Chapter 26: One Person, Ten Woks

Li Xiao controlled the phone’s camera, following the portly chef’s movements.

The portly chef placed a series of steaming clay pots onto the high-heat stoves directly in front of him.

Then, he poured a small spoonful of peanut oil into each pot.

The clay pots were incredibly hot, so the moment the peanut oil hit the bottom, it let out an instant SIZZLE. At the same time, the fragrance of the peanut oil filled the air.

Li Xiao raised an eyebrow. ’Just from this rich peanut aroma, I can tell this is some high-quality oil. Definitely not that garbage 1:1:1 blended oil from some cheap brand.’

After adding the oil, the portly chef’s hands moved in unison. He quickly swirled the pots in front of him, ensuring the peanut oil coated the entire bottom of each one.

Li Xiao:

"Everyone, you can see how skilled the chef is. With a flick of the wrist, the entire bottom of the clay pot is coated in peanut oil."

"This is mainly to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the pot later on."

As he spoke, the portly chef was already starting to add ingredients to the clay pots.

The first to go in were peeled garlic cloves, red shallots, and onions.

The heat of the oil rapidly released the fragrance of these aromatics, and a strong, pungent garlic smell began to permeate the air.

The thin chef had already prepped all the necessary ingredients, sorting them into small stainless steel bowls.

So, once the garlic started to turn golden brown, the portly chef just had to methodically pour the ingredients from the small bowls into the pots.

Li Xiao noticed that the portly chef wasn’t just tossing things in randomly; he had his own system.

Ingredients that took longer to cook, like chicken and crispy sausage, were the first to be added.

He also noted that the flames under these specific pots were clearly a bit higher than the others.

’It looks like he’s cooking them all at the same time, but there are actually significant differences.’

After putting all the ingredients into the clay pots, the portly chef picked up a pair of wooden chopsticks nearly as long as his forearm and began to rapidly stir the ingredients inside.

As the chopsticks kept moving, the hot oil, ingredients, and aromatics continuously mixed together.

The intense heat roasted the ingredients, drawing out their moisture and fats. The oil and water danced and popped in the hot clay pots, making a SIZZLE SIZZLE SIZZLE SIZZLE sound.

Live Stream:

"Now I finally get why these are called ’sizzling’ clay pots! They really make that sound!"

"He just put the ingredients in and he’s already stirring. Won’t they all stick to the pot?"

"My god, with a flame that high, won’t it burn the food?"

"The flames from the stove are licking the sides of the pot! How high must that temperature be?!"

"This chef is the real deal! He doesn’t even need to adjust the heat? That’s insane!"

"It’s like he’s stir-frying ten dishes at once! I wonder how much he gets paid for this!"

"The ingredients in each pot are different. How does he make sure everything cooks perfectly?"

...

Seeing the viewers’ questions in the live stream chat, Li Xiao began to explain:

"Because the clay pots are extremely hot and there’s a good amount of peanut oil at the bottom, the chef isn’t worried about anything sticking at all."

"The moment the food touches the pot, its surface cooks instantly."

"Usually, food sticks to a pan because the heat isn’t high enough, leaving it in a half-cooked state. That’s what causes sticking."

"Also, you don’t need to worry about the food burning."

"High heat itself isn’t what causes burning. The reason people usually burn their food is that they don’t flip the ingredients in time."

As he spoke, he adjusted his phone’s focus, zooming in on the chef’s chopsticks.

"As you can see, the chef’s chopsticks haven’t stopped for a second. He’s stirring the ingredients very quickly, which allows them to cook evenly."

"So even though the flames are intense, the food won’t burn because of it."

"Also, don’t worry that because he’s cooking everything at once, some things will be undercooked while others are overcooked."

"When he adds the ingredients, he’s already adjusting the order based on their specific properties."

"There’s one more thing you probably can’t see through the screen: the heat on these stoves isn’t all the same."

"The chef controls the doneness of the food by managing the order of ingredients and the intensity of the flames."

Because the stoves were so hot, the stir-frying process was over quickly.

The portly chef directly shut off the gas valve for the row of stoves in front of him.

In an instant, the ten high-heat stoves that had been spewing flames went silent.

The next moment, the portly chef picked up a ladle and scooped a premade secret sauce from the side into the clay pots.

Li Xiao noticed that there were roughly three different kinds of secret sauce.

They were black, yellowish-brown, and yellow.

The sauce added to each clay pot was different, depending on the ingredients inside.

Although the flames had been turned off, the clay pots themselves had excellent heat retention.

So even without a continuous heat source, the pots remained extremely hot.

When the different sauces were poured in, the SIZZLE from the pots grew even louder.

The portly chef once again picked up that pair of long wooden chopsticks and rapidly tossed the ingredients, making sure every piece was evenly coated in sauce.

The tossing continued for a full minute or more, until the SIZZLE started to die down.

The portly chef, moving like a surprisingly nimble, chubby orange cat, pivoted on the balls of his feet and spun gracefully to the stoves on his right.

At some point, a plastic squeeze bottle had appeared in his hand.

The bottle contained a yellow liquid. With a gentle squeeze from the chef’s chubby fingers, the yellow liquid shot out. It traced an arc through the air before landing precisely on the now-lidded clay pots.

The yellow liquid trickled down the gaps of the lids and into the pots.

In an instant, a ball of red flame erupted from the clay pots.

At the same time, a strong aroma of alcohol filled the air.

Li Xiao took a small sniff, taking in the alcoholic scent drifting through the air.

’The aroma of this alcohol is incredibly rich.’

’This isn’t ordinary cooking wine. Cooking wine has a very low alcohol content; it couldn’t produce a scent this strong.’

’This little bottle most likely contains a custom blend of liquors he prepared.’

’Probably a mixture of baijiu, rice wine, cooking wine, and yellow wine.’

’Otherwise, it would be impossible to create such a complex, fragrant aroma.’

Live Stream.

"With all that alcohol, for real, aren’t they worried about getting a DUI?"

"That was awesome! He deserves a tip!"

"This chef cooks like he’s putting on a performance. It’s so artistic!"

"Isn’t this way better to watch than those so-called teppanyaki shows?"

"I never expected this portly chef to be so skilled. If he put on a proper chef’s uniform, he could probably do shows at a fancy hotel!"