"There aren't many vegetables in winter, so finding these is good. Let me see... Today we don't have much meat, so I'll make pork stewed with vermicelli, stir-fried green peppers with potato slices, stir-fried cabbage, and egg, seaweed, and shrimp soup. The only staple foods are white flour buns and rice."
As for the kitchen, Chef Xu is not here, so Song Jiayu is the one in charge. There is nothing wrong with her deciding the restaurant's menu.
Now, we got the answer from Song Jiayu, and everyone went back to their respective duties.
Aunt Pang and Sister Fen washed vegetables, peeled potatoes, soaked vermicelli, etc., while Xiao Liu and Dafeng started to cut various vegetables and prepared condiments such as minced garlic, shredded green onions, ginger slices, etc. that would be used for cooking in the next few days.
Not long after, Chef Xu arrived, followed by a woman in her twenties.
He doesn't look exactly like Chef Xu, but he is about 50% similar, especially his slender eyes, which are exactly the same. It can be said to be a recessive gene of the Xu family.
"Hello everyone, my name is Xu Caiying, and I'm Chef Xu's daughter. I brought my dad to the State-owned Restaurant today, and I want to see how the female chefs in our kitchen are doing."
It was obvious that these words were directed at Song Jiayu.
The tone is quite aggressive?
Under the worried gaze of Aunt Fen and the anticipation of Little Liu Dafeng, Song Jiayu smiled a friendly smile, dimples forming on either side of her lips. She stepped forward and extended her hand, saying, "Hello, Comrade Xu. My name is Song Jiayu, and I'm the newly hired chef. The manager praised me after eating my dishes. I believe I haven't tarnished the restaurant's reputation."
A new chef came to the state-owned restaurant in Songshan County. Her cooking skills were quite impressive, which attracted more people to eat at the restaurant. Everyone saw that she was a female comrade, and because Chef Xu recommended her, word spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and somehow the word got out that she was Chef Xu's apprentice.
Xu Caiying came today to see who the female comrade who entered the kitchen was.
"Are you my father's apprentice?"
This question was so confusing that question marks seemed to appear on the foreheads of several people present.
Auntie Pang kindly replied, "No, Chef Xu is in our kitchen every day, and Xiao Song has only been here a few times. They are not master and apprentice."
"Auntie Fatty, I didn't ask you, I asked her." Xu Caiying wanted to hear what she said.
Song Jiayu saw the broken feeling in the girl's eyes, and she kindly shook her head: "No, I learned it from my mother. My mother is the best in Lushan Village."
“Wuwuwuwu…” Xu Caiying cried. She felt that she could no longer live like this, and she cried to her father, “Look at other people’s families. Dad, I am your only daughter, and my last name is Xu too.
Why can’t our Xu family teach me their cooking skills?
Just because of that bullshit family motto of passing it down to sons but not daughters?
Your son-in-law and I are barely making ends meet with our entire family. Are you going to follow the same family motto as Grandpa and watch your grandson starve?"
Everyone who heard this said: I didn’t expect Chef Xu that you are such a person!
Especially Song Jiayu, she didn't know much about Chef Xu's family. She was concerned about today's task and Chef Xu's daughter coming to the kitchen to make a fuss. She came with the intention of watching a show. This was definitely a big show.
Chef Xu looked helpless. "Caiying, I told you before that your son-in-law's family wasn't doing well. He was the only one supporting a family of six. You didn't listen to me and even said that any consequences were none of my business. Is it any use saying this now?"
Everyone nodded: That’s right, now that we have made the choice, we have to keep going no matter how hard it is.
Xu Caiying became even angrier, but no longer heartbroken. She poured out all the grievances she had been carrying in her heart for so many years: "Why did I choose to marry him in the first place? Wasn't it just to spite you? You keep saying I'm your beloved daughter, but in reality, I have to obey Grandpa's orders and adopt a godson from some unknown relative and teach him cooking..."
When she was sad, she reached out and wiped her tears. When her emotions burst out, a tissue appeared in front of her. It was the female chef in the kitchen. She whispered thank you, picked up the tissue, wiped her tears and nose, and continued to complain:
"I'm the one with Xu family blood, the only descendant of my grandfather and father. But just because I'm a daughter, I can't compare to the sons of relatives who are several generations apart."
"You want to teach him cooking skills, but will he take care of you in your old age? He has a father, a mother, a grandfather, and a grandmother. He's already over ten years old. Will he still take care of you in your old age?"
Everyone nodded again: Indeed, it is too unrealistic to ask outsiders to support you in your old age, and the master-disciple relationship is not valuable nowadays.
Chef Xu's eyes welled up as he listened. He said, "My daughter, it's Dad's fault. I can't help it. Your grandfather threatened me with death, saying he would eat pesticides if I didn't follow our ancestors' teachings. When you were ten years old, I firmly proposed to teach you my cooking skills. That same day, your grandfather jumped off the building and broke his leg. I'm not as cruel as you, my daughter. Dad is the one who let you down."
This was the first time Xu Caiying had heard of this. She remembered that the old man had indeed broken his leg when he was ten years old. "Dad, why didn't you tell me?"
"What's the point of telling you? It will only make you feel bad. Your mother and I discussed this matter originally because we wanted it to be a birthday present for your tenth birthday. But we didn't know your grandfather was so determined. He would even give up his own life for the sake of our ancestral teachings." Chef Xu felt very uncomfortable when he talked about this.
As a father, Chef Xu felt very disappointed when he threatened his son with life and death. Even after so many years, he still feels this pain in his heart.
Xu Caiying couldn't understand why life was not as important as teaching Xu family's cooking skills to his daughter?
Everyone was also confused: they had heard so many secrets about Chef Xu's family, they wouldn't be framed, right?
After calming down, Xu Caiying smiled sadly at Song Jiayu and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't scare you. I came to ask you because I heard that you were my father's apprentice. I actually wanted you to be, so that I could also learn cooking from my father."
Alas, this person's feeling of brokenness comes back again.
Song Jiayu comforted him, "You didn't scare me. I think you can think about it from another angle. Since you can't teach it to your daughter, why not let Chef Xu find a better chef for you to apprentice to?"
The Xu family's father and daughter looked at each other and were stunned for three seconds, as if... indeed... this was possible.
"The kitchen is now in your hands today, Xiao Song. Everyone else has to listen to Xiao Song. I'll come back this afternoon."
Chef Xu ran away with Xu Caiying.
Everyone only saw the backs of the father and daughter running.
quite a while.
Someone spoke up, it was Auntie Fatty: "Poor thing, that old man from the Xu family is so unkind. What's wrong with his daughter? I love my Xiangxiang daughter more and hate that stinky boy."
Dafeng followed up, "That's nothing. There's a family near my home who ate a whole chicken. The old man ate the whole chicken by himself, gave the head to his son, the butt to his grandson, and his wife, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter just drank some soup."
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