CHAPTER 506: CHAPTER 279: REGULAR STUDY SESSIONS

When Cao Guixiang lifted the lid, Qin Huai was completely stunned.

Physically stunned.

It smelled so good, unbelievably good!

Qin Huai felt every cell in his body roaring at him, saying: Quick, take a bite! Taste it, I want to know what flavor this is!!

As he thought, Qin Huai only saw Cao Guixiang’s mouth open and close, but his ears had automatically tuned out what she was saying, only vaguely hearing buzzing noise, with all his attention focused on his sense of smell.

At that moment, his mind was blank.

He couldn’t think about anything, his vision suddenly decreased a lot, and he couldn’t see anything around him, only the golden and dazzling braised shark fin in the pot.

Yes, the golden and dazzling braised shark fin.

Qin Huai found it hard to describe in words how beautiful this pot of shark fin was because he had never seen a shark fin dish before.

In fact, it wasn’t considered beautiful while it was in the pot, as it hadn’t been plated yet, but it was very bright.

Just like in Master of Chinese Cuisine, where the protagonist each time unveils a good dish, and a flash of golden light blinds everyone around.

The Great Wall melody was already playing in Qin Huai’s heart, and a band in his mind was playing music.

After pausing for a good few dozen seconds, Qin Huai regained his senses, belatedly realizing he actually heard what Cao Guixiang was saying just now.

Qin Huai tried to tear his gaze away from the braised shark fin and looked at Cao Guixiang, feeling embarrassed for his inexperienced behavior and lowered his head slightly.

Feeling embarrassed, Qin Huai couldn’t help but sneak a glance at the braised shark fin in the pot, take a deep breath to smell its aroma, and composed his words in his mind.

After being silent for a good thirty seconds or more, Qin Huai hesitantly spoke: "Cao... Master Cao, are you asking me to follow you to practice meat cooking?"

Qin Huai indeed lacked common sense, but after all, he had studied at Huang Ji for several months and knew how amazing Tan Family Cuisine was.

Even if he had no concept before, now seeing this pot of braised shark fin in the kitchen, he should have a concept.

S-level.

That’s Qin Huai’s rating of this braised shark fin.

It was definitely S-level; although he hadn’t tasted it yet, just from smelling the aroma, he could tell it was definitely the aroma of an S-level dish.

If such a dish wasn’t S-level, Qin Huai could hardly imagine what kind of dazzling jade plate rare delicacies or Jade Dew would qualify as S-level.

The only genuine S-level recipe Qin Huai had touched was Jiang Chengde’s.

This master was invisible, untouchable, and even his video teachings were hard to understand. But Cao Guixiang, in front of him, was visible and tangible, so if he wanted to understand, he certainly could ask.

When Qin Huai asked this question, he even thought that if he could learn meat cooking with Cao Guixiang, it wouldn’t be bad.

However, he definitely wouldn’t be able to return to Shan City’s Yunzhong Restaurant. Qin Huai had previously asked Dong Shi how he started learning to cook. It was indeed practicing in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, with the diligence characteristic of martial arts dramas, practicing knife skills and fire control day and night.

It took three to four years just to learn chopping before he was qualified to touch the pot. Until now, he was still only a chopping chef in Huang’s Kitchen.

Cao Guixiang laughed, bending her eyebrows: "Of course not, you are already a very mature pastry chef now. If at this time I make you start from scratch, keeping you in the kitchen practicing meat cooking like an apprentice for years, leading to your pastry skills getting rusty, then I would be a sinner."

"What I mean is that even as a pastry chef, your knife skills foundation is really too poor."

"Pastry and meat cooking are not completely the same, but they intersect in the general direction, especially in basic skills."

"You haven’t undergone truly systematic learning and haven’t had a mentor guiding you to practice basic skills from a young age. In these past few days when we chatted on WeChat, Xiao Qin, you’ve told me many things about your experience at Huang Ji and how Master Huang and Master Zheng carefully instructed you. I believe you must have noticed."

"When you were merely selling breakfast, these basic skills were completely sufficient. But when you started learning truly high-level snacks with Master Zheng, the basic skills fell short."

"That’s why every good mentor suppresses the apprentice’s practice of basic skills for many years, striving to make the foundation firm."

"It seems useless, but it’s the most solid foundation of your culinary career. Knife skills, fire control, seasoning — these three most important basic skills in meat cooking are essential yet seem pointless and uneventful, but are the most important cornerstone in every chef’s path."

"Your foundation wasn’t steady, yet you built too fast."

"I don’t mean to have you switch from pastry to meat cooking, but of course, if you’re genuinely interested in meat cooking and wish to learn both, I’d be very happy and willing to teach."

"I just purely think you’re a very talented seedling, and it would be a pity if you falter on the foundation on your forward path. Cooking is, in fact, like the barrel theory, the longest plank doesn’t necessarily allow you to hold much water, but the shortest plank can certainly limit the maximum you can hold."

"I know in the Huang’s Kitchen, many chefs were helping you with chopping, so there’s no need to worry about knife skills. But now at your level, you can find chefs to assist you; once your level rises later, with more difficult snacks, greater demand for knife skills, can you still find them?"