The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

”What’s going on?”

Yao Shi stepped up to inquire.

Fu Yu leaned forward to take a look at the plate placed on the cutting board.

Two round and adorable little Longevity Peaches, adorned with a lifelike small bird spreading its wings, symbolizing good fortune.

To create a playful atmosphere, they had also intricately carved two small rabbits out of radish and lettuce, lying on a grassy backdrop.

This children’s meal, meant to convey birthday wishes, was exquisitely crafted, perfect in terms of both ingredients and presentation.

Even with all that, the customer wasn’t satisfied, so no wonder Li Shuli was at a loss, not knowing what to do.

The server recounted the situation.

Yao Shi frowned and asked, ”Did the customer mention any particular issue with the children’s meal?”

If they weren’t satisfied, there must be something they were nitpicking about, right?

The server thought for a moment and said, ”The adults quite liked it, just the child was dissatisfied. He insisted on having the ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ children’s meal, saying he had it at a classmate’s birthday party.”

Yao Shi couldn’t help but laugh at this.

Because the ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ birthday package was the new dish the Music Restaurant started promoting last year.

It coincided with late September of last year, when these two mascots were released and became a minor hit on the internet.

Yao Shi, always sharp to trends, sensed the business opportunity at that time.

So he collaborated with the carving and dough sculpture masters at the Music Restaurant for over a week before finalizing the complete ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ birthday package.

Initially priced at 1888 per table, it has been raised to 2888 due to the change in ingredients to pesticide-free green-grown vegetables and meats from the countryside.

However, when this birthday package was first introduced, it received widespread praise and was quite popular for a time, but after spring this year, its popularity diminished.

Later on, the developed Disney Princess, Chiao Hu, Paw Patrol, and Octonauts children’s birthday packages became more popular.

To cater to children’s playful tastes, children’s meals often featured cute-shaped desserts and kid-friendly foods.

The pastry section mainly handled this.

The cooked dishes on the savory side were generally plated and styled in collaboration with the carving and dough master sculptors.

This sudden request for a children’s meal was something Qianlima couldn’t manage.

Even sourcing it temporarily from the Music Restaurant wasn’t feasible.

Not to mention the distance between the two restaurants, simply rerouting the pastry chef from the Music Restaurant to assist wasn’t practical.

Yao Shi found himself in a bind; this was not an easy matter!

Li Shuli was even more puzzled: ”’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ birthday package? What is that?”

He mostly flipped through short videos for fun and hadn’t paid attention to this sort of thing.

Yao Shi straightforwardly whipped out his phone and found related images of ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ for Li Shuli to reference.

”Can you sculpt these two mascots exactly like this?”

Li Shuli examined closely; it wasn’t too hard, but the colors were tricky.

Moreover, he had several other presentation platters pending, with no time to work on this.

Li Shuli explained his difficulties, and Yao Shi understood.

But since the customer requested this children’s meal, it couldn’t go unmade.

Especially with the child’s tantrum going on, leaving it unresolved could lead to unforeseen issues.

Fu Yu was aware of ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ because he downloaded the WeChat sticker pack and found it amusing, using it frequently.

However, he had never heard of the ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ birthday package.

Looking at Yao Shi and Li Shuli’s troubled expressions.

Fu Yu wanted to help but was at a loss for solutions.

What to do?

Suddenly, Fu Yu had a stroke of inspiration and thought of his magic book—the Special Family Feast Cookbook.

He searched through it.

[”Bing Dwen Dwen” and ”Shuey Rhon Rhon” Birthday Package]

In the blink of an eye, twenty-seven pages of content appeared.

The first page showcased a complete birthday package design and specific cooking methods for the dishes.

Fu Yu casually flipped through two pages and was amazed!

Every subsequent page detailed a different ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ birthday package, totaling 27 variants.

Impressive!

So comprehensive!

Truly a family feast encyclopedia!

How incredible!

But he only needed to create one dish from it.

With so many beautifully designed presentations, it was a feast for the eyes.

Meanwhile, Yao Shi was discussing with Li Shuli whether they could roughly recreate the cartoon images of ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ using fruits and vegetables.

Despite knowing exactly the dishes and presentations for the ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ birthday banquet, Yao Shi was only responsible for the final decision on which design presentation to use, having no hands-on experience with carving or dough sculpting.

Li Shuli had never seen these things before, staring helplessly at the photos on his phone, clueless about how to create these cartoon images!

The server couldn’t help but ask, ”Chef Yao, can’t the pastry side handle this?”

She had kids at home, and in the past, when making children’s meals, she used colored vegetable and fruit juices to dye pastries into various cartoon shapes to coax kids into eating.

These two mascots might be doable too.

Yao Shi sighed, ”It’s not that simple! If we had two days to try it, maybe it would work. But with such tight timing now, the pastry side needs to both mix colors and steam, and even then, it might not take the right shape.”

The main issue was that the restaurant was too busy, and the pastry section was already short-staffed, so there was no way they could just stop making regular meals to work on this birthday package.

Hearing this, the server was half despaired!

She had just witnessed how upset the birthday child was. If they couldn’t soothe him, and with all the anxious relatives turning circles in the room, the situation was unlikely to end well.

”Then, what should we do?” The server was completely out of ideas.

Yao Shi thought for a moment and said, ”If it doesn’t work out, let’s contact Boss Pang to see if they can make a ’Bing Dwen Dwen’ and ’Shuey Rhon Rhon’ birthday cake over there. If it’s feasible, we’ll just give them one for free from our restaurant.”

Both Li Shuli and the server breathed a sigh of relief.

Yao Shi called Boss Pang, but upon contact, learned that Boss Pang’s pending orders were still unfinished, leaving no time for this matter.

There’s no helping it, after all, Boss Pang not only supplied sweets to Qianlima.

In business, one must prioritize current orders, helping out when possible, but when time doesn’t permit, there’s no alternative.

What to do now!

Yao Shi was troubled, contemplating offering a discount to this table of customers.

”Chef Yao, maybe I should give it a try?”

Fu Yu volunteered.