The Rise and Fall of the Last Imperial Cook

33. Tasting the Shortcomings

Translator: Gao Jing

Proofread by Peter Gong

There are many shops on the two streets of Confucius Street and Baisong Street, as well as many restaurants and taverns of various grades, so the newly opened Shengxin Restaurant doesn’t attract much attention from other shops because Shengxin Restaurant has a different position from other restaurants, and other restaurants have their own characteristics. For example, Daizong Restaurant specializes in Shandong cuisine, and Season Red Restaurant specializes in Sichuan cuisine. These shops have regular customers. Even if the old customers occasionally go to other newly opened restaurants to taste fresh dishes, they will eventually return. In addition, there are restaurants with different cuisines, such as Northern Restaurant and Zehu Restaurant. The characteristic dishes of these restaurants are popular in a small area. They opened their restaurants in Shanghai, aiming at specific groups, generally local people who come to work in Shanghai or people who move to Shanghai. These restaurants are opened as home kitchens for the fellow villagers, so the business is not very hot but stable.

But among all the restaurants in Confucius Street, only Renhe Restaurant and Taihe Restaurant specialize in Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, which conflicts somewhat with Shengxin Restaurant. However, Renhe Restaurant and Taihe Restaurant are both high-grade restaurants and they have been based in Shanghai for a long time. It is a bit flattering to say that the Shengxin Restaurant can compete with them, but this also shows that Shengxin Restaurant has great potentials.

When the noon approaches, Mr. Jiang, the boss of Renhe Restaurant, is sitting on a chair at the door, smoking a hookah. A man walking by the door greets him loudly: “Boss Jiang, you’re pretty idle. Those who do business are afraid of leisure, and those who open restaurants are more afraid of leisure (if the word salty is translated into Chinese, its pronunciation sounds the Chinese translation of the word leisure), hahaha. ”

“Yes, steaming cake stresses on sticky, and cooking stresses on salt, can’t be salty, haha.” The doorway is in a poor light, so Boss Jiang doesn’t actually see who is greeting him outside the door. But when it comes to business, anyone who talks is the guest, whoever goes in is God, so even if he doesn’t see clearly, he also talks to him politely at once.

“The salt in Shengxin Restaurant down the street is just right. It’s not idle at all. When I passed by just now, I saw that the restaurant was almost full, and there was a long queue on the counter to buy spare ribs and gluten balls. ”

“Is it? Oh oh yo, it’s Master Chen! ” Boss Jiang’s eyes have fully adapted to the outside light and now he sees the speaker clearly. It turns out that it is Chen Erwei, the minor head of the Yamen servants here.

Erwei is actually a nickname, but in the past, many people used the nickname and the last name as their first name without a formal name. However, many people say that Chen Erwei’s parents have foreseen that this nickname is a good name that suits him very well. When Chen Erwei was young, he was fierce and aggressive, bullying residents and merchants by virtue of his status as a yamen servant, just like a two-tailed cricket. Now he is getting older and less timid, and he changes his style to follow the rich and powerful to bully others, just like a two-tailed dog. And he really has two small forked whiskers, like two small tails.

“Boss Jiang, you can’t just sit and smoke to wait for death. When others’ business is overwhelming, you will have to worry about the New Year. You’d better think of a way to turn the momentum around.” Chen Erwei’s words sound very earnest.

Boss Jiang immediately understands what Chen Erwei means when he hears his words. Chen Erwei wants Boss Jiang to beg him to go to Shengxin Restaurant to make trouble. It is said that when Shengxin Restaurant opened these Yamen servants were not invited, so it is normal for the narrow-minded Chen Erwei to be willing to make trouble at Shengxin Restaurant. But why it bothers Boss Jiang to give him such a reason? Moreover, Boss Jiang needs to pay a lot of money to Chen Erwei for that.

Thinking of this, Boss Jiang immediately cuts in and replies: “Hehe, a new closestool is fragrant at least for three days, and a new restaurant has to be busy for a while. Let him alone, and when the sense of excitement is gone, they have to do a good job in business to get a foothold. When it comes to doing business, our Renhe Restaurant will not lose to anyone in the surrounding area. Since others do not panic, I don’t think I need to worry, Haha. Right, Master Chen? ”

“Whether the new closestool is fragrant for three days or smelly for three days, everyone knows it is a closestool. If the jar of pickled vegetables is smelly, then the jar is not a jar, and the pickles are not pickles. Boss Jiang is kind and generous. But I advise you to keep a close watch and hold it well. It will take a lot of effort to stop the wave after the gate.” With his words Chen Erwei turns and leaves sulkily.

“Master Chen, don’t you come in and drink tea before leaving?” Boss Jiang yells at the door. This is the fake politeness that has become natural. But with Chen Erwei’s fading footsteps, and thinking about what he said just now, there still arises a little worry in his heart.

At this time, the curtain of the food door is raised, and a nearly bare-headed man pokes out his head and takes a look at the situation in the lobby. The man wants to take a glance and then retracts, but when he sees that there are not many people sitting in the hall, he simply opens the curtain and walks out.

“Boss, something is wrong these days, why our business is so bad? Usually, this time we should have more customers, and now we have fewer customers than usual. These days, a lot of ingredients are wasted. If this continues, you won’t have to prepare too many ingredients tomorrow, and you can save some expenses.” The bare-headed man frowns even with his naked scalp wrinkling deeply.

“Huangtou, you come out just right. Just now, I was talking about this to Erwei. He says that the newly opened Shengxin Restaurant on the other side of the street is very busy, and they have undercut our business. He means asking me to pay some money, and then he will play tricks to disturb Shengxin Restaurant’s business. I immediately rejected him, but when I think about it, maybe I really need to make some trouble.” Boss Jiang explains his notion to the bald man.

The bald man is Huang Hecheng, the chef of Renhe Restaurant, a master of Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine. After listening to Boss Jiang’s words, he immediately says: “Well, boss, you must refuse! The business affairs should be solved by businessmen, and if other people get involved, it won’t be right way. Isn’t it simply a newly opened Shengxin Restaurant? When time permits, we will pay a visit to them. Whether the cooks are excellent or not depends on their dishes, and when the fire in the stove is blazing, one should withdraw the firewood, and it is easy to solve the problem when finding out why. ”

Zhu Shengpeng is the first to realize that there is something wrong with the three guests, and the one who recognizes Boss Jiang and Huang Hecheng is a handyman in the kitchen.

The primary function of the head of the kitchen is overall planning. According to the season, he arranges the ingredients that need to be purchased every day and the dishes that can be sold, as well as the combination of banquet dishes and so on. Therefore, the chef will only cook the signature dishes, and other dishes are cooked by the helper, the second chef and the third chef. Of course, other dishes cooked by other chefs can also serve as signature dishes if they prove to be particularly delicious specialties. So delicious dishes determine the status of a cook at the restaurant. If a dish can become a signature dish that represents the characteristics of the restaurant, not only will the income be greatly increased, but also the boss will regard the cook with reverence. Some chefs are replaced by others after cooking for a while because the signature dishes cooked by other chefs are more popular than his.

In addition to head chef and cooks, some people who professionally control stoves are regularly hired in the kitchen. The cook relies on the ingredients and the fire, so the control of the stove’s temperature is very important and very professional. However, after various new controllable stoves appeared, people who professionally controlled stoves were gradually eliminated.

Then there are some kitchen workers and handymen. The kitchen workers need to kill chickens, wash fish and clean the high-grade ingredients, while picking vegetables, washing dishes and cleaning the stove are done by handymen. The kitchen workers are generally long-term, and most of them are brought by the chefs. Handymen are temporary, because their work is not of high skill and handymen can be found everywhere. In this way, the mobility of handymen is greater, and restaurants with poor business will fire them at any time, and once they are fired, they will immediately find a good restaurant to continue to work. Sometimes, instead of waiting for the dismissal from a restaurant, they will take the initiative to leave to find the next one when the business is not good. The one who recognizes Boss Jiang and Huang Hecheng is a handyman who has just left Renhe Restaurant.

Boss Jiang has been ordering food in the C-brand Room of Shengxin Restaurant for the third day in a row. He is accompanied by Huang Hecheng as well as the cashier. The business of Renhe Restaurant is not good, and its affairs store can be dealt with by the chef helper. It is precisely because the business is getting worse and worse that Huang Hecheng decides to go to Shengxin Restaurant immediately to see what is going on.

Zhu Shengpeng is a cautious and shrewd man, and his experience of doing seafood business in the Zhenhai market has made him pay special attention to details. He can roughly guess the identity of anyone he sees, so he is in charge of the accounts, orders and customer arrangements of the restaurant. Precisely because of this, he discovers that three people have booked the C-brand Room for three consecutive days, and they have not ordered the same dishes during the three days. What is even more strange is that they have never ordered a signature dish in the three days.

Zhu Shengpeng heard from Xu Zhiwei that the first choice for diners to order is the signature dish. Even if they do not order the signature dishes, they will definitely repeat one particular dish after one or two meals. This is because they have found delicious dishes that suit their tastes. Whoever comes often but never repeats the same dishes will generally be the opponent of the cook. He comes either to find the flaws of your dishes or to secretly learn good points from your dishes. So when Boss Jiang and the others come again, Zhu Shengpeng secretly asks the staff in the kitchen to check them and identify their origins.

Huang Hecheng is a master of Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, and he has been in the kitchen for many years, so he must know the experience that Xu Zhiwei has told Zhu Shengpeng. So he just wants to assess the capability of the chef at Shengxin Restaurant.

On the opening day of Shengxin Restaurant, the head chef showed “cutting with a paper-wrapped knife” and “splashing water on the roll”. This is done under everyone’s nose, which can’t employ trickery. This alone can guarantee that the chef of Shengxin Restaurant is a master. In the previous two days, by tasting dishes in a row, he is more certain that this chef is different. Because no matter which dish they order, its taste seems to have something special and attractive, which can’t be exactly clarified, however. Although these dishes are not necessarily made by the chef, they are definitely evaluated and directed by the chef.

So, Huang Hecheng ordered different dishes for three days to weigh Xu Zhiwei’s cooking experience, and also to check Xu Zhiwei’s guts. If Xu Zhiwei fails to realize that they are here to find the shortcomings of his dishes, it means that he is merely a cook but inexperienced; if Xu Zhiwei realizes that they are here to find the shortcomings of his dishes but fails to react in any way, it means that he has insufficient courage, and it can also be concluded that he is not confident enough.

Although Huang Hecheng has such intentions, he doesn’t take any chances. He believes that Xu Zhiwei can definitely be aware of their intentions and will definitely respond, otherwise he would not have played knife on the opening day. Huang Hecheng also sincerely hopes that Xu Zhiwei can make a more practical response, and it is best to have a face-to-face collision with him. A master always hopes to meet his opponents who have enough strength. In addition, only after the collision does Huang Hecheng know how he should deal with the Shengxin Restaurant, thereby changing the current situation of Renhe Restaurant.

When Zhu Shengpeng tells Xu Zhiwei that the boss Jiang and head chef Huang Hecheng of Renhe Restaurant have come to the C-brand room for the third time and ordered the completely different dishes again, Xu Zhiwei says nothing.

Everyone who works in the kitchen should know that there are generally two purposes for tasting dishes in others’ restaurants like this: Learn the strengths and find the shortcomings. The first is to learn the strengths of other people’s dishes, but people always learn the strengths from some time-honored restaurants, which are often far away or even in another city. Because even if you have fully learned other people’s dishes, you just have more similar dishes in the adjacent restaurant, and the characteristics still belong to others. Looking for shortcomings is to find the deficiencies and shortcomings of other people’s dishes, which can only be done among competitors. And they never taste their signature dishes because those dishes are hard to find flaws.

Shengxin Restaurant is a newly opened restaurant, located in the same street of Renhe Restaurant, and they have ordered different dishes three times in a row, but they did not order signature dishes. All these indicate that the people from Renhe Restaurant are coming to find the shortcomings.

Although Xu Zhiwei doesn’t speak, he is weighing it in his heart. It is clear that they are looking for shortcomings. As the head chef, he can’t be that indifferent and ignored as he was in the palace, nor could he give in at all times as he did in Wuxi. There is a most ruthless method in the kitchen business to deal with finding shortcomings called Doubian, which is to compare the ability to distinguish taste.

People are here to find the shortcomings of your dishes, then you use the dishes to assess their shortcomings in the ability to distinguish tastes. In this way, even if others find the shortcomings of your dishes, they will not be able to tell because you can say that it is because of his inability to distinguish tastes. And you can catch your opponent tripping by suspecting his cooking skills. Just imagine how a cook who doesn’t even tell a good dish from a bad one can cook good dishes.

Thinking of this, Xu Zhiwei pours a ladle of oil on the towel next to the stove. Then in the process of oil dropping on the corner of the wiping cloth, he carefully cooks a sauce rib and a slippery gluten bubble. After this is done, he wipes the sweat off his face with a towel on his shoulder, and then washes and drys his hands. Only until this time does he say: “All the people who come are guests, no matter how they think, we have to respect them.” After saying this, he takes a tray with these two dishes and walks to the C-brand room.

Everyone watches Xu Zhiwei walking to the C-brand room, and some people even take the initiative to pull aside the uninformed who stands in the way to make way for Xu Zhiwei, as if sending a warrior to a duel.

Xu Zhiwei walks to the C-brand room and stops at the door, then gives a hint to the guy next to him. So the guy clears his throat and shouts: “Two dishes are served,  our characteristic and delicious dishes……”