Chapter 201 French Invitation
The burnt aroma of the rice noodles and the fresh fragrance of the beef intertwined together, permeating the air and instantly hooking Wu Zhihai's sense of smell.
Wu Zhihai picked up a piece of dry fried beef rice noodles with chopsticks. When the rice noodles entered his mouth, the first thing that touched the tip of his tongue was the slightly crispy feeling on the surface. Then the smoothness of the rice noodles itself spread between his teeth. It was soft and glutinous but not without toughness. When chewing, the salty fragrance was accompanied by a slight sweetness, which was mellow and long-lasting.
He thought he was good at stir-frying, but compared with the skills of Master Abang, he still felt inferior. No wonder the fried fish maw with osmanthus amazed the guests in the live broadcast that day.
"It smells so good!" Fan Xiuqin was eating and suddenly turned around and said, "Brother, can I learn from Abang?"
"Sure! When we're on duty with him, you can just ask him for advice. Abang is happy to teach people."
Fan Xiuqin tilted her head and thought for a while, then said, "Brother, I mean I can learn from Abang in shifts, is that okay?"
Lu Peide put down his chopsticks and pretended to be angry and asked, "Do you dislike me?"
"No, I can flip the spoon, and I can pull noodles thinner than you." She stretched out her hand to scratch her head and explained, "I think, since we have shift changes, I will learn from you. But if I want to learn for a long time, I have to follow a master chef like Abang."
"So, please don't keep saying that my second uncle despises you and asks you to go on blind dates all the time. Just your little mouth can make him angry to death."
"Brother..." Fan Xiuqin called Lu Peide softly.
"If I give you to Abang, won't I lose a source of income? You will be able to become a master soon." Lu Peide said half-jokingly.
Fan Xiuqin looked very cute with her round face. Seeing this, Lu Peide smiled and said, "I'm already worried about how to control you! This is good, let Abang worry about it. I'll talk to Abang after their lunch break."
"Thank you, brother!"
"What does it mean to have one less income?" Wu Zhihai asked puzzledly.
Lu Peide then roughly explained to him the rules for chefs in the back kitchen of Baohualou to take apprentices. There was actually money for taking apprentices? And the better the apprentices did, the more money the master got. If there were enough apprentices, the master could have a good income just from the apprentices. These were things Wu Zhihai had never heard of before, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that they made a lot of sense.
"You'll know after you come in and work for two days. Ningning assigned you to Axing, which means she values you very much. Axing and Abang are both people she brought over from Fuyun Building."
After dinner, Lu Peide took them to buy daily necessities, and then sent them back to the dormitory. Afterwards, Lu Peide went to the store first and agreed with He Yunbang to leave his junior sister to him.
The people in the kitchen just realized how amazing this new girl is. She actually started doing push-ups on the spot, with one hand.
"Several generations of their family have been performing on Beijing Tianqiao, and they practice hard qigong that is performed horizontally. The little girl has been practicing since she was young, and she is very strong. She is willing to learn, but my second uncle is conservative and thinks that for a girl, it is enough to just cook noodles and have something to eat, and there is no need to work so hard. She was not happy about it, so she ran away. She is too familiar with me, and she may not listen to me even if I scold her. Abang, I feel at ease if you take her with you." Lu Peide said to He Yunbang.
"I have never had a female apprentice," He Yunbang admitted.
"You'll know if you take her with you. She's fine except that she might be worried that she can't scold or beat her." Lu Peide sat next to He Yunbang, pulled him and said, "Brother."
He Yunbang looked at him and nodded, "Let her come!"
"Thank you!"
After Lu Peide arranged for his junior sister, he took the subway to Central. Since the opening of the subway, travel has become much more convenient. The Ningyan Lu Mansion in Central is being renovated, and Yue Ning asked him to go and see it together in the afternoon.
Ningyan in Repulse Bay is the successor of Huihuang, and the decoration style is the same as Huihuang, with little change inside. Yue Ning spent a lot of thought on this restaurant in Central. Considering that this restaurant is positioned as a northern Cantonese restaurant, she wanted to decorate it in the style of Ningyan Beijing in her previous life. Yue Ning hoped to use simple Chinese geometric lines as the main style, with appropriate white space and transparent lighting. In addition to soft colors such as sky blue and ash, she also wanted to add warm colors such as cinnabar and red cinnabar.
In this era, there are either Western modern interior designers or traditional carpenters who are good at traditional and complex projects such as temples and ancestral halls. It is difficult for designers and craftsmen to have both modern and Chinese elements and simplicity. After the design plan is determined, continuous communication is required. Once this decoration company has accumulated experience, it will be easier in the future.
Su Fei, Yue Ning and Lu Peide were discussing details with the boss of the decoration company. Lu Peide listened carefully to Yue Ning's communication method. Yue Ning told him that he would be sent back to open a store in the mainland in the future, and he would be the one to open up the territory.
Lu Peide looked out the window. This restaurant is in a great location. Through the large glass, he could see the Victoria Harbour. It all seemed like a dream. He was a kid who came from Beijing and barely had enough food to eat. Now he was suddenly going to be the head chef of a high-end restaurant. He couldn't help but wonder, could he really do it well?
"Wenqi, why are you here?" Sophie asked when she saw Shen Wenqi peeking in.
"Sister Sophie, Miss Yue, you are both here!" Shen Wenqi stepped over the wire and ran over. "I called Sister Sophie's office, and Miss Li said you were here, so I came over."
"What's the matter?" Sophie asked.
Shen Wenqi said: "After Lucas returned to France, he described our competition as amazing in an interview, and watched our show with Oliver, who is known as the God of Cooking. Lyon will have a cooking exchange event early next month, and they would like to invite you to participate."
"Ningning is busy. She has exams in the next few weeks, as you all know." Sophie said to Shen Wenqi.
Shen Wenqi nodded: "I know. Mr. Cai asked me to ask. He thinks this is a rare opportunity. And they are also planning to produce a program this time."
The reason why French cuisine has its current status is not only because of the richness and diversity of French cuisine itself, but also because modern French cuisine is particularly good at marketing, especially the marketing of chefs.
If you know the history of French cuisine, you will know that just 20 or 30 years ago, chefs could only sweat in the kitchen, and the Michelin rating system only evaluated restaurants.
Until recent years, French chefs such as Chef Bocuse have led the trend of chefs going public. The whole process can be described as amazing marketing.
So it can be said that French cuisine is the restaurant that understands marketing the best.
The French have a mysterious self-confidence, believing that French is the most beautiful language, French etiquette is the most elegant, and of course they also think that French food is the best in the world. It is absolutely a great honor for them to give such an opportunity.
In the catering industry, being recognized by the French is of great benefit to the restaurant's popularity, just like in the past, a Michelin rating could double the restaurant's value.
Yue Ning made a prompt decision: "Ms. Shen, let's go to the TV station to talk."
"I'll go first." Yue Ning said.
Yue Ning went to HTV with Shen Wenqi. They went directly to Cai Zhiyuan's office, and Cai Zhiyuan showed her all the translated materials.
"I know you have to focus on exams recently. A round trip to France takes more than ten days. Moreover, you are going there for exchange, and you also have to prepare dishes. Can you take care of both?" Cai Zhiyuan asked.
Cai Zhiyuan certainly hopes to seize this opportunity, which not only means that their TV station has another chance to get high ratings, but deep down, he also hopes that more foreigners can get to know Chinese food and break the prejudice that Chinese food is low-end.
Yue Ning looked at the schedule and found that it was just before her last exam. The last exam was accounting. She had two exams next week. After the next week, she would have to wait two weeks before taking this exam. She put down the translated documents and said affirmatively, "Okay!"
"Really?"
Yue Ning nodded: "Of course."
With Yue Ning's words, Cai Zhiyuan immediately asked Hengtong's newspapers, TV stations and radio stations to publicize the news that Yue Ning was invited by French chef Lucas and would soon go to France for exchanges.
In the past year, the housewives have watched Qiao Junxian and Yue Ning at the same time, but now it has been the other way around, watching Yue Ning and Qiao Junxian at the same time. After all, Qiao Junxian's endorsement of rice cookers and electric fans is a bit far from them, while Yue Ning appears on TV every day, and it is a cooking show, and the popularity is super high.
Now that Ning Ning has made it big and is going to France, everyone feels proud of her. Yue Ning is very popular, and she was invited by a French Michelin three-star chef, so the news became popular all of a sudden.
The last time Taiwan and Japan live-broadcasted a banquet at ITC Grand Mercure Beijing, the effect was not very good, but the story behind it was talked about a lot.
Especially at the beginning, Chen Dexiang criticized Yue Ning, but later he didn't expect that they were in trouble while Yue Ning was a great success.
In this era, the entertainment circles of Taiwan and Hong Kong frequently exchanged ideas, and this news also reached Taiwan. Seeing such a piece of news, how could the people in the kitchen of De Xiang Hotel not talk about it?
"How come Yue Ning is only 19 years old and his cooking skills are so high? He was invited by a French chef to participate in an exchange. Lyon! That must be the holy land in every chef's mind, right?"
"At this age, aren't you supposed to be an apprentice? It's already a great achievement to be able to work at the stove."
Chen Jinying said calmly: "Doesn't that prove that he has the real ingredients and is indeed a great chef?"
"Yeah! The boss said at the time that people didn't understand."
"Stop talking nonsense and get to work," Chen Jinying urged.
The chef looked up and saw Chen Dexiang standing at the door with a gloomy face. He made a face and continued working.
A receptionist in the office came over and said, "Miss Fifth, Xingguang Department Store called and said they must look for you."
Starlight Department Store? Chen Jinying was a little confused. She hadn't been to a department store for quite some time.
Chen Jinying walked past her father, still wondering what was going on. She picked up the phone and the other party said, "Ms. Chen Jinying."
"yes."
"The pipe you requested last time has been transferred from Hong Kong City. If you are free this afternoon, please come to Miss Yue to pick it up. Mr. Wu went through all means to get it for you."
When she heard the names "Gangcheng", "Miss Yue" and "Mr. Wu", she immediately reacted and said, "I'll come right after lunch."
"Then let's make an appointment for 2:30, is that okay?" the other party asked.
"Of course, of course!" said Chen Jinying.
The other party gave her an office address and Chen Jinying hung up the phone.
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