Chapter 313 - 140: The Chinese and Western Pastry Showdown Initiated by a Socialite (3)

Chapter 313: Chapter 140: The Chinese and Western Pastry Showdown Initiated by a Socialite (3)

’The second dish also needs to reflect five thousand years of Huaxia culture, so it has to be...’

A new name appeared on the notebook: Lotus Flower Crisps.

’I’ve covered skill and technique, so there’s just one more thing missing...’

The third name: Dragon Beard Candy.

Back in the day, this was something only an emperor could eat.

After all, the client gave him a budget of 20,000 yuan. It wouldn’t be right to only make a few pastries.

Making pastries is procedurally complex, but once you know how, it’s actually very fast.

Su Chen then wrote down two more pastries he remembered seeing in Jin City.

One was a Rose and Walnut Cake.

This pastry had a tender pink color and was exceptionally lovely—a very typical imperial court dessert.

The other was Dough Figurines.

When it comes to Chinese pastries, if you don’t eat Dough Figurines, you’ll never truly appreciate just how particular the ancestors of Huaxia were about their food!

They weren’t just particular; they treated eating as a matter of utmost importance in life, something to be studied!

After spending a good two hours, Su Chen finally settled on all the pastries he was going to make.

The next step was...

’How on earth do I make all these things?’

With how widespread information is online these days, you can find out how to do many things with a simple search, but food is different.

On the surface, you have all sorts of National Banquet Chefs teaching you how to cook every day, but in reality, they’re only showing the audience the basic steps.

Even that alone is enough to significantly improve the skills of many viewers, while the true secrets of gourmet cooking are kept tightly under wraps by those guys!

Su Chen started scouring the internet for specific recipes for the various pastries.

He needed a general direction for now. As for the more advanced stages, that’s what the Gourmet Practice Room was for!

While searching, Su Chen also jotted down all the items he could think of off the top of his head in his notebook; he needed to purchase them as soon as possible.

At the same time, Su Chen took care of another matter.

"Old Ba, there’s a special banquet in three days. I can’t do it without you."

Before Cui Yufen and her group left, Su Chen had added all of his "martial nephews" as friends.

He did it so it would be convenient to ask them for a hand after the third-floor athlete’s cafeteria was built. And now, it was coming in handy...

His eighth martial brother specialized in white-dough cuisine. Although he wasn’t a pastry chef, he was very knowledgeable about all kinds of flour-based foods.

If he could be there to guide him from time to time, his progress with dough work would definitely be rapid.

It was probably too late, as Old Ba didn’t reply. Su Chen wasn’t bothered; he figured the guy would definitely reply as soon as he saw the message.

The sky in the east had already turned the color of a fish’s belly, but Su Chen was still at his desk. He would occasionally glance at the videos playing on his computer before bending over his notebook to jot down all sorts of notes.

He remained in this state until ten o’clock.

The company’s second floor.

Ling Shuyu didn’t come in particularly early today, clocking in right on time.

"Sister Ling, what’s the mission for today!"

Zhang Li was in the cafeteria eating a steamed bun made by Old Er. She could never get tired of them, though they weren’t as delicious as Boss Su’s.

"Doesn’t seem like there are any tasks today? We should probably just continue with food prep and then head out to the stall in the afternoon."

Xiaobai, sipping millet porridge nearby, chimed in, "Not necessarily. Our boss took on a huge order yesterday. We’ll probably be working on that today!"

"Oh?" Ling Shuyu asked. "What kind of order?"

For the first time, Xiaobai felt some confidence in front of Ling Shuyu. He subconsciously puffed out his chest. "Originally, it was just a 5,000-yuan order, but then the boss negotiated it up to 20,000 yuan!"

"Hiss! That much? The boss is incredible!" The little hearts in Zhang Li’s eyes were about to pop out.

Ling Shuyu, however... just frowned slightly and said nothing.

Xiaobai felt he had finally done something useful and immediately said with pride, "I’m the one who took that order. Yesterday, the boss and I came back to the company early to discuss this business. Later, after I had already gone to sleep, the boss used my WeChat to talk to the client and negotiated the price directly up to 20,000 yuan. He even pushed the deadline to three days from now!"

As he spoke, his expression grew more and more smug, as if the whole thing wouldn’t have happened without him!

After he finished, he even glanced at Ling Shuyu out of the corner of his eye.

’Praise me! Hurry up and praise me!’

’The company hasn’t had an order this big in forever! I’ve really scored a major victory this time!’

Ling Shuyu’s frown deepened. "Since you took the order, why didn’t you take the initiative to negotiate it yourself? As a product manager, you should have accurately analyzed the client’s needs and our company’s situation, then found a match."

Ling Shuyu stared at Bai Xiaobo, her simple words leaving the guy completely stunned.

"Something so simple required the boss to get up in the middle of the night to interface with the client himself. If I were the boss, you’d have been fired long ago."

After saying this, Ling Shuyu snorted contemptuously. She didn’t eat her bun, nor did she return to her office.

Instead, she turned and walked into the stairwell. Clearly, she was heading to the nineteenth floor.

During this period, if employees wanted to go up or down after 8 AM, they basically had to take the stairs.

Bai Xiaobo was stunned for a long while. He pointed indignantly at the empty doorway. "Zhang Li! Don’t you think she’s crazy?"

Zhang Li tilted her head. "Huh?"

"I worked my butt off, running around, not delaying our stall, and even helping the company screen all kinds of orders, and she dares to call me useless?"

Zhang Li thought for a moment, then said very, very seriously, "Xiaobo, I think Sister Ling has a good point."

"You..."

"As a product manager, those things really are your responsibility. You should have negotiated the order to 20,000 yuan and a three-day deadline *before* the boss had to interface with the client, not let the boss do it himself. Hmm... you should learn more from Sister Ling in the future~"

With that, Zhang Li stuffed the last bite of her bun into her mouth. "I’m going to help Shuting with sanitizing~"

Xiaobai watched Zhang Li disappear.

Damn it!

’Am I really that useless?’

After an arduous trek from the second floor to the nineteenth, Ling Shuyu paused at the door for a long time to catch her breath. Only after her heartbeat and breathing returned to normal did she straighten her clothes and walk inside.

’Since the boss took the initiative to negotiate the deadline to three days from now, it must mean he’s run into some kind of difficulty.’

’As an employee, the most important thing is to help the boss solve his problems.’

Ling Shuyu stood outside Su Chen’s office door for over ten seconds.

She gently raised her hand and knocked.