The Onion-Cutting Ninja's Secret Crush

116 Much to Say

Going through the dishes of all the contestants took almost three hours. The feedback slowly got shorter the further in they got since a lot of things only had to be repeated. But each judge still needed to say at least a sentence or two for every dish and with so many people, there just was no way to finish sooner.

By the end, whether it was the three judges or the contestants that had been waiting, they were all exhausted. To think that there was a second task coming up soon really made them feel faint.

It didn't help that while the first few contestants had been exceptionally good, there had also been others who hadn't been able to convince the judges of their expertise as much. As such, quite a few people were nervous on top of tired. This really made one anxious for the second half that was supposed to start later today.

As soon as the last contestant had been given feedback and gone back to their cooking station, the cameras were turned off and Yang Shu Na, the assistant of producer Bian stepped into the room, giving a faint smile. "It seems that it is time for a break, everyone." She smiled at the contestants and then went over to the judges' table.

She didn't say anything though until the contestants had filed out of the room. Only then did she turn around to the three people, her smile deepening. "We've been looking at the proceedings from behind the scenes and Mister Bian is very satisfied with how things are going. I'm sure that this will be made into an exciting episode for our viewers.

"Producer Bian send me over to reassure you that in the upcoming episodes, things won't be as taxing as they were today. Since the number of contestants is halved every time, starting from next week, you won't need to spend as much time on the feedback. So if you're feeling that today was rough, don't worry. It will get easier."

This was something they had originally worried about when the concept for the show was created. Back in the casting, there had been additional chefs to check the dishes of the contestants and only the best ones had been let up on stage. Also, thanks to the fact that they all cooked different dishes, some had finished earlier, making it so that Mister Yu and Xiao Ming hadn't needed to taste one dish after the other. It had been much more manageable.

Now, in the first episode, the number of participants couldn't be compared anymore but having to judge sixty-four contestants in a row wasn't easy. They had figured that the judges would be able to handle it but now, it seemed that they might have been wrong.

While she might have said that Mister Bian had been satisfied, it wasn't quite like that. Actually, he had been complaining behind the scenes when he found out that the feedback was getting shorter.

The idea was to film the whole process and then cherry-pick whom to show with the spotlight being on the contestants who would make it into the next round and any contestants that stood out in a specific task. If the feedback got shorter though, they didn't have as many opportunities to pick out only the best ones. After all, they also wanted to show the judges as knowledgeable experts in their field who could lead these contestants to greater heights.

If each of them only said one sentence and then referred to what they had told a previous contestant, then what were they supposed to do with that? The viewers at home wouldn't accept it.

Looking back now, it might have been better to film in groups so that there would be twenty-one contestants per group that all got feedback before the next group started. In that case, the judges probably would have said more since the second and third groups wouldn't have heard what they told the first group.

Unfortunately, it was too late to change the format now so they could only try to butter up the judges, reassure them that they were doing great and things would get easier, and then throw in a while later that it would be good if they could be a little more thorough in giving their feedback.