Food: Taking the twins to kindergarten to be chefs

"Hey, look here, why are there so many carp?"

Qian Guoxiang and others came over after hearing the sound, and looking at the active carp in the basket, they couldn't help but show a look of surprise.

Huang Jun smiled and explained, "These are the extra ingredients that Director Liang prepared for everyone. If you need any extra ingredients, you can take some home this afternoon. Of course, if you don't want to take them away, you can leave them in the garden and I'll prepare more for you tomorrow."

"Extra meal? Great!"

Zheng Yaohua's face was filled with joy that was difficult to conceal.

After all, who can resist the temptation of delicious food?
Especially the delicious ones made by Huang Jun!

You know, he has been waiting for this day for a long time, and today he finally has the chance to feast on his food...

Do not!
Not just today, this happiness will continue into the future!

Hahaha~
awesome!
"Chef Huang, Director Liang, can we new helpers also get some?" Ding Xiuzhen and the other five new employees asked with a smile.

"Of course, everyone gets one!" Chef Huang nodded with a smile, "When the time comes, you can take a few back and make them yourself."

Hey, that's great!
On the first day of official work, there are extra meals and benefits to enjoy.

The welfare benefits of Dolaimi Kindergarten are truly commendable.

It was a far cry from the stingy kindergartens where they had worked before.

There, extra meals and welfare are almost non-existent, and even during the Mid-Autumn Festival, only a few loose mooncakes are distributed symbolically, which is extremely shabby.

This job change was the right one!

"Thank you, Director Liang and Chef Huang!" Ding Xiuzhen and the others said gratefully, and then shook their heads and said, "We won't take it home. If we can't finish it, we can just have more tomorrow!"

If you cook it at home, it won’t be as delicious as what Chef Huang makes…

They are not stupid...

Liang Yinqiu responded with a smile: "No problem, just make arrangements according to your own situation."

Meng Hongze then asked, "Director Liang, when can we go through our entry procedures? When we went to your office this morning, you were not there, so we came to the kitchen to report first."

The sooner you get it done, the sooner you’ll feel at ease!
Otherwise, I always feel like something is hanging, and I’m afraid that something unexpected will happen!

Others also echoed and asked, "Yes, Director Liang, should we go over and handle it now?"

Liang Yinqiu thought for a moment and said, "The kitchen may be busy today because of the extra food. How about this, after lunch and cleaning up, you can come to my office to complete the entry procedures, okay?"

"Ok, no problem!"

New employees such as Meng Hongze nodded in agreement.

"That's it for now. You guys continue to be busy. Thank you for your hard work this time."

After Liang Yinqiu finished speaking, he turned and left.

As soon as she leaves...

Aunt Li and Aunt Lin also followed Ding Xiuzhen and five other kitchen staff to continue processing the ingredients needed for today's lunch.

Qian Guoxiang looked at Huang Jun with a smile on his face and asked, "Chef Huang, what dish are you going to make with these carps?"

Huang Jun frowned slightly, thought for a moment and then answered: "I haven't thought about it yet, do you have any good suggestions?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Daqing immediately expressed his opinion: "I think sweet and sour fish, braised fish or steamed fish are all good, but... they all need to be deboned..."

Having said that, he suddenly realized that his worries might be unnecessary.

After all, with Huang Jun's superb cooking skills, the technique of "deboning carp" is a piece of cake for him.

Just one thing to note...

These carps are quite small, weighing only about one kilogram.

You should know that when deboning the carp, the larger the carp is, the more complete the bones are, the thicker the fish meat is, and the more room for the chef to operate.

Because the key to deboning is to keep the fish skin intact. As long as the skin is not broken, even if all the fish meat is removed, it can be considered a success to some extent.

Moreover, the skin of large fish is tougher and will not break easily even if it is accidentally scratched during operation.

But for smaller fish, especially carp weighing more than one kilogram, the situation is completely different.

They are in the early stages of growth and development, with relatively little meat, but the bones and fish spines are fully developed.

During the deboning process, the slightest negligence may cause the fish skin to be cut, causing the entire operation to fail...

Although he is experienced, he occasionally makes mistakes when deboning a carp that weighs just over a pound.

But, having said that, he is him, and Huang Chef is Huang Chef.

His mistakes do not mean that Chef Huang will also make mistakes.

The others were also more or less worried at first, but when they thought of Huang Jun's superb cooking skills, their concerns disappeared.

Huang Jun did not notice the inner thoughts of Yu Daqing and others. He was thinking about what Yu Daqing said.

When it comes to deboning carp, this is naturally a piece of cake for him!
Although whole fish deboning is recognized as a highly difficult technology in the field of fish processing, as it requires both ensuring that the fish's appearance remains intact and thoroughly removing fish bones and bones from its body, Huang Jun is not afraid of it.

Of course, there is also a simpler method, which is to cut open the carp's abdomen normally, remove the internal organs, and then carefully remove the fish bones and fish bones inside along the cut belly.

Compared to deboning a whole fish, this method has an additional incision in the fish belly that can be utilized, which makes the operation much easier. There is no need to start from the gills like deboning a whole fish.

But for Huang Jun, who has the assistance of the system, he should pursue the ultimate skill and choose the more challenging method of deboning the whole fish.

However, he felt that if he was going to do it, he should try both methods to personally verify the charm of each.

As for the cooking methods mentioned by Yu Daqing!
The addition of the deboning step makes the originally ordinary fish become special.

It allows people to avoid the pain of spitting out fish bones when eating them!
Although this conventional method is good, it fails to fully demonstrate the essence of the deboning technique.

So he was thinking, how can he make this dish delicious and make people see the skill of bone removal at a glance.

In other words, he wanted to create a special dish that was both delicious and unique, something that would catch the eye.

But I couldn’t think of a suitable dish for the moment.

Huang Jun smiled and said, "I should have no problem deboning the carp. But after careful consideration, I feel that the dishes proposed by Assistant Chef Yu do not seem to fully demonstrate the unique charm of the deboning technique..."

When these words were spoken, everyone was stunned and looked at each other, secretly trying to figure out the underlying meaning of Huang Jun's words.

Could it be…

Was it because he was not completely confident in deboning a carp weighing about a pound and was worried about something going wrong, so he found a euphemism?
After all, even highly skilled chefs have areas they are not very good at, which is normal.

No one pointed it out, but tacitly prepared to give Huang Jun a way out.

Zhao Weiguang thought about it and put forward his own opinion with a smile: "I think if you want to make a unique dish, you might as well combine carp and mutton to cook a classic fish and mutton dish."

But Qian Guoxiang disagreed. He shook his head and said, "Fish and mutton are delicious, but if the mutton smell and the fishy smell of fish are not handled properly, it is easy to make the whole dish unbalanced and become both muttony and fishy, ​​affecting the taste."

At this point, he seemed to realize that his words might have doubted Huang Jun's cooking skills, and quickly added: "The main reason is that our kitchen currently has no mutton in stock, so we can't make this dish.

If there are enough ingredients, this dish is also a good choice, and it does not necessarily require deboning, so it is relatively simple to prepare. "Huang Jun nodded slightly after hearing this, and fell into a brief contemplation.

Seeing this, everyone became more convinced that he was really not very good at deboning fish.

Otherwise, he would not agree with Qian Guoxiang's words.

After a while…

Huang Jun's eyes lit up with inspiration: "How about I try to make a three-fresh boneless fish! This dish can fully demonstrate the exquisite boneless technique and cleverly combine the deliciousness of multiple ingredients. I believe it will be eye-catching."

In fact, three-fresh boneless fish is not unique to Jiangsu cuisine, this dish is also found in Sichuan cuisine.

However, Su cuisine, which emphasizes light flavors, prefers to steam the fish to maximize the freshness and tenderness of the fish, and the method is not complicated.

When everyone heard this, they were stunned again.

This three-fresh boneless fish needs to be deboned.

Is it...

Did they misunderstand Huang Jun’s meaning?
It’s not that he’s not good at deboning carp?

That's for sure!

Otherwise, he would not have proposed to make this dish which requires extremely high bone-removing skills.

Upon hearing this, Qian Guoxiang's eyes lit up and he nodded approvingly, "Three Fresh Boneless Fish, it's really wonderful! This dish is a classic of Suzhou cuisine. It not only tests the chef's knife skills, but also requires the accuracy of seasoning. Chef Huang, if you can present it perfectly, our lunch today will definitely add a lot of brilliance."

Meng Hongze scratched his head naively, with a rare simple smile on his face: "Chef Huang, you decide how to make this dish today, I will fully cooperate with you. To tell you the truth, I have some experience in deboning carp weighing less than five kilograms, but when it comes to small carp weighing more than one kilogram, I am unsure about the delicate deboning work, and I am afraid that it will delay our important event."

Huang Jun raised a humble smile, waved his hand and said, "Assistant Chef Meng, you're too polite. Actually, this is the first time I've tried to debone a small carp weighing more than a pound. I'm not sure if I can do it well."

When everyone heard this, they all showed surprised expressions on their faces, obviously not believing it.

Meng Hongze said with a smile: "Chef Huang, you are joking~"

Yu Daqing also quickly agreed: "Yes, Chef Huang, we have all seen your cooking skills with our own eyes. Whether it is the exquisite knife skills or the control of the heat, you have grasped it just right, which makes people sincerely admire you. We are looking forward to the three-fresh boneless fish this time, and I believe you will be able to show your superb cooking skills again."

Qian Guoxiang, who knows Huang Jun well, also chimed in: "Chef Huang is good in every way except that he is too modest. He said he was unsure, but he must have been confident."

"Oh, so that's it!"

Everyone suddenly understood.

Huang Jun had a faint smile on his face. Without saying anything more, he took out a lively carp from the basket and gently placed it on the chopping board.

He first tapped the carp's gills with the back of the knife. The fish trembled slightly, then calmed down and stopped moving.

"Swish, swish, swish~"

The fish scales flew around in his hands like fallen leaves. He skillfully cut open the fish's belly and took out all the internal organs.

After completing these steps, he followed the incision, went deep into the fish meat, and severed the connection between the carp ribs and spine.

Putting on a small and sharp knife, he carefully removed the fish ribs on one side. His movements were so delicate that it seemed as if he was performing an artistic sculpture.

The same thing happened on the other side, the fish ribs fell off one by one without leaving any behind.

He stretched the fish's belly as wide as possible, placed it belly up, and laid it steadily on the chopping board, then used the tip of a kitchen knife to accurately cut off the connection between the fish's head and spine.

Next, he picked up a long and narrow boning knife and slowly cut in from behind the fish head, close to the spine, and easily removed the entire spine until he reached the tail of the fish.

After the spines on both sides were removed, he carefully pulled them out of the fish's belly. At this point, except for the head and tail, there was no fishbone or bone left in the entire carp.

This series of smooth and precise operations stunned the others present, who all looked at him with admiration.

Although the bone removal method is not difficult, Huang Jun's smooth operation is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Behind this is the result of years of hard work and improved skills.

While laymen are just watching the fun, experts are well aware of the ins and outs involved and are therefore even more shocked.

Everyone present, such as Qian Guoxiang, Zheng Yaohua, Yu Daqing, Zhao Weiguang, etc., all possess such skills, but when they think of the age gap between them and Huang Jun, the sense of superiority in their hearts disappears.

Meng Hongze thought to himself that he was capable of using this technique to remove the bones of a fish weighing more than a pound, but his hand speed was probably far from reaching Huang Jun's level.

Huang Jun gently put down the fish in his hand, and then picked up another lively carp.

The fish we caught just now was just a warm-up exercise.

Now, he is ready to challenge a more difficult skill that is more suitable for three-fresh boneless fish - deboning the whole fish.

This means removing the bones from the fish without damaging the skin.

This skill is much more difficult than before. It not only tests the chef's knife skills, but also the handling of fish viscera.

If you are not careful and break the fish's gallbladder, the whole fish will lose its edible value.

Huang Jun first scraped off the fish scales skillfully, then carefully dug out the fish gills and removed the fish teeth.

He picked up a slender and sharp boning knife, gently inserted it into the fish's gills, and began the delicate work of deboning.

This work is extremely difficult, the operating space is small, and the carp's skeletal structure is complex, with ribs in the front and rows of spines in the back. If you are not careful, the tip of the knife may penetrate the fish skin.

But thanks to Huang Jun's superb skills as a mid-level chef, the whole process, although challenging, was as steady as a rock.

When he removed the bones and internal organs of the whole fish from the gills, everyone at the scene couldn't help but gasp.

This technique is superb.

Everyone once again deeply felt that Qian Guoxiang's previous evaluation of Huang Jun was indeed very appropriate, and Huang Jun's humility just now was really a bit too much.

"You are amazing, Chef Huang!" Zheng Yaohua exclaimed sincerely, "Thinking back to when I was young, I definitely could not reach your current level of cooking skills when I was your age."

Qian Guoxiang nodded in agreement: "Yes, I was also far behind in the past."

Zhao Weiguang and Yu Daqing also nodded repeatedly.

indeed!

They are far inferior!
Meng Hongze pondered quietly, asking himself, if he reached Huang Jun's age, would he be able to reach Huang Jun's level of cooking skills?

Although he has always been praised by the outside world as "the most talented young chef", at this moment, he has to admit deep down in his heart that compared with Huang Jun, he may not be fully worthy of this title.

Huang Jun's cooking skills are undoubtedly better and more amazing than his.

And if he wants to reach the same level as Huang Jun at Huang Jun's age, it is by no means easy, and he needs to put in more effort and sweat...

of course.

Even though the road ahead was difficult, he had no intention of giving up.

He will take Huang Jun as an example and continue to hone his cooking skills, hoping that one day he will be able to keep up with him or even surpass him...

We still have to have dreams, what if they come true? (End of this chapter)