When she got to this area, Pei Yuezhi saw the proprietress of the restaurant; she was still distributing porridge at the entrance.
That's true, we're usually quite busy during mealtimes, so we can only serve porridge at different times.
Looking at the kind-hearted proprietress, Pei Yuezhi's determination to cooperate grew stronger.
Pei Yuezhi led Liu Yuanyuan toward the proprietress.
"Are you two here for dinner? Please come in," the proprietress greeted them warmly.
"Boss lady, how much longer until you finish your work?" Pei Yuezhi asked as she walked up to her.
"What's wrong?" the proprietress asked, puzzled. "Is there something you need from me?"
Pei Yuezhi nodded and said, "I'd like to talk to you about something. Is it convenient for you?"
The proprietress looked at Pei Yuezhi, as if she had remembered something: "Aren't you the owner of the restaurant at the dock?"
"You know me?" This time it was Pei Yuezhi's turn to be puzzled.
"How could I not know? Your little restaurant is really booming right now. Not only have I lost customers, but even Baiweiju has lost a lot of customers," the proprietress said with a smile.
Then she handed the spoon she was holding, which was used to hold porridge, to the waiter next to her and instructed him, "You watch over this place, I'm going to talk to this girl."
He turned to Pei Yuezhi and Liu Yuanyuan and said, "Let's go inside and talk."
Although there weren't many people in the shop at the moment, the proprietress still specially found a private room with a simple and elegant decor and a particularly clean environment.
"Sit down quickly, waiter, bring tea, and go call the boss over." The proprietress called out to the door, then turned to look at Pei Yuezhi and Liu Yuanyuan.
"I've heard that your restaurant is doing well, but I didn't expect the owner to be so young and beautiful," the proprietress said warmly. "My surname is Huang, and my name is Huang Yunying. You two ladies can just call me Sister Yunying. What brings you here today?"
Seeing Huang Yunying's directness and generosity, Pei Yuezhi also briefly introduced herself and Liu Yuanyuan, and then said, "It's like this, Sister Yunying, my elders told me that our Qingquanlou used to be the largest restaurant in town, but it was suppressed by Baiweiju, and business is not as good as before."
"Sigh, yes, those people from Baiweiju are too much. They poached my best chefs, copied many of my best-selling dishes, and even started a price war with us. But their ingredients are all of inferior quality. We can't do business like that, so our business is getting worse every day."
Seeing the proprietress's worried face, Pei Yuezhi took the basket she had brought to the table, lifted the cloth on it, and opened the braised chicken wrapped in lotus leaves.
"Sister Yunying, please give your opinion on this dish."
Looking at the braised chicken in front of her, its color reddish-brown and its aroma enticing, Huang Yunying asked with some confusion, "What are you making, little sister?"
"I think our restaurant's food tastes pretty good and the customer traffic is also quite good. Since Baiweiju is engaging in a price war there, we won't be like them and use inferior ingredients to fool people. We'll do something different. Our main focus is on fresh ingredients."
Huang Yunying nodded in agreement: "You're right, Sister Yue, but my ingredients are fresh, and our customers know that."
"The difficulty lies in the fact that Baiweiju poached chefs from various stores to jointly develop a signature dish, which is to eat fish raw, called something like 'fish sashimi.' Many people, drawn by the novelty, went to eat there. We also created a signature dish, but it still didn't quite work."
Pei Yuezhi understood the situation and continued, "Our signature roast chicken doesn't have a particularly obvious advantage in taste compared to other dishes. I specially developed a new dish and wanted to bring it over for you to see."
Upon hearing this, Huang Yunying understood what was going on.
This is probably a recipe sold to her.
Selling recipes is actually quite common. Many shops sell their recipes to other shops when they no longer want to continue operating, so it's not unusual.
But whether this dish is good or not, we'll have to try it first.
Pei Yuezhi said directly, "Sister Yunying is a straightforward person, so I won't beat around the bush with you. This is called braised chicken, and I'd like to sell you the recipe for this dish."
Huang Yunying was more straightforward than expected: "Sister Yue, selling recipes is certainly an option, but I'm quite picky, so I'll have to give it a try."
"That's only right, Sister Yunying. Why don't you call the chef from the restaurant over and have a taste with us?"
Pei Yuezhi's confident demeanor did give Huang Yunying some confidence in return.
"Okay, then I'll invite two more people to try it together."
She got up and left the private room, presumably to find someone else.
Seeing her leave, Liu Yuanyuan, who had been tense the whole time, finally relaxed: "I feel like it's going to work out. Yueyue, you're so amazing. You've made such a good point."
"I wasn't sure either, but luckily the proprietress was easy to talk to."
Not long after, Huang Yunying came in with several people.
“Sister Yue, this is my husband Cheng Shi, who is also the owner of this restaurant. Buying the menu is no small matter, so we need to discuss it together. These two are our chefs, Chef Song and Chef Liu.”
Pei Yuezhi greeted the group and then got straight to the point: "This is the braised chicken I brought. Please have a taste."
He then got up and asked them to come to the table.
Chef Song looked at the now-cold braised chicken in the basket with a hint of worry: "Boss Pei, this chicken looks very good and smells delicious, but it's cold now. Should we heat it up?"
Chef Song had some slight concerns, as some dishes don't taste good when they get cold.
Pei Yuezhi shook her head and said, "No need, the dish will be brightly colored, but it won't affect the taste."
Hearing this, he felt relieved, washed his hands, and began to cut the braised chicken.
With just a gentle pull, Chef Song easily tore the chicken apart. It was tender and fell off the bone, releasing a wonderful aroma as soon as it was torn open.
"Wow, this chicken is so tender! It smelled so good just now, and it smells even better now that I've torn it open." Huang Yunying stared intently at the braised chicken.
Cheng Shi was also very excited: "This chicken is definitely better than our family's roast chicken! Quickly, give me a piece to try."
After Chef Song divided the chicken into pieces, Cheng Shi and Huang Yunying couldn't wait to try a piece. After they had all taken theirs, Chef Song and Chef Liu also took a bite.
After they tasted it, none of them said a word.
Pei Yuezhi quickly asked, "Gentlemen, how does it taste?"
Chef Liu was the first to react: "This chicken has a rich and mellow flavor, it seems to have been stewed with a lot of spices, but if you chew it carefully, you can taste the original flavor of fresh chicken, it's wonderful!"
Chef Liu truly lives up to his reputation as a professional chef; his comments were quite detailed, and he even detected the flavor of the spices.
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