Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After personally seeing this place, Little Zhao followed behind while grumbling non stop within his heart.
“What’s the big deal? It’s not as amazing as the people online are making it out to be.”
“Although the street is clean, it’s messy with so many stalls.”
“Truly a tiny restaurant. It doesn’t even have a signboard.”
“The decorations in the restaurant are decent, but still nothing special.”
“And look at the two paintings on the ceiling. This is truly an educated person pretending to mingle with the cognoscenti. They are probably some random paintings he grabbed somewhere. The author is called Diao Sanmei? I have never heard of this name.”
Since he entered the Taoxi Road, Little Zhao never stopped looking everywhere with contempt. Everything was bad for him and he was of the opinion that everything here was incomparable to the classical and refined design of the Shu Restaurant. Based on the grumblings in his heart, his present location was obvious.
Nevertheless, he was no fool. Since he had been rebuked by Cao Zhishu once, no matter what he thought, his expression remained unchanged.
“You’re back so fast, Boss Yuan?” Meng Meng said. Since she saw that Boss Yuan was attending to some guests, she did not ask too much. She merely gently said, “Can I look when you’re cooking? I promise I will only be looking.”
“Don’t make any noise,” Yuan Zhou said indifferently. This was his way of agreeing. Meng Meng was pleased beyond expectations and quickly nodded her head, standing aside obediently.
Yuan Zhou had prepared two dishes for this visit. Just as he was about to speak the name of the dishes, Cao Zhishu spoke.
“Sorry, Head Chef Yuan. I wonder if I can voice my suggestion for the exchange today?” Cao Zhishu said apologetically.
Since Yuan Zhou had agreed to eat anything presented when he was visiting, Cao Zhishu felt embarrassed to make demands when it was his turn visiting.
“Please say it,” Yuan Zhou said.
“I heard from my disciple that you have studied the Spicy Boiled Fish meticulously. Therefore, I’m wondering if that can be included in the dishes today?” Cao Zhishu quickly added, “Of course, if there are any problems regarding the ingredients, forget it. My request has been too sudden, after all.”
“Not a problem,” Yuan Zhou nodded.
The so-called disciple was Zhao Xin. Yuan Zhou looked over curiously. Since when had he mentioned that he had meticulously studied the Spicy Boiled Fish? Although that was not part of his arrangement, he still agreed.
The only reason for Cao Zhishu’s request was due to what Little Zhao said.
It was unknown what Little Zhao had said after Yuan Zhou left yesterday. But if one did not seek trouble, trouble would not come looking easily.
“I’ll be troubling you, Boss Yuan,” Cao Zhishu said joyfully and thanked solemnly.
“You’re welcome. Please have a seat,” Yuan Zhou invited.
“I’ll be waiting for your food then, Head Chef Yuan. Sorry for the trouble,” Cao Zhishu said and took his seat.
“Um,” Yuan Zhou nodded and did not bother acting modestly.
“Today, I will be serving Spicy Boiled Fish and plain white rice,” Yuan Zhou changed the dish to something more fitting with the Spicy Boiled Fish.
In Yuan Zhou’s opinion, Spicy Boiled Fish was best eaten with plain white rice.
“Sure,” Cao Zhishu agreed. He was slightly stunned as he had never expected that the dishes served would be so simple. One ought to know that for Yuan Zhou’s visit, the Shu Restaurant had made layers and layers of preparations. But since Yuan Zhou was the host, Cao Zhishu agreed.
“This Yuan Zhou is merely carrying out the motions. Does he think that he can take it easy just because this is a friendly exchange?” Little Zhao grumbled inwardly. Then, he reached a conclusion in his mind, “Then again, a tiny restaurant like this wouldn’t have many ingredients prepared. If they failed to sell all the ingredients, it will be a waste.”
Little Zhao was of the opinion that since Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was so popular, at the very least, the ingredients here should be fresh. One could not blame Little Zhao for feeling so superior here. After all, the Shu Restaurant’s had an extremely huge storage just for their ingredients.
Every single day, the freshest vegetables, meats, freshwater and saltwater fishes, and some other high-end produces such as abalones would be provided, waiting for the chefs to use as they wished.
Naturally, Yuan Zhou was unaware of what Little Zhao was thinking. He was seriously bickering with the system. Since the dishes had changed, the price of the ingredients must also change. Therefore, he was trying to make the system return what it charged him earlier.
After Cao Zhishu sat down, he was surprised to see one other person in the restaurant.
“Head Chef Cheng, why are you here?” Cao Zhishu asked with a frown. Although he still politely called him a head chef, from his stiff voice, it was clear their relationship was rather bad.
The moment Cao Zhishu spoke, Little Zhao instinctively raised his head and stopped grumbling about Yuan Zhou in his heart.
“Why do you care?” Master Cheng answered impatiently. He did not even bother raising his head.
“You are here inviting Head Chef Yuan for an exchange as well? I’m sorry to say that my invitation has arrived first,” Cao Zhishu concluded after seeing Master Cheng seriously staring at the kitchen where Yuan Zhou was busy cooking.
The person who had the largest reaction to Cao Zhishu’s words was not Master Cheng. Rather, it was Little Zhao.
Inwardly, Little Zhao was feeling extremely dissatisfied. Yuan Zhou was merely an odd-job worker. How could he stand shoulder to shoulder with his master? How was he worthy of receiving invitations from so many renowned chefs?
That’s right. Little Zhao knew Master Cheng as well. After all, Master Cheng was also a renowned chef. On his Weibo, he had even received positive reviews from abroad. It was hard to not know him.
“Just wait until you’re done cooking. You will be taught a lesson,” Little Zhao vowed inwardly.
“Hoho,” Master Cheng held his temper and did not bother saying anything since he was in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
“Looks like you are quite polite in front Head Chef Yuan. I wonder how long you can keep that up,” Cao Zhishu ridiculed.
“Longer than you,” Master Cheng finally turned around and said. After all, he had already maintained a polite attitude here for more than half a year.
Cao Zhishu snorted and ignored Master Cheng.
With the two growing hostile the moment they met, it was clear they knew each other rather well.
The source of their hostility was quite simple. They knew each other during a certain cooking competition. Due to some divergent opinions on cooking, they grew hostile. Cao Zhishu was of the opinion that food bore the weight of history as well, since food was a major part of history.
As for Master Cheng, he opined that food was food. Regardless of what fancy words one used on it, food was still food and did not need the additional weights attached to it. None of them were able to convince the other, and were thus stuck in a deadlock.
Eventually, it deteriorated to the point where Master Cheng felt like Cao Zhishu’s etiquette was fake, while Cao Zhishu felt that with Master Cheng’s temper, he was a boorish person.
And because of the mutual dislike, they grew hostile the moment they met.
“Huh? So Master Cheng has a bad relationship with this person?” Meng Meng blinked her eyes and looked at the two, curiosity written all over her face.
Fortunately, she was aware of how rare it was for Yuan Zhou to permit her to stay. Therefore, she did not open her mouth and say anything.
The restaurant sank into silence, only the sounds of Yuan Zhou cooking resounding in the air.
“Have some tea, master,” Little Zhao noticed that Yuan Zhou had not served them any tea so he passed the tea he had prepared in advance to Cao Zhishu.
The hidden meaning behind this action was clear. Little Zhao was criticizing Yuan Zhou for not knowing proper etiquette.
“Um,” Cao Zhishu took the tea. Of course, he had not realized what Little Zhao was hinting at. Instead, he recalled something else.
“By the way, although you don’t know this disciple of mine, he used to learn from Head Chef Yuan. One can say that I have some sort of relationship with Head Chef Yuan through this,” Cao Zhishu suddenly said towards Master Cheng.
He was obviously trying to brag about the indirect relationship he had with Yuan Zhou.
Little did Cao Zhishu knew that he had touched upon Master Cheng’s taboo.
Master Cheng immediately turned around and saw the astonishment and resentment on Little Zhao’s face. He immediately sneered.
“What? He learned here before? Learning from Teacher Yuan?” Master Cheng ridiculed. “Absolutely impossible. He is not worthy of that. Are you dreaming?”
“Little Zhao, tell Head Chef Cheng about it,” Cao Zhishu turned and encouraged Little Zhao.
