"He is now proficient in two culinary traditions, one from the south and one from the north, but he’s co to us here, where we mostly make Huaiyang cuisine. Asking a chef who has spent many years cooking northern cuisine to suddenly switch to Huaiyang cuisine without any prior experience is bound to lead to so difficulties. When he first starts learning, he will definitely encounter major problems."
"This is his second ti making Crab Dumplings, so it’s normal for them to taste bad. So, Mr. Gong, don’t worry, give Qin Huai a month or two, and I’m confident that with his skills, there won’t be any issues."
"Don’t think that two months is too much ti; for a regular chef, especially for a pastry chef, learning difficult snacks like Crab Dumplings from a different culinary tradition in two months is already considered impressive. Even if Qin Huai hasn’t mastered it in two months, that’s normal. You have to trust that as long as he promised you, he will definitely make the Crab Dumplings you want."
Gong Liang was even more bewildered.
Seeing Gong Liang’s unchanged expression, Dong Shi assud he still didn’t understand, and he pondered how to explain the difficulty of switching culinary paths to making Crab Dumplings in a way that Gong Liang could grasp.
Just as Dong Shi was quickly thinking and his mouth was about to open to say so playful nonsense to lighten the mood, Gong Liang spoke up.
"When did I ever ask Qin Huai to make Crab Dumplings?" Gong Liang asked.
He was no longer concerned that his idol, Master Qin, had stumbled.
Gong Liang thought soone must be trying to harm him.
Heaven and earth, when did he, Gong Liang, ever beco such an oblivious person?
Although he enjoyed taking advantage and pestering people, it depended on the situation, the person, and the timing. Right now, his relationship with Qin Huai was still in the developnt stage; he was trying to win over Qin Huai, the promising young chef, with material enticents.
He was currently an angel investor, and he hadn’t even invested in the first round of funding yet.
Who was spreading rumors outside that he was killing the goose that laid the golden eggs?
If this got to Master Qin’s ears, how could he ever have the face to sneak so dumplings again!
Gong Liang even thought about rushing back to the kitchen door to eat another Crab Dumpling to prove his innocence.
Though Master Qin’s Gastrodia stewed pigeon and Crab Dumplings had both failed, the Five Fillings Bun, Fernted Rice with Stead Buns, Dream Co True Sesa Bun, dumplings, guo’er, Crab Shell Cake, Chicken Soup Noodles, and locust flower buns were undeniably good!
It’s no big deal if one or two dishes fail; he, Gong Liang, can just not eat them, but he’ll still eat all the others, of course.
"Wasn’t it you who asked?" Dong Shi was shocked too.
"Who said it was ? Who?" Gong Liang said through gritted teeth.
"That’s what everyone is saying," Dong Shi said, "Qin Huai invited you to breakfast at Huang Ji in the morning, and in the afternoon, he started learning Crab Dumplings. I heard that when Qin Huai was learning Crab Dumplings, Uncle Zheng gave him two learning thods, one like what he’s doing now, and the other slightly simpler."
"Qin Huai knew you once ate Crab Dumplings made by his grandmaster for a whole month, so he specifically asked which thod you had eaten back then, because he wanted to learn that one. He even said that once he perfected it, he would invite you to try and see if it matched the taste from back then."
"We all thought it was you who asked, so Qin Huai learned it specially for that."
Gong Liang was stunned.
After the initial shock, he was filled with emotion.
Coming from a sales background, Gong Liang had always been soone who told people what they wanted to hear and told ghosts what they wanted to hear. Much of what he said, he forgotten imdiately and never expected anyone to take his words to heart.
Gong Liang himself didn’t even rember if he had ever ntioned to Qin Huai about eating Crab Dumplings for a whole month.
However, Crab Dumplings were indeed a very special snack to him.
It was the closest he ever got to his dream co true.
Gong Liang had once spent a fortune hiring famous pastry chefs from other places, trying to recreate the Crab Dumplings he had eaten back then, but all to no avail. Later, Zheng Da directly told him that those Crab Dumplings were, in a sense, a unique recipe; he could give the recipe to Gong Liang, but it was likely that no other pastry chef could reproduce it.
And such was indeed the case. So pastry chefs, though very talented, produced Crab Dumplings that were equally delicious, but they never tasted the sa to Gong Liang as the ones from back then.
Only Zheng Da, the direct disciple personally trained by Master Jing, could make sothing that tasted a few degrees similar.
Gong Liang felt like his eyes were getting a bit moist, but his acting skills were top-notch, and he could control these slight emotional fluctuations to the point where outsiders couldn’t see them.
Gong Liang said, "Is that so? I didn’t know. I might have ntioned it to Master Qin, but I never asked him."
"However, I do have so knowledge of Crab Dumplings. If there’s sothing wrong with them, I can taste it in one bite! I wasn’t eating carefully just now, so I’m going back to eat another."
With renewed enthusiasm, Gong Liang returned to continue tasting the dishes.
Dong Shi:...
To think Mr. Gong would willingly eat a second of those awful dumplings.
The rumors were indeed true; Mr. Gong’s red envelope for Qin Huai this New Year would surely be the thickest.
Gong Liang returned to his little stool, ready to shine for the cause of tasting, while Qin Huai’s two main tasters were arguing over his upcoming teaching process.
Qin Huai was a chef very skilled at writing down mistakes.
Qin Huai considered himself not necessarily good at learning, but very good at reflecting.
He was always able, given a reference, to imdiately identify what went wrong with his creation, constantly modifying, repeatedly making mistakes, annotating his error book with additions and deletions, until he produced the snack he wanted.
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