Chapter 829: Unaccustomed
The Sino-US Kitchen King Competition is undoubtedly a very professional food competition reality show. It is so professional that the semi-finals even require rehearsals in advance. On the fourth day after notifying Jiang Feng and the others to inspect the competition site and prepare for harvesting, the program team once again notified them to go to the site for a rehearsal.
At the same time, the date for the semi-finals was also determined, December 28th, a day that sounded very auspicious. The competition is also very long, a full twelve hours, which also means that the contestants can make any dish they want, whether it is making soup or freezing the dish and cooking it, except that the long time is too long and tortures the judges and work. There are no shortcomings outside of the personnel.
It is worth mentioning that the semi-finals and finals are different from other variety shows. Although the stage is large, there is no audience. After all, the cooking competition does not require audience voting, nor does it require audience feedback and applause. If there are too many people and too much noise at the scene, it will affect the chef's competitive state. Some chefs need a relatively quiet environment to calm down and cook delicious food.
All contestants and judges will be present at the rehearsal before the competition. This is the last opportunity for everyone to get to know and become familiar with their opponents before the competition. Before that, Jiang Feng spent three hours filling in information about his opponents, and then discovered that the four restaurants that advanced to the semifinals this time were actually related.
Needless to say, the relationship between Tai Feng Building and the top-floor restaurant is not an exaggeration to say that they are lifelong enemies. If the chefs in Peking were asked to tell which two restaurant owners are most likely to fight, their first reaction would definitely be The top floor restaurant and Tai Fung House, then the top floor restaurant and Babao Zhai.
One of the two restaurants that advanced to the American division is Peng Changping's own restaurant, ChineseFoodRestaurant, which is also a Chinese restaurant. The contestants were Peng Changping's second-to-last apprentice, Zhou Shi's senior brother, Peng Changping's son-in-law, and Peng Changping's two apprentices. In a sense, they were all acquaintances of Jiang Feng who had never met.
Not to mention New York Light, Chef Arnold’s old employer, did not make any personnel changes after Chef Arnold quit. All four chefs participating in the competition are Chef Arnold's former juniors, and have been his juniors for many years. He is the kind of loyal guy who shakes Chef Arnold when he sneezes, and may spill the wrong seasoning if Chef Arnold says "shit".
The lineup of judges is also very luxurious, including Xu Cheng, Peng Changping and two well-known food critics in the United States.
I have to make one more digression here. It is now December, the last month of the year, and the selection results of the celebrity chef directory have not yet come out. Rumors have begun to circulate that the reason why Chef Arnold went all the way to BJ's, uncharacteristically, was to block Xu Cheng and let Xu Cheng rank his position in the celebrity chef directory to second place.
Under such circumstances, Xu Cheng still has the leisure and elegance to be a judge on the show without worrying about the ranking of celebrity chefs. All he can say is that the ace pigeon is truly worthy of being an ace pigeon.
But no matter how the review was conducted, the first complete meeting of the contestants was still very pleasant.
Especially among the judges, everyone is an old acquaintance. One of the two American judges is a serious and lean one named Henry, and the other is a chubby one with a kind and smiling face named David. They are both very ordinary names. . Apart from their names, the only thing they have in common is that they are both young and their hair is somewhat gray.
David was obviously very familiar with Xu Cheng. When he saw Xu Cheng at the competition venue, he didn't even say hello and asked: "Xu, it's the end of December now. Why haven't your celebrity chef rankings come out yet? In previous years, it would have been already by this time. It’s time to announce.”
Xu Cheng has been an ace pigeon for so many years, and he seems to be very comfortable with this kind of urging: "Of course it hasn't come out yet because there is still controversy. Don't worry, it will definitely come out this year, and it will definitely come out in two days."
"Controversy?" David's chubby face was full of distrust of Xu Cheng, "I'm not talking about you, you have really become more and more lazy in the past two years. In the past few years, even if you were unwilling to write, you would write every other There will be one in a month or two. Look, you only wrote one column this year, but you wrote several columns last year.”
"Good articles always take time to hone, and it's not always possible to write good food reviews. Should we write food reviews like commercial advertisements or chicken soup for the soul like some reviewers do now?" Xu Cheng said. He has his own set of theories. Anyway, he is rich and he is the boss. He is not in a hurry and no one can rush him.
While several judges were chatting with each other, the sixteen contestants had already roughly understood the camera positions. In fact, the rehearsal this time is very simple. All you need to do is know and understand the direction of each camera seat, and don’t lose sight of the camera seat when you go on stage and introduce yourself.
Of course, it doesn't matter if you really can't find the camera, the camera will find them, and when it's time to take a close-up, they will naturally take a close-up.
The director asked each contestant to walk several times to determine the best site, and after a few more instructions, it was over. The judges' side is a little more troublesome, but the four judges all have rich experience on the show and have good camera sense, so the problem is not big.
After the rehearsal, you can leave separately. Chef Arnold rushed back to the restaurant almost as soon as the rehearsal was over. Those who didn't know it thought it was not Roland who owed the money but him. In terms of professionalism, Chef Arnold really had nothing to say.
In order to better prepare for the semi-finals at Tai Feng Tower, Wang Xiulian gave them a holiday. Although they were on holiday, only Sun Maocai was resting. Wu Minqi and Sun Jikai were both pulled by Jiang Feng to study how to apply the method of Babao Li Xiangge to Jiang's Ginseng Soup. This was very painful for Wu Minqi and Sun Jikai.
When the three of them studied the thickening method of Babao Chestnut Pigeon together, although Jiang Feng's cooking skills were better than theirs, they were not much better, and the three of them could barely maintain their cooking skills at the same level. Now Jiang Feng has left the two of them far behind in cooking. Different realms and levels have different ways of thinking about problems. During the discussion, Wu Minqi and Sun Jikai often couldn't keep up with Jiang Feng's ideas, but they were still willing to Spend a lot of time studying with Jiang Feng every day.
Because you can really learn a lot this way.
Even though learning is very difficult and difficult, and you may even wonder if you are a fool, your progress is really fast.
Sun Maocai said something to the three of them and left first. He had other arrangements for today and could not stay here for too long. Jiang Feng and the others did not go back to Tai Feng Building to study thickener first because they wanted to stay and chat with the chefs in the Chinese restaurant. Although Jiang Feng was not their relative, nor their junior brother, nor their old friend, there were always some It's such a wonderful relationship, both emotionally and rationally, it's time to say hello and say a few words.
During the rehearsal, the two groups did not stand together, so it was difficult to say hello from a distance. They had to say hello after the rehearsal.
"Master Sheng." Jiang Feng walked up to Peng Changping's son-in-law Sheng Ming and said with a smile.
It's just a twist of fate. Peng Changping is recognized as the world's number one Chinese chef. Although his descendants are very competitive and have good results in all walks of life, they obviously don't have much talent in cooking. Instead, his son-in-law Sheng Ming, who was also his apprentice, inherited his craft. Sheng Ming is now responsible for the cooking of the Chinese restaurant, and Peng Changping's son is responsible for the management.
Sheng Ming had obviously done his homework in advance and had seen Jiang Feng's photos. He knew the relationship between Jiang Feng and Peng Changping, so he responded enthusiastically: "You... don't be so polite, just call me Sheng Ming. During this time, I often hear dad mention you. He is indeed an extraordinary young man.”
Sheng Ming had obviously spent too many years abroad and was not very familiar with his mother tongue. When he spoke, he always unconsciously tried to mix in English words but had to hold back, causing some confusion in his logic. Jiang Feng noticed this confusion. .
After a few simple polite words, another of Peng Changping's apprentices also joined the ranks of polite people. After a few minutes of difficult communication, just when Jiang Feng felt that he could end the pleasantries and happily return to Tai Feng Tower to continue studying thickening, Sheng Ming finally said what he had wanted to say from the beginning.
"I wonder if you are free tonight. If you are, we can have dinner together. My uncle has been talking about wanting to see you for the past two days," Sheng Ming said.
"Uncle?" After Jiang Feng said this, he realized that the uncle Sheng Ming mentioned should be Qin Guisheng.
Didn't Qin Guisheng break his leg? Why don’t you come to Peiping?
Jiang Feng thought about it carefully. It seemed that Qin Guisheng broke his leg a long time ago. Logically speaking, it should have recovered by now.
"Yes, my uncle is Qin Guisheng, you should know him." Sheng Ming said.
Jiang Feng nodded, but still didn't quite understand.
Qin Guisheng has a short temper, and Jiang Feng knew this through what Zhang Zhiyun said when he was having dinner with Yun last time. It can be said that Qin Guisheng's temper has never changed whether he was young or now. He says whatever he wants and does whatever he wants. He can't bear it and doesn't want to.
According to Qin Guisheng's temper, if he really wanted to meet him, since he arrived in Peiping two days ago, he shouldn't wait until now to ask Sheng Ming to come forward to make an appointment. He would ask Peng Changping to make an appointment with him when he got off the plane.
Jiang Feng thought so and asked the same question.
Sheng Ming didn't hide anything and told the truth: "Uncle Master actually wanted to see you as soon as we got off the plane, but Uncle Master just recovered from his leg injury and was still a little weak. The long-distance flight was already a bit overwhelming, so he went to the hotel to rest as soon as he got off the plane." ”
"I thought it would be fine after just one day's rest, but I didn't expect that my uncle was acclimatized and jet lagged, so he stayed in the hotel for one day and then went to the hospital. He was discharged this morning."
He wanted to see Jiang Feng as soon as he was discharged from the hospital. It could be said that he was very anxious.
Jiang Feng:...
Who would have thought that Qin Guisheng, a native of Peiping, would be acclimatized after returning to Peiping after many years.
"No problem, it's my honor to have dinner with Master Qin." Jiang Feng agreed with a smile. (End of chapter)