Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

Chapter 589: Chapter 501: Double the Methods, Maximum Efficiency

"You want us to help out in the kitchen?"

"Sure, sure, I’ve never worked officially in a kitchen before, I’m so excited~"

"Today’s menu looks delicious. I wonder which dish they’ll have us help prepare..."

Upon receiving the news, Helena immediately had the ten servers in the restaurant head into the kitchen to work, but soon realized with over twenty people squeezed into the kitchen, there wasn’t much room to maneuver.

So, they pulled two tables over to the kitchen entrance, removing the tablecloths and utensils to use them as temporary workstations.

Seeing the young girls filled with anticipation for the unknown work, she smiled and shook her head.

"Still too young."

"You five, go to the cold storage and bring out all the avocados. Get a cart. The boxes should be stacked against the wall."

"You five, there are a few boxes of potatoes on the shelf outside the cold storage. Take two boxes to wash clean and cut into quarters. Remember to peel them."

"You four, bring out six boxes of Romaine lettuce. I’ll show you how to clean them later."

It took Jonathan only three seconds after receiving Lin Chen’s notification to decide on the tasks for these young, pretty girls, leaving the heavy lifting to the only two men.

After all, the weight of kitchen ingredients isn’t much different from moving bricks at a construction site. For big boxes of ingredients like potatoes, each box is over twenty kilograms. Items like olive oil and sea salt flour also start at twenty kilograms.

If the girls were to carry them, they could easily get injured, and if they got exhausted, it would affect their subsequent service work, which wouldn’t be worth it.

Apart from those helping to handle fresh ingredients, the rest were assigned to carry flour, using the recipe’s quantities and steps to dump various materials into the kneading machine, preparing the dough needed for various breads in advance.

In no time, every chef in the kitchen had to oversee four to five server girls, and the fragrance of butter in the air was replaced by a variety of perfume scents mixed together. It would make one think they’d stumbled into a mall’s perfume sales event.

Even though these servers had never worked in a kitchen before, dishes like salad and mashed potatoes are common Western home meals, something they had made at home. With on-site demonstrations from a few chefs, everyone quickly got busy.

With enough hands to help, the workload that would have originally taken one or two hours to complete was almost finished in just about half an hour.

Helena had Dais’s group go back to work, while keeping her group in the kitchen to help out. She and Lucinda could handle the front hall for the time being.

When the buffet first starts, there’s not much that requires their attention. The real busy time starts fifteen to twenty minutes after the first batch of guests enters.

Once the guests finish their first round and get up to hunt for food, they need to clear all the empty plates from the tables to ensure a good dining experience for the guests.

Of course, if they don’t manage to clear them in time, it’s no big deal. Most guests don’t mind, and just stack new plates on top.

After all, people come to a buffet knowing that the service quality won’t be as high as ordering à la carte.

At the restaurant entrance, Dais led a few people in advance payment, while also distinguishing between buffet and à la carte guests, opening the barrier in advance to let the already paid guests queue up.

Buffet guests wore green plastic tags on their wrists, while à la carte guests had red tags, following the path to the side food cart area.

Once the number of guests increased, the hotel wasn’t idle either, dispatching several security personnel to help maintain order and setting up plenty of barriers for guests to queue easily.

"I expected this restaurant would do well, but isn’t this a bit too much?"

Many locals who came early to line up stood on tiptoe, looking around, feeling surprised to see so many diners on site.

The hotel restaurant’s good business had long been known, and usually, whether they had business or not, they’d circle around for a look, maybe to hear some gossip, having a decent idea of the daily customer flow.

But coming today, they found it wasn’t what they thought. The madness of these out-of-town tourists far exceeded their imagination, with numbers more than double the usual.

"With so many people lining up, the quality of today’s dishes should be high, right?"

"Who cares, since I’m already in line, I’m definitely going to eat here today!"

"It’s moving, it’s moving, the line is finally moving!!"

At 07:00 on the wall clock, the restaurant doors quietly opened.

"Please, guests numbered 1-50 enter for dining first. Guests at the back, please don’t rush, we’ll open up slots gradually according to available seating in the restaurant."

As the buffet began seating guests, a large wave of diners also arrived at the food cart area.

Stacks of steaming baskets were carried down from iron pots, piled up by flavor for easy distinction.

Lin Chen, Zhao Shun, and Old Chen were busy by the brick stove, each managing two flat pans, making savory pancakes, as a new round of steaming baskets was transferred to the food cart area.

Three stacks of steaming baskets filled the window, and two mobile stoves sat in front of the food cart on the floor, with over ten steamers on each.

Probably because these mobile stoves were relatively low, only reaching an adult male’s knee, allowing for more steamer baskets to be stacked.

From knee height to the height reachable by standing on tiptoe, there’s plenty of room for over ten baskets.

Nearly fifty steaming baskets steamed simultaneously on the pots, with ten large buns in each; that’s a total of five hundred, with each flavor having a hundred, maximizing efficiency.

Guests lined up directly to the table, peeking into the freshly uncovered steaming baskets still exuding steam. They couldn’t help but start swallowing when they saw the enticingly thin-skinned buns soaked in meat and vegetable juices.

Even guests who had never tried buns, after waiting for over half an hour, were already starving.

Now, smelling the fragrant wheat aroma, the hunger beckoned to their brains, losing control of reason altogether.

"Give me ten! Two of each flavor should be enough, right?"

"Huh??"

Su was managing order here. Hearing the first guest’s order, she instantly realized this person had probably never had buns before, quickly picking up a megaphone to explain, fearing the guests at the back would be misled.

"Please hold on, sir, don’t rush. Isn’t ten a bit too much?"

"These Great Xia Buns are filled with rich stuffing. Normally, women with standard appetites can get full on two to three, and men on three to five. Two buns are equivalent to one hamburger in portion."