Chapter 849: Abnormal Assessment Difficulty
Hearing Li Yi's question, all the chefs at the scene looked at each other, but no one said anything.
The chef who just asked the question turned red, and he felt like he wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Other chefs who followed suit also felt their toes on the ground in embarrassment.
The other chefs were shocked as they stared at the whole chicken with only pure meat left.
It only took thirty-two seconds to remove the bones of a whole chicken?
how did you do that?
Seeing the whole chicken with the bones removed, they realized that no wonder Li Yi's assessment standard was 1 minute and 20 seconds.
It turns out that it only takes less than half the time to remove the bones of a whole chicken!
Seeing no one answered, Li Yi asked again: "Do you have any more questions? If the time is not enough, I can extend it for you."
Hearing this, the chef present quickly waved his hand: "No, no, no, no need to extend it! Just one and a half minutes!"
They are all ranked among the best chefs in the country. It would be too shameful if it takes three times as long as others to pick a chicken.
Isn’t it just deboning? Done!
Li Yi saw this and nodded with satisfaction: "That's good. If you have any difficulties, just tell us and we will find a way to solve them."
Hearing this, the chefs shook their heads and said there was no difficulty.
After seeing Li Yi demonstrate his knife skills, everyone present stopped their contempt.
Not to mention anything else, Li Yi's knife skills alone are enough to beat all the chefs on site.
Seeing the chefs accept the assessment standards, Li Yi returned to the ingredients area and came to the condiments area.
“The second item of the assessment is seasoning.”
Li Yi pointed to the dazzling array of seasonings and said: “Food cultures around the world are different, and the spices used are also different, each with its own unique style.
Just the taste types of Asian countries are obviously different. Curry in India, miso in Neon Country, and Tom Yum in Thailand are all very distinctive features.
The styles of the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America are even more obvious.
Since we want to compete with chefs from various countries, we must know ourselves and the enemy, and understand our opponent’s seasoning.
There are hundreds of kinds of spices here. The requirement for seasoning assessment is to use less than 3 kinds and more than 15 kinds of spices to make a sauce. The requirement is that the flavor is unique, innovative and recognizable. "
Listening to Li Yi's request, the faces of the chefs present looked a little solemn this time.
Chinese chefs are definitely among the best when it comes to the use of spices.
But the request made by Li Yi was extremely harsh.
The sauce he requested must be made with less than 3 kinds of spices, or more than 15 kinds of spices, which happened to be the two most difficult areas.
Chinese chefs are all masters of compound aromas, especially Sichuan chefs. Their control over the flavor of spices is extremely good, and they have created dozens of unique flavors.
But complex fragrances basically require more than three spices to be matched.
Not to mention some seasonings with outstanding flavors, the most basic onions, **** and garlic take up three places.
It requires less than three seasonings to make the sauce, and it also needs to be innovative and recognizable. This requirement is not generally high.
Another sauce made with more than 15 spices goes to the other extreme.
The more spices there are, the more careful the matching is, and the more difficult it is to season.
The amount of any spice used will affect the overall taste.
Therefore, the assessment requirements proposed by Li Yi limit the chefs to two extremes.
One is to reduce complexity to simplicity, return to nature, and use the most basic seasonings to create the most classic taste.
The other one is to find a new way to test the chef’s whimsy and use his unconstrained creativity and unique style to win unexpectedly. But these two extremes are not easy to cook, and the chef’s understanding of seasoning is very demanding.
After listening to the two assessments in succession, all the chefs present realized that the second round of selection was indeed serious.
This assessment is much more difficult than the first round.
Hao Libao, who had been listening silently to Li Yi's explanation of the assessment items, also nodded lightly.
Although these assessment items of Li Yi sound strange, they are quite targeted and can accurately test the truest skills of the chef.
He secretly thought that perhaps the State Guesthouse could learn from these projects when recruiting new employees in the future.
Li Yi did not pause and continued talking about the third assessment item: "The third assessment item is aquatic product processing. The assessment content is to debone the anchovies and remove the clean meat. The time requirement is 5 minutes."
"ah?"
Hearing this request, the chefs were all surprised.
It is well known that anchovies are spiny. The requirement to remove the spines and remove the clean meat within 5 minutes is even more perverse than deboning a whole chicken!
Li Yi didn't say much, he just took out an anchovy, and in front of all the chefs, he took out the meat of the anchovy in two and a half minutes.
Seeing this scene, the chefs all fell silent.
Just take it! About five minutes!
“The fourth item, soup, requires the use of fresh ingredients to stew the soup. The soup should be clear soup-like, and the impurity content should not exceed 1%.”
“The fifth project, plate presentation, uses five kinds of vegetables to arrange the dishes. You can freely use it to design the shape. It requires a clear subject and the overall shape must be aesthetic.”
“The sixth project, desalination, is to process cured and smoked ingredients to make them taste close to fresh meat, and the saltiness is required to be less than 6%.”
“The seventh project, sugar art, uses Chinese pastry techniques to make pastry shapes. The overall shape is required to have Chinese characteristics and be edible directly.”
“The eighth item is preservation. The food produced in all items needs to ensure that the taste is not affected within 12 hours.”
Listening to Li Yi's assessment items one after another, the expressions of the chefs on site became more and more bitter, and gradually turned into bitter faces.
At first they thought the first few projects were difficult, but as they heard later, each of the subsequent projects was more difficult than the last, and each one gave them the urge to scold them.
Although it sounds like there are no special requirements, the more vague the standards, the higher the difficulty.
However, even if it is difficult, they have no way to escape it and can only face it head on.
But even if you face difficulties, you still have to have a plan.
Ever since, after Li Yi announced the start of the assessment, everyone did not move. Instead, they stayed in place, thinking hard with the cooks, discussing which project to start with first.
In these assessment items, any one of them is good on its own, but stacked together, it is a bit difficult.
And there is an eighth item of preservation lying across the front, which is even more embarrassing.
Chinese food pays great attention to the hot pot and freshness. No matter how delicious the dish is, its taste will be greatly reduced after it cools down.
It can be tested but it has to be kept fresh for 12 hours. Why bother?
Why don’t you eat fresh vegetables but eat leftovers?
It was Hao Libao who answered their doubts. It turns out that the buffet event in the team competition requires a whole day to receive public review.
If you don’t keep it fresh, the dishes will go bad by the afternoon and the taste will definitely be greatly reduced.
After understanding this reason, the chefs stopped complaining and could only think of ways to preserve freshness.
After pondering for nearly an hour, the chef finally started to leave.
At this point, the second round of assessment has officially begun.
(End of this chapter)