"My master believes he only learned sixty percent of what his master taught, which already embarrasses his master, and my uncle may have only learned fifty or sixty percent as well."
"My master said he opened Huang Ji Restaurant on the site of the old State owned Restaurant, and the initial customers were all there out of respect for his master, so he couldn’t disgrace his master."
"That’s why he has very high standards for the chefs. Our restaurant primarily focuses on meat cooking, and pastry chefs really don’t have much of a future here—they can’t gain fame or make big money, so it’s hard to find really skilled ones."
"Three years ago, our pastry chef, Master Zhang, retired and went back to his hometown, and since then, we haven’t found anyone who satisfies my master, so we just shut down that section. If there’s a need, we ask Brother Si Yuan to come help."
Hearing Dong Shi say this, Qin Huai inexplicably felt nervous and almost walked into the wrong building.
"Is it a bit too hasty for Master Huang to call me over directly to hand out the work clothes?"
Even though he doesn’t know Master Jing, he knows Zheng Da, Huang Shengli, and Zheng Siyuan, who are all really nice. They’ve generously shared their knowledge despite just a brief encounter. If he messes up and disgraces Huang Ji, wouldn’t it indirectly disgrace Master Jing as well?
Dong Shi didn’t understand at all: "Hasty? No way, Qin Huai, your skills are so good. If you didn’t have your own community canteen over there in Shancheng, I would have asked you to come work at our restaurant directly."
"I feel your skills are on par with Brother Si Yuan’s, and some of your snacks taste even better than his." Saying this, Dong Shi smacked his lips, "For the staff meal tomorrow, can you make fermented rice with steamed buns again? Tell me secretly, do you have any other snacks you’re particularly good at?"
"...How about baked buns and crab shell cakes? These two snacks have always been very well-received in my canteen, and a friend of mine can eat one or two jin every time." Qin Huai was baffled by Dong Shi’s topic switch, pulled out his keys to open the door, and tried to steer the conversation back.
"Si Yuan’s skills... are they considered good?"
Qin Huai knew that Zheng Siyuan’s skills were definitely among the best of his generation, and Zheng Siyuan had told him so too. But in Qin Huai’s imagination, chefs get better with age, and even the best among the younger generation would be just average among the absolute top in the industry.
After all, Qin Huai had his own judgment regarding Zheng Siyuan’s skills; overall, Zheng Siyuan was stronger than himself.
However, Zheng Siyuan is a bit specialized, only excelling in Suzhou style snacks. His particularly good snacks can reach A-level, and his usual performance is between B-level and C-level, but if he’s not familiar with a snack, it’s easy for him to drop to D-level.
But then again, Zheng Siyuan rarely makes what he’s not familiar with; he just likes making the few things he’s good at.
And what level were the recipes Qin Huai remembered?
Jiang Chengde’s locust flower buns that coaxed his sister, S-level.
Getting distracted while watching the fire control on longevity noodles, A-level.
Qin Wan’s fermented rice with steamed buns, B-level.
Jiang Weiming’s attempt at pastries with red case skills that couldn’t get the filling into apple dough balls, B-level.
So on average, the recipe level for the pastries Qin Huai acquired was A-level.
Qin Wan, who wasn’t even a chef, could make B-level fermented rice with steamed buns, which led Qin Huai to think that B-level snacks were the average for large restaurants.
You’d be embarrassed to go outside without hitting B-level.
As for the legendary Zhiwei Restaurant, which supposedly gathers top pastry chefs from across the country, any randomly picked chef there should be able to make A-level or even S-level snacks. Pei Xing and Li Hua were just plain bad, which is why they got booted back home by Zhiwei Restaurant.
There are slackers everywhere. Isn’t Qin Luo just attending Shuanghai High School?
Qin Huai believed his understanding and judgment were perfectly fine.
Dong Shi thought that maybe Qin Huai was a bit crazy.
Dong Shi’s expression turned blank, looking at Qin Huai like he was seeing a deity: "Of course."
"If my master could recruit a pastry chef like Brother Si Yuan, we wouldn’t have gone without a pastry chef for three years."
"Brother Si Yuan is universally recognized among our young generation as the best in pastry snacks. Even though he works every day at a pastry shop at the entrance of a community, my brother and senior brothers agree that Brother Si Yuan is way better than those direct disciples at Zhiwei Restaurant."
"Not to mention Brother Si Yuan is still on the rise. I believe it won’t take more than a few years before you can count on one hand the pastry chefs better than him nationwide."
"If he’s willing to come to Huang Ji, Junior Master Zheng would be willing to spend some money to buy him a script and boost his fame so he’d definitely be on the list in the next Chef Record selection!"
Qin Huai was also bewildered. What, Zheng Siyuan is that amazing.
No wonder Chen Huihong previously used Zheng Siyuan and Zheng Da as benchmarks, unable to recruit a pastry chef or even find anyone suitable. Turns out it wasn’t a problem with Chen Yingjun’s company HR.
Was it a bit too much to have Zheng Siyuan work like a mule in his canteen?
While Qin Huai was lost in thought, Dong Shi had quickly jumped to the next topic, saying excitedly, "My master’s back hasn’t been well lately, so he hasn’t been cooking much, and business has declined. My senior brother has been worrying about this."
"Now it’s resolved, with you and Brother Si Yuan both helping out at the restaurant. Brother Si Yuan’s pastry shop is being renovated, which combined with ventilation time, will take over two months. If you can stay at our restaurant for two months, by the time my master’s back recovers, our restaurant’s business will surely reach a new level."