Huayu Chef

087 first meeting

At 7:30 pm, there were fewer customers at Wild Kitchen, but it was still very crowded. All 44 seats were full, and people kept coming in to buy braised dishes.

The last batch of braised chicken feet and braised black duck were ready today. Tang Qiwen and Mao Juncong no longer needed to make braised dishes, so Zhang Jinxuan felt he could leave work early.

"Xiao Tang, you take my place. I have to go now."

"Okay, boss."

"Everyone has worked hard. Once we sell the remaining braised food, we can pack up and go home." Zhang Jinxuan called Xiao Song, the finance manager, over and instructed her, "Xiao Song, post a few job advertisements in our store's employee group and on recruitment websites."

"We're hiring one braised food chef, one cashier, one waiter/waitress, and two general workers. I'll send you the job requirements on WeChat, and I'll leave your phone number. If someone applies, we'll arrange for them to come to the store for an interview."

Xiao Song replied, "Okay, boss."

Grandma Lin is very concerned about hiring, but there hasn't been much progress yet. The three-day Qingming Festival holiday exhausted Zhang Jinxuan. Since he has to hire sooner or later anyway, he might as well hire someone sooner to relieve the pressure on the store.

The new Zhang Jinxuan store plans to set up more than 50 employee positions, including 10 waiters. The current store cannot accommodate so many employees, and it would be too wasteful to hire people who would be paid without working. So we can only recruit slowly and build up the framework of the new store step by step.

It's quite extravagant to have a 230-square-meter restaurant with more than 50 people. When it comes to Chinese food, service is very important. While ensuring high profits, Zhang Jinxuan is very willing to improve the service level of his employees and the dining experience of his guests.

Before the new store opens, professionals will be invited to train the staff.

After settling things in the shop, Zhang Jinxuan packed some braised chicken feet, braised black duck, and pickled vegetables to take to the horse farm for Grandpa Yu and Wu Jing to try.

It's not appropriate to visit empty-handed on your first visit.

If you arrive empty-handed, it's difficult to take your belongings when you leave.

It's about reciprocity, after all.

It's never wrong to be overly polite.

Too lazy to go home to change his clothes, Zhang Jinxuan slipped out the back door, met up with his assistant Jingjing, and got into the car sent by Grandpa Yu to pick them up, heading to the horse farm in Lixian Town, Daxing District.

This place is quite far from the Nortel Film Academy; it takes an hour to drive there.

With nothing to do on the road, Zhang Jinxuan connected to the mobile data network and started using Weibo.

Several hours have passed, and Jingjing says those terms are still on the trending topics list. In addition, all sorts of random topics, such as "the sponsor Guangyuan Foods", "Zhao Jingsu", "Baoding Donkey Meat Sandwich", "Baoding Ancient City", and "Crazy Soul Painter", are also on the list.

What surprised Zhang Jinxuan the most was that there were more than 4 comments under the promotional text for the fourth episode of the first season of "Wild Kitchen", most of which were for guessing the names of the dishes in the preview.

They have all sorts of dish names.

The netizens are really imaginative, like Melody riding in a convertible.

He was having such a great time, and he was overjoyed.

Jingjing noticed Zhang Jinxuan browsing the menu and leaned over to ask, "Brother Xuan, did anyone guess correctly?"

"Of course there are. There are a bunch of correct answers. Let me rearrange the time sequence and see who answered correctly first."

Which is the correct answer?

"You didn't guess it either?"

"I didn't guess. I just waited to eat. Why bother thinking about it?"

"I give up." Zhang Jinxuan nodded. "Here, this is the correct answer."

"Braised carp with noodles."

"hold head high."

"Is this dish delicious?"

Have you ever had sweet and sour carp?

"I've eaten it."

"Carp with noodles can be simply understood as a layer of braised noodles made from dragon whiskers on top of sweet and sour carp. Unlike regular sweet and sour carp, carp with noodles is made with Yellow River carp, which has a more tender and delicious texture. You can also eat the noodles dipped in sweet and sour sauce. The crispy noodles and the tender fish meat blend together perfectly, making it delicious."

Jingjing swallowed hard and nodded her head seriously: "Sounds good, and it doesn't seem too difficult to make."

"Not difficult to make?" Zhang Jinxuan gave Jingjing a strange look and sneered, "You're talking big, aren't you? Do you even know the value of a dozen or so bowls of ramen?"

Is it difficult?

"A chef who can easily make ramen with thirteen or more 'knocks' is already at a high level of pastry chef, but I'm not at that level. The noodles can't be too thin, or the texture won't be good, and they can't be too thick, or people will laugh at me. To be honest, I hesitated for several minutes about whether or not to make this dish."

Several minutes?

What the hell?

Zhang Jinxuan scrolled to the last page of comments and found a netizen nicknamed "Little Pudding Pudding". He was the first to guess the dish name correctly. Zhang Jinxuan sent him a private message and asked him to leave his contact address so that he could send him an autographed photo. Then he edited a blog post to announce it to the whole network.

"#WildKitchen Episode 5 Main Dish# Congratulations to netizen @小布丁布丁 for correctly guessing the name of the main dish for the next episode! You have won a set of Zhang Jinxuan's autographed photo album. Please contact the blogger in time to claim your prize."

"Ahhhhh, no! I've almost driven Baidu crazy with my search, I'll figure it out soon!"

"Why only tag netizens? Post the dish name!"

"That's terrible, forcing me to go through tens of thousands of comments."

"Damn, I posted several comments during the day, listing almost every dish I could guess. Now I regret it so much. I should have posted fewer."

"Blogger, I can't even be bothered to argue with you anymore, just have some decency..."

Zhang Jinxuan saw the reply from the netizen "Single for 500 years with lightning-fast typing speed" and left the comment section blank.

More than an hour later, Grandpa Yu's horse farm came into view.

In this life and the next, Zhang Jinxuan came here for the first time. He rolled down the car window and looked around. The sixty-acre horse farm was quite large. It was probably not well planned before it opened. The supporting facilities were incomplete, and it was desolate and simple.

It was dark, and the horses should have all been led back to their stables. It was quiet and pitch black all around.

Nothing to see, it's shabby.

Even Zhang Jinxuan, who is quite poor, can't afford it. It is said that Grandpa Yu spent 300 million yuan to acquire the land, and spent a lot more on buying horses, feed, building stables, and hiring grooms.

When Grandpa Yu, Wu Jing, and Xie Nan learned that Zhang Jinxuan had arrived, they came out of the house to greet him. The two men, who had probably drunk quite a bit, had flushed faces and walked with an air of nonchalance.

"Uncle Yu, Brother Jing, Sister Xie Nan."

"Xiao Zhang is here! Oh, Jingjing is here too. You're short, so stand in front. If you hide behind Xiao Zhang, he won't be able to see you."

Jingjing laughed and said, "Brother Xuan is my boss. I'm afraid I'll get fired if I stand in front of him."

Grandpa Yu poached him right to his face: "Xiao Zhang fired you, so come work for me. I'll arrange a job for you, with room and board provided."

"Thank you, Uncle Yu."

"You're not happy about it?"

"I'd be happy to. Brother Xuan hasn't fired me yet, so I'll come back to you after he does."

Zhang Jinxuan said with a half-smile, "You two are saying these things in front of me, as if I don't exist? Do you want me to grant your wish?"

"Ha ha."

Xie Nan asked curiously, "Jin Xuan, is she your friend?"

"My assistant is Jingjing, the Jing of crystal."

"Hello, Sister Xie Nan, I'm Jingjing."

"Hello, Jingjing."

Zhang Jinxuan extended his hand to Wu Jing and said with a smile, "I grew up watching Brother Jing's TV dramas and movies. Today I finally get to see him in person."

Wu Jing was rather disheveled, with a thick beard and deep crow's feet at the corners of his eyes when he smiled. This made Zhang Jinxuan sigh that time is a cruel mistress, turning grapes purple, blackening wood ear mushrooms, and weathering the young puppy.

Ah Fei from "Little Li Flying Dagger" can never go back.

"Xiao Zhang, you know how annoying it is to say that? I feel like hitting you." Wu Jing gripped Zhang Jinxuan's hand tightly and said with ill intent.

Zhang Jinxuan's expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly said, "Brother Jing, a man's word is his bond."

"Scared?"

"What am I afraid of? If you dare to hit me, I'll hit Sister Xie Nan."

"Ha ha."

The crowd laughed.

Wu Jing was amused and put his arm around Zhang Jinxuan's shoulder as they went inside, earnestly admonishing, "Little Zhang, a good man never hits a woman. Only incompetent and ill-tempered men hit women..."