French cuisine is the most renowned culinary tradition in Western food. It places great emphasis on the understanding and flexible application of ingredients to create many universally praised delicacies; this is the pride of French cooking.
At the same time, French cuisine strives for excellence, pushing classic dishes toward Nouvelle Cuisine cooking methods. It draws lessons from various sources, and its preparation focuses on flavor, naturalness, technique, decoration, and color coordination.
In fact, the greatest characteristics of French cuisine are fivefold:
First: Ingredients.
"Inferior materials cannot make good dishes" is a famous maxim of French cuisine, and the high price of French food is based precisely on this point.
Second: Original Flavor.
The spirit of French cuisine lies in highlighting the original taste of the food. Any seasoning, side dish, or even the accompanying wine has only one purpose: to bring out the natural flavor of the main ingredient.
Third: Seasonality.
The French characteristic of using locally sourced ingredients leads to different tastes in the north and south. Therefore, the concept of "eating specific dishes in specific places, and specific dishes in specific seasons" is very important.
Fourth: Sauces.
When French people use sauces and condiments, the premise is not to destroy the original flavor of the ingredients. A good sauce can elevate the food's own flavor and texture, so how to blend the best sauce depends entirely on the chef's skill!
Fifth: Plating & Atmosphere.
In a sense, the exquisiteness of the plating and the elegance of the environment are the key points that sublimate French cuisine.
However, having said all that, all roads lead to Rome.
Ingredients, natural flavor, seasonality—aren't the pursuits of French cuisine exactly the characteristics of Hua nation cuisine?
Although Mo Bai hadn't undergone orthodox French cuisine training, by tightly grasping these five key points summarized by Sena Hiromi, he could slap the title of French cuisine onto his work. In this era of culinary fusion, this kind of "shell-game" approach has long been a common sight.
Don't forget, he also had a supreme killer move for this pursuit of natural flavor dishes—gastric stone (crossed out) Purification (Advanced).
"You don't need my help?" Little Bai screamed as if seeing a ghost. Its tone was filled with disbelief mixed with a trace of dissatisfaction.
"No need. Just be a commentator for me and focus on collecting the opponent's recipes," Mo Bai said, picking up the kitchen knife on the counter to test its feel.
"Really? The opponent passed the IGO Six-Star Chef assessment two years ago."
"He is still just a Six-Star Chef now, isn't he?" Mo Bai replied while cleaning his kitchen knife and cutting board.
These words were just too damn domineering!
Regarding a Six-Star Chef as nothing!
"...Holy crap! Are you really Old Bai? You haven't been possessed, have you?!" Little Bai fell into a state of confusion.
Was this still the scrub of scrubs who, just a week ago, needed to cry and shout to hug its thigh, asking for help and recipes?
"Possessed your sister. I just feel that even without your help, there's no reason I would lose."
The moment he stood at the cooking station, Mo Bai felt that sense of freedom return.
Even though this wasn't a Divine Festival, there were no gods, and he hadn't reached the level of omnipotence he had back then, dealing with a Six-Star Chef was more than enough.
His heart told him so.
"Are you that swollen with arrogance right now?"
"It's not arrogance; it's confidence."
"Besides, I've also come to understand some things..." Mo Bai's tone was long and drawn out, sounding like reminiscence, or perhaps a memorial.
"Are you rejecting your humanity again?" Little Bai probed.
"Yes! There's no reason God's Tongue can be trained but my Intuition cannot." Mo Bai placed his hand on the appetizer ingredients beside him and took a deep breath. "I can feel the massive amount of experience from handling Dream Ingredients in the Mental Time Chamber rolling in!"
Having become accustomed to handling nearly harsh Dream Ingredients, looking at these basic ingredients now was as simple as eating and drinking.
Mo Bai opened his eyes again, and golden light shone from his body.
Intuition Mode: Burst! The whole venue went into an uproar!
"I, Mo, walk the path of the jianghu relying on nothing else."
"I rely solely on this endless stream of cheats!"
The next moment, the celtuce was peeled at high speed. A dividing line appeared on the celtuce in Mo Bai's eyes. In a split second, the knife flew, cutting it into sections, modifying it into slices, and then shredding it into filaments of uniform length and thickness, piling them into a small mountain on the other end of the cutting board.
The movements were so fluid that the audience didn't snap back to reality until he sheathed his knife.
"Oh my god! Look at the vegetable pile!" a student in the audience suddenly screamed.
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice at the small mountain made of emerald green celtuce shreds; it was releasing specks of fluorescence!
Whether it was an illusion or not, everyone felt that touch of greenery was so harmonious, so intimate.
"God's Hand!?"
Now, the judges' bench exploded with noise.
Gazing at the specks of fluorescence on the processed ingredients, the knowledgeable judges on the male judges' bench all stood up.
Having more or less stepped into that domain, they naturally understood the meaning represented by this fluorescence—the ingredients had received nearly perfect processing.
Given the age of the young man on the stage, they could only think of "Divine Talent" as a reasonable explanation.
Zhang Yu, who had taught Mo Bai culinary arts for a week, even kicked his chair over!
His feeling right now was like that of parents in a working-class family whose studying son suddenly returned home and smashed a hundred million in cash in front of them—a state of utter and complete confusion.
When did my son/disciple become this savage!?
Bai Zishu and Luo Ziyan looked at each other, both seeing the shock in the other's eyes.
Unlike the others, Bai Zishu, who possessed a Divine Talent, and Luo Ziyan, who knew Wang Yao, understood the difficulty involved even better.
To hone God's Hand to the point where ingredients glow at the age of eighteen...
The two understood why they had been sent here to act as bodyguards.
Bai Zishu knew a God's Hand chef who could make ingredients glow, but that person had only barely reached this step at the advanced age of seventy.
The ability Mo Bai was displaying now was simply inconceivable in their eyes!
"God's Hand?" With a holder of a Divine Talent suddenly appearing and walking far ahead of her, Nakiri Erina was somewhat shaken.
As for the two fangirls from Mo Bai's own clan—
Miyamoto Yayako & Yukikawa Yukie: "Highness Mo Bai is badass!" (Voice cracking)
Ding!
"Appetizer, served!"
Mo Bai and Mark announced the completion of their appetizer dishes simultaneously.
The food runners brought the dishes up, while the two communicated with the staff to select the ingredients for the upcoming soup course.
Two portions of cuisine were placed in front of every judge.
"...Let's taste Mark's dish first. No objections, right?" Nakiri Senzaemon said after a moment of silence.
Even though their hearts were being scratched as if by cat claws, everyone expressed no objection.
They all understood that if they started tasting Mo Bai's dish, this shokugeki might step into its finale right from the start.
Everyone lifted the covers. A passionate aroma, mixing seafood and mango, sweet-sour and savory-fresh, assaulted their noses.
"It's Scallop Caviar Salad." Nakiri Erina's eyes lit up.
Two pan-fried scallops, cooked to perfection, revealed a bright yellow hue. They were dotted with caviar as translucent as black gems. The salad greens underneath had been replaced with crisp and refreshing ice plants, and orange-yellow mango chunks and cut cherry tomatoes were scattered sporadically around them.
The harmonious savory-fresh collision of scallops and caviar met the rich sweet-sour taste of the mango and cherry tomatoes, supplemented by the ice plants paired with light cream, which wrapped the former entirely within.
Even though it was just a salad, it whipped up a storm on the palate!
This salad lifted their spirits, involuntarily giving them the impulse to communicate with their companions.
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