CHAPTER 811: CHAPTER 408: THE HIGHEST PRAISE

The first thing Qin Huai thought of was making Four Happiness Dumplings, as it was currently his best dish. But when he started preparing the ingredients, he suddenly realized he couldn’t make them now, as both the red bean filling and the sesame brittle filling needed to be prepared in advance.

Just these two fillings alone require at least one day of preparation.

The apprentices going to Yunzhong Restaurant for an exchange hadn’t yet arrived at Zhiwei Restaurant. Qin Huai, since Su Qian helped him with his luggage, didn’t need to pack, so he could quickly wander to the entrance of Zhiwei Restaurant.

Adhering to the principle that familiarity is useful, Qin Huai picked two apprentices whose names he couldn’t remember but whose faces he recognized from the last exchange at Huang Ji, and asked them to assist him.

Just as he finished chopping the meat filling, Qin Huai realized that this wasn’t Huang Ji or Yunzhong Restaurant, and he hadn’t thought to send over the red bean filling and sesame brittle filling before coming to Zhiwei Restaurant.

"Master Zhou..." Qin Huai, feeling a bit embarrassed, looked at Master Zhou, who had been standing beside him watching him chop the meat. "I instinctively thought this was my place and forgot that the sesame brittle and red bean fillings need to be prepared in advance. Four Happiness Dumplings have particular sweetness requirements for these two fillings, so we can’t use other ready-made fillings. We might not be able to make the complete version today."

"Would it be alright if I just make the ones with meat and mixed fruit fillings? The flavor might be slightly off when eating them since there will only be one sweet and one savory filling. I can prepare those two fillings today or tomorrow afternoon, and make the full version for you the day after."

Master Zhou nodded slightly, showing no signs of dissatisfaction on his face. Although Qin Huai had only interacted with Master Zhou for a few minutes, he could tell that Master Zhou wasn’t someone who would hide his likes or dislikes and emotions.

When he was feeling sarcastic, he’d practically have the words "I’m being sarcastic" written all over his face.

Seeing that Master Zhou had no objections, Qin Huai relaxed and continued his work, meanwhile turning to instruct the assistants beside him: "Chop the dried fruit and nuts finer. Today we’re only making the two fillings, so the mixed fruit filling needs to be slightly sweeter than before. When eating, there should be no grainy texture."

The assistant didn’t dare raise his head, nodding repeatedly, and applied more force to the chopping, looking as if he wanted to crush the nuts with the knife.

Master Zhou glanced over and frowned disdainfully, whispering, "Finer, not powdered. If you want it powdered, a blender is more cost-effective than you at one yuan per unit of commercial electricity."

Qin Huai: ...

Master Zhou probably doesn’t habitually lick his lips, otherwise, Qin Huai feared he might accidentally poison himself by licking his lips one day.

Qin Huai continued chopping the meat filling.

Qin Huai believed that at Zhiwei Restaurant there were probably apprentices or direct disciples on reserve with knife skills better than his. Although his knife skills were at an intermediate level, such skills were at best entry-level within the chef circle.

At Hong An Restaurant, advanced-level disciples on reserve were abundant, and someone with Qin Huai’s knife skills wouldn’t measure up in a pure pastry restaurant like Zhiwei Restaurant. He’d heard from Su Qian that a few pastry chefs were exceedingly skilled with knives as if they’d accidentally distributed their talent points wrong.

Qin Huai chose to chop the meat himself, mainly because Four Happiness Dumplings have special requirements for the meat filling. He noticed this when watching Cao Guixiang chop meat. Although lacking Cao Guixiang’s technique and unable to master the nuances, he could somewhat mimic the process and learn bit by bit.

Qin Huai firmly believed that for a pastry to be considered good, the making of it should be entirely carried out by the pastry chef. Whether it’s an assistant helping out or collaborating with other chefs who have better skills, if others are involved, the pastry loses part of the unique character of the pastry chef who made it.

Of course, though Qin Huai believed this, he still greatly appreciated his assistants. Without their help, he truly couldn’t manage everything alone.

Master Qin was diligently displaying his mediocre knife skills in front of Master Zhou. Meanwhile, an unnamed apprentice next to Master Qin was demonstrating knife skills that weren’t initially so bad, but became quite poor due to nervousness or other reasons.

In this situation, Master Zhou was being superbly hypocritical.

The apprentice’s poor skills were a waste, less cost-effective than a blender.

Master Qin’s poor skills were due to Qin Huai’s lack of a solid knife skill foundation and getting this far was considered commendable.

"Your knife skills are much better than I imagined," Master Zhou openly acknowledged. "I heard from Xiao Tan that you helped out at your family’s breakfast shop since you were a child, not cutting much or using knives often. Earlier this year, you couldn’t even cut radishes properly at Huang Ji, and it was only after you found a teacher that your skills improved so rapidly."

"The teacher you found seems very skilled."

Qin Huai: Tan Wei’an, you were denying your gossip habits on the train!

Speak of the devil, just as Master Zhou mentioned Xiao Tan, and Qin Huai silently cursed Tan Wei’an, Tan Wei’an showed up in uniform, shining brightly.

Incidentally, it seemed that Tan Wei’an had been enjoying himself a bit too much, indulging in Yunzhong Restaurant and Huang Ji, as his uniform now looked a bit snug.

"Qin Huai, I didn’t believe it when I heard in the locker room that you came to Zhiwei Restaurant. Twenty minutes ago, Su Qian told me you were motion-sick and asked me to get you some motion sickness medicine. Then, because I took too long tidying up, he went himself. You were motion-sick and still came to Zhiwei Restaurant? How did you end up making snacks?"