Chapter 300 The Chef Contest Finals Begins

The survival difficulties of boat people have significantly accelerated the approval procedures for the transfer of various refugees, especially the approval of refugees stranded in port cities, which has finally given the suffering refugees a glimmer of hope.

The old prison near Kai Tak Airport, which had been abandoned for many years, was reopened. Several charities jointly rented an industrial building near the refugee camp and transformed it into a special refugee camp industrial factory. The first company to move in was a carton factory that supplied Li De and Cui Ji, and then the Zhao family's clothing factory also moved in smoothly.

There are a large number of small processing factories in the port city that operate when there is business and close when there are no orders. There are also many toy factories and electronic parts assembly factories that can operate with just a few simple equipment. More companies rely on importing full containers of goods from overseas, which are then packaged in the port city and then sold to specific markets.

The rent of the refugee camp industrial factory is low, and the labor cost is only 35 Hong Kong dollars for eight hours a day. Compared with the soaring labor costs in Hong Kong in the past two years, hiring mainland or Vietnamese workers who work illegally has many risks. Directly hiring refugee camp workers means that the management will bear the labor responsibility, which greatly reduces the risk. The factory provides short-term (two to three months minimum) and long-term leasing options. This flexibility has created opportunities for many small and micro enterprises. This industrial building has become a popular "popular shop" in a blink of an eye.

The skills training class that Yue Ning opened in the camp faced an awkward situation: the young and middle-aged refugees were too busy working during the day to attend classes, so the training time had to be adjusted to 6 to 8 pm every night. This was really unexpected.

Refugees in the Tuen Mun refugee camp began to protest. They encountered many difficulties in finding jobs. The small workshops in Hong Kong that dared to give them jobs paid them very poorly. Working ten hours a day, all year round, they could only earn 700 to 800 Hong Kong dollars. However, the refugee camp stipulated that working six days a week, eight hours a day, could earn them more than 900 Hong Kong dollars.

More and more refugees are asking: “Why not just lock us up too!”

In this situation, it is difficult to satisfy everyone. Some people are willing to be imprisoned, but most people refuse to give up their freedom and are unwilling to be confined in the camp.

The Hong Kong government took the opportunity to set up a second closed refugee camp, allowing refugees in the open refugee camp to voluntarily apply to transfer in. After that, the open refugee camp no longer accepted new refugees, and at the same time, some of the original residents were transferred in batches. As refugees continue to go to their destination countries, the number of people in the open refugee camp will continue to decrease, and related social problems will gradually ease.

Professor Ma won academic reputation by publishing his latest paper, but Cai Meiyue further enhanced her reputation by doing practical work.

Yue Ning was once again invited to participate in the Lyon International Chef Exchange. This time she served a modified version of Vietnamese braised beef, adding coconut water and lemongrass to the cooking method, and paired it with baguette, perfectly presenting Vietnam's most classic food culture.

The dish is a subtle reminder of Vietnam’s seven decades of French colonial rule. Although the French left less than three decades ago, a large Vietnamese diaspora still lives in France, and the former colonial power remains a destination of choice for many Vietnamese refugees.

It was the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a member of the socialist camp, Vietnam would have been the focus of attention if such an incident happened. There was a strong public outcry for aid to Vietnamese refugees. Yue Ning's display of Vietnamese cuisine at a highly influential international occasion appropriately responded to public concerns.

During this period, the Black Truffle Restaurant Alliance added four new members: one in Spain, Fuyuan Restaurant in the United States, and two French restaurants, bringing the total number of French restaurants under the alliance to five. Taking this opportunity, the alliance launched an employment initiative: it will provide job opportunities for Vietnamese refugees who have a basic French language and have received training in Hong Kong, and the designated training institution is Yue Ning's Ningyan Cooking School.

Although the five high-end restaurants can only provide limited jobs, this move sends an important signal and has special significance at a time when we advocate racial and cultural diversity and promote social inclusion.

After the trip to Lyon, Yue Ning attended a high-end charity dinner attended by many Hong Kong politicians and businessmen. Yue Ning was popular in this circle, and this time she was pushed to the center of the photo with the younger generation.

There are many foreigners in Hong Kong. She used to be popular in the Chinese circle. This time, under the guidance of Cai Meiyue, she got to know many British people. Yue Ning's position in Hong Kong's upper class society has become more and more stable. It takes a long way to become rich and noble. She no longer relies on the background of the Qiao and Cai families, but wins her current position with her own strength.

Yue Ning believes that her value in Hong Kong is not small, but her value in the mainland is even greater. The company they founded together has already recruited more than 30 people. Even if they use shared workstations, the original office is not enough, so they just changed offices.

The Guangdong Spring Fair has begun. This time, the team going back is not for support, but for their own business, cooperating with mainland enterprises. Those who have clients will accompany the foreign guests back, and those who have just joined the company will go to the site for interpretation in groups, and also make business contacts.

For this Spring Fair, the authorities have delegated authority to import and export companies in various provinces and started accepting applications from production units. Factory 4 of Switchgear, like Qiao Jinxing's previous factory, no longer has to sneak in and can sign up to participate. The scale of this trade fair is even larger than last year.

Their company has reaped a lot of rewards. Pang Qiang exclaimed that he could pick up money just by bending down.

"By serving as a window between the mainland and the world, Hong Kong can enjoy such good times for the next 20 years," said Yue Ning.

"What about twenty years later?" asked Pang Qiang.

"Twenty years isn't enough?" Zhou Mingxuan didn't care.

"Twenty years from now, there will still be advantages, but making money won't be as easy as it is now." Yue Ning said, "If we consider it in the long run, Hong Kong City really needs to consider what industries will support such a large city in twenty years. After all, we are not Australia City, where we can live well by relying on entertainment and gambling. This is the significance of our economic research!"

After finishing all these, exam week came again. Time flies so fast, and the first year of college is over. After the three-year program of HKU, Yang Zhijie, Chen Zheng and others graduated. The two of them entered Baohua Building after graduation. Yang Zhijie took over most of Sophie's work, and Chen Zheng worked full-time at Ning Xiaochu.

Sophie applied for a graduate program in business at the University of Tokyo. Yue Ning originally suggested that she apply for business in the UK or the US, but after careful consideration, Sophie decided that the business program at the University of Tokyo was the most suitable for her.

In the past two years, the University of Tokyo has indeed been a popular choice for studying abroad in East Asia, and Japan is also in its fastest-growing period, with all kinds of concepts and innovations.

Sophie's other idea was that Hong Kong was too small. Even if the consumption capacity was high, if they opened another Ningyan in Kowloon, Hong Kong would have three Ningyans at most. But Japan was different. Japan was so big, and the consumption capacity of several big cities was so strong. If the company wanted to make a lot of money, it would definitely rely on the Japanese market. So while she was studying, she and Liang Ze accelerated the layout of Baohualou in the Japanese market.

Brother Lu and Sophie have already registered. They held a small wedding banquet in Hong Kong and will return to Beijing to hold the wedding at the end of the year.

Brother Lu has no relatives in Hong Kong. Sophie's parents divorced when she was very young, and her father sent her to Yuen Long to grow up with her grandparents. Last time she brought Lu Peide home to meet her grandparents, she happened to meet her father and stepmother. Her biological father and stepmother knew that they were getting married, and they were very excited. They asked her if she would hold the wedding banquet at Ningyan Lu Mansion? Before Sophie could answer, her stepmother had already started planning to invite those relatives and friends, even her stepmother's cousins.

The more Sophie listened, the more outrageous it seemed to her. She had met her stepmother no more than ten times in these years and had no feelings for her at all. Inviting her stepmother to the wedding was already giving them face. But they also wanted to invite her stepmother's cousins. Was that right?

And her stepmother asked her if her biological mother would attend the wedding. Her father immediately said that he didn't want her biological mother to attend the wedding. Otherwise, he would not go.

When her grandparents heard that her father was not going, they immediately advised her not to invite her biological mother.

She hadn't originally thought of inviting her biological mother. After all, after her biological mother passed away, she used to visit her at first, but later she had a child and only came to see her once a year.

Sophie said to her father: "I don't plan to invite my mother, nor do I plan to invite you."

The incident ended in a bad mood. Grandpa and grandma said that if her father didn't attend the wedding, they wouldn't come either. They forced her to go and give in to her father.

Sophie simply said, "If you don't want to come, then don't come."

Therefore, the wedding banquet was very small in scope, and most of the guests were colleagues from HTV and Baohua Building. Cai Zhiyuan was Sophie's most important colleague at HTV, so naturally he received an invitation.

Cai Zhiyuan came over and watched Sophie marry Lu Peide calmly.

Yue Ning was afraid that he would be very sad and wanted to persuade him, but he only asked: "You must attend the final of the "Chef King Contest". You haven't been to the scene in the past six months."

"Of course I'll go. I'll definitely go." Yue Ning quickly agreed to him.

"The Chef Competition" was held during the Hong Kong International Food Expo.

In the preliminary round, Yuecheng Dongfenglou and American Fuyuan were eliminated. After being resurrected by audience telephone voting, Yuecheng Dongfenglou was really unlucky. The first time it met Chen Jinying, after being resurrected it met Shanghai Jinhua Hotel and was still eliminated.

However, Fuyuan had great luck all the way until they met Chen Jinying in the semi-finals. On the other hand, Shanghai Jinhua Hotel faced Beijing Yufenglou. In the end, Jinhua Hotel entered the finals, and the third and fourth places were again Fuyuan and Yufenglou.

Her granddaughter entered the semi-finals again, and Zhu Liling flew to Hong Kong again. In this semi-final competition, Zhu Liling saw great progress of her granddaughter and Liu Yi.

Zhu Liling flew to Hong Kong again to watch the competition. Seeing the remarkable progress of her granddaughter and Liu Yi, this senior chef who relies on her unique seasoning skills and Chinese food culture is very pleased. She knows that her granddaughter has embarked on a journey to surpass herself.

Chef Dong of Yufenglou accompanied the team this time. Chen Jinying has been corresponding with her brothers these days. Now the relationship between the mainland and Taiwan is still very delicate. She cannot go to the mainland, and it is not easy for her brothers to come out.

Chen Jinying was really happy that big brother could come this time, and she accompanied big brother to watch the third and fourth place competition.

As soon as Sun Yuke and Liu Yi came on stage, they saw Master Zhou and his apprentice. They were so happy that Sun Yuke went up to Master Zhou and gave him a tight hug: "Master Zhou, I missed you so much!"

The girl was just like that. Master Zhou was familiar with her and hugged her. Then Liu Yi, a big guy, hugged her. The two teams started the competition.