After all, anyone who could make Intermediate Cuisine was already qualified to apply for the official Pokémon Nutritionist certification exam.
For the freshman assessment, Ye Lan only had to make his food reach the intermediate standard in its appeal to Pokémon. There was no requirement for its energy level.
Nearly every Grass-type Pokémon loved Ye Lan's Pokémon food, but in terms of energy level, only his latest Pokémon Candy 4.5 counted as Intermediate Cuisine.
Ye Lan had learned from Serperior that, since reaching Gym Leader level, it considered Pokémon Candy nothing more than a snack. It was just how Gym Leader Huang Yuntian's Grass-type Pokémon had felt when they ate it back then.
At Ye Lan's current level of cooking, Serperior could only call his food tasty. Unfortunately, his own Pokémon had grown tired of eating it, so even that appeal was gone.
Fortunately, he had made a breakthrough in controlling Grass-type Energy. Ye Lan needed to hurry and catch up with the rate at which his Pokémon were growing stronger.
When the individual assessment moved into his specialty, Grass-type Cuisine, Ye Lan passed his final exam, though not without a scare. At last, he was out of danger of having to repeat the year.
After finals, construction of the plantation was also nearing completion. In his previous life, Ye Lan could never have imagined infrastructure being built this quickly. With Pokémon around, everything moved so much faster.
During that time, Ye Lan ran his restaurant while researching Dual-Type Cuisine. Each day, he went back and forth between the restaurant and his accommodations, checking on the plantation now and then. Otherwise, he discussed Grass-type Pokémon training methods with the Gym Leaders in the "A Loving Family" group chat. Lately, he had mainly been asking for advice on evolving Oh-no Amoonguss.