THIS IS FICTION WITH NO INTENTIONAL RESEMBLANCE TO ANY PERSONS, ORGANIZATIONS, OR OCCURRENCES.
OUT OF RESPECT FOR THE SOURCE MATERIAL, THERE MAY BE SCENES CONSIDERED OFFENSIVE TO MODERN SENSIBILITIES.
It's the All-Japan Chinese Chef Championship!
Jan has defeated the fiery chef Sawada to move on to the second round!
But who will he face there?
And now, ladies and gentlemen, we will begin the sixth match of the second round!
From Gobancho's Chinese in Ginza, here comes Akiyama Jan!
I hope you lose, Akiyama!
Buzz off!
Poisonous mushroom freak!
Sure hasn't won himself any popularity here, huh?
Nope.
They really hate him.
Hey, by the way, Uncle...
Hmm?
Uh, Akiyama's grandpa... What was he like?
What brought that on?
Just curious.
Based on what I heard from people who worked with Kaiichiro...
They basically said he was the devil.
The devil?
Dished out abuse and cuisine in equal measure.
He was a harsh old fellow.
That's just hearsay, though.
So I was right...
Listen good, Jan!
You're not to drop a single pebble from that wok!
Y-Yes, sir!
Your left arm's slowing down!
You shouldn't be buckling after a measly thousand reps, imbecile!
Start over from the beginning!
Y-Yes, sir...
I wanna see that wrist flipping!
You've got to keep those stones moving!
Again!
Start over again!
Hear me, Jan.
The more effort that goes into a dish, the better it becomes.
A single flip of a wok done differently
can have a huge impact on the flavor of a dish!
Do you hate me, boy? Well?
That's fine. Despise me all you like.
But I won't hold back.
The only way to cook delicious food is to beat how it's done into you!
And you must always be thinking about how to improve!
The next step... Always be thinking of the next step, Jan!
And next, from the Kawahara Cooking School, it's Kawahara Yuji!
What gives? Does the crowd hate him, too?
Ohoho! They sure do, Kiriko-san!
This Kawahara guy is really something.
Everyone who goes up against him walks away hating him.
It's over his use of the latest cooking implements
and the way he mocks normal chefs.
The latest cooking implements?
The thing is that he's more like an engineer than a chef.
Just take a look!
Wh-What is that?
Right? And he uses it to cook!
What manner of machine is it?
This is why no one likes him.
Everyone else is relying on their skills,
but he gets his gizmos to do all the work.
Dumbass! Go to hell, Kawahara!
Get out of here, Akiyama!
And you two call yourselves chefs?!
These old-fashioned chefs seem to be causing quite a stir.
KAWAHARA KENZO KAWAHARA COOKING SCHOOL HEADMASTER
A bunch of simpletons who think they can win with their paltry knowledge.
Go, Yuji!
Show these chefs with their moldy traditions
and their desperate adherence to hierarchy what you're capable of!
Show them our 21st century cooking!
Ladies and gentlemen, the theme of the sixth match of the second round will be...
Poultry! They'll be making poultry dishes!
The competitors may now begin!
Huh, they're both using whole chickens!
Interesting.
They're both heels, and they're both taking the same approach...
Let's see which one of you scumbags can win!
I wish they could both lose!
Not exactly an encouraging atmosphere to be cooking in...
Tell me about it.
Looks like they've picked glass noodles and shark fin for their next ingredients.
I see. They intend on making stuffed chicken dishes.
Stuffed dishes, huh?
Right.
What they're picking now is likely what they'll be filling the bird with.
Wait, you're telling me Kawahara
is going for something as expensive as shark fin,
while Jan's using regular old glass noodles?
Looks that way.
Aw, man. He's always gotta do things the hard way!
Why use the cheap stuff?!
If they were using comparable ingredients,
it'd all come down to culinary skill!
That's just how he is.
He considers everyone he faces to be beneath him.
And his Akiyama pride would never allow him
to battle someone like that on equal terms.
That's a long-winded way of saying he's arrogant.
Is it just me, or is he going even faster than usual today?
I'd wager it means his dish requires that much more effort.
A whole chicken dish that requires extra effort?
My, my, looks like the competition has their hands full.
Well, I should begin.
What the hell? I dunno what he's doing, but it sure is weird.
It's givin' me the creeps.
What the hell? He's disinfecting all his stuff now!
What a freak. Like some kind of quack doctor.
This match is giving me a bad feeling, y'know?
The poisonous mushroom bastard versus the disinfectant freak.
Do it, Yuji! Show them the cutting-edge cooking of the 21st century!
This is no good.
It's overcooked, with the muscle fibers too contracted
and the juices all dried out.
Oh, my.
Oops! Guess we messed up.
Don't give me that!
You should've cooked it at the appropriate temperature!
If you're not gonna take this seriously, then quit, you dumbasses!
H-How mean!
What is this? You don't have to bite our heads off!
Pay attention, all of you. Our school isn't just any cooking school.
We quantify flavor, aroma, and nutrition for analysis.
It's a scientific cooking school.
I-I understand that, but...
Then don't screw up!
We strive to be chefs and scientists!
And I'm going to prove that our cooking is superior at the upcoming tournament...
by winning it all.
That's right. I'm winning this tournament.
These so-called chefs with their heads full of cobwebs
are going to get crushed by my high-tech tools.
This will elevate me to prominence in the culinary world.
A suitable first step.
Akiyama Jan...
The grandson of the conqueror of Chinese cuisine, Akiyama Kaiichiro.
You'll be the perfect stepping stone for me.
The harder you try, the better I'll end up looking.
Kawahara-kun!
Got a second to talk?
Sorry to interrupt you while you're working.
What exactly are you cooking here?
I'm not cooking anything...
Because I'm already done.
You are?
All that remains are some finishing touches and the clean-up.
I've made shark-fin-stuffed young chicken.
I flavored the shark fin with soup,
then added some wolfberry and sliced Jinhua ham...
And it all went into the bird, which is sous vide.
Pretty simple, altogether.
Honestly? I spent more time on making sure everything was hygienic.
Hygienic?
When you cook at low temperatures,
it's important to be extra careful in making sure everything's sanitized.
I-I-It's only been thirty minutes, though! Talk about fast!
Well, yes. But I've got great partners.
Partners?
Yes...
They're the best partners I could ask for.
My sous vide tools!
Sous vide tools?!
What's he talking about?!
Sous... what?
Sous vide cooking...
S-Say, Head Chef...
What exactly is the deal with sous vide?
SOUS VIDE
Sous vide!
You seal any variety of ingredients in a vacuum pack
and use hot water or steam to cook them at a low temperature!
It's a great way to avoid overcooking a dish and instead ensure evenness.
When you use a wok, it takes a certain degree of experience
to cook something exactly how you want.
But when you sous vide a steak...
All you need to do is prep the meat,
vacuum seal it, and set the temperature to 56 degrees.
The machine takes it from there.
Then you just add salt and pepper and fire it to get a nice color,
and you've got a medium-rare steak.
Sous vide means you never have to worry about uneven cooking.
Because the heat is applied evenly at a low temperature,
the meat juices don't cook away.
And since it works well with frozen food, you can prepare large amounts in a pinch.
Enough for 200 or maybe even 500 servings.
The idea of a cooking process where every step is done manually is outdated.
Why not let machines handle the things they can?
That's the future of cooking. Wouldn't you agree?
These chefs who stick to the old ways are just being inefficient.
For all their sweat, they don't produce much food.
For example...
Take Akiyama-kun over there.
I'd like the audience to consider whether
the old school or the bleeding edge is better.
Which kind of chef would you rather be?
What is this asshole's problem?
I-I see...
And that was Kawahara, folks.
Now let's see what Akiyama has to say.
Akiyama-kun! Akiyama-kun!
Can I get a word—
You are really sweating!
I'm trying to cook here, dumbass!
Keep at least one meter away from me!
I'm on a time limit here, got it?!
Wow, scary.
See what I mean?
This happens when you try to do everything yourself.
Tackling the impossible, then panicking and taking it out on others...
You cook like a damn caveman!
And you like to run your damn mouth.
Chefs oughta be working with their hands, not flapping their gums.
That's what my grandpa taught me.
Really now?
Well, good luck with that.
His grandpa, he says...
Just another chef tied down by the old way of doing things.
Now then...
What is he doing?
He's sitting down to listen to his Walkman and read!
Is he boasting that he's bored since he's done cooking?!
What a cocky little punk!
Man, I hate this Kawahara guy!
Kawahara's basically done at this point.
Is Jan gonna be okay? Will he be able to finish in time?
I think he'll be fine.
Even from here, I can tell...
He's done all of this thousands of times before.
His movements couldn't be more efficient.
He's internalized how long each and every step of the process takes.
He's almost like a precision machine.
Akiyama's probably going to make use of the full two hours.
R-Really? Then...
The only question that remains is how tasty his dish will turn out.
Will it be good or not, huh?
Akiyama's certainly got first-rate cooking skills.
But Kawahara's sous vide technique is nothing to sneeze at.
He flavored the shark fin with shangtang soup in a vacuum pack,
steaming it to make sure it permeated.
Then he stuffed the chicken with the shark fin,
adding wolfberries and Jinhua ham.
Now it's all being sous vide.
I'm sure that the finished product
is going to be some very tender, very juicy chicken.
The truffles he inserted under the skin
will give it a robust aroma.
Y-Yeah...
Sounds good, doesn't it?
I guess so.
But does this mean Jan's going to lose?
No. Akiyama's process is just as convincing.
He started with tsubonuki.
It's an advanced deboning technique where you flip the bird to strip it.
He's added ingredients in starchy sauce
to create the impression the bones are still there.
He then coated the inside with shaoxing wine, soy sauce,
oyster sauce, white pepper, and sesame oil.
He used dark soy sauce for flavor base and rubbed it in.
As that was marinating, he put together the stuffing,
Stir-frying onions and ginger for aroma with flash-fried chicken tenderloin,
then adding shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and chintan stock.
This is where the dried shiitake and glass noodles come in.
Flavor again with oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil,
and white pepper before stuffing the bird.
Then he steamed the bird.
After that was done, he gave it a brushing of soy and dark soy sauce
before frying it at a high temperature.
That was to bring out the richness of the soy sauce.
Once it was golden, he started simmering it to build flavor.
Point being that Akiyama's sparing no effort in this complex dish.
Steaming it to cook it thoroughly, frying it to enhance the aroma,
and then letting it simmer to build flavor.
What he's putting into this doesn't pale in comparison to sous vide.
I'd say that, as it stands,
Akiyama's dish and Kawahara's are on even ground.
So I'd wager... whoever slips up will be the one going down.
Whoever slips up?
Okay.
Oh, looks like he's done.
Thank goodness...
He really did use the full two hours.
Now let's see the finishing touches.
I guess Akiyama's done. That means it's time for me to polish things up.
From what I saw, there's no way I'm losing.
Steaming, frying, and then simmering?
That's no match for my sous vide technique.
Hey, Kawahara.
Thanks for screwing around for two hours.
I really appreciate it.
Your goofing off let me build up enough umami
to put out a dish that a machine could never produce.
Much obliged, you lazy dumbass.
I'm gonna teach you with my cooking that there are no limits to flavor!
Of all the nonsense to throw around...
Umami is something you can always add after the fact.
All it takes is a bit of sauce when you're finishing up.
I appreciate the heads-up, though.
Time's up!
Competitors, please bring your dishes before the judges!
FENG XIANG FENSI: YOUNG CHICKEN STUFFED WITH SAUCY GLASS NOODLES
CHUNCHA FENG XIANG YUCHI: YOUNG CHICKEN STUFFED WITH SHARK FIN IN SHINCHA
Th-They both look kinda good...
You... You might be right.
Well, they both have a fine color!
Akiyama's dish is a bit plain,
but the coloring of the soy sauce makes it look quite flavorful.
Meanwhile, Kawahara-kun's pale bird with that light green sauce is quite dazzling.
And it has that light aroma
you get from sous vide that's quite appetizing.
The sense of taste isn't that complicated.
There's no need for convoluted flavor profiles.
You just need to guide their attention.
Some shincha was all it took to get that light green color and make it fragrant.
It'll make the flavor more intriguing...
All too easy.
I can produce any kind of flavor imaginable
as long as I can sous vide.
I'll move on to the semifinals, then the finals and win the championship,
and everyone in the culinary world will know my name!
What's got you feeling so cocky?
Considering that mish-mash of a meal you threw together...
M-Mish-mash?!
Enough is enough, Akiyama. The judging is already underway!
I saw. You got spooked and tossed some xin cha on yours, right?
You fell for my taunt and went off course.
"You can always add umami after the fact," my ass.
You use machines as a crutch and let other people goad you.
Sure as hell looks to me like you don't have any faith in your cooking!
What...?!
Kawahara-kun.
Y-Yes?
What in the world is this?
I'm asking you what you thought you were going to be feeding us when you made this!
It's an excess of ingredients, clearly.
And the taste suffered quite a bit because of it.
Hard to believe you made it past the preliminaries
and your first match, to be honest.
The juicy flavor of the whole chicken you cooked sous vide was wonderful, yes.
But the fancy ingredients that you stuffed it with
are just a bundle of flavors. There's no rhyme or reason to them.
The result is almost unpleasant.
And the sauce you added at the end...
The aroma of the shincha you added to finish
throws the balance of the whole dish off!
It made a waste of the truffles you had added early on.
Candidly, your dish is a total hodgepodge.
And Akiyama-kun's steamed, fried, and simmered dish
has built flavor in a way that makes yours look haphazard.
I'm afraid you chose poorly.
Kawahara.
How many times have you made this dish of yours?
Twice? Maybe three times?
Cooking always comes down to experience, idiot!
Arms that have flipped a wok hundreds and thousands of times make the best food!
All your data and book learning
are worth barely a fraction of what I've been through!
The difference between Akiyama Jan and Kawahara Yuji was starkly evident
in the tiny portion of Kawahara's dish that the judges ate!
This... This can't be...
A-And our winner is Akiyama Jan from Gobancho's Chinese!
AKIYAMA JAN PROCEEDS TO THE THIRD ROUND
Akiyama Jan proceeds to the third round!
EPISODE 7: TOSS THAT WOK!