As soon as Zhou Mingli arrived at work this morning, Chef Mo told him, "Come with me to the Great Hall of the People after get off work."
"Is there a banquet?" Zhou Mingli asked. "Wouldn't it be a bit late to go in the afternoon?"
"This time I'm only in charge of making the main course; other people are handling the earlier tasks, so it's not a big problem."
Zhou Mingli, of course, wouldn't let go of the opportunity to make money, and nodded in agreement.
At 2:30 p.m., Zhou Mingli finished get off work and rode the same bicycle with Chef Mo to the Great Hall of the People.
He had to leave early in the morning and didn't know if Jiang Ci was here or not. He didn't see her either, and went to the kitchen with Chef Mo.
The logistics staff handed the translated menu to Chef Mo, saying, "These foreigners don't have such strong tastes. Most of our menu consists of Jiangsu and Cantonese dishes."
No wonder they brought in Chef Mo; there wasn't a chef in Beijing more skilled in Suzhou cuisine than him.
He glanced at the menu and pursed his lips.
Why bother writing so much in foreign languages? He can't understand it anyway.
Looking at the prepared ingredients, Chef Mo said, "There are a few seafood dishes that I can't make. The fish and shrimp aren't alive, so they won't taste right."
Chef Mo quickly crossed out a few dishes and added three more. "See if this works for you. If it does, I'll have my apprentice prepare it."
Zhou Mingli was taken aback, glanced at Chef Mo silently, and then lowered his eyes without saying a word.
With Chef Mo personally adding the dishes, what's not to like?
The person in charge nodded repeatedly, and Chef Mo had nothing more to say. He handed the menu to Zhou Mingli and said, "Prepare the dishes with the most complicated procedures first."
"good."
Zhou Mingli took the menu, glanced at it, and his gaze lingered on a string of English words.
They were classmates in college and took all their major courses together. Back then, Jiang Ci asked him for help with his work, and in return, Zhou Mingli helped her with her homework.
To avoid being exposed, Zhou Mingli specifically asked his roommate, the class monitor, to look at Jiang Ci's homework.
Zhou Mingli had carefully observed her notes. She had been taught by top-notch teachers since childhood, and her English handwriting was fluent and beautiful. The last letter of each word would have a slight, elegant hook, and she would draw a horizontal line under it to highlight the key points.
This habit continued for a long time, until they got married. Jiang Ci wrote about her experiences in some books, and there were also little behaviors that she herself had never noticed.
The menu in front of you features Jiangci's unique writing habits.
Zhou Mingli stroked the menu, thinking about Jiang Ci's plans, and looked outside.
"What are you standing there for?" Chef Mo called out to him.
Zhou Mingli snapped out of his daze, put down the menu, placed the fresh mutton on the cutting board, picked up the knife, suppressed the turmoil in his heart, and said, "Uncle Mo... what you just did..."
Chef Mo glanced at him sideways, "What? You're not willing to be my apprentice?"
"Of course not." Zhou Mingli denied it. To be fair, his current culinary skills were learned by secretly when he was a child laborer, and he was far from being able to cook for state banquets like Chef Mo.
In just over a week of working with Chef Mo, Zhou Mingli learned several dishes from him.
"I'm just a kitchen helper, and your kindness to me makes me feel... humbled." Zhou Mingli easily cut the meat along the seams of the mutton bone.
Chef Mo watched Zhou Mingli start cooking and said, "My son said something very good: 'A gentleman judges by his actions, not his intentions; by intentions, no one in the world is perfect.'"
His son is a police officer.
“No one in my family has learned to cook from me. I’m already this old, I need to find an apprentice to pass on my skills.” Chef Mo pointed at him, “I think you’re pretty good, at least I find you pleasing to the eye.”
"Don't think I didn't see you secretly learning how to cook. Although your knife skills and control of heat are pretty good, you still have a lot to learn!"
"Aren't you afraid I'll learn all your skills and become a master chef?"
Hearing his utterly unashamed words, Chef Mo burst into laughter, "I'll retire by the time you've mastered it, kid!"
Zhou Mingli smiled and said, "Then I'll bring a gift to your house this weekend to formally become your apprentice."
Hearing this, Chef Mo knew he understood and respected him, which made him feel even more at ease. "Alright!"
"You're busy."
Zhou Mingli relaxed and quickly cut the fresh, tender mutton into pieces, put it in a pot of cold water, and started stewing it before preparing the other dishes.
For Chef Mo, having an apprentice is an advantage: he can openly direct Zhou Mingli to do this and that, and casually remind him how much food to prepare, how to modify the knife skills, etc.
After busying himself for a while, and when the dishes were almost ready, Zhou Mingli finally looked up at the time.
It's 4:30.
Just then, the person in charge came over to check on the progress in the kitchen.
"As expected of Chef Mo, he prepares the ingredients incredibly quickly!" the manager praised.
Chef Mo smiled smugly, "Don't you trust my cooking skills?"
"I can rest assured!" the person in charge said with a smile. "By the way, someone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested that you go to the front and explain to those foreigners where these dishes are from and how they are made, so that those foreigners who have never tasted good food can broaden their horizons!"
"Foreigners have never eaten good food before?" Chef Mo, who had never been abroad, said in surprise.
The person in charge curled his lip, "At first I didn't believe it either. Those foreigners are so rich, they eat so much meat and fish, how could they eat worse than us?"
"But the people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that some foreigners like to eat rare steaks, mushroom cream soup and the like, basically stews! I was thinking, what's so good about rare beef? I just said that, and a female colleague from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, 'You should explain it to them and let these foreigners broaden their horizons.'"
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