The World's Top Chef [Gourmet]

Focused, naturally airheaded chef girl vs. free-spirited mixed-race genius

Mostly cooking competitions, with a little romance on the side. Real life is a bit hectic, so updates will be irregular. Also, I’m revisiting the outline lately and hoping to finish sooner. ==

This is an era when everyone worships good food.

The annual show Global Culinary Champion, with its varied competition format and abundant resources, is popular all over the world. Tens of thousands of chefs from countries around the globe battle it out, and in the end, only one can claim the title of “Culinary God.” This year, the grand prize is the long-lost Cookbook of All Under Heaven, stunning the world.

Cheng Xiaodao used to run a small restaurant in Yangzhou with her father. After being inexplicably kidnapped and murdered, she opened her eyes to find herself standing at the audition venue.

The original owner had been used and abandoned by a scumbag, then lost her sense of taste due to depression. She collapsed and passed out right there during the competition.

Audience: Can she even cook?

Scumbag: Stay away from me.

Contestants A, B, and C: Looks like we’ve got this in the bag.

Cheng Xiaodao: ...

Cheng Xiaodao silently picked up a knife.

Knife skills contest: slicing ham and tofu into threads fine enough to pass through a needle.

Ingredient identification: naming ingredients at a glance while blindfolded.

Recipe recreation: identifying the ingredients after just one taste.

Themed cooking: one style after another, Chinese cuisine, French cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Southeast Asian cuisine...

Cheng Xiaodao: Are you talking to me?

Audience: Shouldn’t this girl be sitting with the judges?

Scumbag: Is it too late to regret this?

Contestants A, B, and C: Sis, pick me for your team in the group stage!

Host: “Good evening to viewers around the world. It’s now eleven at night, and I’m here to pay an impromptu visit to this season’s dark horse, Miss Cheng Xiaodao. Oh, she’s reading a cookbook in the living room. May I ask why you decided to enter the competition?”

“Because I want to take something back.”

“What is it?”

“The Cookbook of All Under Heaven.”

“Sounds like Miss Cheng has just declared her intention to win!”

Cheng Xiaodao: ? But it belongs to my family.

The host was about to ask another question when a man wearing an apron walked out of the kitchen behind them.

He had short brownish-gold hair and an elegant yet roguish air. He smiled and nodded at the host, then calmly walked past with a tray, ignoring him, and gently asked,

“Xiaodao, come taste this dish. What do you think?”

Cheng Xiaodao tasted it carefully.

“It’s good. Add 0.5 grams of black vinegar.”

Host: ...Contestants are discussing dishes in the middle of the night? Is this what adults do at night?

Viewers watching the livestream: ...

Wait, isn’t that Yeser, another contender for the championship, whose mixed-race good looks have earned him countless fans?

Weren’t the two of them at each other’s throats in the group stage earlier today?

Yeser: Thank you all for your concern. I’m pursuing Xiaodao. There’s nothing to hide.

Cheng Xiaodao: ? Wait, weren’t we just innocent rivals?

Audience: Well, would you look at that!

A power couple! I’m shipping them first!

1. The competition format draws on various cooking competition shows, including but not limited to versions of MasterChef from different countries and Hell’s Kitchen. Many details are invented for the story.

2. There are lots of dishes the author hasn’t actually tried. They’re adapted from cooking references. The author isn’t a professional chef.

3. Food knows no borders, and no cuisine is superior or inferior. The story features Chinese, Western, and other national cuisines.

4. The setting is entirely fictional.

Theme: The path of culinary skill has no end.