Starlet Taotie Chapter 22 (Part 1)
Chapter 22.1 Master Chef Shi
Jiang Tao hadn't even rested two days at home before she was taken to another gig.
The show was called 'Masters of Inventive Cuisine', a live, creative cooking competition program.
Each episode, the production team invited two chefs to compete in making original dishes.
The twist: three guest judges on set each proposed a keyword, and the chefs had to incorporate all three into their dishes at once.
After tasting, the three judges each cast their vote, and the chef with more votes won.
One of the regular guest judges needed minor surgery and would be absent that week, so the show needed a fill-in.
As luck would have it, the producer, Director Peng, was good friends with Zou Ming, the director of ‘Our Village’, so he reached out through Zou Ming to invite Jiang Tao.
A show about delicious food? Jiang Tao was more than happy to go.
'Masters of Inventive Cuisine' was filmed in Haicheng.
As soon as Jiang Tao and Tong Tong got off the plane, they could feel the humidity in the air, along with that distinctive briny scent of a coastal city.
Two production crew members picked them up and drove them to the hotel.
After resting overnight, they were taken to the studio for rehearsal.
But as their car pulled in, they hit a traffic jam.
Outside the studio, a large crowd of girls had gathered, holding light-up signs, banners, and all sorts of fan merchandise; they were even chanting coordinated slogans.
Tong Tong was startled. "Is another celebrity coming today too?"
The crew member gave a wry smile. "These are fans of today's competing chef, Si Muze."
Tong Tong nodded in understanding and explained to Jiang Tao who Si Muze was.
Si Muze was said to come from a family of chefs. He'd studied cooking since childhood, and his teachers were all renowned master chefs in the country.
He was handsome, and his flashy knife work was a sight to behold. A few years ago, he'd shot to fame after appearing on a cooking variety show, amassing countless fans.
Wherever he appeared on set, the fanfare from his supporters rivaled that of top-tier celebrities.
And his fans were notoriously intense. Word had it that on a show he once appeared on, an elderly veteran artist had simply commented that his cooking was average and his fans proceeded to bombard her with online harassment, even demanding that she apologize.
Although that incident eventually fizzled out without resolution, ever since then, no one on his shows had ever said a bad word about his cooking again.
Tong Tong immediately cautioned Jiang Tao: "Jie, when it's your turn to give feedback later, please be as tactful as possible. Don't offend anyone for no reason!"
But Jiang Tao, already catching the scent of delicious food wafting from the studio, had no mental room left to care about what Tong Tong was saying. She just mumbled a vague agreement.
The other two guest judges on 'Masters of Inventive Cuisine' were Hang Siqi, a host from Haicheng, and a familiar face – Fang Yiran, the boy band member who'd been on ‘Over Here!’ with Jiang Tao.
Fang Yiran had been completely won over by Jiang Tao.
Especially after she'd bitten a chunk off the table, he'd been calling her "jie" nonstop ever since.
Hang Siqi was also easygoing, and the three of them got along wonderfully.
Suddenly, an earth-shaking wave of screams erupted from outside, startling everyone in the studio.
"Must be Si Muze," Hang Siqi remarked with a wry smile.
Before the recording, the chefs and guests weren't supposed to meet but with Si Muze making an entrance like this, there was no way not to know.
Fang Yiran clicked his tongue. "I always thought our group's fans were over-the-top, but compared to him, it's nothing!"
Backstage at that moment:
Si Muze walked in surrounded by a crowd of attendants. His meticulously styled hair, oversized sunglasses that covered half his face, and the high-end masculine fragrance radiating from him—
If not for the chef's uniform, one would have believed he was a celebrity.
His opponent walked over to greet him.
Si Muze didn't even glance his way. He brushed past him and dropped into his chair, where his makeup artist and assistants immediately swarmed around him.
The other chef competing today was named Yang Shurong, the head chef at Tianfu Hotel, a century-old establishment.
Yang Shurong's disciple muttered indignantly, "How rude can he get?! Leaving basic respect aside, teacher is clearly older than him! Didn't he ever learn to respect his elders?"
"Enough." Yang Shurong cut him off. "Don't mind others. We just focus on ourselves."
Yang Shurong was in his prime, but he'd been the head chef at Tianfu Hotel for nearly twenty years now.
He had no great ambitions, he just wanted to cook well and retire in peace.
He'd only agreed to appear on this show because his boss had asked him to.
Though Yang Shurong was a bit irritated by Si Muze's attitude, he didn't want to stir up trouble.
…
After a brief rehearsal, the recording began.
The fans who'd been waiting eagerly flooded the bullet comments with their excitement.
【Our baby Yiran is as adorable as always!!】
【Hang ge is looking sharper than ever; the charm of middle-aged men hahahaha】
【Jiang Jiang is so pretty in that orange-yellow dress! Like the dried mango I couldn't grab [resentful】[resentful】】
【Sister up there, high-five!! I couldn't get it either!! I only hesitated one second over adding a pack of banana chips, and then it was all gone!! arghh so mad!】
【Me, hugging my two bags of Xin'an Dried Fruit, smiling and saying nothing】
【Someone kill that show-off up there and take her dried fruit away!!!】
Those few bullet comments sparked a whole wave of people flaunting their dried fruit hauls—and even a few who'd snagged the limited-edition blueberries, drawing envy and resentment from all sides.
Many viewers of cooking shows were also foodies with finely tuned gourmet radar.
After a round of inquiries, the already hard-to-get Xin'an Dried Fruit sold out once again.
The official Xin'an account had to respond multiple times on Weibo, insisting they really weren't trying to create artificial scarcity, it's just that no matter how much stock they put up, it sold out within ten minutes every single time.
And to maintain quality, choosing artificially ripened fruits wasn't an option; they had to wait patiently for nature to take its course, which meant production volume could never keep up.
They'd rather go bankrupt than compromise on quality before, and they weren't about to break their principles just because sales were booming now.
Eventually, managing to snag a bag of Xin'an Dried Fruit even became a running joke online, a flex of its own.
But that's a story for another time.
Back to the 'Masters of Inventive Cuisine' set:
After the guests finished their opening remarks, it was time for the two chefs to take the stage.
Yang Shurong came out first. He greeted the three judges somewhat stiffly, then stepped to the side.
Then came Si Muze.
The moment his face appeared on screen, the entire live stream was completely buried under a wall of fan bullet comments.
One viewer merely commented, "This is a cooking show, why does it feel like a fan meet-and-greet?"
And they were immediately chased down with a dozen hostile replies from his fans.
【What's wrong with being a chef? Since when can't a chef be a star too!】
【Our Muze works so hard, some people just can't stand to see him succeed】
【Muze, jiāyóu!! As long as you're happy, we'll always be here for you】
Back on set, Si Muze took off his sunglasses, greeted the guests, and gave Yang Shurong a perfunctory nod.
Jiang Tao frowned.
Even from five meters away, she could smell the strong fragrance wafting off Si Muze.
Wouldn't that affect his cooking?
She remembered Shi Wenqing once saying that chefs should avoid wearing perfume, especially strong-scented ones because it could easily interfere with the aroma of the dish, giving diners a compromised experience.
Soon, the director had the three guest judges each present one keyword to serve as the challenge for this round.
Hang Siqi: noodles.
Fang Yiran: seafood.
Jiang Tao wrote: salty.
Both Yang Shurong and Si Muze furrowed their brows at the same time.
Saltiness is the foremost of the five flavors.
One could even call it the foundation of all tastes.
It seemed ordinary on the surface, yet it was precisely the kind of challenge that truly tested a chef's skill.
Whoever came up with that topic clearly had a deep understanding of food.
In truth, Jiang Tao had simply been eating too much dried fruit lately; her mouth had been stuck on sweet for days, and she wanted a change of pace.
After the three judges submitted their keywords, the two chefs began brainstorming and prepping their ingredients.
The bullet comments started buzzing with guesses.
【Chef Yang picked out so much seafood and started washing rice…is he making seafood congee? Wait, but Brother Hang asked for noodles, didn't he?】
【Mu Mu looks so handsome when he's focused!!】
【Good-looking men who can cook are so rare! girls, we've gotta protect our Mu Mu!】
【Even the way Mu Mu trims his vegetables is so handsome!!】
【Aaaah!! Mu Mu picked up the knife!! I can't breathe!!】
【That knife work is absolutely incredible!!】
【Another day of loving Mu Mu even more!!】
But Jiang Tao frowned again when she saw Si Muze's flashy, showy knife routine.
What Si Muze was preparing was salmon sashimi.
Salmon flavor is highly sensitive to temperature.
Even a slight rise in the chef's hand temperature during prep can reduce the fish's quality.
That's why chefs usually cool their hands with cold water before handling salmon and work as quickly as possible while slicing.
Si Muze's elaborate knife flourishes were nothing but show. They served no practical purpose.
On the contrary, they kept the salmon in his hands far too long, compromising its texture.
The cooking challenge had a strict time limit.
Yang Shurong's techniques were unassuming; he simmered a seafood congee so fine that you could barely see the grains of rice.
He strained out all the rice and seafood, leaving only a milky-white broth with a faint glisten of oil on the surface. Then, he mixed the cooked rice with blended fish paste, dropping the mixture through a slotted spoon into boiling water to form thin, translucent strands, slightly tinged with yellow, that looked just like noodles.
He placed those noodles into the rice soup, added steamed papery shrimp, and sprinkled on a handful of vibrant green scallions.
(TLN: Papery dried shrimps (虾皮; xiā pí) are extremely tiny, unshelled, translucent dried shrimps. They are tender and delicate in texture but have a strong coastal, seafood taste.)
A bowl of seafood noodles, so appetizing it made the mouth water, was now ready.
His usage of time was perfect.
On the other side, Si Muze had spent so much time on flashy moves that he barely finished in time.
Compared to Yang Shurong's creative approach, his dish was a more conventional one: a bowl of Japanese udon noodles with a side of sashimi. However, his plating was exquisite and eye-catching, certainly more visually appealing than Yang Shurong's rustic big bowl of noodles.
The three judges stepped forward to taste the dishes in turn.
Jiang Tao went for Yang Shurong's seafood noodles first.
The very first sensation that hit her palate was an explosion of umami!!
Then, slowly, the subtle saltiness spread across her tongue; it was just right, unobtrusive, yet impossible to ignore.
The noodles were springy and smooth.
The fishy smell had been completely removed, yet the texture of the fish remained intact.
So delicious~~~~~
Jiang Tao was so blissed out that tiny fireworks seemed to burst over her head.
If it weren't for the other two judges needing their share, she would've gladly finished the whole bowl herself.
【Our daughter looking longingly at that bowl of seafood noodles, so adorable aaaah】
【But it really does look so good…I wanna try it too!】
【Hahahahaha Baby Tao looks exactly like my little nephew when he eats something tasty, even after being pulled away, her eyes are still glued to the bowl】
【Wuwuwuwu I can't take it anymore I'm ordering takeout】
【I advise anyone on a diet: don't casually watch variety shows with Jiang Jiang in it. It's a true test of willpower】
【As someone who's already given up, I fear nothing, more, more, more!】
But urged on by Hang Siqi, Jiang Tao reluctantly bid farewell to that bowl of seafood noodles and moved on to taste Si Muze's.
She tried the salmon sashimi first.
The flavor had indeed been affected, and the thickness of the cut was off too.
Most people might not notice the subtle differences.
But on Jiang Tao's tongue, those differences were magnified tenfold.
After the salmon, she tried the udon.
It was just... average.
Nothing special. No surprises.
The bullet comments began buzzing with discussion.
【Why does Jiang Jiang have no expression on her face?】
【Doesn't seem like it tastes very good?】
【How could that be! Our Mu Mu makes the best food!】
【She’s a nobody starlet, what does she know about fine cuisine? She's probably never even had proper gourmet food before!】
【The food Mu Mu creates is practically art, it’s such a waste for her to eat it】
TL Note: Just a refresher, jiāyóu (加油/add oil) is similar to the japanese ふぁいと (fu-aito/fighto), they’re both expressions of encouragement and support.
