At the same time, in Jingzhou.

Pei Qian was also in his office, casually skimming through various departments’ work reports while following the street food competition via livestream.

The first group was the jianbing group. Each vendor was at different stages of progress – some had just skillfully flipped their pancakes, others were already sprinkling chopped green onions on top. Although everyone demonstrated skilled techniques, there were still variations in quality.

“I can’t believe I’m watching people make jianbing via livestream. This scene feels somewhat surreal,” Pei Qian couldn’t help but comment.

Looking at the livestream, the audience gradually increased, and the chat messages became denser.

“What the heck! These people are all dressed so formally, yet they’re making jianbing?”

“Jianbing evaluation with judges? This is too bizarre!”

“The world is vast and full of wonders! So this is a street food competition? Will there be malatang, hand-grabbed pancakes, and fried chicken later?”

“The organizer is Miss Gourmet Noodles? This must be a publicity stunt? Wait, isn’t Miss Gourmet Noodles already finished?”

“Word on the street is that Tenda might have taken over? Who knows if it’s true.”

More and more people joined the livestream.

Although the street food competition’s livestream didn’t get particularly good recommendation placement, being listed in the lifestyle category brought in plenty of organic traffic. Whether it was the competition title or the livestream content itself, both greatly piqued viewers’ interest, making them stay once they entered.

How interesting! Never seen anything like this!

Someone noticed the livestream account belonged to “Miss Gourmet Noodles,” which had been specially registered by Meng Chang previously to promote the brand.

Many people hadn’t been following Miss Gourmet Noodles’ subsequent developments, and since Pei Qian hadn’t made a big deal about the takeover, most didn’t know Tenda had acquired Miss Gourmet Noodles. They were puzzled: Wasn’t Miss Gourmet Noodles bankrupt? How did they still have money to host such a competition?

However, most viewers didn’t dwell on this point because their attention was quickly captured by the delicious jianbing.

They had specifically hired professional camera operators, with multiple cameras switching views – some focused on the judges’ expressions, others captured the vendors’ actions from a moderate distance, while others provided close-ups of the jianbing’s appearance.

Golden jianbing were quickly prepared, some wrapped with fried dough sticks, others with crispy wafers. The golden exterior was adorned with crispy brown edges, black sesame seeds, and light green onion threads, looking extremely appetizing.

Rows of staff members carrying trays approached the jianbing vendors. These trays were specially designed with many small compartments, each corresponding to a vendor’s number.

Vendors cut their jianbing into small pieces, placing one piece into each staff member’s tray in the compartment matching their number.

After the staff made their rounds, the trays were filled with all vendors’ jianbing and brought directly to the judges and audience for tasting.

Of course, since there were many on-site spectators, vendors needed to continue making jianbing to ensure everyone could sample them.

The first to taste were naturally the specially invited judges.

Judges had chopsticks and other utensils at hand. They picked up a piece of jianbing, carefully tasted and chewed it, noted the corresponding number’s flavor in their notebooks, drank some mineral water to cleanse their palate, then continued to the next sample.

Once the judges finished most of their tasting, the host handed over the microphone for each judge to share their opinions.

At this point, the audience members were still sampling the jianbing.

As judges provided commentary while audience members tasted, it served an explanatory function to some extent.

Of course, if audience members disagreed with the judges, they could stick to their own opinions.

Both judges and audience could be quite subjective when tasting. They could comment only on jianbing they found delicious, remain silent about others, or even decide what to eat or skip based purely on appearance.

Since food evaluation is inherently subjective and good food should excel in color, aroma, and taste, poor presentation likely meant it wouldn’t be well-received.

After all, we live in a world that judges by appearance.

Regardless, the rules were fair. Who would emerge victorious depended entirely on skill.

After tasting, the judges had formed their opinions and began sharing them in turn.

“I think Number 3’s jianbing is excellent. The wrapper is crispy, leaving a lasting fragrance with each bite. The cooking method is close to traditional techniques, but with some personal innovations.”

“I actually prefer Number 7. The sauce and various toppings are very particular, not excessive, so you don’t taste only sauce on the first bite. You can fully experience the texture of the grain wrapper, giving a fresh feeling while also conforming to modern people’s low-calorie dietary habits…”

Judges began sharing their thoughts, evaluating the jianbing from different perspectives.

If a vendor’s jianbing received praise from a judge, the host would interview the vendor, having them briefly introduce their unique methods and secrets, essentially gaining more votes for themselves.

Finally, judges and audience would press their voting devices, voting for their favorite jianbing. After the backend tallied scores and applied weighted rules, results would automatically generate, ranking jianbing from highest to lowest scores based on taste.

…

Watching the livestream, Pei Qian unconsciously swallowed.

Must admit, it really looks appetizing!

The photographer’s close-up shots of jianbing, combined with the sizzling sounds of the cooking griddle, whetted one’s appetite.

The livestream audience continued to grow.

“Wow, this looks so delicious! Is it just my imagination?”

“Quite the formal setup – luxury hotel, uniformed chef clothing, judge commentary… This creates psychological suggestion.”

“Psychological suggestion is probably only part of it, but these vendors’ skills are definitely exceptional! Even though we can’t taste them, just look at their jianbing-making techniques and the pancakes’ color and texture – definitely won’t disappoint!”

“Of course! This food competition selected the best vendors from across the country, all locally renowned. Some might even be viral food stalls with long queues – how could their skills be inferior?”

“So envious, want to eat!”

Most viewers initially entered the livestream out of curiosity: just street food like jianbing with judges doing evaluations?

But by now, many viewers were treating it as a serious food program, some even feeling eager to order jianbing immediately.

Unfortunately, wishing was useless since most people’s accessible jianbing would definitely be far inferior to what they saw on stream.

The livestream’s viewership began rapidly increasing, chat messages becoming denser!

Lifestyle category was already a popular section on streaming platforms, and food remains an eternal topic of interest.

The street food competition was simultaneously novel, down-to-earth, had professional elements, and was in the lifestyle category’s food section, quickly attracting numerous viewers!

Although it was Monday afternoon when the entire site was relatively quiet, it also meant there weren’t many major streamers online and limited premium content available.

Officials quickly noticed this, seeing the street food competition performing so well, immediately allocated many resources and pushed it directly to the homepage!

“…Haven’t paid attention for a while, why is the popularity so high?”

Pei Qian had been casually browsing departments’ work reports before. Upon returning, he found the livestream viewership had more than doubled!

The popularity had increased tremendously, clearly showing the streaming platform’s official promotion.

Pei Qian was somewhat surprised: “Monday afternoon has this many viewers? Don’t you all have to work?”

“Or are people secretly watching while on the job?”

“Slacking off during work – these are talents! Unfortunately, can’t contact these people to recruit them to Tenda.”

Pei Qian instinctively felt uneasy. Regardless of what it was, anything associated with popularity usually meant trouble.

But reconsidering, Pei Qian thought: it’s best if this food competition doesn’t become popular, but even if it did, what impact would it have on him?

Pei Qian had already given clear instructions – judges wouldn’t praise Miss Gourmet Noodles or drive consumers there.

Even with popularity, once the competition ended, all hype would dissipate. What was there to worry about?

Thinking it through, Pei Qian felt there was no reason for concern and continued watching peacefully.

…

After the jianbing group’s competition, other categories followed: hand-grabbed pancakes, iron-plate squid, roasted gluten skewers, etc.

The evaluation process remained consistent. No one knew the final results, which depended entirely on on-site judges’ and audience members’ tastes.

However, even though these were simple, common street snacks, differences in quality were evident.

After all, there’s a saying: don’t challenge others’ livelihood professions with your hobbies.

With so many street vendors nationwide, all working early and late to sell snacks for income, making hundreds to thousands daily portions – those whose food wasn’t tasty had already been eliminated.

Participants in this competition were renowned vendors from across the nation, truly exceptional, each with special skills.

In other words: “Nothing special, just practiced hands.”

The competition was lengthy, divided into many groups, ensuring all on-site audiences got to taste everything, plus time for judge commentary and vendor explanations. Time flew by quickly.

From 2 PM until 6 PM.

Approaching dinner time, people were getting off work, and the street food competition’s livestream hit peak popularity!

Dense chat messages nearly covered the entire screen.

Next came the roasted cold noodles group evaluation, followed by rare delicacy groups, and finally the grand finale.

The grand finale compared scores across different food categories, identifying top performers in each class to receive trophies and prize money.

Viewers remaining in the livestream were mainly waiting for this finale, curious about which vendor would triumph.