City’s Best Divine Doctor
Chapter 138 - 138 138 Cooking Personally

138: Chapter 138: Cooking Personally 138: Chapter 138: Cooking Personally Each floor here has more than two hundred square meters, and more than a dozen dining tables can be placed on each floor without feeling cramped.

Because the first floor is the kitchen and logistics warehouse, only a few tables can be arranged there, but on the second floor and above, a lot can be placed.

If all five floors are filled, it would be able to serve hundreds of customers at once.

Previously, Li Fu lost money precisely because of the low customer traffic and the high rent and labor costs here.

Li Qianqian followed Ye Xue to look around and felt that the decoration of the place could only be considered below average, yet she still didn’t understand what Ye Qiu intended to do with it.

“Ye Qiu has rented it to have us operate a court cuisine restaurant!”

Ye Xue told Li Qianqian.

Only then did Li Qianqian understand why Ye Qiu would rent this place.

However, court cuisine is not something ordinary people can afford to cook or enjoy eating, and not all of it is delicious.

In Jinling, there are dozens of restaurants serving court cuisine, but only a few are really tasty.

Li Qianqian had dined at several of them and thought the court cuisine was quite good.

“How much will it cost?”

Li Qianqian asked curiously.

“It’s Ye Qiu who is paying, I don’t know about these things.”

Last time, Li Qianqian knew that Ye Qiu seemed to have enough money to buy phones and lingerie; unexpectedly, he had now directly rented this place.

But she had no idea where Ye Qiu got the money from.

“How does Ye Qiu have money now?”

“He earned it treating a patient.”

Upon hearing this, Li Qianqian guessed that Ye Qiu must have treated some wealthy person again; no wonder he had money.

Ye Qiu was waiting down below, and it was now nine o’clock in the morning.

However, he discovered that none of the original staff, including the chefs, logistics personnel, and female wait staff, had shown up.

Did these people no longer want to work?

Yesterday, Ye Qiu had already told the staff to gather here at nine o’clock today.

At half-past nine, the staff started to trickle in.

Seeing that Ye Qiu was already waiting there, the female wait staff knew she was late.

“Immediately call those chefs and staff and ask if they still want to work here,”

Ye Qiu said coldly.

The female wait staff hurried to the cash register to find her colleagues’ mobile numbers, then picked up the landline to call the absent female wait staff, chefs, logistics staff, and the two cashiers.

Around ten o’clock in the morning, the chefs, logistics staff, and two female wait staff, along with one cashier, finally rushed over.

Seeing the displeased look on Ye Qiu’s face, these people all said that they had overslept, and had forgotten that they had to come to work today.

Yesterday, these people had already received this month’s salary from Li Fu.

“With such an attitude towards work, you’d earn the lowest salary no matter where you worked,”

Ye Qiu said no more, yet the staff’s faces showed embarrassment.

Li Qianqian had long known that Ye Qiu could be that way; seeing him really take on the air of a boss was unexpected.

“You all sit here for now; I’ll go into the kitchen and cook you some real court cuisine.”

Ye Qiu went towards the back of the kitchen, and when Chen Fang, Ye Weidong, Ye Xue, Li Qianqian, and the staff all wanted to follow and watch, Ye Qiu said, “Except for my sister who will assist me, everyone else should just sit outside.”

Ye Qiu couldn’t let the original employees here see this place yet, fearing they might leak the secret recipes of the court cuisine at some point.

Those employees could only stop their work, and Ye Weidong and Chen Fang, knowing that Ye Qiu had a reason for doing this, decided to stay as well.

Ye Xue followed Ye Qiu into the kitchen with great excitement, and after pondering for a moment, Li Qianqian decided to follow suit.

Ye Qiu didn’t stop her, but turned to her and said, “Wait, the court dishes I am going to make have been lost to time, so you absolutely must not let the recipes out.”

“I understand.”

Li Qianqian replied.

Upon entering, Ye Qiu felt that the kitchen was very dark and the environment was truly poor; the kitchen needed a complete renovation and redesign.

After turning on the lights inside the kitchen and opening all the windows, it became much brighter inside, and the complex odor disappeared as well.

From the state of the environment, Ye Qiu felt that if health inspectors were to come for a check, it would definitely fail to meet the standards, and even just looking at it made him uncomfortable.

Upon opening the refrigerator, he found some meat and vegetables still frozen inside.

Ye Qiu then took those out, planning to use the leftover meat and vegetables to create delicious court dishes.

Throughout history, there had been many dynasties, and naturally, there were many court cuisines, but they could generally be divided into two types: southern flavors and northern flavors.

Southern flavors were represented by Jinling, Yidu, Linan, and Yingdu.

Northern flavors were represented by Chang’an, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Capital City, and Shenyang.

And because the focal points of each dynasty varied, the representative regions differed.

What Ye Qiu wanted to make now were court dishes primarily in the southern style of Jinling and, moreover, dishes that were representative of the Qing Dynasty.

Seeing the leftover frozen beef, mutton, and pork, Ye Qiu knew in his mind exactly what kind of dishes he should make.

He searched around and quickly found some dried goods, as well as some seafood, taking everything out, including the remaining vegetables.

By the time Ye Qiu had put on an apron, Ye Xue had already donned one herself.

Having worked at the congee shop for so long, she was well aware of how greasy a kitchen could get and how easily clothes could be dirtied.

How could Li Qianqian, a missy who had been waited on hand and foot since childhood, have ever set foot in a kitchen?

Even if she did enter a kitchen, it would be the spacious and bright one in her family’s villa, not the kind that looked filthy like this one.

Seeing Li Qianqian’s disposition, Ye Qiu said, “Missy, if you feel uncomfortable, you can leave now.”

“Of course I’m not.”

Li Qianqian found an apron, which felt greasy—she had no clue which chef had worn it before.

After Ye Xue helped her tie it at the back, she asked, “Ye Qiu, what can I do to help you?”

“You don’t need to help with anything.

Just stand by and watch.”

Unlike Li Qianqian, Ye Xue was different; she was truly there to assist Ye Qiu.

She took hold of some potatoes and quickly peeled their skins cleanly.

In contrast, Li Qianqian also took a potato, but even after a lengthy time, she couldn’t peel the skin off cleanly.

Ye Qiu seemed to have forgotten her presence; he sharpened the kitchen knives and wiped the cutting board clean, then took the frozen beef and placed it on the chopping board.

Ye Xue, who had never seen Ye Qiu practice knife skills before, was astonished to halt and just watch him cut the beef.

How did Ye Qiu come to know these skills?

When had he learned them?

Ye Xue had no idea, and as for Li Qianqian, it was even less necessary to say—watching Ye Qiu’s knife skills, she thought he might be the reincarnation of a chef.