Chapter 253 - 158: You’re Gonna Get It, Fool
Kong Guodong led the group through the small courtyard and headed straight for the back kitchen.
The original kitchen of Le Ming Restaurant was already large. After renovations, two new rows of stoves had been built, allowing more than twenty chefs to work and learn at the same time.
A crowd had already gathered around one of the stoves. The one cooking was a round-faced, middle-aged man. Despite the slight chill of early winter, he was dressed in a thin chef's uniform, his forehead beaded with sweat.
On the other side of the stove stood three elderly men. The one in the middle wore a chef's uniform. His silver hair was thinning, and he had stubbornly combed the surrounding strands toward the center in an attempt to cover the bald spot on his crown.
'From eye level, it probably looks decent enough.'
'But I'm half a head taller, and from my vantage point, it looks more like a smooth-bottomed—bird's nest.'
The man on the left wore a black Tang Dynasty suit. He was heavyset, stood with his hands behind his back, and had a rather kindly look about him.
The one on the right was in a brand-new, indigo Zhongshan suit with five buttons and four pockets, crisply ironed, and his expression was a bit stern.
About seven or eight middle-aged and young chefs were gathered around them, likely their apprentices and their apprentices' apprentices.
"The one in the middle is your Grand-master Kong Qingfeng. The one on the left is Mr. Qin, Qin Kun, a First-level Chef who also retired from Le Ming Restaurant. The one on the right is named Li Liangcai, the former head chef of Feiyan Restaurant. The current head chef there, Li the Third, is his apprentice." Xiao Lei slowed his pace to whisper the introductions to Zhou Yan and Zheng Qiang. "Those guys on the side are all the excellent apprentices and grand-apprentices your grand-uncle has taught over the years. Call the older ones 'Uncle-master' and the younger ones 'Senior Brother.' You won't go too wrong with that."
Zhou Yan and Zheng Qiang nodded, trying to memorize everyone's faces.
'So these must be the top-tier master chefs in Jiazhou right now, the kind who can handle entire banquets.'
Of course, when it came to individual skills, there were always hidden masters among the common folk.
"Zhong Yong is making Flash-fried Pork Liver. It's the practice dish for today, mainly to test Fire Control. The old master had me go to the market this morning to buy five pounds of pork liver, so everyone will get a chance to try their hand at it today," Kong Guodong explained with a smile, leading the three of them forward.
At the mention of Flash-fried Pork Liver, the expressions on the faces of Zhou Yan and his companions became a little strange.
Lately, Xiao Lei had been coming to the restaurant every day to practice that very dish, cooking dozens of portions a day. The training was incredibly intense.
His progress bar had been stuck at 98% for two days, just one final push away from completion.
By the time Zhou Yan and the others reached the stove, the Flash-fried Pork Liver was already out of the wok, a steaming plate of it sitting on the counter.
Kong Qingfeng's brow furrowed, and his voice rose a few notches. "Zhong Yong, oh, Zhong Yong, your skills have really slipped! Have you just been standing around in the kitchen for the past two years, ordering your apprentices around?
Look at how you've cut this damn liver! One piece is big, the next is small. One is thick, the next is thin. How are you supposed to calculate the cooking time like this? Either the thin pieces get overcooked, or the thick ones are left raw."
"This is a 'flash-fry' dish, and I have no idea how you managed to cook out so much water. You're afraid to turn up the heat, and you still call this a flash-fry? It's all soupy and watery. Just looking at it makes me lose my appetite."
"I can't even be bothered to pass you a pair of chopsticks. What a piece of crap!"
Zhong Yong's face turned beet red. He lowered his head and mumbled, "Master, I mostly handle braised dishes and cold appetizers now. I probably make Flash-fried Pork Liver less than once a year. To be honest, I didn't learn it properly when I was an apprentice. I've embarrassed myself."
"Playing an erhu in a graveyard—what kind of ghost story are you spinning for me?! You're telling me braised dishes don't require Knife Skills and Fire Control?" Kong Qingfeng rolled his eyes. "There are two pounds of beef brisket over there. You'll be in charge of braising it later. I want to see if your braising skills have gotten rusty too. If you're this pathetic at that as well, see if I don't sort you out."
The onlookers all laughed. As long as the master wasn't yelling at them, it was perfectly fine to enjoy the show.
The atmosphere immediately lightened up.
Zhong Yong lifted his head and puffed out his chest confidently. "Don't worry, Master! Braised Beef Brisket with Potatoes is my signature dish. It'll be absolutely no problem!"
"Stop yapping. Go scrub the cutting board and the wok, and stand aside to watch how your senior and junior brothers handle Flash-fried Pork Liver," Kong Qingfeng said with a wave of his hand.
"Master, Xiao Lei and two of our junior nephews have arrived," Kong Guodong finally spoke up.
"Uncle-master, it's been a long time," Xiao Lei said with a smile, leading Zhou Yan and Zheng Qiang forward.
A smile appeared on Kong Qingfeng's face. He grasped Xiao Lei's hand and said, "Shitou, it really has been over half a year since I last saw you. Is everyone at home well? Your two kids are in middle school now, right?"
"One is in the eighth grade, and the other will be starting high school in the fall." Xiao Lei replied with a laugh, then introduced the two with him to Kong Qingfeng. "This is Yunliang's apprentice, Zheng Qiang. And this is Zhou Yan, my apprentice."
"Grand-master," Zhou Yan and Zheng Qiang greeted respectfully.
"Yunliang said he's so busy he's running off his feet and couldn't make it, so he sent you, his little apprentice, instead?" Kong Qingfeng said, smiling at Zheng Qiang.
"Rongcheng Restaurant is insanely busy. My master really is swamped and couldn't get away. I hope Grand-master will forgive him," Zheng Qiang said quickly.
"Being busy is good. It means he can still cook and his skills haven't faded," Kong Qingfeng said with a smiling nod. He then turned to Zhou Yan, looking him up and down. "Shitou, this apprentice of yours looks more like a movie star than a chef."
The crowd, who had been sizing up Zhou Yan and Zheng Qiang, laughed and teased at the comment:
"It's true. Xiao's apprentice is so bright and handsome, just like a movie star."
"He's taking this meeting with the school very seriously, too. He even changed into a new set of clothes and new leather shoes. He's very thoughtful."
Kong Qingfeng looked at Zhou Yan and asked, "How old are you this year? You've been learning from your master for two or three years now, right? I think I remember him mentioning you before."
"I'm twenty this year. I've been learning from my master for a little over two and a half years," Zhou Yan replied with a smile.
"Good. Looking at the muscles on your forearms and the calluses on your hands, I can tell you practice diligently and don't slack off," Kong Qingfeng nodded.
"My master is too strict. I wouldn't dare to slack off," Zhou Yan said with a laugh.
"Xiao."
The chefs all greeted Xiao Lei.
Xiao Lei smiled and returned the greetings, then introduced Zhou Yan and Zheng Qiang to everyone, making sure they put faces to names.
"Junior Brother, did you manage to remember who's who?" Zheng Qiang asked in a low voice.
"More or less," Zhou Yan nodded.
Zheng Qiang scratched his head. "Damn, I have face blindness. I was so focused on nodding that I didn't remember a single name."
Zhou Yan laughed. "It's fine. Just call the older ones 'Uncle-master' and the younger ones 'Senior Brother.' You can't go wrong."
"Good point," Zheng Qiang nodded, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Alright, next up is Wang Mian. Flash-fried Pork Liver used to be one of your signature dishes. Let's see how much of that skill you've still got," Kong Qingfeng announced.
"Yes, Master." A stocky, middle-aged man stepped out from the crowd. He took his own cleaver out of his bag, cut a piece of pork liver from the nearby basin and placed it on the cutting board. With a few swift chops, the liver was instantly sliced into pieces of uniform thickness.
Kong Qingfeng nodded slightly and said, "See? This is fundamental skill. Your knife work must be powerful, steady, and precise. It must be clean and efficient. Then the liver you cut will be uniformly thick like this. A chef's Knife Skills come entirely from diligent daily practice. There are no shortcuts."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Zhou Yan watched from the side. 'As expected of an old master,' he thought. 'His Knife Skills are truly excellent, much better than the uncle-master before him.'
After the liver was cut, he began the seasoning. Cooking wine, salt... the seasonings went into the basin one by one. Finally, he grabbed a small handful of starch to create a thin coating.
Kong Qingfeng nodded repeatedly as he watched from the side.
'It's definitely the same school of cooking,' Zhou Yan observed. 'The ingredients and method are basically identical. It's just... I think the starch coating is a bit too thick.'
He heated the wok with oil. Wang Mian first glanced under the stove and had an apprentice add a piece of firewood. Once the oil temperature rose, he added the pork liver, quickly spreading it with his ladle. Then he tossed in scallion segments and chili pieces, gave it a quick stir-fry, and plated it.
A plate of dry, glossy Flash-fried Pork Liver was ready.
It was steaming hot, and the aroma was tantalizing.
Zhou Yan glanced at it: [A rather excellent plate of Flash-fried Pork Liver]
"See? Now this is a proper-looking plate of Flash-fried Pork Liver. It's glossy, not soupy. The surface is oily but dry, and the aroma is wonderful," Kong Qingfeng praised. He picked up a piece of liver with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. He chewed for a moment, then nodded. "Mm, not bad. Very tender. The Fire Control is decent, too. It's just the seasoning... it's missing a little bit of a spicy kick. If you taste it carefully, there's a slight gaminess. When you were marinating it, you could have rubbed the seasonings in more thoroughly."
"Yes, Master. I understand," Wang Mian nodded, looking thoughtful.
Qin Kun and Li Liangcai also took their chopsticks and had a taste.
"It's good. It has 'wok hei,' it's tender but cooked through. The Fire Control is on point. But the seasoning definitely has room for improvement," Qin Kun nodded. "This is already much better than what you'd find in most Sichuan Cuisine restaurants outside. It's solidly at a second-level standard."
Li Liangcai put down his chopsticks and said, "I think the starch coating was a bit too thick, so the flavor didn't quite penetrate. It's floating on the surface, which is why the gaminess wasn't completely suppressed. Next time, try reducing the amount of starch by a third and go for a thinner coating."
"The two elders are right. I'll go back and practice more," Wang Mian said with a respectful expression.
Kong Qingfeng said, "Come on, all of you have a taste. Share your own opinions and see how they compare to what the elders said. That's how you improve quickly."
Everyone grabbed chopsticks and went forward to try it.
Zhou Yan tasted a piece, lost in thought. 'These old-timers really know their stuff!'
'Everything they said was spot on.'
'The Flash-fried Pork Liver was indeed cooked well, tender and glossy, but the flavor was only on the surface, which left a faint, gamy aftertaste.'
'But that's a conclusion you'd only reach by eating a single piece and savoring it carefully from a chef's perspective.'
'If this were served at a dinner table, a customer eating a piece of liver with a mouthful of rice, or with a sip of wine, would just think it was crisp, tender, smooth, and delicious.'
'So all in all, this was a pretty excellent plate of Flash-fried Pork Liver.'
'There was still a noticeable gap compared to his master's cooking.'
'It wasn't as good as his master's.'
Wang Mian set a good example, and the Flash-fried Pork Liver made by the next few uncle-masters was also decent.
But when it was the grand-apprentices' turn, the scene began to spiral out of control.
"What the hell kind of cut is that? It's thicker than your ancestor's coffin board!"
"Celestial Bodhisattva! Are you making Boiled Pork Liver?"
"Flash-fry! Flash-fry! I didn't ask you to make charcoal-grilled liver! You even managed to set the earthen stove on fire! I swear, I ought to give you a slap upside the head!"
Before Kong Qingfeng could even speak, their own masters were already hopping mad, furious at their apprentices for failing to meet expectations.
The juniors kept their heads down and listened to the scolding, not daring to make a peep. After all, it wasn't their own reputations they were embarrassing today, but their masters'. It was understandable that their masters were angry.
"Good thing my master didn't come today," Zheng Qiang muttered under his breath, sighing in relief.
"It's fine. My master is your master. We can have him yell at you later," Zhou Yan consoled him.
Zheng Qiang's eyes went wide. He glanced at Xiao Lei, whose lips were curling into a smile. "Forget it! It's not like I absolutely need a master anyway."
In contrast, Kong Qingfeng and the other two elders were quite lenient with the younger generation, offering calm guidance while also taking the opportunity to throw a few passive-aggressive jabs at their masters.
"Shitou, why don't you set an example? Back in the day, my senior brother's Flash-fried Pork Liver and Braised Pork Kidney were simply divine. His title as 'Jiazhou's Tenderest' has never been surpassed." Kong Qingfeng looked at Xiao Lei and said with a smile, "Let's see how much of his true skill you've inherited."
All eyes turned to Xiao Lei.
"There's only one portion of liver left, so I won't embarrass myself," Xiao Lei said with a laugh. "Let's have Zhou Yan cook a batch for everyone. The three elders and all my senior and junior brothers can give him some pointers. For a young man, an opportunity like this is too rare to pass up."
At his words, everyone turned to look at Zhou Yan.
The juniors who had just been scolded, in particular, shot looks of pity in Zhou Yan's direction.
'You can run, but you can't hide!'
'If you deserve a scolding, you're gonna get a scolding!'
'Being handsome won't help you now.'
'For a chef, it all comes down to the skill in your hands.'