Qin Huai smoothly took it over and asked, "Your boss... I mean, Mr. Gong, is he on a business trip and not in Gusu today?"
Not only did Qin Huai not see Gong Liang by the kitchen door in the afternoon, but he also specifically asked the shift leader if Gong Liang had reserved a private room for the evening, and the answer was no.
This was a rare occurrence since Gong Liang usually treated Huang Ji like a cafeteria, and when the student didn’t eat at the cafeteria, it meant he was on holiday.
The assistant manager expressed that this question was a bit difficult for him, saying, "I’m not sure about that, we rarely see Mr. Gong throughout the year."
Qin Huai asked casually and didn’t expect the assistant manager to have an answer. He planned to text Gong Liang on WeChat to check on him after he got home.
Today’s trial making of Crab Dumplings went very smoothly, with no significant difference in quality compared to the past few days. Qin Huai knew in his heart that his learning of Crab Dumplings had already gotten on track and entered a steady improvement phase.
The fact that this time wasn’t different from the last was because the improvement wasn’t enough.
Once Qin Huai completed all the basics related to Crab Dumplings, Huang Shengli could hand over the teaching duties, and Zheng Da would take full responsibility for the teaching of Crab Dumplings.
When reaching this stage, what Qin Huai needed to do was practice more.
Just practice more dishes.
Qin Huai set a time for himself in his heart for one week. He felt that within a week at most, he could completely rid himself of the Crab Man identity and find a chef good at handling shrimps and crabs in Huang Ji to assist him.
By then, it wouldn’t be possible to leisurely make Crab Dumplings as he does now, making only two batches in an afternoon and savoring them slowly.
Those good days would become a thing of the past.
When learning white pastry snacks enters the stage that requires a lot of practice, quality doesn’t matter as much, being replaced by a quantity comparable to assembly line production.
What Qin Huai needed to do was to make batch after batch continuously, like making Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns, strictly calculating the time between each step, trying his best to fit everything tightly without any spare rest time.
Hopefully, by then, people at Huang Ji wouldn’t get sick of eating Crab Dumplings.
Eating A-level or even S-level Crab Dumplings for a month straight is an enjoyment; eating C-level Crab Dumplings for a month straight may be torture.
Qin Huai expressed that he would work hard, striving to upgrade the C-level Crab Dumplings to B-level within a month, even if it’s just B-.
This way, after eating a month of C-level Crab Dumplings, everyone could then eat B-level Crab Dumplings for another half month.
Yes, Qin Huai planned to keep making Crab Dumplings for one and a half months. The exact level he can reach depends on when the crabs go out of season.
The key to Crab Dumplings is to have good crab roe. This snack is a seasonal dish.
When Qin Huai realized that Crab Dumplings were seasonal, he had reason to suspect that the reason Gong Liang could only eat Crab Dumplings for a month was because the crabs went out of season after a month, with no crab roe to make dumplings.
It was mid-November, when crabs were at their plumpest. By the end of December, crabs would be completely out of the market, and Qin Huai would have to say goodbye to Crab Dumplings.
There wasn’t much time left for Qin Huai.
If he couldn’t complete the task for Gong Liang before crabs went out of season, the task would likely have to wait another year, until the next September when crabs are in season again to practice Crab Dumplings.
Qin Huai was even a bit thankful he didn’t procrastinate. Before he truly understood the two ingredients of shrimp and crab, he never realized crabs were seasonal. His family rarely ate crabs and mostly ate seafood instead.
If Qin Huai had waited until Zheng Da returned and then asked him to teach Crab Dumplings, delaying half a month until December to seek guidance, the time left for Qin Huai to learn Crab Dumplings would have become very limited, and the task would likely be postponed to the following year.
Ordinary Crab Dumplings certainly couldn’t satisfy Gong Liang’s taste buds.
In the time spent with Gong Liang, Qin Huai also noticed that although Gong Liang didn’t speak much, he was very picky about food and not accommodating, only eating what he liked.
Moreover, Gong Liang wasn’t like most ordinary people who have a filter for food, which refers to the chef’s filter added to the food.
Take Qin Luo, for example; Qin Luo was good at adding a filter to food. In Qin Luo’s case, anything made by Qin Huai, especially what Qin Huai learned and made particularly for her, was delicious.
This deliciousness wasn’t literal; it was a brainwashing kind of deliciousness. Even if the snack’s quality was only average, a C-level or D-level snack, Qin Luo would automatically brainwash herself to elevate it by a level.
Ouyang could do it too; he successfully brainwashed himself many times when helping Qin Huai test soups.
Chen Huihong and Luo Jun, more or less, also had this tendency because they were close with Qin Huai and considered him one of them, they were always particularly tolerant when eating the snacks Qin Huai made.
The regulars at Yunzhong Restaurant needn’t be mentioned; every cup of Seven Spice Dampness Removing Tea sold was evidence of their love for Master Qin.
But Qin Huai felt that it was difficult for Gong Liang to do this, or rather, there were very few chefs Gong Liang could be tolerant of.
This wasn’t to say Gong Liang wouldn’t be tolerant, but his tolerance depended on the situation. He could be tolerant with potential stocks, such as Crab Dumplings or Gastrodia Stewed Pigeon made by Qin Huai, but he would not brainwash himself.