After rushing back from the county town, Boss Wu gave the pork jerky Fang Yan had given him to his chef to try. "How is it? Can you make it taste exactly the same?"
The chef he poached from another province at a high price is truly skilled.
In particular, his tongue is very sensitive; after trying a dish, he can almost always tell you the ingredients and seasonings used in it.
Aside from the taste of spring water, which he couldn't detect, he could taste all the other ingredients in Fang Yan's braised food.
The same goes for this batch of pork jerky. He has meticulously identified all the ingredients for each flavor, except for the spring water.
Then came the relentless, day-and-night recovery process.
These days, the chef only sleeps four or five hours a day. If it weren't for the need to keep his mind clear so he could clearly distinguish the tastes and textures on his tongue, he would love to not sleep at all.
These days, only the Beijing Hotel has a single-function oven; other places don't have ovens at all.
If you want to bake something, you have to build a special oven for baking.
One major problem with this type of stove, which uses firewood to heat food, is that the temperature is very difficult to control.
Sometimes, if you add an extra piece of firewood, or if the firewood is too big, the temperature gets too high, and the roasted meat becomes extremely dry and tough to chew.
Or you can simply roast perfectly good pork jerky into crispy, crunchy jerky, like a biscuit.
If you're not careful and add too little scallion, it will be too soft and sticky in your mouth. The texture will be so bad that it will make you want to vomit!
I don't know how many batches have failed these days.
Anyway, they kept roasting day and night, and at dawn on the sixth day, they finally heard the chef's joyful voice, "Boss, come and try it! Aren't these batches of jerky close to, no, almost as good as hers in terms of texture and taste?"
Mr. Wu was so anxious that he hadn't gone home to sleep for the past two days. When he was tired, he would just doze off in the restaurant's office.
Waking up, he quickly rinsed his mouth with water and began to taste it. "It's close, but there's still a tiny bit different."
Just like braised food, they taste very similar, but people can still tell that they are different.
That's for sure!
Fang Yan used spring water from the kitchen to make these things.
Can they be the same?
After six days and nights of tireless effort, this was the best he could replicate.
"Boss, I've done my best." The chef was exhausted.
However, what he said was absolutely true.
Without special spring water, he naturally couldn't replicate the pork jerky that was exactly the same as Fang Yan's.
Mr. Wu slowly chewed on the pork jerky.
I've already tried all four flavors of dried meat.
Now, he tasted all four flavors of dried meat again, his brows furrowed, as if he were deep in thought as he chewed...
After finishing the last piece of pork jerky, he looked up, slowly exhaled, and slammed his hand on the table, making a decision that was both unexpected and perfectly logical—
"Make it this way, in batches. As for the braised dishes, use the recipe you replicated before. Start serving this dish to customers tomorrow. You can also start promoting the meat jerky in the restaurant first."
The chef was quite surprised, "But what we made didn't taste as good as what she made."
"Who said it has to have a certain flavor?" Mr. Wu retorted.
After all, having tasted Fang Yan's cooking, I know just how delicious it is.
The chef was a little worried, "I'm afraid people will make comparisons."
Compared to that, who would still buy their products?
Mr. Wu stared at him speechlessly, "Where are they going to eat that run-down family's braised food and pork jerky?"
How can we compare them?
The chef then realized that the two counties were several hours apart, and normally no one would spend several hours traveling to the neighboring county unless there was a very necessary reason.
If you don't go to the neighboring county, you won't be able to eat Fang Yan's food, and naturally you won't be able to compare it.
So he happily began preparing the ingredients.
"Xiao Fang, this is our textile factory's New Year's gift order. We placed the order with you so early, could you arrange for early delivery?"
"Sure, Director Liu, I'll take care of it. I'll arrange delivery for you as soon as possible."
Fang Yan smiled and assured him, then calculated the total price, signed a contract with him, paid a deposit, and agreed that the balance must be paid upon delivery.
The influence of Wei Jiahong, this local official, is truly remarkable.
When those official departments and agencies saw that Wei Jiahong's unit worked there, they all ordered pork jerky from Fang Yan as New Year's gifts and welfare.
They quickly sent someone to Fang Yan's stall to buy and try all four flavors of pork jerky.
Everyone who tried the taste placed an order with Fang Yan for pork jerky as a New Year's gift.
Some companies even placed orders with her without even trying.
In total, Fang Yan has received orders for pork jerky in several different flavors, totaling over 400 jin (200 kg) so far!
There are also about a third of the departments that verbally told Fang Yan they would place orders. Those orders, plus the orders from individual customers, add up to the total.
Emma!
This time I'm really busy!
Fortunately, Zhu Xiuhua and Fang Jie came and helped her a lot.
In early spring, Fang Yan would help out every afternoon, along with Aunt De and Aunt Wang. If they had time, they would also come over to lend a hand.
Therefore, despite the large number of orders, Fang Yan was not worried about manpower at all.
She also hired people to build two more ovens in the yard.
In reality, she secretly baked most of the pork jerky in the kitchen late at night.
But now that there's such a large quantity, we have to build two more stoves, just to make a show of it and deceive people.
With the surge in orders, the pork supplied by those few pork stalls is far from enough.
However, Fang Yan did not interrupt her cooperation with them.
These bosses, whom I've worked with for a few months, are all quite honest people.
With the Chinese New Year approaching, let's continue our cooperation so they can also make more money; it's a win-win situation for both of us.
In addition to the pork supplied by these few companies, Fang Yan also directly partnered with pork factories.
At first, people were reluctant to cooperate with her because she was a self-employed individual.
I vaguely remember that Captain Liu seemed to know people at the pork factory?
Fang Yan was able to successfully negotiate this cooperation by asking Captain Liu to act as an intermediary.
Bringing out such a big shot as Captain Liu has another benefit: the pork factory can deliver pork to Fang Yan's door.
This is sooooo awesome!
After arranging everything at home, it had been six days since Mr. Wu left, but he still hadn't come looking for her again.
Fang Yan made the next decision without hesitation...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
