The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 516 Two models
With tears in his eyes, Zhao Cheng'an finished eating eight plates of potato dumplings. Eating one dumpling per plate was not the limit of his stomach, but the limit of his taste buds.

Qin Huai asked him if there was any room for improvement in the prescription. Zhao Cheng'an replied that the prescription was of course good and there was definitely room for improvement, but people should not be bound by prescriptions. Why should they have to modify it according to the prescription? They can't just make things up... Innovation and creativity, he believed in Qin Huai's abilities and that Qin Huai could do it.

He can be stubborn, but not much.

As for what cured Zhao Cheng'an's stubbornness...

If he insists on sticking to his guns and believes there's nothing wrong with his recipe, then he should modify and expand upon the original recipe, and he himself will be the taster for all the subsequent potato dumplings.

Zhao Cheng'an thought Qin Huai would definitely do that because he could tell that Qin Huai didn't like these potato dumplings at all.

Zhao Cheng'an sampled eight plates, while Qin Huai only ate one, which was a B-grade plate.

Zhao Cheng'an has relented, but the problems facing Qin Huai are still unresolved.

How do you make potato dumplings?
Completely clueless, Qin Huai decided to search online. The search results were plentiful: potato and cheese dumplings, potato cube dumplings, spicy potato dumplings, shredded potato dumplings, green pepper and potato dumplings—you name it. And if not limited to dumplings with potatoes as the main ingredient, there were also dumplings with potatoes, green peppers, and eggplant.

It just goes to show how incredibly rich human creativity is.

Qin Huai didn't dare to watch any further; he was afraid he might actually want to do it.

After failing to find anything online, Qin Huai sent messages to Cao Guixiang, Zheng Da, and Master Zhou. Master Zhou, who rarely checks his phone during work hours, did not reply to the messages.

Cao Guixiang replied quickly, saying that she had also eaten potato dumplings when she was young, but they were homemade and not very tasty.

It also involves steaming potatoes, mashing them, and wrapping them in dumpling wrappers. The only difference is that Cao Guixiang's potato dumplings didn't even have any meat in them, just cabbage mixed in. The recipe was even worse than Zhao Cheng'an's, so it's not a good reference.

Zheng Da replied at 11 a.m., and Qin Huai guessed that his dear Master Zheng had just woken up from a light nap.

As a pastry chef, Zheng Da knows more about potato dumplings than Cao Guixiang. Zheng Da said that the normal way to make potato dumplings is to use mashed potatoes for seasoning and wrap them in the dough. The main purpose is to make them filling. The taste is not bad, but it is definitely not delicious either. Zheng Da heard this way of eating from Master Jing when he was a beginner chef.

In Master Jing's words, this was a version of dumplings that poor families ate during festivals when they were young, but couldn't afford meat or fresh vegetables. Wild vegetable dumplings, if not filled with oil, were even worse than potato dumplings. Potato dumplings were cheap, filling, and didn't require much oil or even salt.

However, this was only the version Zheng Da had heard. Zheng Da was a native of Suzhou, where people don't eat dumplings during festivals. In fact, Zheng Da didn't even know what dumplings were before he became Master Jing's apprentice.

Hearing Zheng Da say this, Qin Huai was basically certain that the potato dumplings Wang Gensheng wanted to eat were definitely not this style.

Even if potato dumplings have a nostalgic filter, dumplings that sound like they could never be above grade D could not possibly make Wang Gensheng remember them fondly.

After reading Zheng Da's reply, Qin Huai asked another question, asking Zheng Da if he had ever eaten any particularly delicious potato dumplings.

And they actually asked the question.

Zheng Da had indeed eaten it.

This part of the story is still connected to the previous one. Master Jing has always taught his apprentices through encouragement and rewards. He believes that constant beatings and belittling will cause his apprentices to lose interest and motivation in learning to cook, but constant encouragement will spoil them too much and make them lose sight of themselves.

Therefore, Master Jing would offer encouragement along with some punishment.

The reason Zheng Da remembers the origin of potato dumplings so clearly is because potato dumplings were once his punishment. When Zheng Da first started learning to cook, he was young and had slacked off a little, thinking he was being clever by cutting corners and trying not to practice the basics properly.

Master Jing quickly discovered Zheng Da's cleverness. Instead of punishing him with beatings or scoldings, Master Jing punished him by making him eat only potato dumplings on New Year's Eve and not anything else.

That was Zheng Da's second year of apprenticeship.

On New Year's Eve, the most sumptuous meal of the year for a normal family in that era, Zheng Da looked at the dazzling array of dishes on the table, the chicken, duck, fish, meat, and fresh vegetables, and the plump pork and cabbage dumplings in Huang Shengli's bowl, while he could only eat the tasteless but extremely filling potato dumplings.

The potato dumplings Zheng Da ate that day were actually a high-end version; Chef Jing used the finest white flour to make them for him. If you really wanted to make a "bitter memories and sweet memories" version, you could work on the dough and make it even worse.

During the Lunar New Year, Master Jing didn't want his apprentice to go without any good food.

Plain flour dumplings are actually not bad either.

However, comparisons can be hurtful.

Zheng Da said he would never forget the potato dumplings that night.

When Qin Huai saw the text in the chat box, he felt that those words were stained with Zheng Da's tears.

So now the question is, has Zheng Da ever eaten delicious potato dumplings?
I've eaten it.

And the delicious potato dumplings are also made by Chef Jing.

After being severely punished by potato dumplings on New Year's Eve, Zheng Da deeply realized the importance of diligently practicing the basics and never slacked off again. The year after that dumpling meal, which was Zheng Da's third year of learning to cook, Chef Jing made him another batch of potato dumplings on New Year's Eve.

This is the delicious version, not the cheap version where you steam potatoes, mash them, add a little salt, and wrap them in dumpling wrappers. It involves dicing potatoes, adding diced pork belly, beef, celery, and bamboo shoots, mixing in sesame oil, lightly stir-frying the filling in a pan until fragrant, and then wrapping it in dumpling wrappers.

good to eat.

This is Zheng Da's complete review of these potato dumplings.

That's all, because Zheng Da had never made potato dumplings before. As Master Jing's personal disciple, Zheng Da had a lot of snacks to learn. Whether it was potato dumplings, chive dumplings, or pork dumplings, they were all simple dumplings at their core, not snacks that needed to be taught separately.

The reason Master Jing made potato dumplings for Zheng Da again the following year was because he was afraid his apprentice would have a negative opinion of potato dumplings as a dessert because of the previous punishment. To become an excellent pastry chef, one must not view any pastry with prejudice; you cannot make good pastries if you have biases.

Zheng Da offered Qin Huai two different ideas for making potato dumplings: one was a minimalist style, and the other was an extremely elaborate version.

Qin Huai did not hesitate to choose the latter, and produced the first rich version of potato dumplings at 1:37 pm.

Since there are no winter bamboo shoots available at this time of year, and the Yunzhong Canteen did not prepare bamboo shoots today, Qin Huai will temporarily use lotus root cubes as a substitute for bamboo shoot cubes.

It's all about experimentation. As long as the idea is right, the ingredients and other things can be changed.

Wang Gensheng, who had been sitting in the kitchen all morning, drinking a lot of tea and not daring to eat any snacks, finally ate his first potato dumpling at 1:40 p.m. with an empty stomach.

Grandpa Wang skipped lunch to sample the food, and his dedication to doing so is truly touching.

Zhao Cheng'an's eyes reddened as he watched Wang Gensheng eat the potato dumplings.

If this is also potato dumplings, then what about the eight plates he ate this morning?
Zhao Cheng'an shouted inwardly and muttered to himself.

"I guess there's something wrong with your recipe," Qin Huai said expressionlessly. "I asked you if you had any other potato dumpling recipes, but you wouldn't tell me. What could I do?"

"I really didn't! I didn't like dumplings back then. Even though I made pastries, I didn't eat the pastries I made myself. I'm not stupid. There's Chef Jiang and Chef Chen at Taifeng Restaurant. I don't eat their dishes, but I eat my pastries? Am I crazy?" Zhao Cheng'an even cursed himself when he got angry.

"And as Chef Zheng said, potato dumplings were a cheap substitute when we didn't have much money. Back then, when we could afford it, we ate meat dumplings. No matter how stingy Boss Lu was, Taifenglou was still the number one restaurant in Beiping. During holidays, we kitchen helpers ate meat dumplings. Who would eat potato dumplings?"

“Unless it’s the potato dumplings made by Master Jiang, we used to make dumplings for Chinese New Year. Even if Master Jiang made dumplings, his family would eat them, and I wouldn’t get to eat them. I would like to go to Master Jiang’s house to eat, but Master Chen won’t let me.”

"You've seen my memories, haven't you? I didn't have the means back then either. If there were even two pieces of cured pork in the kitchen, I would have used them to make dumplings, even if it was too salty."

Qin Huai was persuaded by Zhao Cheng'an and felt that Zhao Cheng'an was quite unlucky to have eaten eight plates of such terrible potato dumplings today, so he asked, "How about I cook you a plate of this version of potato dumplings?"

"No, I don't want to eat it." Zhao Cheng'an refused decisively. "I don't want to eat potato dumplings lately."

"I want to eat yam cake. Qin Huai, can you make me some yam cake?"

"Or glutinous rice cake would be fine too, but why won't you let me eat glutinous rice cake? I don't usually like rice cake, but if you don't let me eat it, I suddenly really want to eat it."

Qin Huai: "...You really can't eat this. If you do, you'll definitely slack off."

"How could that be? Am I the kind of person who would consistently slack off?"

"You are."

"Qin Huai, you've gone too far! You made me eat eight plates of potato dumplings and you still scolded me."

"Facts speak louder than words."

"No way, let me eat first."

"Don't even think about it. Do you think reverse psychology will work? My sister used that trick on you 10 years ago. Try it when you're on vacation."

Zhao Cheng'an: QAQ
Sitting at the small table, Shi Dadan, who was eating potato dumplings with Wang Gensheng, curiously peeked over at Qin Huai and asked Gong Liang, "What are Qin Huai and Xiao Zhao talking about?"

Gong Liang calmly sipped his tea: "We're discussing when to take a vacation."

Shi Dadan suddenly realized, "Indeed, Qin Huai hasn't rested since he came back. We haven't had a tea party at Luo Jun's house in a long time either. Let's arrange another tea party when Qin Huai has some rest. Old Wang, you must come to the tea party then."

Wang Gensheng muttered to himself: Don't we have tea parties in the kitchen every day? But Wang Gensheng didn't say anything, he just nodded silently.

Come on, come on, there's food to be had, you'll definitely come.

(End of this chapter)