Chapter 120 Madam Zhang’s Birthday Banquet
"I heard from Adong that when Guo Shijie scolded Lou Jiafu, he didn't know right from wrong. He just scolded him whenever he wanted, without giving him any face. Lou Jiafu had to support his family and pay for his house, so he never dared to say a word back. This time he scolded him again, and Lou Jiafu immediately offered to resign and settle his accounts. Now he is panicking. Do you think he is sick?"
A Zhong and Lou Jiafu's apprentice A Dong were cousins from the same village. They entered Baohua Building together, one followed A Song and the other followed Lou Jiafu. The two brothers rented the same house and lived together.
When two brothers are together, they naturally talk about everything. Ah Zhong talked about all the messy news he heard in the kitchen.
"What do you think? Many bosses think that once they hire you, you are just a donkey in the family, you have to pull the millstone when they tell you to, and if you don't pull fast enough, you will be whipped." He Yunbang's fried squid with shenggua is out of the pot, "Otherwise, why would so many people rush to Baohualou?"
Baohualou Catering Management Company is really popular recently. Who in the industry doesn’t want to come here?
In order to better serve customers and let them taste the chefs' specialties, Yue Ning posted the chefs' schedules for this week and next week in the lobby of Ningyan and Baohua Building.
For example, He Yunbang not only stir-fried beef noodles, but also various other stir-fried dishes. Some customers just like the aroma of his stir-fried dishes. With a schedule, they can come to eat on the day when Ah Bang is at work.
No one expected that this scheduling plan would cause a stir in Hong Kong's catering industry.
Everyone found out that their chef works at Baohualou for two days, Ningyan for two days, and rests for two days. Six days and two days off? Isn't this too outrageous?
This was a port city in the late 1970s, a port city that exported plastic flowers, made shirts, and assembled electronic products. Government workers and large factories could still guarantee one day off a week, but small factories could forget about it. Most restaurant chefs were lucky to have two days off a month.
Someone asked Yue Ning why he arranged it this way? Yue Ning replied: "The chefs start working at 10 o'clock and can only go home at 10 o'clock at night. You work an eight-hour shift, but in fact they have no rest for 30 days. They can't just work to earn money and have no time to spend, right?"
A restaurant owner pointed out that Yue Ning's calculation was wrong. The chefs have two to three hours of rest time between the end of lunch and the beginning of dinner. She was disrupting the market.
Yue Ning immediately clarified: "I am only talking about the restaurants under Baohualou, not other restaurants. We only have one hour for lunch and one hour for training. In addition to internal training and master chefs training apprentices, we also invited the manager of the Western restaurant of our partner Hong'an Hotel to train the waiters. We also invited food safety experts to train the chefs on food safety regulations and knowledge. Our staff's schedules are very full, and they work very hard."
The more Yue Ning said this, the more people came to apply for the job.
Ma Yaoxing took the water chestnut powder prepared by Yue Ning and poured it into the pot to make fish soup: "Most bosses will not treat us as his disciples like Uncle Hua. They will not joke with us like Ningning did. When we broke the pigeons, she happily wrote today's specials. Ask Guoqiang, how many of us in Fuyunlou can learn real skills?"
After hearing what he said, Luo Guoqiang didn't dare to say anything. Yue Ning handed the broth to him, and Luo Guoqiang took it and poured it into the fried rice.
Yue Ning turned to Ah Xing and rolled his eyes: "It's not like Guo Qiang refused to teach you. Why did you stab Guo Qiang?"
"Why is Guo Shijie so anxious? Is there no one else in his kitchen? Isn't there Lu Jinyong?" A Zhong asked.
Yue Ning nodded, "There really is no one left. That Lu Jinyong is such a slippery person. Guo Shijie asked Lou Jiafu to go over and made him sit on the bench. If he is asked to stand in the way again now, will he be happy? Moreover, with Guo Shijie's personality, he must have set his sights on Lu Peide who beat Lou Jiafu that day. And now it is mid-to-late September. Next, it will be all festivals, especially before the New Year, when there will be the most banquets. Do you think Lu Jinyong is that stupid?"
"What if Guo Shijie poaches Lu Peide here? Wouldn't that solve the problem?" A Zhong was puzzled.
Yue Ning shook his head: "The skills of a chef are one thing, and the fame of a chef is another. Those who can show themselves, such as Lu Jinyong, can package himself as a famous chef even if he only has 70% or 80% of his skills. Those who can't show themselves need to accumulate skills day by day, and use more than ten years of hard work, relying on word of mouth, and let it spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred. Like my grandfather. Before I came to Hong Kong City, Yulongxuan was the best at marketing among all the restaurants in Hong Kong City. They know the tricks. So Lu Peide's title of Chef King is very important to them. What they want is not only a chef with real skills, but also a chef with the title of this year's Chef King. So, even if he has negotiated with the other party, he has to wait until Lu Peide finishes the competition before letting him come to Yulongxuan."
"Can't Lu Peide participate in the competition now that he comes to Yulongxuan?" A Zhong asked.
Ah Xing took out the fish soup and said, "The Chef King Competition is for chefs to represent the restaurant. Yulongxuan has been eliminated. If Lu Peide changes jobs at this time, then their restaurant can only send someone else, and he will not be able to continue to participate in the competition."
"So that's how it is. Then he is really having a hard time."
At this time, Sophie's secretary came to the kitchen door: "Ningning, Mr. Hong Anlu called."
"good."
Yue Ning gave Ah Xing some tips and said to Luo Guoqiang, "Guoqiang, please help me watch Ah Xing cook."
"I understand." Luo Guoqiang nodded.
Yue Ning glanced at Ah Xing, and Ma Yaoxing immediately understood what she meant and said, "I see. Guoqiang is much better at cooking than I am. Is it okay for me to treat him like you?"
"That's good to know."
Yue Ning went to the office and called the general manager of Hong'an Hotel back.
Mr. Lu said over the phone, "Ningning, this is what happened. The 80th birthday party of Mrs. Zhang from Tianxiang Jewelry was originally planned to be held at Junhao Hotel. Yulongxuan is in turmoil now, and the quality cannot be guaranteed, so they plan to ask Hong'an Hotel to host it. The reason they chose Junhao at that time was that Junhao was newer and had a better location, and Yulongxuan was the top Cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong. Now they consider that Junhao can no longer host such a banquet. They want to change the venue temporarily and hold it in Hong'an. But they have put forward a requirement that all Chinese dishes must be prepared by the Ningyan team. Do you think I can take it?"
"Ning Yan is invested by Hong An. If something like this happens, he must work with Hong An. Whether to accept it or not, I'll listen to you." Yue Ning said to Mr. Lu.
"Because of the last-minute change, the matter is very urgent. Miss Hong from Tianxiang hopes to communicate with you face to face this afternoon. Look, are you free this afternoon?"
"I'll be right there."
"OK."
Yue Ning hung up the phone and took one of Ning Yan's sales managers with him to go to Hong'an.
Yue Ning had seen the Tianxiang Jewelry store, but was not familiar with the old lady. However, the sales manager, Miss Ge, knew the old lady's past very well.
The Zhang family was a jeweler in the city. Old Mrs. Zhang’s husband died during the years when Hong Kong fell, and the Zhang family’s wealth was exhausted during the years of Japanese occupation.
Her husband left her a family of five mouths to feed. In addition to her daughter, her husband also married her cousin as a concubine, with whom he had a son and two daughters. Her cousin also died during the Japanese occupation.
As a woman, after the war, she used her husband's connections to take out a loan and start a jewelry business again. Within a few years, the Zhang family returned to its pre-war status.
Miss Ge praised Mrs. Zhang for her magnanimity and said she was a model of an old-fashioned lady. She treated her cousin's children equally and was even nicer to the one son and two daughters.
When the second and third daughters of the Zhang family got married, the Zhang family had already regained its former glory, so they found a family of equal status in the city and married them off with great ceremony.
Miss Zhang may have married very early and found a son from an ordinary family as her husband.
Yue Ning was a little surprised: "Where is the son born to that concubine?"
"Only this young master is a chicken and dog fighter. He is the most useless. He supports actors and chases female stars. In the end, he married Jin Miaoru, a female star who starred in erotic films. Now their daughter is also shooting erotic films."
Yue Ning now understood who Miss Ge was talking about. She asked, "Zhang Yunying?"
"Yes! Yes!" Miss Ge seemed to understand. "Is she having a scandal with Mr. Cai recently? Of course you know. Miss Zhang inherited her mother's graceful figure and a pair of long legs."
Who knows the grievances and grudges of a big family?
Yue Ning nodded: "Ms. Zhang is very elegant and beautiful. I heard from Brother Zhiyuan that she made that film to realize her dream."
There was a driver in the car, and Miss Ge was just his subordinate. The entire Zhang family were Ning Yan's clients. Yue Ning only said good things and did not comment.
Hongan arrived and the two got out of the car and went into the hotel.
Hong'an Hotel is an old hotel in Hong Kong. After all, it was built in the early 1950s. The room area and internal layout are different from those of Junhao Hotel, which was just built six years ago.
Yue Ning has been to both hotels. She likes Hong'an Hotel. Hong'an has soft power and its service is better than Junhao.
Junhao is just as its name suggests, well decorated and looks upscale, but the service inside is a bit lackluster.
Mr. Lu's secretary was already waiting in the lobby and took her to the staff elevator directly to the conference room on the seventh floor.
People from Hongan and Tianxiang sat on each side of the conference room. When the general manager of Hongan saw Yue Ning, he smiled and said, "Miss Yue is here."
The two parties introduced themselves to each other, and this Miss Hong was Mrs. Zhang's assistant.
This dinner party was nothing more than taking the plan that I had discussed with Junhao over and over again and applying it to Hongan.
Yue Ning saw that the plan was a garden buffet, and Chinese food was not the main attraction. The Chinese dishes were all Lu Jinyong's specialties. Is it no wonder? That was the menu set half a year ago.
"This banquet is for celebrities from all walks of life in Hong Kong. It needs to be both Western and luxurious. Our eldest daughter and eldest brother-in-law patronized Ningyan. The dishes of Ningyan were very much to your liking. Thinking of the relationship between Hongan and Ningyan, I made this proposal."
"I wonder if I could ask the old lady what her preferences and taboos are? What do the masters of the family like to eat? And the main guests, it would be best to give a list, so that we can customize the dishes according to the guests, and both the host and the guests can enjoy it."
Miss Hong has served Mrs. Zhang for more than 20 years and is very familiar with the Zhang family's tastes.
Yue Ning looked at the menu and discussed it with the chef of Hong An Western Restaurant. She saw that there were members of the Qiao and Cai families among the guests, so she said, "Mr. Lu, why don't we add some Nanyang vegetables?"
Hong'an's people called the chefs of Nanyang Restaurant, and Yue Ning discussed with the two chefs and adjusted the menu according to the number of guests.
Finally, he gave the re-planned dishes to Miss Hong and said, "Miss Hong, please ask the old lady and the eldest lady for instructions."
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