[BL] The Film Emperor's Daily Live Cooking Broadcast

94-Pre-selection and the 1st Round

Countless culinary enthusiasts and professional chefs who had passed the star-ranking assessment participated in the pre-selection. Thousands upon thousands of entries were uploaded to the official website of this new and novel cooking competition. During the 15-day pre-selection period, viewers could search for the dishes they were interested in using the site's simple classification, they could enter the holographic video to taste the dishes, and then they would vote for their favorite contestant.

It can be seen that many of the cooking enthusiasts were Ruan Tang's fans or it could be said that Ruan Tang's dishes had become the benchmark for imperial cuisine. Many of the contestants made dishes that Ruan Tang had made during his live broadcasts, but it was precisely because they now had a point of comparison that the audiences' criteria for these dishes were more stringent.

The three judges, including Ruan Tang, were also paying close attention to the progress of the competition. They also had the right to vote, but in the pre-selection stage, their votes were no different from those of ordinary viewers.

Compared to those who imitated his own dishes, Ruan Tang preferred the innovative dishes. For example, someone had wrapped boiled duck meat in cucumber slices, makes cucumber rolls, and they then served it with doubanjiang. Although the method was very simple, in terms of appearance, it was very beautiful, and it had a unique and novel taste. This contestant got Ruan Tang's vote. There was also someone who used the Yuxiang method to stir-fry octopus and vegetables. This was a relatively rare combination, but the taste was surprisingly good.

In short order, two hundred contestants rose above the others and were selected by the audience to go on to the next round. In order to ensure the fairness of the voting, several of the major live broadcast platforms sent specialized personnel to inspect the data. These contestants truly relied solely upon their own strength to wrest their opportunity to qualify for the competition.

Before the official start of the 1st round, two hundred players gathered at Capital Star. The competition venue was set in a branch office of the Chefs' Association. The different chapters of the Chefs' Association regularly held chef assessments, so the venue and facilities were all readily available. Several of the major live broadcast platforms also jointly paid for the contestants' board and lodging at a hotel near the competition venue.

The generous and comfortable living conditions made the players very happy, but their happiness also contained a bit of apprehension. After all, they knew that half of them would be eliminated directly after the 1st match. The 50% rate of elimination was quite high and couldn't be called lenient or merciful.

In a competition, it wasn't only your own individual strength that was important, but also the strength of your opponents.

Two hundred players all looked at each other and entered their rooms silently. They opened the official website to watch the promotion video, to suss out the strength of their opponents.

Those whose skills weren't so good, prayed silently in their hearts, hoping that their opponents were all big pigtrotters; either they weren't as good as themselves, or that they wouldn't perform up to their normal standard under the heavy pressure.

The five days of preparation time before the competition passed in a flash. Regardless of whether everyone was fully prepared, the 1st round was still held as scheduled. Two hundred players gathered in the branch office of the Chefs' Association. The live broadcast platform deployed hundreds of cameras to enable omni-directional shooting. At this time, the nuances between the different players could clearly be seen. Some contestants were cowering, continuously muttering to themselves. Some had such imposing manners that they surprised viewers with their abnormally high self-confidence. But the only thing they all had in common was that there as a bright light in their eyes.