Chapter 213 The farce ends
Yue Ning's words are very much to the liking of the people in Hong Kong.
What do you mean Hong Kong is a small place and its people are less knowledgeable? Are there fewer rich people in Hong Kong than in Taipei? Ningyan has almost become the exclusive canteen for Hong Kong's rich people. The character of the rich may be questionable, but their taste is unquestionable.
At this time, HTV broadcast a clip of Chen Jinying teaching everyone how to make pigeons in the Ningyan kitchen.
Ningyan’s specialty is a small but fine dish, and the prices are quite high.
The bag chicken is so big and not delicate at all, so of course we have to use squab!
Chen Jinying led the chefs to disassemble the pigeon. Someone said, "How long has it been since Baohualou launched a special offer on pigeon soup?"
Luo Guoqiang, who was learning to cook, said, "If you don't talk about this, you won't feel happy, right?"
Chen Jinying looked at Luo Guoqiang.
Rather than letting others talk, it is better to speak up yourself. Luo Guoqiang said, "When I first came here, my basic skills were not good enough. I practiced butchering squabs in the kitchen every day. During that period, the special dish of Baohua Building was squab soup, and the squabs were the kind with the skin and meat separated. I can't remember how many pigeons I killed."
As he spoke, he had already disassembled the pigeon bones, and his speed was faster than Chen Jinying's.
Chen Jinying also took out the pigeon skeleton. She praised him: "Your hard work has paid off. You are now very skilled."
"That's right, our brother Guoqiang really practices hard day and night." The little chef echoed.
The levels of the chefs vary and some still fail, but the teaching will not stop there.
Lu Peide handed the already cut-up pigeon to the unsuccessful cook.
Chen Jinying led everyone to prepare the ingredients for the pigeon's stomach. Since they were using pigeons, they added a translucent pigeon egg to the ingredients.
Stuffing, drying, frying, put the fried pigeon into a steamer, transfer the pigeon out of the cage to a large porcelain plate, use the juice of the steamed pigeon to thicken the seasoning, and then pour it on the pigeon.
The chef made mistakes in every step, but Chen Jinying, as a master chef, operated it in an orderly manner. In front of the camera, the pigeons she made were complete and full, and the sauce was like honey, translucent and smooth, making people salivate even through the screen.
The pigeon bag was completed. There were eight cooks involved in the trial production. One cook had a problem when removing the pigeon, one cook made a mistake when stuffing, and two cooks broke the pigeon when frying. In the end, half of the cooks made the pigeon bag completely.
Lu Peide asked everyone to taste the pigeon made by Chen Jinying first, and then taste the ones made by others one by one.
Chen Jinying tasted the pigeon made by Luo Guoqiang and nodded in praise: "It's really well made."
Lu Peide also gave Luo Guoqiang a thumbs up: "Guoqiang, you are amazing."
Luo Guoqiang smiled shyly.
At the end of the film, the host interviewed Lu Peide and asked him what he thought of Chen Jinying's cooking skills as the previous chef king.
Lu Peide commented: "Even in the mainland, there are not many chefs who can cook this pigeon well. I think it is well deserved that Sister Jinying is sought after by gourmets in Hong Kong."
After the interview, the host revealed: "As an aside, this year we will expand the scope of HTV's Chef King Competition. In addition to teams from Hong Kong and Macao, we will also open registration to Chinese restaurants around the world. We welcome places with large areas, large populations, and many excellent chefs to send strong teams to participate and promote Chinese food culture together."
Audiences in Hong Kong called on Taiwanese restaurants to sign up for the competition so that everyone could see their strength.
After this film was broadcasted by a Taiwanese TV station, Taiwanese audiences focused not on the competition but on the bean bag pigeon. They all wanted to eat it!
After watching, the celebrity couldn't help but say with regret: "It seems that Chef Chen Jinying is really good. But we have too many great chefs in Taiwan. It's hard for her to become famous in Taiwan with her level. It's better for her to go to Hong Kong. If you want to eat Budai Chicken, there's no need to go far away. You can go to De Xiang Hotel. Chef Chen De Xiang is the master of Shandong cuisine, and his son Chen Jinlong has completely inherited his true skills."
In fact, without him saying anything, everyone had already thought of going to De Xiang Hotel to try it.
The reservation phone line of De Xiang Hotel, which originally had an occupancy rate of 70% to 80%, was instantly flooded with calls.
Faced with this seemingly explosive scene, Chen's father and son had their grievances unspeakable.
Chen Jinlong's success rate in deboning whole chickens is only about half, and the skin of this half will burst during the subsequent frying process. He can only successfully cook three or four out of ten chickens.
This is just one of the problems. What is more troublesome is that he is not good at deboning chickens. In the past, Chen Jinying could debond a chicken in more than 20 minutes. It took the master and apprentice a long time to finish the limited supply of ten glove-bag chickens every day. But now he deboned and discarded, and deboned again. He spent the whole day deboning chickens, but he couldn't even make two or three chickens. Now the guests who come to make reservations all ask for glove-bag chickens, but where are the chickens?
What's more, he had to cook other dishes. He didn't teach his apprentices well, so they could only handle ordinary dishes, but couldn't cook difficult ones. Chen Jinlong had to cook by himself, but even if he did, regular customers could still tell that the taste was not right.
Chen Dexiang's hands were no longer flexible. Seeing his son's clumsy behavior, he was extremely anxious but helpless. In a fit of rage, he cursed: "I told you that I kept your fifth sister for you! Now that she's gone, you can see for yourself whether you can support this store?"
Since his father came back, he would scold Chen Jinlong every time he saw the busy scene in the kitchen. Chen Jinlong thought he had a good temper, but at this moment he could no longer bear it. He threw down the chicken in his hand and shouted, "That's enough. You don't want her to leave, but does she want to stay? She was deliberately planning to leave. Now, it's all my fault."
"I'm not doing this for you?"
"Come on!" Chen Jinlong roared, "You keep saying it's for me, for me. I have to obey you in everything."
Chen Dexiang really felt like crying but had no tears. He only cared about the best for his son, but in the end, his son said this about him?
He was so angry that he felt dizzy and could only walk into the office and sit down. He picked up the pipe on the table, which was bought by his daughter. When he thought of how she had deliberately deceived him, he immediately threw the pipe against the wall in anger.
He leaned back in his chair to calm down. If he continued like this, the restaurant would close before he died. He picked up the phone and called his old friend. After the call was connected, he said, "Yutai, please help me bring Jinying back from Gangcheng."
There was silence for a long time on the other end of the phone, and then a voice came: "Dexiang, we have known each other for more than 30 years. It's not that I don't want to help you, but I really can't do anything. The day before yesterday morning, Chen Yuexiong invited me for tea. Guess who I met?"
"who?"
"The leader of the Hong Kong City Bixue Gang is Ge Yaowu. The Bixue Gang was originally active in Malaysia and Singapore. Fifteen years ago, Singapore began to crack down on gangs, so they moved to Hong Kong. Now they are one of the three major gangs in Hong Kong. Chen Yuexiong cooperated with Ge Yaowu in Southeast Asia and Australia. Ge Yaowu personally flew to Taipei this time just for your daughter's master-disciple relationship."
"ah?"
"He has only one request, that no one is allowed to touch your daughter and her master." Zhang Yutai explained, "Ge Yaowu once transported supplies on the Yunnan-Burma Highway during the Anti-Japanese War. He was a close friend of Yu Jiahong from the Nanyang Yu family. He was also helped by Qiao Qiming at that time. If it weren't for these friendships, he wouldn't have been able to make such a good living in Hong Kong. Dexiang, forget it!"
"I see."
Chen Dexiang listened to the "beep, beep, beep" sound coming from the receiver and stood there in a daze holding the receiver.
At this time, a man appeared at the door and said, "Boss, the guests in the front hall are making a fuss."
The two walked quickly to the front hall. A middle-aged customer in a suit and tie saw Chen Dexiang coming over and said, "Your boss Chen is here. Let him tell us. Is this your Dexiang's fried double crispy dish?"
Chen Dexiang walked forward, and the customer pointed at the plate and said, "Boss Chen, look at the tripe and kidney, they are not crispy or tender at all, and the seasoning is very bland. I have been eating at Dexiang for more than ten years, and I have never eaten such bad fried double crispy dishes."
At this time, Chen Jinlong also came out from the kitchen, his fingers unconsciously wrinkled on his apron. This dish was originally his father's specialty. When Chen Jinying was there, he could always make the belly tender and delicious, and the sauce was translucent. But because he did not control the oil temperature well, the ingredients became old.
"Boss Chen, what's going on? The last time I came here, the food was fine. It's only been half a month, and today I ordered all your signature dishes. Not to mention the fried double crispy and the belly strips that are like rubber bands, even the braised prawns are not cooked well. There's too much sweetness, not enough saltiness, and the prawn oil is not cooked out. It's like De Xiang has changed the chef."
The eyes of the surrounding diners focused on him, and Chen Jinlong's ears turned red instantly.
Among the diners are new customers who come here because of its reputation, as well as old customers who have been eating here for more than ten years or even decades.
For a while, everyone was talking about it:
"The TV said De Xiang is the best Shandong cuisine in Taiwan. I think it's no different from a street stall."
"I saw Bubble Pigeon on TV and wanted to try Bubble Chicken, but they told me they didn't have it. So I just ordered two so-called signature dishes. With the taste, I might as well go to the street and have an oyster omelette."
"I am an old customer of De Xiang. The taste of De Xiang has always been authentic. I don't know what happened today. The more signature dishes are, the worse they are."
"I've been to Baohualou in Gangcheng and tried their crispy glutinous rice chicken. I've also tried pigeon wings at Ningyan. They were really delicious. The quality of Baohualou's dishes has always been guaranteed, not to mention Ningyan, where every dish is exquisite. Chef Chen is so popular at Ningyan, so his cooking skills must be very good. I wanted to try it, but it's just this level? And you can't compare it with Ningyan?"
"Didn't Yue Ning go to France today? He is the special guest of a Michelin three-star chef. Of course Ning's banquet can't be bad."
Chen Jinlong thought of his father's scolding this morning, and also of the scenes on TV of Chen Jinying enjoying unlimited glory in Gangcheng. His long-suppressed grievances suddenly burst out: "The food at Gangcheng Ningyan is exquisite. Why don't you go to Gangcheng? You'll be taken advantage of there!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the whole audience was in an uproar.
"You can't even make fried crispy buns properly, and you're still complaining about it?"
"That's right! The food is bad, and you don't allow people to say anything? Do we spend money just to be bullied?"
Chen Dexiang saw that the situation was not right, and hurriedly said, "Everyone, everyone! Calm down, I'll treat you to dinner today."
But the guests were already angry, and it was impossible to calm down so easily. Someone shouted, "You treated us to this dish, but we still think it's a waste of time!"
This completely infuriated Chen Jinlong, and he slammed his fist on the edge of the table, making the dishes clang. He suddenly grabbed the plate and threw it on the ground, then turned and rushed into the kitchen, knocking over the spice rack beside him. The soy sauce bottle fell to the ground, and dark liquid flowed out...
The front hall fell into silence instantly, and the waiter rushed over to clean up the mess. Chen Dexiang's hands trembled as he watched his son's back lose control.
In the kitchen, Chen Jinlong stared at the pile of ingredients waiting to be processed in the sink, and the customers' mocking voices filled his ears. He suddenly picked up a kitchen knife and chopped the pig's stomach on the chopping board. As the minced meat flew, he roared, "Why... Why does everyone compare me to her!"
The reporter who sneaked into the kitchen saw this scene, quietly retreated, and waited outside De Xiang Hotel. When the dinner market of De Xiang was over, he saw a cook coming out and followed him.
The reporter compiled the secretly filmed footage of Chen Jinlong losing control in the kitchen and the explosive information dug up from ITC's old employees into a special report.
The next day, a report titled "The shocking lie of De Xiang Hotel: Chen Jinlong was an impostor, and Chen Jinying was the real chef" appeared on the social news page of a major newspaper in Taiwan.
Chen Dexiang sat slumped in his office, trembling as he flipped through the newspaper. Every line of text pierced his eyes like a steel needle. The report not only revealed the fact that Chen Jinying had been working as the head chef under an assumed name for many years, but also included photos of her showing off her cooking skills at the Ningyan in Gangcheng.
It’s over, it’s all over!
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