Chapter 234 – 300 Dishes
The kitchen was extremely wide. Various cooking tools were neatly arranged. Between the kitchen and the dining hall, there was a large partitioning glass that showed the customers how clean the kitchen was and allowed them to see the process of how their food was made.
Behind the glass, there were more than 10 tall-hat chefs busying themselves. In a separate kitchen further behind it, the staff were busying themselves by cutting vegetables, mincing meat, chopping bones, and preparing various ingredients.
The person in charge of the kitchen was named Huang Jun. It was said that at 40 years old he became one of the top grade chefs in the entire country who was proficient in Cantonese, Szechuan, and Shandong Cuisines. His face appeared fierce, but his body was chubby and tall. He wore a chef’s white tall hat and looked at Wei Xiao Bei as he asked, “What dishes do you know how to make?”
For him, a person who relied on connections to come in like Wei Xiao Bei was his greatest headache. If it was not a good person who made a lot of careless mistakes, he had to take responsibility and even help them do the last stage of work.
However, not accepting was also out of the question. It was said that this person was someone personally brought in by the crown prince, Huang Kun. In other words, this person had a high standing.
It was out of the question for Huang Jun to just let him go to the back kitchen and do odd jobs. Thus, he had no choice but to ask clearly, else he might make a careless mistake.
Before meeting Huang Kun’s mother, Wei Xiao Bei knew that he was going to work for a Cantonese restaurant. Thus he had carefully looked at materials on Cantonese cuisine.
After all, in terms off cuisine, Cantonese cuisine used various ingredients and was also nice to look at.
Wei Xiao Bei had seen a post in the internet forums. It said that among chefs that had finished their apprenticeship, chefs who cooked Cantonese cuisine would have an easier time finding work. As long as their foundations were good, the food that they make would look good.
Cantonese cuisine took careful consideration on the food’s taste to be light but not weak as they pursued the food’s original taste. Thus, they also needed to exert more effort in designing the food, which suited Wei Xiao Bei’s request.
“I know all the Cantonese cuisines.”
Hearing Huang Jun’s question, Wei Xiao Bei thought for a bit before answering without any hint of modesty.
He actually wanted to be modest, but he was worried that once he was modest, Huang Jun might strip him of privilege on the kitchen stove.
Although his idea was to come here and learn, he was not willing to become apprenticed to a chef.
All cuisines?
It was the first time Huang Jun encountered a chef that was not modest. He saw that Wei Xiao Bei appeared buff and taller than him, but his age should only be at most 22 years old.
Being a chef required a lot of experience. The peak age of the occupation should be around 30 to 60 years old. The deeper they walked, the more skilled they were.
22-year-old chefs should only be at the level of graduating from school.
Could it be that he is only pretending?
Huang Jun looked at Wei Xiao Bei’s leaf-like hands and thick joints, seeing that it was an expert’s.
Maybe I should let him directly go in?
Huang Jun pondered, but he did not dare risk it. He guided Wei Xiao Bei to a stove and let him cook beef chao fun as a test.
In Cantonese cuisine, beef chao fun was a kind of snack. It was separated into wet fired or dry fired. Its ingredients mainly include rice noodles, bean sprouts, beef, and many other ingredients.
Dry frying was the more difficult one. It required the oil to make the dish glisten, the beef tender and fragrant, the rice noodles smooth, and the plate dry and juiceless.
A slight inattentiveness would cause the beef to overcook and harden, and it would result in the rice noodles sticking together.
In the occupation, this dish was used to test a Cantonese chef’s skills.
Thus, it was not Huang Jun’s intention to make things difficult for Wei Xiao Bei.
There was not much to say about the stir-frying process. Wei Xiao Bei had tried cooking various dishes back in the dojo. Among them, he had already tried cooking beef chao for fun.
As Wei Xiao Bei finished cooking, Huang Jun, as a chef for almost 30 years, could see that Wei Xiao Bei lacked experience but had a lot of innate talent. Although the fire control during the cooking was a bit high, it could still be considered a good dish.
Just like that, Huang Jun admired his talent.
In truth, Huang Jun had seen many talented youths before, but it was the first time he had seen a talent like Wei Xiao Bei in all his years.
Naturally, Huang Jun did not know that it was all thanks to a skill and not innate talent.
Huang Jun nodded his head and made Wei Xiao Bei his assistant. Just like that, Wei Xiao Bei would observe him while sometimes helping out, and he would sometimes work on his own.
As a team member of the Long Hu Dou Restaurant, Huang Jun’s position was high. Countless chefs wanted to be his assistant and learn a few things from him, so that they would not need to worry about their living expenses. Seeing Wei Xiao Bei being nurtured by Huang Jun the first time he began, a lot of them became unhappy, but they could only endure it.
If they had offended Huang Jun, let alone the Long Hu Dou Restaurant, they would not be able to find any work as a chef in the entire Cui Hu City.
In current society, everything was a circle.
Wei Xiao Bei was also not an idiot. Although he was slightly unhappy at being an assistant chef, he knew that there might not be a chance for him to cook a dish with only his intermediate rank [Cooking] skill after observing his surroundings.
It had previously been said that the people eating in this restaurant were all rich and powerful. Chefs who had lower skills could only be placed at the side, acting as substitutes when the better chefs were out.
If they wanted to change the situation, who knew how long it would take.
On his first day as a chef, Wei Xiao Bei was given many pointers by Huang Jun.
Although he did not work alone in the restaurant, Huang Jun would let Wei Xiao Bei cook a few dishes during their idle time and give him comments, pointing out Wei Xiao Bei’s mistakes.
When it was time to get off work, Wei Xiao Bei felt that his skills in cooking had increased by a lot. The things that he did not understand in the materials had been connected properly. Even the color of the [Cooking] skill in his status panel had slightly changed.
After returning to the dojo, Wei Xiao Bei cooked a few Cantonese dishes for Huang Kun and Zhu Xin Yi. While he was cooking, the hard work during the day had been clearly displayed.
Previously, whenever Wei Xiao Bei cooked Cantonese cuisine, getting one colorful dish out of ten dishes was already lucky.
But now, two colorful dishes had appeared after cooking five dishes. This was a pleasant surprise for him.
The next morning, Wei Xiao Bei did shadowboxing and trained his Qi. Afterwards, he immediately went to the restaurant.
This was Huang Jun’s request.
Huang Jun had regarded Wei Xiao Bei as important. He wanted to find an apprentice and pass down his legacy.
It must be known that Huang Jun had already received a lot of apprentices, but compared to him, their talents were slightly worse and could only imitate Huang Jun’s skill. If they wanted to inherit everything, they must be able to push out the old with the new, which was beyond difficult.
This pushing out the old with the new was not as simple as only developing a few dishes.
Instead, they needed to have their own innovative ideas and their own styles.
It was like how Huang Jun’s old diners would immediately knew Huang Jun cooked the dish in a single bite. It was only at that point could it be called pushing out the old with the new.
Just like that, Huang Jun had looked upon Wei Xiao Bei. He was unwilling to waste such a good successor. Thus he was much more stricter on him.
When Wei Xiao Bei arrived, the restaurant was already open.
In Cantonese cuisine, there was a concept of morning tea.
Seeing Wei Xiao Bei arrive, Huang Jun immediately called him to the stove and explained to him how to make various breakfast dishes.
Compared to other cuisine, Cantonese breakfast could be called as the most abundant.
If you looked at Hong Kong movies, you would be able to understand how abundant it was. There was the famous roast pork buns, rice noodle rolls, prawn dumplings, steamed shumai, steamed spare ribs, and many other foods that made people drool.
In truth, Wei Xiao Bei had never eaten morning tea before in his life. When he saw it today, his interest was overflowing.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc. Wei Xiao Bei’s day was full of color.
When the kitchen was very busy, Wei Xiao Bei had been appointed by Huang Jun to work on his own.
Initially, Huang Jun was slightly worried, so while cooking on one side, he examined Wei Xiao Bei for a while before being relieved.
The dishes that Wei Xiao Bei cooked might not yet be called nice to look at, but they were flavorful and fragrant.
After all, not every dish in the restaurant was expensive, there were also cheap dishes.
Thus, Huang Jun had placed these cheap dishes at the hands of Wei XIao Bei, using this to train Wei Xiao Bei’s skills.
After getting off work and returning to the dojo, Wei Xiao Bei felt a bit tired even with his strength.
This was not in terms of stamina consumption, but for every dish he made, he needed to focus all attention, so his mental consumption was higher.
On the contrary, the main chefs were also focused on their dishes, but with their experience, they could finish their dishes on conditional reflex even if they closed their eyes.
If Wei Xiao Bei wanted to do such a thing now, it would be a long road ahead.
However, Wei Xiao Bei felt that the day’s work was all worth it.
In the entire day, the amount of colorful dishes he had made was 52, making a total of 64 colorful dishes.
When he returned to the dojo, he cooked five Cantonse dishes for Huang Kun and Zhu Xin Yi, where three dishes were evaluated as colorful.
Wei Xiao Bei could not help but sigh. This was the difference between reading materials alone and being taught by a master.
After all, there were too many things involved in cooking. It would be inevitable to miss a few things just by relying on internet resources.
For example, according to Huang Jun, for a dish to reach the peak, learning its foundation was necessary.
What foundation you might ask?
It’s the ingredients!
The environment where the ingredients were made had a huge influence on them. For example, during the ingredients’ growth, the climate changes for one year could affect them differently.
Even condiments needed to be studied from their source. Only then was cooking learned.
In short, Wei Xiao Bei was now admiring Huang Jun.
In the next four days, the rate at which Wei Xiao Bei made colorful dishes increased. After getting off work on the Friday, his [Cooking] skill’s requirement of 300 colorful dishes had been fulfilled.
