CHAPTER 790: CHAPTER 789: THE NAME OF THE PERSON (PART 2)

"A thousand contestants, a thousand cooking stations."

With a thousand people competing on the same stage, the scene was spectacular, ringed by a heavy crowd that, without the broadcasting screens set up around, could hardly encompass the whole situation of Zone A.

Xia Yu, seemingly pushed onto the stage like a duck on a perch, was almost late and caught many glances. However, these glances quickly shifted as three judges arrived and cheers echoed through the city skies.

The panel of judges consisted of two men and a woman.

Among the men, one had a receding hairline and was middle-aged and bald, and the other appeared to be some renowned chef and gourmet. When he waved at the camera, Zone A erupted in cheers so loud, the ground seemed to shake.

Strangely though, it was the young and beautiful woman in the middle, the chief judge of Zone A, who drew the most attention. Under the sun, she wore large sunglasses, her delicate features becoming evident as the camera moved to her and she timely took off her glasses to wave, igniting an even more enthusiastic and intense roar, like a physical wave of sound sweeping in all directions.

Even if Xia Yu didn’t know who she was, when the cheers hit him, goosebumps covered his skin.

"This feeling..."

Xia Yu slightly closed his eyes.

How to put it.

A factor known as ’blood boiling’ was fermenting inside him.

A true man should be like this, one call to the stage and hundreds respond.

When he opened his eyes again, Xia Yu cast aside his initial contempt for this celebrity gathering and thought to himself, "Since I’m here, I might as well go through with it, mustn’t let my Xia Family’s reputation crumble!"

Looking around at the cooking stations nearby and seeing those young faces.

Beside him, a young man and woman whispered excitedly:

"It’s Xu Liuyue!" the young female chef said with obvious starstruck admiration, "I heard her lead role in the gourmet drama ’Royal Chef’ second part has just finished shooting. The first part was a massive hit and solidified her top-tier status in the entertainment industry!"

And a young man about Xia Yu’s age was so nervous his hands clenched into fists, his palms full of sweat, "It’s Mr. Xu!"

From this spontaneous title, it was clear that this female celebrity was not just a pretty face, but a skilled chef with genuine culinary talent.

"Xu Liuyue!"

Meanwhile, many gazes from outside the venue focused on Zone A.

After all, the thousand-person audition in Zone A was the opening battle of this New Year’s competition, and it rightly commanded much attention.

Competition headquarters.

Wei Qinglian stood in her office, arms crossed in front of the broadcasting screen.

The scene was exactly that of Xu Liuyue taking off her sunglasses and waving. Seeing this, a trace of surprise flashed in Wei Qinglian’s eyes, "I didn’t expect her to randomly end up in Zone A."

Concerning the lineup of judges, due to reasons of privacy and fairness, everything was arranged randomly. Wei Qinglian and the executives of White Jade Tower, even if they wanted to suppress Xia Yu, wouldn’t stoop to play foul in appointing the judges.

This culinary confrontation, crucial to the honor of the younger generation, was expected by the high-level officials of White Jade Tower to be just, transparent, and unquestioned.

"Ha—"

Below the stage, Zhu Qing couldn’t help but giggle, with Zhou Hu and Zhou Li, the brothers, standing behind her. These two were assigned to Zone F Group D, and their turn in the afternoon was for the thousand-person audition.

"The chief judge is a beautiful star, Yu, you really need to perform well and captivate her from the very first bite among millions!" Zhu Qing, oblivious to those around her, shouted towards the stage.

Consequently, a plethora of strange glances shot their way.

Zhu Qing, wearing a mask, yawned unconsciously, "I’m cheering for our own, what’s it to you? Look what?" she continued shouting after she finished.

On stage, Xia Yu was sweating profusely, wishing he could turn around and yell back: Can we keep a lower profile, please?

In a corner of the large conference venue, a camera hastily captured this scene, yet when it showed on the broadcast screen, it only lasted for a second or two.

Yet, someone noticed that brief footage.

"This Zhu Qing is truly mad!"

Wei Qinglian opened her mouth in disbelief.

"Ah!"

In the Tang’s Dragon Town Restaurant lobby, still at the second-floor windowsill, Wu Yingying, Tang Yuqiong, and many other guests were watching the broadcast screen. Tang Yuqiong was on the phone and didn’t notice the change in the screen; Wu Yingying, however, suddenly covered her mouth and widened her beautiful eyes, "It seems I really wasn’t seeing things!"

The introduction of examiners segment was rather important.

Xia Yu, however, didn’t listen to a single word, ignoring the sweet voice of the female emcee, and surveyed his own cooking station.

There were no personal signature kitchen utensils provided; the ingredients and tools used in the preliminary selection were all supplied by the officials, and the more people there were, the more emphasis was placed on fairness, which Xia Yu silently praised.

"Alright!"

At this point, the process finally moved to the topic stage. The emcee handed a topic scroll to the central female chief examiner, Xu Liuyue, and the celebrity beauty with extensive event attendance experience smiled at the camera, "Let’s reveal the topic of this opening battle together—"

She then gave a flick of her hand.

Whoosh!

The scroll unfurled completely, and the sound of Xu Liuyue and the densely packed crowd reading the topic formed a huge torrent overhead the conference venue filled with thousands:

"Noodles!"

"Granular noodles!"

Without waiting for any reaction from the thousand elite attendees, the female emcee smiled at the camera, displaying the ingredient in her hand. Her fair hand reached into a small clay pot, grabbed a handful of milky granules that looked like rice grains, raised her hand to mid-air and suddenly released, so that the milky granules fell back into the pot like rain in close-up, making a pleasing sound, "This is the designated ingredient for this round of thousand-person preliminary selection, everyone let your creativity shine!"

The female emcee’s voice carried a strong infectious quality.

However, the venue fell silent, and even the packed crowd had bewildered expressions, and the atmosphere suddenly froze.

"Granular noodles?"

"Holy shit, could there have been a mistake? Are there such granules in noodles? It looks more like pearl rice. Officials should quickly change the topic to ’rice’ and let it be decided with that!"

"I know about granular noodles, but..."

On the stage, out of a thousand young elites, only a dozen immediately started moving upon the announcement of the topic. Over ninety percent of the chefs stood astonishment at their stations, at a loss on how to use "granular noodles," a very unfamiliar main ingredient, to concoct spices, side dishes, and other materials into a makeshift recipe for the preliminaries.

Xia Yu was not among the dozen moving. As the camera swept over him, it directly locked onto the busy group of young men and women, making them naturally the focal point, the protagonists in the viewers’ eyes.

"Granular noodles!"

Upon learning the preliminary topic for the first time, Xia Yu, much like most of his peers on site, was astonished.

But unlike others, in Xia Yu’s astonishment, there was also a bit of amusement.

Why is that?

Although he had never personally cooked any dish with "granular noodles" as the main ingredient, Xia Yu understood this particular nutritious noodle; his brain didn’t crash, nor was he at a loss.

"Granular noodles, also known as ’grain noodles’ or ’pearl noodles’, in some sense are a type of infant and toddler noodle supplement. Utilizing the latest food processing technology, they are highly reputed in both process and nutrition and have been gaining popularity around the world in recent years..."

Xia Yu’s murmurings coincided almost at the exact same moment with Zhu Qing below.

Zhu Qing, without minding the two tall guys behind her, pinched her fair chin and stealthily chuckled to herself: "The trend!"