By the day of the food competition, the strange atmosphere that had been hovering between Jhin and Megumin had finally dissipated entirely. Everyone got ready at home and set off together for the competition venue.
At first, they'd all assumed it was just a modest little event put on by the shopping district. The grand Roman-style colosseum that greeted them — and the crowd around it that stretched as far as the eye could see — left them genuinely stunned.
Kyaru's jaw dropped. "This... this scale, this venue — this is basically an official royal-capital food competition, isn't it?"
She had apparently been looking for information about the competition in entirely the wrong direction.
"Ahaha, the owner just told me it was an annual food competition — I really didn't expect it to be this grand."
"Everyone around us seems to be chefs and food enthusiasts." Kokkoro had been catching snippets of conversation from the people nearby, and every last one of them was about cuisine and ingredients.
"Ugh... so many people." Megumin clutched her cheering flag and sidled closer to Jhin. She'd never been fond of large crowds — though if the crowd had gathered to witness the glory of her Explosion magic, that would have been an entirely different matter.
The moment Jhin laid eyes on the enormous banner emblazoned with the words "Grand Culinary Conclave," his internal commentary went into overdrive. Did a name like that not just beg for all manner of bizarre characters to show up uninvited?
Aliens with tails growing out of their backsides. Blue-haired chefs whose cooking glowed golden. Red-haired cooks who specialized in slipping things into dishes.
If Kakarot shows up I'm the first one out of here, no question.
Pecorine pointed to the left. "Never mind the details — the competitors' entrance is over there. Let's go."
Compared to the audience entrance, which was packed to bursting, the competitors' entrance was almost tranquil. Only the occasional scattered group drifted through it into the arena.
They waded through the surging tide of spectators and passed through the competitors' entrance — and there, standing just inside, was the owner of Wild Eats, apparently working as an inspector checking the participating teams.
"You're not competing this time, owner?"
"Oh, you made it. The grand prize this year doesn't interest me much, so I sat this one out. Go on in — the rest of your group who aren't competing can wait in the contestants' lounge and watch from there."
"Understood — thank you!"
"Mm. Give it your all."
Pecorine jogged back to rejoin the group. "Let's go. It's such a shame the owner isn't competing this time — I was really looking forward to testing my culinary skills against him."
The moment they stepped into the contestants' lounge, the MC's energetic voice came pouring out of the magic broadcast system.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the annual Grand Culinary Conclave!"
"As in years past, the greatest chefs of the continent of Astraea have gathered here to compete for the title of Culinary God and the champion's prize. From the intelligence I alone have managed to gather, no fewer than three chefs who have previously claimed the Culinary God title will be competing today."
"In the humble opinion of an ordinary person such as myself, this year's grand prize seems perhaps a touch... unworthy of the occasion — and yet, three Culinary Gods have come for it. It must possess some unique charm all its own!"
"Without further ado — the competition officially begins in one hour. All contestants, please submit your prepared ingredients to the organizers for inspection. Once cleared, proceed to the competition stage and select your preferred cooking station."
Megumin gnawed irritably at her thumbnail, her expression stormy. "Damn it — three Culinary Gods, all trying to steal the cola recipe before I can get to it."
"It's me and Pecorine who are actually competing, you know. What are you getting worked up about?"
"Jhin, what are our chances? If it really comes down to it, I could fire off an Explosion spell from up high, scare everyone off, and then we quietly take the—" Ow! "What was that for?!"
Jhin lowered his hand from the chop he'd delivered to her head and looked at Megumin, who was clutching her skull and glaring daggers at him. "After all the meals Pecorine and I have cooked for you, the least you could do is have a little faith in us."
"I... I do have faith in your abilities, obviously. I only suggested that to make absolutely sure we get the recipe, that's all..."
"Drop the scheming. If it's a competition, we win it fair and square. Pecorine — let's go."
"Right."
The ingredient inspection existed to prevent contestants from gaining an unfair advantage by using ingredients with special magical effects. Everything Jhin and Pecorine had brought was ordinary produce and monster meat from their recent hunts — they sailed through the inspection without issue, and then chose a cooking station positioned so that Kokkoro and the others could watch from the lounge.
Jhin gave a wave toward the contestants' lounge, then turned to Pecorine. "Recognize any of the other competing chefs?"
"None of them..."
While the two of them chatted, the MC's voice returned over the broadcast, walking the audience through the competition's format.
The contest was divided into three rounds corresponding to the three meals of the day — breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Competing chefs would prepare each in sequence. Judges would sample each dish in rotation and award scores out of ten, with six as the passing mark. Contestants needed a score of six or above in both breakfast and lunch to advance to the dinner round.
In the dinner round, only scores of eight or above would earn a place in the final challenge: the midnight snack.
"All right — just as we discussed, let's start with breakfast." Jhin tied on his kitchen apron and held out a second one to Pecorine.
"On it!"
For the breakfast round, Pecorine had originally planned to make a Deepwood Wild Boar sandwich — but Jhin had felt it wasn't distinctive enough to stand out in a competition. Instead, he'd introduced her to a traditional breakfast noodle from his homeland: rice vermicelli. One taste, and she had immediately swapped her entire breakfast menu on the spot.
Rice vermicelli is a type of noodle made entirely from rice — no wheat flour, no additional ingredients of any kind.
Jhin poured the rice he had soaked overnight into a small stone mill and spun the grinding wheel at a brisk, practiced pace. Milky white rice slurry flowed out in a slow, steady stream. Once every last grain had been ground, he filtered the slurry through a cloth, yielding a basin of liquid that looked like fresh milk but carried a faint, clean fragrance of rice.
He brushed a thin, even layer of oil across the bottom of a flat pan, ladled in a scoop of the rice slurry, and held the pan over the flame, slowly tilting and rotating it so the slurry spread into an even sheet — painting the black iron surface white, like draping it in a layer of translucent gauze.
With a gentle, careful motion, he peeled the rice sheet from the pan, laid it onto an iron tray, and slid it into a steamer billowing with white vapor.
After about two minutes, Jhin quickly lifted the lid — keeping it angled so no condensation dripped back onto the sheet — then set the tray to cool briefly on the surface of cold water. He peeled the sheet off once more, brushed it with oil, and cut it into strips. The rice vermicelli was done.
The noodles lay on the cutting board in neat rows — translucent, lustrous, with a springy elasticity you could almost see. Jhin stopped Pecorine just as she was about to start preparing a broth. Made the conventional way, this would be nothing more than a perfectly ordinary bowl of rice noodles; the unusual preparation method might earn them a point or two above average, but no more.
To be absolutely certain of taking the championship — to ensure there were no surprises — he needed something more unconventional. After all, he was a son of a civilization built on culinary tradition. It was only right that the other world receive a small, emphatic shock to its sense of taste.
Mind made up, Jhin reached out and took hold of the Deepwood Wild Boar meat set aside nearby.
____
👻🔥Heey! Walnut-chan for more chapters!🔥👻
🔥 New history: A Martial Arts Master Will Never Be Humiliated
Help us reach these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 universal bonus chapter