"White Luo Snake Turning Chain!"
With a soft cry, the staff in Alice Nakiri's hands began to spin. The flour, water, and oil on the table mixed together at an astonishing speed.
"Look, a great python has appeared in the sky!"
With a trembling voice, someone in the audience suddenly pointed directly above Alice Nakiri's position, their face filled with disbelief.
A massive white python had appeared there, leaping nimbly through the air, looking terrifying.
"It's real! This... what on earth is going on?"
Someone beside them unconsciously agreed, their face also full of disbelief. Some frightened children even hurriedly hid under the tables.
"No, that's not a real python, but dough. The long staff mixed the flour and water on the table, and then, using the force of rotation, made the ordinary dough take the form of a giant python in the air."
Seeing the chaos at the scene and worrying that if it continued, the banquet would be ruined, Senzaemon Nakiri's steady voice echoed through the venue.
At this moment, his gaze was deep, a sharp glint flashing from time to time, his fingers gently tapping on the table. Clearly, he was not as calm as he appeared.
"That white snake, it looks as if it has come alive, constantly stretching its body in the sky. When did Alice learn such a formidable technique?"
Watching the scene before her, Erina Nakiri, sitting beside Senzaemon Nakiri, was equally shocked.
When on earth did Alice learn this move? It must have been during this recent period. Otherwise, with her personality, she would have long since shown it off in front of her.
Looking up at the sky, she saw the white snake above Alice Nakiri's head sometimes stretching, sometimes coiling, sometimes twining, sometimes constricting—its various postures were bizarre and varied.
At this moment, the thing in the sky seemed not to be a fake snake, but a real white snake, flicking its tongue at them!
Dylan watched this scene and nodded to himself. He had somewhat underestimated Alice.
Alice had now practiced this move to a considerable degree of proficiency. He remembered the first time she practiced this move, the dough fell directly from the sky and splattered on her face.
Besides that, many other embarrassing things had happened.
Just as Dylan was reminiscing about the past, a scorching gaze made him come back to his senses. He then casually glanced around and met Erina Nakiri's slightly resentful gaze.
"Favoritism."
Seeing Dylan look over, Erina Nakiri mouthed two words, then snorted lightly and turned her head away, her voice tinged with a bit of jealousy.
They both called him 'master,' so why did Alice get things that she didn't?
Unfair!
Looking at the center of the banquet where Alice Nakiri was receiving all the attention, Erina Nakiri couldn't help but think with puffed cheeks.
At the same time, she thought about asking Dylan to teach her as well when she returned to Tōtsuki after today.
"Look, Alice seems to be preparing for the next step!"
Just as Erina Nakiri was lost in her wild thoughts, a cry of surprise suddenly came from the surroundings. They then saw Alice Nakiri cover the kneaded dough with a lid.
Next, she kneaded pork lard and dry flour together to make the crisp shortening for the puff pastry.
After gathering these two, she could use the folding technique to make it into round pastries and straight pastries.
These two were also the foundation for making Dragon Head Crisps.
The reason Dragon Head Crisps were so named was that they resembled a dragon's head. And the rich colors on the surface of the Dragon Head Crisps required the use of food coloring to create.
Of course, food coloring was divided into two types.
One was natural food coloring, and the other was chemical food coloring used in industry.
In daily life, people have discovered many kinds of edible food colorings, most of which are extracted from plants and insects and are natural and harmless.
These colorings could be used for dyeing clothes and also for cooking.
The color variations in Chinese pastries were mostly achieved using natural food colorings.
"Use curcumin for yellow, grape skin extract for red. As for the eyes, which need to be more vivid, let's use fondant to make them."
Taking out a piece of paper from somewhere, Alice Nakiri began to sketch on it.
After finishing the design draft, Alice Nakiri took out the various ingredients she had prepared in advance and began to extract the natural food colorings.
This process took more than ten minutes.
Placing the natural food colorings in a bowl to set aside, Alice Nakiri lifted the lid of the adjacent bowl. Seeing the puff pastry in good condition, she nodded with satisfaction.
Without much hesitation, she poured the flour onto the table, then poured in the natural coloring water and oil, and once again used the White Luo Snake Turning Chain.
As for why she was doing it again, it was mainly because she had used plain white dough just now to test her skills and see if she could meet the requirements of the dish.
If what she had learned so far could not support her cooking, then she would give up and choose another dish she was more proficient in.
After all, this was a key moment for the first faction to show its teeth. She had received such great benefits from Senzaemon Nakiri; she naturally couldn't drop the ball at a critical moment.
"The great python has turned yellow!"
Watching the yellow great snake leaping and tumbling in the sky, a seven or eight-year-old child in the audience shouted in pleasant surprise, as if having discovered a new toy.
"It's turned red again."
Beside the boy, a little girl said timidly, her eyes full of envy.
She wished she were the one being watched by everyone, but her culinary talent was not good. She probably wouldn't have such an opportunity in this lifetime.
"It's so lifelike! If you didn't tell me it was fake, at first glance, anyone would think there really was a colored giant python in the sky!"
"Isn't it! This is the first time I've seen such a technique. It's so magical!"
"Such a formidable technique is probably unique in the entire culinary world. To be able to see such a scene in this lifetime is worth it."
"I really don't know how far this girl can go."
Watching the multi-colored giant pythons dancing in the sky, the crowd once again exclaimed in amazement, their gazes reluctant to leave for even a moment.
They only saw the giant python in the air flipping and flying, one moment turning red, the next turning yellow, and after a while, even turning green, the speed of change was extremely fast.
Soon, the several balls of dough reached their optimal state and were gently placed on the cooking station, and Alice Nakiri's fingers also began to dance on them.
To make puff pastry, the most basic and important step was to laminate the dough. Only when the lamination was done well would everything that followed have meaning.
So, Alice Nakiri used a glass bowl to cover the doughs of different colors, then made their respective oil hearts, turning them into round pastries and straight pastries.
And making Dragon Head Crisps was not easy. After making the round and straight pastries, it began to test the chef's sculpting ability.
Even if the chef's skills were very good and the dough looked very beautiful on the outside, once it was put into a pot and deep-fried, the extremely high oil temperature would blast open the surface puff pastry at an astonishing speed, turning the dish into another shape.
And this was the most difficult step in making Dragon Head Crisps. You needed to judge what form the pastry would take when it finally came out of the pot.
It had to be successful on the first try; there was no extra time for attempts, as making it was very laborious.
Even with all her effort, Alice Nakiri could only make three Dragon Head Crisps. Any more, and not only would she run out of time, but she would also lose her patience.
She was not like Dylan; he possessed extremely high skills and could make complex puff pastries in an instant.
For her to make one, she often needed to grind away for more than ten minutes to polish all the details.
But diligence can make up for lack of skill. The continuous polishing day and night was all for this moment!
Thinking of this, Alice Nakiri's gaze became even more determined, her mental energy highly focused only on polishing the Dragon Head Crisps to perfection.
The crowd's gazes were also all focused on her. Watching her skillful technique, the Dragon Head Crisps gradually took shape in her hands.
This process was very tedious, but no one at the scene felt impatient. Instead, they watched with relish, looking forward to her final product.
Because the Nakiri family did not have a formidable pastry chef, they were very curious about everything related to pastry.
Seeing Alice Nakiri steal all the limelight, Nakiri Shota, who had been neglected on the side, couldn't help but curse under his breath, then sped up his cooking.
He knew in his heart that if he didn't do something soon, he would probably be mercilessly trampled underfoot.
As a first-grade head chef, to be crushed by a cousin several years younger than him—this was something he could never accept!
"That kid from the Soe family is not bad. His cooking speed is quite fast, and the quality of his cooking is stable."
As Nakiri Shota's movements grew faster and faster, some people in the surroundings gradually noticed him, and then they saw that his dish was about to be completed.
"He's making a thousand-layer meat pie. It looks like it tastes pretty good."
The man had just finished saying this when he saw Nakiri Shota take the thousand-layer meat pie out of the electric baking pan and, at the same time, pick up a sharp blade on the side and cut it down the middle.
In an instant, a rich meaty aroma spread out from the cut area, rapidly diffusing in all directions and attracting the attention of many.
"Gulp."
"It's really not bad. Just smelling it makes one's appetite soar. Unfortunately, it's a bit too conventional. I don't see anything special about it."
Nakiri Shota finished cutting the thousand-layer meat pie and placed it on a white plate in front of him. An attendant from the side came forward and distributed the dish to everyone.
The vanguards of the first faction, seeing this scene, couldn't help but sneer while praising.
"Conventional isn't necessarily a bad thing. Look at that girl Alice; after toiling for half a day, she's only made three Dragon Head Crisps. There won't be any for us."
Hearing the words from the first faction, the people from the second faction immediately retorted. This was a traditional art of the Nakiri family.
"There's nothing special about eating something so common. There are so many dishes here; which one isn't better than this? I'd rather see a dish that not everyone can make."
"You little..."
Listening to the two factions belittling each other, neither Senzaemon Nakiri nor Nakiri Sen'uemon made a sound, just silently watching Alice Nakiri, or more accurately, her hands.
They knew very well in their hearts that Alice Nakiri, as Dylan's beloved disciple, had inherited his mantle and was very likely to surpass Erina Nakiri in the future.
"Finally at this step..."
Looking at the oil pot whose temperature was gradually rising, Alice Nakiri couldn't help but swallow. Now was the most critical step for the success or failure of the Dragon Head Crisps.
If any part of the Dragon Head Crisps broke off during the frying process, then all would be for naught, and she would have to start all over again.
Carefully checking every detail on the Dragon Head Crisps, Alice Nakiri's expression was serious and solemn. She gently placed it into the strainer.
As the Dragon Head Crisp entered the pot, its surface puff pastry quickly exploded under the stimulation of the oil temperature, forming the feeling of a fluffy mane on a dragon's neck.
In addition, several deliberately raised parts on the Dragon Head Crisp puffed up, adding a sense of wild arrogance and dominance to this dragon head.
"This is really beautiful!"
"Indeed, it looks exactly like an Eastern dragon. I never thought that Alice, at such a young age, could make pastries so well!"
"Holy cow, this is too realistic!"
As the Dragon Head Crisp took shape in the oil pot and was then scooped out by Alice Nakiri and placed on a plate, a burst of astonishment erupted from the scene.
The reason was simple: under Alice Nakiri's superb technique, the deep-fried Dragon Head Crisp presented a majestic and domineering appearance.
When placed in front of the dining table, its perfect shape made one reluctant to taste it.
However, this was not the end.
Alice Nakiri's palms rubbed quickly, her hands opening and closing as if she were fiddling with something.
Soon, a pair of dragon eyes appeared in her palm. She picked them up and stuck them onto the Dragon Head Crisp where the dragon's eyes should be.
Dotting the eyes of the dragon.
After the Dragon Head Crisp was given its eyes, it seemed to suddenly come alive, making the crowd subconsciously feel a sense of reverence.
And after they reacted, the expressions of the crowd were varied.
"It's a pity my control of the heat is not enough. If it were the master doing it, when the Dragon Head Crisp just came out of the pot, half the people at the scene would probably have been scared to the ground."
Hearing the words of praise from those around her, Alice Nakiri couldn't feel a shred of happiness, only thinking about how she could do better.
After all, she had once seen Dylan make a Dragon Head Crisp.
To put it bluntly, at that time, she thought she had seen a real dragon and almost knelt on the ground. When she came to her senses, she found her pants were a bit wet.
That's right, it was a bit shameful to say, but she had indeed been scared to the point of peeing herself by the Dragon Head Crisp Dylan had made, and her heart pounded for a long time before she could recover.
And compared to the Dragon Head Crisp she had seen then, the ones she was making now were undoubtedly a case of a small shaman seeing a great shaman; only the appearance looked somewhat good.
"Two out of three successes. My state today is quite good."
Looking at the Dragon Head Crisps before her, Alice Nakiri let out a sigh of relief.
One of the three was slightly damaged. Although it didn't affect the taste, it affected the aesthetics, and the taste would be slightly worse than the other two.
However, for making a puff pastry of this difficulty, she was already very satisfied to have reached this step.
Next was to let the two old men, Senzaemon Nakiri and Nakiri Sen'uemon, taste it, to see if this fresh flower of hers was beautiful enough.
"Please enjoy, Grandpa, and Second Grandpa."
Carrying the Dragon Head Crisps forward, she didn't even glance at Nakiri Shota as she passed him, directly ignoring him, displaying her arrogance to the fullest.
However, she indeed had the capital to be arrogant.
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