The Gourmet Customizer

Bird's nest, on the other hand, is different. If you put it together with cattails, their flavors would clash completely. That would ruin the dish.

Ah Bao didn't quite understand what Su Chen meant. He was about to ask another question, but Su Chen was already busy again. He had no choice but to suppress his curiosity for the moment and quietly watch the fluid, graceful cooking process.

In just five minutes, the shredded radish turned a soft, opaque white. Su Chen drizzled it with peanut oil, which quickly soaked through every strand. After pouring in a generous amount of clear stock, he placed the radish back in the steamer.

'This dish feels strangely familiar...'

'The experience of making it for real is much more intense than in the practice room. The method is almost identical to that of 'cabbage in boiling water'.'

As he reached the final step, Su Chen himself was a little baffled.

Why is 'cabbage in boiling water' considered Sichuan cuisine? Both the cooking method and the stock preparation feel like they're entirely based on Lu Cuisine techniques.

'How strange.'

Shaking the intrusive thoughts from his head, he removed the twice-steamed radish from the steamer. Then, he added clear stock to a wok and brought it to a rolling boil!

"Here it comes!" Liu Ahbao couldn't help but take a step forward. He stood before Boss Su in a slight crouch, not daring to even blink, terrified he might miss a single crucial step!

He poured the boiling clear stock into the other side of a large bowl. Then, with extreme care, Su Chen used chopsticks to slowly lift the shredded radish, which had been soaking in stock, out of the steamer and transfer it into the large bowl.

The shredded radish rested in the new clear stock. Having been steamed twice, it had a translucent, almost gelatinous quality. A few slivers of bright red ham were placed on top, suspended in the clear stock as they gently bobbed up and down.

If he hadn't watched Su Chen's entire process from start to finish, Liu Ahbao would have sworn this was a genuine "swallow's nest soup"!

Su Chen grasped the wax paper divider in the middle of the bowl with both hands and took a deep breath.

The whole point of using the White Jade Hand was for this very step!

After adjusting his posture and gauging the necessary force, Su Chen jerked his hands upward. The wax paper divider came straight out of the bowl, yet the milk soup and clear stock within seemed completely undisturbed.

Not a single ripple broke the surface!

Everyone stared at the scene in astonishment.

It was one soup, yet the two broths within it stayed perfectly separate, as if respecting an invisible boundary.

On one side was the milk soup with cattails; on the other, the clear-stock "swallow's nest." Two completely different colors and styles coexisted in the very same bowl.

"Holy crap, Boss! How'd you learn that? I wanna try!" Zhang Li mimicked Su Chen's movement with her hands.

SWOOSH. SWOOSH. SWOOSH.

"Uh..."

Su Chen didn't know how to explain it. 'With Zhang Li's intelligence, she'd probably have a hard time understanding anyway,' he thought. So he just said something she *could* understand. "Serve the dish."

"You got it!"

Zhang Li and He Shuting each placed the large bowls on trays and carried them out with perfect stability.

"Boss, should I go scout out the enemy's situation?" Ah Bao asked eagerly.

He had already seen how the dish was made, so "scouting" wasn't really the point. Ah Bao was just dying to see the look on Cui Yufen's face when he saw it!

Su Chen saw right through him. "Go on. You can't help much with the rest of the dishes anyway."

After Ah Bao left, Jiang Wusheng approached Su Chen, clapping his hands. "Boss Su, a miracle! That was nothing short of a miracle! I'm telling you, when this dish gets out, the entire culinary world of Lu Province is going to be stunned!"

Jiang Wensheng was just as lavish with his praise. "To have witnessed the birth of this dish with my own eyes... my trip to Jingzhou is now complete! I have a feeling that before long, the name of Delicious will be known across the entire country!"

Su Chen opened his mouth, then shut it.

'These two really know how to lay on the flattery!'

'Are they trying to use me as free labor again? They must be addicted to free food!'

'Whatever. Time to get back to cooking!'

The second course was done. A pastry and a soup had been served; now it was time for the main event!

The "longevity duck" was still in the pot. Since Cui Yufen had arrived so early, it wasn't time to serve it yet. He had to turn his attention to the other main course.

Pot-Roasted Pork Knuckle!

The pork knuckle had been placed in the steamer early this morning and had now been cooking for a good three hours.

He opened the steamer, and a rich, meaty aroma flooded the kitchen. It was a completely different scent from that of braised pork knuckle—this one was almost overwhelmingly rich.

After three hours, the pork knuckle looked perfectly intact on the outside. But only Su Chen knew that the meat inside was now unbelievably tender. If served with a simple white garlic dip, it would be an exquisite dish in its own right!

But he couldn't do that. This was merely the prelude to making the Pot-Roasted Pork Knuckle. The real show had yet to begin.

He removed the pork knuckle and drained off the liquid, ready to begin the next step.

...

Trying to look like just another staff member, Liu Ahbao left the kitchen with an air of nonchalance. He crossed the dining hall to a spot near the entrance and sat down quietly in an inconspicuous corner.

He watched the reactions of the people at the table out of the corner of his eye.

'My boss's two-in-one dish is going to blow your minds, isn't it?'

Ah Bao was ready for the show to begin. But to his surprise, a middle-aged man at Lu Yongliang's table suddenly pointed at the dish and spoke up.

"Just showing off. Heh. Waiter? Trouble you to call your chef out here."

'Here we go!'

Lu Yongliang's heart skipped a beat. 'So Cui Yufen really is planning to challenge him head-on today.' At the same time, he cast a sympathetic glance toward the seventy-something Master Cui.