Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

On the third day after Du Shaojie arrived in Shenzhen, he asked Qian Bo to invite the person in charge of the village.

He personally cooked a table of dishes for them to eat, which showed his sincerity.

Although the seafood restaurant is not located in the village, there is a saying that "neighbors can't be moved away" and being so close, it is inevitable that things will cause trouble to others.

A strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake, so it is necessary to maintain good relations with the other party.

The village chief Qian Zijie is a distant relative of Qian Bo. He is in his forties and very talkative.

After a few drinks, he would pat his chest and say that there was no problem in this area that he could not solve.

Both the host and the guests enjoyed the meal very much, mainly because the dishes cooked by Du Shaojie were so delicious that you couldn't get them even in big restaurants.

A few days later, several more employees came from Xijiang. One was assigned to the lobby, and the rest were all assigned to the kitchen.

After Du Shaojie settled them down, he returned to Yangcheng.

After being busy for so long, he finally had time to visit Xiaomei at school.

"Brother, you've been here for so long and you haven't come to see me. I'm so sad."

"Don't be so frivolous. Isn't your current task to study hard? Tomorrow is the weekend. I'll take you to my restaurant to eat Sichuan cuisine. And invite a few of your good classmates to come along."

Du Shaojie glared at his sister, but then gave her compensation.

Liang Meiqin is the manager of Xichuan Restaurant. Xiaomei will know about this sooner or later, so it is better to take her out for a meal openly.

"Brother, you're the best!"

Du Xiaomei happily took her brother to the cafeteria as it was time for lunch.

The cafeteria was crowded with people. When the brother and sister sat down to eat, Du Shaojie inexplicably felt a lot of hostile gazes.

He couldn't help but smile. It seemed that his sister was quite popular in school. Not many people knew about their relationship, and only the roommates and classmates who were on good terms with Xiaomei knew about it.

Some ignorant guys regarded him as a love rival.

"Brother, do you mind if I sit here?"

The brother and sister were eating and chatting. Jiang Xiaoling happened to see them when she got her meal, so she came over.

Du Xiaomei rolled her eyes. It was so embarrassing that her roommate became obsessed with her brother as soon as she saw him.

"We are so familiar with each other, why be so polite? Sit down."

Du Shaojie smiled. He had a good impression of Jiang Xiaoling and they seemed to be able to chat well.

The meal took more than forty minutes and Jiang Xiaoling felt very happy.

Before leaving, Du Shaojie specially invited her to have dinner at Xichuan Restaurant the next day.

Although she was not the only one called, Jiang Xiaoling still felt flattered. After returning to the dormitory, she kept asking Du Xiaomei which clothes would be suitable for her to wear tomorrow.

Du Xiaomei was too tired to complain. Her brother was now entangled with sisters Mikoto and Yanzi. How could there be room for anyone else around him?

Of course, I can't say this, I can only give some advice in a tactful way.

The next day.

noon.

Du Shaojie personally prepared a table of dishes to entertain Xiaomei and her classmates.

There were just enough people coming today to form a table. He was worried that some people couldn't eat spicy food, so he thoughtfully prepared a few seafood dishes.

"Xiao Mei, is this the restaurant opened by your brother? He is really capable!"

"Yes, yes, and business here is so good, we will definitely make a lot of money."

"The key is that the food is delicious. Although I can't eat spicy food, I still can't help but want to eat it."

The classmates kept praising Du Shaojie, and Du Xiaomei felt proud of it.

In her heart, her brother is the best. Not only is he a good cook, but he also has a good business sense.

Most of them are poor students who seldom eat out, let alone come to a restaurant to eat. In their eyes, this is a high-end restaurant. If it weren't for their good relationship with Du Xiaomei, they wouldn't have this opportunity.

On the contrary, Jiang Xiaoling was rather silent today. She lowered her head and ate, and it was unknown what she was thinking about.

During this time, Du Shaojie came in, said hello to his sister's classmates, and then left.

He is also very busy today. Today is the busiest day since the opening, and Liao Yongxin and Yan Dabao are simply too busy to handle it.

Liao Yongxin, Du Shaojie and Yan Dabao are all authentic descendants of traditional Sichuan cuisine, and all three are top chefs. This lineup can be described as luxurious.

The word-of-mouth effect is gradually emerging, and business will naturally not be bad.

People have a limited appetite, and when opening a restaurant, the quality of the food is of paramount importance.

Du Xiaomei and others went back to school after dinner, which made Jiang Xiaoling a little disappointed. She wanted to chat with Du Shaojie for a while, but unfortunately he didn't have time.

Two days later, a chef from Chengdu came to the store to apply for a job, and Du Shaojie tasted the dishes himself.

The chef is called Zheng Qiang, he is 35 years old and was promoted to a special third-level chef last year.

Du Shaojie found that the other party had a lot of ideas in cooking, and was not bound by traditional techniques, but incorporated some of his own ideas into it. His overall level was slightly lower than Liao Yongxin and Yan Dabao, but he had great potential.

Liao Yongxin also had a good impression of Zheng Qiang, so Zheng Qiang was hired on the spot.

Du Shaojie has been in Guangdong Province for quite some time. Now that several stores are on track, he is ready to leave.

When they returned to Donghu New Village in the evening, before Du Shaojie could speak, Liang Meiqin took the initiative to ask: "Shaojie, are you leaving?" "Yes, I have to go back to see, after all, there are still a lot of things to do at home. Meiqin, I will call you often after I go back, you have to take care of yourself here."

Du Shaojie nodded, confirming the other party's guess.

Liang Meiqin didn't say anything, but she worked extra hard tonight, and even Du Shaojie felt a little overwhelmed.

the next day.

Du Shaojie boarded the train heading north. Before that, he had thought about going to Beijing first, or going directly back to Xijiang, but he was a little hesitant.

After much deliberation, he chose Star City as his first stop.

Having read thousands of books and traveled thousands of miles, he wanted to visit the base of Hunan cuisine.

As the train sped along, Du Shaojie's mood improved unconsciously. His cooking skills had reached a certain level, and if he wanted to continue to make breakthroughs, he would need a lot of accumulation.

It is not enough to just practice hard in simulated scenarios, you should broaden your horizons and find and experience delicious food in life.

In fact, this is what Du Shaojie has always wanted to do. Now that he has the opportunity, he might as well walk and see along the way. Maybe he can discover different scenery.

It was already evening when the train arrived in Star City.

Du Shaojie got on a tricycle, asked the driver to take him to the vicinity of May Day Square, and gave him one dollar.

This area is a famous business district in Xingcheng, and there are many guest houses and hotels. However, it is not easy to find a high-end hotel, so he finally chose a guest house that looked relatively clean.

After checking into a single room and washing up, he went out to eat.

There were many small restaurants on the street, and Du Shaojie was not familiar with any of them, so he just found a small shop with many customers and went in.

Du Shaojie looked at the menu, then ordered a [Stir-fried Beef Tripe with Sour Radish], a [Tiger Skin Chili], and also asked for a bottle of beer and a portion of rice.

The food was served quickly and smelled good, so we started eating right away.

[Stir-fried beef tripe with sour radish] This dish is well cooked, with plenty of aroma and is fully cooked. It is spicy with a hint of sourness and goes very well with rice.

However, it is difficult to comment on the appearance of the dish. If I use this dish to take the level 3 chef exam, I will definitely not pass.

Of course, for a small restaurant, the taste of the dishes is already very good, there is really no need to be too demanding.
I tried the [Tiger Skin Spicy Pepper] again and found it tasted just average.

Perhaps in order to prepare the dish quickly, the chef of the small restaurant fried the chili peppers directly over high heat, which caused most of the chili peppers' flavor to be lost.

Du Shaojie was very hungry at the moment. He commented on the two dishes in his mind and then began to eat them voraciously.

It was quite pleasant to eat a few bites of food and drink a glass of beer.

Since he arrived quite late, by the time he was eating, most of the customers in the store had left.

The boss is a middle-aged man who is also the chef of the store.

The middle-aged woman who was doing the cashiering, serving dishes and cleaning should be his wife. Du Shaojie had heard someone calling her "boss lady" before.

This is clearly a mom and pop shop.

“Are the guests satisfied with the food?”

After Du Shaojie had eaten and drunk his fill, he asked the boss to pay the bill.

The boss was free at this moment, with a cigarette in his mouth. He calculated the bill and then asked a question with a smile.

"Not bad, it's quite delicious."

Du Shaojie was not the type to find fault, so he casually praised the product after paying the money.

The boss and his wife were very happy, and seeing that the customer had not yet stood up, the boss came over and poured him a cup of hot tea, then sat aside.

"Your accent doesn't sound like a local. Are you here on business?"

"Yes, on a business trip. Boss, I'm not very familiar with Xingcheng. Can you tell me what good food there is in Xingcheng? Although I'm not a local, I'm still very interested in Hunan cuisine."

Du Shaojie had nothing to do in the guesthouse, so he started chatting with the boss.

The boss immediately perked up and not only introduced him to the local delicacies, but even some famous restaurants.

"Thank you. I will come to your house for dinner later."

"Then I'd definitely welcome you. I'll give you a discount next time you come."

Du Shaojie drank a cup of tea and got the information he wanted, then left the restaurant and returned to the guesthouse.

Before going to bed, he entered the simulation scene and reproduced the evening dish [Stir-fried beef tripe with pickled radish] over and over again. After spending 100 hours, he was very satisfied with the dish he reproduced.

Whether it is knife skills, appearance, taste or control of heat, they are far better than those of the owner of a small restaurant.

The next day.

Du Shaojie went out and bought a map and began to plan the route according to other people's recommendations.

In the morning, he ate a bowl of [local pork rice noodles] like the locals, and then started shopping. After all, it was still early for lunch, so he could take his time to appreciate the charm of this city.

Near noon, he went to the local famous "Yuloudong Restaurant".

Yuloudong has a history of nearly 80 years since its establishment and is definitely the leader in Hunan cuisine.

When Du Shaojie came at this hour, there weren't many people around.

He sat alone at a small table, ordered a [Pork Knuckle in Sauce] and a [Spicy Chicken], and then stopped.

There are so many dishes here, at least hundreds of them, and he can't finish them all by himself. (End of this chapter)