In a sense, Zhao Li Yu could be counted as lucky for going up right after Ye Ping. At the very least, his presentation was pretty much the same as hers: Just a bowl with the congee filled into it and nothing else. Well, at the very least, he hadn’t taken a simple white bowl and had instead picked one of the colorful ones. So it was slightly nicer to look at.

Unfortunately, this was only true until the three judges looked at the dish inside. Seeing the plain congee inside that didn’t even have the vegetables that Ye Ping had used in hers, Xiao Ming felt like laughing.

Originally, he hadn’t been on board with making him a contestant on the first episode because he had felt that he hadn’t put his best foot forward when it came to the dish he had made in the casting. At that time, he had really thought that there was something like cooking too simple. Now, he had to say that those fried shrimps with cashew had actually been quite elaborate compared to this congee.

It really showed that it was true that there were mountains beyond mountains and heavens beyond heavens. Even when it came to the simplicity of food, that was true. You could always go one step further. Looking at it this way, he was curious what else Zhao Li Yu would be able to come up with over the course of the show.

Chu Yu An didn’t have the previous experience from the casting and had no idea what had been discussed behind closed doors, but seeing as the task had been to just make congee, she didn’t feel that anything was odd about somebody making congee without any additional ingredients.

Anyway, while she was somebody who liked to add twists to dishes, she also knew that many people loved the more traditional variations since that was what they had grown up with and were used to. There was always a hint of nostalgia mixed in that made them taste even nicer to them. So why shouldn’t somebody make congee with nothing else but rice and water? It didn’t seem that bad.

Mister Yu had half-expected this to be the result when it was Zhao Li Yu cooking so he also didn’t say anything and just picked up his spoon, giving it a taste.

In the meantime, E Cheng Jun used the opportunity to get a few more words in once again. “Mister Zhao, while the judges are giving your congee a taste, can I also ask you what your idea was behind making this type?”

Zhao Li Yu gave a curt nod in response. “Too difficult.”

E Cheng Jun stared at him, not quite sure what to make of this. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I didn’t quite get that. What’s too difficult?”

Zhao Li Yu glanced at her with a confused expression as if he really wasn’t sure what she meant. “Cooking.”

Meanwhile, nineteen pairs of eyes fell on Zhao Li Yu and then couldn’t help but turn to the person in the first row. Really too similar, ah! Don’t tell them the old master had had a secret second child somewhere out there?

While the ninjas were having fun thinking about such possibilities, E Cheng Jun regretted that she had tried to get in another sentence. It might be screen time but it wasn’t good screen time if she looked like an idiot. If the viewers at home saw the scene and had no trouble figuring this out while she just wouldn’t get it, how would she look?

Thinking of that, she could only force a smile and move on without elaborating. “Now, that’s an interesting perspective. Let’s see what the judges think of the final result!” With that, she hastily stepped aside, letting the judges take over.

This time, it really was Xiao Ming’s turn to go first. He looked at the congee for a moment before he glanced up at Zhao Li Yu. Actually, he also wasn’t completely sure if he understood what he had just said. But keeping the angle in mind that the others had chosen, he at least had a rough guess. “If I understood you right, you meant that congee is often being eaten when one is sick just like some of the other contestants mentioned they would.

“Being in that situation where you already have little energy, it’s too difficult to prepare something more elaborate, right? So you would go with the simplest congee you could make which would just consist of rice and water and maybe some seasoning.

“Well, I think that’s a very good approach. In a sense, congee really is easy to make. You can prepare it for a few minutes, and then just put it in a pot somewhere and let it cook on its own. You can even prepare portions ahead of time to eat later, saving you the effort of making more meals. So when you’re sick but have to take care of yourself, it really is a good dish to choose. You don’t have to expend too much energy but you can still eat a filling meal, making sure that your state won’t worsen because you have eaten too little.

“Looking at it from that perspective, I really think that your congee is spot on. From what I’ve seen, you really didn’t prepare too much ahead of time and also chose a pretty hands-off approach while the congee was cooking. Contrary to most others, you didn’t open the pot even once to stir in-between.” He glanced at the bowl in front of him again and finally nodded. “I think all things considered, for your congee, it comes down to consistency.

“What’s interesting about this one is that, apparently, you used quite a bit more water than the others. Thus, the final dish is less creamy and more of a very thin rice soup. I guess that this also fits in with your idea of eating this while sick since drinking it might be easier.

“So yes, I think that considering the situation you thought up, this is very good. Of course, the congee still could have cooked for a while longer, but within the time constraints, I really think you did a good job.”

Zhao Li Yu really wasn’t a man of many words so he just nodded, but he did look quite happy, actually giving a smile.

Si Jin had noticed the gazes of the ninjas and could figure that there was some resemblance between the two of them when it came to how they talked. As such, he couldn’t help but pay some more attention to Zhao Li Yu’s interaction with Xiao Ming.

Seeing him smile effortlessly without looking like a total idiot, he couldn’t help but feel a bit envious. He really wished that he was able to do that. But somehow, when he smiled it didn’t look that good, did it? Ah, this was probably something he should practice soon. Otherwise, in the long run, his chances would be worse than Zhao Li Yu’s.

While the master of the Si clan was having a bit of an identity crisis, Mister Yu already took over. “I will agree that this fits your philosophy behind cooking this dish very well. It’s also nice to see somebody choose a bit of a different approach in the amount of water they used. So far, the congees have been rather similar in the ratio of rice and water. So this is a nice change of pace for once.” At that point, he wasn’t quite sure what to say anymore. Really, talking about congee this much, there was also a limit to how much he was able to say without repeating himself.

Xiao Ming had already covered the major points, so he could really only echo his words. With no other ingredients to speak of and also seeing how Zhao Li Yu didn’t even seem to have seasoned this very much, Mister Yu had a hard time thinking of anything. By now, he was honestly considering talking about the plating.

He kept quiet for a moment, not quite sure what else to say about this plain bowl of congee. Anyway, if he did talk about the plating, then what should Chu Yu An say? Considering that he was a main judge and she was only a temporary judge who could only leave the viewers with a good impression today, he didn’t feel like he should take any feedback from her. So in the end, he just turned to look at her, quietly asking for what she wanted to do.

Chu Yu An needed a moment to register that Mister Yu was looking at her, and then raised her brows. For a moment, she didn’t get his dilemma but then realized that he was just trying to do her a favor. It really made her feel like he was a kind grandfatherly figure.

Actually, she had heard that he had a granddaughter that was also getting into cooking, so maybe it wasn’t a wonder that he wanted to take care of her. She might remind him of that girl. That really was too sweet!

To be honest, for her personally, it didn’t matter what kind of impression the viewers here would have. After all, her business was based overseas and most of the visitors would never watch the show. So she could actually take it easy. But seeing how he wanted to help her, Chu Yu An felt like requiting the favor and turned back to the front.

“Aiya, Mister Zhao, you’re really not making it easy for us. You’ve chosen the simplest approach to make this dish and you’ve plated it in pretty much the simplest way you could have, and now you’re expecting three people to talk about it and tell you something new! What are we supposed to do?

“Really, in this case, I can also just echo what Mister Xiao just said. The consistency is alright in terms of the time limit, even though I guess it would have profited off being cooked just slightly longer if this really was made to be eaten by a sick person. But overall, it’s already ready very good. The higher amount of water that was being used also fits, so there really isn’t anything to complain about.

“Now, speaking of the plating, as Mister Xiao and Mister Yu haven’t brought that up yet, I do like that you used a colorful bowl for this. Since the congee itself is really plain, that gives us something to look at. Was that intentional?” She looked at him quizzically, feeling that the answer should probably be a no. A guy that went into this with the explanation that ‘cooking was too difficult’ probably wouldn’t think too much about the bowl that he could choose and would just grab the closest one.

Indeed, Zhao Li Yu straightforwardly shook his head. Anyway, he had just picked one at random because it looked nice. That couldn’t really be called intentional, could it? He didn’t try to explain himself though.

Chu Yu An nodded slowly. “That’s what I thought. Anyway, even if it wasn’t intention, intuition is also important in cooking. I think that this time, you really had the right idea when you went for this one.

“A plain dish being plated this way definitely looks good. For a more complicated one, you always have to make sure that the tableware doesn’t detract from the overall presentation. Yes, this isn’t all that bad. I think it’s really good, actually, but I’m afraid that we really don’t know what else to tell you about this. It’s a good bowl of congee, please take a seat again.”

Zhao Li Yu was a straightforward person so being told to just sit down again, he nodded. Before he turned around though, he picked up the bowl of congee, and then carried it back with him to his own seat.

He was the first contestant to do that, so everyone couldn’t help but watch. Seeing him return to his cooking station, sit down, and then actually pick up his spoon to eat the rest of the congee, everyone was a bit stunned. This was … well, he definitely couldn’t be called wasteful.

Xiao Ming smiled, feeling that this guy was pretty interesting, before he glanced at E Cheng Jun, waiting for her to pull herself out of her daze, and get the next contestant to the front.

Anyway, by now, they had barely managed to get through half a dozen of them. He didn’t even want to imagine how long it would take to go through sixty-four. And the problem of not knowing what to say would probably be even more prevalent the more contestants they had seen. After all, the feedback you could give really wasn’t all that varied, was it?

You could talk about the consistency, the amount of water, the choice of other ingredients, the overall taste, and then the plating. Maybe you could also throw in something about the philosophy if the contestant had done them the favor of actually explaining enough to make any kind of conjecture from it.

But other than that, he really didn’t know what to say. And as it seemed, he was not the only one with that dilemma. Well, in a sense, it was also good that there were three of them. If it had only been him, he really would’ve been worried about what kind of impression he would leave.