Banquet Hall was a time-honored brand in Provincial City.

As a rather traditional Chinese restaurant, it was the venue for the Provincial City competition sector of the Huaxia Culinary Awards. Banquet Hall was already brimming with people.

The most numerous among them were the general public judges.

The actual competing teams were only eight.

These eight were the finalists for this session of the Huaxia Culinary Awards in Provincial City.

Lv Shuyao's father's team represented Dinghao.

Dinghao itself was a five-star hotel.

However, their real strength lay in guest services and infrastructure. The restaurant aspect, could be considered an adjunct to the hotel facilities, in a sense.

In this competition, the participants were akin to a department of Dinghao Hotel.

Whereas Datong River was purely a restaurant, exclusively specializing in cuisine.

Thus, it felt like the people from Datong River were more professional than Lv Shuyao's father's team.

This impression wasn't exclusive to Shen Qiang, and it was likely others felt the same way.

However, in reality,

There were over twenty five-star hotels in Provincial City.

Only the team led by Lv Shuyao's father from Dinghao made it to the top eight of the culinary competition.

The other seven were all professional restaurants.

More awkwardly, as one of the organizers and providers of the competition venue, the team from Banquet Hall hadn't even made it to the top sixteen and were eliminated early on.

Everything proceeded in an orderly manner.

Since it was just the Provincial City competition, they certainly weren't going to experience the luxury of being swarmed by reporters.

All the teams were busily preparing.

Lv Shuyao's father was also anxiously telling Shen Qiang, "This is the Provincial City finals, and we need to prepare a traditional banquet, which includes four cold dishes, four stir-fries, four main courses, paired with two medium dishes and two soups, totaling sixteen dishes."

"I know you are good at medicinal cuisine, Shen, but due to tradition and considering you seem different from ordinary chefs, we can only proceed with the preset sixteen dishes we specialize in under these circumstances."

"If your medicinal cuisine can suitably replace any dish, we will substitute that one at the time. Is that okay with you?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Qiang slightly furrowed his brow. In fact, the more traditional and elaborate the banquet arrangement was, the more difficult it was to intervene.

After all, Medicinal cuisine, on top of being about food, emphasized medicinal effects.

And many foods inherently conflicted with medicinal cuisine.

Lv Shuyao's father had to create a traditional sixteen-dish banquet.

Four cold starters and four small stir-fries — these eight dishes could be replaced by medicinal alternatives, as nearly a hundred different combinations immediately flooded Shen Qiang's mind.

But this was a competition.

As the cold dishes were inherently cold, they couldn't bring out the nourishing and warming properties.

And small stir-fries, by their nature, easily became cold.

The two medium dishes,

Generally were sculptures or molded types of dishes.

They were similar in nature to cold dishes and stir-fries and struggled to showcase the benefits of medicinal cuisine.

Thus, only the four main dishes and two soups remained as possibilities for creativity.

Typically, the traditional four main dishes referred to four key courses.

Generally speaking, chicken, duck, fish, and meat are essentially mandatory.

It is impossible to replace these main dishes with Chinese yam; thus, the most reasonable and appropriate entry point for medicinal cuisine is undoubtedly in the soup.

However, what kind of soup to make and which aspect of the soup to focus on remains a problem.

Since there had been no prior cooperation and Shen Qiang was entirely unclear about the capabilities of Lv Shuyao's father's team, rashly deciding what to do and forcefully intervening might not only fail to help but could also disrupt their normal performance.

Thus, after a moment of silence, Shen Qiang said, "Please proceed with your original plan for the competition. Based on the situation, I will try to prepare a medicinal dish to accompany your banquet. If it is not suitable, then I will just be an outsider."

Lv Shuyao's father nodded, "With time being so tight, that's all we can do."

With that, he began to arrange the tasks for the others in an orderly manner.

He seemed very adept at it.

Not only that, but these sixteen dishes each had their unique features, which together could be considered the essence of Huaxia's traditional cuisine.

It's just a pity.

Only a funeral banquet where someone had died would serve seventeen dishes, so if Shen Qiang made a move, at least one of these sixteen dishes would be replaced.

The preparation work progressed quickly and smoothly.

By ten thirty in the morning.

Various ingredients were almost ready.

Shen Qiang stood in front of his small stove, still without any preparation.

For him, there was simply no need for advanced preparation.

In the Storage Ring, there was a bit of every kind of medicinal cuisine ingredient.

If there was a need to process ingredients on the fly, Shen Qiang, being a cultivator, could do so at lightning speed. Preparing in advance would rather make the ingredients less fresh, so there was nothing much to say about that.

At this moment, the competition committee staff, through a broadcast, notified all teams for a final check and announced that the countdown to the start of the competition had begun, with ten minutes remaining.

The expressions of the contestants from various teams were solemn, and the representatives of Team Dinghao also looked very nervous.

Lv Shuyao's father came to Shen Qiang's side and seeing that Shen Qiang had not made any preparations, patted Shen Qiang's shoulder and said, "Relax a bit, your presence here today is already a great help to me."

Shen Qiang smiled.

Just standing by to cheer?

Merely doing that wouldn't suffice as Shen Qiang was here to help them secure first place.

He had promised Lv Shuyao!

Right then, the owner of the banquet hall they had previously encountered outside, came in with the French chef, looking extremely proud, just as they passed by Shen Qiang.

He coldly glanced at Shen Qiang's spotless, unprepared stove and sneered, "Big talk, it looks like you are about to surrender, but then again, compared to our specially hired French chef, you are all just trash."

Shen Qiang's expression turned cold.

Lv Shuyao's father tapped Shen Qiang's shoulder, signaling him to ignore the provocation.

Almost simultaneously, the owner of Datong River, with a triumphant look in his eyes, said to Shen Qiang, "Young people always think too highly of themselves, but in reality, they fall far short." Glancing fervently at the French chef beside him, he proclaimed, "Our top chef will show you what real deliciousness is."

With that, he left haughtily.

Watching his arrogant departure, Lv Shuyao's father sighed and said, "The French chef is best at three world-class delicacies: foie gras, caviar, and truffles, and in these areas, our Huaxia chefs are not skilled. Datong River having such a foreign aid means they are determined to win the championship at this competition."

Shen Qiang actually had a few medicinal recipes for foie gras and caviar, which could potentially create different flavors.

If it were purely from the perspective of taste, it might not be possible to beat the French chef.

But truffles were a different story...

Because in Shen Qiang's Storage Ring, there lay a top-grade truffle.

A Three-Color Motherless Fruit, an Earth Spirit Embryo!

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