Don's attitude was already quite humble, showing respect to Alan. Usually, they each managed their own areas and didn't give in to each other. Today, Don's attitude towards Alan seemed to imply that he had some opinions about the person who wanted to challenge him.
This made Alan curious, and he looked at Jake and said, "Do you really want to compete with me? While my skills may not be considered top-notch nationwide, they are definitely not lacking."
"I want to see how skilled you are, Alan," Jake said. Originally, Jake didn't want to compete, but for the sake of the 20,000 dollars, the competition had to take place.
"Fine, let's give it a try," Alan said.
At this point, the dishes in the private room were almost ready. Alan happened to have some free time. In his view, since Jake dared to propose a challenge, he should have some skills. Moreover, competing and exchanging ideas with others could also improve his own culinary skills. Giving face to Don was just an incidental matter.
Immediately, chefs cleared space for Jake and Alan. Alan also learned the rules of the competition from Don's mouth, and he had no objections. Alan began to work, taking out a piece of meat and started cutting. It must be said that Alan's knife skills were quite good. The meat was cut evenly, with the right balance of fat and lean portions.
At this moment, Jake hadn't decided what to make. After becoming a disciple of Nina, he had many recipes in his mind. So, Jake knew how to prepare various dishes. However, after seeing Alan's actions, he also took out a piece of pork belly and started cutting it.
With a casual glance, Alan noticed Jake's actions and felt a moment of surprise, followed by anger. Obviously, Jake was choosing to make the same dish, directly challenging him. When making different dishes, losing could be justified by differences in personal tastes, as one may prefer one dish over another. But when both made the same dish, there was no room for such excuses. This young man was so arrogant!
Alan turned his head away from Jake. Originally, he had considered going easy on Jake, but now seeing Jake's arrogant behavior, he decided to use all of his skills to teach Jake a lesson. The others had similar thoughts, understanding Jake's intentions. Their thoughts were similar to Alan's, thinking that Jake was too arrogant.
However, for Bill and Don, Jake's choice was ideal. When Jake lost, there would be no excuses left.
However, the next moment, everyone watching froze. They saw Jake pressing the meat with his left hand, gripping the knife with his right hand, and then swiftly cutting the meat. Uniform pieces of meat appeared on the cutting board, with shapes just as perfect as Alan's! What was more important was that Jake's movements were swift. His right hand kept descending, and onlookers could even see a blur, followed by the meat in his left hand decreasing and the meat on the cutting board increasing.
Terrifying knife speed! Exquisite knife skills! Originally, everyone thought that when Jake said his culinary skills were better than the head chef's, it was a joke. But now, it seemed that it wasn't the case. Setting aside the taste of the dish, in terms of knife skills, Jake was no worse than Alan, and even slightly better.
Wasn't he a physical education teacher? Why was his knife skills so good? Everyone had this question in their minds.
"Perhaps his knife skills are good, but his overall culinary skills are average. It has nothing to do with his knife skills," Bill and Don thought to themselves.
Alan on the other side seemed shocked by Jake's knife skills. As the saying goes, outsiders watch the excitement while insiders watch the doorway. Others just thought Jake's knife skills were impressive, but only Alan realized that Jake's knife skills were not just good, but there were very few people in the entire country who could surpass him. It would take decades of practice to achieve such knife skills. How could someone so young possess such knife skills?
Previously, during the barbecue, Jake had shown a glimpse of his culinary skills. However, barbecue alone couldn't fully showcase his advanced culinary skills. Today, he could finally unleash his full potential, and while those around him may have been puzzled, he was completely focused and excited.
Both of them were making braised pork belly, a home-cooked dish that many ordinary people could make. But it was precisely these home-cooked dishes that showcased skill. Anyone could make them, but those who could make them exceptionally delicious were few and far between. After putting the pork belly in the pot, both of them almost simultaneously started preparing the next dish, which was squirrel-shaped mandarin fish, a famous dish.Naturally, live fish was chosen for the dish to ensure freshness.
The next moment, Jake once again showcased his extraordinary knife skills. He tossed the mandarin fish into the air, and then his knife seemed to "randomly wave" in the air. By the time the fish landed on the cutting board, all its scales had been removed, its belly was slit open, and its internal organs, fish bones, and fish thorns were all gone. The whole fish was clean, white, and tender.
Then, with a flick of his right hand, the scales, internal organs, fish bones, and thorns on the knife all fell into the nearby trash can, leaving nothing behind.
How was this possible? The shock in everyone's hearts at this moment was even greater than before. Removing scales from fish was something everyone had seen and could do, but who had ever seen Jake's method? It was too exquisite! They couldn't even see how he did it, and the fish scales were gone.
In fact, Jake not only utilized the knife skills from his culinary repertoire but also used his Disassemble skill, to separate the fish meat from the other parts. That was why everyone witnessed such a shocking and even terrifying scene.
Equally stunned was Alan. If he was only shocked by Jake's knife skills before, he now truly admired Jake's knife skills. Regardless of the taste of the food being cooked, just the knife skills alone made Alan feel that his previous estimation had been conservative. It wasn't that there were only a few people who could match Jake's skills; there simply was no one who could compare.
Who was this person? Why did he possess such knife skills? Was he perhaps the successor of some famous culinary lineage?