Not only was Shen Qiang shocked, but the French chef was also completely bewildered.

After all, during the Provincial City competition, if it weren't for the unexpected appearance of Shen Qiang, the champion would definitely have been his Truffle Steak. But now, in the breakfast competition, he scored zero.

This is indeed laughable.

But that was the reality.

If it were Shen Qiang, he too would have had no appetite for such dry breakfast fare.

Therefore, Shen Qiang had to be thankful that he was clever enough to bring Lv Shuyao's father on board. As the head chef of a star-rated hotel, his culinary skills were undoubtedly top-notch, making breakfast a trivial challenge after decades of experience.

Meanwhile, Shen Qiang also realized that the Huaxia Culinary Awards were not as simple as he had anticipated.

Because the Datong River restaurant itself did not serve breakfast; their operating hours were from 10:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night.

Luckily, with Lv Shuyao's father there, otherwise, Datong River would not have passed this round.

Moreover, having breakfast, lunch, and dinner judged directly by the public using Exchange Coupons to vote for the winner is still very fair.

There were no tastings, no judges.

The public judges were the customers themselves, and their coupons showed whom they approved of.

Simple, direct, and clear.

Moreover, another critical point was that if a restaurant was only good at breakfast or only excelled in lunch or dinner, lacking comprehensiveness would still result in elimination. They couldn't even make it into the top eight.

They would basically be sent home without even seeing a judge.

This directly eliminated the possibility of cheating.

This was good; it was fair.

As Shen Qiang pondered, at the breakfast stall's table, a chubby man spit out a mouthful of Datong River's porridge into his bowl and then bellowed, "This tastes awful, this is the worst porridge I've ever had in my life."

At the same time, Shen Qiang was shocked,

and the other porridge-eating public judges were equally baffled.

"This porridge is great, its color, aroma, and taste are impeccable."

"Exactly, just for this pot of porridge, I can assert that the chef at Datong River truly put his heart into making porridge for decades to achieve this result."

"I have eaten Congee with Mixed Egg Flowers at least in hundreds of places, and this place's porridge is the best, from the ingredients to the cooking time, everything is meticulously managed; how could it possibly taste bad?"

Almost at the same time,

Outside the crowd, Shen Qiang immediately spotted Lv Shuyao's father, who, with a stern face, hesitated for a moment before putting down his ladle and walking over to the chubby man, saying, "Boss Zhang, I know you're dissatisfied because I resigned, but I was dedicated to my job. So could you please not cause trouble?"

"Who's causing trouble?" the chubby man raised an eyebrow, "This porridge doesn't taste good; it's far worse than Dinghao's."

Upon hearing this, many public judges disdainfully continued to drink their porridge.

"Boss Zhang, please don't be like this, we agreed to part on good terms, and we're still friends in the future."

The chubby man looked at him with a cold glare and retorted, "Friends? Are you worthy? Have you looked at yourself? You're just a chef. Do you think owning ten percent of Datong River makes you my equal?"

Deeply inhaling, Lv Shuyao's father said, "Boss Zhang, please stop causing trouble."

The chubby man scoffed, "Oh, the porridge tastes bad, and you still don't let people say it? The food industry is about service, you know? Customers first. With this attitude, can you make good food?"

Hearing this, many of the public judges present couldn't stand it anymore.

"Sir, if you have personal grievances, settle them privately. They're in a competition here, and you're making a scene. Aren't you embarrassed?"

"Exactly, if you're capable, win fairly. What skill is there in causing disturbance?"

The fat man snorted coldly, "What's it to you? What do you know? The chef from Datong River is ours at Dinghao, and the recipe for this porridge is ours too. Ask around if you don't believe it; our Dinghao Hotel's assorted egg flower porridge has been selling for a full ten years. It was he who stole our recipe from Dinghao!"

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes immediately lit up.

"Oh, no wonder they came to sabotage. So, Datong River has stolen their recipe."

"Damn, Datong River is so despicable."

"Damn it, as good as the porridge is, I don't want to eat it anymore."

While the crowd of public judges was discussing fervently,

Lv Shuyao's father became furious, "Mr. Zhang, you need to have some conscience. Have you forgotten where this assorted egg flower porridge came from? I haven't! This porridge was made in my third year working at Dinghao after the hotel's breakfast was complained about extensively, causing business to plummet."

"To save the hotel's reputation, I worked tirelessly, verifying repeatedly for three full months before I succeeded. How did it become yours?"

Having heard this, the crowd of public judges became inflamed.

"If the chef came up with the dish himself, why can't he use it wherever he goes?"

"Exactly, just because you cook braised pork at your hotel, others can't cook it elsewhere?"

"This man is indeed causing trouble, completely unreasonable."

Upon hearing the crowd's words, the fat man slammed the table and coldly raised his eyebrows, "I said it's mine, so it's mine. Mr. Lv, I'm telling you, if you're smart, you'll withdraw from the competition now, and we can act as if nothing happened. But if you continue to compete, do you believe that I could have your place smashed up by tomorrow?"

"You're talking big, smash one to show me," Shen Qiang, who had been silent, pushed through the crowd, came up to the fat man, and kicked him on the thigh, causing the fat man to howl.

"Stand up."

"Who are you? How can you start hitting people?" The fat man looked around and yelled, "Where is security, security? There's someone hitting people!"

At that moment, two guards carrying bowls of porridge glanced at him disdainfully and pretended not to see as they continued to sip their porridge.

Seeing that the guards ignored him, the fat man whimpered, "Oh man, I got hurt bad."

This shrew-like behavior amused the infuriated Shen Qiang.

Slapping the table with his hand, Shen Qiang laughed and said, "Come on, no more singing, look at me, listen carefully, my name is Shen Qiang, the major shareholder of Datong River, remember it. I am not afraid of those posing as the Black Society. There are many people here today; I'll let it slide. But if you dare threaten my uncle Lv again or dare touch a blade of grass of the Lv Family, I'll shut down your hotel immediately."

Hearing this, the fat man's eyes bulged, his face defiantly challenging, "Blowing your own trumpet, huh? Kid, Datong River is nothing, its business area isn't even as big as our Dinghao's bathhouse, and you dare claim to be a major shareholder. Have you ever seen money? Do you know what social connections mean?"

While speaking, the fat man stood up, defiantly staring down Shen Qiang, "It doesn't matter if you don't know, let me lay it out here, you have ten minutes to withdraw, or face the consequences!"

Having said that, the fat man pushed Shen Qiang aside and swaggered off.

Looking at Xiu Ju who was pulling at him, Shen Qiang frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Ignore him," Xiu Ju said indifferently, "He's just trying to scare you."

Shen Qiang was silent, Lv Shuyao's dad looked full of apologies, wanting to say something, but Shen Qiang smiled and encouraged, "Keep at it, keep up the good work! We'll answer his threats with a victory."

Lv Shuyao's dad nodded gratefully.

Then continued selling breakfast.

Shen Qiang also directly voted for himself, exchanged for a bowl of porridge, and upon tasting it, even Shen Qiang couldn't help but be impressed, singing its praises.

Seeing this, Xiu Ju also simply got a bowl, and the two sat at the stall's table, eating porridge and chatting.

About ten minutes later,

Lv Shuyao's mother suddenly called.

"Shen Qiang, just now, our store was smashed by a group of people; I've already called the police."

Upon hearing this, Shen Qiang turned his head and instantly saw that fat man, accompanied by two tall young men, looking at him with a scornful and triumphant gaze.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.