The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 417 Filial Piety Towards Teachers
The morning meeting at Zhiweiju seemed exciting and packed with content, but it actually only lasted about 15 minutes. Taking into account Boss Su's late arrival and the fact that everyone wanted to chat a bit more after the meeting, Qin Huai left the lounge at 11:20.

Then Qin Huai was stopped by Boss Su, who had dealt with all the problems.

"Master Qin, I have something I'd like to discuss with you privately," Su Qi said with a smile, seemingly about something trivial like what you'd like to eat tomorrow.

Qin Huai nodded and followed Su Qi back to the staff lounge. Once the lounge was completely empty, Su Qi silently closed the door, her expression turning serious, and gestured for Qin Huai to sit down.

"Well, Master Qin, this is your second day at Zhiweiju. Do you have any thoughts or opinions about us?" Su Qi asked.

Qin Huai didn't expect Su Qi to ask him this. He had only just arrived, so what opinions or views could he possibly have? He hadn't even met everyone yet.

Qin Huai shook his head and said blankly, "Of course I have no objection. Boss Su, if you have anything to say, just say it."

Su Qi enjoyed talking to intelligent people like Qin Huai, so she said directly, "It's like this, I believe you can easily see, Master Qin, that many of our Zhiweiju chefs are very interested in you. Besides Master Zhou and Master Hua, as far as I know, there are some other chefs who haven't expressed their feelings much but are also very interested in you."

"Considering some of the previous cases at Zhiweiju, such as arranging fights by the lake, at the entrance of the residential area, in the kitchen, and on WeChat to snatch apprentices... In order to prevent a similar situation from happening this time, I would like to ask you for a favor."

Qin Huai: ...? Is Zhiweiju a restaurant or a martial arts school? Why are the master chefs always arranging fights when they have nothing better to do?

Seeing Qin Huai's shocked expression, Su Qi immediately realized that Qin Huai had misunderstood: "The challenge I mentioned is not a physical fight. At Zhiweiju, we have a system of literary and martial arts competitions. The literary competition is about comparing the skills of making pastries, while the martial arts competition is... well, pastry chefs are usually physically strong, so it's normal for them to be good at some hand and foot techniques."

Qin Huai forced a smile: "I can understand."

"So, Mr. Su, what is it you want to ask me for a favor?"

"Well, you're here to exchange ideas, so theoretically you're not an apprentice at Zhiweiju. But our master chefs at Zhiweiju... are eager to find talented people."

"Sometimes they'll do anything to get the disciples they want. I hope that Master Qin, you can refuse directly whenever possible, without being too tactful. I've heard from Xiao Tan that you're usually quite smooth and meticulous in your dealings, but we don't need to be like that at Zhiweiju. At Zhiweiju, we generally say what we mean. If things really don't work out, we'll just go to the lakeside and settle things with a fight. It's much better to be direct than tactful."

"Of course, if you refuse outright but someone still keeps pestering you, you must report it to me immediately, and I will definitely handle this issue."

"I actually said this at the meeting today, but I believe most of the masters probably didn't listen. They usually only listen to the parts that are just for fun during the morning meetings."

"Finally, I hope you had a pleasant exchange at Zhiweiju, Master Qin. Whether or not you gained what you were looking for from this exchange, I hope Zhiweiju at least left you with a good impression." After saying this, Su Qi smiled and saw Qin Huai off from the staff lounge.

When Qin Huai stumbled out of the staff break room, he found Zhao Cheng'an waiting for him at the door. Upon seeing Qin Huai, Zhao Cheng'an first gave Su Qi an "OK" look, and then said, "I just asked my master to move your cooking station next to ours."

"But Master said you don't need to make any snacks these days. Just stand between us and chat. Once you get to know us, you can make snacks and chat at the same time."

"Why are you so distracted? What did Boss Su say to you just now? Boss Su wants to poach you to be the head chef at Zhiweiju?" Zhao Cheng'an asked.

"No." Qin Huai shook his head. "I think your boss, Mr. Su, might want to poach me to be an apprentice at Zhiweiju."

Zhao Cheng'an: ?

"But that's not the point. For a moment just now, a question popped into my head. Was your boss, Mr. Su, a customer service representative before taking over Zhiweiju? He seemed so skilled at customer service."

Zhao Cheng'an: ? ? .
"Hahahaha, so Xiao Qin, you think Boss Su talks like a customer service representative? That's hilarious! This is the first time in all these years that someone has said Boss Su talks like a customer service representative."

At the kitchen counter, Zhou Yan laughed so hard she could barely stand up straight after hearing what Zhao Cheng'an said, and she laughed for more than a minute before continuing to knead the dough.

"I always thought Boss Su treated Master and the others like children, and I never thought he was like a customer service representative. But after hearing what you said, I suddenly think he is quite like one." Zhou Yan had stopped laughing, but after saying that, she couldn't help but burst out laughing again.

Wang Jiayi was much more serious and composed, and even began to analyze rationally: "Boss Su didn't speak like this before. It's probably because Boss Su has been looking for new models in recent years and has traveled to factories all over the country. He has come into contact with a lot of people and learned the way customer service speaks."

While looking at Zhou Yan and kneading the dough, Qin Huai said, "I heard Master Zheng mention to me that Boss Su intends to cooperate with him to improve some of the recipes for Zhiweiju's pastries and put them into the factory for mass production."

“Yes, that’s true, but it didn’t go very smoothly,” Zhao Cheng’an continued. “We’re all pastry chefs, how would we know about industrialized production? At first, we thought Chef Zheng’s work was pretty good and quite simple, but it wasn’t until Boss Su had some ideas about it and studied it in depth that we realized Chef Zheng is indeed quite skilled in this area.”

"If Master Zheng hadn't discovered he really had some skills, he wouldn't have changed his opinion of him so much. Master used to hate Master Zheng. He thought he was just obsessed with money, had no integrity or professional ethics as a chef, and wasted his talent. Master even said something like that..."

"Oh right, he said if I ever become like Master Zheng and go into business instead of doing my proper job, he'll break my legs."

Qin Huai: ...I can tell that Master Zhou really hates Master Zheng. He's stopped being sarcastic and started threatening him directly.

"And now?" Qin Huai asked curiously.

"Now, what my master often says is, 'Can I be like Master Zheng, even if I'm not doing my main job, I can still make something of pastry?' He tells me not to think about going on trips all the time, but to spend more time on pastries when I'm traveling."

Qinhuai: 6
Zhou Yan rolled her eyes at Zhao Cheng'an, annoyed: "Master wasn't wrong. If you had put even a little more thought into things, you wouldn't be at this level now. All you think about all day is where to go. Last year it was Central Asia, the year before that it was Southeast Asia, the year before that it was East Asia, and where do you want to go this year?"

Zhao Cheng'an chuckled: "The other side of the ocean."

“Senior sister, you don’t understand. I’m going out to play so that I can make better pastries. What’s that saying again? ‘Read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles.’ I need to travel ten thousand miles to make all kinds of pastries. When Xu Cheng was my age, he was eating all over the world every day. When I travel, I’m also eating all over the world. He’s a food critic, and I’m a pastry chef. We’re pretty much the same.”

Zhou Yan was utterly speechless at Zhao Cheng'an's absurd reasoning. She turned to Qin Huai and said, "Little Qin, my white jade shrimp rolls will be ready in about two or three minutes. I heard from Xiao Tan that you have a good palate, so I'd like to trouble you to taste a few more bites and see where the problem lies."

"I got the inspiration for this dessert from the white jade shrimp rolls made in the red-painted section. I simply moved the corresponding filling into the white-painted dough rolls, steamed them, and then poured sauce over them. I changed the ingredients many times in the process, but I always felt that the flavor combination was a bit off, like something was missing."

"To be honest, I've asked everyone at Zhiweiju who could help me taste this dish, including many master chefs. Everyone gave me a lot of feedback, but I still feel like something's missing."

"Xiao Qin, you're new here. I think you can definitely offer some different perspectives."

Qin Huai understood Zhou Yan's request and thought it was perfectly normal. Developing new dishes is a painful and lengthy process for chefs; if they can't achieve results by torturing themselves, they have no choice but to seek help from others. Once they've exhausted all the options around them, they'll turn their attention to newcomers.

"Of course," Qin Huai readily agreed. But before the apprentice could bring over the white jade shrimp rolls that Zhou Yan had made, Master Zhou returned with Su Qian, who had clearly been scolded again.

While Qin Huai and Su Qi were talking, Master Zhou went to the low-temperature zone to instruct Su Qian on how to make flaky pastries. Flaky pastries require a low-temperature environment when kneading the dough, and in a sense, the low-temperature zone was specially set up for Master Zhou, which shows the prestige of being the number one pastry chef.

Su Qian was holding a plate of egg tarts. The plate looked good, but it was obviously not made by Chef Zhou.

Qin Huai ate two egg tarts made by Chef Zhou yesterday and was very impressed with them. Putting aside the impeccably beautiful flaky crust and the perfectly baked, fragrant filling, Chef Zhou's egg tarts are simply delicious.

It's the kind of egg tart that's so domineering it's unreasonable. The moment it comes out of the oven, its aroma will overwhelm your entire taste buds, leaving you with nothing but egg tarts in your mind, and every cell in your body screaming, "I want to eat the aroma of egg tarts!"

The plate of freshly baked egg tarts that Su Qian was holding clearly didn't have such an overpowering aroma.

Seeing Su Qian's dejected look, Qin Huai felt a little sorry for him. In terms of talent and effort, Su Qian was actually not bad, but unfortunately, there were outstanding disciples ahead of him. Master Zhou had no shortage of extremely talented and hardworking disciples, and compared to Master Zhou's three personal disciples, Su Qian was indeed inferior.

The food itself is the original sin; if we don't criticize you, who else should we criticize?
"Xiao Qin, come and try the egg tarts that Su Qian just baked," Chef Zhou said expressionlessly.

The fact that Master Zhou could remain expressionless even when facing Qin Huai shows that he was in a very bad mood.

Qin Huai obediently picked up an egg tart, took a bite, and the crust instantly crumbled all over the floor. The sharp-eyed apprentice who had been waiting nearby quickly grabbed a broom and swept the crust away.

The moment he took a bite, Qin Huai knew why Su Qian had been scolded.

The pastry on this egg tart wasn't very well made. Su Qian may be very good at making puff pastry, but applying that technique to egg tarts seems a bit out of place.

The fact that so much flaky pastry fell off when Qin Huai took a bite is enough to illustrate the point. It's normal for flaky pastries to crumble a lot when you eat them, but it shouldn't be this exaggerated. Su Qian's skills are far from enough to make egg tart crusts like that; he probably panicked and messed it up.

As for the taste...

It's decent, much tastier than the egg tarts sold in stores.

Qin Huai slowly finished the whole egg tart and said, "I don't know much about puff pastry, but isn't this pastry a bit too crumbly and dry? Especially when paired with the filling, it feels like it's just crumbly in my mouth, and the texture is not good."

Chef Zhou's expression softened slightly as he glanced at Su Qian: "Did you hear that? You can make such a basic mistake. Yesterday I thought you'd made great progress at the Cloud Cafeteria, practicing your three-ingredient buns for a while and making leaps and bounds in steamed dishes. But today you're telling me you've forgotten everything you learned, and the dough you made this morning was still like that. What, are you a fish out of water, suffering from acclimatization issues?"

Su Qian was so scolded that he didn't dare to look up.

"Have you remembered everything I just told you?"

"I'll remember that, Master Zhou."

“Remember that and go back to practice. Don’t make apple pastry, lotus pastry, or open-faced pastry today. It would be a waste to make them in your current state. Just make egg tarts. Let’s see if you can figure out how to make egg tarts first.”

"Okay, Master Zhou."

Hearing Master Zhou's words, Qin Huai knew that the customers who loved egg tarts were in for a treat today. Perhaps Su Qian wasn't in top form today, which resulted in the egg tarts not being made perfectly, but given his skill level...

Customers who love egg tarts are in for a treat.

After finishing teaching Su Qian, Master Zhou finally had time to turn his attention to Qin Huai.

Master Zhou forced a gentle smile, instantly switching back to his kind teacher persona, and asked, "Little Qin, how was the viewing just now?"

Qin Huai wanted to say that he hadn't actually seen anything; he had just been standing there listening to gossip.

Of course, Qin Huai wouldn't say that with his emotional intelligence. Instead, he said somewhat reservedly, "I've learned a lot. Chef Wang has a very personal style when making pastries, Chef Zhou is very... aggressive, and Chef Zhao is very steady."

Master Zhou said with a smile, "No need to call them master, just call them by their names. You are all of the same generation, no need for such formalities."

"Come on, I'll take you to see something else."

After finishing speaking, Master Zhou turned to leave, but after taking two steps, he paused, as if remembering something, and added, "Third brother, you come too."

Zhao Cheng'an almost cheered and jumped up to catch up with Qin Huai, walking side by side with him. He whispered, "Little Qin, you're really lucky today. I didn't expect Master to be in such a good mood. This kind of thing doesn't even happen once a month before!"

"What's going on?" Qin Huai didn't quite understand, but he was already looking forward to it. After all, Zhao Cheng'an seemed so excited, there must be something interesting to watch.

"To instruct apprentices."

"Instructing apprentices?" Qin Huai didn't react. "Isn't this a good thing? Everyone should be happy that Master Zhou is willing to instruct ordinary apprentices."

"It's a bittersweet experience," Zhao Cheng'an said with a mysterious smile. "Master usually only does this kind of thing when he's in a good mood, because his mood turns sour after he's finished giving instructions."

"Sometimes I really want to take a video camera and secretly record what my master says, and publish it as a book called 'Zhou Yu'."

"It will definitely sell very well."

Qin Huai: ...

Your sect is truly...respectful to your elders.

(End of this chapter)