Tang Zhihun's character is indeed excellent. The culinary profession is highly insular, with few willing to mentor newcomers.
They would rather keep their knowledge to themselves for a lifetime.
Wishing all their peers would perish.
Zhang Wei had been deliberately made difficult many times in the past and detested such people.
"As an apprentice, you're a nobody; once you've learned, you're still a nobody."
This was Zhang Wei's assessment of the entire industry during his apprenticeship.
According to their design, you should ideally never finish learning, working as a head chef in the back kitchen while earning the salary of a menial laborer.
"Judging solely by character, Tang Zhihun is worthy of being taught."
"He has also begged me for half a year; his sincerity is definitely sufficient."
Learning is something that requires sincerity and a certain price to pay.
Knowledge acquired too easily will not be respected.
Leaving the high-level kitchen, Zhang Wei took out animal hide and pigments and wrote down some theories on them.
What Zhang Wei was most proud of was his theory on ingredient pairing, which transcended this world.
Perhaps due to the abundance of food resources, this world's development of food was very superficial, only pursuing high-level ingredients rather than starting from the subtle details.
In a way, it was like Western cuisine in his previous life.
It focused on highlighting the freshness and flavor of the ingredients themselves, emphasizing knife skills, plating, and so on.
Whereas Zhang Wei and other Eastern chefs paid more attention to the balance between seasonings and ingredients, using different flavor combinations to create compound flavors, elevating deliciousness to an extremely high level.
Fearing Tang Zhihun might not understand, Zhang Wei also provided specific examples and several recipes.
If perfected, the taste would far surpass the Lingxi Five禽 Soup!
And the ingredients used were only ordinary ingredients of levels three to five.
"I'll teach him this much for now; he can't absorb too much anyway."
"If he can learn what's on here, Tang Zhihun's culinary skills will improve by at least one level."
...
...
Returning from the kitchen, Tang Zhihun's face bore a tired expression.
"Sigh... no progress at all. No matter how many times I repeat it, the taste doesn't improve in the slightest."
"Perhaps I should try different seasonings, or maybe freshly squeezed orange juice isn't suitable..."
"Perhaps, I should try giving up."
Tang Zhihun was under immense pressure. If he had results, it would be fine, but if he ranked last in the Northern Chef Banquet, both the organization and he himself would suffer significant losses.
Yet, the competitors were all top chefs, each with their own signature dishes, making a mishap highly probable.
To avoid a mishap, one would have to be lucky enough to draw a soup competition every time, which was clearly impossible.
"Nothing is difficult in this world, as long as one is willing to give up! Maybe I should just..."
Recalling the president's earnest expression, Tang Zhihun's mouth twitched.
Sometimes, refusing others was damn difficult.
"President, you don't understand me; I really can't do it!"
Slumped in his room, he worried in private. Although he knew worrying was useless, practicing in the kitchen was equally futile.
Tang Zhihun felt he had reached a dead end.
He went to the bookshelf to look for illustrations of rare ingredients. Changing his mind might make him feel a little better.
"What is this?"
On the bookshelf, a thick roll of animal hide lay at the very top, out of place among the paper books and periodicals.
He lifted the animal hide, revealing neat, dense small characters.
Below were many food illustrations that looked appetizing just by looking at them.
Tang Zhihun read line after line.
His narrowed eyes widened continuously, and by the end, they almost bulged out!
"This is... this is..."
"The reply from some mysterious master!"
"After half a year, I finally have a reply!"
Tang Zhihun's hands trembled slightly. Those who hadn't been at death's door couldn't understand this feeling!
The future of the entire association rested on his shoulders; he didn't know how many white hairs he had grown in the past few days.
Pushing aside all distractions, Tang Zhihun became more and more shocked as he read.
What was written on the scroll was almost heretical and extremely exaggerated.
"Using level five ingredients to achieve a taste superior to level fifteen ingredients?"
"How is this possible? The inherent quality of taste is already predetermined."
"And this 'Thirteen Spices,' I've never heard of it. It requires such a complex combination of spices. With so many flavors, which one should be emphasized?"
The more Tang Zhihun thought about it, the more he felt something was amiss, yet it also made perfect sense.
"No, I have to try it!"
Although he was exhausted from a whole day's work, Tang Zhihun had no sleepiness and plunged into the kitchen, turning on all the stoves.
Zhang Wei passed by the door and nodded slightly.
"His diligence is commendable."
Zhang Wei had never slacked off on these days of late-night effort.
Even with the Treasury Hall at his disposal, he had never relaxed for a single day.
Inside the kitchen, Tang Zhihun continuously let out exclamations.
"The taste... it really improved!"
"So the ratio needs to change based on the ingredients..."
"High-quality ingredients have more subtle variations, but only by grasping these subtleties can one reach a higher realm!"
Tang Zhihun was so excited that tears welled up.
The pressure of so many days suddenly lifted, causing the honest chef to collapse onto the floor.
...
...
The Treasury Hall.
Ever since Mo Du left, it felt like something was missing.
When he was bored, Zhang Wei often went to the side hall to tease her.
"I've gathered enough ingredients; I can try the fourth version of the clear broth."
Flames rose beneath the bronze cauldron, and the cooking utensils beside it were of giant size.
The bronze cauldron series had nine types of broth.
They were Golden Broth, Milk Broth, Clear Broth, Liqueur Broth, Vegetarian Broth, Stock Broth, Medicinal Broth, Dragon Phoenix Broth, and Second Broth.
Among these, Stock Broth and Vegetarian Broth had reached perfection due to the ample supply of ingredients. Zhang Wei was currently working on Clear Broth.
As the most understated and profound among the nine broths, Clear Broth was frighteningly difficult.
It required not only high-quality ingredients but also an absence of ostentatious extravagance. The taste should be serene and far-reaching, with a unified essence.
For nutritional value, Zhang Wei chose the eggs of an abyssal serpent. The egg whites could purify impurities in the broth, and the egg yolks, when powdered, could adjust the flavor.
For flavor, he added Ice Cliff Snow Lotus and some herbaceous plants.
The meat choices were chicken carcasses and lean meat, strictly avoiding greasiness. Even legumes with high oil content were excluded.
In addition to the egg whites, meat paste, ginger, and garlic needed to be wrapped in gauze... and placed in the bronze cauldron to absorb impurities.
This step was called "clarifying the broth," and some high-end dishes required it to be done twice.
Zhang Wei's Clear Broth would eventually undergo the Art of Refined Cooking. If there were any impurities in the broth, the original flavor of the Clear Broth would be severely affected.
While a thick-flavored Golden Broth wouldn't care about this, such an impact in Clear Broth was extremely fatal.
Time was up.
"The selection of ingredients this time was extremely meticulous, with three main ingredients replaced and four ingredients eliminated."
"In addition to those gathered in the wild, more main ingredients were provided by the Great Glacier."
"I hope this time it will be successful!"