Free Web NovelChapter 551: Chapter 463: Shortcut or Strength—Wisdom vs. Skill?
"Knowing how to adapt, huh, these two girls are pretty good."
Old Chen wasn’t very familiar with these foreigners or Western cuisine, so after demonstrating how to make the Three Fresh Bean Curd, he kept busy preparing the quantities needed for the afternoon meals.
He had only heard a few times from Zhao Shun that foreigners generally like to be lazy and have a hard time thinking flexibly, basically, they’re rigid.
He wasn’t very impressed with the assessment process Lin Chen set up, thinking they’re all chefs with over a year of work experience; how dumb could they really be?
After watching for a little over ten minutes, he almost passed out from what he saw.
These people really had no brains, doing everything exactly as he had demonstrated without a single change.
Even the process of chopping vegetables was exactly the same, first stewing the meat, then chopping the bamboo shoots, and finally the mushrooms.
Given his experience, as a chef used to working in fly eateries and handling sudden situations, this was extremely uncomfortable for him to watch.
So he simply gave up watching.
Isn’t it just making a Three Fresh Bean Curd? Do we really need to do it step by step like a robot?
You should know that even with the same dish, each restaurant will have subtle differences in taste, and he had been looking forward to seeing subtle innovations from the Western chefs.
And this is what he got?
The water used to soak the mushrooms could definitely be added to the broth to stew together, and these people dumbly poured it all out.
The meat could totally be fried first before adding water to stew, but these people insisted on doing it just as he said—stew first and handle later—waiting a full half-hour.
It’s truly ridiculous!
Seeing the two female chefs break away from the main group to start frying the meat, Old Chen’s lips curled into a faint smile, and he felt much relieved.
"Uncomfortable, right?"
At some point, Zhao Shun appeared beside him, elbowing him in the waist.
"I told you, these foreigners have one-track minds. They can’t even handle giving change correctly, so don’t expect any miracles."
"On the contrary, that Black girl, because she hasn’t worked in a kitchen before, hasn’t formed a fixed mindset, so she’s quite adaptable."
"Yeah."
"Yeah, my ass, come on, let’s go check around the site. Anyway, with so many people here to assist, we’re in no hurry to chop ingredients. We’re going to be minor heads in the future, so there’s no need to do all the hard and tiring work ourselves!"
Seeing Old Chen just finished cutting a bamboo shoot, Zhao Shun snatched the kitchen knife from his hand, tossed it onto the cutting board, and pushed him to walk out, preparing to put on a show of inspecting the different chefs’ stations.
"This... isn’t very good, I..."
"Bullshit, I said follow me, you won’t go wrong!"
"Okay."
"Okay my ass... huh? Never mind then~"
After all, they couldn’t communicate with these foreigners, and even if the foreigners said something right to their faces, they couldn’t understand it, so they couldn’t give any instructions, they could only observe.
Their actions startled all the chefs, some who were just about to scoop out the meat quickly stopped what they were doing and pretended nothing had happened, and some were even worried, afraid that because they tried to prematurely scoop out the meat, it was attracting an inspection from the assessors.
Who would have thought that the two of them merely lingered for ten seconds at each station before promptly turning away without saying a word or making any sign?
"What’s going on?"
Some who were uncertain looked towards Lucas for help, but he just shrugged with a smile, spreading his hands as if to say he was just a translator and didn’t know anything else.
Chris and Lin were moving quickly; under the full heat, the diced fatty pork briskly rendered fat visibly to the eye, soon forming a thick layer at the bottom of the wok.
The initially white diced fat gradually turned to a yellowish-brown, and the aroma of pork in the air was becoming overwhelmingly rich.
"Whoa... this smells amazing!"
"I’m so hungry, suddenly feeling so hungry!"
The faces of the two or three waitresses standing nearby were full of longing, staring unblinkingly at the wok in front of Chris and Lin, wanting to take a closer look but not daring to step forward.
When the diced fatty pork had shrunk by more than half, the two ladies added the diced lean meat into the pot one after the other and turned up the heat.
After about four to five minutes of stir-frying, it was almost impossible to see any diced fatty pork left in the pot, replaced by an enticing golden-brown color of meat cubes and a thick layer of pork lard at the bottom.
Then, they poured the diced bamboo shoots and mushrooms they had previously cut into the pot, filled it with broth, and cranked up the heat to the maximum.
After accomplishing all of this, the two simultaneously let out a sigh of relief, exchanging a glance.
Chris gave a thumbs up, while Lin smiled sheepishly.
Only by this point did some begin to scoop meat from the boiling pots, a full seven or eight minutes behind them.
By the time all the chefs started frying the meat, the broth in the two women’s pots had already begun to reduce.
They added some seasoning to enhance the flavor, stirred it evenly, tasted it, then only needed to wait another two to three minutes for the juice and flavors to meld further to proceed to the most critical step.
Presentation.
Similarly, the strange actions of the two women drew attention across the board once again. Even the patrons watching the commotion were puzzled when they saw the two grabbing plates larger than their faces, thinking perhaps they were for serving food.
The progress of the two was almost perfectly synchronized. Knowing Lin had no kitchen experience, Chris deliberately started preparing first to draw some of the crowd’s attention.
She herself was nervous as hell, but with a perfect plan on hand, she became less nervous than at the start, regaining the confidence she had when at work.
Slowly pour a circle of batter along the edge of the pan, rotate the iron pan to let the batter spread sufficiently so it doesn’t solidify together and cause the crepe to be too thick.
Then pour in the pre-beaten egg mixture and repeat the rotation step.
Soon, she used her hand to flip over a golden egg crepe in front of everyone’s eyes.
Stealing a glance at Lin beside her, Chris found that she could actually keep up with her speed, and was increasingly surprised.
Is this the speed someone with no kitchen experience can have?
Just spreading the batter and egg crepe evenly is already difficult enough.
The reason she could complete it so quickly is mainly because her professional focus is different from others.
The position she applied for is baking, which means pastry chef, or dessert chef.
Although she could do cooking too, it’s much weaker compared to baking.
The step of spreading the batter is almost identical to making Crêpe and multi-layered cake crepes, which is actually the simplest step for her.
That’s why she was so unbelievably shocked that Lin could keep up with her speed.
No wonder she’s allowed to participate in the assessment without any kitchen experience, she’s a pure talent!!
When the two of them put in the glutinous rice and three-flavored cubes, the other chefs openly looked over to see how these two women would flip the pan.
All the previous steps were relatively easy, the hardest part is this step.
As everyone was looking forward to it, Chris was the first to take action. She shook the food in the pan a few times, held the pan handles steadily, and slid it to the center of a large plate.
She put down the pan, spread a layer of lard on the pan bottom to prevent sticking later.
Then she placed another plate over the food, flipped it with a swift motion of both hands.
"Heychyo!"
When the plate was opened, the three-flavored bean curd was already flipped.
With a bright and proud smile, Chris winked at Lin and casually poured it back into the pan to reheat.
Seeing Chris’s perfect success, Lin seemed greatly encouraged, and grabbed the pan handles right after to dump the bean curd onto the plate.
"Heychyo!"
When flipping, she seemed to shout out to cheer herself on.
Nervously, she opened the plate, revealing a complete golden egg crepe, with glutinous rice tightly wrapped inside, showing no signs of breaking apart.
"Success!!!"
The other seven chefs were stunned, mouths agape in disbelief.
"Can it really be done this way??"
"Isn’t this cheating?"
"Unfair!!"
"If they can do it like this, then I can too. This method is indeed simple, with a high success rate."
As if they’d found some hidden shortcut, the male chefs’ eyes shone brightly, intrigued by the techniques used by these two female chefs.
Though some smart ones quickly figured it out.
"They’re women, with less strength, not being able to flip is quite normal. Using this compromise technique probably won’t get any complaints."
"If I were to use this method, my assessment score would surely be lowered, wouldn’t it?"
Frankly speaking, this method is simple, but it also shamelessly lowers the difficulty of making it.
The chef surely wouldn’t have overlooked this, they might just want to see how they would choose.
If I were the chef, I’d definitely prefer to hire someone with better skills and more courage to face challenges.
A clear divide quickly emerged between those who hesitated and those who took action.
The chefs who chose to take the easy way copied Chris and Lin’s actions, heading into the dining area to get two plates.
While a few chefs remained unmoved, after much hesitation, they decided to challenge themselves.
If they gave up at every difficulty, their cooking skills would never improve.
If they know flipping is their weakness and don’t practice, they’ll face similar challenges in future jobs elsewhere.
No difference.
"I’m done!"
Chris finished first, followed by Lin. The two stood there, raising their arms and shouting towards Lucas.
Hearing the shout, Old Chen immediately put down the knife in his hand and quickly walked over to Chris to closely observe the three-flavored bean curd on the plate.
It was the first time in his life seeing a foreigner make the three-flavored bean curd, and it looked decent. He couldn’t help but give a few more glances at this blonde chef, raising his thumb in approval.
But it’s not over yet, good shape doesn’t mean good taste.
Old Chen reached for the knife on the counter, cut a small piece of the bean curd, and put it in his mouth.
