The Heartbeat at the Tip of the Tongue - Chapter 67
Word count: 1966
Viktors mistake
That was thecontestantfrom Canada.
On the screen, the judges werearranging their napkins on their chests, already ready to taste the first dish.
That was a mini Italian pizza dumpling.On thesurface, it looked fried to agolden brown,the smallcrescent, looked very exquisite, the sauce at the base of the plate looked very well proportioned.
“En” editor Winston nodded his head, like he was full of antic.i.p.ation, when he used a knife to cut the dumpling open, he gave a sigh, “on average, onlya little oil is needed tofry the pizza dumpling. Even though it’s ‘a little’, there still needs to be an appropriate amount. When cutting the dumpling open, the skin wasn’t crispy enough, this will greatly affect the taste.”
The pizza dumpling only got 5 points. This wasn’t a great start.
The Canadian contestant grabbed his forehead with his hand, and gave a forceful sigh, only being able to put his hopes on his main dish of Italian beef ham roll.
The presentation of the main dish was pretty good, it’s only a pity that in a rush, the veal didn’t receive enough of a pounding and the flavours could not sink in. the comments weren’t great, only 6 points.
At this time, no matterhow good the dessert was, there was no chance of a recovering the gap, and the judges had already lost interest.
The fruit flesh in the pa.s.sion fruit mousse wasn’t stewed to sufficient thickness, the taste was disappointing.
The final score the Canadian contestant got was only 5.8 points.
This made the audience hum, and gave the other contestants on set lingering fear right into the palms of their hands, and start to worry about whether the preparations they had made before were sufficient.
“All the ingredients have to be prepared meticulously, and precision takes time.” Jiang Qian Fan said.
“Yes, Sir.SoI’m very pleased, because according to Lin Ke Song’s current state, everything that she is doing is done meticulously, everything is in her control.”
At this time, Lin Ke Song was peeling the apples. Her actions were very quick, she was using the fruitknifeand not the blade for peeling. The fruit peel twirled down in rounds, without a slight trace of breaking off.
All ofthe audience was attracted. Uncle Lin asked Song Yi Ran who was beside him: “What are they curious about? That’s the way we all peel fruits!”
Lin Ke Song pretty much only needed 10 plus seconds tofinishpeeling an apple, then juice it.
Even if it were a fully juiced apple, she didn’t forget to make sure of its taste.
“Is she going to give the judges apple juice? What’s the point in that?” Lin Xiao Xue was nervous at that point of time, because she could see that there were contestants who were done with the compet.i.tion already, “What the judges want is an appetiser, a main dish and a dessert, nothing to do with drinks at all ah!”
“Don’t be agitated. The pulp can be used to make dessert, and the juice can be used to make the seasoning.” Song Yi Ran explained while laughing at Lin Xiao Xue.
“Is that so ah” Lin Xiao Xue had never thought that fruits could be used to season things.
The Mexican contestant’s foodwassent to the front of the judges.
His appetiser wasCabbacioraw beef. When the judges saw the appetiser, they guessed who his mentor was.
“Oh I really wonder if this raw beef would have the standard of Chef Morris’?” Winston’s expression was full of antic.i.p.ation.
But this raw beef dish only received a score of 7 points.
“the Italian vinaigrette should have been simmered over a small fire to a syrup, but it’s obvious that you were rus.h.i.+ng for results, the fire was too great. Even though the sauce was cooked faster thannormal, it has lost its rich flavour.”
His main dish and dessert too, had pretty much the same scoring as the appetiser.
After that, there were a few contestants who’d also finished the compet.i.tion, but all their scores didn’t go past 7.5 points.
The audience started murmuringagain. They all thought that the dishes had pretty presentations, that whettedpeople’sappet.i.tes, but the scores that the judges gave all weren’t high, was it because it was a compet.i.tion, so they were harsher than before?
“It’s not because they are too harsh, but the contestants are hurried for many things, the heat wasn’t enough, too many mistakes were made on the details.”
Uncle Lin exhaled a breath. Looking at Lin Ke Song who was currentlystir-fryingthe sauce, he suddenly felt greatly at peace.
It looked like at least up to now, these mistakeswon’tbe happening on Lin Ke Song.
At this time, Viktor raised his hand up, to announce that he was done with his own cooking.
The cameraman panned the view to Viktor’s food. The appetiser looked intricate and beautiful, the colour of the main dish, the chicken cooked by the beam method made people covet it, the dessert was Italian sorbet, but it was a little different from the average sorbet. Everything was so perfect it was like the dishes of a 3 starred Michelin restaurant.
Lin Ke Song continued busying like she hadn’t heard anything.
And in the hearts of each of the audience, this compet.i.tion had arrived at its climax.
Viktorliftedthe sides of his lips in confidence, and let everyone in the audience believe that he will be giving the judges the best experience.
This was a dish ofMediterraneanbasil tomatoes. Everytomatothat was only slightly bigger than the thumb had had the pulp in the middle removed, then stuffed with stuffing.
Winstoninhaled a breath,useda spoon to carefully scoop up a tomato, and sent it into his mouth, the ends of his lips revealing a smile: “After having mytaste budsgo through such long devastating periods, I have finally been saved. Even though I don’t know who this contestant is, I know that their mentor is head chef Jessica Quentin, the evergreen tree in the fine dining industry. This is anappetiser that is very refres.h.i.+ng, soft and full of surprise. The amount of garlic is just right, letting the aroma of the basil comethrough, the tomato sauce wasn’t overcooked to tartness, and on the contrary, totally brings out the freshness of the parmesan cheese and the little sweet shrimp. Without a doubt, this is the work of a great chef.”
Viktor’s appetiser got a high score of 9.6 points, his eyes carried a confident and proud smile.
The colour of the main dish of beam cooked chicken was so light, almost to the point of whiteness, the transparent sauce slowly flowing on the surface was like a stream, and with only a whiff of the fragrance, the judges were already starting to swallow their saliva.
“The main point of this dish is in thetartificationof the cream sauce, the fire used for the meat and the freshness of the liver stuffed inside the chicken meat. Any little mistake will make this dish lose its flavour.” Winston lifted his fork and knife to cut open the muscle, everyone was in antic.i.p.ation, as he brought the chicken meat to eh camera, to let everyone see the insides of this dish clearly, the liver didn’t have any signs of greyness to indicate that it was overcooked, on the contrary, it looked very smooth and tender.
“But, it looks like, this contestant hasn’t made any mistake.” Winston smiled as he cut a piece, and sent it into his mouth, “En the chicken bones were remover very meticulously, there is no texture of the meat being cut. The celery and onion did not s.n.a.t.c.h the spotlight from the lemongra.s.s and c.u.min, instead they added layers of flavour to this dish. The mostmostimportant thing is the slight curry flavour from the liver that is left jumping on the tongue, like mischievous little fish in a quiet and peaceful lake. This is incredible incredible”
Because this dish was so flavourful, some of the judges could not help themselves and ate half of the dish. For the sake of allowing the judges to continue, the staff on site couldn’t not give reminders. This attractiveness, didn’t even appear in the previous compet.i.tors.
Viktor’smaindish got a high score of 9.7 points.
Mayer who was in the audience let out a sigh: “it looks like, it’salmostimpossible for Ke Song to win him. Even if his dessert has a mess up, his score will still be over 9 points.”
“Forget the past compet.i.tion, whatever that’shappeningnow is the most important.” Jiang Qian Fan tilted his face slightly, “Tell me, what does she look like now?”
“”She’sjust reached the fridge, and taken out a bowl of peas and shrimp jelly. It looks like the shrimp jelly has taken shape, the colour and transparency issimilar tothe one that Mr Jiang made. Oh, she is cutting the shrimp jelly apart, it looks very bouncy I believe her appetiser was made successfully!”
“But of course. She’s always liked to eat that dish.Soshe remembers that dish’s texture and flavour, as long as they are remembered by her, she will definitely be able to reproduce.”
Mayer nodded, and continued watching the compet.i.tion.
The judges had already started tasting Viktor’s dessert. It wasmatchaopera cake.
Even though this was only an average cake, people in the finediningindustry knew, Jessica Quentin’smatchaopera cake was one of a kind. Cake that was fluffy yet bouncy, soft b.u.t.tercream, the light freshness ofmatchaand the richness of the chocolate sauce, these all came together to make a delightful taste at the tip of a person’s tongue.
Winston took the first bite, and exclaimed: “As expected, no matter if it were the tongue or the teeth, they are all able to feel the bounciness andsoftnessof the cake embryo I really wanttoknow what the secret is tocreatethis result!”
Even after he slowly swallowed the cake, he still had his eyes closed to deeply relive the taste.
Then Winston gave a sigh: “Everything is close to perfection, but there is an extremely minute flaw”
The audience all stretched their necks, really wanting to know what this flaw was.
“I know that this compet.i.tion gives the compet.i.tors a lot of pressure. Everyonehas todo a few things at the same time. Hands cutting ingredients, while keeping an eye on 2 or 3 pots cooking, everything is done busily. But it’s just that the appetiser and main dish were so perfect, I couldn’t help but harshly expect that the dessert would become a wonderful memory. It is expectedotuse vanilla beans and white sugar to make a sweet syrup.I’mguessing, at the first round of simmering the sugar water, the pot was close to drying up, this contestant couldn’t help but add more water, and fish out the vanilla beans to save it. But even though the slightly burnt taste was covered well in the 2ndlayer of the cake my sense of taste is not like an average persons’”
Viktor gripped his fist tightly.
He had already carefullymade adjustmentsfor this mistake, but he didn’t think that Winston would be able to taste it.
As expected when facing Winston, oneshouldn’ttake any chances
Winston lifted his hand to look at his watch, and said regretfully: “Actually, this contestant had the timetoremake the sugar syrup, but I understand that once a step is messed up, it is possible to mess up what was once easily done but this syrup was too important to this dessert”
