The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

Fu Yu displayed his knife skills with one ingredient after another, bringing delight to everyone’s faces.

The innovative improvement of this dish, besides adding eggs, also involved replacing winter bamboo shoots with winter melon.

Winter melon is much more difficult to cut than winter bamboo shoots, especially after peeling. To cut it into fine strips, the cut must be steady and fast; if the knife tip deviates even slightly, the melon strips will break easily.

Although this Triple Sliced Dish isn’t a signature dish for the music restaurant, it still gets ordered quite frequently during festivals and holidays.

Even though the method is a bit troublesome, practice makes perfect. Everyone present had made it before and knew how to make it.

However, looking at the neat strips cut under Fu Yu’s knife, everyone felt that their own knife skills had truly regressed.

It seems like after chefs become certified, opportunities to hone their knife skills become fewer and fewer.

Assistants handle the chopping, and the chef only needs to handle the frying pan on regular days.

Everyone watched attentively and with enjoyment, increasingly acknowledging Fu Yu’s knife skills in their hearts.

The happiest of all was Zhang Zhen, an assistant chef, who was watching Fu Yu wield the knife without missing a beat and listening to his explanations.

Even though it was just a few techniques, he felt as if he’d had a revelation and gradually deepened his understanding of knife skills.

After the Auspicious Triple Sliced Dish was completed, Zhang Zhen was eager to try it himself.

Seeing that there was still time, Fu Yu glanced at Zhang Zhen and suggested, ”Chef Zhang, would you like to give it a try? I can watch from the side.”

Zhang Zhen happily agreed: ”Alright, then I’ll trouble Chef Fu.”

Even though Zhang Zhen hadn’t often handled knives in recent years, he still had the fundamentals. When he picked up the knife, whether slicing flowers or threads, as long as he slowed down his movements, the resulting ingredients were still acceptable.

Fu Yu assisted Zhang Zhen by handing over ingredients and monitoring the heat level, and the dish went smoothly.

Step by step, he sliced the ingredients into uniformly long and thin strips and placed them in a round bowl.

After steaming, the dish retained a beautiful shape.

Staring at the Auspicious Triple Sliced Dish before him, Zhang Zhen felt relieved.

Fortunately, it was a success!

Turns out, I’m not out of practice yet!

Was this slicing difficult?

As long as the foundation is solid, picking it up again isn’t hard.

Culinary skills are hard when you don’t know them, but easy once you do.

With recent success, Zhang Zhen gained confidence.

Since the kitchen work was manageable with the current staffing, he decided to invite Chef Liu and others to try their hand at cooking, taking turns as their schedules allowed.

”Others should keep doing what they’re doing. Whenever someone has time, they can come over! Chef Fu, I’d appreciate your guidance once more.”

Fu Yu had no objections and nodded in agreement.

The chefs took turns cooking.

Everything went smoothly.

Seeing the excitement on his colleagues’ faces.

Zhang Zhen suddenly felt that maybe their boss was quite shrewd!

Spending some money to have Fu Yu come for guidance was truly wise!

Look at this! The atmosphere in the kitchen instantly turned lively!

The head chefs, invigorated, realized they weren’t past their prime yet and looked on critically at the clumsy work of the assistants.

The assistants felt intimidated, and their work attitude became more serious and conscientious.

Even though the head chefs had been cooking all day and were clearly exhausted, they now seemed energized and lively!

Spending a few thousand to buy this encouragement and creativity was truly worthwhile!

Things were bustling here, and morale was high.

Suddenly, a server from the front notified them that a customer decided to change their order.

The Three Flavor Steamed Dumpling in the set menu must be replaced with a traditional dish from the authentic Eight Treasures.

The smile on Zhang Zhen’s lips hadn’t yet faded and suddenly dropped.

He asked the server in surprise: ”Change the dish on short notice? Isn’t the Jin Yu Reunion Set always been the Eight Treasures? Did the customer say why they wanted to change it?”

The server explained: ”The customer said our restaurant’s Eight Treasures aren’t authentic, especially because there’s no such thing as Three Flavor Steamed Dumpling in the authentic version.”

Zhang Zhen was dumbfounded.

Since he took charge of this set menu, it had always been these eight dishes without changes.

If this isn’t authentic, then what is?

Fu Yu, who was listening to Zhang Zhen talk with the server, saw a [?] appear above Zhang Zhen’s head.

[Head Chef Zhang Zhen is stuck in fulfilling the customer’s request, communicating earnestly may trigger a side quest.]

A task!

Fu Yu didn’t rush to communicate with Zhang Zhen but first checked what exactly constituted the so-called Eight Treasures menu.

Apart from the earlier Eight Plates and Eight Bowls feast, he wasn’t overly familiar with various feast dishes.

Fu Yu first searched for ”Eight Treasures” and came across all sorts of results including Henan Eight Treasures, Five Star Road Eight Treasures, Eight Treasures Ginger Cups...

After casually checking a couple, none matched the Jin Yu Reunion Set.

Fu Yu decided to search directly for dish names, and finally, a list of relevant information appeared.

He picked the top entry to view:

”Eight Treasures” is the most famous local cuisine in Pudong, and they are indispensable traditional dishes on Pudong’s New Year’s Eve dinner table.

Authentic traditional Pudong Eight Treasures: Braised Pork, Golden Needle Mushrooms and Pork, Steamed Three Flavor, Egg Wrapped Rolls, Scallion Pork Skin, Triple Sliced, Braised Chicken Pieces, Salted Pork with Water Bamboo.

Fu Yu compared them one by one with the Jin Yu Reunion Set meal at the music restaurant, and indeed, there wasn’t any Three Flavor Steamed Dumpling, but there was a Steamed Three Flavor which could replace the Three Flavor Steamed Dumpling.

He took an extra moment to check the cooking method for Steamed Three Flavor, and its difficulty level was marked as [Lower-Medium].

Based on Fu Yu’s understanding of specialty banquet recipes, simple means easy to master and operate.

Lower-medium should suggest a bit of difficulty but shouldn’t be too troublesome.

Fu Yu didn’t have time to look further and turned to ask Zhang Zhen: ”Chef Zhang, has our restaurant ever made a substitute for the Three Flavor Steamed Dumpling before?”

Zhang Zhen shook his head: ”No, the restaurant has always been making the Three Flavor Steamed Dumpling. Over how many orders, not a single customer claimed the dish wasn’t authentic!”

This set menu was initially established by Yao Shi, who claimed that Pudong Eight Treasures had special characteristics, and the dish tasted great, making it perfect for banquet style set meals.

Upon hearing about the issue, the other kitchen staff became somewhat anxious.

Today, the boss wasn’t around; how should they handle this unexpected situation?

But Zhang Zhen had always been a person with ideas; he was inventive, and his adaptability was strong.

Even though his culinary skills weren’t particularly sophisticated, he was reliable in handling matters.

If it weren’t for this, Yao Shi wouldn’t have entrusted the entire kitchen management to him.

Upon encountering the situation, Zhang Zhen didn’t panic; instead, after initial surprise, he quickly calmed down.

He began discussing with other senior chefs if anyone knew of a dish that could replace the Three Flavor Steamed Dumpling.

He even pulled out his phone to search for information on the authentic Eight Treasures.

However, the internet had an array of variations, with many Eight Treasures dishes being modified, a lot matching their restaurant’s offerings.

He even found an article that specifically recorded a detailed introduction of their music restaurant’s set menu and praised them as authentic.

Zhang Zhen was stumped for a moment.

What should he do now?