The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 483 Breakthrough
After a day of rest and discussion, Qin Huai finally decided to give up the way of honing his basic skills by working as a breakfast shop chef, and instead focus on making various kinds of pastries and return to being a pastry chef.

The result of this major decision was that Zhiweiju's regular customers lost many breakfast items such as cheap, plentiful white flour steamed buns, vegetable buns, meat buns, flower rolls, shumai, and rice noodle rolls. However, they could randomly get various kinds of noodles at any time, which were expensive and plentiful, and their quality was extremely inconsistent, except for apple noodles.

Becoming a pastry chef means changing your work schedule. Breakfast shop chefs can start work at 4 a.m., but for a pastry chef, starting work at 4 a.m. is a bit too diligent. Buying steamed buns at 6 a.m. sounds reasonable, but buying various kinds of pastries that cost hundreds of dollars at 6 a.m. sounds a bit outrageous.

Of course, if Qin Huai really wanted to start work at 4 a.m. to make mian guo er (a type of noodle dish), that would be fine. It would be a bit of a hardship for the customers of Zhiweiju; there are definitely customers willing to get up early to grab the mian guo er, but Chef Zhou can't.

Master Zhou really can't get up.

As a pastry chef, Chef Zhou's last act of stubbornness was that he didn't want to start work before 7 a.m.

It would be even better if I could start work at 8 a.m.

Qin Huai can only make apple-shaped steamed buns when he makes them himself. If he wants to make other kinds of steamed buns, he needs Master Zhou's guidance or supervision.

To improve teaching quality, Chef Zhou no longer holds morning meetings in Boss Su's office; instead, he calls Boss Su directly to the kitchen. Since only Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an are in this area, and to prevent Zhao Cheng'an from getting too carried away with his conversations, Chef Zhou hasn't transferred them back to their original locations so they're not in the same place as Zhou Yan and Wang Jiayi.

Boss Su didn't mind holding meetings in the kitchen. Although he and Chef Zhou were discussing a top-secret pastry recipe, they hadn't finalized it yet. All recipes are meaningless until they're discussed. Boss Su wasn't worried about Qin Huai eavesdropping. Running a factory and running a restaurant are not the same thing. Just having a recipe doesn't guarantee a successful factory if you don't understand management, supply, and shipping.

Boss Su even hoped that Qin Huai could spend some time eavesdropping while making noodles and offer some useful suggestions, so that he could contribute more by speaking up.

As for Zhao Cheng'an, he didn't count on him; Zhao Cheng'an hadn't even solved his own problems yet.

As for An Youyou, since Qin Huai changed her work schedule, she no longer needs to come to work at 3 a.m. every day. Qin Huai suggested that she take a day off to adjust her schedule.

An Youyou accepted Qin Huai's suggestion to rest today and go to work as usual tomorrow. Her work is similar to before: she comes to Qin Huai's place in the morning and at noon to watch Zhao Cheng'an make pastries, and in the afternoon she goes back to her workstation to make pastries under Tan Weian's guidance.

With so many personally trained disciples providing one-on-one instruction every day, An Youyou's treatment is truly unparalleled in Zhiweiju.

Incidentally, Boss Su was shocked to hear that Qin Huai was going to switch from making breakfast to making noodles. After receiving a WeChat message from Qin Huai about the change in his work, he immediately called Qin Huai to ask him with concern if he was affected by the rumors circulating outside.

Qin Huai was completely bewildered. He asked Boss Su what rumors were circulating, as he had no idea about the new version of Tan Weian's story. The version he had heard was still that Tan Weian wanted to support An Youyou as the successor of Yunzhong Canteen so that he could better expand his business in Hangzhou, build community canteens, and compete with Zhiweiju.

Boss Su said it was a rumor that Zhiweiju wanted to become the number one breakfast shop in the country. He immediately said that he had no such intention at all and only wanted to protect Zhiweiju's status as the number one white food restaurant. The position of number one breakfast shop should still be reserved for Yunzhong Restaurant in Qinhuai.

Qin Huai asked Boss Su if Tan Weian had released a new version.

Mr. Su said yes.

Then Qin Huai stuffed all the dragon fruit that had been in the refrigerator for a while and was on the verge of spoiling, which could have been thrown in the trash, into Tan Weian's hands, and warmly invited him to eat more. Before Tan Weian arrived, he also hid all the cheese sticks and told Tan Weian that Zhao Cheng'an had eaten them all that afternoon.

That's all for these little anecdotes before making the noodles. Let's turn our attention to the main battlefield of the noodles—the kitchen of Zhiweiju.

Boss Su moved his own little stool and sat by the Qinhuai River, holding a tablet and an electronic pen, poking at the tablet and frowning from time to time.

“If it’s mass-produced, the shelf life can’t be too short. But to maintain the flavor of the pastries, we can’t add too many food additives, so we can only increase the proportion of oil, sugar, and salt. But doing so will greatly diminish the flavor of the pastries. No wonder the pastries I bought on the street before were only the low-end kind. Let alone mid-to-high-end ones, it’s hard to even come up with a mid-to-low-end recipe.” Boss Su wished he could bury his head in his tablet and work on the recipes in the spreadsheet.

"I've heard this for two weeks already. Can't you say something new? You keep repeating the same few sentences every day. Do you think that will get you anywhere? Do you think this tablet is a magic lamp where you can make a wish? Even if you were to make a wish, you should make a request instead of complaining. Even if there's a tablet god inside, he'd be sick of hearing your endless, repetitive complaints and wouldn't want to come out." Master Zhou retorted mercilessly, not even sparing Boss Su a second glance. He kept his eyes fixed on Qin Huai's hand movements, while also glancing at Zhao Cheng'an out of the corner of his eye.

"The orange flesh of this pastry is made a little better than before. Pastry is all about the details. The more detailed it is, the more lifelike it will be. You can't be careless and not pay attention just because the orange flesh is inside. When customers break it open, they might break it out of shape. What you need to consider is that when customers eat your pastry, they will be pleasantly surprised to find that the flesh inside is also very finely made, and they can even see the texture on it."

"And did you notice? Your batch of orange dough balls failed because the dough for the orange flesh wasn't kneaded properly. Because dough balls need to be shaped, most of the dough is kneaded a little firmer, but the flesh is inside. The filling can make it look very appealing. You should focus more on the texture and how to make the filling taste more orange, rather than sacrificing the texture for the sake of the shape."

"These things may seem like techniques, but they are more about awareness, your understanding of the noodle cake. Noodle cake is a category, but each type is different. They have different shapes, flavors, structures, and different emphases in their concepts and production methods."

"Having worked in the pastry business for so many years, I have always maintained that the noodle cake is the most difficult pastry to make. Its difficulty does not lie in the technique, nor in the so-called aesthetic of the chef, but in the concept."

"Good chefs all have their own recipes for 'mian guo' (a type of pastry). You can learn their pastries from other people's recipes, but you can't learn their philosophy. 'Mian guo' is the pastry that best showcases a chef's skills, philosophy, and characteristics. Of course, what you need to do now is learn my recipe, but I hope you will do more than just learn my recipe."

"Third brother, what are you doing? Are you pretending to teach a lesson by pressing your hands on the dough? I didn't say anything when there was a problem earlier, so you think you've escaped a disaster? Look at the crap you've made! It's been so many days, and you're still making this mistake. Did you go to Beiping to eat at Fenyuan and leave your brain and skills there without bringing them back?"

"If it weren't for the fact that you're so old now, I would really like to whip you with a bamboo pole like I did when you were learning your craft as a child. Can't you get rid of this bad habit? Is it that talking and scolding are no longer effective, and you have to use a bamboo pole to whip me?"

Seeing that his master was about to escalate from cursing to beating him, Zhao Cheng'an was so frightened that he quickly started kneading the dough seriously. Putting everything else aside, with Master Zhou's physique and fighting skills, if he really wanted to beat Zhao Cheng'an, Zhao Cheng'an wouldn't stand a chance.

Chef Zhou's track record at Zhiweiju is well-documented.

Master Zhou glared at Zhao Cheng'an with exasperation, then turned his gaze to Qin Huai, switching to a gentle expression: "Little Qin, don't let him influence you. Just do your thing. Think about what I just said. You can try your best, but it's okay if you can't do it. It's normal that you can't do it at your current level. You're such a noodle maker..."

Master Zhou glanced at the batch of ugly, oddly shaped dough balls that had already been steamed, each with its own unique characteristics, and organized his thoughts: "Right now, we really can't be too ambitious."

Zhao Cheng'an: QAQ
Master, your double standards are going too far!

The noodles made in Qinhuai are beyond the scope of "ambitious but unrealistic"; they're downright delusional. Is that even noodles? They're so ugly! If I made noodles like that, you'd have dumped that dish on my head long ago.

Zhao Cheng'an felt that he had really shot himself in the foot yesterday.

He knew his master had a bias against Qin Huai, a rather strong one, but he hadn't expected it to be this strong. He was well aware of Qin Huai's skill level in making noodles; it wasn't that he was completely incapable, but it was fair to say that he was utterly terrible at everything except making apple noodles.

Making noodles demands a high level of skill from the chef, and Qin Huai's basic skill set wasn't up to that level. Besides, he hadn't practiced making any other types of noodles besides apple noodles. His textbook-style aesthetics were somewhat out of place when it came to making noodles. A chef with no foundation and substandard basic stats trying to make so many different kinds of noodles right from the start was bound to have predictable results.

Zhao Cheng'an encouraged Qin Huai to start leveling up his skills with Mian Guo'er, hoping that Qin Huai would share the workload with him.

Anyway, whether Master Zhou scolds one person or two, it's all the same. If Master Zhou spent half of the time scolding Zhao Cheng'an, or even just a third of it on scolding Qin Huai, Zhao Cheng'an would get scolded less.

result……

Zhao Cheng'an not only didn't get less scolding, but he got scolded several times more. Previously, Master Zhou rarely came in the morning, only coming in the afternoon for random checks and one-on-one guidance to Qin Huai. Zhao Cheng'an would only be subjected to his master's barrage of scolding after Qin Huai got off work; whether it was a downpour or a torrential downpour depended on Zhao Cheng'an's condition that day.

Now things are much better; now Chef Zhou is stationed in the kitchen every morning.

Before, it only rained for one or two hours a day, but now it rains all day long.

Zhao Cheng'an really wanted to look up at the ceiling so that the tears in his heart wouldn't flow, but he couldn't, because that would be a serious act of slacking off, and if he dared to do that, his master would definitely scold him to death.

Zhao Cheng'an could only steal a glance at Qin Huai, watching him struggle to slowly and painstakingly make the orange-flavored pastries, and seeing that he still made a complete mess of the orange pulp.

But it is indeed better than the last time.

Even if Qin Huai makes a mistake, it's never the same thing twice. He never falls on the same problem repeatedly. Every time, he makes progress, breaks through, and encounters new problems.

This is completely different from Zhao Cheng'an's style of focusing on one problem and agonizing over it for 20 days without making any changes.

Damn, is this what genius is?
At this moment, Zhao Cheng'an truly empathized with Tan Weian.

Qin Huai had never attempted high-difficulty dim sum at Zhiweiju before, but now he's finally starting his Huangji mode. Only by being there in person, standing next to Qin Huai and watching him seriously learn to make high-difficulty dim sum from scratch, can one truly appreciate just how terrifying his talent is.

It's the kind of thing that makes you gasp in horror, a feeling of utter terror.

Damn, I knew you learned quickly, but I didn't know you learned this fast. Forget about making changes every day; in the early stages, you could even make changes every time you tried. Is this even human?
Zhao Cheng'an was starting to consider surrendering.

He gave up, he admitted defeat. He had tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice instead. He could already foresee how he would be scolded in the last 10 days.

If you're destined to accept it, then accept it. Let the storm rage on!

Zhao Cheng'an took a deep breath, blinked his eyes, and stopped looking at Qin Huai, focusing on kneading the dough in his hands.

With Master Zhou standing right there, Zhao Cheng'an didn't dare to gossip. The gossip he and Qin Huai discussed was not for outsiders to hear. Unable to speak it aloud, Zhao Cheng'an could only let his imagination run wild.

He thought back to when he was still Chen Sheng, and there was a man named Xia Murui next to him. Every day, as soon as Xia Murui opened his eyes, he would work without saying a word. When there was a lot of work, he would work; when there was little work, he would create work to do.

Unlike him, who avoids work whenever possible and no one cares if he's lazy, Master Chen would only gently scold him if he went too far in slacking off, making sure he at least finished his assigned tasks.

Thinking of this, Zhao Cheng'an actually felt a bit relieved. Xia Murui worked so hard back then, yet her progress wasn't as fast as Qin Huai's. This shows that blind effort is useless; some people are just born for this. Qin Huai, that bastard…

Damn, he's hardworking and talented. Xia Murui has lived for so many years and made it into the top ten of the famous chefs list. If Qin Huai also lives to 90, he might make it into the top five of the famous chefs list, right?
Just thinking about it makes my teeth clench.

But if a pastry chef could make it into the top five of the famous chefs list, the pastries they make would be incredibly delicious. Imagine if a Huaiyuan restaurant opened in Qinhuai, and I could eat there every day…

Hey hey hey.

Zhao Cheng'an felt increasingly pleased with himself. After kneading the dough, he moved on to the next step.

Master Zhou's slightly satisfied voice came from Zhao Cheng'an's ear: "Not bad, you were quite serious this time and didn't make those damn little mistakes. Don't you know how to knead dough normally? What were you doing before?"

Zhao Cheng'an: Huh?
He recovered?

Is he normal now?

The memories of his previous seven lifetimes finally stopped chasing and killing him?!

Zhao Cheng'an was overjoyed and subconsciously looked at Qin Huai, only to find that Qin Huai was not paying attention to his major breakthrough at all, but was solemnly wrapping the orange pulp with dough and shaping the orange peel.

Zhao Cheng'an, who was absent, thought of a little-known gossip that Tan Weian had mentioned before.

Qin Huai's talent is sometimes so high that it seems to overflow from his body. If only he had a basin nearby to pick up that overflowing talent and stuff it into himself.

Zhao Cheng'an seemed to be deep in thought.

(End of this chapter)