Chapter 479: Let You Open a Gourmet Restaurant, You Open for Business at 3 AM

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Lu Feng

Lu Feng returned to the kitchen and glanced at the Lion's Head still warming over low heat.

The Lion's Head Zhao Yan and the others had just ordered were already ready in the kitchen, all prepared in advance by Lu Feng for standby.

They only needed to be ladled out directly later, very convenient.

Today's three new dishes, however, all had to be made to order, and since today was Lu Feng's first time making these three new dishes, he treated every dish with great care while making them.

Lu Feng quickly prepared the ingredients and nimbly began his prep work.

There was now no assistant in the back kitchen who could help him; cooking relied on him alone.

Although Hu Xiaoyun was a staff member, just greeting customers at the front desk was enough to keep her busy, and she couldn't cook either, so she couldn't help in the back kitchen.

This meant that everything in the kitchen, from washing vegetables and ingredient preparation to cooking and plating/serving, the entire cooking process had to be completed by Lu Feng alone.

Fortunately, his physical fitness had been strengthened by the system; even chopping vegetables and tossing the pan nonstop for two straight hours, busy back and forth alone, he didn't feel tired at all, but instead thoroughly enjoyed the whole cooking process.

Lu Feng had previously thought about whether to hire a back-kitchen assistant to help him.

Head chefs in big restaurants generally had several sous chefs to help them with miscellaneous work.

But after careful consideration, Lu Feng still gave up the idea.

With his current standards for cooking, even if the hired helper was a chef who had cooked for many years, they probably couldn't help him much in the back kitchen.

While the system gave him astonishing max-level recipe skills, Lu Feng himself had also developed a pursuit of perfection.

The current him simply couldn't tolerate any ingredient processing method he felt wasn't up to standard; every step had to be flawless before he felt comfortable in his heart.

Take the Stir-fried Lu Hao among the new dishes, for example; although to outsiders, Lu Hao was just a very common wild vegetable, he still treated it very carefully when processing it.

Even washing was done carefully and gently.

Because the tips of Lu Hao were tender, if the movements were a bit rough, the tender leaves would get bruised, thereby subtly affecting the texture of the final product.

Of course, ordinary diners couldn't detect such subtle effects.

But Lu Feng couldn't accept such a result.

Him, who pursued perfect culinary skills, felt that even the slightest imperfection was unworthy of this max-level culinary skill.

Even if the taste was delicious, with an imperfection it wasn't perfect.

If someone like Lu Feng had been born in ancient times and became some high official, with his personality he probably would have to personally handle everything.

With his way of doing things, he probably wouldn't die a natural death but would die young from exhaustion.

Fortunately, he lived in modern society, wasn't a civil servant, but just a cook who cooked, and moreover a cook in his own shop.

Running his own shop, he only needed to be busy two hours a day, had plenty of rest time, and had weekends off, so there was no risk or worry of death from overwork.

The Melt-in-the-Mouth Claw among the new dishes was relatively more troublesome to process, so Lu Feng first made three portions of Stir-fried Lu Hao in one pot, then ladled the Lion's Head out of the casserole and had Hu Xiaoyun take it out.

"Brother Zhao, this is the meal you ordered, please enjoy it slowly; there's one more dish that will be ready soon, I'll call you in a moment."

Hu Xiaoyun placed the tray in her hand on the counter, a gentle smile on her face, and said to Zhao Yan and the others waiting for their meal by the counter.

Zhao Yan hadn't spoken yet when a burly man behind him came up.

This man looked even more sturdily built than Zhao Yan, with a full beard, and looked somewhat fierce.

Because there was a 'Xiong' character in his name, his nickname was Black Bear.

Black Bear came up, widened his eyes to look at the Lion's Head in the tray, then glared at the Stir-fried Lu Hao beside it, and immediately shouted somewhat exaggeratedly: "Tsk tsk tsk, A Yan, look, this is truly three portions of green and dripping, fresh and charming... grass?"

"Boss, are these three plates of grass you served us?"

Another burly man nicknamed Landmine frowned and came to the front of the tray, his tone full of straightforward doubt.

He was relatively thinner among the three, had a very straightforward personality, and didn't beat around the bush when speaking; he directly asked Lu Feng in the kitchen loudly.

Zhao Yan's reaction was different from the two of them; he didn't have so many scruples, tilted his head to look at the Lu Hao in the plate, and said with a look of interest: "I think this should be some kind of wild vegetable, but I haven't seen this kind of wild vegetable in our Jiangcheng."

Lu Feng in the kitchen had just put the cleaned chicken feet into the pressure cooker one by one; he had already heard the question from the counter side, but his hand movements didn't stop.

Until he carefully covered the pot lid, turned up the heat to start stewing, did he turn around to respond.

"This thing is called Lu Hao, a kind of wild vegetable from the Jinling area of Jiang Nan."

Lu Feng smiled, spoke to explain to the three people at the counter side, then paused for a moment, and added: "But people from the Jinling area call it Jinling Grass, so you saying it's grass doesn't seem wrong."

"Tsk, it really is grass?"

Hearing his words, Landmine's brow furrowed even tighter; he looked up at the price of Stir-fried Lu Hao on the wall, and his tone became somewhat doubtful: "Boss, I watched you stir-fry this dish just now; it seems you didn't put any seasoning in it, and you just casually stir-fried it a few times before serving it; such a simple dish, yet selling for 108 per portion, isn't that a bit...?"

Then he reached out and pointed at the Stir-fried Lu Hao in the plate: "Also, Boss, you only stir-fried it for a moment; this grass... oh no, this Lu Hao, is it stir-fried cooked? It wouldn't still be raw, would it?"

Indeed, the Lu Hao in the plate was excessively bright green, the leaves were all spread out, with not a trace of wilting after being stir-fried.

At the bottom of the white porcelain plate, besides the painted lively little fish, there wasn't a drop of soup/juice.

At first glance, this Stir-fried Lu Hao really looked just like it had been washed clean and not stir-fried at all.

No wonder Landmine doubted this plate of Lu Hao wasn't stir-fried cooked at all.

Although they worked out and often ate raw vegetables in fitness meals.

But since this dish was called Stir-fried Lu Hao, it should at least be stir-fried cooked before being served, right?

Landmine had eaten raw wild vegetables before, but that taste was somewhat not commendable.

Wild vegetables generally had a special taste; if seasoning was sprinkled and they were completely stir-fried cooked, it could be covered up.

But if it was raw wild vegetables, then forget it; he really couldn't bring himself to eat it.

Moreover, the price of this dish was several times more expensive than the fitness meals he usually ate; this was really not a good deal.