Chapter 220: Cooking Contest
The day of the cooking contest had arrived.
This time, the participants were Yato, Rose, Velvet, Lua, Helena, Portia, Joel, and Sheila—eight in total—and…
Milagros, who had decided to join at the last minute, bringing the number to nine.
Since nine is an odd number, I had wanted to add one more participant, but Rois and Brittany seemed to go beyond “can’t cook” and firmly refused to join.
The only participant who had confirmed was Rozzo, but he had overindulged in alcohol the day before and was down with a hangover, so the contest went ahead with nine participants as planned.
The rules were very simple: within a 30-minute time limit, participants had to make the most delicious dish possible.
Originally, I had considered specifying ingredients and announcing them on the day of the contest, but Norman advised me against it.
So this time, the only rule was “make the most delicious dish you can.”
The scoring would be done by the three of us—myself, Norman, and Jacob—each giving a score out of 100, with the total deciding the winner.
There was no limit on the number of dishes, so if time allowed, participants could make a full course. Considering the 30-minute limit, I thought two dishes would be the maximum anyone could manage.
The winner would receive one “best dish” each from me, Norman, and Jakob. Since there were no limits on the quality, they would truly get to eat the best dishes possible.
“—Those are the rules. Does anyone have any questions?”
“No! I’m ready to cook at any time!”
“To make the best dish in order to eat the best dish… interesting rule.”
“…I’ll do my best.”
Everyone seemed motivated, fully prepared.
Then, the contest officially began.
The plan was to have three participants cook at a time, starting with the first group chosen by lottery: Joel, Sheila, and Portia.
Sheila, a favorite to win, was appearing right at the start.
“First group, huh… I wanted to observe first, but it can’t be helped. To eat Sato’s cooking, I have no choice but to aim for victory here.”
“Ugh… I’m so nervous! Being the only guy in the first group doesn’t help either—this is just my bad luck!”
“As long as you focus, it’ll be fine. Let’s do our best together.”
Sheila was pumped up, Joel looked deflated, and Portia was comforting Joel—a familiar scene.
It’s usually hard to judge the first group, so from a judge’s perspective, it’s difficult to give high scores. But everyone was very hungry.
Normally, being first is considered a disadvantage in competitions, but in this contest, I didn’t think the first group would be at a disadvantage.
There’s the saying, “Hunger is the best spice,” after all. I hoped they would give it their all.
As I thought this, the cooking began.
Sheila and Portia calmly and methodically prepared the ingredients.
Beside them, Joel was flustered. In his pre-contest interview, he had claimed he was good at cooking, but from this, expectations were low.
I wanted Joel to do well too, though.
As time passed and dishes were completed, the first to finish was Portia.
Even though less than 20 minutes had passed, her dishes were laid out in front of us.
The order of tasting was, naturally, based on who finished first.
Scoring would be done after tasting all three dishes, but first impressions are important, so Portia had a slight advantage.
Portia had made what looked like a sandwich and a cheese omelette.
The ingredients were limited to those available in this world, but visually, the dishes looked very appetizing.
I eagerly took a bite of the sandwich.
…Hmm. The bread was hard, and the vegetables had a distinct odor. The original sauce helped somewhat, but it was very much the flavor of this world.
Not particularly delicious, but not bad either. Considering the ingredients, I thought it deserved a high score.
The omelette, however, had a very strong cheese smell, which I personally found off-putting. It reminded me of goat cheese tripled in pungency—a type I dislike.
Still, for those who enjoy strong cheese, it must be irresistible.
I realize my evaluation is harsh, but given the limitations of ingredients in this world, this was the default standard.
In this contest, the focus was less on how delicious something could be, and more on how poorly it could fail.
After tasting Portia’s dishes, that was exactly what I thought.