Chapter 108 - 106: Satisfactory Culinary Skills

Chapter 108: Chapter 106: Satisfactory Culinary Skills

When the cyber police reported the situation, everyone who received the news didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

That such a minor figure could cause such a huge stir was a testament to the power of the internet.

At the restaurant in Lin Xian Village, Lin Feng headed to the back kitchen after the man was taken away.

"Not bad. Your knife skills haven’t gotten rusty, and you’re handling the ingredients very well."

Wan Tiejun watched as Huang Yi prepped the various ingredients. Shandong cuisine relies heavily on stock, and the quality of that stock determines the flavor of the final dish.

Huang Yi was preparing the ingredients for the stock, a crucial part of learning Shandong cuisine. This time, he was focusing on a clear stock, the best kind for enhancing the natural flavors of the food.

As Lin Feng watched Huang Yi work, he realized just how troublesome it was to make a proper stock.

Pork hocks, old duck, chicken—all these ingredients had to be cleaned thoroughly, but the fat on the chicken couldn’t be removed completely.

First, they had to be heated in cold water to draw out all the impurities from the meat.

According to Master Wan, to get that traditional flavor in a clear stock, you had to use a scallion-pepper mash.

This involved grinding raw Sichuan peppercorns into a powder, then mixing it into finely minced Zhangqiu Leeks to create a mash. The leeks couldn’t be processed in a machine. When it came time to clarify the stock with a meat purée, the two would be mixed together and stirred evenly.

He had thought the stock would need to simmer for a long time, but Chef Wan told him it was actually quite fast. For five pounds of ingredients and fifteen pounds of stock, a little over an hour was enough.

After the stock was cooked, it had to be cooled to below 40 degrees Celsius before the clarifying process could begin, a step that needed to be repeated twice.

Following this method, one would have to start in the afternoon and work all the way into the evening just to produce a single pot of stock.

Wan Tiejun said, "The stock is crucial in Shandong cuisine. You can judge a chef’s skill by whether or not they can prepare a proper stock.

Nowadays, people don’t hold back their secrets. If you want to learn, there are plenty of videos online with very detailed instructions.

It’s not like the old days, where you’d spend three years just on prep work at the cutting board, all while worrying your master would never teach you his real techniques.

Unfortunately, so many restaurants today are just focused on speed. They all use pre-made meals, and even the stock is pre-made. They’re not even willing to learn how to do it themselves. It’d be a miracle if the food tasted good."

Lin Feng understood, though. In this day and age, everyone was chasing speed, taking whatever shortcut was available.

Besides, even if the customers were being fooled, most of them would never know the difference.

It was a form of natural selection, in a way. The customers who kept coming back formed the core base for that business model.

All one could say was that this method was more profitable than hiring a top chef and allowed them to serve more guests.

Online, there was a storm of criticism, but offline, people were ordering takeout more eagerly than ever, fueling the ecosystem of pre-made meals.

Take this for example: just one pot of stock required an experienced chef to spend seven or eight hours on it.

A little after seven in the evening, the restaurant was filled with people, all waiting for Huang Yi’s food.

"Coming through! Braised Prawns, Sweet and Sour Carp, Spicy Diced Chicken, and Braised Pork Belly!"

The moment the four dishes were served, a rich aroma filled the air, and their vibrant colors were even more enticing.

"Hey, get me a bowl of rice! This food looks like it’ll be perfect with it."

"Right away."

Dishes like Hibiscus Chicken Slices, Clear Soup with Snow Fungus, Hot Candied Yams, Quick-Fried ’Double Crisps,’ Braised ’Two Winters,’ and Stir-Fried Pork Kidney were brought out one after another, earning constant praise from the diners.

Lin Feng usually had low standards for food, but today, he truly felt the importance of a skilled chef.

Huang Yi came out from the back kitchen. Seeing that many of the plates on the table were already wiped clean, he felt a surge of satisfaction.

"So, what’s the verdict? I’d like to hear everyone’s opinion."

Ma Sandao said, "After eating your food, I finally understand the gap between a self-taught cook like me and someone like you, who comes from a proper culinary lineage."

"You’re too kind, Master Ma. I couldn’t possibly prepare your All-Beef Banquet."

Hu Zhiming wiped his mouth and gave a thumbs-up. "It’s better than Jinman Building in our county. The only problem is, it’s easy to get fat eating this."

"Thank you. Don’t worry about getting fat, just exercise more."

He then looked toward Lin Feng. His opinion was the most important one here; it would decide whether or not he could stay.

"It’s delicious. Speaking as an ordinary diner, I’d be willing to pay a higher price for food that tastes this good."

Wan Tiejun said, "Huang Yi, your culinary skills have improved quite a bit, but you’re still missing that final touch. That’s something you’ll have to figure out for yourself. No one else can teach it to you."

Huang Yi understood what his master meant by that "final touch." It was like a paper screen he had to break through himself; no amount of teaching from others would do it for him.

Because no two people cook in the exact same way. This inherent variance means that even the most top-tier techniques will differ from person to person.

Once he broke through that barrier, his culinary skills would reach a new level. His handling of ingredients, his control over flavor and heat—everything would become more precise.

Cooking involves so many things, from the initial selection of ingredients all the way to the moment the dish leaves the wok.

It’s just like studying: if you learn a wide variety of things but can’t fully integrate that knowledge, you can’t synthesize it into a cohesive whole.

That was exactly his situation now. He had perfected each individual step, but he just couldn’t fuse them into a seamless whole.

Once he achieved that fusion, he would be able to cook freely and intuitively, no longer bound by controlling individual steps but by managing the process as a whole.

"Master, I understand. I’ll work hard."

Lin Feng said, "From now on, you’ll be in charge of recruiting the back-of-house staff for this restaurant."

Hu Xia put down his teacup and said, "I’ll give you an account in a bit so you can go through the applications on the company’s backend. Of course, if you know anyone suitable, you can recommend them as well."

The restaurant’s servers were already hired during the last recruitment drive and are currently helping out with the ongoing banquets. The cashiers are also in training.

Once the dozens of acres of vegetables in Lin Xian Village start to mature, the restaurant will no longer need to source its vegetables from outside suppliers.

As for meat, most of it will come from the local farm. Only a few specific ingredients that aren’t available locally will be purchased from outside.

Lin Feng’s original plan was for Lin Xian Village to be self-sufficient in providing most of the ingredients for the restaurant.

This would ensure the restaurant’s food was both delicious and healthy, turning it into a calling card for Lin Xian Village.

After everyone had left, Wan Tiejun said, "Lin Feng, I posted your job opening in a chefs’ group chat. A Huaiyang cuisine chef should be getting in touch."

"Thank you, Uncle Wan, that’s great news. By any chance, do you know any Sichuan cuisine chefs?"

"I know a few, but they’re all old-timers."

Huang Yi spoke up, "I actually know someone, but he has a bit of a strange temperament. The guy doesn’t like dealing with people."

He used to be the head Sichuan chef at Emei Restaurant, but he quit over some issue and opened his own small, private-kitchen-style diner."

"Are you talking about Chen Yuyuan?"

"Master, you know him too?"

"Of course I do. He’s a relative of the great Master Chen Songru and later studied under Master Zhang Zhongyou for a time. He’s a true culinary obsessive.

It’s just that when it comes to social graces, he definitely has some issues."

Wan Tiejun recalled meeting the young man; he had been completely clueless about social etiquette. It was hard for someone like that to make it in the culinary world.

In any industry, interpersonal skills are crucial; you can’t manage a team without them.

This is especially true for chefs. You can’t just go it alone. If the back of house isn’t managed properly, all sorts of problems will crop up.

Lin Feng asked, "If he runs his own restaurant, would he be willing to come work for me?"

"I can ask for you," Huang Yi said. "If not, I’ll look for someone else. The main thing is that his skills are truly top-notch."

Wan Tiejun added, "Just in terms of pure skill, the guy is truly exceptional."

"Then give it a try. I’m fine with it," Lin Feng said. "As for the restaurant, I’m going to have Uncle Wan’s daughter, Qianqian, manage it. You can discuss the opening date with her."

Lin Feng had learned from Wu Jiaxing that Wan Qianqian used to manage her family’s branch restaurant when she was back home.

That kind of talent was extremely rare in Lin Xian Village, so it was the perfect opportunity to have her manage the new restaurant.