The ones he had chosen really couldn’t be called complicated. Taken for themselves, the longest might take an hour while some could be made in maybe five. This kind of small dish could easily be made while waiting for something to cook or fry.

The problem was that Si Jin had planned six of them so he needed to hurry or time would run out. After all, he had never made this many dishes at once. Usually, he had focused on exactly one dish while practicing with Si Shi Wu. Sometimes, he might have started the same dish several times while one was still finishing up on the stove but it could hardly be compared to making half a dozen different dishes.

To be honest, he was a bit angry at himself for not insisting that they try something like this. He should have known that it would happen sooner or later. Even if it hadn’t come up in the first episode, the second or third wouldn’t have been too surprising. Now, he had set a goal for himself but didn’t have enough practice to guarantee the outcome. It really made him feel uncomfortable.

Well, Si Jin had never been someone who was afraid of a challenge. Since he had set his goal, he would do everything that was necessary to achieve it. He just needed to stay calm and work his way through the dishes step-by-step.

The first dish he wanted to make was wonton soup. Actually, he lacked several ingredients for this dish but Si Shi Wu had stressed more than once or twice to him that he should be creative when cooking instead of blindly following the rules to the T.

Honestly speaking, this was something that Si Jin still had trouble with. In fact, when it came to the skills he had learned throughout his life, that had been the case more than once.

For example, he could play several instruments since that skill might come in handy. He hadn’t mastered the skill to the degree that Si Shi Yi had but he was able to give a rendition of several songs at once. It was definitely enough to get through most social situations or even if he needed to pretend to be a professional musician in a smaller place.

Even though that was the case, he sucked at giving any of these pieces a personal note. He just couldn’t understand how. In fact, after these last few days of trying to do things that would make him interesting, Si Jin felt that he had found the root issue of this problem: He lacked a personality. Where would the personal note come from?

With cooking, the problem was the same. He didn’t care about food much other than in terms of receiving the necessary nutrition. Even if that wasn’t the case, as long as it was something that could keep him alive in dire straits, then everything could be eaten.

As this kind of person, how could he come up with creative ways to cook? He knew better what Xiao Ming liked than he knew what he himself liked. But achieving that taste was something he had learned from Xiao Ming’s streams and Si Shi Wu’s teachings. Anything original … he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to do it.

Well, at the very least, he had identified his problem. While it wasn’t something that could be easily solved, he at least had a guess as to how he could come close for the time being: Being flexible with ingredients.

In today’s task, for example, he needed the meat for the other dishes he had planned and wouldn’t have enough for the filling of the wontons. As a result, he could only make the wontons and the soup vegetarian.

There were many types of dumplings with a multitude of possible fillings. A vegetarian one wasn’t such a rare thing and including cabbage, carrots, and a bit of bell pepper didn’t seem too outlandish to him. While he wasn’t sure what made a filling a good filling, he figured that the right seasoning should make a big difference. So even if the ingredients themselves weren’t perfectly chosen, he could still make this work.

No, the main problem with this dish was that he needed to make everything from scratch. This meant the dough for the wonton wrappers, forming them, while also making the soup at the side. Thankfully, making dumplings was something that he had practiced dozens of times with Si Shi Wu and he also didn’t need more than a couple of them, so Si Jin didn’t hesitate for even a moment.

Considering that the soup needed to cook for quite some time and the wontons would also need to cook later, he grabbed two pots, filling one with water and using the other to prepare the broth. He fried some garlic in it, adding the green onions, and the vegetable broth.

The latter was thankfully included in the seasoning and condiments articles as well. From his practice with Si Shi Wu, Si Jin actually had the feeling that this powdery substance shouldn’t be used and its use was actually an affront against the true art of cooking but … he didn’t have enough ingredients. Maybe he could try and make some with carrot and onions but he doubted it would be enough. So in this case, he’d have to deal with it.

This could probably also be called creativity or at least it could show his ability to improvise. For such a task, he was sure that this would be appreciated. That E Cheng Jun hadn’t asked Xiao Ming yet what he was trying to do with this task but he could figure it out on his own. He knew Xiao Ming well enough and had also learned enough about cooking by now.

Either way, this was how he would do it today, no matter what the outcome would be. Having dealt with that, he left both pots on the stove so the water and soup could start to boil.

In the meantime, Si Jin measured the water, flour, salt, and starch for about half a dozen wonton wrappers. Thankfully, all of these were regarded as either seasonings or essentials like oil so he had them at hand.

Forming them into a dough didn’t take much out of him and soon, his wrappers were done. He filled them with the ingredients he had set aside for this dish and glanced at the pots. By now, the water had started to boil thanks to the fact that he was only boiling a small amount in each pot and had started early enough.

He added the wontons in one of them while lowering the temperature on both pots. Now, he only had two minutes until the wontons would be done. It wasn’t much time but with only two hours to finish six dishes, he couldn’t waste a single one. Thus, he moved on to the next dish immediately.

He had planned another vegetarian dish and since he was already at it, he’d make that one right after this first one. After all, when it came to somebody who only liked to eat vegetarian dishes, the dishes in question shouldn’t be contaminated. Because of this, he hadn’t handled the meat at all yet.

As for the second vegetarian dish, it was a cabbage stirfry. It wasn’t difficult to make. In fact, it was even easier than the first could and probably could’ve been left until the last moment. It was the kind of dish that could have been squeezed in if he still had five minutes until the timer was up or could be left out without messing everything up.

But then, he trusted in his skills. Even where he knew that he still needed to improve, he should be able to get decent results. He had been practicing for so long after all. Even if not, he still had to give it a try. He couldn’t shy away from doing the right thing just because it might test his skills. No, if he couldn’t do this, then he didn’t deserve to be let into the next episode. He also wouldn’t deserve Xiao Ming’s heart. The person he loved, how could he be with a coward?

Thinking of his end goal that wasn’t just winning the show but Xiao Ming’s heart instead, Si Jin hurried up even further, making anyone watching feel as if things would go wrong any moment now.

Even under normal circumstances, cabbage stirfry didn’t need much time to make. Frying the ingredients stage-by-stage, then adding the cabbage, and finally the ingredients for the sauce, he was done in less than five minutes, just in time to turn off the stovetop with the wontons.

He pushed the pan to the side while ladling the wontons out with the other hand, finally transferring both into the bowls he had prepared.

When it came to how to present his dishes in this task of the episode, he had spent quite some time thinking about it. In fact, some of these thoughts had already been going through his mind before he even came to the studio today. After all, considering his overall goal, this wasn’t just about cooking but about Xiao Ming.

After what had happened in the previous week with Si Er and also today with Si Shi Qi’s sister, he couldn’t be too obvious. But still, he finally had the opportunity to get close to Xiao Ming and confess his feelings face to face. How could he give up on even the slightest chance?

This task of Xiao Ming’s and his choice of dishes was the perfect opportunity for this. It was unobtrusive but could still become clear to the person who looked for it.

Even if Xiao Ming himself didn’t notice — which he didn’t expect after having Si Qi and Si Shi Wu make his feelings crystal-clear for Xiao Ming — the other two people from Bright Yellow Water surely would. And even if they didn’t, there were still the netizens who would pay attention to everything when the first regular episode of ‘Golden Spoon’ aired. He was sure that he could count on that.

Either way, he had picked out eight bowls that were all quadrangular with pointed edges. They came in three sizes: The biggest one accounted for as much space as four of the six small ones while the middle one was just as big as two of the small bowls set next to each other. As such, the middle one was the only one that wasn’t a square. Meanwhile, the big one was the only black bowl while all the others were white.

This should have everything to make for an interesting composition: A stark contrast in color between the bowls, some variation in size, but still enough uniformity to not take away from the dishes they were used to display.

He had also made sure to plan where which bowl would be set: The big black bowl was at the bottom, the middle one at the right-hand side perpendicular to the big bowl with two small white bowls next to it forming another square together. The other four small bowls would be used to form another square on the left-hand side.

This setup guaranteed that the black bowl would ground the design instead of derailing the center and the way the eyes should pass over the dishes. Also, he could put the vegetarian dishes on the side with the small bowls and add two additional sauces in the other two, allowing for the meat and vegetarian dishes to be slightly further apart. He figured that this idea should also be well-received.

Happy with his plan, Si Jin would have liked to start setting everything up. He looked around for the staff member that was supposed to bring him the food trolley but, unfortunately, he couldn’t be seen. Si Jin stared for a moment longer but then decided that it wasn’t worth it to lose time. For now, he’d have to set them down on the free space at the side.

After doing so, he hurriedly put another container over each bowl, wanting to preserve the heat. Then, he stepped back to the stove, wanting to continue with the next dish.

But just when he wanted to prepare the sauce, a tumult broke out four seats behind him. Usually, Si Jin would not care about this, but the judges up front seemed to be paying attention and after a moment, Xiao Ming got up and walked over there, which finally prompted Si Jin to take a look.

As it turned out, while he had been preparing his first two dishes, one of the other contestants had finished the task, and it seemed that he wanted to have the judges give it a look so he could go.

Needless to say, this person was nobody else but Zhao Li Yu who once again chose to make the simplest dish he could and be done with it. In fact, he had made precisely the stir-fry that contained all ingredients which Si Jin had disdained to do before.

Realizing this, the head of the Si clan couldn’t help but wonder if he had done something wrong after all. At the very least, he didn’t get a personal visit from Xiao Ming at his cooking station. Somehow, he felt robbed of an opportunity.