บท 260: 258

The embroidery competition was replaced with a cooking competition because every year, the same few people would win the embroidery competition, making it unexciting and tiring even for the Empress.

Cooking was different, though every lady would learn it, no one would invest great effort in it because that's what their household cooks were for.

Cooking was only a compulsory class due to a custom in the Imperial Capital: on the second day after a new bride enters the household, she would need to establish her authority by cooking a table full of dishes for the whole family.

Although that was the custom, in reality, most of the cooking was done by the cooks, and the new bride only had to serve the dishes from the pot to the table.

Therefore, most ladies, when learning cooking, needed only to learn how to make tonic soup.

As for why most would diligently learn how to make tonic soup, it was self-explanatory to everyone, no explanation needed.