Free Web NovelChapter 549: Chapter 461: Layered Pressure, the Real Test
After flipping it over, Old Chen quickly turned down the heat.
The prepared sticky rice had already been flattened and was directly spread in the middle of the dough, then sprinkled with diced cooked three-flavor ingredients and a little bit of sauce.
The soy-colored sauce quickly seeped into the white sticky rice crevices, making the overall color instantly alluring.
Using a spatula, he folded the excess egg over the sticky rice on all four sides and gently pressed it flat, forming a neat square.
Old Chen gently shook the iron pan, letting the bean curd skin move in circles along the bottom of the pan to heat evenly.
Each of his steps looked very simple, as if there were no difficult points.
The onlookers all breathed a sigh of relief.
Other than having more steps than making that big dumpling earlier, it didn’t seem like much!
Just as the tension in their expressions started to ease.
Old Chen grasped the pan handle with one hand once more, shook it a few times, and then suddenly gave a strong flip forward.
Before the crowd could fully see what happened, a golden arc leaped into the air and fell back into the pan steadily.
"Pop"
Sprinkled with a handful of emerald green scallions as garnish, and turned off the heat.
"What just happened?"
"Don’t know, couldn’t see it clearly."
"It seemed... like the entire rice in the pan was flipped over?"
"My god, flipping something that large so easily? Aren’t they afraid it’ll fall apart?"
Lucas motioned for everyone to take turns and come over to carefully look at the situation in the pan.
Sure enough, the previously grilled rice covered with ingredients had disappeared, replaced by a square golden egg cake, its surface grilled to a crispy texture, with yellow and white lines, looking extremely enticing.
"It really flipped over!!"
"If I didn’t see it wrong, the previous dish seemed to be rice, even when scooped it would easily fall apart, but just from a shake, not only did it flip over, the shape remained perfect?"
"I knew it wasn’t so simple, this is too difficult, isn’t it?"
The chefs immediately began to wail, each with a bitter face.
Even for these experienced people, it seemed hard, let alone Lin, who tightly gripped the hem of her clothes, feeling somewhat at a loss.
She felt slightly confident in frying something, but flipping a pan... never mind flipping, she found it even hard to lift it single-handedly.
She didn’t become complacent because she was ahead in making dumplings, because she knew she had won the honor through cheating.
Having come a day earlier to train skills, if she was slower than others, then she really would appear talentless.
But this ahead...
"Gulp"
Lin swallowed nervously.
If she couldn’t complete it, she’d likely become the laughingstock of the whole venue, wouldn’t she?
The saying goes that insiders watch the details, outsiders watch the spectacle.
While the chefs were worriedly pondering strategies, the new waitstaff all looked at them expectantly.
As ordinary waitstaff, they could not usually see the cooking process in the kitchen, only those open kitchens or slightly high-end restaurants allowed waitstaff to enter the kitchen when delivering dishes.
Even then, they would just take the dish and leave, rarely staying long, because they still had to serve the guests’ needs.
Watching the entire process of dish creation in an open environment like this, especially in an assessment, increased their anticipation and made them want to see if these chefs could complete such a visually satisfying dish creation process.
"The chefs who can apply here should all have a decent skill level, right?"
"It doesn’t look very difficult, just a casual one-handed shake and it was done."
"The pan is semi-circular, should be easy to shake, coming with a parabolic effect."
"Isn’t this assessment too simple, no highly difficult dishes? I saw online videos, Great Xia chefs can cut tofu into strands as thin as hair without breaking it!"
"What?! That’s too exaggerated, cutting tofu into hair-like strands? That stuff seems like it’ll break as soon as it’s touched!"
These youthful and attractive women fervently discussed the assessment topic, their snowy long legs sparkling under the morning sun, occupying considerable attention among the chefs’ peripheral views.
Foreigners themselves liked to show off to attract attention, not to mention those chosen here were all top beauties.
Their soft discussions drifted into their ears along the sea breeze, each one looking extremely heavy, feeling the enormous pressure.
It was clearly just an ordinary assessment, practicing a few times should allow mastery of the technique.
Yet surrounded by so many beauties, their beautiful eyes on them, the pressure felt even greater than being watched by a chef.
Anyone who emerges from this assessment would undoubtedly receive priority attention in relationships, weighing far more in the girls’ hearts than others.
Conversely, the lower the ranking, even if recruited, it basically means a future of simply working hard, without further thoughts of pursuing beautiful girls.
When Chen Dongliang used a small plate to divide the three-flavor bean curd into small pieces for tasting, the chefs set faces dark, promptly stepped up to grab a piece and quickly returned to their positions, unanimously grabbing their pans to train the feeling of flipping the pan.
When frying leek pastries earlier, they used a frying pan, which was relatively light and easy to handle with one hand.
Now they’ve switched to a cast iron pan, and the weight more than doubles. Plus, Western cooking doesn’t have the habit of tossing the pan, so everyone couldn’t find that feeling at the moment.
You can toss an empty pan, but it doesn’t mean you can do it after adding all the ingredients, and it has to be perfect, which is the hardest part.
More importantly, barring any surprises, this action will be repeated throughout the two-hour lunch.
With all the ingredients prepared, the only thing that needs to be made on the spot is the egg skin, and then all the ingredients are spread on it, meaning they have to toss the pan every few minutes!
This will be a great test of arm strength.
Even the male chefs were a bit apprehensive, and the only two female chefs were completely at a loss.
"Well then, let’s start."
With Lucas’ order, the chefs had no choice but to grit their teeth and start cooking meat bubble rice and cutting the ingredients.
If time weren’t limited, Lin Chen would have originally wanted them to start with steaming glutinous rice.
Steaming glutinous rice requires technique, especially when making it in large quantities like this. If you don’t poke holes between the grains during the steaming process, the steamed glutinous rice is sure to be raw in the middle.
Don’t underestimate this small detail; it can determine the success or failure of the whole dish.
While they started cooking, many guests who had finished breakfast and had nothing to do were wandering around on the beach.
They wandered and wandered and somehow found their way over here.
Seeing people in chef uniforms busily cutting vegetables, curious tourists stopped to watch, wanting to see what was for lunch.
Just by looking at the names on the menu, they couldn’t picture anything in their heads.
Seeing more and more onlookers, the chefs began to sweat nervously, and their hands began to tremble slightly as they cut vegetables.
"Damn it, they didn’t say during the interview that we would be assessed in front of so many people!"
People who stay in the back kitchen every day have never experienced such a scene, making their nervous brains almost freeze. They lost their bearings and even forgot what to do for a moment.
Lin was doing relatively well. She had somewhat adapted yesterday, and though she still couldn’t handle the curious gazes of the diners, she found her little trick.
As long as she lowered her head enough and didn’t look left, right, forward, or backward, it was as if no one was watching her!
Her position was on the edge, and although there were a few diners standing nearby, she managed to avoid the center, making her less likely to be the center of attention.
Compared to these professional chefs, Lin’s chopping skills were virtually nonexistent; she cut relatively slowly, but that had its advantages as it allowed for more careful cutting.
After cutting all the ingredients into small pieces, Lin quietly breathed a sigh of relief and glanced out of the corner of her eye at the female chef next to her, only to find she was still cutting a large bamboo shoot.
"?"
Lin was a bit puzzled. She clearly remembered her cutting leeks very quickly in the morning, so why was she slower than her at cutting bamboo shoots now?
Driven by curiosity, she couldn’t help but take a few more glances and then noticed the female chef’s fair cheeks were already flush with red, and her slender fingers holding the knife were trembling slightly, hesitating to make a cut.
Seeing this strange state, Lin became even more confused and instinctively observed the female chef’s overall state.
Upon observing, she quickly noticed something odd.
The woman’s long, white calves were tightly pressed together under the table, and the muscles were visibly tense. Her whole body was slightly hunched, shaking gently every few seconds.
Lin was initially stunned. After a brief pause, she seemed to come up with a thought. She immediately put down the knife and courageously approached to lightly inquire.
"Um..."
"Ah?"
The female chef seemed startled by a sudden conversation, her whole body jolting.
After realizing it was just the little girl next to her, she relaxed but seemed puzzled.
"Anything I can help with?"
Lin’s dark little face revealed very little expression, but her big eyes showed a hint of shyness.
"I, I want to go to the bathroom, but there are so many people here..."
Before she could finish speaking, the woman’s eyes lit up with brilliance, nodding repeatedly.
"Sure, sure, I’ll go with you!"
"Mm-hmm! Thank you. Let’s go this way."
They hurriedly made their way into the restaurant.
At this time, the restaurant only had Helena and Lucinda organizing the tables. The emptiness made them feel like they had shed a heavy burden.
Two minutes later.
They were side by side at the sink, washing their hands in an atmosphere that was both silent and a bit awkward.
Lin timidly raised her eyes, attempting to observe the woman’s reflection, only to find the woman also sneaking a peek at her in the mirror.
Greatly embarrassed, Lin was about to lower her head.
"Thank you!"
