Seeing Han Guishan so excited, Xu Cheng was a bit puzzled, wondering if he had been enjoying his time abroad too much and lost some memories.
Why didn’t he remember Qin Huai could make Four Happiness glutinous rice?
Qin Huai’s skills were quite good, especially considering his age and experience, he could be called a genius born with talent.
But in terms of overall strength, he wasn’t astonishing, his skills were overly specialized, and his expertise in making guo’er still needed assistance from a master of hot dishes.
Xu Cheng believes given time, Qin Huai will surely reach the peak of pastry, breaking the highest ranking of pastry chefs in the Chef Record, but not now.
If Xu Cheng had to choose now, and not eat guo’er, he would definitely prefer to eat at Zhiwei Restaurant for a few days.
At Zhiwei Restaurant, there are more chefs and more snacks, and as long as it’s the master chef, the overall strength exceeds Qin Huai’s.
So the question arises, where did the Four Happiness glutinous rice come from? When did Qin Huai learn to make Four Happiness glutinous rice? Does Han Guishan love it so much that he holds it in such high regard?
Xu Cheng is already considering whether to recommend to Han Guishan a decent pastry chef who makes good glutinous rice after today’s birthday banquet, so his friend can get acquainted with the pastry world.
With this in mind, Xu Cheng started silently filtering through the pastry chefs he was familiar with.
On the other side, in the kitchen, as the cold dishes were served, the conversation between Qin Huai and Zang Liang started to veer off course.
Since they were idle, the two of them had already talked about this year’s New Year issue of "Taste", and Zang Liang started envisioning the future, daydreaming.
"If only the dishes I made could be featured in ’Taste’s’ New Year issue," Zang Liang said full of longing, "If I make it, I would call my parents to hang a banner from our village all the way to town. When I return for New Year, with fireworks and festivities, a three-day feast where I’d cook, letting villagers from ten miles around taste my skills."
Qin Huai sincerely advised from experience, "It would be exhausting."
It truly would be exhausting.
As a pastry chef, considering the demand for pastries, Qin Huai nearly exhausted himself when returning home for New Year, let alone Zang Liang, who is a meat chef specialized in Huaiyang cuisine.
It’s safe to say Zang Liang is clueless about the villagers’ appetite.
Zang Liang looked at Qin Huai with envy and jealousy, "You really don’t understand the hunger of those who are starving, having been featured in ’Taste’, you naturally feel it’s no big deal. I wouldn’t even expect to be on the cover, just appearing once would make me capture that segment and post it ten times a day in my Moments."
"Sigh, why didn’t my master think about taking me along the last time he was featured in ’Taste’? Could’ve let my name rub off a bit."
You are indeed a good apprentice of Zang Mu.
"You’re so young, you’ll surely appear in ’Taste’ again someday. Really, comparison between people can be deadly, and comparison between goods can lead to discarding them. It’s either feast or famine."
"I honestly don’t want to be featured in ’Taste’ again," Qin Huai said, "In January, Huang Ji’s business was frighteningly good, I felt like I was living there every day. The regular business was already overwhelming, another round would be unbearable."
Zang Liang said nothing, just silently took out his phone to message Tan Wei’an.
Zang Liang: You were right, Qin Huai is really good at hiding his success, I’m tempted to beat him up.
Tan Wei’an replied instantly: Always.
Just when Zang Liang was about to say more, Qin Huai put down the freshly wrapped Four Happiness glutinous rice and entered work mode, "Time’s up, Zang Liang, check if there’s space in the pot, I need to knead the dough to make Longevity Noodles."
"Later, keep an eye on the time, start cooking Four Happiness glutinous rice in 25 minutes, cook four kinds with four pots, each pot has different times, I’ve sent the specifics to you on WeChat."
Seeing Qin Huai switch to work mode instantly, Zang Liang was stunned and instinctively started working, asking, "When did you check the time?"
"Intuition," Qin Huai said, "Remember? I started out selling breakfast, rush hour breakfast can’t delay at all, if the buns are steamed late, students will be late for school, can’t afford any delay."
Zang Liang instantly admired breakfast chefs with great respect.
Not far away, Tong De Yan pointed at Qin Huai, "Look at him, chatting doesn’t affect his work at all, how about you guys?"
In fact, Qin Huai was really good at timing.
Longevity Noodles was the first pastry dish served, and many guests saw the servers bring it out per head, laughingly remarked that President Han really knew how to create an atmosphere. His son was only two years old and might not understand the noodles, yet he didn’t forget to serve Longevity Noodles at the birthday banquet for each guest.
The Longevity Noodles were left to cool in the kitchen for a while before being served at the right temperature.
Warm, brewed in chicken broth, the simple presentation of the Longevity Noodles didn’t detract from its aroma.
The chicken broth itself was very fragrant.
The long noodle, handmade and solitary in the bowl, looked very chewy, fitting the occasion, and showed great dedication.
By the time most of the dishes were consumed, those who liked to finish their meal with some staple food were pleasantly surprised to see Longevity Noodles. Picking up the noodles with chopsticks, they realized it wasn’t the usual subpar offering pretending to be Longevity Noodles, but indeed a genuine long noodle, leading to the exclamation:
"Wow, it’s really one long noodle. Haven’t had such authentic Longevity Noodles in a while."
Laughter followed from someone nearby, "Who would casually eat Longevity Noodles? President Han specially invited chefs from Beiping, the noodle chef must have been specially invited too, did you think it was just like the noodles you usually eat?"