The Heartbeat at the Tip of the Tongue

Word count: 1966

Viktor’s mistake

That was the contestant from Canada. 

On the screen, the judges were arranging their napkins on their chests, already ready to taste the first dish. 

That was a mini Italian pizza dumpling. On the surface, it looked fried to a golden brown, the small crescent, looked very exquisite, the sauce at the base of the plate looked very well proportioned. 

“En……” editor Winston nodded his head, like he was full of anticipation, when he used a knife to cut the dumpling open, he gave a sigh, “on average, only a little oil is needed to fry the pizza dumpling. Even though it’s ‘a little’, there still needs to be an appropriate amount. When cutting the dumpling open, the skin wasn’t crispy enough, this will greatly affect the taste.” 

The pizza dumpling only got 5 points. This wasn’t a great start. 

The Canadian contestant grabbed his forehead with his hand, and gave a forceful sigh, only being able to put his hopes on his main dish of Italian beef ham roll. 

The presentation of the main dish was pretty good, it’s only a pity that in a rush, the veal didn’t receive enough of a pounding and the flavours could not sink in. the comments weren’t great, only 6 points. 

At this time, no matter how good the dessert was, there was no chance of a recovering the gap, and the judges had already lost interest. 

The fruit flesh in the passion fruit mousse wasn’t stewed to sufficient thickness, the taste was disappointing. 

The final score the Canadian contestant got was only 5.8 points.  

This made the audience hum, and gave the other contestants on set lingering fear right into the palms of their hands, and start to worry about whether the preparations they had made before were sufficient. 

“All the ingredients have to be prepared meticulously, and precision takes time.” Jiang Qian Fan said. 

“Yes, Sir. So I’m very pleased, because according to Lin Ke Song’s current state, everything that she is doing is done meticulously, everything is in her control.” 

At this time, Lin Ke Song was peeling the apples. Her actions were very quick, she was using the fruit knife and not the blade for peeling. The fruit peel twirled down in rounds, without a slight trace of breaking off. 

All of the audience was attracted. Uncle Lin asked Song Yi Ran who was beside him: “What are they curious about? That’s the way we all peel fruits!” 

Lin Ke Song pretty much only needed 10 plus seconds to finish peeling an apple, then juice it. 

Even if it were a fully juiced apple, she didn’t forget to make sure of its taste. 

“Is she going to give the judges apple juice? What’s the point in that?” Lin Xiao Xue was nervous at that point of time, because she could see that there were contestants who were done with the competition already, “What the judges want is an appetiser, a main dish and a dessert, nothing to do with drinks at all ah!” 

“Don’t be agitated. The pulp can be used to make dessert, and the juice can be used to make the seasoning.” Song Yi Ran explained while laughing at Lin Xiao Xue. 

“Is that so ah……” Lin Xiao Xue had never thought that fruits could be used to season things. 

The Mexican contestant’s food was sent to the front of the judges. 

His appetiser was Cabbacio raw beef. When the judges saw the appetiser, they guessed who his mentor was. 

“Oh…… I really wonder if this raw beef would have the standard of Chef Morris’?” Winston’s expression was full of anticipation. 

But this raw beef dish only received a score of 7 points. 

“the Italian vinaigrette should have been simmered over a small fire to a syrup, but it’s obvious that you were rushing for results, the fire was too great. Even though the sauce was cooked faster than normal, it has lost its rich flavour.” 

His main dish and dessert too, had pretty much the same scoring as the appetiser. 

After that, there were a few contestants who’d also finished the competition, but all their scores didn’t go past 7.5 points. 

The audience started murmuring again. They all thought that the dishes had pretty presentations, that whetted people’s appetites, but the scores that the judges gave all weren’t high, was it because it was a competition, so they were harsher than before? 

“It’s not because they are too harsh, but the contestants are hurried…… for many things, the heat wasn’t enough, too many mistakes were made on the details.” 

Uncle Lin exhaled a breath. Looking at Lin Ke Song who was currently stir-frying the sauce, he suddenly felt greatly at peace. 

It looked like at least up to now, these mistakes won’t be happening on Lin Ke Song. 

At this time, Viktor raised his hand up, to announce that he was done with his own cooking. 

The cameraman panned the view to Viktor’s food. The appetiser looked intricate and beautiful, the colour of the main dish, the chicken cooked by the beam method made people covet it, the dessert was Italian sorbet, but it was a little different from the average sorbet. Everything was so perfect it was like the dishes of a 3 starred Michelin restaurant. 

Lin Ke Song continued busying like she hadn’t heard anything. 

And in the hearts of each of the audience, this competition had arrived at its climax. 

Viktor lifted the sides of his lips in confidence, and let everyone in the audience believe that he will be giving the judges the best experience. 

This was a dish of Mediterranean basil tomatoes. Every tomato that was only slightly bigger than the thumb had had the pulp in the middle removed, then stuffed with stuffing. 

Winston inhaled a breath, used a spoon to carefully scoop up a tomato, and sent it into his mouth, the ends of his lips revealing a smile: “After having my taste buds go through such long devastating periods, I have finally been saved. Even though I don’t know who this contestant is, I know that their mentor is head chef Jessica Quentin, the evergreen tree in the fine dining industry. This is an appetiser that is very refreshing, soft and full of surprise. The amount of garlic is just right, letting the aroma of the basil come through, the tomato sauce wasn’t overcooked to tartness, and on the contrary, totally brings out the freshness of the parmesan cheese and the little sweet shrimp. Without a doubt, this is the work of a great chef.” 

Viktor’s appetiser got a high score of 9.6 points, his eyes carried a confident and proud smile. 

The colour of the main dish of beam cooked chicken was so light, almost to the point of whiteness, the transparent sauce slowly flowing on the surface was like a stream, and with only a whiff of the fragrance, the judges were already starting to swallow their saliva. 

“The main point of this dish is in the tartification of the cream sauce, the fire used for the meat and the freshness of the liver stuffed inside the chicken meat. Any little mistake will make this dish lose its flavour.” Winston lifted his fork and knife to cut open the muscle, everyone was in anticipation, as he brought the chicken meat to eh camera, to let everyone see the insides of this dish clearly, the liver didn’t have any signs of greyness to indicate that it was overcooked, on the contrary, it looked very smooth and tender. 

“But, it looks like, this contestant hasn’t made any mistake.” Winston smiled as he cut a piece, and sent it into his mouth, “En —— the chicken bones were remover very meticulously, there is no texture of the meat being cut. The celery and onion did not snatch the spotlight from the lemongrass and cumin, instead they added layers of flavour to this dish. The most most important thing is the slight curry flavour from the liver that is left jumping on the tongue, like mischievous little fish in a quiet and peaceful lake. This is incredible…… incredible……” 

Because this dish was so flavourful, some of the judges could not help themselves and ate half of the dish. For the sake of allowing the judges to continue, the staff on site couldn’t not give reminders. This attractiveness, didn’t even appear in the previous competitors. 

Viktor’s main dish got a high score of 9.7 points. 

Mayer who was in the audience let out a sigh: “it looks like, it’s almost impossible for Ke Song to win him. Even if his dessert has a mess up, his score will still be over 9 points.” 

“Forget the past competition, whatever that’s happening now is the most important.” Jiang Qian Fan tilted his face slightly, “Tell me, what does she look like now?” 

“”She’s just reached the fridge, and taken out a bowl of peas and shrimp jelly. It looks like the shrimp jelly has taken shape, the colour and transparency is similar to the one that Mr Jiang made. Oh, she is cutting the shrimp jelly apart, it looks very bouncy…… I believe her appetiser was made successfully!” 

“But of course. She’s always liked to eat that dish. So she remembers that dish’s texture and flavour, as long as they are remembered by her, she will definitely be able to reproduce.” 

Mayer nodded, and continued watching the competition. 

The judges had already started tasting Viktor’s dessert. It was matcha opera cake. 

Even though this was only an average cake, people in the fine dining industry knew, Jessica Quentin’s matcha opera cake was one of a kind. Cake that was fluffy yet bouncy, soft buttercream, the light freshness of matcha and the richness of the chocolate sauce, these all came together to make a delightful taste at the tip of a person’s tongue. 

Winston took the first bite, and exclaimed: “As expected, no matter if it were the tongue or the teeth, they are all able to feel the bounciness and softness of the cake embryo…… I really want to know what the secret is to create this result!” 

Even after he slowly swallowed the cake, he still had his eyes closed to deeply relive the taste. 

Then Winston gave a sigh: “Everything is close to perfection, but there is an extremely minute flaw……” 

The audience all stretched their necks, really wanting to know what this flaw was. 

“I know that this competition gives the competitors a lot of pressure. Everyone has to do a few things at the same time. Hands cutting ingredients, while keeping an eye on 2 or 3 pots cooking, everything is done busily. But it’s just that the appetiser and main dish were so perfect, I couldn’t help but harshly expect that the dessert would become a wonderful memory. It is expected ot use vanilla beans and white sugar to make a sweet syrup. I’m guessing, at the first round of simmering the sugar water, the pot was close to drying up, this contestant couldn’t help but add more water, and fish out the vanilla beans to save it. But…… even though the slightly burnt taste was covered well in the 2nd layer of the cake…… my sense of taste is not like an average persons’……” 

Viktor gripped his fist tightly. 

He had already carefully made adjustments for this mistake, but he didn’t think that Winston would be able to taste it. 

As expected…… when facing Winston, one shouldn’t take any chances…… 

Winston lifted his hand to look at his watch, and said regretfully: “Actually, this contestant had the time to remake the sugar syrup, but I understand that once a step is messed up, it is possible to mess up what was once easily done…… but this syrup was too important to this dessert……”