Chapter 351: New Idea for Brushing Proficiency

Qin Huai watched Cao Guixiang cut yams quietly.

Cao Guixiang's blade moved fast, her movements simple; cutting yams was no different from cutting radishes. Qin Huai felt Cao Guixiang didn't hesitate or think; she was just cutting yams purely by feeling. The knife was so fast that afterimages could be seen; almost in the blink of an eye, a yam was finished.

Qin Huai glanced at the yam slices; they were uniform in thickness, as if they had been copied and pasted, and thinner than what he had just cut.

"When your knife work is proficient enough, you can cut as fast as I just did. But fast doesn't mean good. Many chefs, in order to pursue speed, feel that the faster they are, the more they can prove their knife work is good, and they often make many mistakes. In fact, the time you take to cut these few slices won't affect your work that day, and being slower won't affect the final product either."

After speaking, Cao Guixiang began to cut a new yam. This time, her speed was much more normal compared to the last time, almost the same as Qin Huai's speed in cutting yams.

Cao Guixiang's blade fell very steadily, slow but rhythmic, very detailed—so detailed that Qin Huai felt he could see Cao Guixiang's force point every time she cut.

How the blade edge was, what the angle was, what the wrist looked like, how the arm exerted force. Cao Guixiang wasn't cutting vegetables at all; she was teaching—a very detailed face-to-face teaching.

"Look, many times, only by being slow can you notice the details. Just now, when I was cutting very fast, you couldn't see clearly how I cut every slice. As a bystander, you couldn't see clearly, and as the person cutting, you couldn't fully understand either. But if you cut slowly, there is a very high fault tolerance, and you have time to find the rhythm."

While speaking, Cao Guixiang finished another yam.

"The speed isn't slow either, right?" Cao Guixiang asked with a smile.

Qin Huai nodded heavily.

At this moment, Qin Huai realized that Cao Guixiang and Huang Shengli were two different styles of teachers.

Because Huang Shengli was a very rare gold-medal famous teacher with very clear language expression and rich teaching experience, he focused more on detailed explanations when teaching. He liked to watch how Qin Huai did it from the side, then point out problems in time, and only demonstrate once after Qin Huai repeated the same problem many times.

Cao Guixiang's teaching style was actually very similar, but her language expression wasn't as good as Huang Shengli's, so she tended to demonstrate practically while speaking.

Cao Guixiang liked to let Qin Huai do it a few more times first, expose all the problems, and then correct them specifically.

Both styles of teachers were famous teachers, and both were very traditional teaching methods.

Qin Huai watched Cao Guixiang finish cutting 10 yams and then started stir-frying.

When stir-frying for the first time, Cao Guixiang used her own style—movements simple and not flashy, waving the spatula as it should be waved, without any extra movements.

When thickening at the end, it wasn't flashy, large-movement thickening, but very plain and normal thickening.

"To learn thickening, you must first learn to prepare starch water. Why did I say your thickening has big problems? Because you were wrong from the beginning."

"This technique of thickening has a lot of knowledge in the starch water. What kind of starch to choose, how to prepare it, whether it is thick or thin, what the ratio is, whether to mix and match—these are all decisions the chef needs to make, which is a great test of the chef's overall grasp and judgment of the dish."

"Of course, you don't need to be so proficient as a white-case chef. In the document I gave you, the dishes that need thickening are all marked with how to prepare starch water. You just need to follow the recipe."

"Now I will tell you how to prepare starch water for stir-fried yams. When you learn the recipe, you can't just learn the recipe; you also need to think. When you understand why this dish needs to prepare starch water in this ratio when thickening, you have truly learned thickening."

After speaking, Cao Guixiang slowly prepared starch water in front of Qin Huai, saying the ratio while preparing, and then started stir-frying yams again.

This time, Cao Guixiang's movements in stir-frying yams were imitating Qin Huai, appearing somewhat flustered and not knowing how to wave, but the final product was still very good.

Qin Huai:...

Was he like this every time he cooked?

Back at Huang Ji, how did those chefs manage to watch him cook without laughing?

"You can see it, right? The movements don't affect the final product. The purpose of practicing heat control and practicing flipping the spoon is to make the dish heated evenly. Although your movements in cooking look strange, and I don't know where you learned them, your purpose is very clear. You know what the purpose of waving the spatula is."

"So I think your foundation in heat control is very good, and there are no big problems."

"Of course, it would be even better if you could correct the movements slightly. Who on earth did you learn these movements from?"

Qin Huai:...

He didn't know; maybe this was talent.

Qin Huai stir-fried yams all night like this.

With 10 yams as a unit, he stir-fried 10, and Cao Guixiang stir-fried 10, repeating the cycle. The yams stir-fried by the two were almost worlds apart. There was no need to eat them; just looking at the appearance, one could tell which plate was stir-fried by Qin Huai and which plate was stir-fried by Cao Guixiang.

Zhang Chu sat on a small stool outside and watched, and as he watched, he took it and ate it. He ate a mouthful of what Qin Huai made, then a mouthful of what Cao Guixiang made, muttering and commenting from time to time:

"The difference between the dishes stir-fried by Xiao Qin and the snacks he makes is really quite big."

Sometimes when he spoke loudly and was heard by Cao Guixiang, Cao Guixiang would roll her eyes at him and scold in a low voice: "Eat your stir-fried yams."

Qin Huai had no thoughts about Zhang Chu's obvious comparison behavior. People only feel hurt when they can compare. In Qin Huai's view, Cao Guixiang's stir-fried yams and Jiang Chengde's Huaihua Mantou were about the same, except that Jiang Chengde's Huaihua Mantou was basically incomprehensible, while Cao Guixiang's stir-fried yams were Cao Guixiang trying her best to let him see the parts he should see.

That night in his dream, Qin Huai stir-fried yams all night.

In this dream, the rabbits ruling the earth loved eating stir-fried yams very much and insisted on eating stir-fried yams, and their requirements were particularly high, requiring each piece of yam to be cut to the same thickness, the heat control to be just right, and the thickening to be appropriate.

Before, Qin Huai only needed to cut radishes in his dreams, but this time he had to practice everything from cutting to stir-frying to thickening. The mouths of those dead rabbits were particularly picky, saying the heat control wasn't good one moment, saying the thickening wasn't good the next, and even worse, saying the yam was cut badly and they didn't want to eat it after one look.

It made Qin Huai stir-fry yams in his dream until he was sweating profusely. When he woke up, his forehead was full of light sweat. Before changing clothes and going out of the room to wash, he forgot to tidy his hair and went out with a bird's nest head.

When Qin Huai got up, Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu had long been awake, and breakfast had already been served on the table. The snack trio of Three-Ding Bao, Jiu-Niang Mantou, and Four-Joy Tangyuan was not missing anything, along with three fried eggs and soy milk boiled by Cao Guixiang.

Seeing Qin Huai in this state, Cao Guixiang asked with a smile: "Looking at this appearance, you must have stir-fried yams all night in your dream."

Qin Huai was shocked: "Did I talk in my sleep again?"

Today he was tired from stir-frying yams, not woken up by roaring.

"That's not it." Cao Guixiang signaled Qin Huai to come to the living room to eat after washing up. Zhang Chu explained while gnawing on a baozi: "It's very normal. Everyone went through this when they were apprentices. When I first learned carpentry from my master, I was working in my dreams. Every day I woke up more tired than before I slept."

"Your Master Cao... Master is even more exaggerated. When she learned to cook, she dreamed every night that she was scolded by her master, but in fact, her master didn't scold people at all. She was scolded to tears in her dreams that didn't make her cry during the day, and she woke up crying every day."

"At that time, the neighbors in her street were all spreading that her master looked quite kind, but in fact, he was particularly fierce, scolding the little girl to hide at home and cry secretly every night, and her eyes were swollen when she got up the next morning."

Qin Huai knew that Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang were comforting him, and he had to admit that the comfort of the two was very useful. The experience of those who have gone before is always more effective than talking on paper.

After washing up, Qin Huai sat at the dining table: "I know, Master. Is it still stir-fried yams today?"

"Of course. Originally, I planned to let you practice thickening for two days and knife work for three days. Now it seems that there is no need to practice separately; practicing together is fine."

"Once you have cut the yams well, the second stage of knife work will be fine. After you go back, if you are interested, you can continue to cut yams or radish slices. When the radish slices are translucent, come back to learn the next stage."

Cao Guixiang reminded him kindly: "However, this practice method has no targeting, and it may not be finished in 5 days."

Qin Huai was full of confidence: "Don't worry, Master. I will work hard and strive to finish practicing in 5 days. If I go back a few days later, my sister Luo Luo will cry again."

Qin Luo's exam results for last month came out, and there was progress. During the holiday, Qin Huai promised Qin Luo that as long as she made progress in the exam, he would make her something delicious. Qin Luo was probably counting on this delicious food to live these few days.

If Qin Huai went back a few days later, Qin Luo's sky would collapse again.

As for what delicious food to make, Qin Huai had already thought about it—let Cao Guixiang help him mince the meat filling, and he would make a plus version of Four-Joy Tangyuan for Qin Luo.

Just like that, Qin Huai stir-fried yams for 5 full days.

He felt that every time he came to Cao Guixiang's house for further studies, it was like this: first eat a grand feast to taste the sweetness, and then start practicing. At the beginning, the intensity of practice wasn't high, but on the second day, he began to enter the devil training mode. Every day when he opened his eyes, it was practice, practicing day and night, returning to the green years of the third year of high school, preparing for the college entrance examination in a hundred-day sprint.

Of course, there was no time for rest during the practice process. The time Cao Guixiang cooked was when Qin Huai rested.

Rest, but not completely rest, because Qin Huai would always watch from the side to see how Cao Guixiang cooked.

During the devil training, Cao Guixiang didn't have so much time to make a table of good food every day, basically one grand dish with three home-cooked dishes.

Learning to cook is a standard physical job. Whether it's cutting vegetables or stir-frying, it consumes a lot of energy. Stir-frying yams for a day is, in a sense, no different from moving bricks for a day. Every day at mealtime, Qin Huai had a great appetite and wished he could eat eight bowls of rice.

And every time this happened, Cao Guixiang would watch with a smile and help Qin Huai pick up food from time to time.

Five days passed in a flash.

Qin Huai stir-fried yams until he didn't know what year it was. He didn't remember what date it was today, nor did he remember what day of the week it was. He only knew what time it was, and whether it was time to stir-fry yams, watch cooking, or eat.

As for feelings or something...

The feeling-school master felt that feelings were no longer very important. When the amount of practice reached a certain level, people could no longer feel anything.

On the 5th day of stir-frying, Qin Huai didn't even look at the heavy news shared by Dong Shi that Wang Jun was dejected, didn't sneak out to date his girlfriend during the lunch break, and was suspected of being dumped.

After seeing it, he only replied with a "sad" character, showing his perfunctory heart.

Too tired, people were tired to numbness, so tired that they didn't have the energy to watch gossip.

Thinking that a savory-dish chef had to lay such a foundation for several years, Qin Huai felt heartfelt admiration for the savory-dish chef. This was not a life for people. Compared to this kind of life, getting up at 2:00 AM every day to make breakfast was nothing.

Of course, Qin Huai couldn't get up at 2:00 AM every day to make breakfast—he really couldn't get up.

"Let's practice here for today. We will rest for half a day tomorrow. Old Shi is coming to the house for dinner. Xiao Qin, you can just meet him. The price of his seafood is quite fair. If you are interested in buying things from him, I can introduce you."

At 11:20 PM on the 5th day of stir-frying yams, Cao Guixiang called a halt to Qin Huai's training today.

Qin Huai, who had been stir-frying yams for 5 days until he was dizzy, didn't remember who Old Shi was at first, and just asked blankly:

"Ah? No practice tomorrow?"

Cao Guixiang was amused by Qin Huai's question: "It seems you really want to practice. Why? Found the rhythm? How about stir-frying another 20 roots today, and then rest after stir-frying?"

Qin Huai shook his arms, which were already very sore, thought about it seriously, and nodded.

He really wanted to stir-fry for a while longer. Even though he hadn't clicked on the game panel for two or three days, his intuition told him that his heat control was about to upgrade.

His heat control proficiency had never been brushed as fast as these few days.

Before at Huang Ji, Qin Huai stir-fried green vegetables for an afternoon, and the heat control proficiency might not necessarily increase much. But in these 5 days, Qin Huai felt that his heat control was improving every day. Obviously, he was practicing knife work and thickening, but he felt that the most obvious improvement was heat control.

This was really absurd, and Qin Huai didn't know why, it was always like this.

He wanted to brush heat control proficiency, but he brushed filling; he wanted to brush filling proficiency, but he brushed knife work; he wanted to brush knife work proficiency, but he brushed heat control.

Qin Huai didn't know whether it was his problem or the game system's problem.

Following this line of thought, when he wanted to brush finger technique proficiency, he couldn't brush finger technique proficiency, he had to brush dough leavening.

Thinking about this, Qin Huai said to himself silently in his heart.

I want to practice thickening!

Heat control, do you understand? I want to practice thickening!

Qin Huai picked up the kitchen knife and started cutting yams.

Transition chapter, a bit watery, I know (fleeing with head in hands)

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 352 =====