Chapter 352 Chef
Elin wiped the sweat on her forehead with the towel, making sure her sweat did not drop into the food. An hour ago, she was in the prep team, but when the soldiers' wives came, they began questioning her why she was here preparing the ingredients instead of cooking.
Without her consent, they told Cook Yun how capable Elin was. It was not exaggerated to say that Elin's cooking had won over these people's hearts during their stay in HZ Bay.
Through the recommendation, Cook Yun put Elin in charge of cooking the stew, "Elin, we ran out the stew. How long until the next stew comes?" Cook Yun approached Elin's station. As she got closer, she smelled the fragrant aroma that assaulted her nose.
"10 minutes. I need 5 minutes to cook the meat, but someone just gets a big pot–" Elin had not finished her words that Cook Yun cut in, "These people choose your stew instead of my mushroom soup."
Elinova furrowed her brows, "Then let them eat the Mushroom Soup. They can't be picky with the food while they're starving," she was quite upset that these people became picky while they were starving.
"Mnnn…" Cook Yun looked toward the line who was waiting for the stew. She could hear the loud voice, asking for the stew.
Elin immediately noticed that Cook Yun was afraid of these people. She did not wait for Cook Yun to respond to her as came out of her station. She noticed the long line, from the entrance from the second floor to the food station.
The staff who served the food looked nervous as five fierce men were glaring at them. Elinova scanned the long line once more. She spotted kids were also in the line, starving like the adults too.
"What's wrong? Why does the line stop?" She asked the ten staff who were in charge of handing out the food.
The five fierce-looking men looked toward her, the same for the staff. A girl in her teens looked toward the men before looking toward Elin, "T-these five sirs want the stew, b-but…" the girl was stuttering.
"The stew is not ready, eat what is available on the counter!" She told the five men. Elin was not afraid of them since she had experienced serving food to people that were scarier than these five thug-looking men in the inn, not because her man was the Boss of this base. The fact that Tang Shaoyang was her man was more reason for her to not fear these people.
"How long until the stew is ready? We are willing to wait," one man replied with his rough voice.
"No, you can't wait. You have to eat what we prepared for you!" Elin's tone was forceful, "This is not a restaurant, you don't pay for what you want!
"You have caused a long line, and if you want to wait, you can rejoin the line from the back!" She pointed at the stairs, where people were still waiting for their turn to get food. The end of the line could not be seen.
"Give them their tray, if they still insist to wait, call Tarriors, there are people causing trouble here!" Elin then told the staff, her tone was not commanding but firm.
Hearing the name of Tarrior, the five men's expressions changed. They immediately got their tray and left the line. Elin did not know that her action would leave a deep impression on the staff. She went back to the station and saw Cook Yun was peeking toward the counter.
"They have left the counter," she informed Cook Yun as she checked the pot of stew. She opened the lid as the stronger fragrant aroma came out from the pot.
"God, you are so brave, Elin. What if they come back and harass you?" Cook Yun turned while rubbing her chest. Her attention was on the fragrance pot. After hesitating for a while, Cook Yun could not contain her curiosity and asked, "Why is your stew so fragrance and tasty, do you have a secret or something?"
"I have a secret spice with me," Elin showed a bamboo tube. It was her creation, living inside the forest since she was a kid, she managed to create a new spice from the wild plants, "As for those men, they won't dare to harass me," she smiled.
"Cook Yun, what about if we change the course? I know that soup will help them to relieve their hunger, but it will take a longer time to cook it," the Mushroom soup and her stew took a longer time to cook. It was not efficient while they had to feed thousands of people.
"Do you have an idea?" Cook Yun listened to Elin's advice.
"Yes, what about if we roast the meat? Not a lot of preparation as you only need to season the meat and put it in the oven," Elin thought that roasting the meat was quite simple. You just needed the right time to make it.
"But it will quickly deplete our meat stock," Thousands of people needed a lot of meat to feed them. Their stock might not be enough.
"We don't give the whole roasted meat, but three slices only per person. Then we can make a light base potato soup with my spices, and I also have a recipe to make a quick soft bread. I think this will be enough," Elin voiced her thoughts.
The current menu was soup and rice, she felt that the process was too long and much preparation work needed. It was not feasible to serve thousands of people with the current menu, the team would be exhausted to finish the meal.
Her menu was quite simple, pounding the meat, then seasoned the mean, and pan-fried the outside before putting the meat into the oven or they could grill the meat too.
The soup in her mind was quite simple too, cutting the potato and vegetables, then putting them into the pot with boiling water in it. With her spices, it would taste good for sure.
The bread was quite troubling, but she had seen the modern mixer. They just needed to put the dough recipe and kneaded them after the dough was fully mixed. It would only take 15-20 minutes to bake the bread. That was why she called it quick soft bread.
Cook Yun did not hesitate to give her kitchen to Elin. She was getting overwhelmed by the number of people that kept coming. On top of that, she had seen how capable Elin was. She saw the girl was cooking three pots of stew alone, so she trusted her. Cook Yun was still unaware that Elin was her Boss's woman. Her decision was pure of trust in Elin.
"Alright," as soon as Elin got the consent from the head cool, she immediately took over the kitchen. The original staff in the kitchen were 47 cooks, added with the soldiers' wives, there were around 130 people in the kitchen.
"I will be in charge of making the bread. Can you give me your people that know to bake too? I need 20 people," she asked Cook Yun.
"Consider that done, what's next?" Cook Yun nodded and asked for more instruction.
"Sister Fan, you are in charge of the soup. Get sixty people with you, I want five pots of soup ready soon," Sister Fan was one of the soldier's wives. Elin had worked with her, so she knew that she could trust Sister Fan.
"Cook Yun, you will be in charge of the meat. You can grill and roast the meat, do as you fit," Elin then gave Cook Yun two bamboo tubes of secret spices, "Use this to season the meat."
After giving two bamboo tubes, she also gave Sister Fan another two bamboo tubes. Feeding thousands of people with little preparation was without doubt a taxing job. The pressure on them since it was the Boss' order to feed these people.
Twenty minutes later, Cook Yun came back, "Elin, what about this?" There was a plate with three slices of grilled meat. Elin tasted the meat and raised her thumb to Cook Yun, "That's good, but the seasoning is too strong."
"Elin what about this one?" Sister Fan came to her with a bowl of soup. Elin scooped the potato and the veggies into her mouth, "The seasoning is good, but the potato is a little bit hard, and the veggies are overcooked. 1-2 minutes for the potato…" Elin then instructed Sister Fan on the arrangement of veggies to enter the pot.
"Sister Elin, the bread is ready!" A younger female approached as she pointed at the bread on top of the counter. Thirty-five pieces of bread were on the tray with a beautiful golden-brown crust on top. Elin was confident with her bread, but she still came over and tasted it.
The crunchy crust outside, soft and flaky inside. The bread had turned into something she wanted, even better than she expected, in fact, 'Does this world have a better ingredient than Arkania Continent?' The different ingredients might be the factor.
"Good, serve the bread together with the soup and meat!" Elin nodded before she went to her station to make more dough.
She did this to help Tang Shaoyang. She realized that she could not help in battle or a fight, but she could help to run the base, like manage the kitchen where she excelled.
Elin kept making the dough and let the others help her to shape them. Tray after tray came out of the kitchen until she heard the foreign voice in her head.
[Congratulations! You have created a new recipe and a hundred people have acknowledged your creation!]
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the second class, Chef!]
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