Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 489: Keep talking nonsense
After more than twenty dishes were served, most of the chefs in the special kitchen under the Xinglong Tea House naturally did not want to stay here and be roasted by the stove fire, and had already left to a special place to rest. The ratings of those dishes, including the emperor's rating, were all heard and remembered by both those who left to rest and the few chefs who were still working hard.
Therefore, the chef who was preparing several Kung Fu dishes was anxious, but he couldn't help but encourage himself in his heart. But at this moment, someone who was slowly stirring the casserole with a spoon stopped humming the song leisurely, but at this time, he poured a basin of cold water on everyone.
"Well, more than 20 dishes have been served. I'm afraid the emperor is already full. Even if all the delicacies are served, it's hard to say whether he can eat them."
At this point, Mr. Song felt the gazes from all around him like piercing needles. He knew he had said something wrong, so he laughed it off immediately and then bowed to everyone with a smile: "Just think of me as someone who is just talking nonsense... Well, with my mediocre skills, it is absolutely impossible for me to make it to the semi-finals. I wish you all a good result."
"Luckily, this time it's 30 to 15, so the odds are 50-50. The odds of winning are much better than in the preliminary round."
Mr. Song has already made it clear that he is no match for his opponent. Although those chefs are depressed, they can only choose not to bother with him - this strange chef happens to be a juren, and now he is hiding in the home of Zhang Shou, a popular doctor of the Imperial College in the capital. Even the Song family can't take him back, so what else can they do to him?
At this time, a chef who was standing a few people away from Mr. Song, as if he was angry and wanted to express his depression, suddenly sighed deeply: "I really miscalculated. If I had known that this Buddha Jumps Over the Wall would be such a waste of time, I would have made other dishes instead!"
The person was just comforting himself and complaining, but Mr. Song couldn't help but say again: "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is not a home-cooked dish, right? It contains abalone, sea cucumber, fish lips, fish maw, scallops, mushrooms, tendons... well, there are so many kinds of precious ingredients that I can't even count them. It has all kinds of delicacies from land and sea. How can it be home-cooked?"
Although they were both from Cantonese, the chef who spoke really wanted to beat Mr. Song, the talkative guy, to death!
For today's game, he prepared many recipes temporarily, and he hoped to use this Buddha Jumps Over the Wall the most. After all, this was a dish mentioned by Taizu during his southern tour, and the ingredients were also mentioned, but in the end, due to insufficient preparation and too many delicacies from land and sea, it could not be made, and the founding monarch with great talent and strategy did not eat it, so this was very symbolic.
As for this time's imperial chef selection contest, all the ingredients needed for the competition were purchased from the outer offices of the Imperial Household Department. Originally, it was rumored that simplicity was the main goal to avoid excessive expenses, but the major guilds were very good at finding loopholes. Before the second preliminary day, they all figured out a solution, which was to make financial donations and then send a list of the ingredients they needed.
Originally, this would inevitably become a method of cheating, but Chu Kuan of the Imperial Household Department was personally in charge of it, and all the donated money, except for the purchase of food, was sent to the public school. Therefore, after Song Huishou of his own Guangdong Guild Hall donated a large sum of money, he knew in advance that the series of delicacies he needed had not only been purchased by the Imperial Household Department's outer office, but also all been dispatched.
When he knew the emperor was coming and announced the test questions, he made up his mind, even though he was not sure whether he could make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. Anyway, there was a high probability that none of the judges today would be from Guangdong, and they might not know what Buddha Jumps Over the Wall was, or whether it was a home-cooked dish.
All he had to do was to return the carefully prepared soup and keep all the ingredients inside. Who knew how it was made? As long as the emperor could say it was good, that would be enough...
Because of this, when he was selecting the ingredients just now, he still tried his best to squeeze in the front, and finally got these things. But now everything has been exposed by this annoying Song!
Seeing that the other chefs were all looking at him with rather strange eyes, Chef Chen, who was already furious, pretended to be calm and said, "How can the home cooking of the royal family be compared with that of the common people? Aren't the things you mentioned the most commonly used in the royal family?"
However, today, Mr. Song seemed determined to keep talking nonsense. He just laughed and said disapprovingly, "People outside often speculate about how the royal family lives. Some farmers speculate that the old emperor drinks soy milk, one bowl after another, and has enough white flour buns every day, because he himself has never eaten anything better."
"Some people who think they are knowledgeable speculate that the palace eats dragon liver and phoenix marrow every day, and anything flying in the sky, running on the ground, and swimming in the water can be used in dishes. But who can tolerate eating this every day? Miss Zhu often goes to the palace and has eaten a lot in the palace. She once complained that the imperial kitchen, which was previously managed by the Guanglu Temple, cooked food that was like pig food."
He paused, and continued, "The imperial kitchen is in need of a chef now. The empress dowager feels sorry for the emperor, so she transferred two chefs from her own small kitchen to the kitchen. The empress dowager has always been frugal, and usually eats mostly vegetarian food, so the emperor often eats a variety of healthy vegetarian food these days, and sometimes stews some ginseng chicken soup as a tonic. Fortunately, it is not the Guanglu Temple that is in charge of purchasing, otherwise the price of live chickens and eggs would be outrageous..."
Mr. Song was about to continue talking, but when he noticed that the expression of the chef next to him was obviously wrong, as if he was going to rush over and beat him to death, he laughed and shut his mouth again.
But he stopped talking, and the unlucky Chef Chen, who was waiting for the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall to be cooked, couldn't suppress his anger at all.
He glared at Mr. Song fiercely and said word by word, "Mr. Song, even if you know the news in the palace, you can't just show it off casually. Isn't that a taboo for the royal family?"
Leaking the forbidden language is a serious crime! If I can't be the imperial chef, I won't let you, a foul-mouthed fellow, off easily!
Mr. Song just couldn't help but show his temper when he was arguing with Fang Qing because what he was doing now was just to sharpen his skills, and he had no expectations of making it to the semi-finals, unlike the day of the preliminary round when he was worried about gains and losses. However, he forgot that these chefs were all experienced chefs who had been working by the stove for decades, not rookies like Fang Qing.
At this moment, he had originally planned to stop making trouble, but when someone suddenly put such a big accusation on him, his intention to keep the peace was gone immediately. He immediately retorted angrily: "What kind of leak is this? When the emperor thoroughly investigated the Guanglu Temple before, he openly criticized the poor diet in the palace in recent years in the court."
"As for the Queen Mother's eating habits, they were known to everyone in the early years. You don't know that because you are ignorant!"
At this point, Chef Chen finally didn't want to endure it anymore. Even though the other party was the nephew of Song Huishou and even though the other party was a successful candidate, he still grabbed the long spoon and rushed towards Song Juren with a roar. Seeing this, Song Juren naturally reacted very quickly and ran away, still talking nonsense while running.
"A gentleman talks, not fights! Chef Chen, as a chef, you are too narrow-minded! How can you cook good dishes without being broad-minded!"
"I just have no tolerance today! Even if I have to take a knife, I will beat you to death, you bastard!"
The other chefs were surprised, some were happy, and some were gloating and making sarcastic remarks. But when they found that Chef Song was actually running around their stove, they thought that the food they had painstakingly prepared was still in the pot, and it would be a waste if it was ruined by the furious Chef Chen, so several chefs hurried forward to stop him.
After all, there is strength in numbers. As someone quickly snatched the big spoon from Chef Chen's hand, two other people stopped him from behind and in front respectively. Finally, they stopped Chef Chen who was almost going crazy.
However, the man was stopped, but Chef Chen, who was panting, still couldn't help but shouting and cursing loudly.
"Mr. Song, don't be so proud! You are a scholar, but you are trying to steal our jobs. Not only are you shameless, but you also ignore your family's cultivation of you!"
"You just know how to make some sweet soup, right? What's so great about that? There are at least 8,000 people in Guangdong who can make sweet soup. They just don't have the opportunity to come to the capital like you do! You don't have a handsome face, and you pissed off the princess the first time you met her. You want to rely on this little skill to get rich in the capital by taking crooked ways? No way!"
This time, it was Mr. Song himself who was so angry that his face turned blue. But just as he was about to revive and curse back, he suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from outside: "Mr. Song, are you not ready for this dish yet?"
Mr. Song was slightly stunned and looked in the direction of the voice. He saw that it was the little eunuch who came to summon him in the name of Princess Yongping on the day of the last preliminary round.
Seeing people curiously glancing at other people, the big kitchen that had been noisy just now suddenly became quiet. He was not sure whether anyone had seen the ridiculous scene just now, and his face suddenly felt a little hot.
He hurried back to the stove, first carefully opened the pot and took a few looks, then stirred it gently with a delicate silver spoon. When he saw that it was almost done, he hurriedly added chopped green onions, and used a soft cloth to pad his hands, and took the huge casserole off the fire.
Then, he rubbed his hands and smiled at the eunuch who was slowly approaching, "I just cooked some casserole porridge. I didn't use ready-made broth, but cooked it myself before, so it took some time."
When Chef Chen saw the little eunuch appear, he realized that Song Juren, who was summoned by the princess on the day of the preliminary competition and was said to have had a big quarrel with the princess afterwards, but actually lived in Zhang Garden openly, did have a greater advantage than himself in the upper class. But when he heard that Song Juren was actually making casserole porridge, he was immediately furious and his evil heart was about to rise.
"Just now, Young Master Song said that the dishes I cook are not homely. Can your clay pot porridge be homely? In Cantonese clay pot porridge, the soup stock is very expensive, not to mention the seafood and meat that will be added later... Do you dare to say how much you put in this pot of porridge? Humph, you don't need to tell me, everything is registered when you pick up the ingredients!"
Mr. Song then smiled and glanced at Chef Chen with contempt: "People like you only know that rare ingredients are valuable, but you don't know that there is a saying in the world, which is to turn decay into magic!"
He raised his chin as he spoke, looking like he didn't want to talk to you any more, and didn't care how angry Chef Chen was, he just put the casserole on the plate. When he was about to reach out to take it himself, the little eunuch had already snatched the plate.
"I'll take it to the third floor. However, Mr. Song, although your clay pot is big, if you really want to make porridge, I'm afraid that each person won't get a spoonful if you share it with so many people."
"Haha, haha." This time, it was Mr. Song's turn to laugh dryly. He knew without even looking what the other chefs, especially Chef Chen, thought of him at the moment, but he could only say with a guilty conscience, "After I finished making the soup, I remembered that there were nearly a hundred guests upstairs and downstairs. Even if I made porridge out of all the soup, I'm afraid there wouldn't be enough to share. In short, my participation is important, participation is important..."
Realizing that Mr. Song was just participating, some of the other chefs felt relieved, but some could not help but look at Chef Chen with pity, who was provoked by Mr. Song's words and lost his composure in public. When Chef Chen saw that the eunuch actually asked Mr. Song to take the dishes to the third floor with him, he regretted it so much that his intestines turned green.
He was talking about Buddha Jumps Over the Wall for no reason, wanting to show off the so-called recipe left by Taizu, but ended up getting into trouble!
The hatred is formed quickly, but forgotten even faster, this is what people like Mr. Song are like. When he entered the first floor of Xinglong Tea House, the dispute in the kitchen just now was already forgotten by him. When he went up to the second and third floors, he was baptized by the collective attention again and again, and he didn't remember the trivial dispute at all, and was only concerned with the tension.
And when he met the emperor and exchanged greetings, Mr. Song, who had always been bold and foolish, couldn't help sweating on his back when he saw the emperor looking up at him after listening to the eunuch's explanation that there was not enough porridge in the casserole.
He didn't know if it was his illusion... Anyway, he felt that there was murderous intent in the emperor's eyes when he looked at him!
The emperor did have murderous intent in his eyes. Firstly, after having a full stomach, he was aroused by the drama planned by Zhang Shou. After seeing the first issue of the academic journal and the business newspaper, he sensed the business opportunities behind it, but also the hidden dangers. Secondly, he felt unhappy when he thought that it was this unromantic scholar who had angered his precious daughter to such a state.
So, he lowered his head to glance at the casserole that had not yet been opened, and then said calmly: "Since you didn't make enough, does that mean that you don't really want to be the imperial chef? When I heard that you didn't want to be an imperial chef but came to participate in the imperial chef selection, I thought it was a strange story... Haha, okay, come here and serve me a bowl."
At this point, seeing that Mr. Song was terrified, the emperor smiled and showed a few shining white teeth: "If it's really okay, it's fine. If it's not good... hehe!"
