Free Web NovelChapter 554: Chapter 466: Hidden Brute Strength Shocks the Audience
When living abroad, there are no entertainment activities outside of work. Whenever they have a bit of time, foreigners would run to the gym to work out, spending their excess energy.
Back when I was working in the kitchen at God’s Kiss, the restaurant often organized team building activities.
It wasn’t about going out to have fun, but about going to the gym.
Lin Chen hadn’t learned the language well at that time and didn’t understand what the word "workout" meant. He thought it was about working outside, and signed up with the intention of improving his social skills.
When he arrived at the place, he realized... it was a gym!
Then he understood that it meant exercising.
Thanks to the exercise, he quickly improved his physical fitness back then, though he felt like he was in terrible pain all over his body every day.
After getting into the deadlift position, Lin Chen tightened his arms hard, tensing his back muscles, linking his back, waist, abdomen, buttocks, and legs into a coordinated action, with multiple large muscle groups working simultaneously.
His ten fingers gripped the pot handle tightly, teeth clenched, and exerted a burst of strength.
"Hey!!"
The next second, the whole big pot was lifted directly over his head.
He used so much force that he almost lost control, but fortunately, he took a step back just in time to regain his balance.
"?"
Slowly putting down the iron pot, Lin Chen looked at the two with a puzzled expression.
Is that it?
"......"
"......"
Zhao Shun and Old Chen’s mouths were wide open, almost wide enough to fit a whole fist, their faces full of disbelief.
When they lifted it, it felt like their waists were about to break, so how could he do it so effortlessly?
Lin Chen blinked and gave his wrist a sharp flick.
The liquid inside the pot slid up into the air along the pot’s edge, forming a wave-like shape before settling back into the pot steadily.
After flipping it more than a dozen times, Lin Chen felt a bit bored and casually poured out the water from the pot.
"It’s not that heavy, you two shouldn’t have trouble with it. Maybe you need to learn a bit about the technique of exerting force."
"How about I take you both to the gym when you have time? That stuff is actually quite useful."
"The gym??"
Zhao Shun shook his head like a rattle, "No way, the work is already exhausting enough. Where do we find the energy and time to hit the gym!"
"Don’t worry," Lin Chen said, pointing his thumb behind him, "I’ve thought it through in the office earlier. The people in this group are of pretty good quality, except maybe they’re a bit straightforward, but that’s not much of an issue."
"Thinking is the kind of thing that can be cultivated over time as we work together."
"As long as they have good character and a certain resilience, there’s no issue keeping them all."
"And the handsome men and beautiful women that Dais hired too."
On this note, Lin Chen seemed very confident.
"Our restaurant’s trial operation has been long enough; it’s about time we open to the public. It’s a great chance to open those tightly shut doors with the extra manpower we’ve hired, which will help us earn more money and reputation."
"With so many employees, the workload will definitely increase significantly, and we might even be able to increase the food supply fivefold, or maybe even tenfold."
"With them around, do you two still have to worry about working late into the night?"
"What the heck?"
Zhao Shun slapped his forehead, "That makes sense!"
Originally, he thought that working as hard as before would last at least several months to over half a year, considering that’s how long probation periods are in domestic firms.
Who would have thought that in just a few days, not only would the conditions improve, but he might even get himself a small leadership position.
He felt like he’d never had such good luck in his entire life!
The most important thing is that the foreign girls working here are indeed terrific, and even from their Asian aesthetic perspective, it’s hard to find fault with them.
They’re the typical Western beauties you’d see in movies, with distinct features and an exotic charm.
He had never worked in an environment with so many beautiful women, and just thinking about being surrounded by these Western women every day made Zhao Shun’s young heart race uncontrollably.
"I’ll definitely work out hard!"
He said, deliberately raising his arm to show off his biceps.
Though not big, it was well-defined, showing that his years of kneading dough had paid off.
Compared to that, Old Chen seemed much more composed, even slightly worried.
He wasn’t interested in foreign women, with a wife and kids waiting for him to send money back home.
"Boss, if the work hours are reduced, what about the salary..."
Lin Chen smiled and patted his shoulder hard, "In urgent need of money, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Don’t worry, the overtime pay for these past few days won’t be short, and if you want to volunteer for overtime in the future, I won’t stop you either."
"Aside from our normal provision of three meals a day, oh wait, actually it’s two meals, I also plan to set up some retail freezers, where we can sell some of our own stuff."
"Like garlic sauce, or our Great Xia bread sandwiches and such."
"If you want to make money, there are plenty of opportunities here!"
Old Chen nodded vigorously, his eyes slightly red.
"Mm!"
"Rest assured, boss, I’ll definitely work hard!"
After the formalities, Lin Chen leaned in with a cheeky smile and whispered, "Plus, we’re earning the foreigners’ money. Their salaries are high, their welfare’s good, and they don’t really save money. They just live paycheck to paycheck."
"After we earn the money, we save it in a domestic account. Whether it’s for family use or for our future selves, it’s all that."
He gave a thumbs-up and shook it.
"After all, the exchange rate is here, right?"
"The more foreign money we earn, it’s like sucking their blood to strengthen our country, sort of a patriotic glory!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person, boss."
Zhao Shun curled his lips with a mischievous grin, also giving a thumbs-up, "Earn their damn money!"
The three felt a rush of excitement for a few seconds, then quickly calmed down.
"Since we can’t flip these pans, let’s go back and honestly use the wok."
"No need."
Lin Chen waved his hand grandly, "I’ll flip!"
"We do it together. There are so many pots here, starting at the same time is definitely faster than using a wok."
"With three people, each just needs to handle two pots at once. I’ll take a few seconds to flip them for you."
Although these stoves mimic the domestic rural style, they actually have added elements.
Traditional big pots couldn’t control the heat, relying solely on the amount of firewood.
In this era, no way would we use such outdated techniques.
Lin Chen had the construction team install fully automatic bellows in each stove and a cover similar to the chimneys on copper pots, which are just two iron plates.
To adjust the heat, just change the size of the opening between the iron plates.
Even if the plates are fully closed, fresh air continues to enter the stove due to the bellows, preventing the flame from going out.
As long as the food doesn’t directly touch the flame, it just keeps warm without worrying about it burning.
With the scale of these customers lining up, each pot will be emptied in less than a minute, so there’s no worry there.
"Good idea, let’s go get the ingredients!"
Lin Chen didn’t idle either and explained the situation to the other chefs, telling them to focus first on prepping the ingredients needed, then start making the Three Fresh Tofu Skins.
He said nothing about using plates to cheat, as if he was completely unaware.
In Lin Chen’s view, thinking of other methods is good since the final aim is just to complete the dish.
As long as it doesn’t extend the guests’ waiting time, any method works.
Panfrying just adds a flair to impress guests, without much significance.
It doesn’t really save time; perhaps just a few seconds. A mistake could ruin the food’s appearance, outweighing the benefits.
He doesn’t prefer these chefs, who can’t panflip, to try it themselves. He let Old Chen demonstrate flipping just to test their minds.
Including this morning’s leek pie, tomorrow’s pickled fish, and desserts, he chose these dishes to test the chefs’ skills.
The most important thing is adaptability while others are secondary.
The watching tourists, seeing the chefs preparing to cook, hurriedly ran toward the restaurant entrance.
The new chefs saw Chef Lin say nothing, only urging them to cut vegetables quickly. They felt relieved but also a bit anxious.
Though chef wasn’t on site earlier, it doesn’t mean he’s unaware of the situation here.
Silence doesn’t mean they’ve passed; he could hold them accountable later.
"Forget it, since the standards are unclear, let’s work first, earn the money then talk."
Setting aside other things, the salary here is quite high.
They chose to work here mainly for the environment, secondly for the resume boost, and lastly for the salary.
When everyone started prepping ingredients, apart from pork belly, beef was added as an option.
Even though pork belly’s Three Fresh Cubes aren’t greasy, some might dislike the greasy taste or due to beliefs cannot eat pork.
At least preparing two meat types is a must.
Beef Three Fresh Cubes needn’t go through the boil-then-fry step; just dice and fry, using the kitchen’s beef broth instead of stock, saving a lot of time.
"Splash"
With some enticing sounds, the chefs instinctively looked up, only to find all massive stoves had been ignited. The three head chefs were pouring batter into the iron pots.
"Really using such large pots??"
They’d seen Lin Chen flipping pots earlier, surprised they went straight to cooking.
The weight of those pots must be at least over ten kilograms, right?
Adding food, surely thirty to forty kilograms.
Being able to flip such heavy pots continuously?
Is he even human??
