The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 418 The Difference Between a Pastry Chef and a Master Chef

As Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an followed behind Master Zhou, they felt like interns in a medical drama, following behind the attending physician. They were wearing white coats, holding medical records, and knew nothing, but they could still ride along in this group and act like they were in charge.

Everywhere you look, you see the awe-inspiring gazes of patients (apprentices). When your eyes meet, their first reaction is to look away, then they hand you the examination form (a snack). The attending physician conducts the main examination, while the intern follows behind, getting a taste of what's happening and listening to the attending physician's diagnosis.

As Qin Huai stood behind the attending physician eating snacks, he felt that he had probably gone crazy from watching too many TV dramas.

Strange, he clearly didn't watch many TV dramas.

Okay, actually I did watch a little bit.

"What is this? Could it be the legendary egg rice noodle roll? It's quite an honor to have such an egg rice noodle roll in the kitchen of Zhiweiju. The rice noodle roll skin is so thick that it can be used as a blanket. I felt that the low-temperature area was too cold and there were no blankets, so I made some myself and wanted to send some over?"

"Who made this mung bean cake? I've heard of Beijing-style, Yunnan-style, Suzhou-style, and Yangzhou-style, but this is the first time I've seen this kind. What style is it? Is it sweet? Did they give away sugar for free? Or did they accidentally spill the sugar from the sugar jar while adding it?"

"Did Zhiweiju receive an order from some hospital? It's a special snack for patients with hypoglycemia, and the mung bean cake is so sweet. Did you take money from one of my enemies? I heard my blood sugar has been a bit high lately, so you specially made this batch of mung bean cakes to make my blood sugar even higher."

"Oh, what's this? Brown sugar steamed buns? Life is really good now, and people are starting to reminisce about the past and appreciate the present. I never thought that one day I could eat white flour steamed buns and taste like cornbread."

"This is……"

As Master Zhou's words grew increasingly sharp, escalating from mere sarcasm to attacks on the pastries, Qin Huai, standing behind, could see that Master Zhou's anger was gradually building, just one step away from erupting like a volcano.

Startled, Qin Huai quickly took two steps back to create distance, lest Master Zhou indiscriminately attack everyone and sweep him into the mix.

Zhao Cheng'an, on the other hand, remained motionless with practiced ease and continued eating the snacks he wanted.

Qin Huai was also munching on a plate of cloyingly sweet mung bean cakes. It's worth noting that there's a reason why many apprentices at Zhiweiju are only apprentices, lacking even the qualifications to make and sell pastries.

If this kind of snack could be put on the shelves for sale, it would really ruin the brand. Although Master Zhou is a bit harsh, his words are not wrong. This mung bean cake is so sweet that it seems to be specially made for people with hypoglycemia. One bite is so high in calories that it can make you run 2 kilometers on the spot.

Compared to these apprentices, Su Qian's skills are absolutely top-notch, without a doubt.

"Master Zhao..."

“Just call me by my name. My master said we’re of the same generation, so you don’t need to call me Master Zhao,” Zhao Cheng’an said with a grin.

"Zhao Cheng'an," Qin Huai said readily, though he wasn't used to addressing people he wasn't very familiar with by their given names. "I have a question for you."

"explain."

"You said that Master Zhou only comes to instruct the apprentices when he's in a good mood. I think Master Zhou only comes out to get some stimulation when he feels that Su Qian's skills are not good enough and he really wants to scold him. He wants to see the skills of ordinary apprentices to comfort himself so that he can go back and continue to teach Su Qian how to make pastries." Qin Huai quietly voiced his guess.

Zhao Cheng'an's eyes widened in surprise as he glanced at Qin Huai, his eyes filled with admiration and astonishment.

"You're quite something, kid." Zhao Cheng'an lowered his voice. "You even noticed this. I don't think my senior brothers and sisters necessarily know this either. Actually, I think so too, but I don't dare to ask at all."

Qin Huai continued to eat the mung bean cake. Although it was a bit too sweet, he found it barely acceptable. It was the most palatable of all the pastries made by the apprentices.

The only problem with this mung bean cake is that it's too sweet; other desserts might only have one flaw.

Having eaten with Master Zhou along the way, Qin Huai deeply understood Boss Su's good intentions. Whether it was the apprentices Boss Su sent to Huang Ji before, or the batch of apprentices sent to Yunzhong Canteen later, they were indeed all excellent and elite apprentices.

An ordinary apprentice is indeed too ordinary.

"Does Zhiweiju have no standards for recruiting apprentices?" Qin Huai asked, his question piercing the soul.

“It might have been possible in earlier years, but it has been relaxed a lot in recent years,” Zhao Cheng’an explained. “The main reason is that it has been difficult to recruit apprentices in recent years. You know, learning to cook is very hard, and apprentices usually can’t be too old; the younger the better.”

“Things are different now than they used to be. These days, chefs who have really learned the basics of cooking from elementary school are mostly from culinary families, like Tan Weian. I’m considered an oddball. Back when I was in school, it was common to send kids who didn’t do well in school to places like Zhiweiju to suffer. Now there are other ways to suffer.”

"Fewer people are willing to learn to cook, so there are naturally fewer good talents, and the standards for recruiting apprentices have been lowered a lot. Basically, anyone with some basic skills, willing to work hard, and able to pass the basic assessment can become an apprentice at Zhiweiju. The conditions are really too poor, and they will be eliminated very quickly. The speed of entry and exit is very fast."

"That's why it's so hard to find apprentices now. I don't know if Tan Weian has told you about my glorious achievements. Zhiweiju hasn't had a wild disciple like me, a prodigy, for over 10 years. Now, if a good prospect appears, several master chefs will fight tooth and nail to get him. Luckily, I'm not old enough to take on apprentices yet. I haven't practiced much these past few years, so I can't beat anyone."

Qin Huai: ...? Is Zhiweiju's practice of snatching apprentices a physical act of robbery?
Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an followed Master Zhou and continued eating. Towards the end, they were able to find some pastries that were reasonably tasty.

Qin Huai realized that Master Zhou had a specific order in instructing his apprentices. He would start with the worst performers because he had the most patience at the beginning and wouldn't explode when faced with particularly poor students. Moreover, this process of gradually improving with each instruction was excellent for training his mindset; in a sense, Master Zhou's instruction of his apprentices was also a form of self-cultivation.

Qin Huai could only go this far in his story about Master Zhou's actions.
.
For the next few days, Qin Huai spent his time in this manner.

Every morning at 9 o'clock, I would go to Zhiweiju for breakfast and watch Master Zhou scold Su Qian while eating. Every day there was a new way he scolded Su Qian.

Then we have a morning meeting, listen to gossip, watch the masters clash in the middle, and have lunch.

After lunch, Qin Huai waited for Chef Zhou to finish instructing Su Qian before starting his rounds in the kitchen. Even though Zhao Cheng'an had told Qin Huai that Chef Zhou rarely instructed ordinary apprentices, doing so only once a month was considered good.

However, ever since Qin Huai came to Zhiweiju, Master Zhou has been instructing all the ordinary apprentices around noon every day, scolding them one by one to improve their language and mindset, which is to say, to cultivate their minds.

The afternoons are usually more flexible, and Master Zhou will make some of the desserts he wants to make during the free time he is instructing his apprentices, such as egg tarts and mango mille-feuille.

This was also Qin Huai's happiest time. He could not only watch Master Zhou make pastries, but also eat them immediately after they were finished. Basically, he could eat as many egg tarts as he wanted; Qin Huai would eat first, and the remaining tarts would be taken out to sell.

Qin Huai himself doesn't make any pastries; he just watches and eats. He eats from the moment he opens his eyes all day, from morning till night with almost no breaks. Occasionally, when his mouth gets a rest, he even helps Zhou Yan taste her white jade shrimp rolls. Qin Huai is so full of food that he's almost considering taking a day off.

For no other reason than to give my stomach a day off and let it digest less.

Eating like this every day is really unbearable.

Of course, Qin Huai also ate a lot of melons while enjoying the snacks. He actually spent most of his day watching Zhao Cheng'an and the others make snacks.

Zhao Cheng'an and the other two are all highly skilled pastry chefs. Wang Jiayi is a true master chef, and his skills are beyond question. Zhou Yan is able to independently develop new pastries, which also speaks volumes about her abilities.

Even Zhao Cheng'an, who is suspected of being a prodigy among the three, could be said to have made impeccable pastries. Qin Huai felt that his pastries were roughly at the B level, just short of the A level. Even Zhao Cheng'an's specialty, puff pastries, did not reach the A level.

But this was already quite excellent. Qin Huai felt that Zhao Cheng'an was only a little bit away from making A-grade pastries, lacking personal style. Yes, personal style.

Qin Huai's observations over the past few days haven't been entirely fruitless. Wang Jiayi, Zhou Yan, and Zhao Cheng'an essentially represent the three stages from pastry chef to master chef. Their characteristics are also very distinct: Wang Jiayi has largely established his personal style, Zhou Yan is still exploring, and Zhao Cheng'an has none at all.

Qin Huai couldn't say that Zhao Cheng'an's pastries were bad, nor could he say that there was anything wrong with them. In terms of steps and details, Zhao Cheng'an's pastries could be said to be impeccable, perfect as if they were copied from a textbook. But the biggest problem was also in this copying.

That's too rigid.

Everyone says Qin Huai has a great ability to imitate pastry making, but Qin Huai feels that at least he's imitating the pastry chefs' work; he's imitating their style. Zhao Cheng'an, on the other hand, seems to be copying textbook answers verbatim, but there are no standard answers for making pastries, and no one knows where Zhao Cheng'an bought his textbooks or where he found his answers.

No matter what kind of desserts he makes, they are all the same; to put it more abstractly, the desserts he makes have no soul.

Zhao Cheng'an himself didn't seem to care much about this. He was clearly the most individualistic of the three, yet the pastries he made were the least individualistic. He made pastries every day, spending a considerable amount of time on them, and unlike Tan Weian, he wasn't lazy. However, the pastries he made were all the same, showing no improvement whatsoever, nor any room for improvement.

As for Su Qian...

The elite apprentice's skills were really lacking, so let's not even mention them.

After observing for a few days, Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an had become quite familiar with each other. They could not only understand the gossip they talked about, but sometimes they could even chime in. It could be said that they had integrated well into the group.

Qin Huai felt that his days of simply watching wouldn't last long.

Although Master Zhou didn't explain why Qin Huai should watch it every day, and Qin Huai wisely refrained from asking, he already had a vague answer in his heart.

As Master Zhou said, sometimes you don't have to do something to learn it; you can learn it just by looking at it.

With three vivid examples before him, Qin Huai was not blind.
.
Another afternoon spent purely watching.

Wang Jiayi continued making his distinctively personal style of pastries, Zhou Yan was studying her white jade shrimp rolls as usual, and Zhao Cheng'an was trying to make any kind of pastry he could find, showcasing his pastry repertoire.

Qin Huai stood quietly to the side, tasting the white jade shrimp rolls and chatting with them.

Zhao Cheng'an is making a brocade palace lantern bag.

His plier-shaped palace lantern buns are made to a very high standard. As Master Zhou's beloved apprentice, Zhao Cheng'an's finger technique is quite competent, and his aesthetic sense is excellent. His tendency to be too rigid, which might be criticized when making other pastries, becomes an advantage when making plier-shaped palace lantern buns, where the shape is very important and therefore requires a slightly more rigid approach.

Zhao Cheng'an used small clips to create standard patterns on the brocade lantern package, just like a robot carving flowers.

“Actually, there are no special techniques for finger techniques. You just need to practice and keep your hands steady,” Zhao Cheng’an said. “Qin Huai, you’ve come to the right place to learn finger techniques. Let me tell you, with your talent that is comparable to mine, I believe that you will master your finger techniques in two or three years at most.”

Qin Huai: "...Is it possible that I am here for an exchange, and that I am not a chef at your Zhiweiju restaurant?"

In two or three years, the elderly folks at the Yunzhong Canteen will be crying their eyes out at the entrance of Zhiweiju Restaurant.

Zhao Cheng'an still smiled and said, "What does it matter? No one says you can't come to Zhiweiju for exchanges for two or three years. I believe Boss Su would be very willing."

Just as Qin Huai opened his mouth to say something, Zhou Yan handed him the filling she had just prepared: "Little Qin, can you taste this batch and tell me if it's any better?"

Qin Huai took a small sip and thought for a moment: "It still feels a bit lacking, but it shouldn't be the seasoning that's lacking, it should be the ingredients that's lacking."

Zhou Yan frowned: "The ingredients are a bit lacking... but should we increase or decrease the amount of ingredients? Tsk, third brother, why don't you try it for me too?"

Just as Qin Huai was about to say something more, Wang Jiayi spoke up again: "Yanzi, don't be too impatient. Your biggest problem is that you're too impatient. It's like your child learning piano. It's only been a few lessons. It's normal for him not to learn well yet. What's the use of being impatient?"

"Xiao Qin, don't you think so? This finger technique can't be learned in a day or two. What Lao San said is actually right. The most important thing about finger technique is a steady hand and a careful mind. The rest depends on time."

"If you'd like, it would be nice to stay at Zhiweiju for a while longer. Sometimes even Xiao Tan can't keep up with the three of us talking, but you can."

Zhao Cheng'an chimed in enthusiastically, "That's right, that's right! I told you long ago, Qin Huai, your cooking station will be right next to ours, so the four of us can chat while we make desserts. But speaking of which, Qin Huai, you've been watching for five days now, when are you going to start making desserts? You really need to start practicing your finger techniques; you can't learn them just by watching."

"I……"

Qin Huai was about to speak when Zhou Yan interrupted him: "What's the rush? Master must have his own plans. It's right for Xiao Qin to observe and adapt for a few more days. There's still a long road ahead."

Qin Huai: ...?
What does it mean to say that there are still many days ahead?

And the reason I was able to keep up with the three of you is because you didn't give me a chance to speak at all, so I didn't need to keep up, right?

Just as Qin Huai found an opportunity to speak, Master Zhou returned.

Qin Huai knew that the afternoon he looked forward to most every day was approaching, a time to indulge in egg tarts.

Qin Huai consciously took two steps toward Master Zhou, but Master Zhou did not lead Qin Huai anywhere else, but walked straight toward Qin Huai.

"Xiao Qin, how's the treatment going these past few days?" This was the first time Master Zhou had asked Qin Huai about his treatment.

"It's...it's pretty good," Qin Huai said. "I feel like I've learned something, but I'm not sure if it's what you wanted me to learn."

Master Zhou didn't answer Qin Huai's question directly, but smiled and said, "You'll find out soon enough."

"I asked Xiao Tan to help you out. Didn't you ask me before when I could make some desserts?"

"I think now is the perfect time. You've been watching for so many days, and I'm sure you've learned a lot. Why don't you..."

Let's make a batch of egg tarts.

Qin Huai: ? ? ?
Egg tarts?

Master Zhou, I'm not good at making puff pastry!

I'm here to learn fingering techniques, do you remember me?

(End of this chapter)