The story of a cook

Chapter 454 The Nonstop Rest Day

After talking on the phone with the fourth child, someone knocked on the door, and it was Bao Peng who came in, and they took a break at noon.

Bao Peng brought a serving of hot dumplings.

"Master, I'll pack a dumpling for you, it's still warm."

"I bought big salted fish pancakes." I said, and then asked, "What kind of stuffing?"

"Your favorite sauerkraut stuffing." He looked at the big salted fish pancakes I bought and said, "Why are you eating this stuff? It's so salty. Don't eat it, eat dumplings."

I said, "I really like food, have you finished eating?"

"After eating, everyone fried the cabbage fried noodles that I ate today, and I'm going to go up and fry it." He said.

"Is it not fried?" I asked with a smile.

"No, then you can still burn it? It would be embarrassing for you if it is burnt, ha ha." He said, and then said: "Master, you should not rest in the future. No one will fry our dishes after you rest. I will cook the dishes. Take it to Master Ma, he said he dare not fry it, because he is afraid that it won’t taste like you, then I took it to Master Du, Master Du didn’t say anything, and pointed at Zhao Chef, which means I should take it to Zhao Chef , I saw that Chef Zhao had a lot of dishes, and he didn’t have time to fry them when he took them. When I got angry, I put the dishes on the case and ignored them. I hope whoever cooks them. After that, I went to the Ming stall to talk to Sister Niu. Fang Lin said you were off today, and told them not to order our dishes, saying that no one fried them."

I asked, "Then who fired it?"

He said: "Chef Zhao fried it. It's been a long time. If you don't fry the guests, you will return the dishes." Then he said: "Today we order a small number of dishes, twelve at noon, I am brisk, I have nothing to go to the seafood side Help with side dishes, don't want to see them."

I laughed and said, "You too, you're angry too."

"It's not that I'm angry, it's annoying to look at them. When others are resting, you help to cook, and when you are resting, no one will cook for us. If this is the case, next time we rest together, we don't have to set up the food stalls for rest. We don't have to wait a day." Sell ​​it, and sell it when we get to work." He said angrily.

I said: "It seems that the dishes are not uniform."

"Actually, they can cook our dishes. It's been a long time, so you can see it all." He said.

I said, "They can't control the heat of some dishes well, so it's normal if they don't dare to cook them."

He said: "Master, Fang Lin said that she doesn't want to order food in front, but wants to go to the pastry room to learn pastry and make dumplings."

"When did you say that?" I asked.

"Last week, she told me, but she didn't tell you. She asked me if it was okay to make dumplings. I said yes, better than being an orderer. Is it better for her to make dumplings than to be an orderer? She can also learn Craftsmanship." He asked me.

I said, "It's better than being an orderer. You can ask her again. If you really want to learn how to make dumplings, I'll ask Lao Zhao to arrange it."

"Okay, I'll ask her again."

If Fang Lin really went to learn how to make dumplings, at least making dumplings is a craft, if he can persevere, he can take her with him, and he can also be a dumpling master like Ye Yurong.

Ye Yurong is now worth 800 yuan when he goes out to work as a dumpling chef, 1000 yuan a month for a waiter in an old shop, 900 yuan for a chopping board, and [-] yuan for a dumpling worker.

But a little girl still suggested that it would be better to learn a craft.Skills learned by hand will become more and more refined as you grow older and more valuable as you work for a long time. In the end, the price of pastries is comparable to that of chefs.

At the beginning, Qiuping was asked to learn how to make pasta. Qiuping didn't want to learn it, and she also saw that she was not made to learn pasta, and her development did not lie in it.Qiuping tends to be in sales, and it would be better for her to do sales.

After Bao Peng left, he looked at the dumplings that were still warm, put the big pancakes and salted fish aside, and started to eat dumplings and drink wine, and then turned away.After drinking, I lay on the bed and watched "Oriental Cuisine" for a while. It introduced the "five constant management" of a restaurant in Nanjing. I will build a kitchen like this sooner or later.

Reading a book, thinking about things, and fell asleep in a daze after a while.

It was almost six o'clock when I was woken up by the sound of the phone, and I saw that it was the old man's call.

Pick it up, you have to pick it up if you don't like it, it's a rest, it doesn't stop.

"Hello, old man!"

"Old Tan, did you rest today?" the old man asked.

"Yes, today I rest." I replied.

The old man said: "You probably rested. I ordered a plate of 'Lotus Pond Moonlight' in the old shop. Once I ate it, I didn't fry it."

I said, "Old man, you are the emperor's tongue, you can tell who made it from a plate of vegetables."

The old man smiled and said, "You haven't eaten tonight, come over and have some food together."

I said: "No, I ate a lot at noon, and I'm not hungry yet. You can eat slowly, and I won't accompany you."

"Come here, I happen to have something to discuss with you." The old man said.

Since there is something, let's go.

When I came to the small private room on the second floor of the old shop, the old man was drinking tea there. It seemed that he had finished his meal. There was a plate of "Moonlight in the Lotus Pond" on the table, and he didn't eat much.

I looked at it, and it looked like it was overheated. The celery and broccoli were a bit watery, the snow peas and lotus root slices were okay, and the fungus was also okay.

It seems that this dish should be made by Master Du. He has always been a little overcooked in cooking vegetables, so I am afraid they are not familiar.

After sitting down, he asked the old man, "What does the old man want from me?"

The old man said: "Our family has always been short of Sichuan cuisine. If each store hires a Sichuan cuisine chef, it will not be worth it. Our family mainly specializes in Northeast cuisine, and Sichuan cuisine is a bit complicated."

"It's a bit complicated. I've thought about it. In addition, Binhai people don't like spicy food very much, and those who like Sichuan food don't come to our house. They go directly to Sichuan restaurants. Their Sichuan restaurants are better than ours." I said Said: "In our family's Sichuan cuisine, we can serve two or three dishes that the common people like to hear and see, to enrich the taste of the dishes, and our family also has guests who like spicy food."

The old man said: "The two of us thought about going together. Now you serve two Sichuan dishes in the old shop, one is "Maoxuewang" and the other is "Boiled Beef". Well, some say it’s better than Sichuan restaurants, especially your old aunt, who said your cooking is absolutely amazing.”

I said, "It hasn't reached that level, my aunt likes spicy food."

The old man smiled and said: "I heard that you have a story with your aunt who knows you are beef, and you made your aunt whole?"

"It's not the whole body, I don't have that ability, it's the food." I said.

"I love to hear that. Chefs are good at eating and serving people. Shouting is useless."

I laughed, and then said: "Old man, just say what you mean, I will do as you say."

"This is what I think. We don't hire chefs for Sichuan cuisine. Your two dishes sell very well and are accepted by customers. I think all three stores serve them, as well as coarse grains and bakery stores. They send a chef from the two stores. Come here to learn from you, and you are responsible for teaching them." The old man said.

"No problem, these two dishes now have a fixed process and standards, and the spicy ingredients are also fried ready-made. In the future, when I stir-fry the ingredients, I will stir-fry more at once, and I will also stir-fry the two stores. My family' Maoxuewang' and 'Shuizhu Beef' are delicious mainly because of the stir-fried ingredients. I stir-fry according to the taste of our Northeast people, so the guests eat delicious food and feel that they are better than Sichuan restaurants. The main reason is that they The spicy level is just right, and it's delicious." I said.

"The hot and spicy ingredients you stir-fried are our exclusive recipe, you can master this, don't let others know." The old man said.

I smiled and said, "It's not an exclusive recipe, but it's really hard for others to copy it regardless of what's in it. That's why every chef cooks different dishes."

The old man said: "There is a specialization in surgery, Lao Tan, you are now a master."

"I can't reach the master level now, it's far away." I said, "I'm just a cook now, and I have to continue to practice to reach the level of 'teacher'. After all, I have to be after forty. 'Teacher' is not that good. It's said, our dishes are not good, and our virtues are not enough, so we can't be a 'teacher'."

The old man looked at me and nodded.

"It's already very powerful to have this understanding of yourself." The old man said, and then asked: "What does your wife do?"

I replied: "She is not at work now, she is at home with the children."

"Oh, when will you bring your lover and children here? Binhai has developed well in the past two years, and there will be development in the future. The couple will work here for two years and save some money to buy a house. Let's develop in Binhai." explain.

"Look, I don't want to move my family here yet. Let's see how the development is. I've only been here for two months, and it's not stable yet." I said.

"Our family will definitely develop in the future, and we need talents like you."

"What kind of talent am I? I'm just a cook and good at cooking. I admit that."

"Never thought of being a chef?" the old man asked.

"I thought about it, but not now. If our family opens another restaurant now, I promise to strive to be the head chef." I laughed.

The old man smiled, and changed the subject: "Accountant Cui mentioned it to me two days ago, saying that he discussed the inventory with you."

I said, "Well, we talked about it."

"He told me a few points, and I think it's correct." The old man said.

"I know a little about kitchen inventory, so I shared my opinion with Brother Cui," I said.

The old man thought for a while, and then asked me: "You have also managed the kitchen, what do you think about kitchen management?"

"Leader, do you mean our family?" I asked.

The old man smiled and said, "We just discuss it, not our family."

I thought for a while and said: "The catering industry is now undergoing a process of integration and regulation, from the original rough management to standardized and standardized management, which puts forward higher requirements for managers, or continues the traditional management of the past The method guarantee is no good. I think, from my personal point of view, if a catering company wants to develop, it first needs to train the managers and change the inherent thinking mode of the managers. To put it bluntly, it is the same as cooking. Let me give a simple example Take my 'Maoxuewang' and 'Shuizhu Beef' for example, if I still use the authentic Sichuan cuisine in the past, it may not be sold at all, and no one will accept it. The hot and spicy ingredients suitable for the tastes of Northeast people, and the 'Maoxuewang' and 'Boiled Beef' are accepted by customers, and they are the only ones."

"The same is true of management. It needs to be improved. First of all, let the manager know what a manager is, instead of letting him be a manager based on goodwill and personal feelings. Only managers who know what a manager is will manage. I don’t know what a manager is." What is a manager? They can only do things, not manage. Take the head chef as an example. In the past, we thought that the best cooking should be the head chef, because the kitchen is mainly about cooking, and it’s okay if the dishes are not well done. But what is the definition of the head chef in the kitchen now? It is the top manager of the kitchen, and the head chef is in charge of the kitchen. Through the efficient management of the head chef, the kitchen creates benefits. A kitchen that cannot create benefits will lose money no matter how good it is. A boss is willing to do it."

The old man nodded and said to me: "Go on, let's go on."

"Grandpa, is it okay to say these things? I'm also studying modern kitchen management, but I haven't figured it out. I think it will be impossible to manage according to the past management methods. If there is no benefit, the restaurant will not make money. What should the restaurant do if it does not make money? It’s just yellow. What’s the point of management when the restaurants are all yellow? It’s all managed by the yellow.” I said: “A good catering company must have its own management system, its own rules and regulations, its own process standards, and its own A sound salary system, an employment system that can retain people, its own core technology and a complete production process, each position has a clear division of labor and work procedures and standards, and there is also an effective management tool. All of these boil down to the need for an efficient management team, and now everyone pays attention to the team, and the team wins, and it is indeed the case.”

"To make a good dish, you must first have suitable and good ingredients, and then how to use the knife, how to cook, what seasoning to add, and what to serve. What I said is a bit inappropriate, and that's what I mean."

The old man nodded and said, "You are right, and you see it very clearly."

"The old man praised you. I am just a student in front of you. You have been a leader all your life. If you say that the management is far behind you." I said.

The old man smiled and said, "My management is different from restaurant management, and I don't use it in restaurants."

"The truth is the same, you are old and wise, and the experience of this life is enough for me to learn." I said.

The old man smiled silently and took a sip of tea.

I said: "Let's not talk about the management in advance. I will start to prepare the dishes tomorrow. I will standardize the 'maoxuewang' and 'boiled beef' again. I will type the production process and standards to the typing agency to form a form. No matter who To make these two dishes, just follow the step-by-step instructions written above, which is simple and trouble-free, and will not lose its shape.”

"Okay, let's finish the cooking first. Tomorrow I will notify the coarse grains and bakery and ask them to send a chef to learn from you." The old man said.

I said: "Learning is learning, but you have to establish rules. Didn't we talk about management just now, so let's start with learning dishes and making samples, and everything will be in order. Who will learn? How to learn? To what extent? What standards? How to implement? Standards must be set for these. Our group must be managed as an enterprise. In the future, whether it is going out to study or studying within the group, it must be normalized. There must be a standard. to any outcome, that equals zero."

The old man nodded in agreement.

(End of this chapter)