Although Erina Nakiri had grown accustomed to praise from others since childhood, she still felt very happy when she heard Satou's praise.
This was not only praise from her beloved, but more importantly, it was the result of their mutual effort and progress.
Every evening, the two often competed in cooking. Unconsciously, not only was Satou's strength rapidly improving, but Erina Nakiri had also made significant progress.
Satou also had a very intuitive sense of Erina Nakiri's progress, especially in the later stages.
To avoid being carried into the bedroom by Satou, Erina Nakiri would try her best to resist every night. Of course, recently, the Tsundere had clearly become somewhat half-willing.
"In that case, we might not be unable to catch up."
Hayama Akira calculated and said.
He felt that the final results might not be much worse than those of the second and third years.
"Then I'll go too."
Satou smiled slightly; his dish was finally ready.
Seeing Satou bring up his dish, Eishi Tsukasa, Eizan Etsuya, Nagi-no-ki Touko, and others all turned their gaze towards him, clearly very interested in his cooking.
"Is that the first-year student who got first place?"
"Yes, I heard that even Erina was surpassed by him."
"Normal grades don't mean anything, do they? He shouldn't be higher than Tsukasa-senpai or Erina, right?"
Some students also started discussing quietly.
Satou was quite famous now, almost all students in the school knew him, but everyone thought it was unlikely that he could make a dish that surpassed Eishi Tsukasa and Erina Nakiri.
"Eight-Treasure Tofu Pot."
Satou presented a steaming tofu pot to Gin Dojima.
Gin Dojima immediately tasted it. The tofu was exceptionally fresh and delicious, and the flavors of seafood and meat were completely infused into the tofu, making it incredibly delicious.
"The method for my dish is very simple: it's made by cooking eight ingredients like chicken, ham, squid, shrimp, and green peas together with tofu. Then, after cooking, the ham, squid, and other ingredients are taken out."
Satou explained with a smile.
"I see."
Gin Dojima's face showed a look of realization. He only felt that this tofu, though seemingly ordinary, was incredibly delicious, to the point where he almost wanted to swallow his tongue.
"Although these are all common ingredients, you simply blended their umami flavors together, perfecting the tofu as an ingredient, giving what was originally just ordinary tofu an incredible deliciousness."
Gin Dojima pondered for a moment, finally making up his mind, "I think your dish can sell for 50,000 yen!"
"What? It's also 50,000 yen!"
"In that case, isn't it exactly the same as Tsukasa-senpai?"
"That's impossible…"
All the students present were greatly surprised, and even Eishi Tsukasa, Nagi-no-ki Touko, and others showed a hint of astonishment in their eyes.
"That kid, he actually managed to draw with Tsukasa-senpai."
Eizan Etsuya's face was ashen. He hadn't expected Satou to improve so much in such a short time. With this, his chances of revenge were completely gone.
Hayama Akira and Ryo felt a huge shock.
Especially Hayama Akira, who now directly felt the gap between himself and Satou, which was more than double.
"Was he that strong?"
Before, at Kirinoya, even though he was completely defeated by Satou 5-0, he still held a glimmer of hope, thinking that although Satou was much stronger, he wasn't without hope. But now…
Erina Nakiri, however, smiled slightly, clearly she already understood Satou's strength very well.
Because that was the result she had obtained from one crushing defeat after another.
"What the! Why is it a tie?"
Alice Nakiri muttered with some dissatisfaction, pouting to Gin Dojima, "Chef, can you re-evaluate it?"
Gin Dojima had quite a headache and said with a smile, "But, in my opinion, the selling price of these two dishes is indeed the same, however…"
He picked up a calculator, calculated the prices of the ingredients chosen by Satou and Eishi Tsukasa, and said, "From a cost perspective, Satou actually saved 150 yen."
Satou used ingredients like chicken, squid, tofu, and shrimp, while Eishi Tsukasa used ingredients like red wine, chicken, beef, eggs, and cream. Although Satou used a slightly larger quantity, his ingredients were all very cheap. For example, squid and shrimp are very affordable in Japan, while the bottle of red wine Eishi Tsukasa used was a bit more expensive.
"So, looking at it this way, after deducting costs, Satou won, right?"
Alice Nakiri asked with a mischievous smile.
"That shouldn't count, should it?"
Kuga Terunori couldn't help but say, "It's only 150 yen cheaper, and from a Shokugeki perspective, cost isn't considered, only the dish itself."
Everyone else also nodded, feeling that this wasn't important.
"No, I actually think Alice has a point."
Eishi Tsukasa thought for a moment and said, "This exam tests the ability to sell the most expensive dish using limited ingredients. Cost should indeed be included. In that case, I lost to Satou."
"See, I told you."
Alice Nakiri stuck out her tongue, saying triumphantly.
"This guy, when did she become so biased towards him?"
Erina Nakiri's expression was a little strange, "She's never been this nice to me, her sister."
Seeing Alice Nakiri wink at him, Satou could only smile.
Soon, this exam was drawing to a close.
What was frustrating was that Yukihira Soma's final dish was Royal Cuisine.
"Who says no one at a diner is willing to spend tens of thousands of yen on a dish? Yukihira Restaurant's Royal Cuisine is famous far and wide; every year-end, a group of people custom-order it."
Yukihira Soma chuckled.
Everyone was at a loss for words. The so-called Royal Cuisine was equivalent to Japan's New Year's dishes, eaten only during the New Year, and included many types: kamaboko, kohaku namasu, ham rolls…
Ultimately, Gin Dojima gave him a price of 25,000.
"You're basically cheating, aren't you? You used so many ingredients; the cost alone isn't small."
Ryo complained, "If you deduct the cost, Yukihira's dish would probably only be worth 10,000 yen at most."
"You can't say that."
Satou asked, "Can you make so many dishes in an hour?"
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