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At this moment, Gin Dojima couldn't help but think of a name: Joichiro Saiba.
His junior.
The former second-seat graduate of Totsuki Culinary Academy, who also reached the position of the world's number one chef, now faded from the rankings, but legends of him still circulate in the culinary world.
What Joichiro Saiba loved to do most was improvise during Shokugekis. This wasn't a sign of disrespect to his opponents; for some people, the dishes they spontaneously create are simply better than those made by following a strict, step-by-step procedure.
The reason why molecular gastronomy is considered a specialty of improvisational cooking is quite simple.
Many traditional recipes have been passed down for generations, continuously improved and perfected, reaching their most ideal production formulas. At this point, any rash alteration to a recipe would lead to errors in taste, turning the dish into an "unpalatable dark cuisine."
Molecular gastronomy recipes are more diverse, and they have a core emphasis: the artistry of plating.
Many molecular gastronomy dishes, once finished, become "works of art" through their arrangement and decoration.
This means that the same finished product can transform into different forms after different plating, inspiring various mutations within molecular gastronomy itself.
This created a huge stage for impromptu creation.
Renz's dish certainly had artistry, and his explanation made perfect sense. With his already excellent comprehensive abilities, the dish he spontaneously created on the spot was definitely not made haphazardly.
At the very least, Renz's entire process of crafting and treating the candy was almost flawless.
This was Renz's biggest advantage.
Therefore, whether he could win this Shokugeki depended entirely on the judges' preferences.
Senzaemon Nakiri did not give Renz this consideration.
"I cast my vote for Mr. Ferran Adria," Senzaemon Nakiri said after a moment of contemplation.
Senzaemon Nakiri disliked impromptu creations the most.
Impromptu creations are most prone to unexpected situations. While Renz's improvisation succeeded this time, what about next time?
What if it failed next time?
Senzaemon Nakiri would not condone such a trend, and he also had reasons for his disapproval.
Renz's reasoning made sense.
Yes, this portrait was good, and this candy was good. The purpose of the candy was also explained as representing his feelings from living with Erina all these years.
This was a dish with its own self-awareness.
An artistic molecular gastronomy dish born from an impromptu creation with attitude and ideas.
However, from a balanced perspective, the painting constituted 70% of the dish, while the candy only accounted for 30%. Yet, the candy was the actual main dish to be tasted, while the larger portion, the painting, became a decorative element with no function, which is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.
The dish itself was fine, but the structure was problematic, and that was why Senzaemon Nakiri did not give Renz his vote.
From a professional standpoint, Senzaemon Nakiri would not give any leeway for such a typical mistake. If it appeared, regardless of how good the dish tasted, the fundamental, root problem would lead to an outright rejection.
This put pressure on Renz.
To be honest, Renz's spontaneous creation on the spot this time was pushed to its limits. The creation of this "portrait" was an outstanding performance, and while the "candy" wasn't outstanding, it was still up to standard.
It was indeed a problem with the structure that was too severe.
If he hadn't included this candy, and instead focused solely on creating the portrait dish, without drawing Erina, even if he drew a landscape from any famous painting, a 70% likeness, Renz would have had a chance.
What a pity.
At this moment, Ferran Adria walked over to Renz's side, staring at Renz's work, and nodded slightly. He actually quite liked Renz's dish.
It gave him some inspiration; Ferran Adria himself even wanted to create a similar "portrait" dish. Renz's creative inspiration was not wrong.
His impromptu judgment on the spot was also correct; it was just that the execution wasn't handled well.
If he could have discarded the painting and restructured a new one, Renz's chances of winning this Shokugeki would have been extremely high.
Before Ferran Adria could fully appreciate Renz's work.
Another person cast their vote of support.
"My vote goes to Mr. Renz!" Ms Moriyama, as the invited guest judge, after a period of contemplation, cast her
vote for Renz based on her personal taste.
Compared to Ferran Adria's dish.
Ms Moriyama found Renz's candy more readily acceptable. Her perspective, naturally, wasn't as broad as Senzaemon Nakiri's, who would consider the dish's completeness, structure, and overall coherence.
Ms Moriyama simply felt Renz's dish tasted better.
However, in reality, the taste difference between the two dishes wasn't that significant; Ferran Adria's dish also tasted good.
Ms Moriyama's vote had a certain degree of personal preference.
Thus, the difficult decision fell to Gin Dojima.
Everyone has their own judging criteria. Senzaemon Nakiri completely rejected Renz based solely on a professional aspect.
Gin Dojima's dilemma stemmed from the fact that Ferran Adria's dish was an original creation he had made before; this time, it was merely a replication of his previous work.
Whereas impromptu creation is a genuine bonus in molecular gastronomy. While Renz's dish had flaws, this bonus could compensate for them.
Gin Dojima hesitated, thinking of his junior, Joichiro Saiba. To deny a dish's qualification based solely on professionalism felt too rigid and harsh.
Furthermore, the taste of Renz's candy was truly excellent.
If Renz could have handled the coordination and overall coherence between the candy and the painting more fully, Gin Dojima would have cast his vote for Renz without hesitation.
Erina's gaze rested on Gin Dojima.
Her gaze was exceptionally cold. Erina understood Renz's problem, but she only knew that in terms of taste alone, Renz could never lose.
But Renz's reason for losing was fatal.
Not professional enough.
In front of professionals, this lack of professionalism can be infinitely magnified, especially when Renz faces an opponent of this caliber; professionalism becomes a decisive factor.
Taste, ironically, becomes a secondary judging criterion.
Erina didn't know why Renz was messing around. He should have just presented his strongest dish and crushed the opponent with his skill. Instead, he insisted on improvising, letting loose, and pulling off strange maneuvers.
It was quite romantic, but deadly foolish!
"Abstain." Gin Dojima said after a moment of silence,
"From my perspective, I support young chefs creating new styles of cuisine. Adhering strictly to old rules makes it difficult to progress."
"Chef Renz's impromptu creation and the taste of his dish receive bonus points in my mind, but from a professional standpoint, he has no reason to win."
"However, I am willing to give him a chance at a draw."
Renz did indeed go overboard this time.
But Renz was very lucky, because the biggest variable was the invited guest judge. If her vote wasn't counted.
With Senzaemon Nakiri's dissenting vote and Gin Dojima's abstention, Renz would actually have "lost" this Shokugeki.
He failed on professionalism.
In fact, if Renz had only focused on the portrait dish, without making the extra candies, and simply submitted the portrait dish, Renz's chances of winning this Shokugeki would have been extremely high.
Because that way, there would have been no problem with professionalism.
In terms of creativity, it would have been entirely Renz's advantage. However, Renz's on-the-spot change in approach was a result of deep thought, considering Erina's feelings.
If he wanted to win, submitting the [Erina's Smile] would have guaranteed victory.
But this portrait was so well done that if he let the judges eat it, Erina would surely feel uncomfortable, no
matter how one looked at it.
So, Renz was willing to concede this victory.
But fundamentally, it was still a situation caused by Renz's excessive excitement. He had the ability to innovate and to master this kind of free creation, but he became too immersed in his own ideas.
He hadn't considered Erina's feelings, and only realized it after finishing the dish that it could only be looked at, not eaten. By then, it was too late to turn back.
In such a situation, even with an extreme last-minute save, if Renz's abilities weren't outstanding, he wouldn't have been able to salvage it.
"A hundred considerations, lost to one oversight; a hundred skills, lost to one sincerity."
Renz's problem lay in considering a hundred possible outcomes but forgetting some fundamental things.
"1:1, 1 abstention," Senzaemon Nakiri respected the opinions of the other two judges. He continued, "In this situation, it's a draw."
"Then, according to the rules of Shokugeki, in case of a draw, we proceed to the second round," Senzaemon Nakiri said gruffly.
Senzaemon Nakiri was somewhat dissatisfied with this outcome. He found that having the public as judges, while increasing interaction, greatly diminished the professionalism of the Shokugeki.
Renz, that kid, was really lucky to get a draw like this.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been in a dead end, a situation beyond redemption.
Ferran Adria also looked puzzled by the situation. He
knew the advantages of Renz's dish, but the problems with Renz's dish were also very obvious.
Even if Renz's dish tasted incredibly good, in his eyes, it could only be a draw. For him to win a vote was simply inconceivable.
He didn't understand why the judging panel ended up in this situation.
As someone next to him explained the situation in Spanish, Ferran Adria politely gestured.
He quietly explained his point to Senzaemon Nakiri.
His meaning was simple: he wanted to change the judges.
Meanwhile.
Renz was also pulled aside by Erina and severely
lectured.
Being so reckless, Erina was almost exasperated by Renz.
Not giving him a good scolding simply wouldn't relieve her frustration.
"Do you know you just barely saved your skin this time?"
Erina wanted to pull Renz's ear, but since there were many onlookers, Erina still gave her husband some face.
"You dare to mess around in this kind of setting?" Erina had a helpless expression.
"I didn't think that much when cooking," Renz frankly admitted his mistake. "I felt my creative thinking was amazing, but after I finished, I realized it would be awkward if I let others eat this portrait of Erina."
"Originally, my concept was centered on the portrait dish; there wasn't this extra candy," Renz added.
"Then why didn't you let my grandfather and the others eat that portrait?" Erina actually didn't care that much.
Food is food, and food is meant to be eaten. No matter how beautiful it is, it's still for eating. She couldn't understand why Renz would overthink it so much, and then unnecessarily change his original idea, causing professional flaws in his work.
Erina was thick-skinned.
Making Renz realize that his continuous consideration for her was like being a clumsy pig.
"I was afraid you'd feel uncomfortable," Renz said truthfully.
"I'd be uncomfortable if you didn't win," Erina sighed.
This draw was a pure stroke of luck for Renz.
Non-professional judges only taste the flavor, they don't look at the overall picture.
If Renz's candy hadn't tasted good, he would be facing the bitter consequences now.
And now Erina was like a coach by the boxing ring, cheering Renz on: "Your hard skills have a complete advantage, you don't need to try these things. Just simply make the molecular gastronomy you're best at and crush him."
There was still a gap between the world's number one twenty years ago and the world's number one twenty years later.
This was Erina's understanding.
Because twenty years ago, very few people specialized in competition cooking. Ferran Adria's opponents were not the strong competitors of the golden era.
Although his name was very famous, his track record wasn't glorious enough.
He was like an ancient god.
But Renz was fully capable of beating him thoroughly, yet he insisted on pulling off some maneuver, using impromptu creation to fight.
"I thought I could win," Renz admitted that his impromptu creation was a bit reckless, but he didn't think he lost. The area where his inspiration expanded was not the problem.
The problem was that, initially, he was too rational in his cooking and didn't consider human emotions. When he considered human emotions and realized it wasn't good to do that, he temporarily changed his strategy and thinking, and the situation only changed after that
adjustment. He didn't lose on taste.
He had already reached the world's number one in
cooking.
If he didn't even have this much confidence to improvise in a Shokugeki, what was he even cooking for? He should just go home and take care of the kids.
As the husband of God's Tongue, he should at least have that much confidence.
God's Tongue could tell the quality of a dish with just one taste.
If Renz's impromptu creation wasn't satisfying, then it was indeed quite bad.
Renz admitted that this was his fault, not because of other problems, but simply because he was inadequate and didn't handle it well.
Next time he improvises, he just needs to think more deeply when considering the problem.
When it's time to be confident, he still needs to be confident.
Erina rubbed her temples.
Renz was always stubborn in places where he shouldn't be, just like how he used to stick to his guns; once he had an idea, he wouldn't change it.
"You mean you're going to improvise again this time?"
Erina asked deeply.
"I have an excellent idea. This impromptu creation, I'm telling you, it's a sure thing," Renz said with extreme certainty.
"Hmm, then let me make this clear. If you lose this Shokugeki again, tonight, don't even think about sleeping in the same bed as me," Erina said, word by word. "You're going to kneel on the sofa in the living room all night."
"That's emotional abuse," Renz said with some dissatisfaction.
"If you win, I'll give you a reward too," Erina said with a smile.
"Now that you mention it, I'm interested," Renz suddenly thought, why bother challenging his creative abilities every day?
Relying on past achievements, isn't that good enough?
...
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