The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

Chapter 89: Chapter 88: The Gua Clan, Once Again

After seeing Sun Mingze and his wife off smoothly, Yao Shi turned around to head back.

The supervisor followed closely behind.

Yao Shi instructed, ”Alright, the issue has been resolved. You can go back to work.”

The supervisor cautiously asked, ”Boss, Xiaoteng was the one who handled the order. Do you want me to tell her about this?”

Yao Shi waved his hand, ”No need. I’ll see if I have time in the next few days to come over and have a meeting with everyone. We can discuss it then.”

Fu Yu and Ren Mingqing were waiting in the front hall, and when they saw Yao Shi returning, they hurriedly went to greet him.

Yao Shi dismissed the supervisor and then said to Ren Mingqing, ”Old Ren, it’s been hard on you for this trip. Hurry home now.”

Ren Mingqing’s son had been in the army for three years and was discharged today. Originally, he planned to go home early to celebrate, but plans couldn’t keep up with changes.

After being busy all around, it was already dark, and he hadn’t even seen his son yet.

Ren Mingqing didn’t stand on ceremony, he nodded, ”Alright then, boss, I’m leaving now.”

Yao Shi remembered something and suddenly asked, ”Is your son having a family gathering now that he’s back?”

Ren Mingqing chuckled, ”Of course, even if we don’t arrange it, my elder brother’s side will definitely organize one.”

Yao Shi instructed, ”When the time comes, just come to our restaurant to hold it. Consider it a benefit for employees.”

Ren Mingqing was taken aback at first, then delighted, ”Sure, thank you, Boss.”

Yao Shi waved his hand, ”No need to thank me. It’s getting late, hurry up and go.”

It’s already past seven; in summer, the days are long, but it’s dark now.

Ren Mingqing didn’t stand on ceremony any longer. He said goodbye to Fu Yu and hurriedly left.

Only then did Yao Shi turn to Fu Yu and say sincerely, ”Thanks to you today!”

[Ding! You have gained 10 favorability points from NPC Chef Yao Shi]

Suddenly gaining favorability points from Yao Shi surprised Fu Yu a bit.

He wondered if having higher favorability might help with the apprenticeship task.

”Sigh...” Yao Shi sighed, ”What an exhausting evening! Okay, let’s go check the back kitchen. You’re not in a hurry to go back tonight, are you?”

Fu Yu replied promptly, ”I’m not in a hurry to go back.”

Yao Shi smiled, ”That’s good. I’ll treat you to dinner tonight, how about hotpot?”

Fu Yu certainly had no objections, ”Sure!”

The two of them greeted people in the back kitchen, and then Fu Yu followed Yao Shi to the hotpot restaurant.

It’s often said that a good chef is, at heart, a true gourmet.

However, due to limitations, the gourmet food they taste might be somewhat limited in quality.

Fu Yu felt he deeply understood this.

Whenever Zhao Meng treated people for a meal, he loved taking them to have skewers or various local snacks.

Although the places they went to were quite down-to-earth, the flavors were particularly authentic.

And Yao Shi, arranging for a meal, took him to a private hotpot place hidden in the suburbs.

The lamb served there was freshly slaughtered every day, and the broth was cooked on-site.

Large chunks of beef tallow occupied half of the pot’s base.

The vegetables served were picked fresh from the countryside gardens, ensuring they were green and pollution-free.

Not short of money, Yao Shi pointed at the order form, ordering a bunch of the restaurant’s specialty dishes.

Fu Yu noticed something!

Yao Shi ordered without looking at the categories or particular dishes. He just focused on the specialties and recommendations marked on the menu.

Anyone who’s run a restaurant knows that dishes marked this way usually don’t lack in quality and taste.

As soon as the customer placed the order, and the order form was taken, the pot was placed on the table.

The chef prepared the ingredients and mixed the broth on-site.

Guests sipped on the complimentary drinks from the restaurant, a pot of hawthorn tea, and a pot of iced plum drink.

While the broth hadn’t yet heated up, the dishes they ordered were already being served one after another.

Watching the service, Fu Yu mused that in life, having money really makes a difference.

As the lamb went down with beer, the two became more talkative.

Yao Shi smiled, ”Fu Yu, you really surprised me today. I never expected you to have such skills.”

Fu Yu swallowed the mutton in his mouth and modestly said, ”I didn’t expect that this skill would actually come in handy.”

Yao Shi curiously asked, ”Where did you learn it? At school?”

The culinary school was divided into specialties, with the pastry and the hot kitchen being taught separately, never mixed together.

Fu Yu casually made up a story, ”Oh, no, maybe I have a talent for it. I saw others do it before, and I just remembered.”

Yao Shi: ”...”

Yao Shi suddenly felt offended.

Fu Yu was poured a glass of beer.

The two chatted while eating.

They talked about what happened tonight.

Yao Shi couldn’t help but complain a bit, ”Doing business is just troublesome, and there are even more things to pay attention to in the food and beverage industry.”

Fu Yu couldn’t help but ask, ”Chef Yao, you say you’re not short on money, and you manage such a big business by yourself. Why don’t you resign? Isn’t it exhausting to juggle both things every day?”

Yao Shi paused in his action of picking up food, then suddenly smiled and said, ”Fu Yu, you’re the first person to ask me that.”

”Juggling both things certainly exhausts me, but there’s no choice, I can’t let go of either of them.”

Perhaps it was the influence of alcohol, or perhaps he was agitated by the Longevity Peach incident tonight, Yao Shi suddenly felt an urge to speak out.

However, this thought was fleeting, and he quickly suppressed it the moment it emerged.

Yao Shi looked at Fu Yu sitting across, young and handsome, through the swirling heat, as if he saw his younger self.

So he smiled and said, ”The music restaurant, I invested and started it myself, I definitely can’t let go. And the Qianlima Restaurant side, the kitchen affairs need me to coordinate and arrange, I definitely can’t leave either.”

”But actually, I can resign if I want to, it’s just that I’m a bit reluctant myself.”

”When I came back after learning cooking from my master, I originally just wanted to visit family for a short stay, but the boss approached me to help manage the kitchen at the restaurant.”

”At that time, I had the qualifications, and my cooking skills were almost perfected, I could go solo with no problem. But if I didn’t have connections or channels, going solo meant starting from scratch, and the prospects would entirely depend on luck.”

Yao Shi put down his chopsticks, poured himself a glass of beer, and continued, ”So I chose to come to Qianlima as a chef, and Qianlima, being a renowned old restaurant in Bei’an City, became my source of connections and capital background.”

”The clients and friends I know now, if they didn’t value me because I’m the chef at Qianlima, who would even take a second look at me?”

”And the reason I can successfully run a music restaurant is that I utilized the Qianlima Restaurant’s platform to develop my connections and channels, accumulate funds, and learn all the management skills of a restaurant. Then by combining the best of both worlds, plus the knowledge and experiences learned at the music restaurant headquarters upon joining, it wasn’t long before I could run the music restaurant stably.”

Yao Shi looked at Fu Yu, sincerely saying, ”Why am I telling you this today? I hope you understand that the cooking industry holds significant potential, and it will be beneficial for your future network and channel expansion. Moreover, the platforms of Qianlima Restaurant and the music restaurant are sufficient for you to accumulate learning and experience for at least the next ten years.”

”You have a talent, that’s a good thing, but likewise, you must stay grounded. After all, the resources and connections you accumulate here will benefit you here, but once you move elsewhere, they might not belong to you or benefit you anymore.”

After graduating from cooking school, Fu Yu directly applied and joined the Qianlima kitchen.

For his future career plan, he initially just aimed to become a regular and establish roots in Bei’an.

In fact, he wasn’t well-versed in social niceties and hadn’t truly faced them head-on.

Yao Shi’s words tonight gave him significant insight, making him feel like his horizon had expanded.

Talking with a smart person, as long as it doesn’t involve mutual interests, can be enjoyable and relaxing.

Seeing Fu Yu’s enlightened expression, Yao Shi smiled and took a sip of beer.

He felt that the act of teaching and nurturing was quite nice too.

The two of them continued to eat and chat amicably.

Just as they were about to settle the bill, Yao Shi received a call from a staff member at the music restaurant responsible for handling orders.

After listening to the other party, Yao Shi’s brows gradually furrowed, and he said in a deep voice, ”Okay, I understand, I’ll try to find time to come by tomorrow and see how to arrange it.”

Yao Shi hung up the phone and sighed.

Fu Yu asked with concern, ”Chef Yao, is everything okay?”

Yao Shi took a sip of beer before saying, ”It’s nothing, just the menu for a previously booked engagement banquet needs to be adjusted according to the customer’s request.”

Fu Yu was startled, ”Can it be changed after it’s already been booked?”

Yao Shi snorted, ”If they pay more, it can be. But their request is a bit tricky, and the dishes ordered are not very common, anyway, I’ve never made them before.”

”Then... what should we do?” Fu Yu asked.

Yao Shi frowned, ”If it doesn’t work, we can only try to find some connections, see if any of the more experienced chefs in the city can do it. But... the customer’s identity is quite special, apparently, they come from the Gua Clan, a very traditional family, and the dishes ordered are a specialty of their clan...”

”If we can find someone who knows how to make them... then there won’t be any worry...”

Fu Yu: ”!”

Whoa!

Why does the information about this customer sound so familiar?