The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

Fu Yu had indeed never made Shunde Fish Sashimi before, mainly because this dish requires a high level of knife skills.

The chef must have a steady hand and impressive skills to slice the fish sashimi thin as a cicada’s wings.

Yao Shi pointed to the sea carp swimming in the basin on the ground and instructed, ”Come over, I’ll teach you how to handle this fish.”

Fu Yu followed the instructions and walked over.

Gu Yunwu looked at Yao Shi in disbelief: ”Chef Yao, you can’t seriously be thinking of letting Xiaofu make this dish, can you?”

Yao Shi said, ”I know Fu Yu has a solid foundation in knife skills, and his hand speed is fast and fairly stable. I think we can let him try it, it won’t take much time anyway.”

At this, Yao Shi sighed, ”Anyway... there’s no other way right now.”

Back then, Zhao Meng and Gu Yunwu could have possibly tried their knife skills too.

But since becoming head chefs, they’ve delegated the chopping work to the juniors.

The number of times these two have handled knives has clearly decreased.

Over time, their knife skills have long since deteriorated.

Yao Shi’s words left Gu Yunwu in a brief silence.

Yao Shi decided, ”Let him do it!”

Gu Yunwu hesitated for a moment, but eventually stepped aside.

Fu Yu walked to the basin, glanced at the sea carp swimming inside, and suddenly heard an electronic notification sound in his ear:

[Ding! Back Kitchen Artisan Title Award: Congratulations on receiving the wholehearted guidance of NPC Chef Yao Shi: Personal skill ”Knife Skills”]

Fu Yu: ”!”

Yao Shi said, ”Fu Yu, I’ll teach you how to make this Shunde Fish Sashimi now. You don’t need to be nervous. Actually, this dish isn’t difficult. As long as you can control the angle and speed when slicing the fish sashimi, you can cut out perfect sashimi slices. But there is one point, every time you cut, you must precisely control the force, ensuring that when the sashimi slice is picked up, the two pieces of fish are connected and cannot break!”

”That means every two adjacent pieces of fish must be connected to look like the wings of a butterfly. If you fail, the dish... will be ruined.”

After Yao Shi finished speaking, he looked at Fu Yu with a complex expression.

He had seen Fu Yu’s knife skills; although his familiarity was clearly lacking, his hand speed and force control were very precise. It’s just unknown how he would do with slicing fish sashimi.

Gu Yunwu remained silent too, feeling that Yao Shi was clutching at straws in desperation.

But besides this, there were indeed no other good options.

Fu Yu took a deep breath!

In terms of knife skills, his level was really not high!

Even though he had a chef’s knife that could slice through iron like mud, his operational skills were still quite lacking.

The requirement to slice the fish into pieces thin as a cicada’s wings and ensure each two pieces are connected demands extremely high knife skills!

If he didn’t know this dish was being prepared for the guests in room 401, Fu Yu might have been fearless in his ignorance, just making the sashimi as Yao Shi asked.

But now, it’s impossible not to feel nervous!

Whether this fish could be sliced well directly related to the attitude of the guests in room 401.

And he was now essentially making this dish on behalf of Yao Shi, so if he messed up, it would definitely implicate Yao Shi.

Thinking this way, the situation seemed very serious!

At this moment, Fu Yu suddenly remembered one thing.

He still had 7 skill points unused.

And his knife skills were currently at the beginner level.

Fu Yu didn’t hesitate, directly leveling up.

After consuming four skill points, an electronic notification sound rang in his ear:

[Ding! Personal skill Knife Skills upgraded to Advanced, reward received: Task experience +666]

Hearing this notification, Fu Yu let out a heartfelt sigh of relief.

Seeing Fu Yu staring blankly at the half-dead sea carp in the basin, Yao Shi and Gu Yunwu sighed in rare unison.

Too difficult.

Yao Shi thought: Such pressure shouldn’t be put on Fu Yu to bear.

Gu Yunwu thought: Even if he bears it, he can’t handle it.

Fu Yu, no matter how talented, after all, had limited time to hone his culinary skills.

Yao Shi couldn’t help but say: ”Fu Yu, if you don’t want to try, that’s fine, this fish...”

Fu Yu took a deep breath: ”Chef Yao, I’ve never made this dish before... but I want to try!”

Indeed, even if personal skill Knife Skills were upgraded to Advanced, Fu Yu hadn’t practically executed it before, so he didn’t know what the final outcome would be.

But equally, how would he know without trying!

Seeing Fu Yu eager to try, Yao Shi seemed to see his younger self full of progress and ambition.

Wasn’t he like this too, going from not knowing to knowing, slowly taking each step?

Anyway, things were like this, how much worse could they get?

Yao Shi figured this out, and his heart calmed instead.

”Okay, let’s start handling the sea carp now.”

Fu Yu picked up the knife and squatted down.

Yao Shi reminded, ”During slaughtering, make a cut under the fish’s jaw and at the tail before putting the fish back into the water. A quick cut, during bloodletting, the fish doesn’t feel pain, always keeping vigorous vitality, the fish’s blood drains cleanly and keeps the fish muscles’ elasticity.”

The sea carp had been fasting for a few days. When Fu Yu scooped it out of the water, it just weakly swayed its tail before listlessly going still.

Fu Yu agilely used the knife to indicate the position to Yao Shi, letting him clearly see where the cut would be made.

After Yao Shi nodded, he swiftly made two cuts and put the sea carp back into the water.

Yao Shi intended to teach Fu Yu, so he explained in detail, ”This allows the fish to bleed out while swimming.”

Fu Yu nodded.

When the time was nearly up, Yao Shi said again, ”Alright, take the fish out and hang it for 10 minutes.”

Fu Yu did as he was told.

Yao Shi explained, ”If the bloodletting process isn’t controlled well, the fish meat will carry a lot of red moisture. But if handled well, the bloodless fish slices will be as white as snow, crystal clear.”

Fu Yu memorized the timing and state of the sea carp’s bloodletting process.

These were all culinary insights Yao Shi had accumulated over the years.

Invaluable!

The blood-extracted sea carp still needed to be descaled and eviscerated.

Yao Shi pointed out, ”When handling the fish, avoid rinsing with water. Use only a clean towel to carefully wipe away dirt, to prevent washing away the fish’s original flavor, keeping it dry.”

Fu Yu nodded and skillfully started processing the sea carp.

This was a task he often did when he was a junior worker, very proficiently.

Yao Shi continued, ”When making Shunde Fish Sashimi, generally select a sea carp weighing about 750 grams. Too large, the meat becomes old and coarse, too small, the flavor is light and the meat is loose.”

”When slicing, every piece of fish sashimi must be cut freshly, from bleeding to deboning, each step is done meticulously and swiftly.”

Fu Yu completed the handling of the sea carp.

Yao Shi indicated for him to use the mulberry knife on the cutting board: ”The mulberry knife is light, thin, and fast, most suitable for slicing.”

”After removing the meat from the fish’s back, the emphasis is on ’thin’. Thin so the fish bones are hidden, thick so they are visible. The optimal thickness for sashimi is 0.5mm.”

Fu Yu held the knife and deboned the sea carp according to Yao Shi’s instructions.

”Dry the fish, slice the fish meat along the middle bones from the tail.”

”Trim off the big bones from the belly of the fish.”

”Remove the fish skin with the skin facing down, separating the fish meat.”

”The skinned fish meat still has red parts, remove the red dorsal meat again.”

”Be sure to remove it cleanly, leaving only the white fish meat.”

”Use a diagonal knife to cut into thin slices, pressing on the fish meat while slicing from left to right.”

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