Chapter 547: 547: Worthy of Pingla Academy

“Moreover, it’s mixed with some unknown tiny leaves in the middle, which look like weeds.” Grace Green said.

“Indeed, if you don’t have a detailed understanding of these ingredients and plants, it is easy to miss them,” Rosaline Parker said. “This competition tests the contestant’s adaptability and mastery of various ingredients.”

“Actually, the organizers didn’t mean to make it difficult for the contestants,” Wesley Gordon explained. “After all, this jungle is artificially created, not a real one.”

“If it were a real wilderness, you would hardly find any wild vegetables, let alone chicken, duck, and spices. But here, the organizers put these things in inconspicuous places.”

“For example, the spices found by the contestants earlier, as well as these seemingly unremarkable but useful leaves, each have different growing conditions. They were all temporarily transplanted by the organizers for the convenience of the contestants.”

“In such an environment, these plants wouldn’t last for more than a few days,” Wesley Gordon explained.

“This competition, in a nutshell, is about giving contestants a limited set of ingredients, testing their discerning eye, and mastery of various ingredients and properties. This is the most basic skill a qualified cook should possess.”

“If they don’t observe carefully enough or cannot even recognize all the ingredients, they won’t stand a chance in this competition.”

“In a restaurant, everything is ready-made because it’s delivered through their own supply chain. But if no one gives you ready-made items, and you have to look at their most primitive form, there is no need to be a cook if you can’t even recognize these,”

“The organizers provided everything they should, and as long as you can find them, you can make a decent dish,” Hunter Clarke said.

“Cindy Clarke did a good job on this,” Grace Green said with a smile.

“She first discovered that the environment was not a real wilderness, and then analyzed that it was specially prepared by the organizers. Only with this premise could she start observing carefully, finding a variety of ingredients and spices that other contestants might need.”

“Without these premises, they might not have paid close attention to the unremarkable plants under their feet, which were the materials they needed,” Grace Green said.

“That’s right,” Charles Dean nodded, pointing to the big screen.

At this time, the big screen just switched to Blake Walker.

“You see, Blake Walker didn’t have the patience at the beginning of the competition, and he had a prejudice against Cindy Clarke, so he thought she was deliberately wasting time. Blake Walker left first, not hearing Cindy’s later analysis,” Charles Dean said.

He was obviously biased towards Cindy Clarke in his words.

Regardless, Charles Dean didn’t care what the audience thought.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

After all, he was stating the truth.

“So far, Blake Walker has only caught one duck, found no spices, and has only a small bottle of salt in his bag,” Charles Dean said.

“If he can’t find anything else, I’m afraid he may only make roast duck or salt-water duck today,” Hunter Clarke guessed.

Cindy Clarke then went to pick a few Indocalamus leaves.

“What are these leaves usually used for?” Grace Green asked again.

Rosaline Parker answered, “Indocalamus leaves are native to the south and are mainly used to wrap rice dumplings. Southern people like meat dumplings and wrapping them with Indocalamus leaves gives them a delicate bamboo fragrance, which also helps to remove greasiness.”

“I guess Cindy Clarke might want to use these leaves to wrap the chicken,” Michael Greene said. “She’s probably going for Beggar’s Chicken.”

“After all, there are limitations, and the organizers didn’t provide pots for the contestants. They only have matches and a knife in their bags. So they can only use available resources and choose some more primitive methods,” Wesley Gordon explained.

Sure enough, as the judges had analyzed, Cindy Clarke returned to the artificial stream.

First, she used the multitool she picked before to clean the chicken’s internal organs.

She cut off the chicken’s rear end.

She mashed basil and rosemary together but due to limitations, couldn’t get them too fine.

Mixed together with minced garlic, she made a sauce.

Using the opening left from cutting off the chicken’s rear end, she stuffed in fresh pepper, thyme, a very small amount of rosemary.

“What’s that Cindy Clarke is holding now?” Grace Green asked.

Her main hosting field was entertainment programs, including variety shows and big events.

She rarely cooked, only recognizing some common vegetables in supermarkets.

As for spices, they were all well-packaged and labeled in supermarkets.

If the labels were removed, Grace Green wouldn’t know which one is which.

Not to mention that these are fresh and unprocessed.

“This is a bay leaf, also known as a bay laurel leaf. It is a common ingredient in the usual braised dishes, as well as the popular spicy duck neck we eat, and it is used as a flavor enhancer,” Hunter Clarke explained.

“Oh, my God, to me, this just looks like an ordinary leaf. I wonder how Cindy Clarke recognized it,” Grace Green sighed.

“This is a test of a chef’s basic skills. Recognizing these spices is a very basic matter,” Wesley Gordon said.

“Can students from Pingla Academy recognize them as well?” Grace Green asked Wesley Gordon again.

“Of course, since it’s a basic skill, they must recognize all of these by the end of their first semester, regardless of their state. Even if ground into powder and unrecognizable, they should be able to identify them just by tasting them,” Wesley Gordon said, unable to hide his pride.

Otherwise, how could their students from Pingla Academy stand out in the culinary world?

“No wonder it’s Pingla Academy,” Grace Green praised them at the right moment.

Cindy Clarke then stuffed the bay leaves into the chicken.

“What is this…?” Grace Green saw that Cindy Clarke took out a plant that looked like a flower.

The petals looked tiny, like small wildflowers.

The cameraman immediately went for a close-up to get a clearer shot.

“This is cumin,” Michael Greene said.

“Is this what cumin looks like originally?” Grace Green was surprised.

“Yes, see, she’s peeling it one by one, and there are cumin seeds inside,” Michael Greene explained.

Cindy Clarke peeled off a small pinch of cumin and also put it inside the chicken.

Rosaline Parker said, “In a simulated wilderness environment, because there are too many restrictions and not enough conditions for proper marination and removal of chicken’s gamey taste in advance. I think, Cindy Clarke is putting so many different spices to use their flavors to mask the chicken’s gamey taste.”