Chapter 286

Radish is a very suitable ingredient for practicing knife skills. Friends who often cut radishes know that radishes are very forgiving.

They can be sliced, diced, chopped, or shredded; they can be cut horizontally, vertically, or with a rolling-cut technique, and they are cheap.

They sell for one yuan per jin at the wet market, five jiao per jin when on sale at the supermarket, and you can pull them for free from a fellow villager's field.

They are simply the best choice for a beginner to practice knife skills.

Don't look at the fact that Cao Guixiang bought a whole vegetable rack of radishes; in reality, it didn't cost much money. The total value spent wasn't even as expensive as a bowl of old hen soup on the dining table.

That bowl of old hen soup was truly expensive.

Qin Huai was stunned when he finally drank the soup. He had clearly already eaten a table full of dishes that were fresh to the extreme; whether it was the Braised Shark Fin or the Oyster Sauce Abalone, they were the most top-tier luxury feasts in the hearts of the people.

Yet, after experiencing the baptism of a wild bombardment of these big dishes, good dishes, and top-tier banquet dishes, he still felt it was fresh when he drank the soup.

It was both fresh and mellow; it was the rich fragrance of authentic chicken soup, not the taste of broth made from stewing multiple ingredients for cooking.

Before cutting the radishes, Qin Huai couldn't help but ask what the chicken soup was stewed with. The answer he got was old hen, pigeon, dried scallops, ham, and shiitake mushrooms.

It had been stewed for a full six hours.

No wonder the chicken meat fell apart with a single poke of the chopsticks; after six hours, even a thousand-year-old hen would be stewed until tender.

Before cutting the radishes, Qin Huai first arranged Qin Luo's afternoon itinerary. The itinerary was simple: Cao Guixiang packed a portion of leftovers from lunch for Qin Luo, and Qin Huai called Qin Congwen, asking him to drive his van to the city to pick Qin Luo up.

And bring him some change of clothes while he was at it.

As for the originally planned aquarium...

Qin Luo expressed: Aquarium? What aquarium? Never heard of it! Nothing can separate her from the dishes of her newly recognized dear grandma.

As for Qin Huai, Cao Guixiang had already prepared a room for him, and the room was all tidied up.

Cao Guixiang's home was a standard three-bedroom old house. Previously, one room was occupied by Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu, one room by Zhang Zhiyun, and one room by Chang Qingqing.

Later, when the grandson and granddaughter grew up and had to go to school, they lived with their parents, so two rooms became vacant. Because Chang Qingqing's room was relatively small, it was directly converted into a storage room and woodworking room, used to pile up various sundries and the tools Zhang Chu used for woodworking.

Once the wood arrived, Zhang Chu would make cutting boards and molds for Qin Huai in that room.

Zhang Zhiyun's room was converted into a guest room. During winter and summer vacations, Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing would come to live at their grandfather's/grandmother's house. Who could stay in which room depended on which child performed better on their final exams.

Qin Huai would stay in the guest room.

Cao Guixiang not only prepared the room, but even the toiletries were ready. Qin Huai's toothbrush and cup were already placed on the vanity before Qin Huai even entered the door.

It can only be said that Cao Guixiang had great confidence in their sect's Tan Cuisine baiting method, and their sect's method was indeed very useful.

Qin Huai was cutting radishes in the kitchen.

Cao Guixiang pulled up a high stool and sat on the side watching, while Zhang Chu stood secretly outside the kitchen watching.

Qin Huai was cutting very seriously, and also very arduously.

How should one put it? Although his knife skills were only at the beginner level, he hadn't cut zero vegetables during this period. Occasionally, he still had to cut some vegetables and candied fruit, and he didn't use the knife any less during the New Year period.

One could tell from the proficiency; the proficiency of his knife skills had been leveled up.

Qin Huai wasn't completely unable to cut vegetables.

It was just that the vegetables were cut more like a beginner, not as well as many ordinary kitchen veterans. If he were to cut quickly, nine times out of ten he would cut his hand, but cutting slowly and carefully was definitely no problem.

Cao Guixiang stared from the side, not looking at how uneven the radish shreds Qin Huai cut were at all; from beginning to end, she only watched how Qin Huai held the knife.

"Wrong." Cao Guixiang shook her head. As a retired master who had never taught an apprentice, Cao Guixiang's teaching level was definitely not as good as Huang Shengli's, and she didn't have many words.

So she usually went hands-on directly.

Cao Guixiang went hands-on directly, pinching Qin Huai's wrist to straighten his knife-holding posture: "I know you must be used to holding the knife like this for so many years, but this posture gets half the result with twice the effort. When you cut, it's not smooth enough, and you use more force. Over time, your wrists and elbows won't be able to take it."

"You must change it, otherwise you'll have a hard time practicing chopping later."

Qin Huai tried hard to change it, cutting slowly.

After a while, Cao Guixiang made a move again: "Lift your arm higher. You are using your wrist force right now. When cutting vegetables, your wrist cannot use force; you must use your arm."

"Use your forearm to drive the kitchen knife. Yes, that's it. Your blade is tilted inward. When cutting vegetables, the blade, your index finger knuckle, and your arm must be in a straight line. You are a pastry chef; your strength is definitely enough. You're just not used to it right now. You must try hard to overcome your previous habits and get used to this posture."

Not long after, Cao Guixiang stepped forward to adjust him again.

This teaching mode was very much like an adult watching a child who had just learned to write.

The adult wasn't watching whether the child's writing was good-looking at all—no matter how you looked at it, it definitely wasn't good-looking; it was either crooked like ants crawling or inconsistent in size like ghost symbols.

The adult was watching the child's pen-holding posture, grabbing it bit by bit, staring without leaving for a moment, and directly stepping in to correct it as soon as a problem appeared.

Qin Huai felt that he was that child now; he was almost forgetting how to cut vegetables.

With Cao Guixiang, an adult proficient in knife techniques, supervising from the side, Qin Huai only felt that everything here was wrong and everything there was wrong; this needed to be changed and that needed to be changed. As he changed, he forgot how to cut radish shreds.

Strange, wasn't he the genius praised by everyone?

Even if Qin Huai wasn't a narcissistic person, and didn't feel he was that much of a genius a few months ago, at this very moment, he couldn't help but narcissistically ask himself.

Why are knife skills so difficult?

Dong Shi, you lied to me!

Qin Huai vaguely remembered that when he asked Dong Shi if knife skills were hard to practice, what Dong Shi said was:

Knife skills? Getting started is very simple; it just requires diligent practice. When you first practice, you feel you are particularly amazing, and you can do everything with a casual cut. You can cut white radish slices that let light through, and you can cut shredded cucumber easily.

But after practicing to the later stages, you realize that even white radish slices that let light through are divided into different grades. Ninth-grade radish slices are easy to cut, third-grade are difficult, and first-grade are as hard as ascending to heaven.

The shredded cucumber that looks very difficult and high-class can actually be cut roughly by ordinary people after some practice. The flashy stuff isn't hard; what's hard are those plain-looking shredded meat, diced meat, meat strips, and minced meat.

As a result, now...

Qin Huai looked at the white radish shreds, white radish slices, and diced white radishes he had cut.

He looked again at the samples Cao Guixiang cut when she demonstrated for him at the beginning.

Dong Shi, you lied to me! Ninth-grade white radish slices are clearly also very hard to cut!

Qin Huai's radishes were cut until 10:00 PM.

It wasn't that the radishes were finished, but that Cao Guixiang felt Qin Huai should rest.

Qin Huai had passed the age where he could be full of energy even after staying up late. Coupled with the good routine he had developed over the years of selling breakfast and doing pastry work, Qin Huai was even less able to stay up late than ordinary people.

After a simple wash, Qin Huai fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

In his dream, Qin Huai was a rabbit breeder who had to cut radishes for rabbit feed every day.

Those rabbits were particularly picky; some wanted to eat white radish slices, some wanted to eat white radish shreds, and some wanted to eat diced white radishes. If they weren't cut well, they wouldn't eat; if they weren't pretty, they wouldn't eat; if they weren't neat, they wouldn't eat.

In the dream, Qin Huai was cutting radishes almost without stopping for a moment. If the conditions didn't prevent it and he didn't have the habit of sleepwalking, he probably would have sleepwalked to the kitchen to cut radishes.

Perhaps because the radish-cutting dream was too terrifying, Qin Huai didn't wake up very early the next morning as usual, sleeping until 8:00 AM.

Cao Guixiang didn't call him either.

Zhang Chu had watched Qin Huai cut radishes for the whole day at the kitchen door yesterday and sympathized with Qin Huai very much in his heart. While eating breakfast, he was still nagging to Cao Guixiang: "Assistant Xiao Qin must have been exhausted yesterday."

"Normal," Cao Guixiang drank soy milk calmly. "When we were apprentices, which day weren't we tired? I remember at that time I went to Yongheju to cut vegetables before dawn every day, and I had to cut until eight or nine in the evening before I could go home."

"At that time, there were no streetlights on the roads in Beiping City, and my home was far from Yongheju. My parents weren't willing to come pick me up late at night, so it was my senior brother and second senior brother who were worried and took turns sending me home at night."

"Assistant Xiao Qin's conditions now are much better than mine back then. He has been a pastry chef for so many years and even farmed when he was a child, so his strength has been trained and his foundation is good. When I practiced chopping back then, it was mainly to practice strength. Women's strength is naturally smaller than men's. My second senior brother would hang a sandbag for an hour every day, and I had to hang it for two hours; he would flip sand for an hour, and I had to flip it for two hours."

"At that time, my arms and elbows were swollen during the day, so I would apply a hot towel before going to bed at night and continue practicing the next day."

"I don't know how my senior brother practiced his basic skills when he was a child, but anyway, my second senior brother and I both cried our way through it, practicing while crying, and not daring to cry too loudly for fear of disturbing the master and having the master not want us anymore."

Hearing Cao Guixiang say this, Zhang Chu also recalled the bitter days when he learned to be a carpenter as a child: "Indeed, at that time, I followed the master to do odd jobs and plane wood. My arms were swollen and I had no strength left, but I still had to continue working. My senior brother felt sorry for me and said he would do it for me, but he would be scolded back by the master."

"It's all practiced like that. Those who sing in opera troupes and train their voices sometimes even vomit blood; as long as their voices aren't ruined, they have to keep practicing."

After reminiscing about the past, Zhang Chu changed the subject. Seeing that the soy milk in Cao Guixiang's cup was finished and she was still smacking her lips, clearly still wanting more, he hurriedly poured the little bit left in the pot for her before continuing:

"However, why do I feel Assistant Xiao Qin is practicing strangely?"

Cao Guixiang continued drinking soy milk: "What kind of strange are you talking about?"

"It's just... it shouldn't be. Doesn't Assistant Xiao Qin have good talent? He makes those big tangyuan so delicious, and he's not a pure novice who has never been in the kitchen. I saw him able to cut at the beginning, but by the end, I felt he didn't even know how to hold the knife."

"Is it because your pressure is too strong, Guixiang, that Assistant Xiao Qin is so scared he doesn't know how to hold the knife?"

Cao Guixiang:...

Cao Guixiang gave Zhang Chu a huffy look: "What nonsense are you talking about? Assistant Xiao Qin's state yesterday was the correct one."

"If Assistant Xiao Qin were a blank sheet of paper, then of course the faster he learns, the better. But Assistant Xiao Qin is not. Not only is he not a blank sheet of paper, he is even a very mature and even excellent pastry chef. He knows too much and it's too messy, and no one has taught him systematically."

"It's easy to write from 0 to 100, but if a person has already learned the wrong way to write from 0 to 100, how can it be so simple to make him forget everything and let him write from 100 to 0 again?"

"What Assistant Xiao Qin needs to do now is to forget all those wrong knife-holding postures and force points he had before and start learning again. This process is much more difficult than a normal novice starting from scratch."

"But this is what he must learn. On the first day I learned to cook, my master told me that all the initial small problems and bad habits, if not taken seriously and corrected, will eventually become small bugs that hollow out a big tree. Although Assistant Xiao Qin has many bad habits now, his knife skills are poor, and there is a lot of room for improvement, so he can still be straightened out and changed from the beginning."

"If he were already a mature savory chef, it would be hard to turn him back. Unless one day he discovers that his small problems lead to major mistakes in cooking—for example, the Wenchang Chicken can't be put back together, or the Three-Set Duck can't be nested—and he makes up his mind to learn from the pain, only then is it possible to turn him back."

"I don't expect Assistant Xiao Qin to lay a very good foundation in these few days; I just hope to wipe him back into that blank sheet of paper and start learning from zero."

"Let him have a good master to lead him on the right path. I believe that with his talent, even if he learns by himself using the correct method, he will be more formidable than ordinary people."

After listening, Zhang Chu only slowly said one sentence: "Guixiang, do you really not want to take him as an apprentice?"

Cao Guixiang shook her head: "He doesn't need a master like me. He can have many masters; I just need to be one of them."

"Ever since the educated youth went to the countryside back then, I have already lost my chance at the path of a chef. My ambition is not here, so I won't delay Assistant Xiao Qin, this good seedling."

The conversation between Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu ended when Qin Huai got up and opened the door.

Having overslept on the first day of learning his craft at Cao Guixiang's house, Qin Huai was very embarrassed and apologized repeatedly after getting up.

Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu looked at each other and smiled, telling Qin Huai not to be constrained by this; the two of them were confident that they could make Qin Huai unable to get up early the next morning either.

Qin Huai:?

Then Cao Guixiang smiled and told Qin Huai to hurry up and eat breakfast; there were even more radishes to cut today.

Qin Huai:??

Finishing breakfast at light speed, Qin Huai pushed open the kitchen door and saw the kitchen full of radishes.

Not only was the vegetable rack piled full, but the floor was also piled full. Opening the refrigerator, the upper layer of the refrigerator was also full of washed radishes.

"There are two more boxes of radishes in the storage room," Zhang Chu reminded with a chuckle. "Guixiang said that although you cut slowly yesterday, Assistant Xiao Qin, your speed should pick up today. Plus, there is more time today, so these should be enough to cut."

"If it's not enough, I'll go buy more. I've already talked to Old Li at the wet market; at least 300 jin of white radishes every day, enough to go around!"

"Give me the wholesale price!"

Qin Huai: ╭(°a°`)╮

"That... may I ask how the white radishes I finish cutting every day will be handled?" Qin Huai asked weakly.

"There is a pig farm in our city. I have often gone there to buy pork over the years and know the owner of the pig farm," Cao Guixiang said. "I've already agreed with the owner of the pig farm to come over and pull the radishes every night."

"So Assistant Xiao Qin, don't have any psychological burden. The cut radishes won't be wasted. If 300 jin isn't enough to cut, then 400 jin, 500 jin."

"Radishes are very cheap."

(End of chapter)