Universe Infinite Canteen-Chapter 593: Head-to-Head Confrontation

"So you were already considering this pan-seared duck breast before you even started cooking the first dish?" Rocky Chen exclaimed.

"Yes," Sun Mei admitted. "The time is tight in this competition, especially after each round when the available time decreases further."

"But for some time-consuming dishes, it's not that the cooking itself takes a lot of time, but rather a certain preprocessing step is time-consuming. If you can cook several dishes at once, you'd be able to save as much time as possible."

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"That's quite common in the kitchen, nothing too surprising."

"Ah, that's true, but the theme this time is coconut, which is already quite challenging to cook. How could you have possibly thought through all the dishes from the beginning?"

Gaggan Anand marveled, "Your creativity is simply outrageous."

"I didn't really have it all figured out at the start, just had a vague idea, so I put it aside for a while since preprocessing the ingredients won't take too long."

"Later on, when I found inspiration, I picked it up again. Speaking of which, the inspiration for this dish actually came from Chef Ma Lu's 'Coconut' earlier; his use of scent was impressive."

"Which 'Coconut'?" Ma Lu asked, curious.

"The second one."

"Oh, oh, oh."

Ma Lu gave Sun Mei a thumbs up, truly impressed by her skills.

Although he seemed more relaxed on the surface, it was because Old Wang had been substituting for him the whole time, and he only did minimal work.

However, Sun Mei had been genuinely battling up to this point; she was the most formidable chef Ma Lu had encountered yet.

But Sun Mei didn't seem satisfied, especially when she saw Ma Lu's dish; she was taken aback once again.

This time, Ma Lu also made duck, but not pan-seared duck meat, but roasted duck.

Undoubtedly, his duck meat was roasted earlier to be ready at this moment, and similar to hers, there wasn't a trace of coconut visible on the plate.

Sun Mei was immediately concerned; they had chosen the same ingredient and the methods were similar, making it a direct competition. Sun Mei really wanted to regain her standing with this pan-seared duck breast.

So she paid extra attention to the results this time.

When the four judges saw the roasted duck, they were moved to tears, considering what Ma Lu had presented in the previous two rounds, it was not easy to expect something genuinely edible from him.

Olette Yupper took the lead; despite being a foreigner, he had been active in Asia for years and was quite adept with chopsticks.

He picked up a piece of the roasted duck, and the next moment, his eyes widened.

Because the taste was just too intense.

He broke through the crispy duck skin and felt the rich fat under the skin melting in his mouth. Then, the intense coconut fragrance exploded in his cavity, assaulting his soul.

Olette Yupper almost let out a comfortable moan.

How was this done?!

If Sun Mei's duck breast only had a hint of coconut aroma, Ma Lu's roasted duck was like a coconut bomb!

Clearly, this wasn't something achievable by smoking.

"It's molecular gastronomy," Ma Lu casually admitted as the four judges all looked over.

"I used molecular gastronomy's spherification technique, making small balls from the sauce made with coconut milk and placing them under the duck skin."

"That makes sense, there's a traditional roasted duck eating method involving dipping in sugar," Rocky Chen nodded. "Fat and sweetness meeting can create a wonderful reaction."

Then Yoshikazu Yoda, who had been quiet among the judges, suddenly said, "Now that we have color, scent, and taste, it's time for form, meaning, and nourishment."

He made this statement and caused another uproar.

The other three judges also showed surprise, "Wait, are you saying these three dishes have another theme?"

Gaggan Anand exclaimed, "Is this... dual-themed creation?"

"Yes, I know Chinese cuisine talks about color, fragrance, taste, shape, artistic conception, and nourishment," Yoshikazu Yoda said, "which roughly corresponds to color, aroma, taste, shape, ambiance, or atmosphere, and nutrition in Western cuisine.

"We have already tasted the first three dishes, and if nothing unexpected happens, we should be tasting the latter ones next."

"Although our cultural customs differ, the standards by which we judge good food are essentially the same," Olette Yupper also said.

"This raises my expectations for Chef Ma Lu's performance even more, but I need to remind you, you have already used 104 minutes and only have 16 minutes left.

"To win the crown, you need to cook three more dishes; with so little time, can you really do it?"

"Absolutely no problem," Ma Lu answered very decisively, "As Chef Sun Mei said, the reason we spent more time earlier is that we had more to do.

"Toward the end, things will get simpler, and in fact, my next dish is almost ready."

"We can't wait to see your next performance, Chef Ma Lu," Rocky Chen concluded.

Although the judges respected the competition process and did not announce the score for this dish on the spot,

Sun Mei knew she had lost again, which made her clench her fists in frustration.

She couldn't remember the last time someone had given her such a strong sense of defeat in culinary skills.

The last person to make her feel this way was Sun He, her grandfather, but he had grown old.

Her grandfather once seemed like an insurmountable mountain, an entity she could only look up to.

But on the evening before she attended the World Young Chef Competition, she realized that imposing figure was no longer invincible and all-powerful.

What followed was a strong sense of emptiness, a sense of aimlessness and boredom without a goal.

Years later, when she returned to her country, she encountered another towering mountain.

This time, it was the insurmountable Mount Everest standing before her.

Sun Mei's competitive spirit was thoroughly ignited, especially when she saw Ma Lu with one hand in his pocket, casually tagging along as if just playing around.

It was like seeing how nonchalant she had been in lower age group competitions.

From the perspective of an observer, was her younger self that annoying?

Sun Mei gritted her teeth and swore to herself, she absolutely, absolutely could not lose to that guy.

Soon, the scores for the third round were announced.

Ma Lu scored perfect marks again, while Sun Mei's sautéed duck breast scored 4.5, an increase of 0.25 points from the previous round, continuing to show stable growth.

If Ma Lu weren't there, her rapid improvement would definitely have been noticed, but now almost everyone's attention was focused on Ma Lu.

Chuan Ye Zhengming made sesame tofu in the third round, once again scoring 4 points.

Luo Junkang actually didn't like creating dishes on the spot; he believed that good dishes needed immersion of the mind and time to perfect, much like how wine gets better with age.

Especially this kind of competition that severely limits time just to torment the participants, although he made a variant version of Squirrel Guaiyu last round, he was not very satisfied with the dish.

This round, not wanting to rush Huaiyang cuisine anymore, he made a bisque lobster soup to get through the task.

He thought he would be eliminated, but unexpectedly, he scored 4 points.