Chapter 221: Pie Stew

Just as we finished eating Portia’s dishes, Sheila’s cooking was ready.

The timing was perfect, with only two minutes left on the clock.

The dish presented was a pie baked in a heat-resistant dish.

Unlike Portia’s dishes, the appearance and aroma weren’t particularly appetizing at first glance.

“Please break the pie as you eat it.”

“Break the pie as I eat it? Could it be…”

“You’re probably thinking exactly what you think, Sato. It was difficult to reproduce, but I tried making the pie stew you taught me long ago.”

As expected, it was a pie stew.

Following her instructions and breaking open the pie, what appeared inside was beef stew.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t beef stew because the ingredients were from this world, but the aroma was unmistakable.

The aroma, released all at once from the pie, stimulated the appetite intensely.

I quickly took a bite of both the pie and stew together.

…Wow. Delicious.

The meat’s odor, which could easily become overpowering, had been carefully removed. With plenty of herbs added, it had turned into a truly tasty beef stew.

The pie itself was intentionally bland, serving as a textural accent that completed the pie stew experience.

I hadn’t expected to eat something this delicious, and I couldn’t help but groan in pleasure.

Not just me—Norman and Jacob also finished it, so I had a strong feeling this group would score high from the start.

“…Uwaaah! I didn’t make it in time!”

While savoring the pie stew, Joel arrived with his dish, his voice full of frustration.

On top of something resembling burnt rice was a visually unappealing green sauce.

After the delicious pie stew, I didn’t want to eat it, but as a judge, I had no choice.

I braced myself and took a bite of Joel’s incomplete dish, cut off at the 30-minute mark.

“Th-this is…”

“Terrible, right!? I-I’m so sorry!”

It was bad enough to make me involuntarily exclaim. The green sauce was particularly awful, and I only managed not to vomit thanks to the burnt flavor.

Unlike Portia and Sheila, Joel wasn’t very skilled at cooking, and the stress and confusion had clearly contributed to this outcome.

Norman and Jakob both stopped after one bite, so I suspected the rest would have to be eaten by Lime.

“Then, the scores: Portia 70, Sheila 95, Joel 5.”

“Portia 80, Sheila 98, Joel 10.”

“Portia 78, Sheila 98, Joel 15.”

The total scores were: Portia 228, Sheila 291, Joel 30.

Looking at the other scores, Joel may have been judged a bit harshly, but honestly, his dish deserved the low score.

“Ugh… I was confident, but Sheila was just too amazing.”

“That’s good. For now, she’s provisionally in first place.”

“Uwaaah! A total of 30 points is traumatic!”

Even early on, Sheila had scored overwhelmingly high.

Her dish could have easily earned a full 100 points, but considering that better dishes might appear later, 95 points was fair.

Norman and Jakob probably felt the same way.

Portia was close, but compared to Sheila, the gap was evident.

Sheila took the provisional champion seat as the next three prepared their dishes.

The lottery selected Lua, Helena, and the last-minute participant Milagros.

Lua wasn’t particularly skilled, and Helena was still learning from Sheila, so the group’s potential to beat Sheila depended largely on Milagros.

But in cooking, one creative idea could completely change the game.

I watched the three as they began cooking.

First to act was Lua, who pulled out a large octopus-like monster.

She planned to use a sea monster she had caught herself, attempting to win with monster cuisine.

Monster ingredients were legitimate food in this world, so using them was acceptable.

However, Norman and Jakob looked openly displeased with Lua, meaning her scores could be negatively affected.

I had no bias, but this ingredient was even more polarizing than the cheese earlier.

Not to be outdone by Lua’s bold strategy, Milagros also began moving.

Having just joined, she only had one day to prepare.

Despite the rushed preparation, she successfully acquired the specified ingredient: wild boar meat.

Like Lua, this counted as monster food.

I had eaten wild boar jerky from Douglas, the gourmet hunter, before.

Honestly, without prejudice, it wasn’t particularly tasty, and based on current expectations, it was far inferior to Lua’s octopus monster, “Octopal.”

It might have tasted bad because it was jerky, but I could still detect a strong odor in the meat itself.

Even if the meat were fresh and odorless, I doubted it would turn into a particularly delicious dish.