In the 1970s, it started with contracting out communal dining.

However, Wu Xiaochun quickly stopped making a sound.

He stood right next to Chen Wei, his eyes glued to the cleaver gliding rapidly across the cutting board, his throat bobbing involuntarily.

For no other reason than that Chen Wei's hand speed was simply too fast.

The entire cleaver became a swift white blur, moving back and forth over the radish. The blade of the cleaver was completely invisible; all that could be seen was a mountain of shredded radish gradually piling up on the cutting board.

Each radish shred is as thin as a strand of hair, arranged there densely yet distinctly, standing straight and not at all limp.

"Plop—"

Wu Xiaochun involuntarily swallowed, thinking to himself.

Good heavens, with that hand speed, won't you cut your fingers on the cutting board?

Despite his doubts and fears, he still deeply admired Chen Wei.

So what did they do? Well, Brother Chen really didn't chop his fingers into pieces and cut them on the cutting board!

As expected of Brother Chen, he's awesome!

Judging from his knife skills, he seems to have improved a lot since a few days ago. Although Wu Xiaochun doesn't know where Chen Wei learned such amazing knife skills, he thinks that no matter where he learned them, Chen Wei's temperament is much better than that guy Wang Defa's.

Look at him, his cooking skills and knife skills are among the best in the factory, but I've never heard of Chen Wei looking up at the sky like Wang Defa.

Of course, Chen Wei was unaware of Wu Xiaochun's inner thoughts.

He simply stared at the system panel in front of him, patiently experiencing the extraordinary effects of the second-tier refined steel kitchen knife in his hand.

[Ding— Congratulations on triggering the Blade Mastery.]

[Knife Skill Specialization: Your knife skills will briefly reach a state of perfection]

Is this the effect of this Tier 2 steel kitchen knife?

Chen Wei watched as the radish shreds fell swiftly and smoothly from his hands, feeling that his current knife speed was almost twice as fast as when he was equipped with the old kitchen knife.

After silently calculating in his mind, Chen Wei felt that at this rate, he should be able to max out the proficiency of the new equipment by dinner time tonight.

A column of data appeared on the semi-transparent panel in front of me.

[Equipment Item: Steel Kitchen Knife (Tier 2)]

Current proficiency level: 20/100 (Beginner)

It seems that after changing to new equipment, the proficiency level will be reset, and the proficiency level of the old equipment cannot be carried over.

Fortunately, the new equipment is a Tier 2 item. Judging from the attribute bonuses, it is more than one level higher than the previous Tier 1 items. Overall, it's worth it!

Looking at the huge pile of shredded radish on the cutting board, there's probably enough for about 10 people. If I were to cook for 100 people tonight, I estimate my proficiency level would reach around 80.

With only 20 points left to reach 100 proficiency, Chen Wei raised an eyebrow, and an idea suddenly popped into his head.

Now that he has the skill to analyze menus, why not just analyze the menu for the cucumber dish as well?

After all, his knife skills in slicing cucumbers are second to none in the factory these days. If Chen Wei, who has been slicing cucumbers for so long, doesn't know how to make this dish, then that would be a bit unreasonable.

The cucumber salads that Chen Wei used to make were all based on his vague memories from his previous life. The taste wasn't exactly bad, but it was far from delicious either.

That's why the factory workers had never heard of Chen Wei before.

But now that he has the skill of recipe analysis, and he has tried it out, the dish he made after adjusting the recipe based on the skill analysis is not on the same level as the one he described before.

So, can this skill also be used on the "straw raincoat cucumber"?

"Thump—"

Thinking of this, Chen Wei suddenly stopped wielding the cleaver and forcefully slammed it onto the cutting board.

The sound startled Wu Xiaochun, making him jump.

"Holy crap! Brother Chen, your finger's gone?"

"Can't you wish me something better?" Chen Weidao said.

"Ah? That's good! That's good!" Wu Xiaochun said, patting his chest with lingering fear before asking.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Brother Chen? Just tell me!"

"No, that's not it." Chen Wei asked while thinking. "I feel that making only this shredded radish in the lamplight tonight seems a bit too little. Go to the back garden and see if there are any cucumbers left. Pick forty or fifty catties of cucumbers and we'll make a cucumber salad."

"Huh? Cucumber in a raincoat!" Wu Xiaochun immediately grimaced upon hearing the name of the dish.

Others may not have tried Chen Wei's signature cucumber salad, but Wu Xiaochun has.

That stuff is anything but delicious. I don't know if it was because Brother Chen was shy at first, but he definitely didn't want to eat that cucumber dish again.

"Brother Chen, I think the shredded radish in lamplight is pretty good! Or how about..."

Wu Xiaochun stammered as he spoke, but Chen Wei didn't understand what he meant at all.

He simply waved his hand and said, "Don't be shy. If anyone doesn't like radishes, I can make an extra dish to change things up for everyone."

"this……"

After Chen Wei said that, Wu Xiaochun didn't dare to say anything more.

Dejected, he went to the back garden to look for cucumbers.

Sigh—looks like I'll have to eat shredded radish with lampshade tonight.

Chen Wei was naturally unaware of his little schemes.

Chen Wei was focused on chopping the vegetables in his hands.

The shredded radish flakes fell from my hands like snowflakes, and soon the cutting board was overflowing.

Chen Wei took a large basin from the side and pushed all the shredded radish into it at once.

They continued chopping the radish.

A single white radish weighs about two pounds, but a serving of shredded radish requires nearly six pounds of white radish—once the water is squeezed out, there's hardly anything left.

So Chen Wei cut a lot of white radishes this time.

By the time all the radishes were chopped, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon.

Seeing that time was running out, he quickly added salt to the shredded radish in the large basin, mixed it thoroughly, and began to marinate it.

To make this dish of shredded radish in a lampshade, you need to marinate it in advance to draw out a lot of bitter water. Then, repeatedly knead and squeeze out all the water so that the final product will not have the astringent taste of raw radish water.

So although this dish is a cold dish, the preparation process is quite complicated, unlike the traditional "蓑衣黄瓜" (蓑衣黄瓜, a type of cucumber dish).

Thinking this, Chen Wei placed the large basin on the stove and picked up a large ladle to prepare the sauce.

With the large ladle in the equipment slot, Chen Wei gained considerable confidence in seasoning such large portions of dishes, allowing him to better control the weight of the sauce.

He first mixed the sugar, rice vinegar, and salt in a large bowl for later use, then turned around to get the chili oil and five-spice powder.

Although this dish is made with radish, it needs the addition of five-spice powder to bring out its full aroma.

After waiting for about half an hour, the radishes were almost ready to be pickled.

Chen Wei squeezed all the water out of the radishes, heated the large double-eared pot until dry, poured in some rapeseed oil, and then stir-fried the squeezed radish shreds over low heat.

The shredded radish curled slightly in the iron pot, becoming dry and fluffy.

After stir-frying for about ten minutes, all the radishes had released their moisture. Chen Wei then added the sauce he had just prepared and a little five-spice powder to it. After turning off the heat, he used the residual heat to slightly dry all the sauce.

When it was about 70-80% dry, I added finely ground chili and roasted white sesame seeds to the pan.

At this point, Chenwei turned up the heat and immediately sprayed in the liquor.

The aroma of baijiu mingled with the spicy and savory flavor of the radish in the pot, creating an explosive burst of flavor.

Just then, Wu Xiaochun returned from outside with a large basket of cucumbers, and the smell was so strong it hit his nose as soon as he entered the kitchen.

Unable to contain her excitement, her eyes widened. "It smells so good! Brother Chen, are the radishes ready? I want to try them!"