Seeing the lovers smiling and teasing each other filled Mo Lihui with such bitterness and hatred. Meanwhile, her brother wanted to puke blood. How could she just put their restaurant at stake without listening to him?
The only thing he could do right now was to make sure that Mo Lihui wouldn’t lose, but he had a bad feeling about this. Lu Xinyi must have easily agreed to his sister’s challenge because she had a hidden card to use against them.
Lu Xinyi met her gaze as if she was expecting Mo Lihui to spy on her and Shen Yi.
“I have to disappoint you this time, Mo Lihui.” For the first time, Lu Xinyi called her in full name. “As much as I like competition, this would be a massacre on your part.”
“Hmp, you can get all the confidence you needed, Lu Xinyi. When the time comes, you’ll regret going against me!”
Mo Lihui gritted her teeth. She couldn’t understand why Lu Xinyi was confident. Did she think she was better than her?
Even so, she couldn’t be defeated by Lu Xinyi. She couldn’t afford to lose today. This time, she decided to serve her best dish, the one she came up earlier.
Mo Liwei shook his head and smiled bitterly to himself. He really had a bad feeling about this. He knew his sister was wrong, but as her brother, he couldn’t just let her lose.
Seven restaurants participated this year, but only Blue Haven and Grace Palace got the attention of the crowd. Their owners had decided to up their game and put up the bets. Preparing and cooking fifty servings of three different dishes under three hours could be stressful and challenging for inexperienced chefs and cooks, but Lu Xinyi and Mo Lihui had already planned ahead of time.
The first ring of the bell indicated that the competition officially started. Shen Yi moved to the right side of Lu Xinyi and started the prep for the three dumpling dishes to be served.
He might not be familiar with working on the kitchen, but his experience in organization and preparation exceeded Lu Xinyi’s expectation. There were no mishaps. Shen Yi provided each ingredient his wife listed down and—with the help of Yang Jian—found the best quality they could manage in a short time.
Aside from the dishes, Lu Xinyi asked for a special kind of knife she preferred to use, and it took some time for Yang Jian to obtain such a knife. Lu Xinyi picked up the knife lying on her countertop and pulled it out from its sheath.
“This is such a wonderful knife, darling.” Lu Xinyi said softly to her husband who had started moving the ingredients she needed for making the wrappers. She then put the knife down.
Although the knife looked normal, its blade was black. Seeing that Lu Xinyi approved the knife, Shen Yi felt very pleased. It wasn’t every day that his wife asks for a favor, and he wouldn’t want to fail her.
Just like the rest of the participants, Shen Yi and Lu Xinyi decided to use the first two hours to prepare the wrappers and fillings to be used on three different dumplings. The dishes would then be cooked one after another.
With Shen Yi’s help, Lu Xinyi was able to knead the dough with ease, surprising the audience and the judges with her kneading techniques. It was like she was performing an act in front of them; making dumpling wrappers from scratch looked less daunting and difficult thanks to her.
The first hour of the cooking time was spent on kneading the dough while Shen Yi meticulously cut the ingredients according to his wife’s direction. Once in a while, he took time to watch Lu Xinyi create magic on the dough using with her bare hands.
She made several batches for three dishes. Each had different consistency and texture from the other. In the end, Lu Xinyi was able to produce wonton wrappers, bun wrappers, and the dough for her meat pie.
“Dear, can you please pass the rolling pin?” She asked Shen Yi without breaking her attention to the dough that was still on her hands.
“Here.” Shen Yi replied, giving her the utensil she needed.
Without further ado, Lu Xinyi worked and flattened the dough at her countertop and took a sharp knife from her right and started cutting it in equal measurement. Once she was done, she took the cut dough and set it aside. It was then the audience realized that Lu Xinyi had also prepared her noodles from scratch.
“Are you sure it will be fine?” Shen Yi inquired. He remembered the last time Lu Xinyi made a noodle dish. Wasn’t it the noodle dish that almost made her fail Silver Leaf’s entrance exam?
On the second hour, the pavilion was suddenly filled with the scent of herbs and spices as the chefs started to move on with their fillings. Each chef and their sous chef worked silently and in sync. Shen Yi was able to move with efficacy, not paying attention to the pressure that was slowly building up as the time passed by.
By the last hour, the chefs were assembling their dumplings and cooking them immediately. As soon as they could serve the dishes as it was cooked, the better.
Dumplings were considered a staple on this town and the neighboring regions. They were good alternatives to rice and noodle dishes. Some even claimed that dumplings were their comfort food, and such dishes were highly sought out not only by the locals but also by tourists from other provinces and abroad.
Fifteen minutes before the time comes up, Lu Xinyi lifted a hand in the air to get the judges’ attention. The husband and wife tandem was the first one to serve their entries.