Zheng Da spoke with great enthusiasm, and although the topic went off on a tangent, Qin Huai listened with keen interest.
"So, what is the standard for judging a good tongue?" Qin Huai asked curiously.
"There is no standard," Zheng Da replied, "A good tongue is just a good tongue. You give him a dish, and without saying anything, he can figure it out by tasting it himself."
"Nowadays, there are more types of seasonings. Decades ago, some people would keep their secret recipes from spreading by deliberately mixing and crushing the spices together. But this could only prevent ordinary competitors. A skilled chef could taste it once and know what was in the dish, and after several tastings, even guess the proportions more or less."
"I remember my master once told us that the true secret is not the combination of ingredients, but the technique, the culinary skills, which are the real secrets that others cannot steal."
"So, how’s my tongue?" Qin Huai asked.
"No need to say," Zheng Da answered bluntly.
"You definitely have a good tongue."
Qin Huai still had some doubts because according to the game system rating, his Food Tasting was Advanced level.
Qin Huai knew that Advanced was already a pretty good grade. His Advanced seasoning skills were good enough to handle most snacks, including some high-difficulty ones, but this Advanced rating wasn’t the highest.
Above Advanced, there is Master Level, and upgrading to Master Level requires a full million experience. The allowance to upgrade indicates that there are levels beyond Master Level.
Looking at it that way, it feels like Advanced doesn’t seem that advanced after all.
Seeing that Qin Huai seemed a bit skeptical of his words, Zheng Da smiled and said nothing.
Zheng Da didn’t interact with Qin Huai much, in terms of frequency and time, his relationship with Qin Huai was not as close as that with Zheng Siyuan and Huang Shengli. But Zheng Da considered himself to know Qin Huai relatively well and had always supported Huang Shengli’s idea of letting Qin Huai see the world, and at the same time letting the world see Qin Huai.
Zheng Da felt that Qin Huai, being a genius, was a bit too ungenius-like.
Zheng Da was a self-aware genius from a young age.
He was very talented in cooking and also did well in business. It was precisely because he knew too well that he was a genius that he had arrogance. He resigned angrily to go into business when the State owned Restaurant didn’t recognize him as a pastry chef and let Huang Shengli be the master chef but wouldn’t let him.
Normally, geniuses might not look down from their noses, but at least they would be accustomed to being surrounded and far surpassing peers.
Qin Huai was quite the opposite.
He was clearly a genius too, even considered exceptionally talented among geniuses and very rare. From childhood to adulthood, he had always been far ahead, surrounded by admiration, but he seemed very unaware of it.
Some kids are naturally sensitive and self-abased, always envisioning the worst due to their growing environment. Even if they’re quite competent, they still feel inadequate and often back out before starting anything.
But Qin Huai’s personality wasn’t like that.
Huang Shengli didn’t understand, but Zheng Da understood a bit.
He also had a phase like that when he just started working at the State owned Restaurant and realized that no matter how much better he was than his peers, it was still impossible to reach the master’s level.
At that time, he was very panicked, very uneasy, even self-destructive, anxious, and self-blaming, feeling he was just ordinary and not some genius, just an average person.
Zheng Da felt that Qin Huai’s situation was a bit different from his back then. He had always thought he was quite good but suddenly encountered an insurmountable hurdle, which was a bit hard to accept for a while, causing a temporary emotional breakdown.
Whereas Qin Huai’s mindset and status were much better than his back then. It was as if Qin Huai had encountered a hurdle he couldn’t overcome before discovering he was a genius and had been unable to overcome it for many years thereafter, having become accustomed to a big mountain in front of him, thus having a very erroneous self-awareness.
Zheng Da really wanted to ask Qin Huai, did you secretly have a master behind my back?
Who is that master? Tell me his name, I’ll go find him for a battle. How does he teach his disciples? How can one knock a disciple’s confidence ? Isn’t that misleading them!
Do you understand how to teach a disciple? If not, swap out, I’ll teach, I understand!
Zheng Da chatted aimlessly with interesting nonsense while making Crab Dumplings.
While Zheng Da was making Crab Dumplings, Qin Huai ate the dumplings left for Huang An Yao.
Qin Huai found that watching the cooking process while tasting the finished product was more conducive to learning.
Moreover, Huang An Yao managed to catch the second batch. Instead of texting all over asking for favors, he changed to repeatedly texting to confirm approximately when the Crab Dumplings would come out of the pot so he could catch them at their most palatable.
After making two batches of Crab Dumplings, the afternoon teaching session also drew to a close.
Qin Huai didn’t have time to try it out himself. Since they were making Crab Dumplings, the entire preparation process had to be done by the chef personally. Qin Huai had not made many shrimp-stuffed snacks, and crab meat and crab roe were even more of an unknown territory for him.
Being unfamiliar with the ingredients, one needs to engage with them more.
Amidst a long string of nonsense, Zheng Da repeatedly emphasized the content related to teaching that when making Crab Dumplings, the chef must personally prepare all the ingredients.
The preparation process is not troublesome, it’s just about getting the shrimp meat, crab meat, and crab roe.
Only by personally preparing the ingredients can one become familiar with and build a connection with them in the shortest possible time, enhancing the seasoning better.