The Sweetness of the Seventies
Chapter 709 - 678: Apprentice, Master Tang_1

Chapter 709: Chapter 678: Apprentice, Master Tang_1

As long as she was diligent and had a good character, He Tiantian was willing to give her a chance.

He Tiantian nodded and said, "Alright, once you’ve learned, you won’t have to worry about food and drink. Just like your mom said, you won’t have to worry for your whole life. Moreover, I guarantee that your salary will only be higher than your mom’s, not lower, but that’s after you’ve completed your training. During the apprenticeship, you can only have an apprentice’s wage of thirty yuan, including lunch, and that’s it."

"Okay, okay, I’m willing," said Hua Xiaomin. Thirty yuan was more than what she made doing temporary work at the canning factory, and it even included lunch.

Her mom had said, she was still young and learning things was most important.

Afterwards, He Tiantian had someone notify Wu Cuicui, Qin Suyue, and Hua Xiaomin to come over, meet each other, and then started to teach them how to make Western pastries.

He Tiantian had learned some skills from Lady Brown during her time in the United States, enough to be considered a half-master.

Actually, learning these skills wasn’t the hardest part, the hardest was the raw materials.

For the braised meat shop, chicken, duck, goose, and pig could be purchased from the countryside, but for Western pastries, some ingredients could only be bought from factories, and most were not available.

He Tiantian had Sun Sihao help with sourcing the raw materials and after some calculations, realized that the pastry shop could only make a few simple Western pastries.

For example, traditional egg cakes, bread, and some cookies.

As for the more elaborate items like chocolate and other upscale products, they were temporarily ignored.

However, this was fine. The cost of producing very upscale items was high, and if they couldn’t sell at a high price, they wouldn’t make money.

Qin Suyue was nineteen and very pretty.

He Tiantian’s plan for her was, if she wasn’t good at the manual work, then she could be responsible for selling the pastries.

Wu Cuicui indeed had a sweet mouth, and Hua Xiaomin was introverted, but very diligent and clean.

He Tiantian said, "Here are the forms for the health check. Take these forms to the hospital for a health check now. The fee has already been paid. If everything’s normal, the results should be out by tomorrow evening. If there are no issues, I will have someone notify you to start work the day after tomorrow."

"Yes, leader!" The three girls were very happy, taking the forms to get a health examination at the hospital.

When it comes to food, hygiene is the most important thing. People with contagious diseases cannot be hired, as that’s being responsible to your own shop and to the customers.

Sun Sihao helped to arrange the raw materials, which were stored in the back warehouse.

He Tiantian tried making the pastries herself once, and they turned out pretty well—a good appearance and taste.

She left some for the staff to share, and the other half she took home for her child, Huo Yingjie, and her in-laws to taste.

He Tiantian’s pastries received unanimous praise from everyone.

"Brother Yingjie, please find a way to make me a few more sets of egg cake molds. Plum blossom shapes, pentagons, and so on," He Tiantian instructed, knowing that if there weren’t many varieties, they would have to be creative with the shapes.

He Tiantian made sourdough bread, which was Lady Brown’s specialty and very authentic.

"Sure, no problem," Huo Yingjie nodded; this was something he was good at.

"Right, the cookies sell well, so make more molds for small animals," He Tiantian instructed, as round-shaped cookies were very common.

"Also, your pastries taste good, but if you grind the Thousand Flavor Grass into a powder and then dissolve it in water, and use that water to make dough, the pastries will taste even better," suggested Huo Yingjie. To make a product a classic, an old brand, you needed a flavor that no one else had.

This tested not just the pastry chef’s effort but also required special ingredients.

Thousand Flavor Grass could be used for cooking and naturally for making pastries as well.

Whatever it was used for, it could enhance the taste.

"Alright, I’ll give it a try," said He Tiantian. "It’s a good thing that Thousand Flavor Grass isn’t needed in large quantities. Otherwise, if we open more shops in the future, the supply from the hill behind might not be enough."

"No problem, if possible, let Little Rotating Turtle open up a space near Xuanwu Lake to plant some crops. That can work too."

"Although the taste is slightly inferior to the wild herbs from the back mountain of Qijia Village, a larger quantity can make up for it."

"Little Rotating Turtle is really amazing," He Tiantian said with a smile. "Our home is getting more and more prosperous and happier."

"The best days are still to come!" Huo Yingjie pinched He Tiantian’s nose and kissed her forehead.

If making money could bring He Tiantian such joy, he was willing to take on more for her, hoping she could be even happier.

The pastries on the second day, enhanced with Thousand Flavor Grass water, truly tasted excellent.

The three young girls were all in good health. They received a notification last night and came to the shop early in the morning.

He Tiantian taught them how to make egg cakes!

A scale was on hand, and they combined various ingredients in proportion...

He Tiantian taught them earnestly, and they learned with diligence.

Hua Xiaomin even had a small notebook and a half-pencil in her pocket, taking notes on every key point.

By evening, they could make egg cakes proficiently.

Since the shop hadn’t opened yet, the products were distributed to the staff and the three new apprentices also took some home.

Day by day, over the course of a week, He Tiantian taught them everything she knew, and everything that could be made under the current conditions.

Huo Yingjie’s grinding tools had arrived, just in time to be put to use.

The front shop had also been renovated.

The white walls were adorned with imitation paintings of famous foreign oil paintings, and Huo Yingjie also helped install a few lights.

Bare light bulbs weren’t pretty, so Huo Yingjie crafted lampshades around them, turning the light soft yellow. The elegant and beautiful patterns on the lampshades complemented the pastries displayed underneath the glass counters.

Originally, two Chinese pastry chefs were hired, but one was poached by someone else, so only one arrived.

Tang Qinghe was a master pastry chef in her forties with great skills.

The four became the main members of the Sanfeng Bridge pastry shop.

It turned out just as He Tiantian had guessed; Qin Suyue preferred selling and wasn’t too fond of making pastries.

Considering that a salesperson was needed anyway, He Tiantian asked Qin Suyue for her preference and then switched her to a sales position.

Wu Cuicui and Hua Xiaomin, who enjoyed making pastries, were assigned to the kitchen to learn Chinese and Western pastries under the guidance of Tang Qinghe.

Since Tang Qinghe was already a master and now was in charge of two apprentices, He Tiantian had taught all she knew and stepped back after her task was complete.

He Tiantian handed over the translations provided by Sun Sihao to the three of them, encouraging them to develop new pastries.

The Sanfeng Bridge pastry shop, too, opened with the sound of firecrackers.

The pastries inside were exquisite, and the packaging boxes were also high quality, making them the best choice for gifts.

Now, with the Sanfeng Bridge braised meat shop being very famous, those who came to buy meat would also try the free samples of pastries and often buy some.

The best-selling item was the egg cake, which didn’t have a fixed weight, allowing one pound to be packed in a large bag; another hot-selling product was biscuits in various animal shapes.

The Chinese pastries made by Tang Qinghe, like butterfly pastries, mung bean cakes, and osmanthus cakes, also sold extremely well.