The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

The finished dish was placed on the nearby empty makeshift dining table, ready to be served directly in a while.

Fu Yu continued to prep the redfish.

Seafood must be eaten fresh, so they can only be killed and cooked on the spot.

Without assistants or helpers around, Fu Yu could only handle the live fish alone.

But it was all something he used to do regularly, so it went smoothly.

The meat of the redfish is thick, tender, and smooth when eaten, quite distinctive, and can be cooked in many ways.

The originally planned dish by Yang Zhifang was numbingly spicy redfish, but it was changed at the last minute.

There are four redfish in total; they can be steamed, pan-fried, braised with tomatoes, or made into soup.

Fu Yu hesitated slightly and finally opted for dry frying.

Just last night, he had acquired an advanced ”frying” personal skill.

He wanted to try and see how customers would evaluate the fragrant pan-fried redfish he cooked with his perfect ”frying” skills.

The redfish were marinated with salt and rice wine.

During this time, Fu Yu hurried to make abalone lifted over with wing soup.

He took out the abalone meat, cleaned out the innards.

Cleaned the edge of the abalone and sliced it into thin pieces.

A white round flat plate was lined with even lettuce leaves, and the abalone slices were stacked together, forming two circles inside and out.

After blanching the abalone shells and cleaning them, they were placed at the tail of the fan-shaped arrangement, topped with decorative celery stick slivers, flower-shaped tomatoes, tender red chilies, and two stir-fried broccoli florets.

The tomatoes were washed, cut into eight pieces, and served on another small round white porcelain plate.

The wing soup was brought by Qianlima and was ready to use directly.

The wing soup was heated, seasoned with salt and chicken powder, and placed in a tall container served alongside the abalone slices.

With this, the preparation work for this dish was complete.

Once the customers are seated, the abalone and tomato slices are separated into bowls, the wing soup is boiled again and poured in, sprinkled with some chopped scallions, ready to be tasted.

And by this time, the redfish had finished marinating.

Fu Yu drained the redfish of excess water.

He wiped the flat pan clean and poured oil in.

Then he added a small amount of sugar.

Luo Rang saw Fu Yu adding sugar to the oil in the pan and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow slightly; this young man has some skills!

By adding a little white sugar to the hot oil, when the sugar turns slightly yellow, placing the fish in the pan not only avoids sticking but also results in a beautiful and fragrant dish.

This is a little trick.

Luo Rang heard about this method inadvertently from an old master craftsman.

Since then, when frying fish, he would sprinkle some sugar as a habit, but he rarely mentioned it to outsiders.

Fu Yu knowing this technique must be either taught by a master or heard it from an elder somewhere.

He placed the four redfish into the oil pan one by one.

Fu Yu didn’t flip them immediately but waited until the skins turned golden before flipping.

However, unlike other fish, when dry frying redfish, they don’t need a batter coating.

So, directly placing them in the pan, any carelessness could cause the skin to tear.

While this doesn’t affect the taste, it significantly affects its appearance.

The frying process seems simple but actually demands meticulous attention to detail.

Luo Rang didn’t dare to disturb Fu Yu.

Because once the fish were in the pan, a slight distraction could ruin the entire batch of fried fish.

This requires the chef to have absolute control over the heat.

With dry frying, if the heat is too low, the delicate texture of crisply coated exterior with tender interior can’t be achieved, affecting the taste.

While if the heat is too high, the fish loses its inherent tenderness and smoothness.

Luo Rang doesn’t have great confidence when it comes to pan-frying redfish.

Primarily because this fish is unlike others; its skin is too delicate and thin, while the flesh needs thorough frying to avoid affecting taste.

Therefore, he often opts for steaming or making soup with this fish.

When steaming, there’s no need to scale, steam with skin untouched, peeling it off when cooked, retains original taste, and the fish is exceptionally sweet and tender.

If used for soup, just fry until golden, then stew with other ingredients like tofu; the broth turns milky white and tastes exceptionally sweet and delicious.

Because he understands redfish fairly well.

Luo Rang patiently stood by waiting.

He was waiting for Fu Yu to fail the frying so he could suggest switching to making soup.

Yet...

Fu Yu had an outstanding ability to control the heat!

The skins of the redfish in the pan gradually turned golden.

Fu Yu used a spatula to swiftly flip all four fish.

During the flipping, the skins of the four fish remained perfectly intact.

Fu Yu had trained for so long in practical cooking classes, going through all sorts of challenging and simple ingredients.

Now, just frying some redfish, the difficulty had undoubtedly reduced significantly.

But to Luo Rang, it appeared quite different!

Fu Yu’s cooking movements were extremely skillful, and his attention to detail was also impeccable.

Especially as time ticked by.

While frying the other side, Fu Yu’s operation was as steady as before, his skills stable, his judgment of the heat extremely precise.

Luo Rang was genuinely amazed!

It’s known that the latter half of frying actually is harder to control than the former half.

Yet, Fu Yu remained composed!

His state appeared relaxed, with no tension over the fish skin tearing.

Luo Rang tried to speak up countless times but stopped!

He genuinely didn’t understand how Fu Yu practiced such mastery of heat control!

Finally, the four redfish were fried!

Luo Rang instinctively breathed a sigh of relief.

Yang Zhifang, who had come in, glanced at their expressions and felt reassured.

As the aroma of fried fish filled the air, Yang Zhifang only then realized, quite belatedly, that he had actually been holding his breath...

Fu Yu didn’t pause his actions.

He placed the four redfish separately onto prepared oval shallow plates, getting ready for plating.

Luo Rang finally couldn’t resist, stepped forward, and proactively said: ”Chef Fu, may I do the plating?”

Fu Yu looked up at Luo Rang, slightly surprised to see him in a chef’s uniform, but said nothing and just shook his head: ”No need.”

After saying that, Fu Yu casually picked up a cucumber to carve flowers.

He could only perform simple carvings, definitely incomparable to professionals like Li Shuli, but managing simple plating was feasible.

Cucumber was sliced into five connected pieces, bending the second and fourth pieces down and separating the other three, forming a delicate little flower.

The carrot was carved into four connected diamond-shaped pieces, hollowed out in the middle, making two flowers aligned head to tail, resembling two small flowers.

Cucumber flowers on top, carrot flowers below, with two sprigs of green parsley on the side, complementing the golden-yellow fragrant pan-fried redfish, enhancing visual impact immediately.

This carving, actually, wasn’t challenging.

Luo Rang knew a little about it.

Yet...

This use of a kitchen knife!

Is it a bit of a show-off?

Can a kitchen knife be used like this?

Why does it look so impressive!

Just what kind of person is Chef Fu?

So young yet with such mastery!

At this moment, Luo Rang didn’t dare underestimate Fu Yu anymore.