Chapter 273

One of the judges asked her, “What is it that you are going to make today?”

Tong Xuelu said, “Spicy meat stir fry and hot and sour julienne potatoes.”The three judges shook their heads when they heard that. They felt that both of these dishes were too common, so it would be very difficult to make them stand out.All of the men outside cracked their mouths open. Yep, they knew it. Women did not belong in the kitchen.Spicy meat stir fry and potatoes. How could they possibly taste good?Knowing that the rest of them would be doing dishes such as braised pork or steamed fish.Tong Xuelu ignored all the jeering around her and went right ahead to start cooking after she had answered the question.The others quickly noticed that something was off.Everybody expected that given her age, Tong Xuelu would barely be able to hold the cleaver up straight. Lo and behold, the cleaver could stir up wind under her hand.Her actions were clean. With no unnecessary pauses in between, the potatoes had been julienned in no time.None of the men out there could accomplish that.“Alright, maybe she does have some skills.”“I know, right? I forewent julienne potatoes precisely because I can’t dice them fast or even enough!”“So what if she was good with the chopping? It doesn’t mean that she can cook. Why else would there be no female chefs in the entire capital city?”Tong Xuelu was very focused when she cooked, not paying attention to anything else that was going on around her.When she tossed the green onions, gingers, and garlic into the wok with heated oil, a very fragrant aroma filled the room instantly.The three judges were stunned, as were the men outside the room.“That smelled amazing!”“This smell is too tempting. I think I am hungry!”The two dishes were completed quickly, and the entire kitchen smelled good.The three judges picked up their chopsticks and quickly dived into the dishes.Delicious!Super yummy!The spicy meat stir fry was spicy, numbing, and had the perfect texture. The hot and sour potatoes were sour and spicy and went perfectly with rice.If it weren’t for the other candidates waiting outside for their turns, they would very much like to have some rice to go with these dishes!They had a few more chopstick-full before they stopped reluctantly. Without conferring with each other, they gave Tong Xuelu 10 points unanimously.Ten points was the highest score that could be awarded by each judge. Never mind about three 10 points. None of those who had gone before Tong Xuelu even got one 10 points!The highest someone had scored before Tong Xuelu was a 7, but as another judge had given him a four, he did not pass the examination.The judges stamped the chef license and handed it to Tong Xuelu.“Comrade Tong, your cooking was amazing. I will definitely visit your restaurant in the future!”“Me too. That serving of hot and sour potatoes, in particular, was amazing! Don’t nobody fight with me for them later on!”“I like the spicy stir fry dish. It is very rare that pork can turn out so tender!”Outside the room, all of the men’s eyes widened with disbelief.None of the men got their license, but the girl, whom they had looked down upon, earned hers!And she beat them by a huge margin, no less.Recalling what they had said just a little while ago, their faces seemed to hurt even more!Tong Xuelu thanked the judges and nonchalantly walked out with her chef license.As she walked past the group of men, she said in a cool tone, “What can men do? You can’t give birth to children, and now you can’t even cook. To put it bluntly, you are of no use at all!”The men’s faces turned red and white.They didn’t understand every word that she said, but they knew that she was mocking them.Nineteen of them had gone in, and none of them earned their licenses that day.It was quite embarrassing!They decided that they would never look down on women again!