"So I understand that being able to make good food is an important life skill that my fellow students would benefit from learning, but mr Dax do you seriously want us to believe a brute like you knows how to cook better than myself, someone that stands above normal people?"Sitting way in the back a very specific student made her disapproval to the new teacher known and instantly the previous happy and approving atmosphere disappeared. Mai instantly recognized the clear and righteous voice and instantly felt her enthusiasm evaporate, that girl simply had such a presence.
(Anna… This is bad.)
Looking behind her Mai saw the extremely prestigious n.o.ble daughter had rose up to voice her disapproval. Granddaughter of the princ.i.p.al, excellent student and personal friend of the crown princess Anna von Licht rarely spoke up or a.s.sociated with anyone in the cla.s.s but when she spoke people tended to listen, no matter who they were.
"I recognize you Dax, you"re the person that beat the former crown prince. Would you actually have us believe that such a crude person as yourself can teach me about the culinary art forms?"
Anna"s words threw the cla.s.s into confusion.
"WHAT!?"
"You"re saying our new culinary teacher is the person that beat the first prince in a gladiatorial fight!?"
"I heard that match was extremely brutal…"
"Yeah… Apparently the prince was played around with for most of the match, then lectured before he was beaten unconscious."
"Rumor is the prince"s opponent provoked the fight to gain political marrit, which he then used to strip the prince of his inheritance and exile him to the north."
Even if Mai herself hadn"t seen the fight personally she had heard about it, as had every citizen of the kingdom, for it had truly been a historical moment.
"Yeah that was me. But are you the type of person that believes a person can be completely defined based on a single action Anna? I heard different things about you from your grandfather."
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"Just drop this ridiculous act, I know exactly what you are. Why are you here?"
"If you know what exactly what I am you should know, but your grandfather nor the crown princess should have told you that so I"m guessing you"re bluffing."
"Don"t try and change the subject."
"I should say that to you too."
With sparks flying between her strange teacher and Anna"s eyes Mai didn"t know what to think of the situation and looked to Venessa to her side for explanation.
"It seems like Anna knows something about our new teacher that we don"t… From what I"ve seen Dax isn"t a bad person but Anna has judged him as such based on that information and taken a stance in protest that our teacher has been able to hold at bay and they"re now at a standstill."
Even if she didn"t really speak that much Vanessa had a keen social sense and always seemed one or two steps ahead in avoiding problematic things. Since her friend just stayed and watched Mai judged the situation wouldn"t develop in a bad direction and decided to stay put and wait.
"It seems like we can"t come to a solution coversing verbally."
"That would be the sole thing we can agree on, and after all it just doesn"t stick well with me that you"re continuing to call me a brute."
Having come to some sort of unsaid agreement Mai"s slightly odd cla.s.smate and strange new teacher looked eye silently for about a minute before Anna spoke again.
"We"ll need an impartial judge."
"Obviously. I"ll leave that to you while I prepare the duel."
With those words of agreement their teacher once more left the cla.s.sroom as Anna rose from her seat in the back and wordlessly inspected her cla.s.smates for some unknown purpose, stopping in front of Rudy.
"You"ll be perfect."
Having found her perfect subject Anna went down on the lecture floor and started waiting for her teacher to return as whispering started erupted from the other students.
"So what is happening?"
"I have no idea.."
"Beats me."
"It seems Anna and our new teacher came to some sort of agreement, but what exactly that is I have no idea."
2 minutes later the cla.s.s got their answer when Dax returned rolling a cart filled with ingredients and 2 tables each with a monster core powered stove and basic cooking utensils as he started explaining what was going on.
"Me and Anna here will have a little compet.i.tion to prepare the best meal we can in 10
minutes from these ingredients, I"ll use this opportunity to display the type of skill you all will be learning doing this therm so please ask me about everything I"m doing. Did you find a judge?"
"Don"t call me "you"! And yes I have. He"s the perfect impartial judge present."
Making a smug expression as she pointed at Rudy, Anna seemed to try and demonstrate her superiority as the cla.s.s started figuring out what was going on and garnered some light interest to the imp.r.o.nto event and walked closer to it all to see what was going on while Mai felt the urge to facepalm once more.
(Well he is the perfect judge… Considering that he"s just a honest idiot.)
While Mai was worrying about her friends future the impromptu contest started. Anna immediately grabbed a mix of vegetables and herbs from the pile of ingredients along with some cured fish as she started bringing together what looked to be some kind of salad. Dax on the other hand looked to be stating way more things at once as he turned on the stove top at the highest setting, then grabbed a piece of smoked bacon, eggs, a slab of beef along with vegetable oil and a few other things then immediately trimmed the excess fat off the bacon and cut it into thick pieces before starting to seemingly destroy the piece of beef by completely mincing it with his knife.
"Teacher what are you doing?"
"Preparing a regional dish from my home. Specifically I"m breaking down this piece of beef as the low fat content won"t be able to handle the high heat without the proofing I will be doing."
Explaining as he was working at lighting speed Dax took some of the excess fat from the bacon and started mincing that as he checked the temperature of the cast iron pan before tossing on the bacon as he went into full lecture mode.
"Mark was it?"
"Yes teacher."
"Can you tell me what flavors that would typically be a.s.sociated with smoked bacon?"
"It has a very meaty flavor, combined with some salt and smoke. But why are you asking?"
"Because I want all of you to start thinking about individual ingredients flavor profile. I work out from 5 basic flavors: salt, sour, sweet, bitter and umami or the meaty flavor a.s.sociated with meat or mushrooms. Each of these flavors need to be in balance while still being able to pick up the different flavors, that is the very basics of cooking."
Turning the bacon on the pan with his bare hand Dax pressed down the each of the pieces to check how cooked they were before finis.h.i.+ng up the micing the meat and starting on the leftover bacon fat.
"Another important factor is fat. The basic rule is that the more fat you have in a dish, the more flavor you can pack into it, but at the same time you need something to overpower the fat or it will completely overpower the flavor. In this dish that will be the umarmi of the beef and bacon, combined with the salt of the bacon and sour acid of the mayonnaise I will make in a bit."
At this point the students mostly stopped paying attention to what Anna was making and focused solely on their new teacher while some started seriously taking notes while others, Mai and Vanessa included simply just looked on in amazement. After the bacon was done frying Dax sat it aside to rest as he discarded some of the bacon fat that had build up on the pan, before taking a large bread bun and slicing it over on the middle and placing it cut side down on the pan and turned down the heat as he started forming the mix of minced bacon fat and beef into a ball by tossing it between his hands and continued lecturing.
"generally temperature also plays a large role in flavor, with the colder something is decreasing its flavor profile and increasing the fatness of the taste, which is one of the reasons why I"m frying this bread."
"And what"s the other reasons?"
With the cla.s.s now completely seeing Dax"s display like a history or literature lecture they eagerly started asking questions and writing down notes.
"Texture. I want something crisp in my dish, combined with the slightly chewy bacon it creates a great contrast of texture that makes the eater more focused on the flavor, and therefore tastier. I also want a light singe on the bread that will help bring out other flavors."
Having finished toasting the bun Dax turned the heat on the pan to max and started whipping together a simple mayonnaise as he got the pan as hot as it could possibly get.
"Teacher the pan is smoking, isn"t that bad?"
"Normally it would be, but since this is an almost dry cast iron pan it"s fine. I need high heat for this."
Having finished the mayonnaise with his lightning fast whisking Dax took the ball of meat and smashed to down on the pan as he explained.
"What I"m doing right now is cooking the beef as fast as I can on a blistering hot surface to break down the proteins in what is called the maillard reaction, something we will cover another time."
Working even faster now as time was almost up Dax flipped the meet bun just 30 seconds after it got down on the pan and gave the bread a few more touches on the hot surface to get the singe just as he wanted before spreading a layer of mayonnaise on both buns and putting the meat and bacon in between and splitting it into 2 equal parts.
"There we are, one times half smashburger ready for service."
At the same time Anna finished putting the final touches on her smoked fish carpaccio salad and both dishes were served in front of the perfect impartial judge that quickly tasted both dishes and gave his verdict.
"This is the best one!"
"That"s impossible!"
Even as Anna denied it the sight of Rudy enthusiastically stuffing his face with the remains of Dax"s burger the result was clear for everyone present, even if one of them still refused to believe it.
"If you think I somehow cheated please have a taste for yourself."
Revealing an incredibly smug smile Dax presented the last half of the burger to Anna.
"As if.. I… Would… Eat such a…."
Fading out mid sentence some primal part of Anna"s body took over and immediately stuffed the burger into her mouth as tears from a mix of frustration and bliss welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"I-I will remember this!"