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"Welcome to NCT Cooking show also known as Neo Cooking Technology! I am MC Jungwoo and this is our cooking show!" Jungwoo exclaimed. "The chefs of the show is Mark and Jisung! The speciality Mark and Jisung will cook will be eggs, waffles, toast and tteokbokki!" Jungwoo added.
Jisung's heart was racing, he has rarely cooked in the kitchen and when he did cook, he failed at making tteokbokki and eggs. Meanwhile, Mark is known for not knowing how to cook for the life of him, ruining everything he touches in the kitchen. So this show is going to be interesting.
"We also have our assistants Renjun and Xiaojun, and taste testers Taeyong and Jeno!" Jungwoo added. "Chefs, you may now introduce yourselves" Jungwoo stated. "I am Mark Lee, I am your personal chef" Mark introduced himself. The crowd laughed. "Okay then personal chef, how about you?" Jungwoo handed the microphone to Jisung. "I'm Park Jisung, the talented maknae who knows his way in the kitchen!" Jisung exclaimed. The crowd laughed even more. "So chefs, you are going to make eggs, waffles, toast and tteokbokki today. You have a time limit of 90 minutes. If you make a mess and don't clean up, you lose points. The points are scored based on presentation, aroma, taste, cleanliness and time efficiency" Jungwoo announced. "Before you start cooking, you may navigate yourselves around the kitchen and choose an area to cook. Once you do so, the timer begins" Jungwoo instructed.
Jisung and Mark made their way around the Neo Kitchen, looking for an area to work until they found a space close to the ingredients. "You may start cooking and grabbing what you need. Timer starts now!" Jungwoo announced. Jisung went to the ingredients area and grabbed the ingredients basket to grab the necessities used to make tteokbokki, waffles, eggs and toast. Mark did the same, making sure to not forget seasoning as well.
Once Jisung and Mark grabbed their supplies, the first round was to make toast, which was the easiest round. Jisung sliced some bread before putting it in the toaster. Mark did the same, making sure the toaster was set properly. Jisung then started to put some things away only to somehow knock the flour needed to make waffles. Meanwhile, when Mark was organising his things, he somehow broke an egg. The toasters dinged and both toasts came out burnt. Jisung managed to clean up his flour spill before serving his burnt toast with butter to the judges, the toast round was ending soon. Mark was cleaning up the broken egg mess before plating his burnt toast with butter.
The first taste test begins. Taeyong looked at the toast; burnt to a crisp, burnt smell, okay time efficiency and poor cleanliness due to the clumsiness. Jeno does the same, his toast looking even more burnt, smelling like ashes, okay time efficiency and poor cleanliness again. Taeyong and Jeno spread the butter on the toast before tasting the creation. They first tasted Jisung's toast, the slightly less burnt one. It was somehow edible but not great. Renjun hands both taste testers a drink. Taeyong takes a sip and is glad that the burnt taste is not as potent. Jeno took a bigger sip. Renjun made a worried face. Oh dear....he hopes it's not the wrong drink
Then they both tried Mark's toast, Taeyong made a sour face and Jeno nearly gagged. The taste tasters wrote a score.
The next round was eggs, Mark's favourite (more like arch nemesis). Jisung heated up the pan and puts a bit of oil on it, waiting for it to heat up slightly before putting the eggs in. Making sure the heat was at medium, Jisung watched the eggs tentatively, He has to outdo Mark for sure. Mark on the other hand, heated up the pan to highest setting, poured too much oil and somehow got eggshell in the eggs. The kitchen started to smell like smoke. Xiaojun ran into the kitchen with a fire extinguisher in hand and made a concerned face when faced with the situation infront of him. Xiaojun watched in horror. Mark shrugged. It will be fine...he can salvage it...
Meanwhile, Jisung was able to check that his eggs turned out decently well. He turns off the stove, plated the eggs before cleaning up. Mark on the other hand, served his raw but somehow burnt eggs still with shells in them. He manages to clean up his mess just in time before the taste testers had to taste their food.
To say that Jeno and Taeyong were shocked was an understatement. Taeyong's face contorted into what seems like a robot malfunction whilst Jeno made a cringe face. They first tried Jisung's eggs, it was cooked well, smelt decent, better cleanliness and better time management. As for Mark, Taeyong was about to cry at the abomination of a dish he was presented. Burnt and raw with egg shells still in the eggs, smelt like burnt everything, poor cleanliness and poor time management. Taeyong took a bite and teared up from the sensation of burnt and raw egg whites as well as the unwanted crunch from the egg shells. He cringed and malfunctioned at the horrible mouthfeel. Jeno did the same and cried. The sensation was so bad he drank another sip of the beverage given. Renjun watched the two in horror. Xiaojun was concerned again but for another reason.
The scores for the eggs round were finalised. Next up was waffles.
Mark started to make the batter for the waffles. Jisung did the same but struggled as he had never made waffles before. Xiaojun and Renjun watched Jisung struggle. Jungwoo went up to Jisung. "You have 4 hints for help, if you struggle with this, you can ask for a hint from Renjun or Xiaojun" Jungwoo informed Jisung. "Okay thanks MC nim" Jisung replied before asking for a hint from Xiaojun. Xiaojun gave Jisung basic hints and tips such as using a waffle machine and the batter. Once Jisung understood what to do, he proceeded to make his waffles.
Mark made his first waffle too small and was quite underfilled whilst the next one overflowed. Jisung followed Xiaojun's tip as to how much to fill the waffle maker.
The waffle round went smoothly for Jisung. He was able to finish just in time to clean up and decorate the waffles with berries, chocolate syrup and ice cream. Meanwhile Mark also finished with a very similar looking result, just more clumsy due to the first few waffles being underfilled.
Mark and Jisung presented their waffles to the taste testers. Taeyong inspected Jisung's waffles and was impressed at his first attempt making waffles. Jeno was also impressed by Jisung's presentation. They then looked at Mark's waffles. Less impressive presentation wise but it still looked decent. It was time to taste the waffles.
Taeyong took a bite of Jisung's waffles and was shocked at how well it turned out. His face lit up at the delicious and sweet treat. Jeno also took a bite and was also impressed. He showed his signature eye smile. Jisung smiled in return. Jisung got good presentation, sweet aroma, decadent taste, decent cleanliness and good time management for his waffles. Next was Mark.
Next was Mark's waffles. Taeyong took a bite. Finally something edible from Mark for once. Jeno took a bite and confirmed that Mark did indeed make something edible. Mark was ecstatic. Mark got decent presentation, good taste, okay cleanliness and okay time management.
Final round was tteokbokki. Both of their weaknesses. Mark sends a silent prayer to god. Jisung starts to get his ingredients prepared.
Once again it became chaotic at Neo Kitchen, gochujang (red pepper paste) everywhere, gochugaru (red pepper flakes) on the floor, rice cakes were rock solid and Jisung cannot cut fishcakes to save his life. Mark was somehow worse, he threw what he can find to make tteokbokki in the pot. He somehow puts a boiled egg with shell and made the sauce too salty. The sauce was practically water that tasted like an ocean with chilli instead of something sweet yet spicy.
Jisung made the tteokbokki in the wrong order but was still able to have a somewhat decent end result. As for Mark, his tteokbokki looked like it went through a world war. They served the final dish to the taste testers.
Taeyong took a bite out of Jisung's tteokbokki. A little salty but it was decent. Jeno also took a bite out of Jisung's tteokbokki. It was salty but still had the sweet and spicy flavour. Jisung got good presentation, good aroma, okay taste, decent cleanliness and okay time management. Jisung bowed to the taste testers and went to take a seat. Now it was Mark's turn.
Renjun gave more beverages for the taste testers to prepare them for the salty creation called 'Mark's ocean tteokbokki'. Taeyong took a bite and cringed. He drank the beverage immediately. "That was an ocean" Taeyong stated. Jeno took a bite of Mark's creation. He immediately drank the beverage, not knowing that his drinks both had vinegar in it. Jeno cringed even more and suddenly clutched his stomach. "You okay Jen?" Taeyong asked. Jeno was on the floor. "My stomach hurts..." Jeno answered. Taeyong went down to help Jeno. "He needs some stomach medication and a hot water bottle please!" Taeyong ordered whilst tending to his fellow taste tester. Xiaojun knew it...he grabbed a hot water bottle and gave it to Taeyong, who put it on Jeno's abdomen. Meanwhile, Mark watched in horror. Did he really cook so badly that he basically poisoned his friend? Who knows...
Renjun went to the store quickly and came back with stomach medicine. He gave Taeyong the medication. Taeyong then helped Jeno take the medication before being assisted to sit on the couch.
"Sorry for the dramatic scene, seems like one of our taste testers nearly got poisoned" Jungwoo announced. "We will be back to announce the final score of our chefs once said taste tester is stable" Jungwoo added.
After a short break, Jeno was still unstable from the near poisoning event from not only Mark's cooking but the drinks he was served. So he was unable to participate in announcing the scores. Taeyong chose not to participate to tend to his fellow taste tester. Renjun went up to him and apologised, stating that the beverages with vinegar were for the chefs once they finished cooking, but he somehow gave Jeno the wrong drink.
This leaves Jungwoo and Xiaojun to announce the scores. "The winner is Jisung! He won by a lot of points! He scored a 50/75. As for Mark, his score was interesting....he scored a 15/75" Jungwoo announced. "Good work chefs, see you next time in the next show" Jungwoo added.