Reborn in Japan as a Chef God -
Chapter 246 - 245: VIP’s Ten Gourmet Dishes (Part 3)
Chapter 246: Chapter 245: VIP’s Ten Gourmet Dishes (Part 3)
Compared to "Stir-fried Qingjiang Vegetable," "Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage" was much more complicated, both in terms of ingredients and cooking process.
Xia Yu glanced at the ancient clock on the wall.
It was almost four in the afternoon.
He and Eriina had left White Seagull High School and returned home around 3:30.
"There are only two hours left until we open for business."
There wasn’t a hint of panic in his heart; with Eriina there that evening, he could manage both VIP and regular patrons with no issues.
"The ’Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage’ takes a bit longer to prepare, please be patient," he said.
Though the visitors were potential enemies, guests were still guests, and it was important to show the necessary courtesy. As the manager, Xia Yu certainly couldn’t roll up his sleeves and toss out customers who came knocking.
Without looking for ingredients, he went to ignite the charcoal.
Outside in the yard, he used a bellows to blow the charcoals in the stove until they glowed red-hot. Feeling that the temperature was about right, Xia Yu carried the furnace back to the kitchen and placed it under a pot on the stove; the water meanwhile had begun to boil, gurgling out bursts of white steam.
"Good, the water is boiling!"
Seeing this, Xia Yu opened the cupboard and took out a box of stored shark fins.
"Scattered fins?!"
Smith slammed the table and furrowed his brow, indignation in his voice as he demanded, "You plan to make do with scattered fins for a dish that costs 500,000 yen?!"
Scattered fins were, from any angle, inferior to a whole shark’s fin.
Even if they were both "Land Shark Fin," the quality between scattered fins and back fins were vastly different.
Upon hearing this, Eriina couldn’t help but say, "Be quiet!"
Two icy gazes immediately fixed on her, but Eriina stood her ground, unyielding. This was Neon, territory of the Far Moon Lineage. She respected Smith as a Super Chef, but it didn’t mean she was afraid.
"Keep watching and you’ll understand," Eriina said coolly.
"Professor..."
Even Lancelot cautiously added, "Last time, he also used scattered fins for his dish, but still presented a dish worthy of Special Grade Cuisine. My ’Golden Silk Fish Fin’ made from ’Land Shark Back Fin’ was utterly defeated!"
"Why insist on using scattered fins when better ingredients are available?"
Smith persisted in his stance, shaking his head as he coldly rebutted, "After boiling, whole fins also swell and separate into strands by hand. Isn’t their quality better than scattered fins?"
"That, that..." Lancelot was at a loss for words.
They were all from Orlando Academy, and in Western cuisine, the principles of ’superiority of ingredients’ and ’inferior ingredients cannot create good dishes’ were deeply ingrained and not so easily overturned.
Eriina listened and chuckled inwardly.
In Smith, she saw her past self.
The same philosophy of ingredients’ supremacy, even the belief that dishes made with inferior ingredients must be second-rate and common, yet Xia Yu, with his dishes, had subtly altered the ’Divine Tongue’s’ conviction.
Ingredients could be superior or inferior.
But culinary skills were also hierarchical.
To craft a dish more delicious from common ingredients than one made with premium ones was this not a clear demonstration of a chef’s mastery?
Cao Chun watched the young chef bustling in the kitchen.
He was still thinking about the recently cooked Stir-fried Qingjiang Vegetable.
Qingjiang Vegetable is simply the bok choy, a type of green vegetable that, even grown in very good soil, naturally comes with an earthy and musty taste.
Aside from the blanching step, the best way to remove the muddy taste is to pick the greens from the garden, remove the root stems that grow in the soil, and soak them in water overnight.
But blanching and soaking only mostly eliminate the musty taste, and to a Super Chef tasting it, that fishy taste would still be unmistakably present.
Yet, in Xia Yu’s "Stir-Fried Qingjiang Vegetable," Cao Chun hadn’t detected a trace of fishiness.
Now, reflecting on it, he found it incredible and felt a surge of excitement, "If I can learn this technique to remove the earthiness, Cao’s Restaurant could add ’Stir-Fried Qingjiang Vegetable’ to our menu."
Although he was a Super Chef specializing in Chinese cuisine, Cao Chun was very humble. He believed in learning from anyone in areas where he lacked knowledge.
"What is he doing..."
Glancing at the young man in the kitchen, Cao Chun was startled.
After lifting the thoroughly cooked Golden Silk Fish Fin shreds from the boiling water and cooling them in a water bath, Xia Yu then transferred all the fish fin shreds into a glass vessel.
He turned to slicing bamboo shoots and cutting ham.
The Jin Hua ham had been stewed and softened. Xia Yu’s kitchen knife moved like rain falling, bang, bang, bang, the rapid sounds carrying an unhurried elegance.
Too fast, in just the blink of an eye, a section of bamboo shoot and a large slice of ham lay thinly shredded beneath the knife.
"What kind of knife skills are these..."
Cao Chun suddenly stood up.
The scene of Xia Yu chopping just now played back in his mind in slow motion.
The bamboo shoots and ham seemed to be pre-marked by a machine, and with each cut Xia Yu made, the blade coincided perfectly with the marked lines, incredibly meticulous, hence the amazingly ’consistent’ shreds of the ingredients!
Even more terrifying was the speed!
"5 seconds!" Cao Chun thought, rolling it over in his mind, then a wave of bitterness emerged from within, "Could this young chef have been honing such knife skills from the womb?"
He admitted to not having such knife skills.
In terms of precision, Cao Chun could get infinitely close, but in terms of speed, he felt inadequate.
"So many hidden dragons and crouching tigers!" Cao Chun reflected pensively, "No wonder such a youngster could easily defeat graduates from Orlando Academy! The Gourmet Society really did hit a snag this time!"
Lancelot watched in silence, cautiously glancing at Smith next to him; the expression on the professor’s face also retained a hint of shock.
With the ingredient preparation complete, the next step was to twist them into ’hemp ropes,’ or you could say, braids.
Practice makes perfect; Xia Yu’s fingers flew with a focused expression, resembling a lady embroidering in the seclusion of her boudoir at this moment, weaving the threads of ham, bamboo shoots, and fish fin together.
The standard number of Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausages that Xia Yu was making was 10 pieces.
In other words, each fish fin sausage was 50,000 yen, three thousand RMB.
After 5 minutes spent making 10 fish fin sausages, Xia Yu stopped, about to marinate the 10 "hemp ropes" in spiced water, but suddenly he thought of something and turned to ask outside the kitchen:
"Eriina, are you hungry? Want to eat? I’ll make an extra serving for you."
"Eat!"
The ’Divine Tongue’ outside responded without a second thought.
With a smile, Xia Yu used the remaining ingredients to quickly make another 10 ’hemp ropes.’
Marinating would take some time.
Actually, this step was one Xia Yu had improved upon; it was slightly different from the process a week prior. Initially, the ingredients were marinated separately, but now they were combined together, streamlining the process, boosting efficiency, and still preserving the quality of the cuisine.
Just as he had said to Shigong Xiaoci Lang during the residency training, as the developer of the recipe, one should constantly revisit and revise the recipe, striving for perfection, rather than becoming complacent.
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