Qin Huai didn’t expect that he would be cutting carrots for a whole week.
How did he spend this week?
He was probably swimming in an ocean of carrot shavings, slices, and cubes, waking up every day to cut carrots, and still thinking about cutting carrots before he slept. Thanks to his good physical foundation, he didn’t feel extremely tired or have any extreme conditions like swollen arms from cutting too much.
Just cutting, purely cutting, continuously cutting.
Cao Guixiang had no requirements for the carrot shavings, slices, and cubes Qin Huai produced, even if the carrot shavings were of uneven length and thickness, the slices varied from thick to thin and the thinnest couldn’t be translucent, the cubes uneven and lacking aesthetic alignment, Cao Guixiang didn’t care.
She simply didn’t point out these issues.
She was always focusing on the very detailed movements, such as the posture for exerting force, grip of the knife, and the repetitive issues Qin Huai would have after cutting for long periods.
Whenever an issue arose, she would directly correct it. After a few days of this, Qin Huai developed the habit of stopping in his tracks as soon as Cao Guixiang made a move.
The effects were very significant too.
The habits Qin Huai had developed in the orphanage for holding a kitchen knife and his posture for cutting were all corrected through Cao Guixiang’s repeated hands-on guidance.
At that point, Qin Huai would realize his mistakes the moment they occurred, without waiting for Cao Guixiang to step in.
Despite cutting 300 pounds of white radishes every day, he didn’t produce any commendable slices, shavings, or cubes; Qin Huai was almost cutting bucket by bucket.
Zhang Chu specifically prepared a few large tubs for holding the white radishes, and every day they were filled, marking the end of Qin Huai’s carrot-cutting work for the day.
Qin Huai indeed hadn’t woken up early.
The fatigue from cutting and that from kneading dough are not the same, to be precise, the sensations between the two are different.
During the New Year or when exchanging at Huang Ji, no matter how intense the work was, he was still Master Qin.
The things he made were good, the helpers at Zhiwei Restaurant wanted to learn, and the guests wanted to eat, all were eagerly anticipated.
But all the carrots he cut under Cao Guixiang were pig feed.
No one cared about the cutting process or examined it carefully once it was done; it was directly poured into large barrels, loaded onto a cart, and taken away at night. Being an apprentice and being a master feel completely different; Master Qin got visible satisfaction from every piece of dough he kneaded, while every carrot cut by apprentice Xiao Qin led only to an unseen future.
The skill level in knife skills was growing very slowly, slower than ever. On the day Qin Huai reached master level in making fillings, his knife skills proficiency was at (671/1000). After a whole week of intensive carrot cutting at Cao Guixiang’s, it only increased to (799/1000).
It’s clear to see, cutting pig feed doesn’t improve skill levels.
Qin Huai was well aware that his knife skills hadn’t progressed much; the reason he didn’t check the game panel often was because he generally had self-awareness about his own skill levels. Apart from practicing Four Happiness glutinous rice intensely to crazily improve filling proficiency, which left him somewhat bewildered, so he checked it out of sheer curiosity upon reaching the master level, he could generally gauge the levels of his various skills at other times.
Qin Huai could also perceive Cao Guixiang’s intentions.
He knew Cao Guixiang was correcting his bad habits.
But just correcting bad habits used up an entire week; how long would it take before officially starting to practice cutting?
This question was answered on March 6th, the 8th day of Qin Huai staying at Cao Guixiang’s to formally practice cutting.
As a famous chef trained by a very traditional master, even when mentoring someone else’s apprentices, Cao Guixiang followed a very traditional model.
Simply put, she covered meals, housing, and everything else.
After all, Cao Guixiang even prepared towels, toothbrushes, and rinsing cups.
Both Cao Guixiang and Zhang Chu agreed that providing food was crucial; eating was an apprentice’s primary motivation to work. Back when Cao Guixiang intensely practiced basic skills miserably, the daily expectation was the three meals a day.
The same was true for Zhang Chu when he was a carpenter; it was hard and physical labor, requiring eating well and nutritional intake. As Zhang Chu put it, after a day of carpentry, finding a piece of meat in his meal bowl made it all worthwhile.
Under such a concept, Qin Huai had very good meals these days.
Of course, not the kind of good where every meal involved braised shark fin or oyster sauce abalone. According to Zhang Zhiyun, he couldn’t eat these big fancy dishes more than twice a year, sometimes not even during New Year.
As a chef retired for many years, Cao Guixiang not only excelled at top banquet dishes but also at everyday home-cooked meals.
Qin Huai even felt that Cao Guixiang might actually be better at home-cooked meals; everything from breakfast fried eggs to lunch and dinner’s braised pork, chestnut chicken, and steamed fresh fish was delicious.
These dishes were pretty much prepared right under Qin Huai’s nose. Whenever it was time to cook, Qin Huai continued cutting carrots while Cao Guixiang busied herself preparing meals, from washing vegetables to cutting and cooking, all personally done by Cao Guixiang. During her busy times, she could still find the time to observe whether Qin Huai’s cutting movements had any issues, showing great ease and proficiency.
If summed up in a word, each day’s dishes were fragrant.
A combination of the taste of home and upscale restaurant flavor.