indeed humorous.”

Other than Lin Shuwei who had an youthful mind, the judges all had serious expressions on their faces. Old Master Song had a high status and was used to being serious. The other judges felt that they were disrespecting the competition.

The invitation letter for the Beijing Expo was hard to come by. Besides, the potatoes and meat were made into something that looked a little uncomfortable. It had a very ordinary taste without any highlights.

Soon, the judges gave their scores.

On average, they obtained four to five, so their total score was not high. At this rate, there was no hope of them advancing.

This time, the order was opposite. Xu Le had won first place in the preliminary round with “Stir-fried Three Baldies”. Now, he was the last one to be evaluated. The dishes before him were all different.

Some of them didn’t have good teamwork and weren’t able to perform to their full potential. Some were like Zhang Tong and the others from the Heavenly Restaruant, who were extremely lucky. They were ranked at the bottom and chose extremely good ingredients, so the dishes they made were within the safe range and obtained a decent score.

If the last few contestants didn’t stand out, Zhang Tong might be able to enter the final round successfully.

The evaluation continued until number 19, who was the contestant before Xu Le. They made braised pork trotter and iced wheat tea. It didn’t seem to fit the theme at all. The usually quiet Old Master Song suddenly asked, “Did you make this?”

No one could understand why he had asked that. The contestant nodded immediately. “Yes.”

Old Master Song smiled and became friendly. He said, “It looks good. If only it had a bowl of rice.”

When he finished his sentence.

Xu Le’s eyes widened as he suddenly recalled something.

That night, the person whom he thought was a vagabond was also wearing a tattered jacket. When he first met him, Xu Le found him familiar, but he couldn’t link the seemingly delirious vagabond to the high and mighty judge. Now, Old Master Song suddenly mentioned it.

He tried hard to recall. Under the dim light that day, their facial features did indeed have many similarities…

Old Master Song took a bite and put down his chopsticks. The smile on his face faded.

The taste was wrong.

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