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Chapter 171: Assistant Xiao Qin is Terrifying

~21 min read 4,196 words

After winning the argument, Huang Shengli took over the heavy responsibility of teaching and skillfully started the theory class.

"Suiyuan Shidan" emphasized the importance of ingredient quality in the "Must-Know" section. To make a table of delicious dishes, the chef responsible for cooking accounts for 60% of the credit, and the person purchasing ingredients accounts for 40%. It can be seen that if you want to become an excellent chef, you must first know how to choose good ingredients.

Qin Huai has read some "Suiyuan Shidan"—Qin Luo bought one when she was in the fifth grade of elementary school.

Bought at a second-hand book stall at the back door of the elementary school, three yuan a copy, two yuan more expensive than "Dim Sum Encyclopedia." Qin Luo thought "Suiyuan Shidan" was a recipe like "Dim Sum Encyclopedia," and there would be different delicious things to do when opened.

As a result, after buying it, I found that it was a classical Chinese with translation. Although Qin Luo was sad that she spent 3 yuan of unjust money, she still finished reading "Suiyuan Shidan" for the sake of money, and Qin Huai also turned a few pages with her.

Finished reading the first few pages of the "Must-Know."

Among them, the last one, "Must-Know for Duty," left a deep impression on Qin Huai.

Its general meaning is that the cooking methods of Manchu dishes and Han dishes are different. Both chefs are accustomed to their respective dishes since childhood, so they are very good at their respective practices. So when they treat each other to dinner and make dishes in the way they are good at, the guests will feel delicious, and the chef will not lose his characteristics.

But now many chefs have forgotten to maintain the characteristics they should have, deliberately trying to please the guests, not only failing to make the characteristics of the other party's dishes, but also losing their original intention.

This is like a scholar entering the examination hall to take the exam. If he blindly imitates, imitating the master when meeting the master, and imitating the examiner when meeting the examiner, he can only learn the fur and it is difficult to pass the exam in his life.

The reason why Qin Huai has a deep impression on this "Must-Know for Duty" is not because he thinks it is written correctly, but because he thinks it is simply nonsense.

What's wrong with imitation? Qin Huai has been learning from others by looking at recipes since he was a child. When he meets "Dim Sum Encyclopedia," he learns "Dim Sum Encyclopedia." When he meets a dim sum shop owner, he learns from the dim sum shop owner. He rarely fails and has repeatedly won praise.

It's just that the level of contact is a bit high now, and he can't learn when he meets Zheng Da.

After Qin Huai's first complete imitation of Zheng Da's practice resulted in a big disaster, "Must-Know for Duty" appeared in his mind.

Is he now the scholar who can only learn the fur and is difficult to pass the exam in his life?

Qin Huai is still learning how to choose crabs with Huang Shengli.

He can choose shrimp, but he is really not good at choosing crabs. But crabs are the most important part of crab roe shumai. The crab roe, which provides the most domineering taste in crab roe shumai, and the crab meat that assists the crab roe so that it is not so domineering, are the two star ingredients in this dim sum.

How to choose crabs, take meat, how much meat to take, and how to judge the state of crab roe and crab meat is the most important part of the preparation work.

Of course, if Qin Huai is a master chef in a restaurant, this part can be done by others. No master chef will do this kind of odd job of processing side dishes, even Huang Shengli will not do these things unless necessary.

But not doing it doesn't mean not knowing how to do it. Qin Huai must know how to do it first, so he has the qualification not to do it.

Qin Huai quietly turned his head and glanced at Zheng Da, who had already wandered to the side of the steamer.

Zheng Da was squatting by the steamer watching the video, looking very focused. Qin Huai could vaguely hear a few keywords.

Lecture, method, expression, description.

It can be seen that Zheng Da really wants to win the argument.

Zheng Siyuan was practicing his own on the side. He didn't come to the Huang Ji kitchen on weekday afternoons. It was because he heard that Qin Huai had made a big disaster yesterday, and today it was rare for Zheng Da and Huang Shengli to gather in the kitchen, so Zheng Siyuan came to join in the fun and see if he needed to persuade the fight.

Gong Liang was no longer sitting at the kitchen entrance, but he didn't seem to leave; he went outside to make a phone call to deal with work.

Qin Huai felt that Gong Liang probably wouldn't be able to eat the crab roe shumai made by Zheng Da this afternoon. Today, Master Zheng was revoked his teaching license and forbidden to lecture. Gong Liang made a wasted trip.

Qin Huai planned to cook secretly for Gong Liang tomorrow and make two fruits to reward him, so as not to drop the favorability he brushed.

Qin Huai was picking crabs according to the method taught by Huang Shengli. He picked one up, looked at Huang Shengli, and only felt relieved when he met the other party's approving eyes.

"Master Huang, I have a question I want to ask you." Qin Huai said softly.

"Oh? Let me hear it." Huang Shengli immediately cheered up.

"I know that theoretically, learning things shouldn't be blindly imitating." Qin Huai put the picked crab into the plastic frame and started to pick the next favorite and plump crab, "But it's hard for me not to imitate."

"Before, I never felt that there was any problem with imitation. Even when I made apple noodle fruits, I was completely imitating Zheng Siyuan."

"But now I am also imitating, and I even think my seasoning level is quite good, but I imitated it like this."

"Is my method wrong from the beginning? Dim sum shouldn't be done like this?"

Huang Shengli didn't answer for the first time, but smiled and helped Qin Huai pick another crab.

"If Huang Jia asked me this, I would definitely tell him yes, dim sum shouldn't be done like this."

"Huang Jia is now facing the same problem. His craftsmanship was taught by me hand-in-hand. He grew up with words and deeds. He is simply a young version of me. When you eat his dishes, you can clearly taste my style. You know it's my apprentice at one bite."

"He became famous because of this, and he was also trapped because of this. When I was there, he helped me in Huang Ji. Old diners came for my craftsmanship, and were also willing to taste Huang Jia's craftsmanship. But I wasn't there, there was no master, and an imitator with poor craftsmanship was not enough to attract so many guests, and Huang Ji's business suddenly didn't work."

"This is Huang Jia's dilemma, he has this trouble. He has been thinking about how to get rid of the shadow of me, his master, and how to stop imitating and make his own dishes."

"This is actually the dilemma of most famous chef apprentices. If it were an ordinary famous chef apprentice, I would definitely tell them this is wrong, and cooking cannot be blindly imitated."

Qin Huai felt that Huang Shengli's words had a "but."

"But, you are different." Huang Shengli said, "Do you think Zheng Siyuan's dim sum is like Zheng Da's?"

"Like." Qin Huai said affirmatively. It was more than like; you knew it was from the same school at one bite, the dim sum made by father and son.

The way this father and son stood together to make dim sum was like copy and paste, and the techniques and movements were almost the same.

"Then do you think Siyuan's dim sum is imitating Zheng Da?"

Qin Huai was asked.

Admittedly, Zheng Da's craftsmanship was better than Zheng Siyuan's, and the style, practice, and school of the two dim sums were the same, but to say it was imitation, that was really not.

Zheng Siyuan was a dim sum chef with a very personal style.

The dim sum he was good at and not good at were very obvious, distinct, and belonged to the kind that as long as you eat the dim sum he is good at, eat it a few more times, and you can taste it next time at one bite that this was made by Zheng Siyuan.

"For ordinary chefs, blind imitation is the threshold that binds them. But for chefs like you and Siyuan, imitation is the way for you to master it quickly."

"This kind of ordinary bottleneck will not bind you at all. I guess Xiao Qin, you asked me this because crab roe shumai was not imitated well." Huang Shengli said with a smile.

Qin Huai lowered his head a bit ashamed. Huang Shengli's words were still too tactful. It was more than not imitated well; it was simply tragic.

"Don't care, this is not your problem, this is purely Zheng Da's inability to teach." Huang Shengli glanced at Zheng Da who was still burying his head in the video, "He has a heart that wants to be a master, but doesn't have the ability to be a good master. You haven't even walked steadily, and he wants to take you to fly. Where is there such a step-jumping?"

"Follow me to get familiar with food tasting for two days first, establish contact with the ingredients, and then season and make crab roe shumai. Don't make crab roe shumai for these two days, be a small worker for two days, and specialize in processing ingredients."

Qin Huai certainly didn't mind processing ingredients, as long as Huang Ji didn't mind, he could do anything.

"What about the processed ingredients?" Qin Huai felt that Huang Ji didn't seem to have so many shrimp meat dishes and crab meat dishes that needed to be minced.

"Let Zheng Da make crab roe shumai. Anyway, he is idle." Huang Shengli indicated that it was nothing to work hard for his junior brother. His junior brother had a good waist and could make dim sum.

"It just so happens that I haven't eaten crab roe shumai continuously for many years. Let him make it for a period of time, and I can enjoy the blessing."

Qin Huai:...

The relationship between your fellow apprentices is really unpredictable.

Just like this, Qin Huai started the life of a dim sum chef who commands people in the morning and a preparation small worker who is commanded by others in the afternoon.

Every day, he conscientiously picked shrimp, picked crabs, peeled shrimp and picked crab meat, and had to mince shrimp meat and crab meat. Qin Huai soon lived into a crab man, full of crab smell wherever he went, and the people in the Huang Ji kitchen didn't need to look up, just smell the smell and know it was Qin Huai.

This training method of preparation small worker is indeed useful. Listening to 1000 times of theoretical knowledge of shrimp meat and crab meat is not as useful as peeling shrimp and crab for four or five days.

Practice can produce true knowledge.

For the employees of the Huang Ji kitchen, these few days are also very magical days.

In the morning and noon time, everyone can't see Zheng Da and Huang Shengli.

Zheng Da doesn't want to get up early unless necessary, and doesn't want to come to the kitchen before noon.

Huang Shengli can get up, but he doesn't want to come to the kitchen. He either drinks tea or does physical therapy in the morning.

This pair of fellow apprentices usually has to wait until 2 o'clock at noon to meet at the top of the Huang Ji kitchen.

Then they start to quarrel as soon as they meet.

Whoever wins the argument comes to teach.

Seeing that Huang Shengli usually laughs and has a good personality, speaks gently and doesn't lose his temper, but when he really quarrels, the foundation is very deep and has never fallen behind. Every time, Huang Shengli won a complete victory, making Zheng Da lose his helmet and armor, and lose completely.

Zheng Da can only look at the teaching qualification-related videos for an hour first, learn how to be a qualified teacher, and then miserably make crab roe shumai.

The kitchen is wonderful, and the kitchen entrance is not bad.

Gong Liang bought a comfortable chair, didn't sit on the small stool, and squatted at the kitchen entrance every day to wait for crab roe shumai. Occasionally, he made a few phone calls to deal with work matters, making passersby ask, "Are you wealthy capitalists so idle?"

Not only do the domineering presidents in TV dramas not go to work every day and don't do business, but only care about falling in love. You middle-aged domineering presidents in real life also don't go to work every day and don't do business, only care about squatting on dim sum.

Is crab roe shumai so delicious?

Well, yes.

If you really don't go to work, it's still very worth squatting. Gong Liang has a house in the opposite residential complex and has been living in the opposite residential complex recently, very close.

This kind of magical life where students are small workers, masters quarrel, and onlookers bring their own small stools has lasted for 6 days.

It's not that Qin Huai stopped being a small worker from the 7th day.

The small worker has to continue, although he has started to try to season the crab roe shumai, the processing of ingredients must be fully responsible by him.

Mainly because a very important thing happened on the 7th day.

A thing that has nothing to do with crab roe shumai, but has a huge relationship with many other dim sums.

Qin Huai's dough has been upgraded.

Advanced dough!

After Qin Huai went to Gusu, practiced heat control for a period of time, and practiced seasoning for a period of time, he finally paid off, and the emperor did not disappoint the people who cared. Under his hard practice, the dough successfully upgraded from intermediate to advanced.

Isn't this a kind of progress?

Qin Huai realized that his dough had been upgraded when he was kneading the last batch of fermented rice steamed buns.

This kind of upgrade feeling is very mysterious.

The feeling of intermediate to advanced is more obvious than primary to intermediate. It is not exaggerated to the point of feeling that the Ren and Du meridians are opened instantly and the peerless magic is realized, but the dough is indeed more feeling when kneading.

The dough in hand is more obedient and more handy.

The dough has made a major breakthrough, and Qin Huai feels that it should be celebrated.

But how to celebrate?

What he practices every afternoon now is crab roe shumai, and the least important thing for crab roe shumai is dough.

Using advanced dough to knead crab roe shumai skin can even knead a feeling of "hero having no place to use." 【171-

Qin Huai finished eating.

He finished the soup and noodles in one go without a single pause. Apart from making some slurping sounds while eating the noodles, he didn't say a word the whole time, just buried his head and ate.

Qin Huai felt like eating another bowl.

But he was afraid there wouldn't be enough.

He had only made a few extra bowls, and these few bowls were prepared for Huang Anyao, Huang Shengli, Zheng Da, and Gong Liang, who was still eating on the second floor.

Anyway, he had already kneaded the noodles, so even if these four people couldn't eat them after lunch, they should have no problem eating a bowl of noodles after resting for a few hours in the afternoon.

Qin Huai was very good at giving his friends special treatment.

The core idea of special treatment is that when you make something delicious, you must remember to save a portion for your friends. Regardless of whether your friends have the appetite to eat it, you must save it first.

Whether they eat it or not is the friends' business; anyway, if the friends don't eat it, someone else definitely will.

Qin Huai put down his bowl and looked around, discovering that everyone was burying their heads in their noodles.

No one was talking, and even Dong Shi's mouth was purely for eating noodles.

Sure enough, when it came to longevity noodles consisting of only a single noodle, no one could interrupt their eating. Everyone would involuntarily and silently slurp the noodles from beginning to end; even if they bit them off, they would do so inside their mouths, absolutely not letting the noodle break outside.

When everyone was eating the noodles, there was only one thought in their minds.

Holy crap, wasn't Qin Huai practicing crab roe shumai during this time?

Wasn't he fighting with crabs and shrimp every afternoon?

Didn't he just eat chicken soup noodles this morning?

Why is this bowl at noon so delicious?

Could it be because of the superior stock Huang Jia hung?

But why are the noodles also especially delicious? Even better than the ones in the morning.

Didn't Qin Huai spend the whole morning making dim sum in front of everyone in an ordinary way? Is this how a genius-level pastry chef's skills skyrocket just like that?

Isn't there a gradual process?

Just a sudden leap and take-off?!

Can the situation in cultivation fantasy novels where one breaks through while practicing also happen to a chef?

Why is every thought of ours a question?

The question marks of everyone in the kitchen were almost filling up the large kitchen.

Everyone didn't understand, but they ate the noodles.

While slurping with their mouths, they were hissing in their hearts.

Assistant Xiao Qin is actually this terrifying!

Soon, the rumor that today's chicken soup noodles were super delicious and that Assistant Xiao Qin's skills had improved again—and that Assistant Xiao Qin was a feeling-based chef, and as long as the feeling was there, the noodles and dim sum he made would be especially delicious—reached the ears of the waiters in the lobby and private rooms.

Although the waiters hadn't finished their shifts yet, and they had never eaten Assistant Xiao Qin's chicken soup noodles before, the corners of everyone's mouths still stretched to the back of their ears.

They couldn't help it, they really couldn't help it.

As soon as they thought about what the staff meal would be later, they didn't have any negative emotions at all.

So happy.

Being able to hold back from laughing out loud was their best professional quality.

Oh, I really love working.

If I could eat staff meals made by Assistant Xiao Qin from time to time, I could work this job for another 10 years!

Gong Liang in private room 888 noticed the waiters' unusually happy mood.

Gong Liang had always treated Huang Ji as his canteen.

At least that was the case when Huang Shengli was in good health.

Some time ago, Huang Shengli's waist wasn't doing well, and he didn't cook much, so Gong Liang came to eat less often.

As a wealthy person who had achieved financial freedom, Gong Liang had many choices when eating.

Unless Huang Jia brought out 120% of his skills and made signature dishes, it was difficult to attract Gong Liang.

There was no help for it; savory dishes, especially Huaiyang cuisine, were just too competitive.

Huang Shengli could say he was the number one Huaiyang and Su-style chef in Gusu, but Huang Jia couldn't; he wouldn't even dare to claim second. There were still several good Huaiyang and Su-style restaurants in Gusu.

Of course, Huang Shengli definitely wouldn't dare to say he was the number one Huaiyang chef. There was a more famous and higher-skilled active Huaiyang chef—Pei Shenghua.

Gong Liang also loved eating the dishes he made; when Gong Liang went to Guangling, he often patronized Cheng Fang Ju, where Pei Shenghua worked.

"Xiao Ma, what happened? You're grinning from ear to ear; did Huang Anyao give you a raise?" Gong Liang had already finished his meal and was sitting in the private room waiting for Qin Huai to start teaching. Seeing the waiter so happy, he teased her.

The waiter in private room 888, Xiao Ma, was a veteran employee who had worked at Huang Ji Restaurant for 9 years. She was also very familiar with Gong Liang and knew about his glorious record of sitting at the kitchen door to eat recently.

"There is good news. Mr. Gong, our staff meal today is in charge of Assistant Xiao Qin. I heard the chicken soup noodles he cooked are incredibly delicious, and everyone is waiting for the meal to start to eat noodles!" Xiao Ma said with a smile.

What!

Gong Liang instantly lost his mood for joking, but he regretted being full at noon.

But it didn't matter; eating a bowl of noodles was still possible. Fortunately, he was only eighty percent full at noon. A bowl of noodles would make him at most one hundred and twenty percent full; a small problem.

"I remember your shop allows manual ordering, right?"

Xiao Ma: "Mr. Gong, our shop's kitchen after 1 o'clock..."

Gong Liang waved his hand: "I know, what is my relationship with Assistant Xiao Qin? I believe he definitely saved a portion for me; you just help me ask."

Xiao Ma went to ask.

8 minutes later, Gong Liang's chicken soup noodles were brought into the private room.

Seeing the noodles brought out so quickly, what else did Gong Liang not understand? Qin Huai's dim sum was always made according to the number of people; the noodles being served so quickly meant Qin Huai had originally made a portion for him!

Assistant Xiao Qin has him in his heart!

They are moving towards each other!

The corners of Gong Liang's eyes were moist.

What was moister than the corners of his eyes were the corners of his mouth.

"Slurp."

One bite, and the corners of Gong Liang's eyes were truly moist.

So delicious!

Although he had already eaten in the morning, the ones at noon were even better than the ones in the morning!

This bowl of noodles gave Gong Liang hope!

Assistant Xiao Qin makes chicken soup noodles every morning; how long has it been, and the noodles are getting better day by day.

He can definitely do the crab roe shumai!

Eating them for a month is just around the corner!

Qin Huai didn't even forget to make a portion for him, Gong Liang, when making staff meals; what was eating crab roe shumai for a month?

With a bowl of noodles in his stomach, Gong Liang decided to double the red envelope he was going to give Qin Huai for the New Year this year.

The amount prepared before was too little.

88,888 didn't match Assistant Xiao Qin's craftsmanship and thoughtfulness.

188,888 is what matches!

Gong Liang licked his chopsticks ungracefully.

Must think of a way to buy the house next to Qin Huai's.

The chefs in the Huang Ji kitchen have 4 days off a month; buy the house next door, and go directly to Qin Huai's house to eat on those 4 days.

Must buy Qin Huai a massage chair too.

What if Qin Huai is too lazy to go out to the bone-setting shop for a massage and doesn't want to trouble the bone-setter to come over? Must have one at home, just in case!

The dining table must also be changed to a larger one; the one at home is too small and inconvenient for entertaining guests.

Zheng Da really doesn't know how to rent a house; renting one so small makes it hard to fit furniture.

Gong Liang burped and began to think about how to carry out a comprehensive renovation of the house Qin Huai lived in.

I had a dream last night that I updated three chapters today, one 9,000 words, one 4,000 words, and one 5,000 words, but I forgot to add a note in the title that it was an extra update for the alliance leader, and I couldn't change the title no matter what, which woke me up in a panic.

I told my best friend about this.

Her: Hahahahahaha.

Her: You actually dreamed you updated 20,000 words; it really only exists in dreams.

Me:?

Me: You really know me well.

(End of chapter)

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