Chapter 136 Failure
The marinated chicken is then steamed.

As soon as the lid of the pot was opened, a rich aroma filled the examination room. Everyone present couldn't help but take a deep breath, letting this intoxicating fragrance permeate their mouths and noses and reach their lungs. Even the exhaled breath was filled with this rich fragrance.

The aroma is so mysterious that it changes every second, making it impossible to tell what it smells like.

The fragrance was carried by the wind into the examiner's room located high up.

Yao Ye took a deep breath and couldn't help but exclaimed: "This aroma is really wonderful. It is not only the smell of seasoning, but also the perfect blend of seasoning and chicken. The first thing you smell is the aroma of seasoning, but it quickly turns into the rich aroma of chicken. The delicious taste of chicken is displayed by the ratio of seasonings. It is really wonderful."

Lei Hua also nodded repeatedly. This was the unique skill of the chef of Feihuang Tower, but it had not been seen in many years.

Moreover, Jiang Cheng is very skilled and has obviously inherited this unique skill perfectly.

The combination of exquisite seasoning ratios and the excellent quality of Hakuho will surely create a wonderful taste.

It seems that Jiang Cheng also has a great chance of winning.

Seeing the two people's surprised faces, Hongze said: "Don't forget, the theme this time is 'Exquisite Taste', Jiang Cheng's dishes need to show his originality."

The joy on Lei Hua and Yao Ye's faces faded, and their expressions became solemn again.

It’s true that Jiang Cheng’s techniques and ingredients were inherited from Feihuanglou, and did not reflect his own originality.

Jiang Cheng also realized this.

The taste of the chicken in the mouth is extremely wonderful. The unique aroma of chicken is filled between the lips and teeth as soon as it enters. The unique aroma of Bai Feng is completely stimulated at this moment.

It can be said that this is the most delicious chicken dish Jiang Cheng has ever eaten.

However, this is not enough, far from enough.

Even without mentioning the originality, the taste of the food alone is not enough.

After all, such deliciousness alone cannot compete with black-bone chicken.

Jiang Cheng didn't know what black-bone chicken tasted like, but it must be a legendary delicacy that exceeded people's imagination.

The dish in front of him was extremely delicious, fully displaying the flavor of chicken, but the taste was not beyond imagination.

How can anything that does not transcend imagination compete with legend?

Just when Jiang Cheng was worried about originality, Li Weiran from Taoranju was ahead of him.

Taoranju has always been pursuing excellence and has never given up its desire for originality.

In order to pursue a more extreme taste beyond exquisiteness, the only way is to subvert the previous practices.

The quality of the chickens Li Weiran selected is the best in Guangzhou, but it is obviously far inferior to the Baifeng from Feihuanglou.

And he has his own way.

Since it lacks in taste, let’s compare it in terms of craftsmanship and originality.

When it comes to skills, Li Weiran is not inferior to anyone.

One of the famous dishes at Taoranju is a chicken dish called Huadiao Chicken. In short, it is to stew chicken with Huadiao wine. The aroma of Huadiao and the flavor of chicken are integrated into one. The chicken is smooth and tender while also having the mellow aroma of Huadiao wine. The sweetness and depth burst in the mouth at the same time, and the taste is wonderful and indescribable. Li Weiran plans to add other ingredients on the basis of Huadiao and chicken to make the taste of Huadiao Chicken more intense.

First of all, he did not choose ordinary Huadiao wine, but aged rice wine that had been stored in the cellar for decades.

Fermented things, such as wine, soy sauce and tea, will become more and more flavorful and charming as they are stored well.

Take wine for example. Newly brewed wine usually has a strong spicy taste, a rough taste and a lack of aroma. During the storage process, the various components in the wine are constantly blending with each other, slowly undergoing complex changes. In the process of blending various components, various aromas are synthesized, and the taste of the wine becomes more mellow and soft. The strong spicy feeling gradually dissipates, and what is left is a mouthful of mellow fragrance, so soft that people don't realize it is wine.

Wine that has been stored for more than ten years and newly brewed wine are like two completely different varieties.

As soon as the lid of the rice wine, which has been stored in the cellar for more than decades, is opened, its rich aroma instantly covers up the previous aroma of the chicken.

Yao Ye, who loves wine, couldn't help but take a deep breath. After slowly exhaling, he couldn't help but sigh: "What a good wine! The aroma is rich, mellow but not irritating, and soft like water. Such good wine is not easy to buy on the market!"

Hongze nodded and said, "It's good wine, but it's not appropriate to use it here. The aroma of wine is so strong that you can smell it from such a distance. If it is cooked with chicken at the same time, the aroma of chicken will be completely covered by the aroma of wine. Therefore, Huadiao chicken is generally not made with wine that is too old. Instead, the aroma of newly brewed wine is just right, which can blend with the taste of chicken and set off each other without completely covering it."

Yao Ye looked at Li Weiran and said, "Since he specifically chose rice wine that has been stored for decades, he must have his own considerations."

Just as Hongze and Yao Ye said, Li Weiran specially selected rice wine that had been stored in the cellar for decades, and naturally took the aroma of the wine into consideration.

In order to compete with the strong aroma of wine, he needed to use other ingredients to enhance the aroma of the chicken.

Li Weiran went to the pond, fished out fresh seafood, and then went to the meat area to select various meats.

Yao Ye looked carefully and said, "The area over there should be cuttlefish and river clams. The meat is pork and goose meat. This... he wants to stew these with the chicken? Wouldn't that cover up the taste of the chicken?"

"That's not necessarily the case."

After Li Weiran selected the ingredients, he cleaned them all, then cut the cuttlefish into small pieces and threw them into the pot together with the clams to boil.

The pork used was a suckling pig. He stuffed goose into the pig's belly, stuffed chicken into the goose's belly, and then roasted the suckling pig over the fire.

Yao Ye said in amazement: "Are they going to use the roast suckling pig method to blend the flavors of the three kinds of meat into one?"

Hong Ze nodded and said, "It seems so. In order to enhance the aroma of the chicken, it needs to be enhanced with other different flavors. Jiang Cheng chose seasonings, while Li Weiran blended the fat of the meat into the chicken layer by layer."

Yao Ye said with emotion: "This approach is really peculiar."

Hongze said: "In terms of originality, it is indeed qualified. However, it will take a lot of effort to adjust the final taste. The three different meat flavors need to be completely integrated, and the chicken must be the main flavor and cannot be covered up. The control of the heat and the cooking time require constant experimentation."

As Hongze said, Li Weiran's first attempt ended in failure.

The chicken is stuffed inside, so it is difficult to know how it is roasted. Whether the fat has completely penetrated and fully integrated with the flavor of the chicken requires many attempts to get a result.

Li Weiran took a deep breath. It turned out that innovation was not such an easy thing.

However, failure is common in the pursuit of perfection.

Li Weiran has seen this many times since he started learning his craft: the chef whom he regarded as his goal and role model was struggling to find the ultimate delicacy after repeated failures.

Since that person is now just a useless drunkard, let him carry the banner and move towards the ultimate taste through constant failures and attempts.

(End of this chapter)