The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

Chapter 107: Chapter 106: Halal Guobao Pork

During lunch rush, the order taker came over to deliver an order.

According to the sequence, this order should go to Gu Yunwu’s side.

But Jiang Mo said, ”The customer is a fan of those food influencers who visited last time. They specifically came to check in and requested the previous chef to cook this table’s dishes.”

Zhao Meng reached out for the order and took a look. Well, it’s still the same four dishes, except there’s an extra order of sweet and sour crispy pork.

Lately, there have been quite a few customers coming to check in like this, and they all order these four dishes. The kitchen staff have long gotten used to it.

However, it was the first time a customer specifically requested a particular chef.

The kitchen now takes orders based on the customer’s specified request, otherwise, Zhao Meng and Gu Yunwu take turns according to the sequence.

This particular order, although the customer requested a specific chef, it wasn’t either of them.

Zhao Meng hesitated briefly and simply handed the order to Fu Yu.

Fu Yu had cooked the same four dishes many times, and sweet and sour crispy pork wasn’t a difficult dish. Fu Yu could completely handle it.

”You take this order, I’ll handle the remaining four dishes from the last order.”

They switched the tasks at hand.

Fu Yu took on this order.

Fu Yu was becoming increasingly efficient at work.

These were all the usual dishes, with Sun Qingning assisting at the side. In less than half an hour, they were all let the food runner take them out.

At that moment, no new orders were coming in. Zhao Meng, craving a cigarette, was about to sneak out to the back door for a smoke when the food runner hurried back.

”Chef Fu! The dishes you just made weren’t satisfactory to the customer. They want them redone!”

Before Fu Yu could speak, Zhao Meng, who had just taken two steps out, quickly turned back: ”What? Which dish are they not satisfied with?”

The food runner said, ”The sweet and sour crispy pork. They said it didn’t look like what they saw online.”

Zhao Meng asked Fu Yu, ”What’s going on? Did you make the sweet and sour sauce according to the usual ratio?”

Fu Yu nodded, ”Yes.”

For the dishes he handled, apart from anything else, the seasoning was always spot on.

If the flavor was off, it definitely wasn’t his fault.

As for anything else...

Fu Yu requested from Zhao Meng, ”Let me go take a look.”

Zhao Meng nodded, ”Let’s go. I’ll go with you.”

Zhao Meng quickly informed Gu Yunwu and then hurried to the front hall with Fu Yu.

In room 207, there were two guests, a young couple.

Seeing the chefs arrive, the young man immediately exclaimed, ”Your sweet and sour crispy pork isn’t right! It looks nothing like what I saw in the video!”

The server responsible for the room stepped forward and explained, ”It shouldn’t be a problem with the dish. Our restaurant’s sweet and sour crispy pork is like this.”

The young man wasn’t happy to hear that, ”Impossible! I watched the short video! The influencer’s sweet and sour crispy pork had a darker color and was chewy and very fragrant. The color of the sweet and sour crispy pork meat here isn’t right...”

When it came to food, the young man went on a rant like a wind-up toy, even picking up a piece of bitten sweet and sour crispy pork to show the meat inside.

Fu Yu stepped forward, ”Please don’t worry, we need to first check if the taste of this dish has any issues.”

The young man was about to speak, but the young woman beside him lightly coughed and looked at Fu Yu, softly saying, ”I’m sorry, he’s just a bit impatient. This dish is actually quite delicious, but it does look a bit different from what we saw in the video. We are visiting from out of town and saw the food looked great in the video, so we specifically came to try it today.”

The young woman pushed the plate forward.

The server stepped up to help pass the plate over.

As Fu Yu reached to take it, the server signaled with his eyes for him to be cautious, indicating that these two customers were most likely looking for trouble.

Fu Yu picked up a piece of sweet and sour crispy pork to taste.

Upon tasting, a vinegary aroma assaulted his senses, and it was crispy with a sweet and sour flavor.

When chewing, it was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with a tangy and sweet taste.

The flavor was fine.

The plating was also okay.

The customer even mentioned the taste was good; it just didn’t match what they saw in the video.

The sweet and sour crispy pork in the video had a darker color and seemed to have a chewy texture...

Fu Yu pondered for a moment, ”Besides this version of sweet and sour crispy pork, our restaurant also has a halal version, which is a specialty here. Could it be that you ordered the wrong dish?”

Upon hearing this, both were stunned, ”Halal sweet and sour crispy pork?”

Fu Yu explained, ”For the regular sweet and sour crispy pork, we use pork tenderloin. However, for the halal version, we use beef tenderloin. The meat is different, so the texture would undoubtedly be different.”

Upon hearing Fu Yu’s explanation, the two didn’t say anything.

The young man picked up his phone and seemed to be looking through videos.

During this time, Zhao Meng also tasted the sweet and sour crispy pork.

No issues, it was made quite authentically.

It was fairly certain that they had ordered the wrong dish.

At this moment, the young man suddenly looked up and said, ”Yes, that’s right, it was our mistake! The influencer did mention sweet and sour crispy pork, but the subtitles indicated the order was for halal sweet and sour crispy pork!”

The young man, somewhat sheepishly, apologized to Fu Yu, ”Sorry for the confusion...”

Fu Yu breathed a sigh of relief, glad it was just a misunderstanding.

The young man hurriedly added, ”Can you please add another dish for us, another order of halal sweet and sour crispy pork?”

The two had come specifically to check in. When they watched the video, the influencer seemed to enjoy it a lot, making them crave it and want to try it.

Not getting the same authentic taste, they couldn’t be satisfied.

Fu Yu prepared another halal sweet and sour crispy pork.

The customers were satisfied while eating, and they even left a comment in the video’s comment section:

[The influencer was eating Qianlima’s signature dish, halal sweet and sour crispy pork. In fact, the restaurant has another version, a pork tenderloin sweet and sour crispy pork, which is also very tasty! Don’t ask how I know...saving face...”]

...

Since the kitchen reorganized the order taking, when the order taker comes to the kitchen, unlike before, they don’t just look at which of the two head chefs is free and hand them the order.

Now Zhao Meng and Gu Yunwu take separate orders; the customer they served gets the dish, and only the remaining orders are alternated.

Fu Yu quickly got the hang of it. When an order ticket came over, Zhao Meng would pick out the difficult ones to take away, leaving the rest to Fu Yu.

The two worked well together, and the food was served quickly.

However, due to a large number of orders, it was inevitably arduous every day.

On the other hand, Gu Yunwu’s side was relatively more relaxed.

In the past, when an order came in, he and Zhao Meng would split them in half, and he would throw Yao Yihang an extra one or two simple dishes to ease his own workload a bit.

But now, Yao Yihang had been formally promoted and his cooking skills were sufficient to handle orders independently.

So whenever an order came in, he would pick out the easy ones to do, leaving the more troublesome ones for Yao Yihang to handle under the guise of training and development.

To keep up appearances, he even called on a few helpers to take turns practicing at his station.

Under the pretext of guidance, unless it was a large banquet and he was too busy, he rarely did any work himself.

As a result, Yao Yihang had to manage alone all day, slightly overwhelmed.

But since Gu Yunwu wouldn’t lend a hand, Yao Yihang had no choice but to grin and bear it.

It was relatively harmonious originally.

Yet Zhao Meng went ahead and directly assigned a helper to Fu Yu, and he himself also helped with sharing orders.

This direct comparison made Gu Yunwu seem lazy.

Anyone could see that having the helpers take turns at his station was just a way for him to shirk work!

Gu Yunwu was seething with resentment but was helpless.