Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

Chapter 576: Chapter 488: Everyone on Deck, Five Flavors of Baozi

Though most foods are best tasted at their place of origin, this is an international event after all. Athletes come from all over the world, and every region has different taste preferences.

Pizzas, burgers, fries, pasta, and salads have been popular for countless years. Those who would get bored of them already have, and those who haven’t surely aren’t interested in common, unremarkable pizzas.

Except for the local nostalgics.

From this perspective, venturing out for food becomes a necessity.

"This doesn’t have anything to do with me anyway. Just listening in for fun. Paris is an hour away from here. Even if people are idle, they wouldn’t come all the way to dine with me and then head back."

Now, on the eve of the competition, athletes certainly need to maintain their training intensity to prepare for the upcoming international event. They won’t have so much free time to travel out of town for a meal.

Magna shrugged: "Of course I know that. I just mentioned it casually."

"It would be a miracle if they showed up here. Everything has been scouted on-site days in advance."

"Alright, I’m done chit-chatting with you. I’ve got a ton of work to do."

Lin Chen waved his hand, closed the seafood box, and pushed the trolley into the cold storage.

Magna, having nothing to do, looked around without much interest in the new chefs.

He didn’t see Lucas, Dais, or any of them. There was still some time before dinner.

Waiting idly didn’t make sense, so he simply left the kitchen to find a corner to nap for a bit.

With everyone’s combined efforts, in just over an hour, several large bowls of bun filling and dough were ready, the red bean soup was stewing in the pot, and the dough for sauced pancakes was oiled and covered with cloth.

At this moment, it was only around four-thirty, with two and a half hours to go before the seven o’clock meal.

Starting this week, the meal times on both sides would be unified at seven, with no more early servings.

If not for yesterday being Sunday, making it inconvenient to call the staff in early to prepare dinner, they wouldn’t have had to wake up and hustle in the middle of the night today.

About to start wrapping buns, Lin Chen suddenly realized a problem.

He had no concept of exactly how many buns ten people could wrap in two and a half hours.

After some mental calculations, even if the five newcomers together equaled the efficiency of one of the three veterans, the number of people present translated to the workload of two skilled workers.

Calculating conservatively, ten seconds per bun means three hundred in an hour, and five people would make fifteen hundred.

In two and a half hours, that’s nearly four thousand.

And that’s on the lower end.

Someone like Chris, a pastry chef, is incredibly proficient with dough. With half an hour or an hour of practice, the speed could definitely rise.

Even though the other people’s progress is relatively slower, there’s no way they’d stagnate. They would absolutely improve from half a minute per bun at the start to wrapping one in ten to twenty seconds.

Calculating this way, wrapping five thousand buns in two and a half hours is the minimum.

"Five thousand buns..."

He glanced at the already stuffed kitchen space, covering his head in frustration.

"Not enough space!"

They were making big buns today. Each steamer can hold twelve to fifteen at most, and the kitchen had a stock of one hundred steamers, enough for only fifteen hundred buns.

Setting aside where to store the remaining nearly four thousand buns, the wrapped buns can’t sit long. They have to be steamed immediately, or the dough will keep fermenting, affecting the final appearance and taste.

"Hold on, everyone!"

Realizing this, he quickly stopped the group.

"There’s still time before breakfast service starts. We can begin wrapping over an hour earlier."

"In this interim hour, I have two options for you to choose from, and you can vote on it."

"First, everyone helps prep the lunch ingredients ahead of time. With so many hands, it should take about an hour. Afterwards, the breakfast team can head home for a nap and come back in the afternoon."

"Once the lunch team finishes lunch service, today’s work would be done, and you can go directly to rest. Those who want to earn more can stay and help."

Hearing that they could rest after work, everyone instantly perked up, their faces losing the sleepy look.

But no one spoke up hastily. They wanted to hear what the second option was.

"The second option, similar to the first, but instead of resting after finishing breakfast, the breakfast team starts preparing the retail products, essentially doing the afternoon work in advance."

"Once done, the breakfast team’s work for the day would be over, and if the work hours don’t total eight, I will adjust your timecard in the backend to ensure you still get paid accordingly."

"These are the two options for today’s plan, and in addition, we need to consider a plan for future work timings."

"Would you all prefer to prepare the ingredients the night before, allowing you to sleep an extra hour or two the next morning, or come early in the morning to prepare everything on-site, like now?"

The two questions with four options quickly got everyone’s CPUs running at high speed, all discussing and choosing their preferences.

Seeing there’s no way to unify the decision for now, Lin Chen didn’t want the situation to stagnate and waste time, so he decisively made a decision.

"Since that’s the case, today I will decide. Everyone will stay here to work until the lunch ends and then we’ll rest together. I’ll inform you later what time to prepare for tomorrow morning’s tasks."

"After lunch is over, please think carefully about which option you prefer, and send the results directly to me. I’ll tally them up, and the option with the most votes will be prioritized."

"But don’t worry, this system isn’t fixed; it may change depending on what needs to be prepared the next day."

"In most cases, we’ll still prioritize following this system."

Glancing at the time, there wasn’t much left until five o’clock, estimating that Daniel should be arriving soon.

"First, let’s start learning how to make dumplings, just make some simple ones for our breakfast. The ingredients for lunch will be delivered soon."

"Once they arrive, everyone can help with chopping and prepping, and we’ll officially start making dumplings at six o’clock."

With a clear plan, the kitchen operations returned to normal, and the efficiency gradually improved.

Nine chefs divided into groups of three, each learning how to make dumplings around three Great Xia People.

Even if language barriers existed with Old Chen and Zhao Shun, it didn’t matter; techniques can be grasped by watching and practicing repeatedly. The rest is about accumulating proficiency through practice.

With groups of three, people could observe more carefully without crowding, allowing for detailed guidance.

It only took five minutes.

Just as Lin Chen had foreseen, Chris took the lead in starting to make dumplings after watching him make two, quickly completing a decent-looking one.

Although not quite refined, it directly reached the passing line—it resembled those sold at street breakfast stalls.

Seeing her master the skill so quickly left Lin and another chef bewildered and anxious, prompting them to start trying themselves.

But the first step proved tricky when they began pinching pleats after filling the meat.

"How is this first pleat pinched?"

Lin Chen, chuckling, patiently picked up another dumpling skin to demonstrate the whole process slowly.

Chris didn’t flaunt her advantage and joined in to watch patiently again before continuing to attempt.

Whether it was because this group’s members could communicate with the mentor or not, they surprisingly became the first group to make everyone learn successfully.

Within just over ten minutes, Lin and the other chef grasped the basic techniques, producing slightly crooked dumplings.

Meanwhile, in front of Chris was a collection of five or six completed dumplings, with visible improvement generating a strong sense of satisfaction and confidence.

Including Jonathan’s group, among the eighteen chefs present, having five types of dumpling flavors meant each person eating one would roughly be full, requiring at least ninety dumplings to be made.

Lin Chen’s task for them was simple: each person had to make at least five qualified dumplings that could be sold based on appearance.

Since they are eating themselves, it’s better for them to be ugly than to serve poorly made ones to guests.

Even though none of them were professional pastry chefs, making pasta is a mandatory course for all western chefs; simple bread and pies are also essential skills, along with puff pastry dishes, all somewhat involving dough.

After making five dumplings, almost everyone had grasped the key points, gradually entering the rhythm.

Lin Chen didn’t stop them from continuing; since Daniel hadn’t arrived yet, any extra dumplings could be steamed for Magna and Daniel to eat, and for the arriving waitstaff.

With so many mouths waiting, a few hundred dumplings were definitely needed.

Once everyone was fed, their skills will surely have reached a certain level, making the official opening completely feasible.

"Chef!"

Just as he returned to his spot, Lin suddenly raised her hand, pointing to three prepared bowls of filling on the adjacent table.

"What ingredients are in those three bowls?"

Earlier, she was busy preparing the dough needed for the sauced pancakes with Chris, so she hadn’t participated in the dumpling filling preparation process and was unaware of today’s dumpling flavors.

Aside from the two bowls of mushroom and greens, and cabbage fillings in front of them, the other three bowls of meat fillings were unrecognizable based on appearance alone.

"This is pork and scallion, raw meat, the most popular and common dumpling filling in Great Xia."

Lin Chen pointed to the first bowl of slightly pink meat filling, saying, "The second bowl is sauced beef, made with sautéed onions and beef mixed with raw ground beef, typical of northern flavors."

"And the third bowl..."