Xiao Ming gestured to the ingredients that were already lying on the counter, clearly separated into what he needed for each dish. He always prepared it this way for the streams so he’d have everything at hand and wouldn’t need to stumble through the kitchen while cooking. A few almost-disasters at the beginning of Bright Yellow Water had etched that into his mind.

"Since the mango pudding will need some time to cool after preparing it, I will start with this dish. Normally, I’d explain each individual step at the side. Today, I am only going to highlight a few important points because there is something special I want to tell you about.

"We’ve already covered the dishes we’re doing today another day though. So if you are unsure about how something works, you can just look for the older videos and listen to the more detailed explanation I gave back then. Qian Huang will link the relevant videos in the description and post them on Weibo. Now, let’s go for it!"

He picked up the mango and the knife and started to prepare the dish while getting to the main point he wanted to talk about today. "I’ve already mentioned briefly before that I was invited as a judge for a new cooking show that’s due soon. Today was finally the press conference so I can give out some more information now. The show is called 'Golden Spoon'."

Qian Huang broke out laughing, startling Xiao Ming into looking up from handling the mango. Normally, his so-called assistant was the most professional one among the three of them so he really didn’t understand what was going on that he would suddenly behave like this when he had just started giving out the most vital information for today.

Qian Huang raised a fist and coughed, trying to stifle his laughter. "I’m sorry. Nin Sha just sent you a golden spoon."

Xiao Ming stared blankly for a moment before he chuckled as well. He turned to look directly at the camera, his eyes sparkling with a teasing light. "Nin Sha, I wasn’t asking for gifts. 'Golden Spoon' is the title of the cooking show. I’ve heard that it’s because the trophy that will be given to the winner will be in the form of an actual golden spoon."

Qian Huang once again interjected: "Nin Sha doesn’t care. He sent another one."

Xiao Ming shook his head, looking a bit indulgent. "Well, our Nin Sha has always had his own ideas. Thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

"Anyway, the show is going to start running next month. Up until then, everybody who wants to is eligible to enter. You can register on the website of the show. Qian Huang will put the link in the corner of the screen and in the description as well. There are some more details on the rules given on the website so you should definitely read those first but in general, as long as you’re eighteen or above, you can join in. You just need to give some information and then go to the casting in four weeks.

"Now, maybe you’re wondering if you should even take part. Maybe you’re worried if you’re good enough for this. It’s a national TV show, after all.

"Well, let me tell you that I think that — as long as you are interested in cooking — the show will definitely be beneficial. Even if you can’t make it to the finals, you will be given feedback by professional cooks. Even if you just take part in the casting, that is something of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, wouldn’t you say so?

"Furthermore, if you do manage to get further than that, you will be given feedback by the panel of judges. Other than me, the other fixed judge will be Mister Yu. I’m sure that quite a lot of you will have heard of him. He is a Michelin-starred chef with a very popular restaurant in Beijing. He had gotten famous early on in his career and nothing has changed about that.

"To be honest, Mister Yu is my own idol, so I kind of wish I would be able to get some feedback from him on my own. So, I’m not lying when I say that it will be a great opportunity for you to take part in 'Golden Spoon' just to get a sentence or even just a word from him. I’m sure it would benefit you a lot.

"Other than the two of us, there will be three more judges that will be swapped every episode. They will usually be professional chefs as well, often some with their own restaurants, or food-bloggers and food-anchors like myself. All of them will rate the dishes that you present and give advice on how to take your culinary skills further."

By now, Xiao Ming had finished preparing the mango pudding and filled it into the bowls, raising the dish. "Look at this. The mango pudding is already prepared so it’s going in the fridge for now. It has to cool for two to four hours, depending on the proportion of the ingredients we used, so we have more than enough time to make the other dishes and chat for a while."

He opened the fridge behind him and then put the mango pudding inside, turning back to face the camera afterward. "Next up will be the radish cakes since they need quite some time to be steamed and then sit for a while so that gives us time to make the other dishes later. In the meantime, if you have any questions, you can leave a comment and Qian Huang will read them out loud so I can give you an answer."

He picked up the radishes while he said so, starting to grate them.

Meanwhile, Qian Huang tsked. "You shouldn’t have said that. You won’t be able to tell them anything else if you answer all the questions. Here is already the first one: 'Little Butterfly' wants to know if it is really alright for absolute beginners to take part in 'Golden Spoon'. What do you think about that, Xiao Ming?"

Xiao Ming put on a pensive expression while he continued to grate the radishes. "Well, as I said, everybody is eligible to take part. I guess that you will benefit more if you have a little bit of experience in cooking so an actual beginner might not take much away from this. But … there are still four weeks until the casting which is a lot of time if you make at least one meal a day or maybe even two. So I think registering now or practicing for a while and then registering when you feel more comfortable would be a good idea."

Qian Huang nodded slightly and couldn’t help but reinforce Xiao Ming’s words. "So, 'Little Butterfly', there’s no reason not to give it a try." He paused for a moment and went on to the next comment. "Then here is a question from …" His lips twitched when he saw the next name but he still read it out loud. "Nin Sha is asking whether the participants will get to see you in the casting already."

Xiao Ming laughed lightly and nodded. "You can rest assured, Nin Sha, I will definitely be there. From what I know, we won’t taste everything in the casting ourselves because it would be way too much for just the panel of judges to handle. That is why for the casting process, while Mister Yu and I, as well as the other three judges, will be there, there will be several dozens of certified chefs to help us taste the dishes. When they feel that somebody has done especially well, then the panel of judges will have a taste of the dishes as well. In this way, there will be sixty-four participants chosen that are going to take part in the competition afterward.

"You can probably guess already from that number but the number of participants is supposed to be halved with each round. This is definitely something that will be very difficult to do. We don’t know how many participants there will be but since everybody can take part, I reckon that it will be a lot. Choosing just sixty-four people from this …" He shook his head. "Honestly, I’m glad that I’m not the only one who will have to decide on that. I’m sure that there will be a lot of amazing dishes served that day."

Qian Huang once again nodded, satisfied with Xiao Ming’s answer. "So even if one of you goes to the casting and doesn’t manage to get any further, you shouldn’t be worried about this. It doesn’t mean that you’re bad. It’s just that there were way too many people for everybody who is good to be let through. In the end, there’s only a certain amount of slots available."

Xiao Ming nodded. "Right. And especially at the beginning, the ratio of how many applied originally and how many can be let through will be big. There’s no way for everyone to get a place. After that, the competition will be difficult in another way because everybody will be amazing at cooking and we will likely have a hard time figuring out who is better than the others. At that point in time, it really depends on your skills alone."

"Here is another question: 'Cooking Enthusiast' is asking what the chefs in the casting and in the subsequent rounds will pay attention to."

Xiao Ming gave a hum at that and stopped grating the radish for a moment. "This is a good question and I think it’s not easy to answer. At the end of the day, while this show is not meant for professional chefs, it is still meant for people who love good food and cooking. So every bit of your skills is supposed to be tested. That means that everything that’s makes a good dish will be taken into consideration.

"Broadly speaking, there are quite a lot of things that go into what makes a good and a better dish. It’s not something I can summarize quickly. Actually, Qian Huang, Li Shui, and I have talked about it and in the four weeks leading up to the casting, we want to do a small series that will cover these things. There would still be tasty dishes with every stream but I will put some more emphasis on explaining certain steps in them rather than the whole cooking process.

"We believe that this might also be a good opportunity for you to ask some specific questions that you are worried about in regards to the show or that you might have been wondering about anyway.

"We would really like to know what your thoughts on this are though. It could be that quite a few of you aren’t interested in hearing about this. In that case, we would have to find an alternative that everybody is happy with."

Qian Huang held his breath for a moment, looking at the comments that were coming in. "Looking at the comments right now, almost everybody seems to be in favor of doing this. We are going to set up a poll on our official Weibo page where you can vote on what you’d rather have us do. I will set this up at the side so you can already go over in a minute. I’ll give you a sign when it’s time."

Xiao Ming smiled and raised the bowl with the grated radish to get everyone’s attention back to him to give Qian Huang time to deal with the poll. "While Qian Huang is taking care of this, let’s get back to the dish at hand.