I'm the Culinary God

For a dish like Three-in-One Duck, unless you spend a lot of money and reserve it well in advance, you basically won’t be able to taste what’s so marvelous about it—many people don’t even know how to eat it properly.

This was the most "gatekept" dish Lin Xu had ever encountered.

It doesn’t just demand a certain cultural level from the chef; it asks the same of the diner.

If you just chew it like a cow gnawing on peonies, pulling the meat apart and shoveling meat and soup into your mouth together, then you’re not only betraying the artistic conception of the dish, you’re also wasting the chef’s painstaking effort.

You have to savor it little by little—taste the way the soup changes, taste the flavor of the meat, taste that mysterious sense of the ingredients becoming more than the sum of their parts.

Lin Xu still didn’t understand the subtleties of Three-in-One Duck; right now he was completely captivated by the Furong Sea Floor Pine in his bowl.

The slices cut from the sea jellyfish head were loosening slightly in the warm water, soft yet crisp when eaten, and the clear soup didn’t have a trace of oil, yet the flavor was rich and intensely fresh, with a kind of sticky, clinging feel when you drank it.

This visual contrast and contradiction added a few layers of fun to the dish.

As for the Furong Egg, it was soft, smooth, and delicate, and eating it really made you feel your appetite bursting open.

So good—this soup is so fresh and delicious that it’s impossible to describe in words, truly exquisite beyond compare; worthy of its title as a "literati dish," they actually turned sea jellyfish head into something that looks too expensive to eat.

Xie Baomin lifted the Clear Soup and took a sip, then said to Qiu Yaozu:

"My master is almost here. I heard you taught my junior how to make Three-in-One Duck—once he gets to Beijing, he’ll definitely come by to thank you in person."

Qiu Yaozu’s expression changed:

"Thank me? He’s just eyeing the precious ingredients I’ve stashed at home, that’s what."

As an old-school chef, he had way too many good things at home: Fish Maw, Fish fin, Cubilose, dried ginseng, dried abalone, all kinds of medicinal herbs, and those freshly cooked three-year-aged jellyfish heads and so on—all top-quality stuff that you couldn’t necessarily buy even with money.

If someone came and swept through his stores, he had no idea how much would be left.

Elsewhere, on the highway from Rong City to Spring City, Old Gao was sitting in the RV, sneering as he spoke:

"Old Qiu’s really getting full of himself, actually trying to poach my people. On this trip to Beijing, I’m definitely going to teach him a lesson he won’t forget."

Luo Shan chuckled:

"Don’t go ruining the camaraderie between you old pals."

"We’ve never had any ’camaraderie’—for us, it’s always been simple: whoever’s cooking is better and fists are harder, that’s who’s right."

Just then, Luo Shan’s phone rang. She immediately got up and went to the RV’s reception area to answer the call, which made Old Gao a bit curious. What had this "rich madam" been being so secretive about lately?

Every now and then she’d even learn a phrase or two of English from her secretary—was she planning to expand business overseas?

He didn’t really get it, and felt there was something she wasn’t telling him.

But Old Gao didn’t dig deeper. In his eyes, of all the things in the world, only cooking deserved to be taken seriously; everything else could be treated like a game.

Life is just a hurried hundred years; figuring out how to live happily—that’s what really matters.

He was a wanderer at heart, never fond of restraints or ties.

So although he’d been on his own all these years, his life was still rich and colorful.

Noon, twelve o’clock, at Qiu Yaozu’s home.

Song Dahai and the others had all shown off their skills, each cooking a few dishes, filling the table to the brim.

But the center of the table was left empty—that space was reserved for the Three-in-One Duck.

At any banquet, regardless of the level, as long as there’s Three-in-One Duck, it basically has to be placed dead center. That’s the standing of Three-in-One Duck in the Huaiyang cuisine system.

In the kitchen, Lin Xu had already lifted the clay pot off the stove.

He lifted the lid, and a thick, rich aroma of freshness drifted out of the pot.

The duck had already reached the point of complete tenderness; touch it and it would fall apart, so every move had to be performed carefully.

Lin Xu gently teased the bamboo grate at the bottom of the pot out with chopsticks. The moment the bamboo grate broke the surface of the liquid, the duck in the pot flipped with it, the pale duck breast flipping up and surfacing from the soup.

This wasn’t a mistake—that’s exactly how Three-in-One Duck is supposed to be arranged.

When served, the duck breast of the Three-in-One Duck faces up, decorated with slices of shiitake, bamboo shoots, and ham, and the surroundings dotted with baby bok choy that’s been blanched in chicken broth.

Lin Xu adjusted the duck’s body, arranging the heads of the domestic duck, the wild duck, and the pigeon all facing the same direction.

Then he added the baby bok choy and set the shiitake, winter bamboo shoots, and ham slices in place; this world-famous high-end soup dish was now officially completed.

"Come, come, try my junior’s Three-in-One Duck!"

Xie Baomin carried the Three-in-One Duck to the table, and everyone started taking small bowls and scooping soup out of the pot.

"Junior, with Three-in-One Duck you have to drink the soup first, to taste the freshness and lingering flavor in the broth."

Seeing everyone holding bowls and using their soup spoons to drink, Lin Xu followed suit and scooped himself a small bowl to taste.

The soup held a strong duck aroma, especially that dense, signature richness of the fat; drinking it hot like that was honestly pretty comforting.

Once everyone had finished the soup in their own bowls, Xie Baomin stood up and picked up two clean pairs of chopsticks:

"My junior’s never had Three-in-One Duck, so I’ll do the honors."

He shot Lin Xu a look:

"Get ready for the soup—this next mouthful is worth its weight in gold."

Everyone was standing by now. Xie Baomin gripped a pair of chopsticks in each hand and sank them into the duck breast, pulling outward with force to reveal the wild duck breast inside and the liquid that had been stewed out.

Everyone quickly picked up their spoons to scoop that liquid; Lin Xu scooped a spoonful along with them.

He had thought, it’s just soup, what kind of trick could it possibly have?

But once it hit his tongue, he realized this soup was completely different from the bowl he’d just had. This mouthful was full of the unique freshness of wild duck; the lush richness of the domestic duck fat had faded significantly.

That flavor was truly unforgettable.

Yet when Lin Xu tried to go in for another spoonful, all the liquid outside had already flowed back into the duck through the opening, diluting the wild duck’s flavor and letting the domestic duck’s richness once again dominate the mouth.

Now Lin Xu understood why his senior had called that one mouthful "worth its weight in gold."

Because you only get one mouthful—if you want more, the flavor has already changed. It doesn’t become bad, just not the same as that first taste.

Xie Baomin tore open the domestic duck’s body with his chopsticks. After everyone finished their soup, he started tearing at the wild duck breast.

This time, as soon as it opened up, Lin Xu quickly scooped up a spoonful of broth and sent it straight into his mouth.

A surge of the unique freshness of pigeon broth instantly spread through his mouth, making Lin Xu immediately think of the steam-pot pigeon soup they served at the shop.

But unlike the steam-pot pigeon, this soup also carried the freshness of wild duck and the richness of domestic duck.

The three ingredients, each with its own distinct flavor, made into a single soup produced a completely different taste profile, making you involuntarily marvel at the magic of cooking.

"This soup is amazing!"

Lin Xu exclaimed, then took another sip. The pigeon flavor had clearly weakened; it didn’t have that stunning impact of the first mouthful, but it now had more of the wild duck’s freshness and the domestic duck’s fragrance.

Once his parents came in a few days, he’d have to make this for them so the whole family could taste it.

Such a wonderful soup—if he didn’t share it with his family, that would really be a shame...

While he was marveling over the soup, Shen Jiayue was sitting by Shang Weixing’s fish pond, using chopsticks to pick up a sesame flatbread, slowly toasting it over the charcoal stove beside her.

Next to her, Chen Yan was busy using the hot water Uncle Shang had brought over to make instant noodles.

"Is it ready yet, Yueyue? Just heat the flatbread and we can eat—I’m still waiting to toast mine."

"Don’t rush, you can’t rush deliciousness... There’s no way Xu-bao could imagine that the two of us are out here eating instant noodles with crispy fragrant flatbread. No wonder people who go fishing love to eat like this; it really does feel pretty great."

Chen Yan nodded:

"Of course. We even asked your brother-in-law to come and he turned us down; he has no idea what kind of delicious combo he’s missing out on..."

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This Chapter is 5,500 words. I’ve noticed I get a lot worse every afternoon; feels like the virus wants to wage a war of attrition in my body. Double Monthly Tickets have started, brothers—please vote!