On the eve of dawn, the whole land remained. Shrouded in darkness. While the vast majority of people were immersed in sleep, the front of the chef examination venue was already crowded with chefs who had come to take the exam.

"Are there so many people in Hunan who come to take the special chef exam?" Looking at the surging crowd in front of him, Le Yuan muttered.

"There are really not the most people here, you haven't seen the chefs in Guangzhou when they took the special examination!" As if hearing Le Yuan's muttering, a long-bearded man standing behind him said.

"Do you know a lot about the Master Chef exam?"

It was rare to have someone who seemed to be a veteran, and Le Yuan hurriedly greeted him.

"Of course, my name is Zhong Hui, I am the chef of Hanyan Pavilion in Guangdong Province, I have taken the special chef exam twice, the first time I was young and vigorous, and I took the exam in Guangzhou, which is known as the most difficult and strict food capital, but the first time I didn't even understand the exam questions, so it ended, and the second time I was eliminated because I couldn't complete the work in the top five. Only one of the two Grand Chef exams became Grand Chefs, and since then I have given up on the Grand Chef exams in Guangzhou......"

Zhong Hui sighed while introducing his experience: "Are you so young that you also come to take the special chef exam?" Let's give up, this time the Master Chef exam is not easy! ”

"Look at the man." Zhong Hui pointed to a tall and thin man with long hair in a shawl, "Kong Liang of Dasheng Restaurant, who is a powerful contender for this exam with one hand, is a strong contender for this exam." ”

Then he pointed to another sturdy man in a sleeveless waistcoat, "See that person?" He is Chai Lin, the sous chef of Feiyan Mansion, look at the muscles all over his body, especially his hands, which are honed by his proud knife skills that are both fast and accurate. ”

"There are also Flying Rain Courtyard and Haisheng Pavilion...... These well-known restaurants in Hunan have sent people to participate in the chef special examination, each of them is the second generation of elite in the Hunan cuisine industry, and they all have the strength to pass the test, and there are many people like me who come to the exam from other provinces, so do you still have the confidence to take the exam? ”

As the first rays of sunlight swept across the horizon, Zhong Hui reacted and blurted out:

"The exams are about to start."

Sure enough, as his words fell, a huge gong instantly spread through everyone's ears, and then the originally noisy sound disappeared in a blink of an eye.

On the tall castle tower, an official wearing the official uniform of the imperial court walked up, and he waved his hands and said, "Everyone who has come to participate in the special examination for chefs!" As is customary, I'm about to announce the exam questions in this place now! This is the title—"

With his voice, a vertical banner hung down from the city tower, and there was only one big word "porridge" on it.

Before some people could figure out the situation, the second tip came down - "medicine and food are of the same origin".

Then the examiner's voice came again, "The exam will be held in four days, so please come to the city gate to show off your skills!" Announced! ”

Just when everyone was still thinking about the relationship between "medicine and food homology" and "porridge", suddenly a shout came: "Go to the market, use "porridge" to make "medicine and food homology"!" ”

With this sentence, one by one the cooks suddenly realized, and left the city gate one by one.

…………

The night before the chef's special exam - the venue

In order to accommodate the cooking time required by those taking the special test, candidates can bring their bedding and materials to the venue three days in advance.

When Le Yuan entered the venue, the entire examination venue was already full of chefs who had come to take the exam, and the exam would only start tomorrow but the competition had already begun......

Le Yuan looked at the busy crowd while finding his place.

There are all kinds of people in the examination room, some are slowly boiling soup, some are meditating hard and still can't grasp the exam questions, and some are wielding kitchen knives to cut vegetables......

Le Yuan came to his kitchen stove, took out one of the main ingredients of his own cooking, various animal offal, and began to stew slowly with the guy, ready to cook a pot of broth.

Just as Le Yuan was cooking his own food, someone had already asked the examiner to start tasting it.

"Lord Examiner, this is my dish - the secret Qingxin mung bean porridge, please taste it."

An unknown chef brought out his porridge, and the three examiners took a sip of it, and then asked, "How do you express the theme of the homology of medicine and food?" ”

"Mung bean porridge refers to a porridge made by mixing mung beans and rice as the main ingredients. Mung bean is a common miscellaneous grain, cold and sweet, has the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying, reducing fire and dissipating heat, and is very suitable for eating in summer. Mung bean is also rich in protein, vitamins and trace elements, has a very high nutritional value, is a very healthy natural food. Isn't this very consistent with the theme of the homology of medicine and food?"

But after hearing this, the examiner's face tended to turn dark, and he scolded.

"Are you so easy to fool when we are the examiner, mung bean porridge has a certain medical use, but your mung bean porridge pretends to be smart, in order to distinguish it from the general mung bean porridge, you add a broth made of precious stones, although the taste of the whole mung bean soup is indeed improved, but it destroys the overall nature of this mung bean porridge, this is an unqualified dish, you are out......"

The more the cook listened, the paler his face became, and at last he sat down on the ground with his feet limp and began to cry.

With such a vivid example, the people who originally wanted to try to fool around immediately stopped their minds, and they were afraid that they would be embarrassed by the time.

………

With the completion of Le Yuan's broth, Le Yuan began to prepare the porridge, with a broth as the base, properly seasoned and slowly boiled, while cleaning up the impurities over and over again.

The first to pass is Kong Liang of Dasheng Restaurant, who uses a piece of rock sugar mint porridge and excellent fire control kung fu to make this dish suitable for wind-heat cold, headache and eye redness, sore throat, and can be used as a summer heatstroke and antipyretic cooking. Successfully passed the first hurdle first.

The second person is Chai Lin, the sous chef of Feiyan Mansion, who conquered the tongues of the examiners with a delicate dish of celery porridge that did not match his image.

Just after the two of them completed the test, Le Yuan's porridge was also completed, and he confidently raised his hand, "Lord Examiner, my work is finished." ”

When the examiner came to Le Yuan, he looked at the porridge in front of him and couldn't help frowning, this bowl of porridge was so clear that it seemed that every grain of rice could be seen clearly.

Le Yuan saw the examiner's expression and said, "Please taste this bowl of porridge first, and you will understand after drinking it." \"

When the examiner frowned and took the first sip, there was only one reaction: it was indeed because of the authentic porridge dish. But there doesn't seem to be anything special, when the second sip is drunk.

The eyes of the three examiners were no longer taking their eyes off the spoon, and they were no longer eating one bite at a time, but pouring down the whole bowl.

With a bowl of porridge in his stomach, the examiner only felt refreshed: Ah, I drink this bowl of porridge...... The whole body is refreshed...... This bowl of porridge seems to flow through every corner of my body, making my body full of vitality again......

A bowl of porridge was served, and the three examiners breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help sighing: It's so delicious, and the other candidates looked at the examiner's expressions and were extremely curious, what kind of porridge has such magic. "Tell me about the relationship between your bowl of porridge and the theme of medicine and food, and why your bowl of porridge feels so clean, yes, it's clean?" "Lord Examiner, the function of my bowl of soup is actually to eat liver and nourish the liver. The liver is an organ in the human body that has the function of protection and self-defense. For many people with liver problems, anorexia often occurs, and the function of this bowl of soup is to repair the function of the liver, I used animal offals to slowly stew over low heat, and boiled such a pot of soup for the base, and the porridge felt clean because I filtered out the impurities over and over again. "A good one who eats liver and nourishes the liver, the mastery of ingredients, the control of heat and the understanding of the homology of medicine and food, he is worthy of being a disciple of Master Abbe, and Ju Xialou Leyuan passed the first round of tests." "What, Ju downstairs is a disciple of Master Abbey, it turns out that he is a disciple of Master Abbey!" "I said how could such a young person come to participate in the chef's special examination, it turned out to be a senior apprentice of Master Abbe." "Hey, there's no hope this time, let's come back next year......"

As soon as the identity of Le Yuan Abei's disciple was revealed, the chefs who were already a little shaken gave up the competition.

When the exam time ended, only four people passed the first round, namely Kong Liang from Dasheng Restaurant, Chai Lin, the sous chef of Feiyan Mansion, Le Yuan from Juxialou, and Peng Yuying, the female chef of Haisheng Pavilion.