The old man's words resonated deeply with the many contestants present.

"Right, just plain old lamb stewed with radish, any housewife can make that."

"Exactly, our restaurant's apprentices can all make better than that."

"Heh, the stew is completely mediocre and still came in first place, it's obviously rigged, right?"

In the midst of the noisy discussions, the old man seated at the center of the judge's panel said, "You're not wrong, this lamb stewed with radish indeed has many flaws, first of all, the lamb is not delicate enough, not top-notch; moreover, the variety of radish used is not the best, and the cooking method is also quite ordinary, but what can't be denied is that this is the real food we judges should be eating."

This statement stunned the crowd.

"This is the real food for the judges? Could it be that other team's dishes cannot be eaten?"

"Damn, what does he mean by that?"

Amid the crowd's confusion, the old man smiled slightly and said, "Here is Shanghai, the time is mid-September, the season when the heat is unbearable, so every competing team has prepared delicious food to beat the heat: poached chicken, drunken shrimp, shaved ice, snow fungus with pear, chilled dumplings, cold noodles, all of which do indeed taste great and each looks crafted with care."

Looking at the many contestants with cold gazes, the old man smiled, "But you've all overlooked one thing, and that is that we're in a hotel with the air conditioning on 24 hours."

At the same time as the crowd was shocked, the old man pointed to the ceiling with his hand and laughed, "The organizers might have been worried that the air conditioning wouldn't be cool enough, so they specially arranged for our seats to be right beneath the air conditioning vents."

"So while you might feel that the ambient temperature is a refreshing twenty-something degrees, we're actually a bit cold here," the old man said with a smile. "Not just that, but all the food served by the first seven competing teams was cold."

"Tasting one or two servings might not pose any problem for young people, but no matter who it is, sitting under air conditioning blasting cold air and continuously eating seven cold dishes, I believe their mood wouldn't be too good."

Looking at the stunned crowd, the old man laughed, "So before the food from Datong River had even arrived, my only thought was to finish this competition quickly and return to my room to pour myself a cup of hot water to warm myself up because in your eyes, it's the heat of summer, but for us five judges, it feels like we're deep in winter."

"Do you know what it's like when a gourmet eagerly awaits a dish only to receive one cold dish after another?"

Looking at the thunderstruck audience, the old man smiled, "It's almost like eating seven ice pops in a row during winter."

"This%..." The contestants from the numerous teams looked at each other, confused.

A contestant who suddenly understood exclaimed in amazement, "So that's how it is, no wonder the judges all looked so expectant when the hot soup was served! They were cold!"

"Damn, so that's the reason, allowing a weak team like Datong River to find a loophole!"

"Mother of luck, Datong River is so lucky, such a dumb choice for a competition item, and they hit the mark by mistake."

"Damn it, where do you go to make sense of this? To think that a team as unskilled as Datong River has stumbled upon a windfall."

Listening to the contestants' discussions, the old man seated in the judge's panel frowned and said, "You think Datong River was just lucky, accidentally succeeding? Then you are wrong, because at the beginning of the preparation stage, I saw the Datong River team preparing blueberries."

Upon hearing this, everyone's gaze shifted to the Datong River team.

A staff member quickly handed a microphone to Lv Shuyao's father, who looked up at the old man on the judges' stage and said, "Yes, according to yesterday's plan, we were going to use blueberries today to make a cold dish to relieve the heat."

Upon hearing this, the eyes of everyone present immediately widened.

"But why did you make this?" the elder asked.

Lv Shuyao's father pointed at Shen Qiang beside him with a hand and said, "It was a last-minute decision made by our boss after the competition started, because we weren't prepared for this in advance. So, all we had was frozen meat, green radishes for the carving platter, and some all-purpose flour..."

Lv Shuyao's father stammered, somewhat nervously explaining, and on the judging panel, Beautiful Demon Fox Chu Qing burst out laughing, "So I gave you a 9.5, the half-point deduction is because I didn't taste the top-quality lamb, and as a punishment for your boss."

Her words immediately put Shen Qiang in the spotlight.

All the people in the arena stared at Shen Qiang in amazement.

"Wow, he's the owner of Datong River? It seems like Ms. Chu Qing must know him, otherwise she wouldn't make such a joke."

"Quite a spirited young fellow, I'm not sure about his culinary skills yet, but his Eye Power is really incredible."

"Yeah, if it were pre-planned, you could say that Datong River just got lucky with a fluke, but a last-minute change? Definitely, this guy must have noticed something."

"The air conditioning has been on all the time, probably no one paid attention to that. I guess this guy realized the judges had been eating seven cold dishes in a row, so he made this adjustment."

"Makes sense, worthy of a team entering the top eight, indeed very impressive."

Amidst the crowd's discussions, the host requested the team leaders of the contestants to come on stage.

Shen Qiang stepped forward.

The host directed them to line up according to their scores in the competition.

Datong River scored first in this round.

Without any suspense, he took the central position, with Master Yuqing Hall on his left and Master Baihua Tower on his right.

Smiling at the camera and the warm applause from the public judges, Shen Qiang glanced at Master Yuqing Hall beside him, whose face was ashen, and chuckled, "Yuqing Hall came in second, your disciple must be very heartbroken, right? His master is truly too green, utterly leading others astray."

Hearing Shen Qiang's words, Master Yuqing Hall turned a deeper shade of green and said, "A third-rate restaurant, a third-rate chef who can't even perfect a dish of lamb stewed with radish; there's nothing to be proud of, it's just trash among trash."

Shen Qiang chuckled and said, "Yo, you said it perfectly, except now I'm thinking, a trashy restaurant with trashy lamb stewed radish has beaten your carefully prepared delicacy, so how awful must Yuqing Hall's standards be? Can the dishes you make actually be eaten?"

At these words, Master Yuqing Hall turned deathly pale with rage, but as he stood in the spotlight, he could only clench his teeth and bear it.

Turning his head slightly, Shen Qiang saw the Master Baihua Tower to his right, feigning benevolence, smiling at the camera.

Shen Qiang unapologetically sent a telepathic message, "If Yuqing Hall is already like this, Baihua Tower which is even below Yuqing Hall, must be the tractor among the trash!"

In an instant, the old man's face turned iron blue.

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