Chapter 553: Chapter 546: Don’t Panic
Fu Yu quickly stepped forward: "Chef Liu, I’m here!"
Liu Yunong was visibly surprised, glanced at the time: "So early."
After greeting, Liu Yunong instructed: "All right, it’s just time to start preparing the ingredients, follow me and have a look."
Fu Yu followed Liu Yunong to the storeroom.
Making Baota Pork requires top-quality pork belly.
Liu Yunong checked the quality of the meat, and after being satisfied, directed the assistants to handle it.
At this time, the restaurant hadn’t started serving guests yet, and everyone in the kitchen was busy preparing the dishes.
Fu Yu was not idle either, working with a few assistants to carry the meat and prepare the seasonings, doing everything himself.
Liu Yunong is very strict in managing her subordinates, from ingredient procurement to utensil use, and even holds a weekly meeting with rewards and penalties.
The newly hired service staff and assistants in the restaurant often have to stay back for training after their shifts.
Every time Fu Yu came over, he would work with the assistants without taking any breaks.
Anyone else would surely have some complaints.
But Fu Yu understood that he came here to learn cooking, and the master took time out of his busy schedule to guide him, only letting him do trivial tasks.
Compared to learning the master’s skills without spending a penny, what’s there to complain about?
Of course, as Zhao Meng advised, he should do as much work as he could, since it wouldn’t kill him anyway.
Really mastering the culinary skills is what’s important!
Liu Zhangpeng saw Fu Yu carrying a heavy basin of pork belly and quickly stepped forward to help, speaking warmly: "Xiaofu, here, let me help you carry it."
Fu Yu was stunned. Why is Liu Zhangpeng acting so strangely?
Originally, Liu Zhangpeng was kind to him, but he never used to help with such manual labor, which was usually done by assistants.
But now, he was willing to help carry the meat with him.
And he even started calling him Xiaofu.
Before, he always politely addressed him as Chef Fu.
Fu Yu quickly said: "Thank you, Chef Liu, looks like today’s menu is full of challenging dishes."
Liu Zhangpeng smiled: "Indeed, there are two challenging dishes today, which we usually don’t have the chance to make."
After all preparations were completed, everyone returned to their stations to start cooking.
Before cooking, Liu Yunong checked the ingredients on the kitchen counter and briefly introduced the cooking process of Baota Pork to Fu Yu, along with some points to consider when selecting ingredients.
Fu Yu listened carefully, combining it with the cooking tutorials he had previously reviewed from classic traditional recipes.
Comparing the two, he gained a whole new understanding and insight into the cooking method of this dish.
While speaking, Liu Yunong checked the preserved vegetables.
The assistant had already washed the preserved vegetables slightly as instructed, and let them soak in water.
Liu Yunong required that they be washed every ten minutes, and the water changed each time.
They also needed to be soaked in a large perforated basin so that the small sand particles would fall through during the soaking process.
The washing process had to be done more than five times.
Liu Yunong was very satisfied with the prepared preserved vegetables and turned to give Fu Yu a detailed explanation on how to soak the preserved vegetables.
Liu Yunong was actually very curious about Fu Yu.
Although she rarely let Fu Yu handle the cooking, whenever he was given the opportunity, he always performed extraordinarily well and stood out.
Especially in the skills of deboning and tying, he repeatedly impressed Liu Yunong.
He was also very skilled in controlling the fire and knife skills, whether it was stir-frying or slow-cooking, or slicing and carving, the proficiency of his skills was something unattainable without decades of experience!
So, although Liu Yunong didn’t say anything on the surface, she was very interested in Fu Yu at heart.
She wanted to see just how good Fu Yu’s knife skills were.
Liu Yunong had never had the thought of taking on a student before.
It’s not that she didn’t want to, but she always adhered to the principle of preferring quality over quantity.
Being the legitimate descendant of Lady Liu, Liu Yunong was a very proud person.
This pride was innate, deeply ingrained.
It wasn’t the kind of disdain and arrogance that looked down on others, but a serious attitude towards cooking, for herself, her cooking techniques, and everything related to culinary arts.
She had extremely high self-expectations.
She had very comprehensive and strict plans for herself.
Through systematic planning, she aimed to continuously improve, becoming better, not only becoming more skilled in culinary arts, but also leading the team at Shangshi Private Kitchen to fully promote Liu Family Cuisine.
Although based in the province, Liu Yunong’s gaze was always set beyond the province, and in the future, she planned to open one branch after another across the country, and even hoped to promote Liu Family Cuisine worldwide in her lifetime.
Her goal wasn’t confined here.
She aimed far.
With great ambition, the pressure she bore was also substantial.
Therefore, she never allowed herself to slack off!
Meeting Fu Yu was a very coincidental event.
But in the long journey of life, countless coincidences happen.
Fu Yu was the only one who caught her attention, repeatedly surprising her and standing out.
Fu Yu’s appearance made Liu Yunong suddenly have a thought she never had before.
The goals she set for herself were so immense that she might not be able to achieve them in her lifetime.
If she couldn’t do it, perhaps her apprentice could take over and complete this dream.
Even though it wouldn’t be achieved by her own hands, it would still count as reaching the set goal...
Thinking of this, Liu Yunong instinctively shook her head, as if trying to shake off the somewhat overly pessimistic thought from her mind.
Whether it was a goal or a dream, they belonged to her, and she needed to prove with her own strength that she could accomplish it, not by relying on others.
Thinking of this, Liu Yunong couldn’t help but chuckle, "What’s the rush? The purpose of desperately learning culinary arts is to achieve the goal!"
"And don’t expect to achieve anything overnight."
She’s still young, there’s still time.
Don’t panic!
...
Fu Yu stood in front of the kitchen counter, this time he would independently handle the cooking of the Baota Pork.
Liu Zhangpeng looked at Fu Yu, slightly stunned, wondering why Fu Yu was allowed to start cooking without even being taught?
Even Wang Yulong was somewhat puzzled, glancing at Liu Yunong, and seeing that Liu Yunong showed no intention of stopping and was letting Fu Yu proceed, he decided not to interfere either.
Today the restaurant temporarily planned to serve 40 tables, which meant that just for the Baota Pork, 40 portions of semi-prepared ingredients needed to be prepared in advance.
The kitchen staff was limited after all, so the workload was quite large.
Since Liu Yunong was personally overseeing, it didn’t matter even if something went wrong.
