Chapter 764: Chapter 763: Losing a Little Fan (Three-in-One 6800 Words) Chapter 764: Chapter 763: Losing a Little Fan (Three-in-One 6800 Words) Zhang Guanghang was unwilling to participate in the competition, which directly led to Jiang Feng being unable to find a fourth contestant.
There were many chefs at Taifeng Building, but finding four competent ones who wouldn’t drag the team down, particularly not Jiang Feng and Sun Maochai, was difficult.
Zhang Guanghang had always been the best choice and the presumptive contestant, but this guaranteed player withdrew, for reasons unknown.
As a result, Jiang Feng skipped the afternoon practice session and went to the teahouse to discuss with the two Sirs and Sun Maochai who to select as the fourth contestant for the entire afternoon.
Ji Xue wasn’t suitable. Her professional skills were passable, and her cooking level was OK, but Ji Xue was classically trained and only excelled in making Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon.
Bear in mind, she didn’t even have ten dishes on Taifeng Building’s current menu; how could she possibly propose ten dishes for the show’s crew to draw from during the competition?
Sun Jikai wasn’t quite right either. He had a variety of dishes—more than ten, indeed twenty—but while plentiful, the quality was lacking.
Dong Shi and Dong Li were also not suitable. The two brothers were fine together, but not on their own. Master Wang was quickly dismissed, and Jiang Weisheng was even more out of the question, as he wasn’t considered from the start.
After discussing for nearly half an hour, everyone unanimously felt that Qiu Fu was a good choice.
Qiu Fu was a disciple of Sun Guanyun and had once been the head chef of Jubao Building. His managerial skills were lacking, but his business acumen was strong, and his culinary skills were exquisite; he was the kind of honest person who worked diligently without seeking attention.
If he were to compete, he would undoubtedly be a huge asset to Taifeng Building.
It so happened that Qiu Fu wasn’t resting today, and when Jiang Feng called him and found out he was in Taifeng Building and had not left, he immediately went there.
The afternoon was their break time, and a few waiters were sitting together in the lobby, chatting and playing with their phones. They smiled and greeted Jiang Feng as he arrived, and he nodded back at them, striding towards the kitchen.
Only Qiu Fu and Sun Jikai were in the kitchen, with Qiu Fu instructing Sun Jikai on cooking, which seemed to be a braised dish.
“The abalone just needs to be scored in a cross pattern, and you need to cut the bamboo shoots even finer, this…” Qiu Fu was earnestly explaining, completely unaware of Jiang Feng’s arrival, and even Sun Jikai hadn’t noticed.
“Master Qiu.”
Only then did Qiu Fu notice Jiang Feng had already walked up behind him, “Feng, you’re here. What’s the matter?”
Jiang Feng, “… There’s something I wanted to discuss with you.”
Qiu Fu assumed an attentive posture as if ready to listen.
“About the invitation from Chef Arno to participate in a reality show a while back, you’ve heard about it, right?” Jiang Feng asked, proceeding only after seeing Qiu Fu nod, “Here’s the thing, Chef Arno sent me the competition format at noon. I looked at it, and think it’s quite good—no big issues, just one thing.”
Qiu Fu: ?
“We’re short of one person; we need to send four contestants. So far, from our side, there’s me, Master Sun, and Wu Minqi. Zhang…he might have something and can’t participate. I just discussed it with Master Sun, and we think you’re the most suitable. It won’t take long, roughly three to four months. For a month and a half it won’t affect normal life at all, it’s just a little more troublesome afterward.”
Jiang Feng was about to explain the detailed competition rules to Qiu Fu when Qiu Fu started waving his hands, his face full of refusal.
“No, no, I can’t do it. I can’t join that kind of show. Reality shows must have cameras right in your face, right? I can’t do it. I can’t face the camera.”
“You can’t face the camera?” Jiang Feng was confused. This was a new reason to refuse participation.
“It’s like this. More than twenty years ago, almost thirty now, I also participated in a cooking competition, overseas in Europe,” Qiu Fu explained, “It wasn’t a particularly big competition, and the contestants weren’t particularly strong, but I did pretty well, even made it to the semi-finals. Then…”
Qiu Fu’s face showed difficulty, but he continued, “I didn’t expect the competition to be so formal. The semi-finals even had a cameraman filming. They weren’t close, just filming from a distance, but I felt uncomfortable with someone filming me. As a result, my chopping was off during the cooking, the seasoning was off, even the fire control was wrong, and the sweet and sour pork I made tasted like meat just mixed with sauce.”
“At that time, I thought it was because I was inexperienced, the first time seeing such a competition, and the presence of the camera made me nervous. But then I entered another competition, also with cameras recording, and it was the same—I can’t do it. Whenever I see that thing, I get nervous and make mistakes.”
Jiang Feng: …
You wouldn’t think it, but it turns out you have a pretty big fear of cameras.
With Qiu Fu having said as much, it was clear he couldn’t participate in a reality show. From a distance, a camera alone made him so nervous that his performance was affected. If he were in a reality show with a cameraman following and filming his face, he probably wouldn’t be able to tell salt from sugar.
Just as Jiang Feng was about to return to the teahouse to continue discussions with Sun Maochai and see if they could find another suitable contestant, Sun Jikai, who had been as silent as a part of the backdrop the whole time, suddenly spoke up.
“Can I do it?”
“Huh?” Jiang Feng was surprised.
You must know, Sun Jikai was extremely low profile lately.
How low profile? To the extent that before Jiang Feng started learning dishes at Yonghe House, even though the kitchen only had him and Sun Jikai practicing dishes every afternoon, whenever anyone spoke of who was practicing in the kitchen in the afternoon, the immediate thought was of Jiang Feng, with no second guess.
So unassuming as to be nearly invisible.
Once outstanding and exuding the vibe of a rich third-generation, the wealthy Mr. Sun of old days, who wore a middle-school mentality like a badge of honor, was now as nondescript as a common office worker. Though wealthier than before, he now seemed more ordinary than ever.
The current Sun Jikai seemed more like a robot programmed to repeat cooking routines, his daily life monotonous and dull. He rarely used his phone, didn’t watch TV dramas, didn’t go shopping, didn’t hike, didn’t attend concerts, didn’t view art galleries, and wasn’t even seen meeting Ji Yue at the barbecue stall in the evening.
Keep in mind, it was the height of summer, August, and the barbecue stands were devoid of Mr. Sun’s presence.
Nowadays, Sun Jikai would arrive at the kitchen early to chop vegetables. Once, when Jiang Feng visited Sun Jikai’s house late at night to borrow vinegar, he stumbled upon a refrigerator filled with varied dishes reminiscent of his great-aunt’s. He found out that Sun Jikai would practice cooking for one to two hours after getting home from work, without any leisure activities, just bathing and going to bed.
“`
His mechanical practice was different from Jiang Feng’s. Jiang Feng’s practice was like playing a game—fighting minor monsters to gain experience with a clear goal: to level up and fight bosses, which made everyone think that Jiang Feng, who had been out of character lately, was actively striving for improvement.
Sun Jikai practiced in a subtle and pervasive way, as if cooking had become an integral part of his daily routine, as if his life was meant to be this way—getting up early to chop vegetables and staying up late to practice cooking.
Jiang Feng felt Sun Jikai was becoming more and more like Gu Li, lacking presence, silent, but always working hard in an unobtrusive way.
It came as a surprise to Jiang Feng when Sun Jikai proactively offered to compete.
Qiu Fu, on the other hand, was very supportive and agreed wholeheartedly, “Yes, Jikai is more suitable than me. He’s so natural in front of the camera, not nervous at all during interviews.”
If Qiu Fu didn’t participate, Sun Jikai was indeed the best choice. Although his professional skills weren’t outstanding, he was very well-rounded.
What was most crucial was his speed in cooking.
“Okay,” Jiang Feng agreed immediately.
In fact, just now when he had discussed it with Sun Maochai, Sun Maochai had mentioned that the four contestants didn’t necessarily all need to have exceptionally strong professional skills. It was very difficult for a normal restaurant to find four chefs with such strong skills; having two was already very impressive.
The ideal setup would be two head chefs and two sous-chefs, with two taking the lead and two providing support. If they wanted to win first place, they had to have such a configuration. The early rounds of scoring weren’t worrisome; with Jiang Feng and Sun Maochai’s shining reputations standing tall in Taifeng Building, sales would undoubtedly be solid.
Sun Maochai felt that the key to deciding the top four wasn’t the general competition but the weekly mini tests that the production team hadn’t specified in detail.
Sun Maochai was a bit surprised by how readily Jiang Feng agreed; he had a rough idea who was better between himself and Qiu Fu.
“Don’t we need to run a test?” Even Sun Jikai felt that such a serious matter deserved careful consideration.
“A test?” Jiang Feng was taken aback, “How would we test? I know your level.”
“Are you free this afternoon? If you are, stick around for a while longer. I’m going to make Eight Treasures Seafood Soup this afternoon. Try it when it’s done,” Sun Jikai suggested.
Had it been two weeks earlier, Jiang Feng would certainly have declined, needing to return to Yonghe House to learn new dishes and receive guidance from Peng Changping. But times had changed. After taking in Zhou Shi’s cat, Peng Changping had forgotten his apprentice Jiang Feng, and his teaching method had become one of loose and free-range instruction; it didn’t really matter whether Jiang Feng went in the afternoon or not.
Today, Jiang Feng hadn’t even seen Peng Changping yet.
“Sure, just let me send a message…” Jiang Feng was about to take out his phone to message Zhou Shi, asking him to tell Peng Changping that he might be delayed at Taifeng Building and would only come over in the evening, when he saw the message from Zhou Shi.
Peng Changping was busy this afternoon and might not come over in the evening either; they were to manage on their own.
Jiang Feng: …
“I’m quite free today, so continue making the soup while I go make thirty dumplings.”
There was nothing to do, so making some pure meat dumplings would benefit the art school students.
Sun Jikai continued to work on the soup while Qiu Fu supervised, and Jiang Feng happily began making dumplings with the ingredients he found.
Thirty dumplings, including mincing and seasoning the filling, could be made in a matter of minutes. After making the dumplings, Jiang Feng, with nothing else to do and not wanting to be idle while Sun Jikai was still busy (especially since he hadn’t eaten braised pork that day and was not especially motivated), decided to make porridge.
It had been some time since he last cooked porridge, and he reckoned the legends of him being the Porridge King were probably starting to fade from people’s memory.
Cooking porridge was simple: prepare the ingredients, control the heat carefully, and clean the materials. Add them to the pot, sit back and play with your phone, just remember to keep track of the time.
Jiang Feng found an old porridge pot in the storeroom, the same kind used by numerous porridge shops. A single potful could easily serve as an employee meal for the whole staff of Taifeng Building and still not finish in one sitting. Finding two such pots, Jiang Feng decided to make two different flavored porridges.
After some thought, Jiang Feng decided to go back to basics, making Eight Treasures Porridge and Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Porridge.
One sweet and one savory, these were both familiar and his specialty. They would be perfect for employee meals—if not finished tonight, they could be reheated and eaten the next day. It was economical, convenient, and delicious, precisely what a capitalist would dream of for an employee meal.
Jiang Feng contentedly started cooking the porridge.
While cooking porridge and fiddling with his phone, time flew by quickly. As the two large pots of porridge were nearly done and Sun Jikai was also wrapping up, people started to come into the kitchen to prepare for work. Seeing Jiang Feng in the kitchen, they thought he had come back to work for a change of pace that evening.
“Brother Feng, do we need to add your name to the menu tonight?” Sang Ming inquired.
“No need, just add the pure meat dumplings to the menu. I won’t be cooking tonight,” Jiang Feng declined.
After chatting with Sang Ming for a while, and learning that today’s staff meal prepared by Jiang Weisheng had been a disaster, leaving everyone unhappy at mealtime, Jiang Feng felt a bit better about the situation. He even started to comfort Sang Ming, assuring him that one gets used to it after a while.
He and Zhou Shi had gotten quite accustomed to it.
Just as they were talking, Sun Jikai’s Eight Treasures Seafood Soup was ready.
Jiang Feng had neither eaten nor seen this dish before, though the name sounded familiar—he might have seen it on the menu at Jubao Building before. Watching Sun Jikai prepare it that afternoon, Jiang Feng thought the soup seemed quite complicated to make, mainly because of the intricacies involved in preparing the ingredients. As its name implies, Eight Treasures Seafood Soup is made with eight different ingredients, mostly seafood, along with some vegetable garnishes that aren’t used in large quantities.
Soups, in general, are broadly similar yet diverse. The methods of making them are few, but the variations in ingredients and the differences in their preparation can greatly affect the taste.
The Eight Treasures Seafood Soup that Sun Jikai made looked impressive in terms of presentation, and the plating was particularly striking—a single pot of soup with two abalones prominently displayed on top, making the ingredients appear abundant.
The taste was also good, with the freshness of the seafood coming through, and the overall flavor was rich but not cloying, slightly salty, with plenty of ingredients in the soup. If one were to eat the soup as a stew, it would work as well—just add a packet of vermicelli.
“`
“`
It was a soup that could fetch a good price.
Jiang Feng, the capitalist who had lost an unknown amount of money at noon, affirmed.
After finishing the soup, it was about time for the evening business to begin.
Although Jiang Feng was not currently working at Taifeng Building, every day, there were still students from the art school and artists who came to dine at Taifeng Building, gripping onto the slim hope of discovering a missed opportunity. They ate lunch and dinner there, gaining weight, thinning wallets, and still no sign of inspiration showing up.
When these simple folks saw familiar pure meat dumplings on the menu, their hearts stirred to excitement.
Even the cold wallets seemed to gain a hint of warmth.
A small commotion arose in the hall of Taifeng Building, which left some new patrons feeling rather bewildered, such as a table of university freshmen.
Although freshmen usually don’t start school on September 1st, some schools prefer to cling to that date, especially those that schedule military training before the start of the term, shortening the precious summer vacation of their third-year high school students and letting them feel the warmth of university military training ahead of time.
The joyful summer had passed, the tough military training had come to an end, and the next day was the possibly unpleasant start of the new term. The confused freshmen decided to go out for a meal together.
Those with little money would go to a small restaurant, and those with more to a grand hotel.
Zhang Xi apparently belonged to the latter, and it was she who suggested eating at Taifeng Building.
“Qianqian, is that face mask you mentioned good? I feel like you’ve indeed become fairer the past couple of days. What brand is it? Could you send me the link? Did you buy it online or get someone to purchase it for you?” A student and roommate sitting at the same table as Zhang Xi kept staring at her face.
“I bought it online, let me send you the link right now,” said Zhang Xi.
“I want it too, I want it too,” another girl eagerly chimed in. She was looking at the menu. “Xi, what should we order for our meal? The two chefs you told us about aren’t on the menu. Do you know any other chefs who make tasty dishes?”
Zhang Xi thought for a moment and couldn’t come up with an answer right away. She stretched out her hand for the girl opposite her to pass the tablet to her, and started browsing the menu herself.
“Hey, Ji Xue is here too, if it’s not someone with the same name, then her dishes are actually pretty tasty. Zhang Guanghang is here as well, his dishes are delicious too. Not only are his dishes good, but let me tell you, he is really handsome!” Zhang Xi said with delight on her face.
“What kind of way is this to order? Aren’t we supposed to order what we want to eat? Why are you ordering by the chef?” The girl sitting next to Zhang Qian said speechlessly, leaning in to look at the menu.
“Squirrel fish, order the squirrel fish, it’s delicious!”
Zhang Xi began to place her order, and while she was doing it, she saw the pure meat dumplings and noticed the name of the chef.
Zhang Xi turned the tablet to the person opposite her, pointing at Jiang Feng’s name, “Look, there’s Jiang Feng. See, this dumpling is made by him. Why did you tell me earlier that he wasn’t on today’s menu?”
The girl who was responsible for ordering was also innocent, “I didn’t see it just now, there were no dumplings at all. Does he have any other dishes?”
Zhang Xi perused the menu from start to finish and shook her head.
“Then let’s just order the dumplings. Let’s try them!” The girl opposite her was quite forthright.
Right at the moment to place the order, Zhang Xi decisively ordered the dumplings.
Zhang Xi felt somewhat disappointed, “I actually wanted to drink Eight Treasures Porridge, but there’s no porridge, only dumplings.”
When she said this, the other three laughed. One of them, who couldn’t hold back, blurted out, “If you want to drink Eight Treasures Porridge, go back to the university to drink it. If not, go to the porridge shop outside where you can have a bowl for two, three, five, ten yuan, or at most twenty yuan a bowl. Whatever Eight Treasures Porridge you want that’s not available here, why come to this kind of restaurant to drink porridge?”
“You don’t understand. The Eight Treasures Porridge that Jiang Feng makes is really tasty, completely different from what’s sold outside.”
Zhang Xi gestured in the air with her hands, trying hard to gauge the size of the clay pot Jiang Feng used the day of the competition, but because some time had passed, she couldn’t remember.
“It was about this big, maybe even bigger and quite deep. You don’t understand, he only had forty minutes, and he used such a big clay pot to cook Eight Treasures Porridge. At first, I doubted if he could succeed, but the porridge he made was delicious. An adjudicator at the scene drank several bowls in one go. I’ve never tasted porridge like that before. Later, I went to his shop to have porridge again. His century egg and lean pork porridge was also delicious. Anyway… Anyway, whenever he cooks porridge, it is done exceptionally well. You will definitely understand the feeling once you’ve tried it just once,” Zhang Xi’s face was full of ‘it’s really very delicious, but I just can’t describe it.’
The other three girls had already started discussing what other dishes to order.
Zhang Xi: …
Zhang Xi had initially only felt a little disappointed, but now she really wanted to prove to the three how delicious Jiang Feng’s Eight Treasures Porridge was.
Zhang Xi beckoned a waiter over.
Hu Li approached her, “Hello, may I help you with anything?”
“So, I wanted to ask, the menu doesn’t have Chef Jiang Feng’s name, but I saw his pure meat dumplings. So, do you have Eight Treasures Porridge today?”
Hu Li: ?
Although Hu Li did not fully grasp what Zhang Xi was trying to express, she figured that Zhang Xi probably wanted to drink Eight Treasures Porridge.
“Please wait a moment, I’ll go and ask the kitchen for you,” Hu Li quickly headed towards the kitchen, bumping into a visibly pleased Jiang Feng who was coming out of the kitchen, ready to go home for some leisure time.
“Boss Feng,” Hu Li called out to Jiang Feng.
“Hmm?”
Jiang Feng halted his steps.
“`
“So, there was a table of customers who asked if our restaurant had Eight Treasure Porridge today? Did anyone cook Eight Treasure Porridge in the kitchen today?”
Jiang Feng was startled, thinking that this customer was really fated to ask for it, as he had cooked Eight Treasure Porridge but didn’t put it on the menu. Originally, he hadn’t planned to sell it. Porridge, being a staple food, fills the stomach and doesn’t sell for much. Mrs. Wang Xiulian really doesn’t like this kind of staple food, and Taifeng Building rarely sells porridge now. Jiang Feng used to cook it occasionally and would sell it if fate would have it.
But fate arrived quicker than he anticipated.
“Which table ordered it? I just cooked some Eight Treasure Porridge, and it’s ready now. Let Sang Ming serve a bowl, just charge the previous porridge price,” Jiang Feng said.
“It was that table over there, the one with four young ladies,” Hu Li pointed towards Zhang Xi’s table.
Jiang Feng, now slightly nearsighted, couldn’t see clearly from afar and hadn’t really seen Zhang Xi’s face or recognized her. But Zhang Xi recognized Jiang Feng in an instant, and excitedly waved at him like crazy.
Jiang Feng was a bit puzzled and could only walk toward Zhang Xi. It wasn’t until he took a few steps closer and saw Zhang Xi’s face that he took thirty to forty seconds to realize that this girl, who had now grown her hair out, was the Zhang Xi who lost to him in the Good Taste Cooking Contest because of making porridge.
“Zhang Xi?!” Jiang Feng said, surprised. In his memory, Zhang Xi should still be in high school in Alan City, but then it dawned on him that she must have finished her college entrance exams and come to Beiping for university.
“You’re going to university in Beiping?”
“Yes. I’ve been wanting to come to your restaurant for a while now, but I was busy with military training and didn’t have time. I saw ‘Taste’ on New Year’s Day, and you guys are really amazing, each person got an interview, and Taifeng Building even made the cover. My dad says you must be a lot stronger now than at last year’s competition,” Zhang Xi rambled on, showering him with flattery as soon as she opened her mouth.
“Not bad, I have made some progress and am much stronger compared to last year. What did you all order today? Do you want me to recommend something?” Jiang Feng also became interested.
“We ordered four portions of your pure meat wontons per person.”
Jiang Feng: …
He felt it was time to leave; he had just finished cooking the pure meat wontons before coming out. Looking at the time, Sang Ming should already be helping to dish them out and serve them at the table.
“That, the wontons might not be quite suitable for you all, why not consider ordering something else,” Jiang Feng said, his smile gradually distorting.
“But we have already ordered.”
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear, Hu Li came over carrying four bowls of pure meat wontons.
The small bowls contained wontons with terrible presentation, giving off a sense of despair.
“Don’t eat them just yet; the wontons are hot right out of the pot. Let them cool for two minutes before you eat,” what Jiang Feng really wanted to say was wait until I leave to eat them.
The adjacent table had already started crying.
The four: ?
“Right, what major are you studying? Oh, I haven’t even asked which school you’re at yet.” Jiang Feng decisively shifted the topic, deciding to exchange a few polite words before making a swift exit.
“I got into Foreign Language University, studying Chinese,” Zhang Xi said.
Jiang Feng: ?
Although it didn’t seem wrong, somehow putting that together made it sound a bit odd.
“Oh, here comes the Eight Treasure Porridge too. I won’t disturb you any longer. This porridge is freshly made by myself; enjoy it while it’s hot.” Jiang Feng quickly made his escape. When he reached the entrance, he turned back to look, and sure enough, Zhang Xi and her friends had already started crying.
One particularly emotional girl had already laid her head on the table, crying out loud in sorrow.
Jiang Feng sighed.
Ah, it seemed he had lost a young fan from that moment on.
He hadn’t wanted it to go like this.
He just hoped that Zhang Xi wouldn’t become a turncoat fan.
Thinking this, he happened to see Ji Yue coming down from the second floor and turned back to instruct her.
“See that table there? Remember Zhang Xi?” Jiang Feng pointed towards Zhang Xi’s table.
Ji Yue shook her head in confusion, clearly having a bad memory due to her age.
“She’s the one from the Good Taste Cooking Contest, the one who made Eight Treasure Porridge with me.”
Ji Yue still couldn’t recall, but she vaguely knew there was such a person.
“They ordered the pure meat wontons at that table and are currently crying. When they finish, please go over and explain to them that the wontons are our restaurant’s specialty, so they don’t get the wrong idea; it’s their first time here,” Jiang Feng said before slipping away.
Ji Yue: ?
???