The Gourmet Customizer

If she remembered correctly, there were still four Xue Dan in her fridge.

The little treats were a type of pastry and kept well at low temperatures. Ling Shuyu ate one every day when she got home, but she couldn’t bear to eat any more than that.

’I’ll go get the Xue Dan to make it up to Lili!’

Inside the kitchen, Su Chen and Ah Bao had deveined and cleaned about twenty-something shrimp, after which they began the day’s lesson.

"Longjing Shrimp is simple to make. When the time comes, have Aunt Fang and the others help you peel the shrimp."

"Boss, isn’t the cost a bit too high to be feeding the kids this well?" Liu Ahbao felt that Su Chen didn’t quite understand how to run a business.

The fee for one child was nine hundred yuan, which averaged out to only thirty yuan a day.

And this Longjing Shrimp? At any restaurant in Hangzhou, it would start at 88 yuan, wouldn’t it?

It just wasn’t cost-effective no matter how you looked at it!

Su Chen smiled. "You can’t always compare a private kitchen to a regular restaurant. By your logic, when Brother Shang ate here, the meal cost President Ling thirty thousand. Was that expensive?"

"In two weeks, Ms. Cui is coming for a meal. Twenty people for forty thousand yuan. Is that expensive? See? The situation is different. As long as you’re making some money, it’s fine. In the restaurant business, reputation is much more important than profit."

Ah Bao still found it a little hard to accept what Su Chen was saying.

But he was just offering a suggestion. Whether they made a profit was the boss’s concern and didn’t have much to do with him. He just needed to do his own job well.

"The key to this dish is infusing the shrimp with the aroma of the tea, using the tea’s fragrance to mask any fishiness. When you finally merge the fresh scent of the tea with the savory flavor of the shrimp, it’s a success."

Teaching Ah Bao was much easier now than before.

He barely had to painstakingly explain the technical details. Unless they were specifically aiming for an S Class dish, he just needed to clearly explain the dish’s characteristics and let Ah Bao watch him make it once.

’If only I had a few more chefs like Liu Ahbao!’

Of course, Su Chen knew this was just a fantasy. Ah Bao’s arrival had been a complete accident, a perfect storm of the right time, the right place, and the right people. Nothing less would have made it happen.

Finding another chef like him would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Su Chen would never have guessed that such a day was much closer than he thought. But that’s a story for another time.

"Soak the green tea in 90-degree hot water and set it aside. Then, mix the shrimp with salt and egg white until it gets sticky, and add a bit of dry starch."

Because shrimp cooks so easily, the starch’s purpose wasn’t for anything else but to slow down the cooking process, giving the tea fragrance enough time to permeate the shrimp.

"I’ve tried it a few times before. I feel it’s best to stir-fry with lard. Vegetable oil gives it an off-taste."

Despite saying that, Su Chen still chose to coat the wok with vegetable oil first, only adding a very small amount of lard afterward.

When the oil was about 30 to 40 percent hot, he poured in all the shrimp and used only chopsticks to quickly separate them in the wok. The whole process took no more than fifteen seconds!

"The oil must be drained thoroughly. This dish is all about the fresh, savory flavor. A greasy texture would ruin it."

The shrimp were poured into a strainer to drain the oil. The oil in the wok was also poured out, leaving only a gleaming, oil-coated bottom.

"Shrimp back in the wok!"

As he did this, Su Chen didn’t even have time to speak, cranking the heat up to its highest setting!

He poured the steeped tea directly into the wok, and it instantly turned into steam under the high heat. Then, a small amount of salt and MSG was added.

After tossing the wok once, he deftly transferred the shrimp onto a plate.

"There. What do you think?"

Liu Ahbao crossed his arms and pinched his chin. "It feels like it has the same spirit as the ’vinegar splash’ technique. You want the tea’s aroma, not the tea’s liquid. Infusing flavor with vapor, is that it?"

’As expected of Lu Yongliang’s disciple. He’s got a real knack for this!’

"That’s right. When the time comes, you can cook them in a few separate batches. I saw the spreadsheet Ling Shuyu sent. Each kid only gets five shrimp, so cooking it in three batches should be enough."

"No problem. Let me have a taste first."

Never mind anyone else, the morning taste-testing was Liu Ahbao’s favorite part of the day. How wonderful was it to start every morning with four exquisite dishes?

"I want to try too!" Zhang Li had already finished prepping all the vegetables.

"Here."

Su Chen handed them both chopsticks, and the three of them stood there, heads bowed, and began to taste.

"Holy shit!" Liu Ahbao exclaimed after eating just one shrimp. "This is too damn good! This is definitely the best Longjing Shrimp I’ve ever had. It’s way better than that restaurant at West Lake!"

Zhang Li smacked her lips. Normally during taste tests, she ate like a beast, but now she was mimicking Su Chen and Liu Ahbao, starting to savor the food slowly.

After all, no one was fighting her for it, so she could eat slowly.

"Huh? This flavor is so strange!"

Liu Ahbao and Su Chen both looked at Zhang Li at the same time.

"I feel like I ate a shrimp, but my mouth is full of the fragrance of tea. But after I swallow, there’s the savory flavor of shrimp! It’s amazing!"

Phew...

Su Chen and Ah Bao both breathed a sigh of relief. They thought the girl was about to say something bad, but it turns out she was just praising the food?

"I’m having another one! NOM NOM NOM!"

Su Chen smiled and put down his chopsticks. He remembered Zhang Li being a bit timid when she first arrived, but now it seemed she was starting to become a goofball too.

’Am I running a company of goofballs?’

Before he knew it, it was seven o’clock. Su Chen quickly cracked five hundred eggs. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be time before that pack of animals from Xinghui arrived.

"By the way, how have the buns been selling these past few days?"

"Hah! The buns and tea eggs are practically our best-selling breakfast items. I’ve been watching that Xinghui crowd—on average, they each have three buns and five eggs! They’re absolute beasts! There’s this one guy with black-rimmed glasses, my god, yesterday he ate three buns and ten eggs. He wanted to buy more, but I really didn’t dare sell him any."

Su Chen nodded. "That makes sense. We don’t want them getting sick and blaming us. Let’s hurry up and learn the next dish."

Su Chen brought over some chili peppers. Just as he was pouring oil into the wok, a... hard-to-describe voice came from outside the door.

It was the kind of voice that, if you said it was cutesy, it wasn’t quite that.

If you said it was coquettish, it still sounded pretty normal.

It was just the kind of voice that made your skin crawl just hearing it, which was probably why Liu Ahbao suddenly shivered.

"Hello? Is anyone here?"

The skin-crawling voice startled Su Chen so much that his hand trembled, and he quickly pulled the oil container back.

"Go see who it is."

Zhang Li said, "Oh," and started to walk out, not forgetting to snatch another shrimp from the plate and pop it in her mouth on her way.

SMACK SMACK!