Free Web NovelChapter 550: Chapter 462: Quick Thinking—A New Brain Works Wonders
The woman flicked the water droplets off her hands, grabbed a few sheets of paper from the side and dried her hands, then turned around with a smile and stretched her hand out.
"My name is Chris, thank you so much for earlier. I was really troubled and almost couldn’t hold it in!"
"No, no problem, I happened to need to go too."
Lin obviously didn’t expect the woman to initiate a conversation with her and nervously waved her hands, not daring to look directly at her.
"I... my name is..."
"Lin! Right? You were introduced by the chef this morning, my memory isn’t bad, right~"
Chris smiled and handed Lin a few more sheets of paper, "Quickly dry yourself, we don’t have much time to chat, we’ve got to rush back to cook."
"Yes, thank you."
"Speaking of which, do you really have no experience related to the kitchen?"
Chris asked curiously, "You were so skilled wrapping dumplings this morning, but I saw you cutting vegetables just now and you looked unfamiliar, it’s so strange."
Lin shook her head, "No, I just occasionally cook for fun at home. I can wrap dumplings because yesterday’s breakfast was dumplings, I started yesterday morning."
"So that’s how it is." Chris nodded in understanding, but did not change her attitude towards Lin.
"Then how did you get through the selection? What position did you apply for?"
"I... My brother Daniel delivers goods to the restaurant, and it so happens that I’m interested in cooking, so the chef let me come and try it out, saying if I do well he will consider hiring me."
Lin had no intention of lying, and honestly revealed the situation.
But she’s not foolish, she knows to clarify that she is currently just being assessed, and not already having received special treatment.
"I see, then you really need to practice more, kitchen work relies entirely on regular accumulation, there are no shortcuts."
"But you’re still very impressive, you did so well in just one day, I thought you were a pastry chef from a big restaurant this morning!"
"Th-thank you! I will work hard!"
"Mm," Chris peeked outside a few times, "Shouldn’t we go out now? It’s not good to be away for too long during an assessment, right?"
"It’s okay, as long as the final dish turns out well, the chef and the others are all very nice."
"We still need to make it successful though!"
Speaking of this, Chris couldn’t help but sigh heavily, "That iron pot is so hard for me to lift with both hands, how could I possibly toss food up like the Head Chef does?"
This was also a problem that Lin needed to consider.
But she already had an idea beforehand, she just wasn’t sure if it would work.
As Chris was here and she was an experienced person, Lin decided to ask her opinion.
"I thought of a method, which is to prepare two big plates, dump the food out, cover it with the other plate, flip it over, and put it back into the pot. What do you think?"
"?!"
At first, Chris didn’t think anything of it, but once she visualized the scene described by Lin in her mind, she was stunned, face lit with excitement, and grabbed her arm.
"Genius!"
"Lin, you are simply a genius!!"
"This method will definitely work!"
"But there’s still a problem," Lin was still worried, "Doesn’t this count as cheating?"
"If the chef’s assessment includes the step of tossing the pot, then we’ll lose points for doing this, right?"
"Uh... that’s true."
Chris pondered for a moment but quickly gave up on thinking further, irritably running her fingers through her blonde hair, waving her hand.
"Forget it!"
"Let it lose points if it must, physical strength isn’t our forte."
"As long as we can complete the food on time, it doesn’t matter how it’s done!"
"Since you said the chef is a nice person, he shouldn’t discriminate in this aspect, after all, Great Xia people have a good reputation internationally."
The two didn’t discuss for long at the restroom entrance, quickly walking back out side by side.
As they walked back to their spots, they felt many eyes from all directions landing on them, the tension instantly rising again from within.
They exchanged a glance, Lin saw a hint of encouragement in Chris’s eyes and her confidence surged.
Standing by the table, she looked at the prepared ingredients and the pot with large simmering pork belly, suddenly coming up with a bold idea.
Why do these chunks of meat need to be boiled for half an hour?
Could it work if boiled for twenty minutes?
What about fifteen minutes?
Anyway, the meat will be chopped and stir-fried with broth later, thinking from another angle, the length of stewing time doesn’t seem to affect the overall flavor.
At most, the insufficient stewing time would result in more broth, so it would need to simmer longer when reducing.
This would offset itself, essentially leaving the same result.
Thinking this, she couldn’t care much, and directly took the pork belly out of the pot, laying it on the cutting board to cool.
She didn’t turn off the stove but increased the heat to the maximum, starting the reduction early.
Lin’s thoughts were simple: while the meat cools in these few minutes, there’s no point in being idle, the stove should keep running to save time to the fullest extent.
Whether it’s cooked early or late, it just needs to keep cooking.
Chris, who had been watching her, seemed to have realized something too and hurriedly pulled the meat from the pot.
It’s hot, but not impossible to cut.
Chris cleverly took a fork from her shoulder pocket with her left hand to hold the meat steady instead of using her fingers, then swiftly sliced through the connective tissue between fat and lean meat with a sharp chef’s knife.
The professional kitchen knives are specially sharpened every few days, and apart from the chef’s personal knives, all other kinds of knives can be handed over to the person responsible for maintenance; no need to do it oneself.
Thus, these kitchen knives are always in an extremely sharp state, sharp enough to cut through ingredients easily with just a slight draw, without exerting much effort.
Just like that perpetually sharp butcher’s knife.
Even though the fatty part feels great to slice, breaking like tofu with just a stroke, Chris’s brows remain tightly furrowed.
She can’t imagine how using so much fat in a dish will make it taste so greasy, and how it could possibly be delicious.
Yet during the taste test earlier, she didn’t detect even the slightest bit of greasiness; even the crispy chunks of fat weren’t greasy, which is quite magical and utterly baffling.
As long as the taste doesn’t have a fatty feel, most Westerners can accept eating fat, otherwise, bacon, which is made from pork belly, wouldn’t be a classic ingredient.
In other words, crispy bacon is essentially no different from cracklings.
While observing Lin, Lin was also observing her.
Lin’s quick thinking might be sharp, but she still lacked kitchen experience; seeing Chris use a fork to hold the meat instead of her hand, she tried to imitate, fetching a fork.
And Chris’s early move to cut the meat was noticed by another chef nearby.
The man gave a casual glance, checked the time, and shook his head dismissively.
"A woman with no sense of time, not even enough cooking time for the meat, yet she’s taken it out to cut?"
In his mind, Chris had already lost the qualification to compete with him.
Apart from him, the other six chefs also completed the cutting and prep work for their ingredients, waiting quietly for the timer, with a stance of not taking the meat out until the thirty-minute mark.
But without taking it out, there’s not much to do temporarily, leaving them idly standing there.
To avoid looking idle, all of them began to pretend to be busy.
Some cracked eggs, pressed glutinous rice, kept stirring mushroom and bamboo shoots, or flipped pork belly, all just for show.
"Sizzle!"
Suddenly.
The familiar sound of fat sizzling resounded from the left side, prompting everyone to look in that direction.
The blonde chef was casually placing a metal basin on the table, a spatula in her hand tirelessly stirring in the wok, as a subtle meat aroma began to fill the air.
"She’s already started cooking the meat?"
"I think we all started cooking the meat at the same time, my timer just reached twenty-two minutes, yet she’s already sautéing."
"In rushed situations, shortening the stewing time is feasible, but there’s no hurry now, wouldn’t taking it out early lead to insufficient broth concentration?"
"The meal doesn’t open until 11, even if prep finishes early, there’s over an hour from now, what’s the rush?"
Chris paid no mind to others’ discussions, fully focusing on sautéing the fat pieces in the wok, fearing they might burn if she’s not careful.
She had never specialized in cooking fat before, unsure of what might occur during the process, and didn’t dare let her mind wander.
As she kept sautéing, Lin also started cooking her diced fatty pieces.
"Sssss——"
"What?!"
"Another one!"
"What’s up with both of them, have they gone crazy?"
"That black girl has such deep experience in making dumplings, her way must have a reason, does advancing to the next step early not impact the final product’s taste?"
Chris’s actions didn’t attract much notice at first, but once Lin joined in sautéing, the others’ convictions gradually began to waver.
"Maybe I’ll wait another three minutes, just three, make it twenty-five."
"In theory, slower stewing effects tend to show, at least in ten-minute increments, a few minutes less doesn’t seem to make much difference?"
"I remember beef broth is done in a similar way, first sautéing the meat and vegetables then adding water to stew, taking the meat out early, chopping and sautéing, then adding broth doesn’t seem much different?"
Amidst their uncertainty, Old Chen glanced at the scene during a spare moment, his knife maintaining a steady ’da-da-da’ rhythm.
