Food Wars: Taste Reversal

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The moment you take a bite, the beef not only bounces up in your mouth, but when it touches your teeth, it melts in your mouth in the truest sense. The bursting soup and gravy fill your mouth, and a thick, mellow aroma slowly flows from your mouth into your stomach.

Lecturer Chapelle suddenly opened his eyes. As a well-known French chef, of course, he tasted it in one bite. This was no longer a student-level dish. The dish in front of him was fully qualified to be served in a high-end restaurant as a main course. Many long-established graduates were only at this level.

Of course, such a thought appeared only for a moment, and he didn't even notice it. He was about to eat the whole plate of beef. The mellow aroma of red wine, combined with the soft and elastic beef, seemed to carry a hint of licorice. In that moment, it was as if he could smell a naturally grown cow leisurely grazing on grass, while not far away, the river flowed gently. But instead of clear water, the river flowed with the enticing, rich aroma of red wine.

Lecturer Chapelle was momentarily lost in thought and suddenly realized that there was something crucial in this dish that he hadn't yet noticed. After carefully tasting it, he suddenly realized what it was.

It was the heat!

Shiraki didn't use any kitchen utensils to cook the Burgundy red wine beef stew, so the finished dish was slightly different from the traditional Burgundy red wine beef stew in terms of taste. With ordinary beef, once placed in the pot, it can only be stirred with a pot and spoon. But in Shiraki's cooking, while cooking the beef, he simultaneously optimized the entire dish, grasping every detail. It was like a perfect control over the whole kitchen. Any ingredient that entered the kitchen had no choice but to be controlled, allowing it to showcase the most authentic taste. This way of cooking... was a miracle in itself!

Lecturer Chapelle ate and ate, a smile gradually appearing on his face. This was not only a reflection of top-tier cuisine, but also because while tasting this dish, he was suddenly reminded of some happy memories. A dish that can bring such heartfelt happiness is undoubtedly a top-tier dish.

This year's Totsuki Culinary School is truly talented!

"Shiraki Group... Grade A!"

After finishing the entire beef stew with Burgundy red wine, Lecturer Chapelle gave his evaluation.

He didn't ask how the texture of the beef was made, because everyone had seen the process of preparing the beef. It was absolutely impossible for anyone to replicate this technique. Even if someone knew how to process the beef with a blade, could anyone else do it? It would be a joke.

When the other students in the training room heard this result, they all turned to look at the young man standing at the cooking table cleaning the kitchen utensils. This time, however, everyone's eyes were filled with deep jealousy.

This kind of cooking... is unheard of!

Heating the beef with kitchen utensils, optimizing the taste while frying, and even injecting seasoning directly into the beef with such a violent technique while stewing—this made the taste of every piece of meat rich and full of layers. Was this even something humans could do?

"It's miserable, there's still one hour left!"

At this moment, someone suddenly glanced at the time on the wall and remembered they were still in class—Lecturer Chapelle's class, the one known as "the chef who never smiles." They had just witnessed Shiraki's amazing cooking process, and had been stunned for nearly an hour!

There was also a group that had been cooking just now. Looking at the burnt soup in front of them, they were on the verge of tears. After the huge movement Shiraki just made, how could they not be distracted? Anyone would be worried about whether the kitchen knives would fall off or forks would fly at their heads!

After a brief silence, the entire classroom was suddenly in chaos.

"This piece of meat can't be used! Go get new meat!"

"Where's the spice? What happened to the spices? Did you just knock them over?"

"This soup is completely ruined, hurry up and get new ingredients to remake it!"

"Soma-kun, why are you still reading the recipe?!"

Panicked voices filled the classroom. Even though they still had an hour left, it was more than enough to calm down and follow the steps. But the students were completely panicked. Lecturer Chapelle watched the messy scene below and couldn't help but shake his head. It seemed that today's pass rate would be very low.

These scrambling students managed to remake a Burgundy red wine goulash. Of course, some groups with solid basic skills managed to produce a decent finished product even in such chaos. But they quickly discovered something that made them desperate.

"Grade E."

Lecturer Chapelle ruthlessly announced the failure of another group. This was the fifth group to fail in the training room. Originally, their Burgundy red wine beef stew, whether it was the heat or the handling of the beef, would have been A-grade in a regular class. But the problem was the dish Shiraki had just made.

Although Lecturer Chapelle had tasted SS-class dishes in the past, those were typically reserved for finales, so such dishes couldn't be found everywhere. The reason Shiraki's fruit tart last time received an SS grade was because the sweet, whole fruit forcibly enhanced the quality of the dish. After tasting SS-grade dishes, any defects in later dishes became magnified in Lecturer Chapelle's mouth. Even those dishes that could have earned an A grade became hard to stomach.

Eventually, an hour passed, and only one student managed to qualify.

"Eh, is my food also E-class?"

Soma Yukihira touched his head and looked at the dish that had been rated E by Lecturer Chapelle. The meat was too tough, not elastic enough, and the mellow aroma of red wine wasn't rich enough. Lecturer Chapelle pointed out a bunch of issues, and Soma tasted it himself, thinking it tasted like the usual fare. He had even deliberately added honey to it, but he still didn't know why such a dish couldn't pass Lecturer Chapelle's review.

"I'm telling you, this won't work!"

The little fat guy in Soma's group was almost in tears. So, everyone else, except Shiraki's group, was failing?

Megumi Tadokoro, meanwhile, looked at the other students in the classroom, who were weakly kneeling on the ground and beating their chests. No one had expected that just after the start of class, those who had commented on Lecturer Chapelle's E-grade dishes would be the ones struggling the most. Now, everyone felt like their future at the academy was dark.

The student who had spoken ill of her earlier was now frantically working at the cooking table. From the looks of it, their group wouldn't even make it to the end of class.

At that moment, Megumi remembered something Shiraki had said to her earlier. She had thought it was just a joke between them, but now it seemed that the joke had come true!

"In this classroom today, no one is going to get an A grade except for the two of us."

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