Translator: Xiong_Guoqi Editor: Henyee
While Liu Tong praised Yuan Zhou’s capabilities of cooking fish in various ways, the chefs all walked towards the exchange meeting place slowly.
The meeting place was in the banquet hall of this Century Kaiyue Hotel.
The layout of the banquet hall today was totally different from that in normal times. There appeared an oval in the central part of the banquet hall. It was separated with many kitchen counters.
Standing behind them were the chefs dressed in brand-new and neat chef uniforms and every kitchen counter was facing a table.
The food ingredients were right behind the chefs for the sake of convenience.
The tables were all made of solid wood and the color was the natural wood color. On the tables, the stuff used for tasting the dishes were placed.
A series of kitchen tools like chopsticks, chopstick rests, tooth glass and five small plates to put dipping sauce. And the chairs were naturally the mating wooden chair.
Such layout was naturally to provide the chefs with the most convenience to taste the dishes.
Apart from the oval azure stone countertops and dining sets, there were also many chairs around, which appeared to be a place for people to have a rest.
“They are really arranged neatly.” Yuan Zhou had quite sharp eyes. Therefore, when he looked at the stuff on the tables and the distance between tables and chairs, he couldn’t help muttering.
“Tsk-tsk. The tables and chairs today must have been arranged by a person who has obsessions. It feels that every table and chair are exactly the same except the chefs. They are so neat and tidy. Wu Jun stroked his chin and said with great interest.
However, what he said was directly ignored. Lucky that a Japanese who was in charge of the reception arrived at that moment. It was the chairman of the Japanese Chefs’ Kabushiki Kaisha.
“Nice to meet you, everybody. You have gone through hardships and come a long way from China. I must say thank you for your kind support.” The chairman of the Japanese party appeared more or less the same age with Zhou Shijie. He was dressed in the traditional Japanese-style Kimono, on which the exquisite Pictures of The Floating World was painted. While he was saying that, he nodded the head slightly to express the apology and appeared rather sincere.
Of course, this chairman spoke Chinese though he didn’t speak as standard as Chengtian Yilang, who had received them at the airport.
“You are way too courteous, Chairman Masheng. Chairman Zhou told me to send his best wishes to you.” In such an occasion, it was definitely Li Minghui, the eldest apprentice of Zhou Shijie, that came up and greeted him.
“Mr. Li is so young and capable. Chairman Zhou is also so courteous. I hope we can learn from each other again by exchanging views next time when we go to China.” The Chairman Masheng of the Japanese party said with a smile.
“Of course. You and Chairman Zhou just have the same thoughts.” Li Minghui answered naturally.
“Alright. In that case, I won’t disturb your schedule. Please follow Mr. Chengtian to have a look around.” Since he achieved the goal, Chairman Masheng said immediately.
“Okay. Sorry to bother you.” Li Minghui nodded the head and answered.
It was another round of small talk right after that, but Yuan Zhou wasn’t interested in that anymore. He was quite curious about the culinary skills of these chefs.
“What are these chefs good at?” Yuan Zhou lifted the foot and prepared to walk towards those chefs.
He saw something like a small card on which something was written on every table and prepared to go and have a look.
“Hi, sirs. If you have finished the taste test, please remember to return to the chairs to have a rest.” Zhong Lili realized the intentions of Yuan Zhou and other Chinese chefs first.
“Um.” Yuan Zhou answered casually. As for another several chefs that didn’t like the small talk, they had already walked towards there.
That’s right. Not only Yuan Zhou himself but also quite a few people didn’t like those kinds of small talk, including the talkative Wu Jun and the grey-haired middle-aged man, etc.
After Zhong Lili said that, there were only Li Minghui, Liu Tong and the Japanese representatives left at this side.
“It’s really the introductions.” Yuan Zhou walked to a table and took up the small card on the table. Only then did he confirmed his own thoughts.
Only four kinds of information was written on the small card, for example, the one in front of Yuan Zhou.
Name: Song Benqing
Age: 39
Working years of being a chef: 19
Skilled in: balloonfish cuisines
“Wow, the working years of being a chef are really scary.” Yuan Zhou muttered to himself in a whisper.
“I don’t think it’s scary at all. The chefs that can step into this meeting place today are all top-grade ones of the two countries. The working years of 19 are only considered to be ordinary.” Wu Jun appeared behind Yuan Zhou mysteriously.
“Um. Hurry up to taste the dish.” Yuan Zhou answered lightly.
“I know, I know. Make sure the answer is short and brief shortly when you give opinions.” After Wu Jun said that he directly headed for the dishes instead of pestering Yuan Zhou again.
Yuan Zhou didn’t really start the taste test immediately. If any of the chefs didn’t get seated, the chefs wouldn’t cook the dishes, because the process of the exchange meeting also required the chefs to watch.
While walking around all the oval tables, Yuan Zhou picked up every card and had a look carefully.
The content on the card was almost the same. Of all the chefs, the one that had as long as 35 years in this industry was nevertheless only good at one cuisine, Santian Beef.
Yuan Zhou knew something about the Santian Beef. It was actually the Wagyu Beef in the ordinary sense.
However, the Kobe City wasn’t actually a metropolis and didn’t produce the cattle. Those beef mainly came from the surrounding rural areas of Kobe City and the best of all was Santian Beef.
The judgement of the quality of the cattle over here depended on a certificate, a certificate called Child Cattle Registration Certificate.
It recorded all of the past three generations of the cow, including the names and telephone numbers of the people who raised it and who did the artificial insemination for it.
Such a cow required repeat inspections at the 14th month and 29th month after the certificate was awarded.
Moreover, the association that had awarded the certificate held a contest every year. For the cow which obtained the first prize, even a drop of sperm was worth tens of thousands of JPY.
“Tsk-tsk. What a same life with different prices! I’d rather be a cow in my next life.” It was the sigh with emotion when Yuan Zhou got to know about this cow.
“It’s surprising the Hand-Pulled Noodles. Isn’t the Lanzhou Hand-Pulled Noodles more famous that this?” Yuan Zhou took the small card on the last table and ridiculed in the heart.
That’s right. The information recorded on this card showed that this chef was good at making the Hand-Pulled Noodles.
The first dish that Yuan Zhou tasted wasn’t the Hand-Pulled Noodles or the beef, but the eels, specifically, Kabayaki Eel.
The chef that cooked this dish was a middle-aged man, who had about twenty years of working age. He was good at cooking Kabayaki Eels and Eel Griped.
“Hello. What do you want to eat?” Seeing Yuan Zhou sit down, the chef asked immediately. His Chinese sounded quite awkward, but luckily, Yuan Zhou could understand him.
“This, this one.” Yuan Zhou took up the introduction card and said while pointing at the Kabayaki Eels.
“One moment, please.” This time, the person spoke Japanese. As far as Yuan Zhou could understand, it meant so, thus he got seated with ease.
Ever since the chef started to process the eels, however, Yuan Zhou’s brows had never been unknitted.
As the eels had no fish scales, its body was quite smooth and it was very difficult to get hold of it. This person wiped the fish carver with a piece of clean white cloth first and then caught an eel with the left hand and directly started to dissect it.
As it was very smooth and not easy to get hold of, the eels were partitioned by others at will like an cucumber. As a result, the actions also appeared smooth and natural.
However, Yuan Zhou had been denying the way to process the eels in the heart.
“The ironware has destroyed the freshness of the fish and the actions are rough. Just now, the knife was askew.” In the opinion of others, the actions were smooth and naturally like the floating clouds and flowing water. In Yuan Zhou’s eyes, however, there were full of flaws.
The five senses that were more sensitive than others’ has provided Yuan Zhou with the extremely picky severity.
Therefore, Yuan Zhou directly returned to the chairs for a rest when he ate up two pieces of Kabayaki Eels prepared by the chefs.
According to the schedule, however, the chefs needed to give opinions of the dishes that they had tasted.
“How do you like the dish, sir?” Chengtian Yilan asked Yuan Zhou smilingly.
Since he asked in this way, he was actually waiting for Yuan Zhou to say complimentary words. After all, the dish of Kabayaki Eels was what he was good at.
Nevertheless, Yuan Zhou suddenly thought of Zhong Lili’s instructions that it wasn’t their home court and he had better not say much and keep low-profile. Consequently, Yuan Zhou summarized the flaws that he had found just now and gave his comment:
“Everything is good except that it doesn’t taste good.”
…
