Chapter 510: Chapter 422: Great Xia People at the Buffet—All About Getting Their Money’s Worth
Opened the email with trepidation.
As expected.
"So fast???"
She could hardly believe her eyes and pinched her thigh hard.
"Ouch!!"
"It hurts, it hurts!!"
"Did they really reply to me? It’s only been a few minutes, not even seven?"
After carefully reading through the email content, Vanessa was dumbfounded.
"To ensure the employees can eat, they actually want to expand the kitchen team?"
"My God, what a god-like boss!"
Unable to sit still for a moment, she immediately pushed herself up from the table and rushed to the door, eager to share the good news.
"What?!"
"We can have Chef Lin’s food again in the future?"
"Well done, Vanessa!!"
Not just the two security guards, even Elise was surprised that something she casually mentioned actually came true.
This woman Vanessa really dared to email the leadership?
The news that employees could eat spread quickly throughout the hotel building, even reaching the security personnel patrolling outside.
Even employees far away at the farm and dock received the news.
"???"
"Why did I get this message!"
"It’s as if I can go over and eat, really speechless."
"Rovena!!"
"When will the garlic sauce be delivered?"
Rovena never expected such a thing to pop up suddenly. Faced with the eager looks of the employees, he couldn’t help feeling a headache.
"What’s the rush? It’s mealtime now, Chef is busy, she doesn’t have time to make garlic sauce for us. For her, this is a side gig; it’s okay if she doesn’t have time to do it, she must prioritize her main job first!"
"So what are we having for lunch?"
"Folks over there almost get to dine in the restaurant, but we’ve been working all this time and never visited it once."
"If it weren’t for the chef setting up a stall here, we wouldn’t even know their skills are so good, and Great Xia cuisine is so delicious."
"Stop talking so much, I don’t want to remember that taste. Who’s responsible if I starve to death?"
"So what are we having for lunch?"
"Eat, eat, eat, that’s all you know!" Rovena slammed the table and stood up, "Whatever you’ve been eating, just eat that now. What, do I have to feed you?"
With his shout, the idle employees left reluctantly, grumbling under their breath as they went.
He wasn’t interested in listening, assuming it was the usual complaints anyway.
Looked at the time.
"It’s not even twelve?"
"Even if we’re lucky, if Lin finishes cooking lunch then makes us garlic sauce, it would still be 3 or 4 in the afternoon at the earliest?"
"Doesn’t look like it’s happening today, we’ll have to hope we can use it as a gimmick to attract tourists tomorrow."
"God bless, God bless..."
Over on Lin Chen’s side, while he was busy making pizzas, as time slowly passed, some self-service diners started noticing something was off.
"Strange, why haven’t the roast pork ribs been restocked? It’s been ten minutes, could it be they’re making them fresh?"
"The lamb chops grill is also empty. I’ve been here three times, at least twenty minutes!"
A few late-arriving diners were wandering around the serving area, puzzled as they gathered around a few empty chafing dishes.
"Could it be that they’re out of stock?"
"That shouldn’t be the case, there’s still half an hour before they close, it’s too early for a buffet to run out of food."
"There’s still plenty of roast chicken, and the wings and legs fill more than half the dish. The beef brisket is almost gone, but it looks like it’s been reheated for too long, it’s a bit dry."
"Hey! Beautiful lady, I want to ask when these meats will be restocked?"
Just then, Lucinda was pushing a cart full of dishes and passing by, and a hungry diner immediately called her over.
"Restock?"
Lucinda blinked her eyes, tilted her head to look at the empty chafing dishes, then checked the time, and nodded.
"I’ll go ask in the kitchen for you."
When she pushed the cart into the kitchen, heading straight for the dishwasher, she saw Jonathan leaning on the edge of the counter daydreaming.
With the guests outside waiting for so long, this guy was slacking off inside?
Anger welled up, and she walked over to slap Jonathan on the back with a heavy ’slap’.
"Ouch!!"
"Why did you hit me?"
Don’t be fooled by her less muscular build compared to men; Westerners generally have bigger frames, they grow up eating beef which gives them a high muscle content, coupled with a nationwide fitness trend, and the arm and core strength developed through years of work.
This slap made Jonathan jump from his spot, gritting his teeth and sucking in cold air.
"It’s so busy outside, and you’re just standing here dazing? Don’t you know you need to restock?"
"I did, just finished restocking ten minutes ago."
"Then why are the stoves with pork ribs and lamb chops empty? Several customers are over there asking me when the restock is coming."
"Uh... you really can’t blame me for this."
Jonathan scratched his head and spread his hands with a helpless look on his face: "Originally, the amount I prepared was enough to last until the end of lunch, but today for some reason, these particular meats are being consumed extremely fast."
"Wasn’t there a group of Great Xia guests at the start of the meal? They devoured the first batch of meat in five minutes, which should have lasted for thirty minutes!"
"When I served the second batch, they ate about half of it, which led to not enough for the following guests, and I couldn’t manage to make more in time..."
"That’s it?"
Upon hearing this, Lucinda remembered that there indeed was such an incident.
She was watching like an audience while the Great Xia tourists rushed in like bandits, clearing out several serving stoves in an instant.
At the time, she was rather pleased, thinking her team’s food was finally receiving love from the diners.
She didn’t expect this action to actually result in the subsequent diners missing out on food?
She scratched her head, knowing that Jonathan really couldn’t be blamed for this.
Judging by the past few weeks’ experience, restocking every half hour was indeed sufficient, today’s situation was an unforeseen incident that no one could have anticipated.
It’s not that more stock couldn’t be prepared, but the problem is if you prepare too much and can’t sell it, it’ll go to waste or turn into staff meals for internal consumption, and such extra expenses still need to be recorded on the books.
There are just a few employees; it’s impossible for them to eat all that food unless it’s divided among hotel staff.
Normally, no kitchen would do such a thing, always aiming to minimize costs, even if running out of stock in the last half hour or so leads to some diner dissatisfaction, they still won’t opt to prepare an extra batch.
"Really out of stock?"
"Huh? Are these roasted meats so delicious that they get snatched up half an hour early?"
The diners waiting in line here hearing this result were not that surprised, after all, encountering a situation with long stock delays in a buffet often means there’s no stock left.
Though they felt a tiny bit dissatisfied inside, there was a rising curiosity about how good these roasted meats must be to get snatched up so quickly.
"Are you roasting meats again at tomorrow’s lunch?"
"Yes, the menu is the same for the whole week."
"Then I’ll come earlier for lunch tomorrow!"
"Me too, I have to eat them before I go back!"
Thanks to the sell-out of these plates of roasted meats, the remaining diners had no choice but to redirect their assault targets to other kinds of roasted meats.
By the time the meal ended, the entire place was completely clean, only some salad was left uneaten, and even the thick soup was completely consumed.
"Huh? No leftover food?"
Jonathan was stunned when he came out to tally the aftermath, seeing this sight.
Having done the buffet for several weeks, it’s the first time he’s encountered food being eaten so clean.
It even gave him a feeling that the quantity of stock prepared was just right.
"I was originally thinking about whether to prepare more for tomorrow, but it seems unnecessary, just like this is perfect. It’s unlikely there will be a Great Xia diner group every day, right?"
"What was that? A Great Xia diner group?"
After the self-service area closed, only the dozen or so diners still waiting in line for pizza remained in the restaurant.
With the surrounding quieted down, Lin Chen’s ears caught the discussion here clearly.
"Yeah, today the hotel had a Great Xia tour group of about a dozen people..."
Jonathan briefly explained the situation, and he also wanted to ask Lin Chen whether this was an isolated case or a common occurrence.
After all, no one really knew the lifestyle habits of tourists from the Asian side.
"Uh..."
Lin Chen chuckled wryly twice, nodding: "Yes, that’s quite accurate, for the other countries’ people I’m not too sure about, but we Great Xia people, when dining at a buffet, usually fall into two types."
"Most female diners typically choose what they like to eat, not caring much about the price, like cakes and desserts, and these diners are the main source of revenue for buffets."
"The other group is mostly male diners, who specifically target expensive meats or seafood, almost never touching cheaper or vegetable soups, desserts, focusing on getting their money’s worth."
"The tour group you encountered today probably had more males, right?"
Jonathan scratched his head, directing a questioning gaze towards Lucinda and Helena.
He only went out to restock once and didn’t stay long, so he was really unsure about the composition of the Great Xia tour group.
The two women furrowed their brows thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded.
"That’s right, it seems there were eight men, three or four women, the guide was male too."
Lin Chen continued: "If you’re still worried, you can ask the front desk about how long those tourists are staying."
"What I’m selling here are the most ordinary foods in the Great Xia Kingdom; they’re probably not very interested in eating them, but if they’re still staying here tomorrow, there’s a high probability they will continue to dine in the buffet."
"Normally, eating buffet for two consecutive days is definitely not a problem, but by the third day, they might get a bit tired of it."
With this reminder, Jonathan’s eyes lit up.
"Right, right, good idea, then we’ll know the stock quantity for tomorrow, Helena, could you please make a trip to the hotel front desk?"
