Life is a Game

The China-U.S. Chef Competition is undoubtedly a very professional food competition reality show, and the semi-final even requires a rehearsal in advance. On the fourth day after Jiang Feng was informed that they were going to check the game site and the money, the program team again notified them to go to the scene for a rehearsal.

At the same time, the date of the semi-finals was also confirmed, December 8th, a day that sounded very auspicious. The duration of the competition is also very long, a full twelve hours, which also means that the contestants can make any dishes they want, whether it is hanging soup or cooking after freezing the dishes, except that the time is too long and it will torture the judges and work There are no downsides other than the personnel.

It is worth mentioning that the semi-finals and finals are different from other variety shows. Although the stage is large, there are no audiences. After all, the cooking competition does not require audience votes, nor does it require audience feedback or applause. If there are too many people on the scene and it is too noisy, it will affect the chef's competition status. Some chefs need a relatively quiet environment to calm down and cook food.

All the contestants and judges will be present in the rehearsal before the game. This is the last chance for everyone to know and get familiar with their opponents before the game. Before that, Jiang Feng spent three hours supplementing information about his opponents, and then discovered that the four restaurants that advanced to the semi-finals were actually related.

Needless to say, the relationship between Taifeng Building and the restaurant on the top floor is not an exaggeration to say that they are lifelong enemies. If chefs in Peking were asked which two restaurant owners are most likely to fight, their first reaction would definitely be The top restaurant and Taifeng Building, and then the top restaurant and Babaozhai.

The two restaurants that have advanced to the US division, one is Peng Changping's own restaurant, ese Food Restaurant is also a Chinese restaurant. The contestants were Peng Changping's second-to-last youngest apprentice, Zhou Shi's senior brother, Peng Changping's son-in-law, and Peng Changping's two grandchildren. In a sense, they were all acquaintances that Jiang Feng had never met.

Not to mention the New York Light, Chef Arnold's old club, did not make any personnel changes after Chef Arnold quit. The four chefs participating in the competition are all former younger brothers of Chef Arnold, and they have been younger brothers for many years. Belongs to the kind of loyal little brother that Chef Arnold will shake when he sneezes, and Chef Arnold may sprinkle the wrong seasoning if he says shit.

The lineup of judges is also very luxurious, Xu Cheng, Peng Changping and two well-known American food critics.

Here I have to say one more digression. It is already December, the last month of the year, and the results of the selection of the famous chefs have not yet come out. There have been rumors in the market that the reason why Chef Arnold moved all the way to Beijing uncharacteristically is to block Xu Cheng and let Xu Cheng rank himself second in the list of famous chefs.

Under such circumstances, Xu Cheng still had the leisure to be a program judge and not worry about the ranking of celebrity chefs. He could only say that the ace pigeon really deserved to be an ace pigeon.

But no matter how it is judged and reviewed, the first complete meeting of the contestants is still very pleasant.

Especially among the judges, everyone is old acquaintances. The two native American judges are serious and thin named Henry, and the other is chubby with a kind smiling face named David. They are very common names. . Apart from the name Dazhong, the only thing they have in common is that they are not young and their hair is a little gray.

David obviously knew Xu Cheng very well. When he saw Xu Cheng at the competition venue, he didn't greet him and asked, "Xu, it's already December. Why hasn't your famous chef list come out yet? In previous years, it would have been early It's time to announce."

Xu Cheng has been an ace pigeon for so many years, and he is very comfortable in responding to this kind of urging coming to him: "Of course it hasn't come out because there are still disputes. Don't worry, it will definitely come out this year."

"Controversy?" David's chubby face was filled with distrust of Xu Cheng, "I'm not talking about you, you have really become more and more lazy in the past two years. Even if you didn't want to write a few years ago, every now and then There will be one in a month or two. Look at this year, you only wrote one column, and last year you wrote several columns."

"A good article always takes time to hone, and it's not always possible to write a good food review. Is it necessary to write a food review as a commercial advertisement or a chicken soup for the soul like some critics now?" Xu Cheng said He has his own set of theories. Anyway, he is rich and he is the boss. He is not in a hurry and no one can rush him.

While several judges were greeting each other, the 16 contestants had a general idea of ​​the camera seats. In fact, the rehearsal this time is very simple. You only need to know and understand the direction of each camera seat, and don’t miss the camera seat when you go on stage and introduce yourself.

Of course, it doesn’t matter if you can’t find the camera, the camera will go to them, and when it’s time to write, it will naturally write.

The director asked each contestant to walk around several times to determine the best site, and then it was over after a few more instructions. The judges were a bit more troublesome and complicated, but the four judges all had rich experience in the show and had a good sense of the camera, so there was no big problem.

After the rehearsal, they could leave separately. Chef Arnold rushed back to the restaurant almost as soon as the rehearsal was over. Those who didn't know it thought it wasn't Roland but him who owed the money. Chef Arnold really didn't say anything about his professionalism.

In order to better prepare for the semi-finals at Taifeng Tower, Wang Xiuli directly gave them a big vacation. Although it was on vacation, only Sun Maocai was resting. Wu Minqi and Sun Jikai were both pulled by Jiang Feng to study how to apply the eight-treasure chestnut pigeon method to Jiang's ginseng soup. This was a pain for Wu Minqi and Sun Jikai.

When the three of them were studying the method of thickening the eight-treasure chestnut pigeon together, although Jiang Feng's cooking skills were better than theirs, it was not much better, and the three of them could barely maintain their cooking skills at the same level. Now Jiang Feng has left the two of them far behind in cooking skills, and different realms and levels have different ways of thinking about problems. During the discussion, Wu Minqi and Sun Jikai often couldn't keep up with Jiang Feng's thinking, but they were still willing. Spend a lot of time studying with Jiang Feng every day.

Because you can really learn a lot that way.

Even though it was very hard to learn, it was very strenuous and even doubted whether I was a fool, but the speed of progress was really fast.

Sun Maocai left after talking to the three of them. He also arranged other things today so he couldn't stay here for too long. The three of Jiang Feng didn't go back to Taifeng Building to study the thickening, but they wanted to stay and chat with the chefs in the Chinese restaurant. Although Jiang Feng was not their relatives, nor their juniors, nor their old friends, there were always a few It's such a wonderful relationship, both emotional and reasonable should say hello and exchange a few words.

During the rehearsal, the two groups did not stand together, and it was difficult to greet each other from a certain distance. After the rehearsal, they always had to say hello.

"Master Sheng." Jiang Feng walked up to Peng Changping's son-in-law Sheng Ming with a smile and said with a smile.

It's a twist of fate, as Peng Changping is recognized as the number one Chinese chef in the world, although his descendants are very competitive and have achieved good results in all walks of life, they obviously don't have much talent in cooking. Instead, it was his son-in-law Sheng Ming, who was also his apprentice, who inherited his skills. Now Sheng Ming is in charge of the cooking of the Chinese restaurant, and Peng Changping's son is in charge of the management.

Sheng Ming obviously did his homework in advance and looked at Jiang Feng's photos. Knowing Jiang Feng's relationship with Peng Changping, he responded enthusiastically: "You...don't be so polite, just call me Sheng Ming. Sure enough, he has an extraordinary bearing, a young talent."

Sheng Ming obviously stayed abroad for too many years, and he is not very familiar with his mother tongue. When he speaks, he always unconsciously wants to mix English words and forcibly holds back, which leads to some confusion in logic, and Jiang Feng saw the confusion .

After a few words of simple politeness, another apprentice of Peng Changping also joined the ranks of politeness. After a few minutes of difficult communication, just when Jiang Feng felt that he could end the small talk and happily go back to Taifeng Tower to continue researching thickening, Sheng Ming finally said what he wanted to say from the beginning.

"I don't know if you are free tonight. If you are free, we can have a meal together. My uncle has been thinking about seeing you for the past two days." Sheng Ming said.

"Uncle?" Jiang Feng realized immediately after speaking that the uncle Sheng Ming was talking about should be Qin Guisheng.

Didn't Qin Guisheng break his leg? I have come to Peking anyway.

Jiang Feng thought about it again, it seemed that Qin Guisheng broke his leg a long time ago, logically speaking, he should be healed by now.

"Yes, my uncle is Qin Guisheng, you should know him." Sheng Ming said.

Jiang Feng nodded, but still didn't quite understand.

Qin Guisheng has a quick temper, which Jiang Feng had a deep understanding of through Zhang Zhiyun's retelling when he was eating at Yun last time. It can be said that Qin Guisheng has never changed his temper no matter when he was young or now, he can say whatever he has, and do whatever he wants, and he can't bear it and doesn't want to bear it.

According to Qin Guisheng's temper, if he really wanted to meet him, since he arrived in Peiping two days ago, he shouldn't have waited until now to let Sheng Ming meet him. He would ask Peng Changping to ask him out when he got off the plane.

Jiang Feng thought so, and asked the same question.

Sheng Ming didn't hide anything, and told the truth: "Uncle Master actually wanted to see you as soon as he got off the plane, but Uncle's leg injury has just healed and he is still a little weak, and the long-distance flight is already too much for him to go to the hotel to rest as soon as he gets off the plane." gone."

"I thought it would be better if I rested for a day, but I didn't expect my uncle to be acclimatized and jet-lagged. He only stayed in the hotel for a day and then went to the hospital. He was only discharged this morning."

It can be said that he was very eager to see Jiang Feng as soon as he was discharged from the hospital.

Jiang Feng: ...

Who would have thought that Qin Guisheng, a native of Peiping, would be dissatisfied after returning to Peiping after many years.

"No problem, it's my honor to have dinner with Master Qin." Jiang Feng agreed with a smile.