Chapter 136 135. The Chef is the Chef
This blanched crayfish tastes very good.

Tender, chewy, firm and original.

The full score is 100, and you can score 99 points.

The one thing missing is the dipping sauce. Luo Yihang really can't eat the lemon pepper dipping sauce.

But the thing is, this good taste is purely the result of the shrimp’s own hard work.

They are diligent and hardworking, working hard to eat, working hard to grow up, working hard to produce good meat, and working hard to become so delicious.

It has nothing to do with Master Xu.

Luo Yihang decided to ask again.

"Master Xu, can you make spicy crayfish? Master Wang made it last time and I thought it was delicious. It has a different flavor from the blanched one you made this time."

"Spicy? Made by Old Man Wang? How did he make it?" Master Xu asked three questions in a row.

Luo Yihang took out his phone and found the video he had taken last time. "I recorded it. Take a look."

Master Xu took the phone and read it, very disdainful, "Old Wang has been doing the same old thing for so many years, the same old way of cooking from the same big pot, mixing all kinds of ingredients together and cooking them randomly, wasting things."

Eh? That's quite impolite. It seems to be different from what Master Wang said before, that their relationship is different.

Isn’t it said that Master Xu is his apprentice?
This doesn't seem like the attitude of a disciple towards his master.

Master Wang stopped talking after hearing this. "Xiao Xu, what do you mean? What do you mean by old tricks? What do you mean by wasting things? Explain it to me clearly."

"Old Wang, I won't argue with you. I'll demonstrate to you why some people are chefs and some are culinary artists. Cooking skills are an art." Master Xu said calmly, which was very irritating.

Master Wang was so angry that he said, "Come here, let me see your art."

Master Xu curled his lips and said, "You don't have anything here, what should I do?"

After that, without waiting for Master Wang to get angry, he called out, "Boy Luo, take your box and follow me to Mortal Residence. I'll let you broaden your horizons so that you don't treat a cook like a god all day long."

"You, Xiao Xu..." Master Wang glared at him for a while, unable to utter a word. He snatched the foam box from Luo Yihang's hand and rushed out first.

Next came Master Xu with his head held high and his chest puffed out.

Luo Yihang was the last one to come, wondering what was going on and whether there was something wrong with these two people.

What happened? Just because you watched Master Wang’s cooking video, you turned against him?
Luo Yihang locked the door silently, followed him downstairs, drove, and went to Fanrenju.

He recognized Fanrenju. It was located on North Street in the city center. It had a very good location and was a three-story restaurant with a very large area.

But at this moment, the mortal residence has also been fenced off and is being renovated inside, and the outer walls have been demolished.

We couldn't get in from the front, so Master Xu led the way to the back of the restaurant, where there was a small door.

Entering through the small door, Luo Yihang saw that work was in full swing inside. The original antique decorations, such as screens, wall linings, eight-immortal tables and armchairs, had all been removed, making it look like an indoor landscape.

In the middle of the hall stood a young man in a suit and tie, who looked about the same age as Luo Yihang, young, energetic, and slightly plump.

When he saw Master Xu coming in, he took the initiative to greet him with a smile, "Master Xu, you are here."

The attitude seems pretty good.

But Master Xu's attitude was not very good. He snorted at him and said, "You won't die."

Without stopping, he headed straight for the kitchen.

But before entering the kitchen, he stopped, pointed inside and said, "Boy, I need something, put it on the bill."

The young man was still friendly and waved his hands repeatedly, "Not really, not really, Master Xu, please feel free to use it."

"Hmph!" Master Xu snorted again, took the key to open the kitchen door and took Luo Yihang and the other man in.

What a guy, he started arguing with her as soon as they met, and even locked the other person's kitchen door. Master Xu is now making it clear that they are at odds with each other.

The young man just now must be the new boss of Fanrenju. It’s his own business, but he still greets an old servant with such an attitude, can he be tolerant, or does he really have a good temper?

Carrying gossip, Luo Yihang followed into the kitchen.

I saw Master Xu opening a huge double-door refrigerator.

It was filled with rectangular, transparent sealed boxes, the large kind, with labels on them.

There are hundreds of them neatly stacked in rows and layers, filled with all kinds of sauces, juices, powders, fruits, seeds, leaves, and peels, all of which are seasonings.

Shocked.

Master Xu was full of pride and went to Master Wang, "Old Wang, how is it? You haven't seen it before, have you?"

This time, Master Wang curled his lips and pointed at the middle layer. "It's all hot sauce. You have so many of them. Can you tell them apart?"

“Let me tell you, even if it’s the same hot sauce, different batches are different. There are subtle differences.”

"It's so different, so different, who can taste it, can you taste it yourself?"

"No need! As long as the difference in taste exists, it is useful. Even if the tongue cannot distinguish it, the senses can still feel it, just like you can count each breath. Can you say you can't feel it? Can you say breathing is useless..."

The two old men started arguing about the row of hot sauces.

Luo Yihang was listening on the side and found it quite interesting.

To put it bluntly, these two people are in a dispute over routes, like the Sword Sect or the Qi Sect.

Master Wang cooks whatever I have, based on what I have. No matter what I am given, if it's good, I will cook a good meal, and if it's mediocre, I can rely on my skills to make it pretty close. It doesn't matter if there are a few more or a few less seasonings or ingredients.

Chef Xu said that if I want to cook, I have to do it to perfection, and every detail must be taken care of. If the ingredients are not good, I will not cook it. If the seasoning is not enough, I will not cook it. He treats cooking as a work of art.

No wonder Master Wang only made blanched dishes, because he looked down upon the makeshift seasonings in Master Wang’s kitchen.

His character is extreme.

By the way, I just heard them arguing, and they revealed some of their past when they were younger.

When these two men first met, one was thirty and the other was twenty. Master Wang entered the business first and actually taught Master Xu for two years. At that time, one was called Master and the other was called Brother Xu.

Later, when they were in their 30s and 40s, they had differences in their ideologies and became Brother Wang and Brother Xu.

When they were fifty or sixty, they were old, their ideas differed more, and they quarreled with each other, and they became Old Man Wang and Little Xu again.

Interesting.

If it were in the past, Luo Yihang liked someone like Master Wang and it wouldn’t be tiring.

But now, Luo Yihang supports Master Xu 100%. We have top-notch ingredients, so we have to pair them with top-notch seasonings and top-notch craftsmanship. So, after the two of them finished arguing, when Master Xu used his ingredients to make spicy crayfish, Luo Yihang really gained some experience.

"Didn't Old Man Wang use four kinds of sauces? I also use four kinds of sauces, Hainan's Emperor Chili Sauce, Guilin's Chili Sauce, Guizhou Miao Village's Chili Sauce, and Pi County's Doubanjiang."

“To make spicy food, you must first make it sweet. The sweetness must be there, but the sweetness cannot be tasted. This is the craftsmanship.”

"I want to use Laiyang pears, northern Shaanxi honey, and XJ snow lotus chili shreds to create a sweet flavor."

"Cut the pears into pieces and boil them in water. Take them out after the water boils and use the water. Use acacia honey. The snow lotus chili shreds are spicy and sweet. They are both spicy and sweet. The sweetness is not the sweetness of sugar, but the sweetness of the fermented chili."

"It has to be spicy and numbing. I use the big red peppercorns from Hancheng and the green peppercorns from Pengxi."

"Finally, the chili peppers from Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, are spicier."

"There are six spicy dishes, four sauce dishes, three sweet dishes and two spicy dishes, which is exactly fifteen flavors."

"Fifteen flavors blend into one flavor. You are in me and I am in you. This is the unity of all the ministers. I wear the yellow robe and support your shrimp to become the emperor."

“Please try the food!”

Master Xu explained while doing the work.

The process is similar to Master Wang’s, with some different details, but many of the ingredients are ones that Luo Yihang has never seen before.

It sounds upscale, looks fresh, and smells rich.

Just taste it - damn!
Good shrimp, good ingredients, good craftsmanship, 1+1+1＞357!

The dish cooked by Master Wang was delicious enough last time, and the taste of the dish cooked by Master Xu was even better this time.

If Luo Yihang's work scored 60 points as a passing grade, then Master Wang's work scored a perfect 100 points.

Master Xu's score of 120 points has surpassed the full score and reached a level beyond imagination.

It's so exaggerated.

In this round, ten shrimps were cooked again. Luo Yihang, Master Xu, and Master Wang each got three, and Master Xu put the remaining one on a small plate.

After tasting the shrimps made by Master Xu, Master Wang was a little silent. He opened his mouth to find fault, but finally gave up.

Master Xu was delighted to see the prey, and prepared garlic crayfish, lemon chilled shrimp, Huadiao wine icy drunken shrimp, braised crayfish, and stir-fried crayfish. He also said that if the shells of these crayfish were not so thick, he would also like to make Typhoon Shelter Fried Shrimp.

Every flavor is absolutely delicious, and none of them wastes the good shrimps that have been raised with great effort.

Only ten were used in each dish. They ate nine themselves and left one for Master Xu.

After tasting the food, Master Xu wiped his hands and asked Luo Yihang directly: "Tell me, how much do you want to charge me?"

"Ah?" This...

Is it appropriate to talk about money right after discussing art?

Besides, he doesn’t even know how much to pay a chef of Master Xu’s level.

"Then Master Xu, how much money do you want to get?" Luo Yihang asked back.

"How much are you willing to give?" Master Xu asked with a smile.

"How much should you take?"

"That depends on how much you give..."

Repeat this process several times.

Master Xu was tired of playing around, "Give me 15,000 a month, and I'll work for you for three months."

A big surprise hit Luo Yihang on the head. If he agreed one second later, it would be disrespectful to the gift from God.

Hiring a chef like Master Xu, fifteen thousand is like picking up money for free.

But three months.

Alas, he still can't let go of this place.

After the deal was settled in a second, Master Xu pointed outside and said, "New Boss, go get that guy outside."

"Hey!" The new boss agreed readily and turned around and left.

Calling the young man outside in, Master Xu's face sullen again, he pointed at a few plates on the table without saying a word.

The young man smiled and nodded, then ate all the remaining crayfish one by one.

After eating, Master Xu asked him, "How is it?"

He gave a thumbs up and said, "Your craftsmanship is amazing."

"Then you still want to change it?"

"It must be changed!" the young man said firmly, without hesitation for a second.

Instead, Master Xu fell silent.

Walked around the kitchen.

Finally he stood in front of the young man, raised his head and looked into his eyes.

Even when they looked directly at each other, the young man's gaze did not shift.

Master Xu looked away and waved his hand, "The kitchen is yours."

Pointing to the huge refrigerator, he said, "You don't need these things. I'll take them all. Give him 20,000 yuan, and move all the things to our store."

After that, he left directly.

Master Wang was worried, so he followed him out. When they were not arguing about the route, they had a very good relationship.

The new boss, Luo Yihang, sighed again, took out his cell phone and found the young man.

The young man waved his hand and said, "No, please leave me your address and I'll send it over."

After saying that, he took out a business card and handed it over, "The new Fanrenju will open on July 7nd. Welcome to come."

From beginning to end, there was no one trying to persuade Master Xu to stay, nor did he ask where he was going...

(End of this chapter)