Chapter 304: The Boss’s Cooking Is Still the Best
Chapter 304: Chapter 304: The Boss’s Cooking Is Still the Best
"Because now we have something to study," Fu Cheng said, looking out the window. "With this data, meteorologists can figure out how to make predictions. It’s like a sharpshooter—he can only make his most accurate shot after the target appears."
Shen Lu shrugged. ’Well, I don’t really get it, but it’s good that we have it, I guess.’
According to the latest weather forecast, there would be gale-force winds all day, with an 80% chance of rain at night.
Shen Lu pinched the bridge of her nose. In weather like this, she’d be lucky to get over a hundred customers.
But in all likelihood, they wouldn’t get a single one.
After clearing their noses, Wang Daguo and Xin Yu washed their faces and hands, put on their uniforms, and got to work with a grunt.
The vegetables Zhao Qian sent were tomatoes and celtuce. The chicken wasn’t the breast meat she had ordered, but whole chickens. The pork wasn’t the layered belly she wanted, but pork leg. The fish was the most outrageous of all—he’d even sent the wrong species. Instead of grass carp, he’d delivered palm-sized crucian carp.
Shen Lu could only laugh in exasperation. Thank goodness she had other suppliers now. Otherwise, Zhao Qian would have been the death of her.
Figuring there’d be no business for lunch, Shen Lu decided to grab Xin Yu for some special training.
"Huh? Break down a chicken? Can I do it?" Xin Yu rubbed his hands in anticipation. He was the slowest to improve; he was still wrestling with julienning potatoes.
"Everyone has to start somewhere," Shen Lu said, handing him a knife. "Let’s begin with sharpening this."
Sharpening knives was a task Xin Yu knew how to do. After all, he was the one who sharpened most of the knives in the kitchen.
It wasn’t that you couldn’t cook a whole chicken, but doing so didn’t maximize its value.
Every part of the chicken can be made into a different dish, and each commands a different price. For instance, the breast meat used for Kung Pao Chicken is relatively inexpensive. Wings are also separated into drumettes, flats, and tips, with the flats being the most expensive part.
The cheapest part is the remaining chicken carcass after deboning. A skilled person can strip a carcass so clean there isn’t a scrap of meat left—even a dog would turn its nose up at it.
But these carcasses are perfect for making stock, and a good stock is a huge asset in the kitchen.
Shen Lu ordered only breast meat to save time and effort. Otherwise, breaking down that many chickens every day would be too much for the kitchen staff to handle.
Shen Lu first dismantled one chicken with a few quick moves—KUKU! Her movements were fluid, without a single pause. After a few flips in her hands, the chicken was neatly butchered and sorted onto different plates.
Xin Yu’s mouth fell open. "Boss, you’re too fast..."
His eyes had learned the motions, but his brain hadn’t, and his hands were even more hopeless.
Shen Lu turned off the recording. "That take wasn’t for you."
’That’s today’s filler video for my half-assed update schedule.’
"Oh, okay! Can I try now?" Xin Yu was eager. Thinking it over, ’it didn’t seem that hard.’
"Go ahead."
Mimicking Shen Lu’s technique, Xin Yu grabbed a chicken and placed it on the cutting board.
’What was the first step again? Something about taking off the wings?’
Muttering to himself, Xin Yu waved the knife over the chicken a few times, trying to find the right spot. He brought the blade down. CRACK! He hit bone.
’No need to panic. This is normal.’
Xin Yu braced himself and put his weight into it, cutting the wing off in one motion. But the angle was completely off—he hadn’t just removed the wing, he’d lopped off a piece of the neck along with it.
"Uh, well..."
"Finish breaking down the rest of it first. Then I’ll show you what you did wrong," Shen Lu said calmly from beside him.
"Okay."
Xin Yu steeled himself and continued. In the time it took him to butcher a single chicken, Shen Lu had already done three and had even taught Cai Su how to do one.
"I’m done, Boss," Xin Yu said sheepishly.
Shen Lu picked up the carcass Xin Yu had butchered. "There’s enough meat left on this carcass for me to stir-fry a whole dish."
"The knife just wouldn’t go where I wanted it to."
"Of course it won’t. You have to work with its structure. The whole time, you felt like your cutting motion was awkward, right?"
"Mhm."
Shen Lu had Xin Yu hold his knife and follow her lead as she meticulously guided him, step-by-step, through dismantling a chicken.
Shen Lu paused several times to correct his form. Half an hour later, they had finally managed to successfully butcher one chicken together.
"So that’s how it works!" Xin Yu had an epiphany.
"Simple, right?" Shen Lu exhaled. ’Teaching someone is way harder than learning it yourself.’
"Simple...ish?" Xin Yu glanced guiltily at Shen Lu. ’How am I supposed to tell the boss I’m already starting to forget what she just taught me?’
"Just keep at it. If you can’t remember something, just call me over."
There were hundreds of chickens, more than enough for Xin Yu to get the hang of it. Meanwhile, she had to go deal with those crucian carp.
Looking at the sink full of crucian carp, Shen Lu’s head started to throb.
It wasn’t that crucian carp tasted bad. On the contrary, it was delicious.
Shen Lu liked using crucian carp for soup bases—in dishes like crucian carp and tofu soup, or crucian carp with shredded daikon. You could even add lamb to make the classic Fish and Lamb Soup.
But small crucian carp were a pain to prepare, and today there were only three people plus Little Mantis in the kitchen.
She had sent Little Mantis to handle the pork, Xin Yu and Cai Su were wrestling with the chickens, and she was responsible for these crucian carp.
Shen Lu heaved a long sigh and got to work on the carp.
Most of the ingredients from Zhao Qian couldn’t be used for the current menu. Shen Lu decided to process them and put them in the System Warehouse for a rainy day.
The staff worked hard in the kitchen all morning, but they couldn’t get through all the ingredients.
Since the system detected no customers today, it hadn’t issued Shen Lu a daily task.
As relaxing as it was, she felt a small pang of regret.
No daily task meant no Lottery Ticket.
Without a Lottery Ticket, the restaurant’s defense level would stay stuck at 7, unable to reach the max level.
Damn this stupid weather.
Shen Lu cursed inwardly.
For once, they were able to eat a hot lunch right on time.
Shen Lu made a pot of braised chicken feet, a crucian carp and daikon soup using the small carp, scrambled eggs with tomato, and a cold salad of shredded celtuce.
After a morning of hard work, everyone was starving. And even though she’d used the local ingredients, the flavor wasn’t compromised in the least.
The scrambled eggs with tomato was a must-have with rice. Sweet, sour, and fragrant with egg, it made you devour a whole bowl of rice without a second thought.
The crucian carp and daikon soup looked plain and white, but one sip was enough to be captivated by its refreshing and mellow flavor. The pinch of pepper added just before serving was the finishing touch, activating the soup’s umami.
The chicken feet were pressure-cooked until fall-off-the-bone tender, then simmered in a savory broth of assorted sauces and spices. With additions like corn and shiitake mushrooms, the dish was spicy, savory, and incredibly satisfying.
As for the cold celtuce salad, it was the final piece of the puzzle. Its crisp, refreshing texture was a delight. Just when you thought you were full, your appetite would suddenly return, as if you’d grown a second stomach demanding another plate.
"The boss’s cooking is still the best," Xin Yu said with sincere admiration.
Wang Daguo nodded emphatically in agreement.
"Practice makes perfect," Shen Lu said, taking a sip of the hot tea Cai Su had brought her. "Your skills improve the more you use them. In a little while, I’m going to hold a skills assessment for all employees. There will be penalties for poor performance."
The thought had just occurred to her.
Shen Lu felt that a little pressure was necessary to motivate her employees to learn and improve. If she wanted to introduce more new dishes to the menu, their skills had to keep up.
The weather was terrible, which meant they’d likely have a lot of downtime. It only made sense to use that time for some staff training.