Chapter 992

"Do I still need remedial lessons for my knife skills?"

Broly looked at Nakiri Erina with some surprise.

His cooking ability was indeed lacking, but knife skills and swordsmanship were connected.

Among the people he had met so far, Nakiri Erina was the first one who thought his knife skills still needed learning.

"You think you don't need remedial lessons?"

The blonde girl raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, I just want to know specifically what I need to work on."

Looking at Broly, who wasn't complacent about his formidable knife skills, Nakiri Erina's desire to retort him directly decreased.

"What you need to work on is simple: what kind of ingredients should be cut with what kind of cutting method, and what kind of dish needs to be cut into what kind of shape."

Nakiri Erina spoke concisely.

Hearing this, Broly performed a disciple's salute, adopting a respectful manner toward the girl, cupping his fist and bowing: "Teacher Nakiri, please instruct me."

Seeing this, Nakiri Erina was somewhat surprised: "You're quite polite. Fine, then I'll teach you personally today."

"Erina-sama, aren't you going to trial a new dish? Can't the remedial lessons just be left to me?!"

"

Beside them, Hisako Arato was somewhat startled.

【I originally thought so too, but Broly actually called me teacher. Although I often pick faults in other chefs' cooking, because of my young age, basically no chef would be willing to call me teacher. This is the first one to take the initiative to call me teacher. I can't let him be disappointed————】

Nakiri Erina, whose 【desire to play teacher】 had been somewhat provoked, waved her hand and said: "No matter. Teaching this won't take much time anyway."

She looked at the Saiyan boy and asked: "Broly, do you know what cutting methods different ingredients have?"

Hearing this, Broly was stunned, thought seriously for a moment, and replied: "Cut with a knife."

"I'm asking about cutting methods, not tools."

"Uh, my answer wasn't a tool either. Any cutting method using a knife works for me."

【Even ones not using a knife, I can do too.】

Nakiri Erina raised a hand to her forehead: "I knew it would be like this. When I watched you slice fish fillets and trim skin parts before, I already felt it.

Now hearing your answer confirms it completely. You only know how to execute various cutting methods with a knife, but you have absolutely no knowledge in your heart of why you should use this cutting method. You just saw others cut this way, so you cut this way. Am I right?"

"That's right, but what's the problem with that?"

Broly was somewhat confused.

"A professional chef needs to have a clear mental grasp of the shapes of ingredients required for their own dishes.

Otherwise, they're just a half-baked hack, and such hacks cannot graduate smoothly from a place like Totsuki Academy."

【But I originally didn't plan to become a professional chef. I just wanted to casually learn a couple of tasty dishes, then find a long-term cafeteria meal in this world. That's why I entered Totsuki Academy————】

Broly didn't speak the words in his heart. Instead, he directly knelt before Nakiri Erina with a thud. When the girl's face showed astonishment, he said: "Coach Erina, I want to learn a professional chef's knife skills!"

"Cough cough————"

Broly's sudden action caused Nakiri Erina to choke on her own saliva and start coughing.

【Goddamn coach, do you really think I don't watch Slam Dunk?】

Nakiri Erina grumbled inwardly, but felt a few degrees of closeness toward Broly in her heart. Hmm, Nakiri Erina appears on the surface to be a rich young lady, a flower on a high peak, but secretly she also reads manga. Although most of what she reads are shoujo manga, she has dabbled in others too.

Now, suddenly encountering someone playing a meme in reality, and one that fits the scene quite well at that, she couldn't help but find it interesting o

"Erina-sama, are you alright?"

Hisako Arato, not understanding the situation, thought her own young lady had some problem.

"I'm fine."

Nakiri Erina waved her hand, letting her personal secretary not worry. She adjusted her breathing and looked at Broly: "Get up. I'm teaching you right now————"

Having already figured out Broly's actual knife skill knowledge reserves, Nakiri Erina no longer beat around the bush. She started teaching directly from the most basic fundamentals.

"Your problem isn't practical knife skills, but the logic of processing ingredients in your head. The logic of ingredient processing generally depends on the ingredients you use and the dish you want to make. That is, knife skills serve the final finished dish.

The core of knife cutting methods is just three types: cross-cut, lengthwise cut, diagonal cut.

Cross-cut means the blade is perpendicular to the ingredient fibers at 90°. The purpose is to completely sever the fibers, thereby making the ingredient more tender when eaten. Generally applicable to beef, mutton, and coarse-fiber vegetables.

Diagonal cut is a 30°~60° cut. It partially severs the fibers. Applicable to ingredients that need to retain some texture o

Lengthwise cut is parallel to the ingredient fibers, less than 30°. The purpose is not to sever the fibers. Generally applicable to softer-textured ingredients.

Like fish meat, cooked cold dishes, etc. Because the meat itself is soft and tender, this cutting method is to maintain the ingredient's shape————"

Want tender meat, cut across to sever it. Want the shape to hold, cut lengthwise along it. Want flavor absorption and some chew, cut diagonally, severing it along the grain.

"Of course, specifically how to cut, you still have to look at the specific cooking method of the ingredient. Take beef for example. If you're making Gauze-Gauze beef, naturally you pursue thin tenderness with cross-cut.

But if it's fried steak? Can you still cut it into a thin slice? But conversely, cutting it into a thick large piece doesn't work either————"

Nakiri Erina didn't need Broly to answer this time. She continued talking to herself.

"How to cut fried steak meat needs to consider the cookware issue of fried steak. If there's only an ordinary frying pan on a home stove, the most suitable thickness for operation is 2~2.5 centimeters. But if there's a professional frying pan, 3~3.5 centimeters thickness is the best, the universally acknowledged golden thickness.

Hmm, the larger the thickness, the longer the time for heat to transfer from the surface to the center. This gives the chef more leeway in operation time to create a perfect gradient structure that transitions smoothly from outside to inside.

Of course, thick-cut just by frying won't work. It's easy to burn the outside while the inside is raw. So it also needs to be paired with composite cooking methods like sear-then-roast or low-temperature slow cooking.

Cough cough, got a bit off-topic. Back to the main point. Meat for stewing generally needs large pieces. Only large pieces can prevent the meat from falling apart during long stewing. But too large doesn't work either, because you have to consider that most stewed meats need to be blanched to remove blood smell.

If too large, the blood smell inside can't be cleaned thoroughly, resulting in the stewed dish having a heavy gamey smell. Even if masked with spices, it's still a disaster————"

Nakiri Erina taught seriously. Broly listened seriously. Time passed bit by bit.

"Alright, you've understood the general principles of knife skills.

Now, let's proceed directly to practical training.

For lunch, I plan to make several different dishes. All the ingredients inside that need cutting will be handed over to you to process."

At noon, I plan to make several different dishes; all the ingredients that need cutting, I'll leave entirely to you to handle.

"During this time, I won't demonstrate how to process ingredients; it's entirely up to you to decide how to handle them based on what you just learned."

Having just finished the theory class, Nakiri Erina directly entered the practical exam phase; of course, the seasoning and cooking of the dishes were entirely her responsibility, Broly only needed to be responsible for the prep work.

And Nakiri Erina is proficient in various cuisines from around the world, so the dishes she sprang also had a certain 'all over the place' quality to them.

Chinese cuisine's Fish-Flavored Shredded Pork and Kung Pao Chicken, these two absolutely test a prep chef's knife skills; Japanese cuisine's Sea Bream Sashimi and Thick-Cut Tonkatsu test the skill of removing sinews and membranes; France's Burgundy Braised Beef is the same; Southeast Asia's Tom Yum Goong, Green Papaya Salad————

Horizontal cuts, vertical cuts, diagonal cuts.

Dicing, julienning, decorative scoring.

Seven dishes, directly testing all the techniques of basic and advanced knife skills.

"Erina-sama, isn't the knowledge being tested a bit too much?"

Hisako Arato, listening from the side, felt her scalp go a bit numb.

"Much? I don't think so. His practical knife skills are full marks; he just lacks theoretical knowledge. Now that I've taught him the theory, theoretically he should be able to process the ingredients for these dishes. Hmph, I haven't even made him do the Chinese Wensi Tofu yet————"

Nakiri Erina didn't think there was any problem with her exam questions; she waved her hand and had her personal secretary go bring the ingredients.

Fish-Flavored Shredded Pork, high heat quick stir-fry, requires ingredients tender enough; pork must be cut horizontally and finely, but exactly how fine, Broly

had no idea.

Thinking it over, he directly asked the proctor teacher beside him: "Teacher Nakiri, how fine should I cut these strips? Is finer always better?"

Hearing this, Nakiri Erina took a deep breath, wanted to say something but couldn't get it out, and finally could only sigh helplessly: "As expected, theory is theory, but experience still needs to be accumulated through practice.

For Fish-Flavored Shredded Pork strips, 0.3 centimeters square is best; smaller than this and they easily break apart when stir-frying, larger and they're too thick, hard to absorb flavor, and easy to overcook."

【So it's an open-book exam after all————】

Hisako Arato, seeing her own Big Sister guiding from the side, couldn't help but think.

Nakiri Erina merely didn't do practical demonstrations, but verbal guidance was still there.

And under her guidance, Broly quickly finished cutting the ingredients and set them aside.

Of course, Nakiri Erina wasn't only giving verbal guidance; ingredients that needed marinating beforehand still needed to be marinated.

"Alright, your knife skill foundation is now filled in; what remains is just accumulating more experience processing ingredients required for different dishes."

At two in the afternoon, when Nakiri Erina finished making the last dish, Burgundy Braised Beef, and tasted the beef's texture, she gave Broly affirmation for today's knife skill tutoring.

"Mm, from now on, for the Sixth Cooking Building's student training cooking prep work, take out a portion and have him handle it."

After tossing Broly an unpaid training job, Nakiri Erina waved her hand and let Broly move freely.

A whole day, most of it spent on him, even delaying her own new dish research; next she had no time to bother with him.

At 4:30 PM, Broly left the Sixth Cooking Building, and in those two and a half hours, he directly prepped ingredients for over forty dishes.

How to put it, this wasn't his prep limit, but the limit of prep ingredients needed for the number of dishes the students coming to the Sixth Cooking Building cooked in two and a half hours.

"Truly a human vegetable chopper~"

Watching Broly walk away, Hisako Arato couldn't help but exclaim, but she soon saw Broly turn back.

"Miss Hisako, can I borrow that three-wheeled cart from last night again?"

Facing Broly's request, Hisako Arato didn't refuse, just asked a bit strangely: "You can, but what do you need to transport this time?"

"Uh, currently don't know, but should need to transport some things."

Broly scratched his head; he had just suddenly received a call from Soma Yukihira.

"Take it and use it; anyway, the Sixth Cooking Building doesn't lack much else, but there's a surplus of transport tools for delivering supplies."

【In return for making the young lady this happy today————】

Hisako Arato handed over the keys, thinking to herself.

"Right, if the gas isn't enough, go fill it yourself; the gas money you can claim from me for reimbursement."

"Thanks, Miss Hisako; if there's a chance later, I'll treat you to food."

Broly said a word of thanks, leaving a setup for treating her to a meal, then mounted the little three-wheeled cart and left.

Arriving at the Teaching Building side, Soma Yukihira was already waiting for him.

And beside him, surprisingly, was the Mobile Cooking Station seen in the Cooking Classroom.

"This is?"

"I borrowed it from Teacher Roland; it's spare equipment in the Cooking Classroom. Just install bottled water and canned gas, and it becomes a mobile cooking stove. Now, let's move this onto the cart."

"No need, I can do it alone."

Broly refused the boy's help lifting the station; he alone got the thing onto the vehicle.

"Worthy of Broly-san, strength really is great."

Soma Yukihira praised a sentence, then also jumped onto the cart.

"Now, let's go purchase gas canisters, bottled water, and the ingredients we'll need for tonight's fried rice stall."

That's right, the chef's money-making method he told Broly this morning was going out to set up a night stall.

And in one afternoon, this red-haired boy had settled all the prep work needed for setting up a stall.

Including the borrowed mobile stove, calculating the required ingredient prep quantities, and the stall location and required permit documents.

"Honestly, if an ordinary person wanted to set up a stall, getting some permit documents processed, one day's time wouldn't be enough.

But my family originally runs a restaurant; I used that as guarantee, plus the identity of a Totsuki Academy enrolled student, the Health Center and Police Station quickly approved us."

Leaving the academy, Soma Yukihira drove the three-wheeled cart instead, while Broly got off and ran alongside; the boy drove while talking about his smooth permit process.

"How much did you front?"

"Not much, just all the living expenses my old man gave me."

"Then you really have confidence you can make money?"

"Joking, I'm super confident; just based on my family's fried rice taste, even if it's a regular version with lowered quality not using clear soup stock as the wet ingredient, it'll definitely sell like crazy in the night market~"

Night had not yet fallen, and Soma Yukihira brought Broly along, planning to make the Yukihira Diner's name ring out on a street in the Tokyo Night Market.

Of course, making his own restaurant famous was a spur-of-the-moment idea; mainly, it was to avoid Broly taking the path of unlawful crime.

The two soon arrived at the place where stalls were permitted, and the time was exactly when the night market appeared; some temporary stalls selling various kinds of food also began to spread out along the street.

Compared to those professional night stall vendors, Broly's side seemed rather shabby, as he had not even prepared tables and chairs.

"No need for tables and chairs; I brought lunch boxes and disposable plastic spoons. Customers buy them, hold them in their hands at that time, and eat while walking."

Soma Yukihira said, pulling out a stack of lunch boxes printed with the words Yukihira Diner, which he had previously brought from home.

"Others eat takoyaki, but our side directly eats fried rice, right?"

Broly made a retort.

"Uh, although it's a bit strange, the fried rice tastes great; now, let's start setting up the stall~"