Chapter 329

After hanging up the video call, Qin Huai did not immediately call Cao Guixiang to continue the online class, but walked to the side of Zheng Siyuan, who was making fresh meat mooncakes, and watched him silently.

Seeing Qin Huai walk over, Zheng Siyuan said without raising his head: "The mooncakes will be ready in 13 minutes."

"I don't want to eat fresh meat mooncakes." Qin Huai said, glanced at the mooncake embryos, and changed his words, "Alright, save one for me later."

"Did you tell Tan Weian this morning that I wanted new helpers?"

Just now, Boss Su said he heard from Tan Weian this morning that Qin Huai needed helpers, and Qin Huai did indeed say similar words this morning, but those words were said when chatting with Zheng Siyuan.

There is no need to analyze; just thinking about it, one knows that Zheng Siyuan must have deliberately said this to Tan Weian.

"I said it." Zheng Siyuan nodded, "Don't you need helpers from Zhi Wei Ju? It just so happens that what Zhi Wei Ju lacks the least is helpers. Every year, Zhi Wei Ju has a large number of apprentices who apply for jobs out of admiration, and after being admitted, they stay at Zhi Wei Ju to do odd jobs as helpers. If they are exceptionally gifted, they will be spotted by the master chefs in the shop and taken as disciples or registered disciples. If they fail to apprentice successfully for a long time, in most cases, these apprentices will give up after persisting for three or four years, resign, and leave Zhi Wei Ju to find a job with higher wages and more decency at another restaurant."

"Zhi Wei Ju is a very standard traditional old-style restaurant; all apprentices start practicing from basic skills and are known for their hard work. Therefore, employees who resign from Zhi Wei Ju, even apprentices, are very popular with major restaurants."

"This philosophy and model have made Zhi Wei Ju famous. Although it is essentially just a restaurant, in a sense, it can be considered to have students all over the world. Among the pastry chefs in restaurants all over the country, there are many chefs and apprentices from Zhi Wei Ju, even the Yunzhong Canteen; aren't Pei Xing and Li Hua chefs from Zhi Wei Ju?"

"I know." Qin Huai said, "But I still don't understand why you had to specifically tell Tan Weian about this. Telling him isn't that just asking him to help me ask Boss Su for people? That's not very good; I'm not familiar with Boss Su either, just an acquaintance who added each other on WeChat."

"You still don't understand what I mean." Zheng Siyuan stopped his work and decided to properly popularize the industry rules of borrowing people to Qin Huai, a semi-regular army from an unconventional background, "Under this model, what Zhi Wei Ju lacks the least is apprentices."

"Although your requirements for helpers are high, the quality of Zhi Wei Ju's apprentices is also very high. Basically, as long as they are from Zhi Wei Ju, they meet your requirements for helpers."

"It's very difficult for you to find so many helpers who meet your requirements, are steady, willing to work, and hardworking anywhere other than Zhi Wei Ju."

"And Boss Su will definitely be very happy to conduct exchanges in this regard because it is very effective."

"This effectiveness is visible to everyone. Tan Weian and the others exchanged at Huang Ji for several months, and their culinary skills can be said to have advanced by leaps and bounds. With Tan Weian's level, one can see visible progress, let alone other ordinary helpers."

"Maybe you think that coming to the kitchen every morning, tasting the pastries made by the apprentices in turn, and then giving comments and guidance is a very normal and not troublesome thing. But this is because you don't have apprentices, and you have time to guide these chefs who have nothing to do with you."

"For the master chefs at Zhi Wei Ju, they have many direct disciples who need hands-on teaching. Those apprentices who were not spotted by them and lack talent are just ordinary employees in the kitchen. Sometimes when they are in a good mood, they might give a word or two of guidance, and sometimes when they are busy, ignoring the other party is also a very reasonable thing. For ordinary apprentices at Zhi Wei Ju, being able to get a word of guidance from a master chef every three or four days is already a very lucky thing."

"Tan Weian might not have told you that he has been frantically showing off how much progress his culinary skills have made during his exchange at Huang Ji during the New Year. He said that many apprentices at Zhi Wei Ju, and even the registered disciples of master chefs, very much regret that they didn't fight for the opportunity to go to Huang Ji for study and exchange before. They thought going to Huang Ji was just simple hard labor and odd jobs, but they didn't expect it to be a culinary advanced training class. If they had known it was such a good thing, they would have squeezed their heads to go."

Qin Huai:...

If it weren't for the fact that scratching one's head in the kitchen isn't very good, Qin Huai would really like to scratch his head and then say that he really doesn't understand you chefs from Zhi Wei Ju.

Are you so fond of competing?

Qin Huai couldn't help but look back at Pei Xing and Li Hua, who were silently making pastries.

No wonder these two were eliminated; compared to the other competitors at Zhi Wei Ju, Pei Xing and Li Hua are indeed not competitive enough.

"It's just that you haven't said it. If you had mentioned anything about this when chatting with Tan Weian, Boss Su would have packed a batch of apprentices and sent them to Yunzhong Canteen to be helpers for study and exchange the next day."

Qin Huai: "... I still feel like I'm taking advantage of someone, aren't I?"

"They provide their own travel expenses, their own rent, and I don't need to pay their wages. Is this pure freeloading of mine a bit bad?"

Just now on the phone, Boss Su's meaning was very clear: he sends the people over, Qin Huai doesn't need to worry about anything, and he doesn't even need to worry about their meals.

It's simply a fully automatic nuclear-powered workhorse.

"You provided guidance." Zheng Siyuan said, "Haven't you realized it yet?"

"Although your partiality is very serious, based on your level and the pastries you make, as well as Xu Cheng's praise for you, even in Zhi Wei Ju, you are a master chef worthy of taking apprentices."

"Being able to get guidance from a master chef every day, ordinary apprentices would be too happy to be unhappy, let alone you don't have to pay wages; even if you let them pay you some money every month, I believe they would be willing."

Zheng Siyuan had said it to this point, and Qin Huai had nothing to be embarrassed or worried about. Zhi Wei Ju's apprentices are indeed hardworking, steady, willing to work, have excellent professional quality, make tea well enough, pour tea diligently enough, and open their mouths to thank Master Qin and close their mouths to say it's really troublesome for Master Qin, making it hard not to like them.

"Then I'll finalize this matter with Boss Su on WeChat later. How many helpers do you think we need here?" Qin Huai asked.

Zheng Siyuan scanned the kitchen and counted the number of culinary stations and stoves.

"The kitchen area of Yunzhong Canteen is quite large, 5 to 8 people. Your manpower here is indeed a bit insufficient; the number of employees is not small, but the work efficiency is not high enough."

"Tell Boss Su to pick two or three who are at a decent level, at least capable of standing on their own to make some simple pastries, and 5 ordinary apprentices. This way, even if we both have to devote ourselves to researching double crab buns in the future and don't have much time to make pastries, Yunzhong Canteen can still guarantee a normal supply of pastries, just with a slightly worse taste."

"And I can make fewer buns and steamed buns."

Zheng Siyuan smiled when he said the last sentence. Qin Huai saw from his smile the heart of Master Xiao Zheng, the pastry shop owner who had returned to his leisurely life at the entrance of the residential area and didn't want to be a workhorse.

It can be seen that Master Xiao Zheng, who had been leisurely for more than a month, couldn't adapt to the current high-intensity work. Sure enough, adding workload is something that should be done gradually.

Qin Huai also reflected in his heart that he shouldn't have handed over all the San Ding Bao and fermented rice steamed buns to Zheng Siyuan to make at once. The group of grandpas and grandmas in Yunzhong Residential Area are best at saying what people want to hear, and they had long figured out Zheng Siyuan's temper. Every day they open their eyes and tell lies, opening their mouths to praise him hard, praising Zheng Siyuan until his workload increases day by day.

Sure enough, in the end, Master Xiao Zheng bore it all.

Qin Huai also glanced at the grandpas and grandmas who were sitting upright in the lobby, all staring at the window, looking forward to the fresh meat mooncakes coming out of the pot.

"Don't worry, I will definitely talk to Boss Su properly and strive to get two more exchange students of Tan Weian's level over here!"

"Must get Tan Weian over here!"

Tan Weian has enough recipes in his treasure bag, and from time to time he can take out one or two awesome ones. Getting him over is not only a good helper for making pastries but also an important member of the double crab bun research team.

And Tan Weian has a good sense of taste; he also made great contributions when tasting the Four Happiness Tangyuan before, and this time researching double crab buns, Tan Weian can also be let to taste the dishes.

After the discussion, Qin Huai returned to the culinary station to continue cutting radish and taking online classes, telling Cao Guixiang about what had just happened while cutting radish.

It can only be said that Zhi Wei Ju is indeed the most famous pure pastry restaurant in the country; even Cao Guixiang, who has been retired for many years and is far away in Qiu County, has heard of Zhi Wei Ju's name.

"If that's the case, then aren't you, Xiao Qin, going to Zhi Wei Ju for an exchange for a month or two in the second half of the year?" Cao Guixiang was very interested in the exchange at Zhi Wei Ju, "This is a good opportunity; when I was learning to cook, everyone didn't have the chance to exchange with each other."

"Why?" Qin Huai was very curious; in his view, it is very normal for chefs to exchange with each other, and he felt that chefs were quite willing to do so.

His previous exchange at Huang Ji was very pleasant, and when the exchange ended, Huang Ji even paid him a large salary, which belonged to learning skills and making money at the same time.

"Afraid of having their skills stolen." Cao Guixiang said with a smile, "Information was not developed at that time, and there was very little exchange between chefs. Basically, every sect had its own unique skills and secret recipes. Some secret recipes were actually very low in difficulty; as long as one had the heart to steal them, one could definitely learn them."

"It happened from time to time that an old shop's business plummeted because its secret recipe was stolen, eventually leading to its closure. At that time, craftsmanship was the capital for making a living. Some masters were afraid that if they taught their apprentices, the apprentices would starve the masters to death, let alone exchange between different restaurants."

"Actually, it can't be blamed that everyone was wary of each other at that time. I was born in a peaceful era, but the era my master and grandmaster lived in was very turbulent. Life was precarious, and it was hard to guarantee that a disaster would not befall them one day, so they could only cherish what they had and were reluctant to give even a fraction to others."

"At that time, if any master of a restaurant took the initiative to express a desire to learn and exchange with each other, it was truly a good thing that only happens once in a blue moon. Everyone was very happy and very expectant, wishing they could sweep the floor to welcome them."

"Then are there such masters?" Qin Huai asked curiously.

"Yes." Cao Guixiang nodded with a smile, "There are quite a few, but many exchanges were only very shallow and superficial. As far as I know, there was only one who really conducted in-depth exchanges that went into the unique skills and techniques of each family."

"However, that master was of my grandmaster's generation; my master saw him, but I didn't. When I was learning to cook, I was so admiring when I heard my master talk about that master."

"When all the restaurants in Beiping were treasuring their own skills, afraid that others would steal their secret recipes or unique skills, Master Jiang Chengde of Taifeng Tower took the initiative to visit the major restaurants in Beiping to learn and exchange, and the first one he looked for was my grandmaster."

"At that time, it was truly unprecedented; when he visited, he directly said he wanted to use the unique skills of their Jiang family to exchange for the unique skills of my grandmaster's Tan family cuisine."

Qin Huai was stunned when he heard the name Jiang Chengde. He certainly knew how awesome this person's culinary skills were; to this day, Qin Huai still can't quite understand the video teaching of that Huaihua steamed bun by Jiang Chengde.

"Then did your grandmaster agree?" Qin Huai asked hurriedly.

"He agreed." Cao Guixiang said, "My master said that it was because my grandmaster took a good lead that year, promising to exchange unique skills and never leak them, and later it was indeed done. The masters of other restaurants then successively agreed to exchange and learn with Master Jiang Chengde, and Master Jiang Chengde was able to integrate and master the strengths of hundreds of families in that era, becoming the well-deserved number one chef in Beiping."

"Actually, some people also say that my master was the number one chef in Beiping, but my master told me that he couldn't be considered any number one chef; he had seen the skills of the true number one chef. He knew what it meant to look up to a high mountain and be unable to reach it, so he never claimed this title for himself."

"What about that Master Jiang Chengde later? His descendants or apprentices should also be very powerful." Qin Huai sighed.

Cao Guixiang shook her head: "I don't know."

"Later, because of the war and the fall of Beiping, no one knew his whereabouts. My master said he had 7 sons, but those 7 sons also went missing; at least when I left Beiping, I hadn't heard about the subsequent events."

"At the same time, because of the war and turmoil, originally at the time of my master and grandmaster, the major restaurants in Beiping were very willing to exchange and learn from each other, but later it gradually returned to its original appearance. When I was learning to cook, there were occasional exchanges and learning, but the frequency was not very high, usually because the relationship was really good or they trusted each other very much."

"So, Xiao Qin, you must cherish the opportunity to exchange at Zhi Wei Ju; this is something many chefs can't even think of."

"You don't have a master, which in a sense is a disadvantage but also an advantage. If you have a master, the other party might have concerns during the exchange and learning process. But you don't, so I, and that Master Huang and Master Zheng you mentioned before, dared to teach you everything."

"A blank sheet of paper is the easiest to teach; otherwise, the concepts and schools of each family are different. If you really teach everything at once, learning too much and too messily, just like what is written in martial arts novels, you might go into a deviation if you are not careful."

"I know, thank you very much, Master Cao."

"Don't just thank me; remember to make more pastries for me next time you come back; your Grandpa Zhang loves to eat them."

"Definitely!"

(End of chapter)