Yuuki was now a Senior Chef—that was the system's official designation. The system's criteria for ranking were incredibly strict, destined to make Yuuki a chef with no weaknesses.
But in the outside world, it was different. Chef levels were judged by people. Although these people would try their best to ensure fairness and unified standards—
—People always have biases. No matter how much they try to control it, biases still exist.
Yuuki's dish was judged as Third Class mainly because other aspects held it back. Otherwise, with Yuuki's Fire Control, never mind Third Class, even a Special Class chef would have to bow down.
Hearing the evaluations from Gin Dojima and the others, Yuuki was already very satisfied. After all, making a dish that surpassed one's own level was an extremely difficult feat.
In the world of Food Wars, chefs generally had their own signature dishes. These were the dishes they were best at, capable of ensuring minimal errors or even allowing for exceptional performance.
After all, people aren't machines; even machines make mistakes, let alone humans. A Third Class Chef, performing poorly, might only produce a Senior level dish. This wasn't uncommon.
The dish Yuuki made now wasn't a signature dish, yet it was far more terrifying than those chefs' signature dishes.
Most importantly, Yuuki's Evolving Touch made it almost impossible for him to make mistakes.
Even Erina Nakiri would have off days. After all, even if she remembered the tastes, the actual execution wasn't so easy.
Conversely, Yuuki's Evolving Touch could ensure almost no operational errors. Plus, Yuuki also had Food Honor. It could be said that for Yuuki, no matter how many dishes he made, he could achieve zero mistakes.
"That's right. With the help of my special ability, my cooking skills have improved very quickly. Although other aspects can't compare to my fire control, they have also reached the Senior-level."
Yuuki nodded. Since the system recognized him as a Senior Chef, it meant he was absolutely the most standard Senior Chef, with no possibility of any issues.
"As expected, this special ability has helped you immensely. Even though you've only just awakened it, it already has such an effect."
Although Gin Dojima was mentally prepared, he still found it incredible.
The improvement brought by Yuuki's special ability was far more terrifying than he had imagined.
Although he had previously thought Yuuki had reached the Senior level, he hadn't expected Yuuki to be this outrageous. This wasn't just a Senior Chef; among many Senior Chefs, Yuuki was in the top tier.
In fact, if Yuuki participated in a competition that primarily tested a chef's fire control skills, even Third Class Chefs might not be his match.
"Senior Chef... I remember at Totsuki, generally only the Elite Ten can reach this level, right?" Alice Nakiri couldn't help but say.
Although she had always been at Nakiri International and hadn't studied at Totsuki, she was still very familiar with this family enterprise.
She naturally knew what level the Totsuki Elite Ten were at, so Yuuki being at the Senior Chef level now also surprised her a bit. After all, both she and Ryo Kurokiba were still Intermediate Chefs.
"Correct. The Elite Ten are basically at the Senior Chef level. Of course, there are exceptions, like the Golden Age back then. Many of the Elite Ten members at that time reached the Third Class level before graduation," Soe Nakiri nodded.
While exceptions existed, they were very few. The standards of the Golden Age couldn't be used as a reference.
"Then isn't student Yuuki already qualified to become one of the Elite Ten?!" Alice Nakiri couldn't help but exclaim.
"You can't quite put it that way. In a pure culinary skill comparison, I don't think any of the current Elite Ten can compare to Yuuki. But the Elite Ten themselves possess special privileges—getting their seats isn't easy."
Gin Dojima shook his head.
The current Elite Ten were completely different from the Elite Ten of their Golden Age.
The Golden Age Elite Ten knew their own culinary skills and were happy to let others challenge them to hone their own skills.
So, they didn't set any challenge thresholds. Even though the Elite Ten had high authority, they didn't care about such things.
But now, the position of Elite Ten was highly valued. After all, once one became an Elite Ten member, besides having many privileges within the school, one could also use the Elite Ten's privileges to do things outside the school.
Megumi Tadokoro in the original story was an example. The reason her special ability awakened so quickly was because she used the Elite Ten's authority to travel all over the world, instantly expanding her learning scope globally.
The power of the Elite Ten was immense, but becoming one was also very difficult. Normally now, one would only have a chance to become an Elite Ten member after the third-year high school students graduated.
Otherwise, even if your culinary skills were stronger, if they didn't compete with you, you still couldn't obtain an Elite Ten seat.
So, Yuuki's current culinary skills had already leaped directly above all the Elite Ten members, but becoming one wasn't easy—unless some fool was willing to directly give up their Elite Ten position.
"Forget about the Elite Ten. Although there are some privileges, there are too many troublesome matters. I don't have the mind to waste time on these things!"
Yuuki himself also shook his head.
Honestly, he really didn't care for the status of an Elite Ten member. The only thing that could tempt him was the privilege of not needing to attend classes.
As for other privileges, he didn't need them. And becoming an Elite Ten member also meant becoming part of Totsuki's management—Yuuki wasn't good at that, nor was he interested.
Especially now that the system had awakened, all he wanted to do was continuously improve his culinary skills, That was it.
"Your personality is quite similar to an old friend of mine. That guy also has zero interest in power at all, just runs around the world all day long," Gin Dojima said with a smile. He saw a shadow of his old friend in Yuuki.
After hearing Gin Dojima's words, Yuuki naturally knew who he was talking about. Dojima was referring to Joichiro Yukihira. That guy indeed roamed all over the world and had the title of "Wandering Chef."
But it was precisely because he didn't care about these things and constantly learned various techniques worldwide that Joichiro Yukihira had now become a Special Class Chef, standing at the pinnacle of the culinary world.
As for Gin Dojima, although he wasn't as good as Joichiro Yukihira from the start, he could still win against Joichiro in competitions during their student days. Although he lost more often, he had at least won, and it wasn't because Joichiro was holding back.
But now, a huge gap already existed between the two of them.
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