Chapter 220: Master Chef Qin Huai is online

January 3rd, sunny, light breeze.

As the last day of the New Year's Day holiday, the business of major restaurants, shopping malls, and a series of entertainment venues across the country is always better than usual.

Huang Ji Restaurant's business is also better than usual.

Qin Huai went back early yesterday to rest and wanted to adjust his work and rest schedule, but his biological clock couldn't be adjusted for a while, and he couldn't sleep late even if he wanted to.

Compared with the biological clock of waking up at 4 o'clock before, the current schedule of starting work at 9:30 is directly different by several time zones.

Qin Huai woke up early in the morning, had nothing to do, watched variety shows for more than ten minutes and felt it was boring, and was tired of eating cheese sticks in the refrigerator, so he wanted to eat two sweets casually.

Thinking about it, Qin Huai felt it was good to make breakfast at home.

Make *Sixi Tangyuan*.

Ouyang heard the movement in the kitchen, came out of the room with a chicken-nest head, and saw the *Sixi Tangyuan* without styling, blind-box style, boiling in the pot, his face turned green.

To say who ate the most *Bai Guo* filling *Sixi Tangyuan* during this period, Ouyang has something to say.

Don't look at the *Tangyuan* that Qin Huai practiced in the kitchen in the afternoon being divided by the fearless crowd in Huang Ji, most of the ones Qin Huai practiced at home at night went into Ouyang's stomach.

Ouyang sometimes felt that the small stove he went to eat at the bone-setting shop every night was the compensation Qin Huai gave him.

"Qin Huai, what is this... flavor you made..." Ouyang opened his mouth cautiously.

"Normal flavor, shredded radish filling, no *Bai Guo* filling." Qin Huai stirred the *Tangyuan* in the pot, "Do you eat it, how many bowls?"

Hearing Qin Huai say this, Ouyang felt relieved, and immediately expressed: "Two bowls!"

A few minutes later, the *Tangyuan* was out of the pot.

Qin Huai served an ordinary bowl, Ouyang served a large bowl, and both had experience not eating directly but chatting first, waiting for the *Tangyuan* to cool down.

"Huihui will be on vacation the day after tomorrow, right?" Qin Huai said, "Did you help her rent Hongjie's house?"

"Rented." Ouyang held a spoon in his hand, with *Tangyuan* in the spoon, blowing air while saying, "It's in the building behind. Hongjie likes to buy things, so I rented a three-bedroom for her. I've seen that house, it's a bit old, and the furniture is in the style of 20 years ago. I discussed with Hongjie and changed a batch of new furniture. I've been busy with this these few days."

"Huihui finishes the exam on the afternoon of the 5th, and Hongjie and the others will come on the 6th."

"Change furniture?" Qin Huai was a bit surprised, "That must cost a lot of money?"

"Quite a lot." Ouyang nodded, "I went next door to ask Mr. Gong, and changed to the full set of smart home appliances he recommended. Hongjie plans to buy that house directly, the landlord seems unwilling to sell, still negotiating."

Qin Huai:...

The house renting of rich people is really confusing.

"Then do you have anything to do today?" Qin Huai asked next.

Ouyang blew two more times, started eating, and was lucky to have meat filling, no need to tap dance.

"No." Ouyang said vaguely, "I originally planned to go to Huang Ji to eat today, but aren't you famous for appearing in that magazine? The meal is definitely not going to be eaten. The money my dad gave me is still quite a lot, I plan to go to Guanhulou to have a meal at noon."

"Do you have anything to do in the afternoon?"

"No."

"If it's convenient, come to Huang Ji at noon after eating. Old Man Wang came to Suzhou yesterday, you might not know..."

"I know." Ouyang chewed and swallowed the remaining *Tangyuan*, took out his mobile phone from his pajamas pocket, clicked on WeChat, and showed the top group chat to Qin Huai.

【Yunzhong Residential Area Owner Exchange Group】

Qin Huai:?

Does Yunzhong Residential Area still have this owner group? He doesn't know as an owner of the residential area.

Qin Huai clicked on the group message and found that there were quite a few people in the group, basically acquaintances. Xu Tuqiang, Old Man Wang, Old Man Qian, Grandma Ding were all there, and Chen Huihong was also there. Everyone was chatting about plane tickets, accommodation, and hotels.

"Are Grandma Ding and the others forming a group to go out to play?" Qin Huai asked.

"It's forming a group to come over." Ouyang pointed to the mobile phone, "I don't know who spread the fake news, saying that you were favored by the boss of Huang Ji, who wants to marry his daughter to you and let you inherit Huang Ji, and you are about to stay in Suzhou to be a son-in-law and not return to Yunzhong Canteen."

"I haven't heard that Huang Anyao has a sister."

Qin Huai:...

Is this the point?!

"Everyone formed a travel group to Suzhou just for this matter?" Qin Huai was shocked.

He found that he still didn't understand the owners of Yunzhong Residential Area very well. No wonder he couldn't get into this owner group.

"Maybe it's also wanting to come over to play." Ouyang indicated that he didn't know very well why, "Suzhou is also quite good, isn't Hongjie also bringing Huihui over to play?"

Qin Huai was briefly persuaded, thought for a long time before remembering that what he wanted to say was not this matter, and quickly led the topic back.

"I'll continue to say, Old Man Wang queued at Huang Ji yesterday to buy pastries and met Qu Jing. Huang Ji's business has been good recently, Qu Jing is embarrassed to ask me to cut the line and open a small stove, so she comes to queue secretly to buy pastries when she is on vacation."

"Isn't *Guo'er* being released today? Plus Qu Jing hasn't eaten *Sixi Tangyuan* either. Come over at noon after eating, help me send some pastries to Qu Jing. You know the address of her hospital, right?"

"Know." Ouyang nodded, thought for a while, and asked, "Is the *Sixi Tangyuan* you gave Doctor Qu a proper *Tangyuan*?"

Qin Huai: "... I can make normal *Bai Guo* filling *Tangyuan*!"

After eating, Qin Huai watched TV for half an hour, and only went out to Huang Ji when he felt the time was almost up.

It's rare to start work so late, not used to it.

Just as he walked out of the residential area, Qin Huai was stunned by the scene in front of him.

Qin Huai's residential area is opposite Huang Ji, and it only takes 5 minutes to walk to work, very close.

Of course, there are actually closer residential areas. The area around Huang Ji is all old residential areas. People who understand old residential areas know that these old residential areas are very concentrated and dense, and some have no property management and are very loose, and the main gates are basically open all year round.

But this is not a reason for the queuing people to queue into other people's residential areas!

Isn't it only 9:30 now?

This hasn't started business yet. Yesterday, at least it was queued into other people's residential areas after business hours.

Qin Huai walked cautiously towards Huang Ji and found that there were queuing guardrails at the entrance of Huang Ji, but there were too many people, and the crowd Qin Huai could see at first glance was already outside the guardrails.

At the front of the queue were seven or eight college students who were clearly traveling together, men and women, experienced and full of energy.

Dragging suitcases, it was clear they came to queue as soon as they got off the high-speed rail. The small suitcases were sat on directly, and the large suitcases were self-brought folding small stools. Gloves, hats, warm babies, etc., were all available, and they even brought water and fruit, enthusiastically distributing them to the young couples who were queuing behind them and clearly didn't have enough equipment.

Qin Huai walked in silently from the back door, changed clothes, and entered the kitchen.

In the back kitchen, everyone was working in full swing, and even Zheng Da had changed into Huang Ji's work clothes for the first time, struggling to knead dough.

"Master Qin!" The Zhi Wei Ju chef who saw Qin Huai first greeted him, "Have you had breakfast?"

"Ate, boiled some *Sixi Tangyuan* at home in the morning." Qin Huai nodded, glancing at the *Ruyi* rolls, *Sixi* dumplings, and radish cakes in the incubator.

It seems these pastries were specially made for him by the Zhi Wei Ju chefs.

Qin Huai changed the subject: "But I didn't eat completely full, I can eat a little more to cushion my stomach."

The chef closest to the incubator went to get the pastries.

The Zhi Wei Ju chefs and Zheng Siyuan only practice one or two pastries in a period of time. Qin Huai doesn't need to taste the taste, just look at what it is to know who made it.

Take a bite of authentic *Sixi* dumplings first.

Well, not as good as himself.

"The combination is not good. The most important thing for *Sixi* dumplings is the combination of ingredients. There should be no problem with these 4 ingredients, but the ratio is not good. Try more, practice more, practice the ratio that suits, also, green onions are not suitable to be added."

Take another bite of radish cake.

Average.

"Soft and collapsed, oily, the frying is not good, the basic skills are not practiced well, practice well."

It's the *Ruyi* roll's turn. Qin Huai took a bite, subconsciously looked at Gu Li, who was assigned to assist Zheng Da today, and was kneading dough.

Qin Huai didn't comment, because no comment was needed.

Gu Li's basic skills had no problems, his problems all appeared in his techniques, just need to find the right direction and bury his head in hard practice.

Among the three pastries, the *Ruyi* roll was undoubtedly the most delicious, and the quantity was not large. Qin Huai held the plate and swayed to Dong Shi's side while eating, asking:

"There are so many people queuing outside, doesn't Foreman Cao want to find a way to solve it? It's only what time now, won't it queue to the opposite street by eleven or twelve o'clock."

Dong Shi was cutting carrots, not daring to be distracted, and put down the knife directly upon hearing this: "Foreman Cao issued numbers at 9:40."

After speaking, Dong Shi glanced at Huang Shengli, seeing that the master was also looking at himself, and didn't show any displeasure, which was considered tacitly allowing himself to slack off for 5 minutes, and continued to say boldly:

"Master and Foreman Cao discussed for a long time yesterday afternoon. If online queuing is opened early, it is unfair to customers who come to queue early. But if online queuing is not opened, customers stand at the entrance, and queuing for ten or twenty hours is even more tiring."

"Master and Foreman Cao couldn't think of any particularly good solution, so they could only issue numbers to customers queuing on-site at 9:40 every day, and open online queuing at 10:10."

"To ensure that online queuing customers don't completely fail to eat, the lobby will reserve 5 tables specifically for online queuing customers."

"Re-queue if the number is missed."

"And aren't there many large round tables on the 1st floor? They are all for wedding banquets and banquets, 12-person tables. Foreman Cao's meaning is that if there are whole-table customers with similar numbers, they will take them. If not, let individual customers share the table."

"This actually has no impact on our back kitchen, it's just that their lobby workload will be much larger."

"Eh, by the way, did you reserve a middle table with Foreman Cao yesterday? You have to tell your friends in advance to let them arrive on time when the shop opens, otherwise it's not easy to arrange."

Hearing Dong Shi say this, Qin Huai suddenly understood Qu Jing a little bit.

In this situation, the pressure of eating a small stove is indeed very high.

Sure enough, the small stove still has to be eaten while sitting in the kitchen or packed to the bone-setting shop to have no pressure.

After listening to Dong Shi's intelligence, Qin Huai returned to the cooking station to start working.

Making *Guo'er*, Qin Huai is very familiar.

Although he hasn't practiced this pastry for a long time like *Xie Huang Shaomai*, the essence of *Guo'er* is actually apple-shaped fruit pastry, at least in terms of styling.

And Qin Huai has an inexplicable, handy familiarity and proficiency with apple-shaped fruit pastries.

The operation of copying Zheng Siyuan's apple-shaped fruit pastry as soon as he tried it for the first time was so outrageous that not only Zheng Siyuan felt it was outrageous, but even Qin Huai, the person involved, felt it was outrageous.

At that time, Qin Huai even doubted whether he was ctrl+c refined, ctrl+c, ctrl+v, and Zheng Siyuan's apple-shaped fruit pastry was copied to his hand.

However, this talent is limited to apple-shaped fruit pastries, and other fruit-shaped pastries won't work.

The refined ctrl+c only likes to eat apples.

*Guo'er* is the foundation of apple-shaped fruit pastries, so the speed of making it can never be too fast.

Whether it is kneading dough, shaping, or coloring, it can't be fast.

Wanting to paint *Guo'er* ugly enough also has a certain technical content. It's not really taking a brush and dipping it in some red vegetable juice, and brushing it casually to brush it out. There are techniques and methods.

Qin Huai is doing *Guo'er* in an orderly manner.

Huang Shengli is stir-frying the filling with high spirits.

Zheng Da is trying his best to make *Jiu Niang Mantou*.

Zheng Siyuan is making *San Ding Bao* with no love, and halfway through, he asked Huang Shengli with full doubts whether it is really okay for him to make *San Ding Bao*?

Zheng Siyuan indicated that his technique for making *San Ding Bao* is not as good as Qin Huai's, and he is not good at making this.

When the time comes, the *baozi* won't be made by Qin Huai, and the taste won't be as good as Qin Huai's. Customers queued for a long time to buy *baozi* that don't match the goods, isn't that deceiving customers?

Huang Shengli comforted Zheng Siyuan not to worry, because what is sold today is not premium *San Ding Bao*, but ordinary *San Ding Bao*.

Cheap.

Customers will know that this *baozi* is cheap and has no good goods when they see the price.

As for why it must be sold...

Isn't it because Qin Huai has been selling *San Ding Bao* and making a name for himself during this period? Premium *San Ding Bao* has become the second pastry signboard of Huang Ji after *Jiu Niang Mantou*, and many customers only recognize *San Ding Bao* and *Jiu Niang Mantou*.

Especially customers from other places.

If you can't eat *Guo'er*, you must eat *San Ding Bao* and *Jiu Niang Mantou*.

It doesn't matter who makes these two pastries, as long as the taste is above the standard, making everyone feel that the trip is worthwhile.

Zheng Siyuan:...

Tired, destroyed, the pastry shop should reopen.

Compared with the nervous and fast-paced crowd, Qin Huai's side is really a bit like a vacation.

Qin Huai has relatively few helpers today.

Can't use them.

Among these people, only Zheng Siyuan and Zheng Da know how to make apple-shaped fruit pastries. The father and son have to make *Jiu Niang Mantou* and *San Ding Bao* respectively, and neither can spare time to assist Qin Huai.

So don't look at Qin Huai today as if he has usurped power and become the head chef of Huang Ji, in fact, today is the most independent day for Qin Huai since he came to Huang Ji.

All the work is done by him alone, and others can't help at all.

The only two helpers, one Wang Jun and one Tan Weian, are here to help with coloring.

The artistic attainments of these two are relatively unique, and the *Guo'er* brushed out are slightly uglier than others.

"Your color block is too uniform, it can't be so uniform, and it can't be too deliberate if one block is uniform and one block has no color. Look at mine, this kind of inexplicable mottled effect can present an ugly enough effect." Qin Huai guided while brushing.

Tan Weian held the brush and brushed the *Guo'er* as if taking revenge.

He really doesn't understand, it's fine that he doesn't have Qin Huai's talent in pastries, this kind of talent is hard to find.

But why is he not as good as him in styling?

It's all ugly, why does his ugliness look so mediocre, without soul.

"Leave the rest to you, Master Huang's filling is ready, I'm going to wrap *Guo'er* and shape it." Qin Huai left a sample and went to work.

"Ding."

The ordering machine suddenly rang.

This means that the outside has started to take orders, and Huang Ji's business today has officially started.

"*Guo'er* can it be served now? How many can the first batch serve? Report the numbers, report the numbers!"

Qin Huai is concentrating on shaping.

Huang Shengli walked quietly behind Qin Huai and patted him.

"Xiao Qin, do you want to go outside and see?"

"Ah?" Qin Huai didn't understand Huang Shengli's meaning very well.

"More than 90% of the customers in the lobby now are here specifically for you." Huang Shengli said with a smile, "Do you want to go and see the reactions of these diners who have come from afar when they eat your signature pastry for the first time?"

Qin Huai was moved.

"Believe me, the most real feedback from customers is the greatest praise for a chef."

"When I first became a master chef in a state-run hotel back then, the thing I liked to do most was to secretly watch the state of customers eating outside from the window."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 221 =====