"Who made that assorted grilled fish outside?"
Walking swiftly into the kitchen, Dylan's imposing aura filled the room as he called out to the busy chefs inside.
The chefs here didn't just serve one person but were responsible for the meals of the entire Nakiri household.
Therefore, from five in the morning until ten, they could not stop working. They had to constantly maintain a state of cooking to ensure that everyone had food to eat.
Only after ten o'clock, when the next shift of chefs arrived, could they end their day's work.
In terms of time, this job was not difficult, but in terms of the number of people and the scope of service, it was truly exhausting.
This also caused each of them to be on high alert, afraid that their dishes would have some flaw and cause delays.
Now, being shouted at by Dylan, the chef responsible for making the grilled fish trembled in fear, nearly dropping the seasoning bottle. He took a few seconds to compose himself before looking at him.
"It was me. May I ask what the matter is?"
Although the young man before him was very young, and he had never seen him before, he still showed respect.
When you don't know the background of a visitor, it's best to be as respectful and reverent as possible.
Especially in a large family like this, any young master or miss who came by was an existence he couldn't afford to offend. He had to act with extreme caution.
"It's nothing, don't be nervous."
Realizing he had been too impatient and had frightened the man, Dylan gently waved his hand to tell him not to be nervous, then looked at the dish in front of him.
"I just wanted to ask, how did you think of combining three different types of fish to create one dish?"
"Huh?"
Hearing Dylan's words, the man's expression clearly faltered for a moment. He was evidently surprised that he had come for this matter, and he let out a long sigh of relief.
But then came curiosity. Who on earth was this guy, why would he appear at the Nakiri house, and how did he enter the kitchen without being stopped?
"Uncle Inukai, just tell Master Dylan. Ever since he tasted the assorted grilled fish, he's been incredibly excited and has shown a keen interest in your dish."
Just as the man was hesitating, Erina Nakiri's voice came from the doorway, with Alice Nakiri beside her.
At this moment, both of their faces showed surprise. They glanced at the man, then at Dylan, and then spoke.
"Young Miss Erina."
The man called Uncle Inukai heard Erina Nakiri's voice, glanced over, and hurriedly bowed his head, respectfully calling out.
"Master Dylan is a very formidable chef. He's very interested in your cooking method. You can tell him about it and have a discussion. He might be able to give you some advice, which would be very beneficial for your culinary skills."
Beside her, Alice Nakiri also spoke.
She wasn't surprised by Dylan's actions, because he was just that kind of person. Whenever he encountered a sufficiently excellent technique, he would not be ashamed to ask and learn.
"A formidable chef? He looks no more than twenty. A chef of that age, how formidable can he be? Probably just a first-grade head chef. If you want to learn my unique dish, just say so. I've worked at the Nakiri house for so many years; it's not like I wouldn't teach you if you wanted to learn. Why go through all this trouble?"
Inukai Shinobu grumbled internally, but his face wore a respectful expression. He then began to explain to Dylan and the two standing behind him.
"The creation of this dish actually came from an accident."
Thinking of what happened back then, Inukai Shinobu's gaze suddenly became distant as he began to recall the past.
"An accident?"
A thoughtful expression appeared on Dylan's face. He wasn't surprised by his words; indeed, many delicious dishes were born from accidents.
"Yes, that's right. It was an accident. It happened when I was just starting to learn cooking. At that time, I was young and couldn't distinguish between different types of fish. As a result, I used the wrong fish when cooking and was severely scolded by my teacher. At the same time, to teach me a lesson, he forbade me from eating dinner that night. I was going through puberty at the time, a period of growth, and not eating one meal made me so hungry I couldn't sleep at night. So, in the middle of the night, I got up and tiptoed to the kitchen, wanting to make something to eat. Because I was being sneaky, my heart was pounding, worried about being discovered by my master. Plus, there were only a few pieces of fish meat left in the fridge. To save time, I simply marinated those few pieces of fish, seasoned them, and threw them all into the oven. As it turned out, when I took it out of the oven, I found the taste was unexpectedly delicious!"
Thinking of his younger self, Inukai Shinobu's face was full of nostalgia. He had indeed done many absurd things back then, but that period was the happiest time of his life.
"So you memorized the fish you used at that time, and through constant trial, improvement, and research, you finally created this dish?"
Alice Nakiri guessed.
"Not at all. At that time, I didn't know the different types of fish, right? So after eating and drinking my fill, I went to sleep and forgot about the whole thing. Later, when my culinary skills had improved a little, I participated in a cooking competition. Because the theme of the competition was fish, I thought of the dish I had accidentally made back then. So, relying on the few memories I had left, I started to experiment, making over a hundred dishes in one night."
"I see. In that case, the creation of this dish was quite a rough journey."
Hearing Inukai Shinobu's words, Erina Nakiri nodded slightly. Such a spirit of research—truly worthy of being a chef of their Nakiri family!
"No. Through dozens of experiments, I replicated a grilled fish dish that was even more delicious than that time."
Inukai Shinobu shook his head, revealing the true origin of this dish.
"Can't you just say it all at once!"
Erina Nakiri and Alice Nakiri screamed internally, but their faces remained impassive as they looked at Dylan, who had tied an apron around himself.
"I should have thought of it earlier. Mixing different fruits can make its taste richer, and mixing different vegetables can become a vegetable salad. Since that's the case, why can't we narrow down the category further, extract the advantages of the same type of ingredients, and use them to cook a dish!"
Dylan muttered to himself, his eyes growing brighter and brighter, as if he had understood something. He then walked to an empty cooking station.
"You should still have more fish here, right?"
Looking at Inukai Shinobu, Dylan asked.
"That's right. Help me find a few sea fish."
Dylan instructed, then laid out the Seven-Star Knives from his back in a row. Their actions also attracted the attention of the other chefs in the kitchen.
Only a small number of people knew what had happened in the courtyard yesterday.
To protect the Nakiri family's face, the news was strictly blocked by Senzaemon Nakiri, so these people in the kitchen didn't know Dylan's strength.
But seeing Young Miss Erina and Miss Alice treat him with such respect, they figured his skills couldn't be weak.
Such a chef was now going to cook in their kitchen. What kind of dish would he present? Was it all for show, or was he the real deal?!
This was the thought in everyone's mind.
"The fish are here! These are fresh sea fish that arrived at dawn. There are also fresh seafood products, abalone, scallops, oysters, cuttlefish, octopus, etc..."
A voice came from afar. Dylan looked up and saw Inukai Shinobu dragging a plastic box.
A closer look revealed many lively, fresh sea fish inside, as well as a lot of other seafood.
"Good vitality."
Looking at the fish still blowing bubbles in the water tank, Dylan couldn't help but nod in praise. He then lightly slapped the cooking station, and the Seven-Star Knives on the tabletop immediately flew up. The crowd then saw the fish being quickly processed, their bones completely removed, leaving only a few pieces of fish meat in front of Dylan.
Looking at the pure white and tender fish meat before him, with the bones completely removed, Dylan let out a long breath, then tensed up again and began the next step of cooking.
"Arhat's Crystal Slice!"
Dylan let out a low cry, and the dish before him was processed into thin slices at a visible speed, then flew to a prepared plate on the side.
"So thin."
Looking at the fish slices before them, as thin as a cicada's wing, the chefs who were peeking at him let out a cry of astonishment, then took two steps forward, wanting to take a closer look.
However, before they could get close, they saw their own aged faces reflected in the flying fish slices, and a look of astonishment appeared on their faces.
"This... this fish slice actually reflects our faces!?"
"What incredible knife skills!"
In less than a minute, under Dylan's astonishing operation, the originally empty plate was now full.
"Come and have a taste. My secret 'Three Lives Sashimi'."
He prepared shredded white radish, starfruit slices, red chili threads, etc., and placed them on a large bamboo plate to set aside. After the sauce was ready, he would mix it with the side ingredients.
While whipping the sauce with chopsticks, he came before the eagerly waiting Erina Nakiri and Alice Nakiri.
Dylan poured the prepared sauce over, mixing it with the "Three Lives Sashimi." In an instant, a golden flowing light appeared on the surface, looking incredibly dazzling.
"Three Lives Sashimi? It just looks like extremely ordinary sashimi. Why does Master Dylan call it by this name?"
Looking at the "Three Lives Sashimi" shimmering with flowing light before her.
This thought appeared in Erina Nakiri's mind. She looked up and saw Dylan's slightly excited face.
"This... could this be the legendary 'Flowing Light Cuisine'? A dish that only a Seven-Star Special Grade Chef can touch and produce, and this kid actually made it!"
Swallowing hard, Inukai Shinobu muttered in disbelief, which also attracted the attention of those around him, causing the people who were already observing here to gather around.
And when they saw the dish continuously emitting a flowing light, their originally calm expressions instantly broke, turning into horror.
"How is that possible? Let alone Seven-Star Special Grade, even to reach Special Grade requires a great deal of accumulation! We've been cooking here for over a decade, and our skills are only at the level of a first-grade head chef, still a considerable distance from Special Grade. How can we be no match for a..."
Someone said in disbelief. Because Dylan looked really too young, even those geniuses from Tōtsuki Academy couldn't possibly become Special Grade Chefs at this age, right!
"Master Dylan is not someone you can question. All of you, go back to your own work. There are still people waiting to eat; don't crowd around here!"
Erina Nakiri said sharply, trying to make the spectating chefs go back, but she saw that their eyes had become even more obsessed, like hungry wolves seeing their prey.
"Young Miss Erina, we've never eaten a Seven-Star Special Grade dish before. Could you let us have just one bite? It would make this life worth living!"
Swallowing hard, a slender man said fawningly to Erina Nakiri, his gaze never leaving the plate of food on the cooking station.
"Let alone eat it, we've been cooking for half our lives and have never even seen it. Let us just watch you finish eating it here."
The female chef next to him felt the slender man was being a bit too presumptuous, so she lowered her request, only wanting to watch them finish the dish here.
"I really want to eat..."
"I can't take it anymore! Don't grab my clothes, let me have a bite!"
"Ahhh! I'm begging you, let me have a bite. I'll do anything! You can do whatever you want to me!"
All sorts of voices rang out. One female chef even lifted her long pants, grabbed Dylan's hand, and was about to guide it inside, but was promptly slapped away by Erina.
At this moment, the young woman's brows were furrowed high.
Because the "Three Lives Sashimi" had a clean and elegant taste, it didn't drive the people at the scene into a frenzy at first. Besides being shocked, everyone could maintain relative rationality.
But as the sauce spread, causing the flavor of the "Three Lives Sashimi" to be stimulated from the inside out and diffuse into the air, the young chefs went wild!
However, compared to the young chefs, the older chefs' resistance to delicious food was slightly stronger. But looking at the dish before them, and the ultimate fragrance diffusing in the air, their faces were also filled with a look of longing.
"Everyone, come up and have a taste. As long as there are raw materials, I can make as much as you want to eat."
Stopping Erina Nakiri, who was frowning and about to say something, Dylan generously brought the dish before them.
As chefs who had worked conscientiously at the Nakiri house for over ten years, and also as the providers of inspiration for this innovation, he felt it was necessary to do something.
Of course, the more crucial thing was that he needed taste testers. As the saying goes, a thousand people have a thousand tastes. He wanted to perfect his dish according to the tastes liked by the general public!
As Dylan's voice fell, someone immediately stood in front of the plate. The moment their chopsticks picked up a slice of sashimi, they were pulled away by the person behind them.
However, before leaving, he still managed to put the food into his mouth in time.
"I see, I see! I never thought there would be such a clever idea! To let this world have a taste and texture that shouldn't exist!"
A chef with somewhat graying eyebrows shouted. He was the head chef of this kitchen, had been working for over fifty years, and was a figure from the same period as Senzaemon Nakiri. His skills had long reached Three-Star Special Grade.
However, at this moment, he had completely lost his usual composure, crying and laughing, giving a very high evaluation of the dish before him.
"The difficult part isn't layering the three types of fish slices together. The difficult part is cutting them into extremely thin slices, so that the texture of the three layered fish slices is the same as one slice!"
A chef with a relatively sharp tongue said so. She had also tasted the mystery of the dish, and a look of astonishment couldn't help but appear on her face.
"This dish actually made everyone look like this. What kind of magic does it contain?!"
Looking at the appearance of the people around her, this thought appeared in Erina Nakiri's mind. She then also picked up a slice of sashimi, put it in her mouth, and closed her eyes.
On the side, Alice Nakiri was not to be outdone.
The sashimi entered the mouth, and the flavor spread.
The salmon was rich in fat, and after entering the mouth, that unique fresh sweetness spread in the oral cavity. The Spanish mackerel, with its firm and delicate meat, added a touch of elasticity and layering to this sashimi. And the addition of sea bass brought a brand new flavor to the sashimi; its texture was more crisp, forming a sharp contrast with the tenderness of the salmon and Spanish mackerel.
These were their unique flavors. Each was a top-grade ingredient for making sashimi, and combining them created a new feeling.
The oceanic aura and faint salty taste of the abalone perfectly fused with the sweetness of the salmon and the freshness of the Spanish mackerel, forming an indescribably harmonious beauty.
This was a taste that didn't exist in any single fish; it was a brand new taste experience, giving the taster an exceptionally novel feeling!
"This... why do I feel a bit of molecular gastronomy? It's just that this method tests the chef's skill even more. If molecular gastronomy techniques were used, even an ordinary chef could replicate this kind of taste!"
Her rosy tongue lightly licked her lips. Alice Nakiri opened her eyes and muttered to herself. The taste of this sashimi was the best she had ever had in her life!
Extracting the advantages of several types of fish, ultimately achieving a top-tier taste that had never existed in this world before. At least, this was the first time she had tasted this flavor.
"To turn three kinds of ingredients into one taste..."
Erina Nakiri tilted her swan-like neck, her eyes dazed, her face covered in a rosy blush, her body trembling slightly from the deliciousness of the dish, her heartbeat frighteningly fast.
And apart from the deliciousness of the fish meat itself, the seasoning was somewhat ordinary.
The spiciness of garlic and the richness of bean paste intertwined, adding a rich aroma to the fish meat.
The addition of peanut paste brought a silky texture and a faint nutty aroma, making this sashimi fuller and more three-dimensional in taste.
Such deliciousness simply made one unable to stop eating, one bite after another!
At least, when Erina Nakiri wanted to take a second piece, the plate that had held the "Three Lives Sashimi" had already been cleared, not even a crumb was left.
However, while everyone was tasting, Dylan wasn't idle either. Looking at the different fish in the box, he started a new attempt with the Seven-Star Knives.
Because his knife skills were so exquisite, even for a snail meat the size of a thumb, he could use the roll-cutting method to slice it into thin pieces, thereby enhancing the flavor of the dish.
And such exquisite knife skills made the crowd in the kitchen watch as if enchanted. Some even knelt down on the spot wanting to become his disciple, but were refused by Alice Nakiri.
That's right, it was Alice Nakiri who refused on his behalf.
Because at this very moment, Dylan had entered a state of enlightenment. The movements of his hands did not stop, constantly taking ingredients from the water tank.
And the crowd in the kitchen also saw that his state was not right, as if he was in a state of enlightenment from a martial arts novel. So they continuously sent fish into the water tank.
No one instructed this, nor did anyone force it; it was all their own voluntary actions.
Some were even in such a hurry to deliver the fish that they ran too fast and accidentally fell.
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