The four judges discussed for about five minutes, during which there seed to have been so disputes, but fortunately, a consensus was reached in the end.
Group leader Gaggan Anand announced the final result.
"Congratulations, Chef Sun i, you may stay and continue to participate in the upcoming contests."
After saying this, he looked at Luo Junkang, "Chef Luo Junkang, we have discussed and feel that your loofah tea crackers are impeccable in terms of flavor, and the idea of incorporating coconut into the tea spread is quite interesting.
"You've achieved the effect of slling the coconut fragrance without seeing the coconut flesh, but similar ideas have been executed by other contestants before, so the surprise it brought us was not as strong.
"Furthermore, in terms of visual impact and originality, 'Night in a Strange Land' is superior to the loofah tea crackers, so after our discussion, we've decided to let Chef Sun i advance."
"Alright," Luo Junkang remained impassive and nodded, "I'm out of ti anyway, honestly, even if I went to the next round, I'd only be there to be eliminated."
"Oh, and please do not leave the banquet hall for now. There will be an award ceremony for the first, second, and third place after the contest is over," the female host reminded.
As Luo Junkang stepped down from the cooking station, the competition finally moved on to the last segnt.
Only Sun i and Ma Lu were left as contestants, and the ti remaining on their tirs was 28 minutes and 12 seconds, and... 4 minutes and 43 seconds, respectively.
The disparity was huge.
Normally speaking, Sun i should have this in the bag.
However, her opponent was the monster-like Ma Lu, who had scored full marks for five consecutive rounds.
Not to ntion 4 minutes and 43 seconds, even if there were only 60 seconds left, Sun i would not feel secure.
However, as it stood, her strategy did indeed seem to have been effective, managing to pass the fourth and fifth rounds without much of a hitch, leaving her nearly half an hour's ti for cooking in the final battle.
And she had already prepared for the decisive battle long ago.
Yet upon the start of the contest, Sun i suddenly stood still, motionless.
"Eh, what's wrong with Xiao i?" Qiu Lele wondered.
"Why hasn't she started? I saw she had three pots on the stove during the second round, simring sothing. Now she's only used one, and the other two haven't been touched. Shouldn't she be confident about her last dish?"
"She's hesitating," Sun He said indifferently.
Seeing Qiu Lele looking puzzled, Sun He explained, "I've watched her grow up. She's been hailed as a prodigy since she was young, with astonishing culinary talent. She's had smooth sailing all along, rarely encountering any adversaries who could match her.
"So she's beco increasingly arrogant and confident in her culinary skills and the path she's chosen. This is both good and bad.
"After all, if a person cannot trust their own choices, it's hard for them to persist and continue to excel, and they end up in a never-ending internal struggle."
"But this confidence also hinders her from exploring more possibilities. The more competitions she wins and the more praise she receives, the more narrow-minded her vision becos."
"As a result, this ti she's t a truly formidable opponent, whose overwhelming skills and understanding of ingredients are clearly superior to hers, causing her an unprecedented intense shock.
"This shock is so intense that it has made her doubt the path she has been following all along."
"In the current situation, it ans she no longer believes that the dish she is about to make can defeat her opponent," Sun He said, "That's why she's now standing there, caught in a dilemma."
And as the two of them were talking, Ma Lu had already stopped the tir, finishing his cooking.
He had prepared this dish well in advance, and now he was just wrapping things up, which was why it was so quick.
After stopping the tir, Boss Ma was already pondering how he should spend the prize money. Three million wasn't a lot for him at the mont, especially considering the taxes, but money is sothing no one would ever turn down.
Hmm, maybe so people would say they don't care about money, but if you stopped them from earning it, they'd certainly get agitated.
Ma Lu was planning to buy himself a new TV with the championship prize money. He had his eye on a TV from TCL, the flagship model with a 115-inch miniled screen.
Not expensive, just under 800,000, so he'd still have 1.6 million left.
At that mont, he noticed Sun i standing motionless on the opposite side.
Five full minutes into the contest, and Sun i still hadn't started cooking.
She just furrowed her brows, standing in place, her expression changing unpredictably.
Ma Lu couldn't help but get curious. He turned his head and asked the staff mber next to him, "Competitors can talk during the contest, right?"
"Ah?" The staff mber was totally taken aback by such an odd request.
His thought was, brother, it's a serious competition, and now we're at the final round—could you please be a little more serious?
But before he could respond, Ma Lu was already muttering to himself, "It should be allowed, right? The first day I talked to other contestants, and even tead up with your female host."
"Chef Ma Lu, please wait a mont, let check with the higher-ups," the staff mber said while wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Hurry up, then; ti is ticking," Ma Lu urged.
"Okay."
The staff mber pulled out his phone, and half a minute later, he replied, "I've checked, and indeed there's no such restriction, but... hey, hey."
He hadn't finished speaking when Ma Lu had already started walking toward Sun i.
At this ti, Sun i looked sowhat strange, lacking her prior arrogance and confidence, her eyes unfocused, cheeks slightly flushed, with sweat beading on her forehead.
She was murmuring to herself, "No, it's not enough, it's not enough! There must be so way!"
Not until her shoulder was tapped did Sun i sowhat snap out of her dazed state.
Then she saw a face close enough to touch her own.
"Hey, it's a competition; co on, pull yourself together!"
"Huh," Sun i exhaled a breath of relief, "Why is it you?"
"I don't know what you think of , but after these days together, I've co to consider you a friend. When a friend is in trouble, of course, I have to co and check," Ma Lu said.
"I'm not talking about that. I an, how can you co over to my side?"
"I asked the staff, and they said it's not against the rules," Ma Lu said, "You know , I just like to wander around."
"Is your dish finished?"
"It's done," Ma Lu said, then asked, "What about yours?"
"I've run into so trouble," Sun i didn't conceal, "I don't know what to do."
"Do you want to hear my advice?"
"Go ahead."
"Make your favorite dish."
"Are you kidding? If I like fried chicken, am I supposed to serve up fried chicken?"
"Why not? You can't beat anyway, just make sothing that makes you happy. Look at Master Luo making tea crackers, he seed pretty pleased. He tried a bunch of things, but in the end, he found that this was what suited him best."
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