The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

The dishes on the order list were cooked one after another and carried to the front hall by the servers.

The spicy stir-fry dishes were all taken over by Zhao Meng.

Fu Yu picked up the remaining cold dishes and was in charge of steaming and boiling.

Zhang Jinyu had been working with Fu Yu for a long time, and the two of them had developed a tacit understanding.

Whenever there was a need to control oil and water, Zhang Jinyu was quick to step up and help in the kitchen without needing Fu Yu to ask.

With such a helpful assistant, Fu Yu’s cooking speed was exceptionally fast.

A large table of food was completed in less than an hour and a half.

In between, other dishes from various order slips were mixed in, with three stoves all fired up, nothing was delayed.

By this time, it was already dinner time, and many customers had come to the restaurant, continuously sending order slips to the kitchen.

”Chef Zhao! A take-out order!”

Fu Yu was busy stirring the wok, and upon hearing the voice, quickly turned his head towards the serving window.

Liu Yuqing smiled as she handed the order slip to Zhao Meng, carefully reminding him of the customer’s special requests.

Zhao Meng took the order slip, and only then did Liu Yuqing find a moment to look at Fu Yu.

”Chef Fu, busy?”

Fu Yu grinned, ”Business is pretty good today, huh?”

He hadn’t even finished plating this dish yet, and Liu Yuqing had already come over twice with take-out orders.

Liu Yuqing smiled at Fu Yu, ”Most of them are from the hot kitchen side.”

Speaking in a low, gossiping tone, she added, ”I heard the customer in room 104 is someone important?”

Fu Yu, with a spatula in his right hand, quickly served the dish onto a prepared plate while chatting, ”You heard about it too?”

Liu Yuqing said, ”I saw Sister Gao personally go to the side door to greet them. They didn’t even enter through the front hall. The person surrounded seems quite classy, but I haven’t seen them before, don’t know what they do.”

Fu Yu didn’t really know any big names, usually busy with work during his shifts, he rarely even watched TV.

But to be in room 104, they must be either rich or influential.

As the two were chatting, a server came running over to the back kitchen with news.

”Chef Zhao! The customer in room 104 said the sautéed crab dish isn’t the same as the one they’ve had before, and wants us to redo it.”

Zhao Meng, busy stirring dishes, frowned and asked, ”How is it not the same as before?”

The sautéed crab sold at Qianlima Restaurant was specially cooked with fresh shrimp added to the regular cooking method.

The resulting flavor was fresh and fragrant, very popular.

This dish had never been taken off the menu and had never changed its cooking method over the years.

How could the dish made in the same way not be the one from before?

The server hurriedly said, ”The customer said the taste is off, insisting that we’ve switched chefs. Sister Gao personally went to explain, telling them the chef hasn’t changed, but the customer didn’t believe it, said not only the cooking flavor is off, but even the plating style is different.”

Zhao Meng paused, ”The plating style is different?”

The server nodded, ”Sister Gao specifically asked, and the customer said the one they had before was white with yellow ingredients on top, but now it’s yellow on white with shrimp added, and especially with a circle of broccoli around, which looks odd to them.”

How is that odd?

Zhao Meng felt a wave of frustration.

The plating for the sautéed crab was originally taught by Yao Shi over ten years ago, and it had never been changed since.

Zhao Meng frowned, ”Did they eat at a different place and remember it wrong?”

Such things had happened before too.

Customers would have eaten dishes elsewhere but insisted they had them at Qianlima.

After ordering, when the kitchen made the dish, they claimed it wasn’t the same as last time.

After much coordination,

some customers would recall and apologize on the spot.

Others couldn’t remember and insisted they ate it here, causing quite a displeasure.

At times like this, the kitchen could only try to find out exactly what kind of dish it was and then imitate it to recreate it.

If it were ordinary customers, with Gao Wenjing’s skills, this issue wouldn’t have even reached the kitchen.

But if someone came to report it, it meant they couldn’t handle it, someone they couldn’t offend, so the kitchen was asked to help solve the issue.

Zhao Meng, feeling helpless, said, ”Alright, I’ll go over there once and see what kind of sautéed crab the customer wants to eat.”

He said this, but Zhao Meng was quite irritated by the situation.

At whatever restaurant, eat the dishes from that restaurant.

The kitchen hates when customers make special requests on the menu.

If it’s possible to make, that’s fine.

But if it makes a lot of extra work and the customer is still dissatisfied, that’s the worst!

The server was quite anxious, primarily because Manager Gao was pressing hard.

When she came over earlier, she repeatedly emphasized that they should hurry, as the boss had personally instructed that these customers must be well taken care of.

Seeing Zhao Meng agreed but not moving, the server had no choice but to urge, ”Chef Zhao, shall we go now? Sister Gao is waiting in the front hall.”

Zhao Meng remained motionless, his hands working the wok nonstop, ”Wait a minute, let me finish stir-frying this dish.”

The server was spinning around anxiously.

She was newly transferred to a full-time position, having worked for less than half a month in total, lacking experience and the composure of more seasoned employees.

Now suddenly tasked by the front hall manager, she treated it as a major issue, afraid that a slip-up might leave a bad impression on the manager.

Before half a minute passed, the server couldn’t help but urge again, ”Chef Zhao, we better hurry up? Sister Gao mentioned the boss specifically instructed that the customer must be well taken care of...”

Zhao Meng immediately put on a stern face.

He naturally had a bit of a temper, and the kitchen was in its busiest time.

Just because the customer wrongly remembered where they dined, causing an inconsistency in the dish, now he had to go through the trouble of showing up personally.

Isn’t this nonsense?

Agreeing to go help and show up was enough courtesy.

Why keep urging!

Zhao Meng wasn’t happy inside but didn’t really make it hard for the server with his words.

On one hand, everyone was colleagues, often interacting daily, there was no need to strain relations.

On the other hand, although Zhao Meng had a bad temper and was a bit impatient, he wouldn’t easily take it out on others.

Otherwise, with his fiery temper, he wouldn’t have such good relations at the restaurant.

The dish Zhao Meng was working on had just been put into the wok, it needed to be stir-fried and then braised, wouldn’t be done in less than ten minutes or so.

He turned to look at Fu Yu beside him, who had just finished plating and hadn’t started cooking the next dish, hesitated slightly, and then said, ”Xiaofu, you go to the front hall once and find out the specific requests of the customer. No matter what, don’t clash with the customer, agree to whatever can be agreed, and figure it out once you come back.”