Chapter 201: New Year's Big Issue

Xu Cheng swallowed the last mouthful of Guo'er.

Full.

Xu Cheng knew that for the sake of his body, he couldn't binge eat like this. When he traveled around the world when he was young, his three meals were irregular, which led to his stomach not being very good now that he was older.

Eating less and more meals was the doctor's advice to him.

But now, well.

Xu Cheng could only say that occasionally not listening to the doctor's advice shouldn't be a big problem.

Xu Cheng looked at Qin Huai.

At this very moment, the look in his eyes when he looked at Qin Huai had completely changed.

Before this, his attitude toward Qin Huai was that of a well-known food critic looking at a young chef, an elder looking at a junior, with praise, expectations, and encouragement, but without too much equality and respect.

But now, Xu Cheng had completely treated Qin Huai with the attitude of an industry master.

A+ grade dim sum, looking at the entire Chinese pastry chef circle, only a few masters at Does Zhi Wei Ju could do it.

The pastry dish gap was too serious.

Xu Cheng was no longer thinking about any short food review, half a page or a page of space; his mind was now full of where to start asking when interviewing later, whether the draft should be three pages or five pages, and whether to keep the cover.

If such an amazing young chef appeared in the pastry dish circle and didn't keep the cover when he first appeared on "Zhi Wei", wouldn't it make their "Zhi Wei" seem very tasteless.

It was the end of December, and Xu Cheng felt that his thoughts were flowing like a spring; the interview hadn't even started, and all kinds of words of praise kept popping out of his mind. If this draft wasn't modified much, it would definitely be finished within two or three days, and if it was fast, it could catch up with next year's January New Year's big issue.

What, you say that the magazine's printing and shipping all need time, and the draft finished at the end of December definitely couldn't be on the January New Year's big issue.

Xu Cheng expressed that you didn't understand magazines at all. When he founded "Zhi Wei" back then, he deliberately didn't set the release date of "Zhi Wei" in order to delay the draft.

Who stipulated that "Zhi Wei" released on January 15th was not the New Year's big issue.

However...

Xu Cheng inevitably looked at Qin Huai again, feeling that Qin Huai was truly young to an excessive degree.

Letting such a young chef be on the cover of "Zhi Wei"'s New Year's big issue, did it seem a bit too much like over-praising?

Xu Cheng had a scale in his heart; he knew that the Guo'er Qin Huai just handed him was a top-level dim sum in the entire Chinese pastry chef circle, not to mention that this was also an innovative dim sum that combined savory dishes, with higher gold content.

But Qin Huai's culinary skills were not considered top-level in the entire chef circle.

There was no need to look at the world; just in the country, there were quite a few chefs whose culinary skills were far above his in the Famous Chef Record.

It could only be said that compared to savory dishes, pastry dishes had inherent disadvantages.

He had seen too many pastry chefs, and had seen masters whose skills were better than Qin Huai's, but those masters with good skills were basically old men, and some were no longer engaged in front-line work and focused on teaching disciples.

Like Qin Huai, who was so young...

"Hiss—" Xu Cheng took a deep breath.

Under normal circumstances, the golden age for savory dish chefs was between 35 and 50 years old; during this period, people's physical strength and energy were at their peak. Later, even if the technology continued to improve, the body couldn't keep up.

Pastry chefs were different; the peak period of pastry chefs could be about 10 years longer than that of savory dish chefs, exaggerating a bit. At the same time, the time they reached their peak period was relatively late; there were many who were late bloomers and only became famous in their 50s.

Now Qin Huai was only in his 20s.

He still had more than 30 years, even 40 years of peak period!

Thinking of this, the look in Xu Cheng's eyes when looking at Qin Huai became much hotter.

Perhaps letting Qin Huai be on the cover of "Zhi Wei"'s New Year's big issue now would make many people feel that Qin Huai was not worthy of his position, but 20 or 30 years later, everyone would only praise him, Xu Cheng, for having a discerning eye for talent!

"Master Qin." At this very moment, Xu Cheng didn't act anymore, and his voice became normal, "Is it convenient to find a place to start the exclusive interview now?"

Qin Huai didn't expect Xu Cheng to be so urgent; he thought Xu Cheng would say a few words to Huang Shengli first, or comment on the Guo'er just now before starting the exclusive interview.

Qin Huai was quite looking forward to Xu Cheng's comments. In Qin Huai's view, Huang Anyao was already very good at talking, and Xu Cheng was Huang Anyao's idol and a world-renowned food critic; Qin Huai really wanted to know what kind of grade A+ grade dim sum was in the mouth of a food critic.

"Of course." Qin Huai nodded.

"Mr. Xu, how about going to private room 888 where you just ate? There are sofas and coffee tables in the private room, so it's convenient to sit." Huang Shengli suggested.

Xu Cheng had no opinion and nodded.

Huang Shengli signaled the head waiter to lead Xu Cheng and Qin Huai to private room 888, and said with a smile: "I have a few liang of good tea here that you have drunk and praised last time. When the tea is brewed, I will have someone send it over."

Xu Cheng's footsteps paused, hesitated for a moment, and said with some embarrassment: "No need for tea."

"But I think Chen Pi tea is still worth drinking."

Everyone:?

"Okay, I'll have someone send it over later."

Qin Huai looked at Xu Cheng in surprise, not expecting Xu Cheng to have such a big appetite in middle age. After forcibly eating such a big Guo'er just now, feeling that he was full, he could still drink a bowl of Chen Pi white fungus and lotus seed soup at this time; he was worthy of being a food critic.

Practiced out.

Qin Huai walked quickly to Zheng Siyuan's side and gave a few instructions in a low voice. Zheng Siyuan nodded to indicate that everything was up to him, and Qin Huai could focus on the interview.

Qin Huai and Xu Cheng entered room 888. Xu Cheng's assistant didn't follow in, just silently handed the record book, pen, and recording pen to Xu Cheng and waited outside.

Xu Cheng's interview was a very traditional interview method, recording with a recording pen and noting key points in the book at the same time.

"Master Qin, as far as I know, you have your own community canteen in Shancheng, worked in the community canteen before, and only came to Huang Ji Restaurant for learning and exchange a month ago."

"And I also inquired about your situation in advance. You are from Guangdong Province, have been staying in Qiu County before, and your family runs a breakfast shop, right?"

"Yes." Qin Huai nodded.

Xu Cheng's preparation work was done well.

"You don't need to be nervous, I'm just a bit curious. According to my investigation, your father is just an ordinary breakfast shop master, and I have also been to the Yunzhong Academy and tasted the buns your father made, which were very... ordinary."

"Therefore, I am very curious, what made you embark on the path of pastry dim sum? And where did you learn this skill of pastry dim sum?"

Xu Cheng liked to ask about the stories behind chefs and dishes when interviewing. He asked these stories not purely to eat gossip, but to combine food with the stories behind the food, so that the written food reviews could better attract the readers' attention.

Why was the food review of Eight-Treasure Chestnut Pigeon so famous, able to sweep Nanyang and be reprinted by newspapers in many countries?

Wasn't it because the story behind the Eight-Treasure Chestnut Pigeon was wonderful enough?

This kind of plot of fellow disciples fighting, Taoist heart breaking, ten years of enlightenment, and understanding unique skills could be filmed for at least 30 episodes in a TV series!

Qin Huai didn't expect Xu Cheng to ask this as soon as he came up, but since Xu Cheng asked, Qin Huai naturally had to tell the truth.

He had already told this version to many people, and didn't even need to organize the language, he could just open his mouth and come.

"This has to start from the children's welfare home I stayed in when I was a child."

Xu Cheng:?

"At that time..."

"..."

Qin Huai guessed that Xu Cheng liked to listen to stories, and as a master of lies, what he was best at was making true and false stories vivid and colorful.

Xu Cheng's expression went from shock, to doubt, to confusion, and then began to question, began to doubt himself, gave up questioning, and accepted numbly.

Qin Huai talked for 15 minutes, the recording pen recorded for 15 minutes, but not a single word was written in the book.

Xu Cheng was completely stunned. He had interviewed all kinds of chefs over the years, different countries, different skin colors, different races, different cultures.

These chefs were different, but they were also normal, reasonable, and acceptable.

This Master Qin in front of him was not.

After listening to Qin Huai's entire apprenticeship career, Xu Cheng felt that only the part after coming to Huang Ji was normal. But when Qin Huai came to Huang Ji, his level was already very high, and he couldn't learn much in a month.

Now Xu Cheng only had one thought in his mind:

Where can I buy that "Complete Book of Dim Sum"?

Qin Huai finished speaking, and the private room fell into a long silence.

Xu Cheng felt for the first time that he didn't know where to start when interviewing.

As an excellent food critic, he was always good at starting from a chef's situation, apprenticeship, and signature dishes to explore the stories behind the dishes.

But today's situation was so complicated that he didn't know where to explore. He didn't even know how to take the title.

"The director of the children's welfare home let the children do these things, and 10 years later the children were actually grateful..."

"High school students in Qiu County were collectively late for class, and the truth behind it was actually..."

"The master behind the rising star in the culinary world is actually a book!"

He was running a food magazine, not a gossip tabloid.

But Xu Cheng found it very difficult to abandon such a wonderful story. He had a premonition that he probably wouldn't interview a more bizarre chef than Qin Huai in his life.

Just when Xu Cheng was silent, the door was knocked. Xu Cheng said come in, and the head waiter walked in with a tray.

There were two plates of dim sum and two bowls of Chen Pi tea on the tray.

"Mr. Xu, these dim sums were made by Master Qin and processed by Master Zheng. If you are interested, you can taste them. This is the Chen Pi tea you wanted." The head waiter said with a smile and left with the tray.

Xu Cheng cast his gaze toward the dim sum on the table.

There were many types.

Crab shell yellow, Four-Joy Dumplings, Jiang Mi rice cake, salted egg yolk shumai, date paste yam cake, and an authentic apple dough Guo'er that he didn't know whether it was from Ouyang or Assistant Chen.

Even though Xu Cheng was already full, he still subconsciously picked up a crab shell yellow with chopsticks and took a bite.

Average.

This was Xu Cheng's first impression of the crab shell yellow in front of him.

As a crab shell yellow that had just come out of the pot, was hot, crispy, and fragrant, the crab shell yellow in front of him was undoubtedly qualified.

Whether looking at the color, taste, crispness, or the black sesame sprinkled on the surface, it was delicious and absolutely impossible to buy casually on the roadside.

But this shouldn't be Qin Huai's level.

Xu Cheng had just finished eating A+ grade Guo'er, and he knew how amazing Qin Huai's level was. That unique combination, that magical method, and the wonderful feeling that surged in his heart after eating it were enough to make foodies from all over the world buy a plane ticket to a city near Suzhou without hesitation, take a high-speed train over, and travel thousands of miles just to eat a Guo'er.

The crab shell yellow in front of him was not as good as the Three-Dice Bun and fermented rice steamed bun he had eaten before.

"Mr. Xu, these dim sums are my normal level." Qin Huai said.

In Xu Cheng's surprised gaze, Qin Huai continued: "You just heard how I learned these skills over the years. I don't have a master and rely purely on self-study. In a sense, Master Huang and Master Zheng are both my masters. I am very grateful for their unreserved teaching, and I can also understand that they want me to show the best dim sum to you."

"But the Guo'er you ate just now is not my true level. With my current level, I can't make the taste of Guo'er just now, and a large part of the credit belongs to Master Huang Shengli."

"These dim sums, including the Three-Dice Bun and fermented rice steamed bun you ate before, are my normal level."

"It's not as good as you imagined, and it might disappoint you."

Xu Cheng smiled: "Do you know that if you didn't say this, you might be on the cover of next year's New Year's big issue?"

"With the dim sum called Guo'er that I ate just now, plus your age, and the story of learning to cook you just told me. It is absolutely enough to move me, let "Zhi Wei" postpone the issue, let me write a food review of no less than three pages for you, and let you be on the cover of the New Year's big issue, famous all over the world."

"The selection of the next Famous Chef Record will definitely have your ranking. Those judges will look at the cover, even if you are actually not qualified, even if you are actually 100th, they will still rate you."

"Actually, you already told me at the beginning that this dim sum was made by you and Master Huang Shengli together."

"You don't need to emphasize it again. Even if I find out later that your other dim sums don't have such a high level, it is my dereliction of duty. And as long as you don't say it, I believe I probably won't find out, because there are indeed many chefs who make a dish reach the peak of perfection."

"I believe that with your popularity in Huang Ji, you don't even need to take the initiative to speak, everyone including Master Huang Shengli will help you hide it."

Qin Huai nodded: "I know, and I also know that maybe a few years later, I will truly possess such culinary skills. But at least today, the one who contributed the most to the Guo'er you ate was Master Huang Shengli."

"I am also not that eager to be on the cover of "Zhi Wei"'s New Year's big issue." Qin Huai said.

This sentence was absolutely the truth.

Qin Huai himself was not short of money; Luo Jun's inheritance was placed there, and Qin Huai might not be able to earn that money even if he sold dim sum for 50 years.

He didn't want to be famous that much either; the business of Huang Ji and Yunzhong Academy was already too good, couldn't be better, and if it were better, the dim sum chef would be exhausted.

Qin Huai continued: "If possible, I would like to ask you to write a little more about Master Huang Shengli and Master Zheng Da when writing my food review. Their levels are far above mine, and they also participated in the dim sum I made."

"Do you know what the cover of "Zhi Wei"'s New Year's big issue means to a chef?" Xu Cheng responded, but looked at Qin Huai.

"I think I probably know a little bit."

Xu Cheng shook his head: "You don't know."

"I'm afraid you will regret it when you know."

Qin Huai shook his head firmly: "I won't."

Xu Cheng smiled.

He looked at Qin Huai and said firmly: "Master Qin, you will definitely become an extremely excellent dim sum chef."

"Even if your level is not as amazing as I imagined, you... no, it should be said that Huang Ji is also worthy of the cover of "Zhi Wei"'s New Year's big issue next year."

"After all, it was the Guo'er just now that moved me. Whether the Guo'er was made by you alone or completed by you and Master Huang Shengli together, it is worthy of being on the cover of the New Year's big issue."

"Otherwise, when Master Qin you achieve success in ten years or so, I will be scolded by others for having eyes but not recognizing gold and jade."

"I am a well-known Bole who created the famous myth of the Eight-Treasure Chestnut Pigeon, how can I treat a thousand-mile horse as an ordinary horse when it is still young?"

Xu Cheng turned the notebook to a new page, wrote the two big characters Guo'er on it, and held the pen: "Now, let's enter the formal interview."

"Master Qin, is it convenient to introduce to me what kind of dim sum Guo'er is, and what roles do pastry dishes and savory dishes play in it respectively?"

"..."

An hour and a half later, Qin Huai, whose mouth was a bit dry from talking, came out of private room 888. Just as he wanted to go downstairs to the kitchen to find Huang Shengli, he turned his head and found Huang Shengli sitting in private room 666 opposite.

There was not only Huang Shengli in the private room, but also Zheng Da.

Zheng Da said to Huang Shengli with a proud face: "It must be because I taught him well. You taught him some heat control at most, but that proper pastry dish was taught by me. Alas, it's just that the season is not right now; if he had come half a month earlier, wouldn't he have caught up with the crab roe shumai!"

Huang Shengli agreed with a good temper: "Yes, yes, yes, it was all taught by you. In the future, you will also stir-fry the filling for Guo'er. I suppose you also know how to do the big spoon-flipping."

Well, there was a trace of yin and yang in the good temper.

Zheng Da:...

"Master Huang, Master Zheng." Qin Huai pushed open the half-hidden door, and the two hurriedly stopped talking.

"Finished? How long has it been? Oh, it's been almost two hours. Senior brother, how long did Xu Cheng interview you when he interviewed you back then? I remember it was an afternoon, this is too biased!" Zheng Da began to calculate the time.

"The interview is not over yet." Qin Huai said, "I just happened to be looking for you two. It's great that you are here, Master Zheng. I was worried that it wouldn't be easy to call you inside and you wouldn't be able to make it."

"Mr. Xu wants to interview you two next, hurry in." Qin Huai was embarrassed to say that Xu Cheng only wanted to interview Huang Shengli, and Zheng Da was the one packed and stuffed in.

Regardless, since you are here, let's stuff you in together.

Zheng Da & Huang Shengli:?

"I have agreed with Mr. Xu that the focus of this food review is not me, but Huang Ji."

"And it's the cover of next year's New Year's big issue!"

Huang Shengli:!

Huang Shengli felt that his waist was completely healed, there was no problem at all, so he jumped up and walked toward the opposite side with high spirits.

Zheng Da, who felt that he was packed and stuffed in:...

Zheng Da followed closely behind.

Regardless of whether it was packed or not, this was the cover of the New Year's big issue, and it would definitely have to be burned to the master's grave when the time came.

For such an important report, how could only Huang Shengli be on camera!

He was the pastry chef personally brought out by the master!

(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 202 =====