Daddy! Come Home for Dinner!

Chapter 451: 451: No One Has Ever Done This

They asked her to provide the ingredients she would need for the next round so they could be prepared in advance.

So, Cindy made a list of the ingredients and sent it to the email address provided by the competition organizers.

The procurement department on the organizers’ side, after compiling the lists submitted by all the contestants, proceeded with the purchases.

The head of the procurement department, holding the compiled list, gave it to the five judges and the person in charge of the major competition, Billy Houston.

They were currently in a conference room, making predictions based on the ingredient lists provided by the contestants.

They tried to predict the dishes that the contestants might prepare, using the ingredients provided.

Furthermore, they aimed to predict in advance how well each contestant would perform with their chosen ingredients.

Based on their predictions, they estimated which ranking each contestant would achieve among the 40 contestants.

Although they had not tasted the dishes yet, making predictions in advance would not be entirely accurate.

Ultimately, the competition would be judged by actually tasting the dishes on site.

However, there were just too many dishes prepared by 40 contestants.

It was difficult for the judges to pay close attention to every detail of the preparation process of each contestant.

That’s why it was necessary to make preparations in advance – to select which contestants they thought might show promise, and then focus on observing their performances closely.

Even if someone underperformed, they would still be able to notice it.

It was better than panicking or making big mistakes on the spot.

After all, this was not the auditions or a 50-to-40 elimination round.

The skill levels of the previous contestants had varied substantially.

The skill gap between the contestants was quite large, and the ones who were eliminated had an even bigger gap, so their elimination couldn’t have been erroneous.

However, as the competition progressed, fewer contestants remained.

The contestants’ skill gap got smaller and smaller.

Oftentimes, two contestants’ skills would be more or less the same, with no clear superiority.

It all came down to who performed better on the Racecourse.

Thus, the judges’ task became even more challenging.

Their every judgment could potentially impact a contestant’s future.

So they had to be extremely careful and try their best not to make any mistakes.

That’s why they needed to prepare in advance.

Moreover, all five judges were experienced chefs.

Their judgments were mostly quite accurate, as proven by the results of past competitions.

“It looks like Blake Walker wants to make the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall dish,” Hunter Clarke said.

“Daniel Vahn is going to prepare Pufferfish,” said Wesley Gordon.

Daniel Vahn was the fifth-ranked contestant from the auditions under Pingla Academy.

Although called Pufferfish, it is indeed a genuine marine creature.

While the meat is famous for its delicious taste, it is also notorious for its poison content.

Handling Pufferfish requires a very high level of expertise.

Even the slightest mishandling can lead to poisoning the diners.

“It seems that Daniel Vahn is quite confident in his cooking skills, choosing such a surprising dish,” Michael Greene said with a smile.

There were countless marine species to choose from.

They gave the contestants a broad topic to work with, and any interpretation of “marine creatures” was acceptable.

Preparing a seafood dish with any of the marine species shouldn’t lead to a major mistake of veering off-topic.

However, Daniel Vahn chose to work with the challenging Pufferfish out of all the marine species available.

Not every chef could handle the Pufferfish, and usually, specialized Pufferfish chefs would prepare it.

“If I remember correctly, no one has ever tried this dish in past competitions,” Rosaline Parker laughed, “I’m looking forward to it.”

Charles Dean joked, “As long as he doesn’t poison us all and send us to the hospital, it should be fine.”