Free Web NovelChapter 539: Chapter 451: A Prime Opportunity to Ride the Hype, Lin’s Resolve
While waiting for the dumplings to be ready, Rovena didn’t idly stand by. Instead, she quickly pushed a cart to the kitchen and started transporting the garlic sauce.
This time, Lin Chen prepared much more garlic sauce than he did on Monday, because he discovered he could have the supplier pre-chop the garlic cloves and send them over.
The supplier here offers many services, including peeling ingredients, and even chopping, dicing, and mashing them.
After all, machines are used for processing, so there’s an extra service fee per bag.
Lin Chen mainly doesn’t make money from this garlic sauce; spending a few dozen euros to save more than an hour and a lot of manpower is something only a fool would do themselves.
As long as the garlic sauce is made and provided to the port, it can earn a little profit, improve guest satisfaction, and increase the restaurant’s reputation. Why not?
Ten minutes later.
Rovena proudly pushed the cart full of garlic sauce past the waiting diners, not forgetting to shout a few words loudly.
"Attention everyone!"
"The perfect companion for seafood made by Chef Lin’s team, garlic sauce, will be available on the port fishing boats!"
"Guests who want to experience catching seafood by hand and cooking delicious dishes on-site are welcome to come and play!"
"Interested guests should go online and search for the port phone number to book in advance~"
Bottles of golden garlic sauce glittered in glass bottles under the morning sunlight, sparkling with a tempting sheen.
The golden and silver garlic was also dotted with a few red chili rings, making one’s mouth water just by looking.
"Garlic sauce?"
"Is this the garlic sauce used in the hottest baked oyster video online?"
"It definitely is!"
"This method is great—catching seafood at sea and then grilling it on-site with garlic sauce. It’s no different from eating what Chef Lin made himself, right?"
"In the video, it seems the baked oysters only have a layer of garlic sauce on them, without any other ingredients added."
"I’m not doing anything anyway; I’m going to call now to make a reservation. Honey, do you want to dive or fish?"
Seeing tourists instantly gather in pairs and trios to discuss the garlic sauce on the cart, with great interest, Rovena’s smile grew even wider.
Her steps slowed, leisurely heading towards the nearby parking lot, letting more guests have a chance to see her while she repeatedly uttered similar promotional phrases.
Not only the diners around the food cart, but even the guests lined up at the restaurant entrance soon noticed her.
When Rovena returned to her car and began loading boxes of garlic sauce into it, she could already predict that the afternoon’s sales would be unprecedentedly booming.
Hidden among boxes of garlic sauce were also a box of fried dumplings and steamed dumplings.
Not many, just twelve of each preparation, equivalent to eight of each flavor, half fried and half steamed.
Anyway, the exact volume made in the kitchen is unknown to the guests; they just make them and move them upfront to sell, and intercepting a bit won’t hurt.
Blocking the view of countless guests with her body, she hid the box of dumplings in her arms and quickly jumped back into the car, driving away.
After driving a few hundred meters, she stopped by a vacant roadside, giggling while clutching the still hot box of dumplings, first inhaling the rich aroma, swallowing all the flooding saliva.
"Delicious!"
"So delicious!"
"How can this vegetable oil be so fragrant, why isn’t it sold in the supermarkets here?"
His mom is a vegetarian. Every time she smells the aroma of butter, she mutters to herself, wondering why there isn’t a vegetable oil that emits a strong aroma like butter when cooking, making vegetarian dishes tastier.
Now he finally found such a strong-smelling oil!
"Great Xia Supermarket, right? What’s it called... Shun... Shun... Oh, never mind, I’ll look it up online later."
Right now, he doesn’t have any spare time to think; his mind is filled with the tantalizing dumplings in front of him, quickly picking one to shove into his mouth.
"Crunch!"
Following the crispy sound, hot juice bursts out, but fortunately, after the drive, it’s not scalding anymore, just right.
"Damn!"
"Are these the legendary dumplings of Great Xia?"
"They’re too delicious!!"
"Is the pale yellow grain inside baby bamboo that pandas eat?"
"My mom will definitely like this flavor, it’s fantastic; I’ll have to check at the Great Xia Supermarket to see if they sell it!"
After stuffing several dumplings into his mouth, Rovena quickly tasted the delicious mix of mushrooms and bamboo shoots, a new vegetarian combination he’s never tasted before.
He was amazed and even recorded a video to send to his mom.
Unfortunately, he didn’t receive a reply after finishing all the dumplings in the box.
"At this time, should be at work, right?"
"Never mind, she’ll see it later."
Recalling many guests saying they would call to make reservations, he didn’t hesitate anymore and started the engine again, driving towards the harbor.
Just as Rovena left, Lin pushed a cart piled with trays full of fried dumplings out from the back kitchen, with two stacks of steamers, five or six layers high, on the lowest tray.
As soon as she stepped out, the unusual combination immediately caught the attention of the dining guests.
"Could these be the steamed and fried dumplings that Chef Lin is selling?"
"Is there still a chef cooking in the back kitchen?"
"I recall there were only a few people in Chef Lin’s team, who is this black girl, I didn’t see her when I came for lunch yesterday."
"Maybe she is a new employee?"
Lin almost instantly sensed countless eyes on her, making her freeze and unsure of what to do next. Her small hands tightly gripped the metal frame of the cart, hesitant to move forward.
But the wafts of aroma drifting to her nose constantly reminded her that Chef Lin was waiting for her.
If she delayed too long out of fear, causing the dumplings to cool and become unsellable, it would not only disappoint Chef Lin and the others but might also lead to customer complaints.
Most importantly, she didn’t know if the cooled dumplings could be reheated for sale. If not, it would mean she wasted them all.
She would have to compensate a lot of money, right?
The thought of having to pay compensation somehow conjured up a burst of courage from nowhere.
She lowered her head, took a deep breath, and forced herself to step toward the side door.
As she began to move, the aroma of the fried dumplings gradually spread.
"Hmm... These smell delicious?"
"Are all those on top fried dumplings? They don’t look like the ones I’ve had at other restaurants."
"They’re actually golden brown?!"
"I should’ve gotten in line to try some; they look really good."
These diners were the first to enter the restaurant for a meal, enjoying life leisurely after being half full, and were suddenly tempted by the aroma of fried dumplings, making them inexplicably crave and somewhat regretful.
They initially thought the taste of dumplings in Asia was similar, which led them to choose a buffet, only to realize now that these dumplings were completely different from the ones they had before!
But now they couldn’t line up to buy them; not to mention they had already spent on the buffet, leaving would mean giving up, and the crowd outside was enough to dissuade them from the idea.
Even if it were their turn, the earliest would be more than an hour later, right?
By then, it would already be nine o’clock, and they’d only be lucky enough to get some dumplings if fortune smiled upon them; otherwise, they’d come away empty-handed.
Rather than take the risk, it’s more realistic to just enjoy the buffet.
"No way, next time I’m definitely lining up every day!"
"Such a loss, with a hotel reservation so hard to come by, what was I thinking running over to eat buffet?"
The diners watched helplessly as Lin pushed the cart full of delicacies away, looking back at the food on their plates, suddenly feeling it was a bit tasteless.
It seemed like the rich aroma of oil lingering in the air had completely overshadowed the buttery smell of the scrambled eggs.
Lin quickly pushed the cart to the serving window, and just as she was about to speak, she once again felt even more gazes converge on her, making her whole demeanor become extremely stiff.
She steeled her nerves, turned her back to the customers, and started placing tray after tray of dumplings on the table.
"So many??"
Lin Chen was dumbfounded, unable to believe that with just two head chefs and Lin, they had managed to wrap nearly a few hundred dumplings in less than an hour.
Even though Lin was a novice, her speed was still limited. It was unrealistic to rely on the two head chefs to produce so many dumplings in such a short time.
Could it be that Lin’s dumpling-wrapping speed was nearly comparable to the two head chefs?
Aside from that possibility, he couldn’t think of any other explanation.
"How do you feel so far?"
Seeing Lin seem a little nervous, and her movements notably stiff, he initiated some conversation to alleviate her tension.
"Pre...pretty good."
Lin shuddered, glanced up at him, and quickly looked down again.
"It’s just that I’m not used to the customers’ gaze yet."
"That’s normal; it happens to everyone at first. You’ll get used to it, just ignore them and focus on your work."
"Of course, only chefs can do that; if you’re a waitress, you can’t ignore the customers’ presence, ha."
"Chef."
Lin placed the last tray of fried dumplings on the table in front of Elsa, then moved the steamers from below two at a time, raising her head once more with a serious look towards Lin Chen.
"I’ve thought it over; the waitress job really isn’t for me. I can’t face the customers’ gaze; working in the back kitchen suits me better."
"I also find wrapping dumplings quite fun, and watching Chef and the others fry dumplings always gives me an urge to try it myself."
She paused for a moment and took a deep breath.
"May I please stay and work here?"
