The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

This left Fu Yu feeling rather helpless.

After all, without hands-on practice, it’s impossible to learn cooking.

Just watching with your eyes...

You can’t learn shit from just watching.

Cooking is about operation; how can you learn without getting hands-on?

Liu Yunong was simply too busy.

With her absent, in the kitchen, Wang Yulong and Liu Zhangpeng were completely occupied with handling orders, leaving them no time to guide Fu Yu.

For a moment, Fu Yu felt like he was back in his early days as an apprentice.

...

Before they knew it, it was nearly closing time in the evening.

For a change, the kitchen crew felt relieved as things quietened down.

Liu Zhangpeng, checking the remaining ingredients, turned to chat idly with Wang Yulong.

”I told you, the customer who reserved the salt-baked chicken wasn’t reliable. As expected, they didn’t show up!”

Wang Yulong said calmly, ”They paid in full anyway. If they didn’t come to collect, it’s not our fault.”

The customer had called in the afternoon to reserve the dish, ordering five salt-baked chickens.

The payment was made, yet they hadn’t shown up to collect the food so far.

They were probably delayed by something.

Occasionally, these things happen.

People who can afford private dishes usually don’t lack money.

So in our restaurant, we insist on prepayment in full for reservations, with no refunds.

Liu Zhangpeng asked, ”Master, what should we do with the prepared salt-baked chicken?”

Wang Yulong glanced over and said, ”Still two left? Put them in the fridge, tomorrow we can make salt-baked chicken rice for lunch.”

The restaurant’s dishes are never sold overnight; if not shared among the staff, they are saved to be reprocessed as staff meals the next day.

Something as good as salt-baked chicken becoming a staff meal delights everyone.

While chatting with Wang Yulong, Liu Zhangpeng sorted out the kitchen matters.

Throughout, Fu Yu had minimal participation, his presence barely felt.

The saying goes, ”If you don’t understand, don’t babble.”

Fu Yu applied this concept thoroughly.

Seeing that most of the customers in the front hall had left and the kitchen had been tidied up, the crew was preparing to take a rest before the end of the day when someone suddenly entered the front hall.

Zhang Conglin hurried into the kitchen, glanced around, and rushed toward Wang Yulong: ”Chef Wang, the customer who reserved the order this afternoon just called. They said they’re rushing back on the highway and should be here in about an hour. They hope we can wait for them.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Yulong quickly stood up: ”What? They’re coming after all?”

Zhang Conglin nodded, ”Just got the call. I’ll arrange for someone to stay and wait. Oh, by the way, is the salt-baked chicken they ordered ready?”

Liu Zhangpeng replied urgently, ”That’s unfortunate. We assumed they wouldn’t show. We used three of them in the earlier dishes.”

Zhang Conglin asked, ”Can you make them in time?”

Wang Yulong nodded, ”One hour is tight, but if we hurry, we should not be delayed too much.”

Zhang Conglin sighed with relief, ”Alright, Chef Wang, it’s hard on you, I’ll go arrange it right away.”

After giving instructions, Zhang Conglin turned and left.

With Wang Yulong in the kitchen, Zhang Conglin felt quite assured.

Wang Yulong was also a somewhat renowned chef at the main branch.

With excellent culinary skills and strong abilities, he wouldn’t have been brought to this branch by Liu Yunong otherwise.

Though not explicitly stated, Wang Yulong is bound to take full charge of this branch’s kitchen in the future.

Following Liu Yunong’s usual practices, once this branch is running smoothly, she will resume scouting for opportunities to open new branches nationwide.

Liu Yunong’s ambition and business spirit have always been known to everyone.

Liu Zhangpeng leaned in and complained, ”I thought they wouldn’t come; it’s so late, really...”

Ignoring the complaints, Wang Yulong directly asked, ”Are there any prepared chickens left?”

Startled, Liu Zhangpeng quickly said, ”Including the reserved one, there are four, but one is for goji berry chicken prepared for spicy chicken chunks, and there’s still three whole chickens left, although one is set to be marinated tonight for salted chicken... The rest haven’t been processed!”

Wang Yulong quickly weighed the situation and decided, ”Use the whole chickens for the dish now; one day less for the salted chicken won’t matter. I’ll call the procurement and ask them to bring an extra one tomorrow morning.”

Liu Zhangpeng agreed and began preparing the ingredients with the help of an apprentice.

The chickens in the restaurant are free-range chickens, raised for about a year, and each processed one weighs nearly three pounds.

The larger size means they take longer to cook.

Wang Yulong checked all the prepared ingredients to ensure no mistakes before starting to cook.

Meanwhile, Fu Yu took advantage of the busy moment to quickly look over the classic old-style recipes.

To his surprise, he discovered that salt-baked chicken is a very famous specialty in Liu Family Cuisine.

This dish was originally developed personally by Lady Liu decades ago.

However, having been passed down for generations, there have been gradual changes in the cooking methods.

The name ’salt-baked chicken’ includes a character indicating baking, not just steaming as we usually say.

It signifies that salt is used as a medium, compared to regular steaming.

In preparing the salt-baked chicken, a layer of salt is spread over a bamboo sieve, which is then covered with a layer of muslin, followed by the chicken, wrapped again in muslin, and salted, then placed into a pot to cook.

This method is unique for retaining the food’s moisture and nutrients and allows the salt’s fragrance to infuse into the chicken.

Thus, salt-baked chicken does not only let you enjoy the succulent taste of chicken but also a faint salt aroma.

Fu Yu meticulously examined it and couldn’t help but admire the ancient culinary wisdom.

However, in Liu Yunong’s generation, many innovations and improvements have been made to the cooking process of this dish.

Its taste and preparation method now better match modern tastes and preferences.

Among today’s ten dishes in the restaurant, salt-baked chicken is included.

When Fu Yu was helping out, he had watched Wang Yulong work; the cooking steps were intricate. Reportedly, the kitchen started working at 7:30 in the morning just for this dish.

With Wang Yulong’s skill, completing the dish within an hour is not impossible, especially when making three salt-baked chickens simultaneously.

Before cooking, Wang Yulong began to distribute tasks.

”Zhang Peng, you handle one chicken, and I’ll do one too.”

Liu Zhangpeng eagerly nodded and hurriedly arranged for an apprentice to assist him.

At this time, Wang Yulong suddenly turned to Fu Yu: ”Have you made salt-baked chicken before? Its cooking method for this salt-baked chicken is quite similar; can you handle the initial marinating?”

Fu Yu hesitated: Nothing else might be, but when it comes to whole chicken dishes, it’s not something he can’t manage!