The Onion-Cutting Ninja's Secret Crush

94 Out of Skills

For the next contest, Si Jin was in an earlier time slot so he didn't have to wait for too long. When he stepped up to his cooking station and saw the things that had been arranged there, he wasn't quite sure what to make of it though.

He looked back up at the jury, waiting for the instructions.

The one to explain was the man sitting in the middle. "Well, welcome back to the last round of our casual contest. This time, we have something a bit different for you. So far, our contest was all about the different ways of preparing and processing ingredients but now, let's get to working on what is pretty much the finished dish already.

"As you can see, you all have a plate with snacks in front of you. They are all quite plain though so you've been given some utensils to make them look more appetizing. In short, this contest is on decorating your dishes.

"As a fun addition, for this last part, you will not only get points from the jury members but also from two people chosen from the audience. So give it your best shot! Now, let's once again start at three. Are you ready? Let's go! One, two, three!"

The other contestants looked at the snacks on the plate in front of them and then at everything they had been given and started the process of decorating immediately.

On the other hand, Si Jin wasn't sure what to do. Decorating a dish ... that should be like plating? Plated in an aesthetically pleasing way?

But the snacks seemed to have no rhyme or reason to them. He actually recognized quite a few from Xiao Ming's stream. There were buns, pudding, pieces of jelly, a tart, but also a small noodle dish and some puffs. How was he supposed to do something with this?

Usually, when it came to plating, the first thing he would do would be choosing the plate. Then, he would think about how to arrange all the pieces of the dish on that plate.

Now though, not only was the plate provided, the dishes were also finished, and already in a certain sequence on the plate. Was he supposed to change the sequence? Or was he even allowed to? He wasn't sure.

Si Jin looked back up at the jury, wondering if he could ask a question to clarify.

The three people were staring back at him. In the last two contests, Si Jin had started to move as soon as the number three had been called out. He would arrange everything he needed in the sequence that he wanted to use it in so that he had easy access to everything and could work efficiently and then immediately start to work. Now though, he was standing there, staring at the plate as if in a daze.

Si Jin definitely wasn't the only person who wanted to clarify. They also couldn't help but want to ask just what had happened to the very self-assured contestant from the last two rounds.

In the end, the woman couldn't help but speak up. "Mister Si, was the content of the contest not clear to you?"

Si Jin looked at her and then back at his workstation before he glanced at the other contestants and then his gaze returned to her. "What do you mean by 'decorating'?"

The woman's brows shot up, surprised that this was really the reason. Even though she had asked, she had felt that this couldn't be the case. But now, he really had trouble understanding what he was supposed to do. Well, clarifying shouldn't be a problem.

"Well, you see that on the plate before you, there are several finished dishes. It is just that because they are looking quite plain so they might seem unappetizing to some people. Your task is to use the things given to you to make them look more appetizing."

Si Jin finally turned to the other things on his workstation, that he had only given a cursory glance before. There were herbs, different kinds of sauces, even some flowers, and an assortment of rather weird things that he didn't think had any reason to be in a kitchen.