Chapter 96 Master Chef Competition The day for the first official Master Chef Competition, had finally come. So far, only 8 cooks had applied to participate in the competition. In preparation for today, Landon had requested for the Furniture making department to make several large wooden bleachers for the citizens to sit on. The competition was taking place on the fields located just beside Landon's castle in the upper region. The area was arranged like a how basketball matches were set up back on earth..... The bleachers were positioned around a large empty space, which would be used by the contestants for cooking. As for the judges, their seats were closest to the contestants. One could imagine them being seated were? basketball hoops were usually placed on a basketball court. The seats would be raised high up, so as to enable them to see everything in front of them. This was also beneficial for the citizens, as they would also be able to see the judges, as well as their reactions and facial expressions when they ate and judged. Landon also got wooden scoreboards that looked like table tennis rackets, and had numbers painted red on each and everyone of them. If a judge scored somebody a 5/10, then the judge would simply hold up the racket with the number 5 on it. From there, the person who was in charge of hosting the show would tell the audience the score. Hence those who were seated far at the back, could know the scores as well. Today was Saturday, the children were out of school, and those that weren't working came to watch the show with their kids. The rules of the competition were simple. ?The chefs had 30 minutes for preparation time, where they would lay out and prepare all their ingredients for the competition.... this prep time would be done before the competition officially began. ?The competition had 1 hour of cooking time, where they were to make an appetizer, entree and a Dessert. ?Serving the citizens would also be done in 2 hours time. ?And each chef's work station would be given: 3 large Kiln ovens, 3 working tables, 7 large pots, 5 large frying pans, knives, cooking spoons, wooden chopping boards, 4 large iron cook stands and 4 large steel griddles. Since there were no gas cookers invented yet, hence Landon had come up with steel griddles and iron cook stands. Back on earth, these inventions were popularly used by people who didn't live on electricity.... And even at barbecues or hunting trips sometimes. Steel griddles looked like large metal cupboards, that had a single chimney pipe at one end of the cupboard. With these griddles, wood would be placed inside the cupboard area and lit. Once the wood started burning, the cupboard doors would be locked and the smoke inside the cupboard would go out of a 1 meter tall chimney pipe. At the top of the 1 meter chimney pipe, was another half meter pipe that extended sideways. This was done so that if one placed this griddle inside a home, he sideways pipe could extend outside a window and send the smoke within the cupboard space outside the home. And as the wood burned within the steel cupboard, the upper outer surface of the cupboard would heat up gradually. This surface would basically be used as a frying pan.... eggs could be fried on the hot surface, even about 20 meat buns for burgers could be placed and cooked on the top surface. Since the material used is stainless steel, the food would not carry any metallic tastes. And just so people didn't accidentally burn their bodies, Landon had made the upper part of the cupboard to be very large when compared to the lower part that had the firewood placed in it. If one really wanted to imagine it, Landon would best describe the situation as that of a fancy glass table that had one leg at its center. The rectangular or circular table top would be used as a cooking surface... While the only table leg at the center, would be used as the compartment for burning firewood. The chimney part could be visualized as a 1 meter stick being placed at the side of the table top. With this setup, the large table top would definitely gave the chefs some distance between the firewood chamber and themselves. Again, these griddles could only be used for frying and needed no frying pan for cooking. As for the iron cook stands, although they were very similar to the griddles in appearance, their upper surfaces had several holes on them. These holes ensured that the cooking pots had direct contact with the fire within the chamber below. This iron cook stand could be used for everything... boiling, frying (with frying pan) and so on. They literally served as a gas cookers...except instead of gas, wood was used. These cook stands could take up to 6 medium sized pots at once... And If the pots were larger in size, then they could just be placed over 2 holes on the cooker. Within Baymard, both of these inventions were already widely used as they were better than what the people were used to. With these inventions, the people could now cook without constant exposure to fire. Previously, they made all their meals outside or under a grass hut that didn't have any walls... And even when they cooked indoors, the rooms would be full of smoke... and there was always constant fear of their homes being burnt down from the open in door fires. But now, they could cook inside their homes without the fear of the fire spreading around. The cupboard idea was really genius to them, as the long and bent chimney pipe at the top literally took the smoke out their windows. It really changed cooking for them. . For the competition, once the contestants were done cooking, they would be judged and later scored. For the first part of the competition, the judges would score them based on several factors. These scores only make 60% of their total marks... The other 40% would come from the audience. After the judges gave out their reviews, the citizens would come down from the bleachers and taste of all the dishes. At that time, 20 Sous-chefs would assist each candidate in serving the citizens. Sous-chefs were basically second-in-command chefs, who were to listen and follow the instructions of each contestant, so as make numerous dishes for the audience. For the second part of the competition, these sous-chefs would follow strict rules when working under the contestants. They were not supposed to convince the audience to eat the food, or show favouritism towards any body. They just had to assist the contestants make several dishes for the audience. At the end, the chef with the most dirty or used plastic plates, would have the highest score. The plastic plates for each chef would be distinguished by color: red, green, yellow and so on. So if there were more dirty green dishes at the end, then the contestant who had served his meals on those dishes, would win. . The citizens had gathered, the chefs were ready, the judges were seated, and it was time to get the show on the road. "Ladies and gentlemen!!... Welcome to Baymard's first Master Chef Competition!!!"