Chapter 10: Training (Patreon)

Ramsay. He steadied himself and looked at Stephen Chow standing before him.

He knew perfectly well that the man in front of him was only at the peak of the mortal world. He hadn't yet reached the God of Cookery realm he would attain after ascending to the immortal realm.

But still. Within the world of God of Cookery alone, Stephen Chow already stood at the very top of the culinary pyramid.

And to be guided in person by a legendary chef like this? Anticipation filled him. He strode quickly to the stove, ready to show what he had learned.

---

Ramsay. He had always loved a film called God of Cookery.

He had watched Stephen Chow's story over and over, countless times, until he knew it by heart.

Once upon a time, Stephen Chow had been at the height of glory, bearing the title of God of Cookery with unrivaled splendor, when underneath he was nothing but a fraud, a chef with an empty name.

Then a carefully plotted scheme struck. Framed by the underworld, he watched every halo shatter in a single night. He plunged from the peak of adoration to rock bottom and tasted every cold shoulder the world had to offer!

With nowhere left to turn, he fled to Shaolin Temple. There he stumbled onto kung fu cuisine, a fusion of martial arts and cooking, and finally grasped the true core of food!

And in the end, on the competition stage, he cooked a bowl of Sorrowful Rice with his own hands.

Its fresh, savory flavor crushed the top-tier Buddha Jumps Over the Wall that Bull Tong had so carefully prepared. Single-handedly, he reclaimed the throne of the God of Cookery and became the true, undisputed summit of the culinary way!

---

Now. The God of Cookery, Stephen Chow, sat upright before the stove and signaled for Ramsay to show him the dish he was best at.

Ramsay stood rooted to the spot, hesitating.

After all, the dish he knew best, the only one he had truly mastered, was none other than that world-famous Sorrowful Rice!

But the original creator, the God of Cookery himself, was right in front of him. Cooking the man's own signature dish before his very eyes? He'd only be making a fool of himself in front of the master!

"Hehe!" "Ramsay." "Don't overthink it. Cook whatever you're best at." "I've spent my whole life deep in kung fu cuisine, but I've dabbled in ordinary home cooking and even Western dishes. A few simple comments? No problem at all!" "Just cut loose and show me everything. Leave the judging and the pointers to me!"

Having received the God of Cookery's promise, the knot in Ramsay's chest unraveled, and he stopped agonizing.

So what if he was showing off before the master? He had trained for over a decade, and the only dish he had truly mastered was this one bowl of Sorrowful Rice.

---

So, he walked briskly to the stove.

He snatched up the pots, bowls, knives and spatulas with practiced ease, then lit the fire, prepped the ingredients and seasoned everything in smooth, orderly steps.

In about thirty minutes, the Sorrowful Rice that had so moved Mana was fully recreated once more. He set the porcelain plate steadily in front of Stephen Chow, and the rich, sweet aroma of char siu spread slowly through the air!

Stephen Chow looked down at the dish on the plate.

A flicker of genuine surprise crossed his eyes. "This is clearly my Sorrowful Rice... You actually know how to make this dish?" "Ramsay." "Don't tell me you've heard about my past?"

Ramsay stood to one side and answered honestly. "I heard about your legendary story from someone, by chance." "Ever since I tasted this dish, I haven't been able to forget it." "To be honest with you," "I don't know a thing about any other cuisine." "Only this Sorrowful Rice. Day after day, I practiced copying it from memory. More than ten years went by before I managed to get it to this flavor, and only just."

Hearing this, the smile on Stephen Chow's face deepened.

"Good!" "Wonderful!" "I never expected that after all this time," "I'd still have a fan who devoted himself to this one dish. How rare!"

---

With that, he picked up his chopsticks.

He lifted a piece of char siu, paired it with a bite of rice, and put it in his mouth!

But the moment the food touched his tongue, Stephen Chow's brow furrowed ever so slightly, without his meaning to.

A few seconds later, he set down his chopsticks and looked straight at Ramsay, his expression calm as still water. "Do you want the truth, or the polite lie?"

Ramsay drew a deep breath.

Steadying his nerves, he answered frankly. "The truth." "Don't worry about my feelings. Judge my cooking as bluntly as you like."

"Mm!" "Daring to face an honest verdict" "is the heart a chef should have."

Stephen Chow paused, then delivered his judgment word by word. "Ramsay, if we score this bowl of Sorrowful Rice out of a hundred, the most I can give is fifty!"

Ramsay's heart sank hard.

Before he could digest it, Stephen Chow added:

"Of those fifty points, half are sympathy points, for the more than ten years of devoted practice you've put in. The remaining twenty-five are the real, honest level of your cooking."

One sentence. It hit like a bucket of cold water over the head.

Ramsay froze in place, silent for a long moment!

---

He had never imagined it.

This Sorrowful Rice, the dish that had cost him more than a decade of effort, the one that had moved even Mana after a single taste, earned only this from the original God of Cookery:

Twenty-five points!

The steep drop weighed on his chest, and his mood sank in an instant.

Stephen Chow saw his disappointment and said gently, "Don't be discouraged." "After all, for an ordinary person who has never practiced internal energy or martial arts to bring my kung fu cuisine up to a twenty-five-point foundation already puts him far beyond many others. That's rare!" "You" "may not know this:" "the root of Sorrowful Rice is kung fu." "And without any internal energy technique, you've recreated a similar taste through seasoning alone. That perseverance deserves recognition."

Then his tone shifted. Stephen Chow's expression turned solemn.

He began to break down, in careful detail, the core essence of this timeless dish.

"To make authentic Sorrowful Rice, the first step is to use internal energy to shake the char siu sauce, driving the thick liquid thread by thread into every inch of the meat's fibers!" "That feeling" "is like a hundred rivers returning to the sea." "The instant a diner bites into the char siu," "the savory juices stored inside the meat burst across the mouth, assaulting the taste buds layer after layer, and the sweet, rich flavor lingers." "And the tough sinew in the meat also has to be shattered and dissolved by internal energy. Only then do you get that melt-in-your-mouth, soft and tender texture that never turns dry. Even the fried egg laid on top of the char siu..." "Back in the day," "I relied on the Fire Cloud Palm" "to control the frying, leaving the edges lightly charred and the yolk warm and runny, so it complements the char siu perfectly."

Ramsay listened intently, committing every key point to memory. The more he heard, the clearer it became that an unbridgeable chasm lay between him and the authentic dish.