It’s a pity there are still too few partners. Otherwise, Lin Ji’s business would probably be even busier. But there’s no rush. Once the new shop opens, and with Dad’s company also ordering, things will pick up. Besides, he’s quite fond of the meats from the shop; ordering boxed meals from here is the perfect way for him to satisfy his cravings.
After the Shen Family left, a well-fed Xie Baomin came to the kitchen to start helping out.
"Let me handle all the Crispy Meat tasks today. I’ll take care of these, and you, Junior Brother, just focus on rolling out noodles. We can divide the rest of the work."
Since it was the last day, there would undoubtedly be plenty of customers coming for noodles. So, they decided to have Lin Xu stationed at the cutting board, fully responsible for making hand-rolled noodles.
While everyone was busy, Wei Qian walked in with a kitchen knife. "Lin Xu, you didn’t even tell me it was your last day open! I only found out when I saw it online..."
Lin Xu asked curiously, "What about your work?"
"I swapped shifts with someone. It’s not busy over there, so swapping shifts is pretty common."
As he spoke, Wei Qian entered the kitchen. Seeing Lin Xu preparing Pickled Pork, he took over without a second thought. "You focus on something else. I’ll handle the Pickled Pork and Steamed Pork Ribs with Black Bean Sauce."
In the Yanjing TV Station’s travel channel office, Zeng Xiaoqi was munching on a bun and sipping soy milk while checking the popularity of the Lin Ji’s Food topic online. Motivated by the prize money, netizens had transformed into budding writers, posting numerous anecdotes about Lin Xu under the Lin Ji’s Food topic. This not only attracted more netizens but also ignited their creative enthusiasm. Now, there were not only stories in the invincible, transmigration, regression, and behind-the-scenes genres, but even romance, mecha, and Myriad Realms-style anecdotes had appeared, making Zeng Xiaoqi nearly choke with laughter several times as she read them.
While she was eating, Channel Director Zhen Wensheng walked in.
"How was the interview at Lin Ji yesterday?"
"The food at Lin Ji is absolutely delicious! Director Zhen, I want to propose creating a food program for our channel, inviting high-caliber chefs to cook. What do you think?"
"A food program?" Zhen Wensheng looked somewhat surprised. After a moment of thought, he said, "Food is indeed an evergreen topic. You can write up a proposal first, and we’ll discuss it with the station heads later. I have a new idea I’d like us to plan first." Follow current novels on novel✦fire.net
"What idea?" Zeng Xiaoqi even stopped eating her bun, looking at Zhen Wensheng curiously.
This Channel Director had not only founded the Beijing Travel Channel from scratch with limited resources but had also built it into the second most-watched travel channel nationwide, surpassed only by the CCTV Travel Channel. To think he has a new idea now! It must be something big.
"After you all left yesterday, I thoroughly reviewed the information online. I also learned about the culinary competition held at Fishing Platform a few days ago. Although our station only covered it as a small news item, its social impact was quite broad. Therefore, I plan to collaborate with travel groups like China Travel, National Travel, and Capital Travel, as well as the Travel Association and the Hotel Association. We’ll invite ten international hotels from Yanjing to host another culinary competition!"
What? Another culinary competition? Zeng Xiaoqi was puzzled. Fishing Platform just hosted one. Wouldn’t holding another one so soon be redundant?
"What if those hotels don’t want to participate?"
Zhen Wensheng smiled at her concern. "Don’t worry about that. When the time comes, I’ll personally go to Fishing Platform to extend the invitation. As long as Lin Xu agrees to participate, the other restaurants will definitely be eager to join. After all, who wouldn’t want to defeat the champion from Fishing Platform?"
Defeat Boss Lin? Zeng Xiaoqi immediately felt less interested. She was still hoping Lin Xu would help by appearing on her food show. If he were defeated, how much appeal would he have left? Besides, Director Zhen is so enthusiastic right now, it’s not the time to raise objections. I’ll just wait and see if he can even persuade Fishing Platform and Lin Xu.
In the hotel industry, Fishing Platform was notoriously proud. They didn’t participate in any social groups like five-star hotel alliances, platinum hotel federations, or various hotel associations. They also steered clear of public disputes and hype, preferring to quietly maintain their position as the industry leader. Getting such an establishment to participate in a culinary competition would be quite difficult. If they wanted to host one, they could simply organize it themselves and wouldn’t deign to compete with or learn from outside chefs.
However, looking at it from another angle... if Lin Xu were to win the championship in this competition too, wouldn’t my food program become a hit before it even aired?
Thinking of this, Zeng Xiaoqi started to feel a little excited about the culinary competition Zhen Wensheng was organizing.
At 10:30 in the morning, all the ingredients in the shop were ready.
Lin Xu looked at Niu Chuan and said, "Go ahead and start rolling the noodles. We’ll have the noodles you make for lunch today."
Niu Chuan, who was enthusiastic about making hand-rolled noodles, readily agreed. He picked up a rolling pin and began to roll out the dough, feeling increasingly adept at the task.
Sometimes he even felt his noodles were indistinguishable from the boss’s. His only real struggle was with preparing the Dough; it would either be too firm or too slack from too much water, making it difficult to achieve the perfect consistency that Lin Xu always managed.
Soon, bowls of hand-rolled noodles were ready.
Just as everyone picked up their bowls to eat, a system notification sounded in Lin Xu’s mind:
"Ding! Host has guided Niu Chuan in making a total of one hundred bowls of hand-rolled noodles, completing the side quest [Skill Training]. You’ve earned one lottery draw for an Excellent Level Basic Cooking Technique. Employee Niu Chuan has gained the Excellent Level Hand-Rolled Noodle Technique (excluding Dough Technique). Congratulations, Host."