The Gourmet Customizer

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Never Fought Such a Rich War

"Th-th-th... I think it’s thirty thousand!!!"

Bai Xiaobo felt his tongue get tied. He used his fingernail to count the zeroes on the screen one more time. "It really is thirty thousand!"

Su Chen took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"Boss, they’ve replied!"

Everyone immediately crowded around to look at Bai Xiaobo’s phone.

[Zhang Li: This document contains the client’s specific details. We need to see your proposed menu before noon. Is that possible?]

"How should we respond, Boss!"

Su Chen held the phone and frowned slightly. ’A fifteen-course menu in two hours?’

The timeline was definitely a bit tight, but the budget was too good to refuse.

"Don’t rush to reply. Delicious has never fought such a well-funded battle before. Give me a moment to look over the client’s information."

The other party had been very clear. No one knew the client’s specific preferences, so they had to make an educated guess based on his background.

Su Chen opened the client profile and read it to himself, "From E Province, studied abroad after high school, then returned to the country to work in the Capital City. Tsk!"

Hearing Su Chen click his tongue, Liu Shengnan asked with concern, "What is it, Boss? Is this going to be difficult?"

Su Chen nodded. "A person’s stomach has a memory. Whatever you grow up eating is what you’ll always crave. The meal for this client will have to be centered on the flavors of his memories. That would be fine if he were from anywhere else, but E Province..."

"Boss, what’s wrong with E Province?" He Shuting asked, also a bit confused.

Su Chen handed the phone back to Bai Xiaobo with a somewhat helpless smile. "E Province is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, north of Dongting Lake. It’s naturally rich in produce, but it’s also a hub for land and water transportation."

"This means that the local cuisine of E Province doesn’t have many distinct characteristics. Instead, it blends the flavors of other provinces. So, if you want to make good Hubei Cuisine, it’s difficult to rely on seasoning alone."

Su Chen’s simple explanation left his employees staring blankly.

"Boss, how do you know so much..." Xiaobin said, scratching his head. "I learned about this in geography class, but I never would have thought to connect it to food."

Of course, Su Chen wasn’t about to tell them that this was all knowledge he had to memorize back when he was a streamer.

Whenever he went to a new place, he had to study the local food culture and history before filming. This was his responsibility to his fans and to the restaurants he reviewed.

Otherwise, it would be easy to end up in a situation where "the food is supposed to taste like this, but the streamer says it’s bad just because he doesn’t like it."

"Well, I like to cook, so I enjoy reading about this stuff in my free time," Su Chen said, brushing it off. "Since we can’t focus on seasoning, we’ll have to focus on the ingredients."

If the budget was three thousand, Su Chen could make the ingredients from his storeroom taste like they were worth five thousand.

But with a budget of thirty thousand, it wasn’t so simple.

Cooking techniques and seasonings alone were no longer enough to justify a budget of this level.

The client’s already brought out the battalion commander’s Italian cannon, and you’re going to tell them you’re just attacking a small village?

"So what do we do now?" As the product manager, Bai Xiaobo felt for the first time that his job wasn’t so easy after all. ’Compared to the boss, my own knowledge is so lacking!’

Su Chen lowered his head and thought for a moment.

"We have to start with the ingredients. For some of them, we might need to go to E Province to buy them."

"Huh?" Bai Xiaobo’s jaw dropped. "Boss, logistics are so advanced these days. What can’t you buy online? We really have to make a trip to E Province?"

Su Chen shook his head. "Shipping would take too long, and the ones we can buy locally aren’t good enough."

Su Chen used to have a friend from E Province. Whenever they filmed videos together, this friend would never eat fish.

When asked why, he’d just say it didn’t taste good.

If you pressed him on what was wrong with it, he couldn’t quite explain, only that it wasn’t the same as the fish from his home in E Province.

It wasn’t until Su Chen went to E Province and tasted the fish there for himself that he understood. To be able to write "Just having drunk the waters of the Yangtze, I now feast on Wuchang fish" into a poem—what a supreme endorsement that was!

"Alright." Su Chen picked up a pen and paper from the table, thinking as he wrote. "For seafood, we’ll do Steamed Wuchang Fish, fish cake balls, sizzling sea cucumber, and braised shiitake mushrooms with dried scallops."

That was four dishes, almost all of which were local aquatic products from E Province.

And these products had to be sourced locally in E Province. If they bought farmed seafood from elsewhere, it might look the same on the surface, but the texture and flavor would be greatly diminished.

"For the meat dishes..." Su Chen racked his brain and hesitantly wrote down four more.

Steamed pork with rice flour, Shaosanhe, Eight-Treasure Pumpkin Stuffed with Rice, and stir-fried flowering cabbage with cured meat.

Just seeing the names of these dishes on the list was enough to leave the employees of Delicious completely baffled.

The names seemed ordinary enough and easy to understand, but it was as if... they had never eaten a single one of them.

"For poultry, we’ll do Sliced Chicken with Three Shreds. That’s nine dishes."

Su Chen muttered to himself. The tip of his pen paused on the paper for a moment before he started writing again. "We’ll skip game meat. First, it’s hard to buy, and second, it’s easy to cross a legal red line. For vegetarian dishes, let’s do..."

"Frost-Bitten Mushrooms, Osmanthus Sweet Potato Cakes, Crispy Fried Croquettes, and Honey-Glazed Sweet Lotus Root."

He counted on his fingers. That was only thirteen dishes!

Su Chen felt like he was about to think his head bald. "For the soup, Lotus Root and Pork Rib Soup. And we’ll add a common folk banquet staple, Pearl Meatballs!"

Exactly fifteen dishes. No more, no less.

It included seafood, poultry, meat dishes, a soup, and a staple food.

A spread of this caliber would be considered a perfectly respectable banquet anywhere.

"Give this menu to the client first. I’ll write up a separate shopping list for the ingredients."

Just thinking up these dishes had already drained Su Chen. As for the specific ingredients they needed to buy, he couldn’t write that list right away.

After all...

Su Chen had only ever eaten them, never made them himself. He would have to use the system’s recipe synthesis function to figure it out.

"Boss, do we really have to go to E Province to buy stuff?" Bai Xiaobo was still in disbelief.

The dish names seemed so ordinary—nothing more than chicken, duck, fish, meat, and various fruits and vegetables. How could a big second-tier city like Jingzhou not have them?

Su Chen nodded decisively. "I don’t care about the rest, but the fish and the lotus root must be bought in E Province."

The lotus root in Jingzhou is all shipped in from other places. It has a crunchy texture, almost like a radish!

It’s different in E Province. Good lotus root is soft and starchy when cooked, and only lotus root from E Province can truly achieve that ’snapped but the threads remain connected’ effect.

Things like pork and chicken could indeed be bought locally; that wouldn’t be a major issue.

Seeing Xiaobai and the others exchange uncertain glances, Su Chen knew they weren’t ready for a long trip.

"The client dared to give us a thirty-thousand-yuan budget! With such a well-funded battle, don’t we have to win it beautifully? Don’t you worry about whether it’s Ping’an County or the Northwest of Jin—just aim the Italian cannon for me and fire away!"

Su Chen’s words were forceful and resonant, but seeing everyone still silent, he played his trump card. "Don’t forget the ten percent service fee!!!"

That was real money that would be distributed to everyone as a bonus.

Bai Xiaobo shot to his feet. "Fire at me! Dammit, let’s do it!"

"Let’s do it!"

"It’s just one trip to E Province! Let’s do it!"

Seeing their morale soar, Su Chen raised a hand to quiet them down, satisfied. "Let’s begin."

"Bai Xiaobo, you’re in charge of liaising with the client. Once we get the budget, act immediately."

"Liu Shengnan, contact a rental car company, buy a fish tank. All the seafood you bring back, I want it alive!!!"

"He Shuting, pack some things for the three of you for the road. Be ready to leave at a moment’s notice!"

He Shuting was taken aback. "Huh? I’m going too?"

"Of course you are. The three of you can take turns driving. The round trip is about twenty hours. I’ll give you one day for shopping."

"Boss! Brother Chen! I can drive too!" Xiaobin raised his hand excitedly. "I have a driver’s license! I just got it a few days ago!"

Su Chen shot him a glare. "You and Aunt Fang will be buying ingredients here in Jingzhou for the next few days. There’s still a lot to get. This time, we’re not worried about the price, we’re worried about the quality!"

Money really makes you talk tough!

With everything arranged, everyone went off to their respective tasks.

As for Su Chen, he locked himself in his office and placed the menu list in front of him.

Time for some frantic synthesis!