The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

Dong Jun Tian finished entertaining Tang Jian and then personally went to the kitchen.

Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and tonight the kitchen staff needs to work overtime to prepare the dishes.

As the boss, he definitely needs to give some instructions in advance.

It was meal time, and the kitchen was in chaos. Dong Jun Tian called Gu Yunwu and Zhao Meng over and gave a few simple instructions.

During the conversation, Dong Jun Tian looked at Zhao Meng’s injured hand with some headache, deeply feeling that Zhao Meng was financially incompatible with him.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s festival, yet at the critical moment, Zhao Meng’s old injury flared up.

Really…

After giving instructions, Dong Jun Tian left, feeling quite assured with Yao Shi overseeing things in the kitchen.

After the dinner rush was over, Zhao Meng first called Fu Yu over to verify the specific pre-orders with the front desk.

Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, so everyone needs to familiarize themselves with the menu in advance today.

Zhao Meng had a total of seven orders.

Two orders were from regular customers, and five were new orders from a promotion in the past couple of days.

Out of the seven orders, four were large tables, and three were small tables.

This means that aside from the regular orders, Fu Yu also needs to cooperate with Zhao Meng to complete these seven orders.

The dinner rush time is only five hours, and with Zhao Meng’s injured hand unable to do heavy work, the workload is still quite large.

Zhao Meng gathered his team and first arranged the specific tasks for the next morning, then encouraged them: ”Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, we have all worked hard preparing for so many days, all for the sake of achieving good results tomorrow and taking more orders. The boss also mentioned that this Mid-Autumn Festival, we have a competition with Chef Gu’s side, and whichever side takes more orders in the end will receive an extra reward.”

”I’ve tallied things up, as of now, we’re basically tied with Chef Gu’s side, they just have one more small table than us. But that’s only because it happened to be their turn when the dinner rush ended.”

”One order difference is nothing, tomorrow let’s work hard together to reclaim the order count, and strive to exceed them by a wide margin!”

”We’ve held on for so many days, and we’re just this one last step away, come what may, we must not slip up!”

”Tomorrow, everyone stay alert! If we can achieve the final victory, I’ll treat everyone to roast whole lamb!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd present immediately became excited!

Roast whole lamb!

Now there’s something to look forward to!

However, soon after, remembering Zhao Meng’s injured hand, their initial excitement was dampened again.

With Chef Zhao injured now, Fu Yu is the only chef left on their side who can handle the pan.

Although previously when Zhao Meng was sick, it was Fu Yu leading the team, it was before the Mid-Autumn Festival and things weren’t as pressing as they are now.

Zhao Meng also knows that he’s let them down this time.

But he understands deep down, even if he can’t say it out loud.

Otherwise, if even he, the leader, admits defeat without a fight, the rest would certainly lose all confidence and fall apart.

That night, as he went to rest, Zhao Meng couldn’t help but say to Fu Yu: ”You know, my luck is really quite something! Once a year Mid-Autumn Festival, I fell ill at the beginning, and now hurt my hand at the end, it’s just…”

Zhao Meng felt anxious and helpless inside.

Fu Yu consoled him: ”Chef Zhao, don’t feel any psychological pressure, I’m still here. Tomorrow, let Qingning help with the cooking, you just keep an eye on him. With two people handling the pan, I’ll speed up on my end, we can definitely handle it.”

With things as they are, Zhao Meng knew it was pointless to say more, so he smiled wryly: ”I’ll leave it to you tomorrow, then.”

The Mid-Autumn Festival indeed lives up to being the second-largest traditional holiday after the Spring Festival.

Just today, the customer flow at Qianlima Restaurant was almost catching up to an entire week.

Starting from the noon rush, guests flocked in, and until the evening rush, the open hall and all private rooms were almost continuously occupied from 5:30 to 7:30.

The front hall busily attended to guests, while the kitchen was busy cooking.

Fu Yu was flipping the pan and plating dishes non-stop.

At 6:30 in the evening, Tang Jian and his family of five arrived at Qianlima Restaurant on time and were ushered into room 209 by a waiter.

Tang Jian and his wife, Zuo Li, brought the family out for a reunion dinner today. Zuo Li had also prepared two gifts specially.

The dish runner, after attending to them, hurriedly jogged over to the kitchen to deliver their order.

This was a pre-order, and it went directly under Yao Shi’s name.

Primarily, this was because the restaurant had organized a kitchen order-taking competition for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now, the people under Zhao Meng and Gu Yunwu were in a heated competition.

With so many dishes, putting them on either side would be inconvenient.

Yao Shi was busy cooking, having just heated oil in the pan, when his phone rang. Seeing it was Liu Yu, he picked it up.

Even though Yao Shi was the nominal owner of the music restaurant, it was actually a partnership between two families.

Liu Yu was Yao Shi’s partner, and the two had been great friends for years, with an exceptionally good relationship.

Liu Yu was a second-generation rich kid, with a particularly wealthy family, clever and broad-minded, who had traveled the world when he was younger and gained considerable insight.

After turning thirty, he suddenly changed and started investing his family’s money in all sorts of popular projects.

Ironically, he had a keen eye for investments.

Not only did he co-run the music restaurant with Yao Shi, but he also franchised a national men’s clothing store chain. Not only did he monopolize the entire Bei’an City, but he gradually opened branches in the four subsidiary counties as well.

In just a few years, he made a fortune and became somewhat of a local celebrity in Bei’an.

Back then, when Yao Shi decided to invest money and partner with Liu Yu to open a restaurant, it was through Liu Yu’s persuasion. Now the two work well together, making money daily, and their bond is as close as brothers.

Yao Shi deeply respected his brother, treating him like an older brother.

Yao Shi quickly turned off the burner and answered the phone: ”Hey? Brother Liu, what’s up?”

Liu Yu said: ”It’s a festival today, and my old man wants to have Qianlima’s specialty dishes, but there are no more seats available. Can you help arrange something?”

What’s the problem with that!

Yao Shi quickly agreed and turned to call Gao Wenjing to explain the situation.

Gao Wenjing got in touch with Liu Yu and was preparing to check the status of each private room when she saw a waiter escorting a guest who had finished dining downstairs.

Taking advantage of the moment when the guest was going to settle the bill, Gao Wenjing asked the waiter, ”Which room is this from?”

The waiter said, ”210.”

Gao Wenjing smiled: ”Perfect, this one doesn’t have a reservation. Just inform the front desk later that room 210 is occupied.”

The waiter agreed and left.

Gao Wenjing then went to meet Liu Yu’s family and personally took them to room 210.

Liu Yu came with a family of five, and room 210 was just the right size as a small room.

When Gao Wenjing led them to the entrance of the room, it had already been tidied up nicely.

As the group was about to enter, a voice called from behind: ”President Liu!”

Upon hearing it, Liu Yu turned around and saw a familiar face in room 209 opposite, so he also smiled and greeted, ”Oh, President Tang!”