Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 117: The Direction of Improvement - The Seventh Flavor!

Chapter 117: Chapter 117: The Direction of Improvement - The Seventh Flavor!

Xia Yu didn’t know that just after he had shut himself in the kitchen, besides Boss Sakamoto and Reiko Lina, another guest had arrived.

"Yu——"

A slightly breathless voice came through the half-opened shop door.

Boss Sakamoto and Reiko Lina looked at each other in astonishment as a high school boy in uniform, evidently just out of school, leaned against the door frame, seeming to have run all the way from Ueno Station, with traces of sweat on his forehead.

"Hey, where’s Yu?"

This boy was precisely An Yilun. Speaking of which, over these past ten days, he had been in close contact with his employer, Xia Yu; coincidentally, just last night, Xia’s shop’s website had been completed, and An Yilun had come personally to deliver the good news and to claim credit, proving he hadn’t been receiving his salary for nothing.

Not seeing Xia Yu, and only seeing two unfamiliar guests, An Yilun wiped his sweat and started walking towards the kitchen, but a woman stopped him.

"You better wait a while." Reiko Lina pulled up her sleeves, glanced at her delicate lady’s wristwatch, "It’ll be at least an hour before he comes out of the kitchen. It’s best not to disturb him during this time."

"Uh..." An Yilun could only find a place to sit down.

"Would you like some tea?"

Reiko Lina acted as though this were her own shop, moving expertly behind the bar, finding the green tea leaves and a still-hot kettle, she touched the outside of the kettle to check the water temperature, her lips curling into a slight smile, "This temperature is just right for brewing tea."

"Well, then please do!" An Yilun scratched his head.

Tea?

Upon hearing this, Sakamoto looked at his own table, where the plate from his recently eaten fried rice had not yet been cleared away, and the hot tea that Xia Yu had specifically made for him, still emitting a faint yet fragrant aroma.

Taking a delicate sniff of the tea fragrance, it seemed to intensify the secretion of gastric acids. Sakamoto felt as if he had missed out on some delicacies beyond his fried rice, and absentmindedly pushed up his glasses, picked up his cup, and took a small sip. As the tea flowed down his throat, click, his hand holding the cup suddenly gripped it tighter, his veins popping—it was a clear sign of the turmoil within Sakamoto’s heart.

"This quality of green tea..."

To others, Sakamoto was still that same cool, formidable figure, yet only he knew the tumult inside him just then; a sip of clear tea warmed him, and he almost couldn’t suppress the comfortable pleasure, almost making a humming sound.

Reiko Lina also brewed a cup of tea for An Yilun; her tea-making skill was certainly not less proficient than Xia Yu’s. After all, Reiko Lina was a grandmaster of Kaiseki, a cuisine style where hot tea and tea over rice were essential elements, making the tea ceremony a requisite skill.

"This is delicious!" An Yilun wiped away the fatigue of traveling from Private Fukuzaki Academy, his face breaking into a truly joyous smile, even his eyes seemed to sparkle.

What An Yilun didn’t know yet was that he was being served by a top-grade female chef. Such a cup of hot tea wasn’t something just anyone could enjoy. He was undoubtedly a lucky boy, at least luckier than Boss Sakamoto by some measure.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Xia Yu was completely focused on making a tofu dish.

The task, "First Use of Fantasy Ingredients," required integrating "Shuangjiang Tofu" into the recipe "Magical Mapo Tofu" to create a modified glowing dish.

Magical Mapo Tofu was one of the first glowing dishes Xia Yu had mastered, and it was also a dish he was confident of perfecting in terms of culinary skills, beyond just the limitations of the ingredients themselves.

"Six Flavors Unite."

Spicy, hot, aromatic, colorful, numbing, and crispy—these are the essences of magical Mapo Tofu.

Currently, Xia Yu, in improving his recipes, had mastered the secrets of "hot," "colorful," and "crispy." The remaining flavors, "spicy," "aromatic," and "numbing," were all about using Sichuan peppercorns, Chinese prickly ash, peppercorn powder, and other spices.

That’s right!

The improvement work on the "Magical Mapo Tofu" recipe was closely related to his use of spices. Because the main ingredients had changed, Xia Yu was in search of a balance of spices contained in the dish.

He purposefully took out the "Jade Fragment Knife" to cut the tofu, slicing quickly as if employing a simple Cross Slash Technique. With a flash of the blade, the still-damp ’Shuangjiang Tofu’ on the cutting board was neatly chopped into even blocks.

These days, Xia Yu’s training with the knife never stopped.

Although the Talent Points level of the "Fierce Bull Azure Dragon Slash" was fixed at "1," Xia Yu’s use of this dark technique had far surpassed the superficial level.

Moreover, by broadly interpreting and using a substantial chef’s knife, after practicing the dark technique to a certain extent, Xia Yu found that when using other smaller knives to handle ingredients, his control of strength was even more precise and subtle. Simply put, his micro-operations had become much more formidable—the basic skills of a level 10 knife technique obviously weren’t the limit.

It must be said that the appearance of ’Shuangjiang Tofu’ was very beautiful, its fats resembling frost spread across the tofu.

Even without considering appearance, the inherent quality of ’Shuangjiang Tofu’ was far superior to regular tofu. It could be called a special quality product. Although it had the downside of excessive fats, the tofu itself was rich in moisture, smooth, and refreshing. When used in cooking, the blocks of tofu maintained their shape well without breaking apart during stir-frying and steaming.

The key was in the fats. Recently, Xia Yu had initially resolved the issue of excessive fats in the tofu.

In fact, the fats contained in ’Shuangjiang Tofu’ were filled with the rich aroma of native plants, and the aftertaste issue was also closely related to this strong aroma.

Thus, Xia Yu’s approach was not to remove this strong aroma—as this was unrealistic—but to fully integrate it into the dish. While this approach might make the improvement work challenging, once successful, the improved ’Magical Mapo Tofu’ would not just be the traditional "Six Flavors Unite" but would evolve into "Seven Flavors Unite," with the additional flavor being the native strong aroma brought by the oils of Shuangjiang Tofu!

At the moment, Xia Yu had already found a way to blend this rich aroma.

Spices!

Changing his way of thinking, he regarded the aftertaste of Shuangjiang Tofu as a type of spice. Thus, the original balance of spices in the ’Magical Mapo Tofu’ recipe was disrupted. Xia Yu now aimed to reconstruct a stable equation of spices.

An hour later.

"It smells wonderful!"

The moment the kitchen door was pushed open, Sakamoto, An Yilun, and Liangzi Lina all turned their heads simultaneously.

With sweat on his forehead, Xia Yu brought out a large plate of fresh, hot Mapo Tofu. "Try this—"

Placing the white plate on the table and fetching four pair of chopsticks, Xia Yu picked up one pair, while handing the other three to Sakamoto, An Yilun, and Liangzi Lina.

Liangzi Lina was the first to reach out with her chopsticks. She picked up a piece of smooth tofu gleaming with red chili oil, gently opened her lips, and took a bite. After chewing for a while, she finally exhaled and said,

"It’s very close to glowing cuisine!"