The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

This speed, this technique—even if one has seen it before, witnessing it again still leaves people in awe!

The two large pieces of fish were almost sliced in the blink of an eye.

Everyone present had witnessed Fu Yu’s knife skills beforehand. Although there was still some admiration at the moment, the level of astonishment was not as exaggerated as before.

After handling the grass carp, Fu Yu began to cook the side dishes.

He sliced green onions and ginger into thin strips, added minced wild chili peppers and lemon slices to the fish slices, and seasoned with an appropriate amount of salt for marinating.

While the fish slices were marinating, Fu Yu started making the base for arranging the fish slices.

After steaming the Chinese yam, he added milk, salt, and pepper, mashed it, and then sifted it into a smooth yam puree without any granules.

He molded the yam puree into balls and placed them on a plate, ready for arranging the peony flower shapes.

The grass carp was quite fatty, and according to the classic old recipe, it could hold three flowers on a plate.

With the look of the pattern in mind, Fu Yu thought the effect was very beautiful and delicate, planning to follow this plating.

After preparing the yam puree, Fu Yu sprinkled a layer of evenly distributed dry starch on the chopping board, then coated both sides of the marinated fish slices with starch.

Next, he took a rolling pin and began tapping each fish fillet individually.

With this operation, Fu Yu realized the tricky part of this dish’s cooking.

Because the fish slices were originally cut very thin, the force applied during tapping needed to be precisely controlled—too hard, they could easily break, too light, they wouldn’t achieve the desired effect.

Fu Yu carefully operated, his movements still somewhat unfamiliar as it was his first time doing this.

Watching beside him, Liu Yunong’s eyes brightened as she saw Fu Yu’s actions.

”This tapping technique is ingenious!”

Indeed!

When she cooked this dish before, she tried to skillfully use chopsticks to shape the fish into petal shapes during frying.

What seemed like a simple operation was actually very difficult once she started doing it!

Due to the thickness, the shaping effect with chopsticks was very poor; the peony flower arranged on the plate looked heavy and the texture wasn’t particularly good.

But if, like Fu Yu, the fish is pounded in advance, then shaping during frying becomes much simpler, and the texture would become crispier.

Realizing this, Liu Yunong unconsciously stepped forward again, carefully watching Fu Yu’s operation, afraid to miss any crucial action.

Zhao Meng and Yao Shi, although they had not cooked this dish, had read the recipe carefully, which did not mention this detail.

It seemed that the technique of tapping the fish fillets was improvised by Fu Yu himself. This kid, what a clever mind!

He wasn’t confined to the recipe but thought actively and made improvements in the details.

Impressive!

An experienced chef could see at a glance that the pounded fish would be the key to the final shaping.

No wonder Liu Yunong had failed repeatedly when cooking it before.

Missing one move and losing the entire game!

This is why chefs are often required to think and ponder actively during cooking.

Seeing the key, everyone watched more attentively.

Liu Yunong and Yao Shi surrounded and watched Fu Yu’s operation, feeling joyful and surprised.

Zhao Meng, however, was nervously watching Fu Yu, worried that Fu Yu might make a mistake.

Fu Yu, while tapping the fish fillets, operated fully according to the classic old recipe’s instructions.

During tapping, he used the rolling pin to gently tap, evenly pushing outwards following the fish skin, which was the key to the final fish shape.

And according to the classic old recipe, there was a strict requirement for this step: be sure to tap each fish fillet fifty-six times.

This tested the chef’s arm endurance.

It’s important to know that this one grass carp was sliced into several hundred pieces.

No wonder the recipe stated that this step takes three to four hours.

However, with each tap of the rolling pin, Fu Yu discovered a problem: the force applied when tapping the fish was extremely crucial!

If not mastered properly, the results during frying wouldn’t meet the recipe’s standards.

With this realization, the difficulty increased significantly.

And as he realized this issue, the green line and dialogue box appeared once more.

[Standard tapping force: 60, current force: 52. Force not up to standard, please pay attention!]

Fu Yu was taken aback for a moment, unable to restrain the joy in his heart!

It’s not that he’s shallow-eyed, getting excited at a little prompt without much depth.

But the prompt from the dialogue box came at such a timely moment!

It’s like having a cheat code in cooking.

With the dialogue box’s prompt, tapping the fish fillets was only a wristwork, without any difficulty.

In terms of physical strength, Fu Yu, having undergone systemic improvements, found tapping fish slices a piece of cake.

Ensuring there were no issues in the subsequent operations, Fu Yu calmed down completely; his hand movements became steadier, and his speed increased.

He cooked with great ease on this side.

The three spectators beside him were all stunned.

Liu Yunong, having cooked the dish before and gained some insights, frowned watching Fu Yu tap the fish fillets, saying, ”When tapping these fish fillets, you need to control the force and carefully tap the fillets into a fan shape, which is quite troublesome indeed.”

”Xiaofu, there are so many fish fillets, maybe I can help you tap some?”

Fu Yu shook his head directly, his hands never stopping as he tapped each fish fillet one by one.

His face showed no anxiety or worry, but rather confidence—calm and extraordinarily steady-handed!

Liu Yunong only started timing when Fu Yu began tapping the third fish fillet.

Because she noticed that when Fu Yu started tapping the second fish fillet, both his technique and speed had noticeably improved.

This obvious improvement was still visible when tapping the third fish fillet.

This made Liu Yunong silently amazed in her heart.

She didn’t overthink it, purely curious about how long it would take Fu Yu to finish all the fish fillets with his technique and speed.

Meanwhile, she mentally simulated Fu Yu’s tapping technique, secretly estimating if she could match his speed with each fillet.

This thought gradually faded as Fu Yu’s speed increased.

Liu Yunong watched in awe as Fu Yu wielded the rolling pin as though casting a shadow.

The pile of untapped fish fillets on the chopping board visibly shrank, getting smaller and smaller...

After Fu Yu completed tapping all the fish fillets on his own, Liu Yunong glanced at the time, her pupils suddenly constricting!

Good heavens!

He only took half an hour!

If she were doing it, it definitely wouldn’t be possible!

Never mind the speed, just the number of taps would have rendered her right hand useless if she were doing it.

Yet Fu Yu was still steady.

Moreover, Fu Yu switched from the rolling pin to scissors and began trimming the fish into shapes one by one.

He fried each fish fillet into the most perfect fan shape.

Yao Shi couldn’t help but say, ”This step is absolutely brilliant!”

Liu Yunong nodded repeatedly, ”Yes, by shaping the fish in advance, a lot of effort is saved when frying it into petal shapes. This step is important and not in vain at all.”

When frying the fish fillets, while they are soft, chopsticks can be used to shape them, but the shaping often depends on the fish’s thickness and the hand’s speed.

At this time, pre-shaping the fish fillets significantly reduces trouble when actually frying.

The difficulty of frying the fish into petal shapes is greatly reduced.