Chapter 137: The Restaurant Chef's Experience
The next morning at ten o'clock, Zhao Xiaojing finished making the sweet soup and condiments and went to the restaurant in Gushanfeng.
There are wedding banquets on these two days, so Gu Shanfeng specifically asked Zhao Xiaojing in advance and made an appointment with her to come over today to familiarize herself with the environment.
As soon as Zhao Xiaojing entered the restaurant, she felt a neat, orderly and busy atmosphere.
As soon as she entered the hotel front desk, someone hurriedly came to greet her. After learning her name, he immediately led her all the way to the kitchen.
Along the way, she also saw waiters in each box checking the tableware on the table. Some were meticulously adjusting the folds of the tablecloth, some were replenishing the toothpick box and tissue box, and some were adjusting the distance between the tableware.
Zhao Xiaojing secretly sighed that professionalism is different. The front desk receptionist had already walked to the door of the kitchen and took a complete set of chef's uniform from the storage room on the side and asked Zhao Xiaojing to change into it.
After changing, Zhao Xiaojing was led by the receptionist into the kitchen through the nearest door.
As soon as I entered the kitchen, I saw a group of young people, who I didn't know were chefs or kitchen workers, busy cutting vegetables, while Master Gu was looking at them with a serious face, walking from one end to the other.
"Master Gu, I'm here." Zhao Xiaojing walked over and greeted him in a low voice.
"Xiao Zhao is here. Have you had breakfast?" As soon as Gu Shanfeng saw Zhao Xiaojing, his serious expression immediately bloomed and he smiled like a flower.
"Eat it. How many tables are there for wedding banquets today? It looks like a lot of food has been prepared."
The chefs in front of the operating table had tense expressions and stood in a circle around the table. In front of each of them was a large vegetable basket, which looked to be two or three times the amount of vegetables prepared in the cafeteria at that time.
"There aren't many people here today. There will be three sessions at noon, with about 82 tables. I'll show you around first so you can understand the process." Master Gu led Zhao Xiaojing to the operating table and began to introduce.
"This is our food preparation area. If there are fewer than 100 tables for the banquet that day, this is our cutting and preparing time. The people cutting the vegetables are considered kitchen workers, and they are also my apprentices.
That's our waiter over there."
Zhao Xiaojing took a look and saw that Master Gu had eight apprentices, who were sitting in a circle and occupying most of the space on the operating table.
The eight disciples had all looked tense since they first came in, and now they were all lowering their heads, with inexplicable panic on their faces.
Two chefs were carving carrots, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes at the very side. Each one had a multitude of parts carved into the same pattern, and it was hard to tell what they were meant to display.
"After they finish chopping, the cold dishes will be mixed here. The cold dish chef is checking today's seafood ingredients over there. After he finishes mixing, he will transport it to the cooked food packaging area for unified plating, and the waiter will also embellish it.
This is our hot food section, where you came last time to try the food. I'm the hot food chef, but I also make some other dishes. Haha, we use these constant temperature deep fryers here. You set the time and temperature, and they'll remind you when it's ready, and we just fish it out.
I've developed a bad habit of relying solely on machines. All of my apprentices are like this too. None of them can match your control ability. Your last visit really gave me a wake-up call."
Gu Shanfeng sighed and shook his head. Zhao Xiaojing's expression brightened when she heard it.
It turns out there is such a convenient thing, why didn’t she think of using it before!
If she gets this machine, she can sell fried foods and her workload will be reduced!
"Do you want to try it?" Gu Shanfeng asked after looking at Zhao Xiaojing's reaction.
"Yes! I don't know how to use this yet." Zhao Xiaojing nodded obediently.
"After I familiarize you with the process, you can come over and watch them prepare the hot dishes. My incompetent apprentices will be in charge of frying. You can teach them when the time comes."
"That's not the case. At most, we are learning from each other. How can I expect them to teach me?" Zhao Xiaojing smiled and waved her hand. The two continued to walk along the frying area. After passing the steaming and baking areas of several tall ovens, they arrived at the food rough processing area.
This area is connected to the entire kitchen in the back kitchen, but is separated by a separate glass door, creating a separate space inside.
"Every morning after the ingredients are delivered, we simply process and handle them here. The person who checks the ingredients over there is the cold dish chef. After he finishes his inspection, we start the rough processing here."
Gu Shanfeng took Zhao Xiaojing, opened the door and walked in. After entering, they found that the space inside was also quite large, almost the same size as the kitchen Zhao Xiaojing rented.
As soon as you enter the door, you will see a large chopping machine, and there are several pools behind it. The pools are carefully divided into meat, vegetables, and aquatic products. Each basin is also labeled, such as fish washing basin, meat washing basin, vegetable washing basin, etc.
Five chefs were busy with their own work. The leading chef was checking everything back and forth. The others were dismembering king crabs, sawing ribs with a bone saw, cutting meat rolls with a slicer, and killing fish and shrimp. Everything looked very organized.
"This door is for delivering food, and it leads directly to the back door of the hotel. Every morning, food is brought in and delivered directly from here. After being inspected and processed here, it is sent to the back kitchen.
This not only prevents dishes from coming from the front hall and dirtying the floor, and from interfering with the guests' walking paths, but also shortens the delivery distance and reduces labor costs."
Gu Shanfeng pointed to another door in the rough processing area and said.
Zhao Xiaojing was full of admiration after hearing this, and said that professionalism is different and the details are considered very comprehensively.
After looking at the rough processing area, I looked at the plain food area, the cleaning and disinfection area, and the cooked food packaging area, and then returned to the original workbench.
At this moment, all the prepared vegetables have been cut, and the cold dish chef is instructing several kitchen workers, who are Gu Shanfeng's apprentices. Each of them is holding a large steel basin to mix the cold dishes.
"Xiao He, you need to add another half spoonful of sugar! Xiao Yun, where's the Sichuan peppercorn powder in your dish? Did you eat it again?! Xiao Zuo, what are you doing? Focus on mixing the vegetables!"
The cold dish chef was mixing the ingredients in his own bowl while watching the actions of his apprentices and giving them a few reminders from time to time.
She didn't know if it was Zhao Xiaojing's illusion, but she always felt that as soon as they came over, the whole body of several kitchen workers suddenly tensed up.
After the cold dishes were mixed, two cooks followed the cold dish chef to push several large basins to the cooked food packaging area. Gu Shanfeng took the two cooks to start making hot dishes, and the other four cooks went to different areas to help. Zhao Xiaojing followed Gu Shanfeng's arrangements and went to the cooked food packaging area.
After going to the packaging area, Zhao Xiaojing was amazed by the scene that opened her eyes.
About a hundred smooth white porcelain plates were laid out one by one on the wide counter in the cooked food packaging area. The waiter quickly painted lines on the plates with various sauces and then arranged them into shapes. He had already placed the last few plates at the end of the counter.
The cooks here were wearing gloves, holding a large basin in their left hands, and taking out the prepared cold dishes from the basin with their right hands and arranging them on plates quickly and neatly. A plate could be placed in the middle of the table in just a few seconds.
In addition, there are braised dishes that do not need to be mixed in advance and are already cut and placed on a plate on the six-layer mobile shelf on the side. There is also a small dipping sauce bowl next to it. The chef is scooping the prepared sauce into the bowl one spoonful at a time.
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