Meng Jiao's face darkened when she noticed Jun Simin giving Lu Xinyi a favorable look. Her eyes caught the cuts on Lu Xinyi's countertop, surprised that she was able to learn such various cuts in a short span of time.
Four months ago, Lu Xinyi wouldn't be able to do this. At their shop, Lu Xinyi was only limited to making their daily cakes and pastries and have never served a restaurant-quality dish before. Now, as Meng Jiao stared at her former best friend, she wondered how much time Lu Xinyi wasted working in a small shop than chasing her own dream.
At these thoughts, Meng Jiao looked away. Why was she thinking like this? She shouldn't feel any sympathy for the woman who rob her chances with Gong Yijun. Until this day, Lu Xinyi kept a good distance ahead of her, proving that she'd never be good enough to surpass her.
After another fifteen minutes of waiting, Jun Simin finished grading and posted the result in front. With Lu Xinyi and Ye Xieren receiving full marks for their first activity, the class wasn't surprised that they dominated again. Following after them was Meng Jiao who received twenty-five.
"Some of you have performed well and exceeded my expectations, but I cannot turn a blind eye that some of you weren't even familiar with the basic cuts I have asked for." Her eyes swept to her students.
"Cutting the ingredients in appropriate sizes is important. This might be a daunting task for some of you, but you have to know the basics and how it will affect the quality of the dishes you're serving. Knowing the basic cuts—the next time you're asked for it, you'll have confidence that you'll encounter no mistakes.
"Terms and definitions in cooking. Most of it you should know by now through bookwork. The technicalities and your creativity are what we want to cultivate in our classes.
"Now, let's move on to the second phase of our activity. Using the same cuts you've made earlier, I want all of you to produce three basic stocks: vegetables, beef, and chicken. Stocks are full of flavor and essential for making great food. It also helps elevate the flavors of your cuisine. You only have two hours to produce these three stocks. All the ingredients you need are available at the back."
Another grueling two hours have started. Ye Xieren picked up the chopping knife again and cut the vegetables into perfect matchsticks in the time it took most people just peel the carrots.
Every motion was precise from intense repetition, and he prided himself on the machine-like perfection of his shapes. Everything was even, uniform… perfect. He looked over at Lu Xinyi and furrowed his brows.
She was too slow for his liking. In the real kitchen, everything moved swiftly and needed efficiency. Taking time to finish one task would affect the other.
At the end of the day—with all three activities finished before sunset, Lu Xinyi's Pays Anne Soup and Roasted Butternut Squash Soup came victorious over Ye Xieren's. The soup base she made was enough to yield a perfect broth for her soups.
With Lu Xinyi's perfect thirty scores, followed by Ye Xieren's twenty-eight, Meng Jiao and Yan Chen's score came into a tie at twenty-five.
"This is just the first day. Do not worry too much about your current scores. What you need to do right now is to improve the skills you are lacking. Soon, you'll find yourselves worth enough to issue a challenge against one of the members of Cream of the Crop," Jun Simin said before taking her leave.
Hearing Jun Simin bringing up the matters regarding the challenge for top students, everyone's eyes immediately lit up, with various reasons on their minds.
With Lu Xinyi's counter just across his, Ye Xieren shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned against his countertop.
"Hey, Miss Lu. Where did you learn such impressive knife skills? You weren't using it during our exams before," he asked casually.
Surya Rathore, who had heard Ye Xieren's question, couldn't help but join their talk.
"Yes, Sister Lu! That was amazing. Your cutting techniques aren't fancy, but you sure know how to balance the measurements. Your waste bin doesn't even have much waste on it." He sighed, "I kinda messed up my soup. The carrots weren't cooked evenly."
The woman they were talking to stopped wiping her counter clean and lifted her head.
"I got a short course on cooking. My mentor is very capable."
Ha! Why would she tell him that her mentor was a two-star Michelin chef? If she dared to utter those words, Ye Xieren's face would surely blacken. He might be Chef Qin's apprentice, but He Haotian had no doubt outrank his master, and she wasn't planning to show all her trump cards yet.
Ye Xieren regarded Surya Rathore for a moment. "Your soup didn't turn out great because the sizes of your carrots are uneven."
He then took a carrot from his box and showed it to Surya Rathore.
"Look at this carrot. You see it doesn't have an even size, right? Large and thick at the top, long and thin in the end. Most people overlook the importance of proper knife cut techniques. The first reason is uniformity. Take this carrot, for instance. It goes from very fat to very thin, and most people will use a coin cut to slice it. This leaves very large and very small pieces in relation to itself."
"Why would the size be important?" One of their classmates took a peek of the carrot on his hand. Just like Surya Rathore, his soup earned a lower score because of the cuts of his vegetables.
"Because large pieces take longer to cook, especially when it comes to carrots. Uniformity in cutting ensures that you have even, predictable cooking times. Nobody wants carrots that are mushy and hard at the same time. Would you eat soup with vegetables not evenly cook?
"Size is important when it comes to stocks or soups. Longer cooking stocks will benefit from large coarse cuts so as to reduce the chance of the items breaking down into the stock, clouding it." Lu Xinyi explained.
She still didn't know how come she ended up talking to them when she decided that she'd be a lone wolf on this journey. Just like that, their other classmates decided to join and ask questions.
Lu Xinyi then caught Tang Lilou staring at her with sparkling eyes.
The girl really resembled like a cute gothic Lolita doll with her black curly hair and bright eyes. According to other students, Tang Lilou was a mute, but others said she only talked when she wants to.
She was supposed to hate the crowd and interacting with other people, so why then she was staring at Lu Xinyi like a girl who had seen her favorite toy?
Surya Rathore blew out his cheeks. "So that's why my soup became so cloudy."
"There's always a next time," Ye Xieren said before throwing back the carrot in his box, "Just like I still have another chance to beat Miss Lu and the other cream of the crops."
"Ahh, so you also want to challenge them? Who among the cream of the crops you want to beat?"
'Yes, yes! Please tell us!"
"Ah, I can't wait anymore. I need to see the two princes of Silver Leaf competing again!" A girl from their class whined.
"We've been here at Silver Leaf since last week. How come we've never seen them?"
"Eh? Do you think those royalties will interact to peasants like us?" Another girl asked.
Lu Xinyi inclined her head on one side. "Two princes? Who are they?"
It was then the whole room turned in dead silence. They looked at Lu Xinyi like she had grown another head.
"Are you serious? You don't know them? Those two princes are currently ranked number one and two for this year."
Ye Xieren chuckled. He couldn't help but laugh at Lu Xinyi's expression.
"You want to be the next rank number 1 but don't know the people you need to beat to achieve that? Mark my word, Miss Lu—I'll beat you one of these days, and then I'll make Huang Shenghao and Tian Lingyu fall from their thrones." Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
Lu Xinyi was shocked when she heard the names Ye Xieren uttered. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from her lungs, and she stood there struggling to inhale, to exhale… to do anything.
Tian Lingyu?
What?
Her lazy ass of a brother was also a student here at Silver Leaf?!
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