The bald man behind the girl chuckled, "Miss, that guy is just courting popularity. There are hardly a few people in the whole of Huaxia who can surpass Miss's cooking skills."

"That's not necessarily true, I actually think this Lin Chen is a very tough opponent, but I like it. It makes the competition interesting!" The girl's gaze fixed on Lin Chen, a cold smile appearing at the corner of her mouth.

Meanwhile, the preliminary round of the cooking contest had officially begun, with a total of one hundred and twenty-eight contestants participating. Each of them had to make a bowl of egg fried rice within ten minutes.

As the contestants began to fry rice, a rich fragrance filled the venue.

"Lin Chen's knife skills are outstanding, I wonder how the dish he makes will turn out?" A judge watched Lin Chen, who was frying rice, with anticipation in their eyes.

"Psh, that guy's just good for some tricks, an amateur contestant can't make any delicious food." Zhang Jin scoffed dismissively.

Zhang Xu was the sole heir of their Zhang family. This time, he had wanted to use the cooking contest to make Zhang Xu famous and get him into a five-star hotel, but he never expected that Lin Chen would mess up this plan.

Zhang Jin despised Lin Chen to the point that his teeth itched and naturally hoped that Lin Chen would be eliminated in the first round.

Almost everyone has had egg fried rice, but there's a lot of skill involved. A qualified egg fried rice not only needs separate rice grains, each grain should be evenly coated with oil, and the egg should be evenly distributed in every corner of the rice.

It's easy to talk about but very difficult to achieve, and every contestant started making egg fried rice using all their culinary skills.

"Look at what that guy is doing!"

All eyes were on Lin Chen as he heated oil in a wok, then cracked eggs into it, and added rice. These steps were no different from the others, but when he began to fry the rice, everyone was stunned.

The oil, rice, and eggs in the wok swirled around Lin Chen's shovel like a whirlwind.

The whirlwind spun faster and faster, starting as a white whirlwind, but by the end, it had turned golden.

Watching Lin Chen making fried rice, not only the judges but also the audience were astonished.

Even some contestants were so captivated by watching Lin Chen that they forgot about their rice, which burned and ended up getting them eliminated.

Ten minutes had passed, and the egg fried rice from all the contestants was placed before the judges in turn.

There were one hundred and twenty portions of egg fried rice, all varying in color and taste, but among them, there was one bowl of egg fried rice that stood out from the rest.

This egg fried rice was golden, each grain wrapped in gold, with an aroma that was tantalizing.

The judges had already noticed Lin Chen while he was frying the rice, so as soon as the dish was served, several judges couldn't help but gather around it.

"My God, this is simply the work of a master."

"This color, this flavor, it's simply the best of the best in egg fried rice."

A judge couldn't help but take a bite and was immediately conquered by the taste.

"Delicious."

As he spoke, he couldn't resist taking another bite.

At this moment, another judge beside him couldn't help himself, "Hey, leave some for me."

The judges, without caring about their image, took turns spooning the rice. Just like that, a bowl of egg fried rice was quickly devoured by a few judges.

Even Zhang Jin couldn't resist the tempting aroma and took a spoonful of the fried rice to taste.

"This egg fried rice is too supreme."

As he ate the egg fried rice made by Lin Chen, Zhang Jin's expression became somewhat unnatural. Wasn't this guy an amateur? How could he cook such delicious egg fried rice?

"President Zhang, have you ever heard a saying? 'True masters are found among the common folk!'" Sun Li teased from the side.

"Yes, yes, Consultant Sun is right," Zhang Jin had to nod in agreement.

Although Zhang Jin was reluctant to admit it, he had truly been conquered by the egg fried rice Lin Chen made.

In the end, Lin Chen achieved full marks and secured the top position in the preliminary round, entering the next stage.

"Bro Chen, you're awesome! You didn't see the look on the judges' faces when they tried your egg fried rice just now—they were absolutely intoxicated by it," Li Fei ran over excitedly.

"You're exaggerating a bit, aren't you? By the way, did you make it through the competition?" Lin Chen asked.

"Of course, I made it through." Li Fei proudly shook the number plate for the next round of the competition.

"Not bad, let's both keep it up and strive to get into the finals together," Lin Chen patted Li Fei's shoulder.

"Ah, I wanted to be first place, but it seems I can only settle for second now," Li Fei sighed.

At that moment, Sun Li came over: "Xiao Chen, congratulations on making it to the next round."

Lin Chen smiled: "Thank you for the encouragement, Auntie!"

"By the way, when you're free, can you cook another bowl of egg fried rice for Auntie? The one just now was too delicious," Sun Li said somewhat sheepishly.

"Haha, why don't you come to our Little God Chef Private Kitchen? There'll be even tastier dishes for you!" Lin Chen laughed.

Sun Li's eyes lit up: "Really? Then I must go and taste it."

Although the chef had now been replaced by Zhao Xiaowen, due to Lin Chen's application of the 'Peach and Plum Blossom Everywhere' skill, the taste of the dishes was indistinguishable from Lin Chen's own cooking.

After saying goodbye to Sun Li and Li Fei, Lin Chen was just about to leave the venue when a young girl blocked his path.

"Handsome guy, I didn't expect someone as young as you to have such exquisite culinary skills. It's quite rare," the girl said with a charming smile, her beautiful eyes fixed on Lin Chen.

"Thank you for the compliment," Lin Chen said, unable to help staring at the girl in front of him a bit dazedly.

This girl was too pretty, like a porcelain doll finely crafted to perfection, making any man who glanced at her become deeply enchanted by her perfect appearance.

"I'm Anna, please take care of me in the future," the girl said politely, extending her hand.

"My name is Lin Chen." Lin Chen also nodded, taking the girl's delicate hand.

The girl gave Lin Chen a flirtatious smile: "I'll be waiting for you in the finals. Don't let me down."

"You're also participating in the cooking competition?" Lin Chen had always imagined chefs to be chubby with round faces and lots of fat, and this fragile-looking girl didn't seem to fit the mold of a chef at all.

"Yeah, I would definitely have been the champion before you came along. Of course, now that you're here, the finals will be much more fun, but I'm still going to be the champion," Anna said with a trace of arrogance, her smile lingering as she stared at Lin Chen.

"Alright, then I'll see you at the finals." The girl's arrogance ignited a competitive spirit in Lin Chen, eager to see what skills this porcelain doll had to be so confident.

Just after Lin Chen left, a man in black approached Anna.

"Miss, the Du father and son have already been taken care of, but the young man who was speaking with you was with them. Should we take care of him too?" the man in black whispered.

Anna, watching Lin Chen's retreating figure, let a subtle smile creep across her lips: "No need, such an interesting guy, I haven't had my fun with him yet."