Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

As proctors, Zhuang Zhongchen and his team were relatively relaxed. After all, the examinees simply cooked a few dishes themselves, making cheating impossible.

On the table, each person had a pack of Peony cigarettes in front of them, even Sister Li had a whole pack. There was also a large plate of roasted melon seeds.

Surely they don't think training and exams are free, right? While vocational school students don't have to pay for it themselves, the government allocates a special education fund to each student. Even a tiny bit of that can be used for Zhuang Zhongchen and his group's entertainment expenses.

This applies to current employees as well. They also need to pay a training fee and an examination fee before training and testing. This fee is usually borne by the enterprise or institution.

That's why there are definitely limited spots. Therefore, the difficulty of vocational skills level exams increases dramatically after starting work. You have to compete with several or even a dozen people for just one spot.

In front of the examiners, it became a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes for each person.

Actually, Daqianmen and Mudan cigarettes are priced similarly. Why is there such a difference?

Don't be fooled by the fact that the examiners are all chefs; they are all workers. Zhuang Zhongchen and the others, on the other hand, are cadres.

The two identities are worlds apart; there's a huge chasm between them. Wasn't it in the original story that Uncle Liu Hai, the second uncle, so desperately wanted to become a cadre? That's the reason.

In this era, ordinary people will never overstep the bounds of propriety; one's status dictates one's actions, even down to what kind of cigarettes one smokes.

Workers and ordinary people smoked cigarettes below Daqianmen; ordinary cadres smoked Mudan cigarettes; middle-level cadres smoked Yunyan and Guiyan cigarettes; and senior cadres smoked Huazi cigarettes. Of course, those at the highest level smoked special-supply cigarettes.

Smoking a pack or two of cigarettes occasionally is fine. But if you're rich and frequently buy cigarettes, that's practically suicide.

Ordinary cadres like Zhuang Zhongchen did the same; even if their families were struggling financially, they would grit their teeth and buy Peony cigarettes.

This has led to an interesting phenomenon. Many people carry two kinds of cigarettes: one to represent their identity and give to others in social interactions; and another for their own consumption, which is suitable for their own economic situation.

Other things include clothing, hairstyle, and even the fountain pen in your breast pocket. There's a saying: one fountain pen means you're a high-ranking official, two fountain pens mean you're a secretary, and three fountain pens mean you're a pen repairman…

……

At this moment, Zhuang Zhongchen and his companions were leisurely smoking and chatting.

Meanwhile, in front of the stove, the examinees were busy working up a sweat.

The vocational school chef program has a relatively long study period, lasting four years. Since vocational training has only been offered for a few years, these students are the first batch of vocational chef graduates.

In those days, vocational schools offered a wide variety of courses, ranging from shop assistants and guesthouse staff to food vendors selling fried dough sticks and pancakes... In short, many jobs required several years of vocational school training.

Looking back now, it seems a bit ridiculous. How come even waiters and fried dough stick sellers need to study for several years?

This actually makes sense, because there were no class restrictions in that era.

No matter how small the chance, there is no such thing as a glass ceiling.

With enough hard work and a bit of luck, a waiter can become a supervisor, guesthouse manager, office director, bureau chief...

Selling fried dough sticks can lead to becoming a restaurant manager, a commerce bureau chief, or even a mayor...

They'll just teach you all that knowledge at once. Vocational schools teach everything; whether you learn it or not is up to you.

However... the vast majority of students have no interest in studying at all.

Of course, classes that require national vocational skills level examinations are relatively few, while there are relatively more vocational school students. And chef classes happen to be one of them.

In today's exam, these candidates need to prepare five dishes: stir-fried shredded vegetables, Mapo tofu, sweet and sour crucian carp head, assorted egg fried rice, and meat and mushroom soup.

The skill required for making stir-fried shredded vegetables is knife work. The skill required for making Mapo Tofu is the order in which the ingredients and seasonings are added and the cooking time. Although there are some exaggerations in "Cooking Master Boy," some parts are still true. Mapo Tofu has many ingredients and seasonings, and the order and quantity of each ingredient must be correct.

The key to making sweet and sour crucian carp head lies in coating the sauce and tossing the wok. In particular, taking ten crucian carp heads, splitting them in half into twenty pieces, and then tossing and flipping them over in the wok requires considerable skill.

However, there was another reason. The chef's exam required preparing a large meat dish. But during the three years of hardship, there simply wasn't enough meat available. They could only choose crucian carp heads.

The key to making good assorted fried rice is controlling the heat; it needs to be heated evenly.

To be honest, there were actually better dishes for the exam. The reason I chose mixed egg fried rice is also because during the three years of hardship, this dish could be served as a staple food.

As for the sliced ​​meat and mushroom soup, the key is to enhance the flavor and thicken the sauce.

Almost everything here is designed to test a chef's basic skills!

……

Before we knew it, it was almost noon, and the first few groups of candidates had finished their exams.

However, upon receiving the exam forms, Zhuang Zhongchen was about to sign them when he couldn't help but pause in surprise. He hadn't expected such a large number of candidates to fail, with a pass rate of less than 50%?

You should know that this kind of exam can determine a person's entire life, affecting these candidates for the rest of their lives!

Don't think this statement is exaggerated.

If you pass the exam, you will receive a Level 3 Trainee Chef Certificate. After one year of internship, you will be promoted to a full-fledged Level 3 Chef. The basic salary is 52 yuan.

If you fail the exam, you'll be relegated to the lowest level, kitchen helper. After a year of internship, you'll become a full-time kitchen helper. The basic salary is 33 yuan.

Yes! He's at He Yuzhu's level, the lowest-level cook. But He Yuzhu also gets a 4.5 yuan allowance as a head chef, so he can earn 37.5 yuan.

Imagine two classmates who used to sleep in bunk beds, but now they might be assigned to the same workplace, the same cafeteria, and even cooking the same communal meals. One gets 52 yuan? The other gets 33 yuan? And can this difference last a lifetime?

Just ask me, what kind of feeling is this? You might even have thought about jumping into the river, right? These are completely different fates, two completely different life trajectories?

Besides, they had studied for four years after all. At least in the eyes of an outsider like Zhuang Zhongchen, these candidates had a very solid foundation. Many of them came from humble backgrounds, and they had indeed practiced diligently for four years.

At this moment, Zhuang Zhongchen was utterly puzzled. Why was this happening? How could the pass rate be so low?

Putting down his pen, Zhuang Zhongchen began to observe carefully. He quickly discovered the following problems:

Firstly, the evaluation process is too strict. It's not that these chefs' strict requirements are wrong; their scoring is relatively fair, it's just that the standards are too high.

However, the chefs were somewhat averse to these academically trained candidates.

There's no way around it. That's just human nature. Because chefs are already used to the apprenticeship system.

Take, for example, He Yuzhu's two apprentices, Ma Hua and Fatty, in the original story. How many years did He Yuzhu teach them? Yet, neither of them learned much.

The old idea that "teaching a disciple will lead to the master's starvation" is deeply ingrained!