Episode 5

On the next day, the tournament has begun. An open cooking teaching class with 5 days learning about new cooking materials and the last day will be sorting battle for the final. The trainees will learn about new cooking materials and skills. On the evening, they will use the knowledge from the morning lecture to make a dish. Whoever make the best dish will remain on the stage.

Xen first impression about the scoring ladder is that the examiner won’t eat the dish. It will score by the smell, the decoration and the skills, then the food will be disposed. It makes Xen irritated and annoyed, what a waste of food if nobody going to eat it. Since he has agreed to follow the term of the Tournament he has to stick with the rules.

Their first day challenge is Fish. Frozen Fish from planet W-9. The small thing is the most expensive fish the world, living under –10 Celsius river and cannot preservation for a long duration, which means it must be cooked right after killing it. This really a difficult challenge for newbie whose isn’t good at heat controlling and knife skills. Xen can feel the goose bump of excitement crawled under his skin, it not easy to get in touch with 5 stars ingredients since he can use it for free that even better. But to defeat every candidate inside the hall Xen needs to do his best.

Frozen fish meat is every stiff and too cold to eat raw, so it needs to be cooked. Moreover, the fish lived in the cold habitat for a long time make the cold air infuse into the meat, in order to cook this thing, they need slow cooker or baked the fish in the heat for a long duration. Xen came up with slow cooked Frozen fish with red wine, he’s confident with his dish because mostly other people is struggle with repairing the fish. Haft of the competitors are unskilled with fish and first-time repairing 5 stars ingredients make them stunned. The first day of the tournament ended with half of the candidate going home and there are round 50 people left. The score will be announced after dinner, meanwhile the contestants allow to use the kitchen area for practicing or explore the hosted planet.

Xen score with 85 points, according to the feedback his dish is lack of decoration and his skill is good but not flourishing. They demand a set of knife movement like dancing and show off the flourishment while cooking. He placed 2nd after Ymir whose has 90 point. XEN can sense the smug face of his opponent; it makes his blood boil and swears under his breath. He won’t lose, not now.

The second day start with Black tail chicken. A creature from planet D-5. The rule was avoid making fried dish, likewise who ever finish first can submit the dish and head back to their room. They are not allowed to distract other people by walking around and make noises. Everyone can make it as long as they need, but as long as they finish it on the first try which mean everyone has only 1 chance to prepare the dish, so they need to plan the meal carefully. Xen plan was making Black chicken stew with herb, unluckily the Black chicken meat is very chewy, then the time to stew the dish is longer than normal chicken meat.

After putting the chicken inside the pot and herbs, Xen recalling his lesson. On the textbook they said the meat can be cook like the normal chicken meat, but for some reason Xen has a feeling that it was longer than that. Xen isn’t a gamble person like Emily, but something is telling him that now is not the time, for a moment he decided to let his luckiness control the situation. It been an hour and a half and Xen instinct is telling him it’s time to turn off the heat, his body move in the fastest way he has never notice, the moment he open the pot, the smell of herb spread the entire of the room. It’s smells delightful and light at the same time, the smell makes other candidates in the hall wince and stop their action a minute to enjoy the scent. Unfortunately, the chicken skin has been torn apart, based on the meat texture Xen can assure that the meat has reach the finest tender, so Xen use all the creativity brain cells that he has to avoid the minus point. He butchers the chicken equally and displays the part which the skin hasn’t been torn into a bowl with the herbs soup.

In the end, this time Xen place the first with total 95 points, he has extra 5 point for being creative. Xen feel proud of himself right now, he just proves that he better than anyone in this room and probably making his Master in Heaven proud right now. He can see Ymir disgusted and angry face for placing third place make him feel happier. But he also feels like missing something, the feedback saying was the smell is divine, his skills are sharp but there is something that hasn’t been mentioned.

On the third day, Xen can count that there are only 25 people left and today challenge is Wild red cow. A wild beast from planet R-7, a red desert place. Wild red cow is the strongest cow in the universe, they usually live in pack more than 100 animals and an Alpha to lead the pack. The best way to caught it is to trick them to eat grass that contain anesthetic and carefully move them into separate truck and if they take more than 5 at once the Alpha will notice and switch living area. Since there isn't many contestants left, the examiner just kills one cow and each contestant will pick the part that they want to cook. Xen is considering between beef stew and hamburger, he wants to make both, but they just allow him to make one dish. Finally, he decided to make Hamburger. But ground beef was not provided so Xen has to grind it by himself from the chuck, an upper part of a cow around the neck.

The technique requires a sharp blade and rapidly chop them until the meat is tender and has finer texture. Then he adds eggs and bread crumb into the bowl and mix them together. Xen wasn’t the fan of garlic powder but to win he needs it to impress the examiner. After the mixture has blended completely, Xen shaped them into a circle and fried them on the pan. Using the flipper spatula, Xen press the meatball into a flat round and flip the side. He finishes them with a slice of cheese on top and tar-tar sauce. The meal is done within an hour.

At night, he receives the point which 90 point and surprisingly, both Xen and Ymir have the same point this time. They both rank no. 1. The feedback was the same as the last time, a paragraph talking about the smell is good and the skills is sharp. They still asked for a less bold movement and told him to practice more hand movement.

The fourth day started to heat up, there is only 10 people left and today was to list out the top 5. Xen feel unsure about himself right now, he feels like the tournament is doing fine but from the inside he was not feel the enthusiasm or passion. Every time he saw his master cooked, he saw a passionate of a chef for the dish but joining the tournament he didn’t feel that. Neither other candidate, they all here to win and bring home the title God of Cookery but none of them here feel happy about what they have done. Everyone is stressing out and praying for themselves.

Today lecture and practice is Pork, they are going to use Hound boar from planet P-5. The creature was described to have a thick hard skin with soft meat. The meat can be used for any dishes or combined with any ingredients, but the most important process is how to remove the skin. The contest this time was not the same as the last time, they were not provided with prepared ingredients, but they have to prepare it them self. Xen looking the dead hound boar on his cutting board and decided to count from 1 to 10 to calm himself. Hound boar isn’t as big as he expected, it just about a size of a 7-week-old pup with black skin and sharp teeth. Following the instruction, first step is to tear down the skin, begin to cut down the neck then following the stomach to remove the viscera, cut another around the waist and start removing the skin by hand. Then pick a part that you want to use and cook it.

Xen going with making sweet and sour ribs, it used to be his favorite back in the Master kitchen. The taste was magnificent with red sauce on top and the smell the lure him to eat before praying for the meals. In order to make the dish he going to need a lot of tomato, garlic and sugar. The cheapest and fastest way to make sweet and sour ribs from the Master. At first, he needs to fry the ribs in high heat until the meat is shrunken, then mix it with the sweet and sour sauce and sliced onion. But unexpected event happens, Xen broke his knife while chopping the vegetable. The knife blade broke into half while he was chopping the onion, Xen eyes widen into shocked. The boy stands there looking at his broken knife for minutes before he heard a loud noise coming from the frying pan, the meat has burnt, not wasting any more minute Xen needs to calm down and focus on the dish. After collecting the meat, he put down his broken knife and draw another knife from the knife holder, it has plastic handle and crossed texture, it like holding unfamiliar object on his hand but he has to continue his battle. The feeling of the new knife took Xen a few minutes to adapt the situation but it still not enough for him to control the new tool entirely, his cutting got rough and he can feel his hand shaken. He is afraid, of losing.

After finishing the dish, Xen back to room to recall today event. First of all, his knife had broken and secondly his dish failed horribly. Why everything when awful at the most unexpected moment, there are many, many other times for his knife to break but why it has to be that exact moment. Thankfully the next day was a day off for the fifth day semi-final, he can travel back home and looking for the new knife. But right now, he needs to pray for his luckiness he will pass the test with that horrible dish. At night, when they receive the result, Xen rank 5 on the list, he will continue his journey at the semi-final. From the outside he was pleased that he makes to the top 5 but inside he was furious with himself. He ranked the last on list, he known he can do better, he known he is better than them and he known he can win the competition. Until, did he? Xen stood still in his room for hours, he thought about the competition and the title, he thought about the store and his Master, he thought about his dream and what he wants.

For a moment, Xen felt like everything he has been doing all the past few days wasn’t what he wants. Does he want to follow his Master path? Yes. But becoming the God of Cookery isn’t. His Master once held the title but to him it was nothing, that what Xen remembered from the memories. He never told him about the title, he only insists that running the Outro is enough. But why Outro? What special about the Outro makes his Master abandoned the title that everyone dreams for to become unknown man. He needs to find the answer, and to find the answer he to go back home, the Outro.

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