Chapter 17: Paris and Italy
In the waiting hall of M City Airport, Pei Song stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in a daze, holding his boarding pass.
The sunlight shone onto him through the glass, casting a soft halo on his handsome profile.
Shi Yanchen handed him a cup of hot coffee and looked at him in a trance: "What are you thinking about?"
"Thinking about it, our trip was too sudden." Pei Song took the coffee and said with a smile, "The restaurant just finished the Michelin review, and before I could recover, you dragged me to Paris."
"Now is the best time." Shi Yanchen said, "It will take a month to get the review results. Instead of sitting there anxiously in Country D, it's better to go out and relax."
Pei Song knew what he said made sense, but he still couldn't help but worry: "Over at the restaurant..."
"I have arranged everything." Shi Yanchen interrupted him, "This trip is not just for relaxation, but also a very important inspection. Once you have seen the operation of the world's top restaurants, you will have a new understanding of your own restaurant."
After boarding the plane, Pei Song looked through the itinerary prepared for him by Shi Yanchen.
The first stop is the three-Michelin-star restaurant L'Arpège.
"Why did you choose this one?" Pei Song asked curiously.
"Because their chef Alain
Passard's specialty is vegetable dishes. "Shi Yanchen said," I remember you always wanted to add more vegetarian elements to your innovative dishes. "
Pei Song looked at him in surprise: "You even remember this?"
Shi Yanchen turned his gaze unnaturally and looked at the thick clouds outside the window: "Of course I remember what you said."
It was already afternoon when they arrived in Paris and they checked into the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the Champs-Elysées.
Pei Song stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the Eiffel Tower light up in the twilight.
"Let's go." Shi Yanchen changed into a casual suit, "I'll take you somewhere."
The twilight under the Arc de Triomphe was as gentle as water. Shi Yanchen took Pei Song into an inconspicuous little restaurant.
"This is..." Pei Song looked at the restaurant's quaint decoration.
"The most authentic French artisan bakery," Shi Yanchen said. "Their croissants are the best I've ever had."
The boss was a kind French old man, and he was very enthusiastic when he saw Shi Yanchen.
Pei Song then realized that Shi Yanchen often came here when he was studying.
"Don't you hate European bread the most?" Pei Song couldn't help asking.
Shi Yanchen poured him a glass of red wine: "But I know you like it."
Over the next week, they visited the top restaurants in Paris.
Wherever he went, Shi Yanchen would greet the chef in advance so that Pei Song could go into the kitchen to observe.
What surprised Pei Song the most was that Shi Yanchen helped him communicate with the chefs in fluent French and asked in detail about the preparation process of each dish.
"It turns out you speak French so well." Pei Song exclaimed one night.
"I reviewed it specially in order to bring you here for the inspection." Shi Yanchen said lightly.
Once we arrived in Italy, the trip became easier.
Shi Yanchen took him to visit many family restaurants, allowing him to experience the most authentic Italian cuisine.
On the morning of the third day in Rome, Shi Yanchen drove out of the city and went up along the winding mountain road.
There are rows of olive trees on both sides of the road, and the sunlight shines through the leaves, casting mottled shadows on the car windows.
Finally, the car stopped in front of a typical Tuscan-style villa.
The wisteria flowers at the door are in full bloom, and a faint fragrance wafts in the wind.
The door opened, and an old lady in a floral dress stood under the wisteria trellis.
"Xiaochen!" Pei Song's eyes lit up at the old lady's Sichuan dialect.
"Grandma." Shi Yanchen stepped forward quickly and held the old woman's hand, "I'll bring someone to you."
The old lady took Shi Yanchen's hand and looked at Pei Song with a smile: "Is this the little chef you always talk about?"
"Hello, grandma." Pei Song greeted in Sichuan dialect, and the other person's eyes lit up.
"Oh, we're from the same hometown!" The old lady was even happier, "Where are you from?"
"From C City."
"I'm from Leshan!" The old lady happily pulled Pei Song's hand, "Come in, come in. I'll make you some hometown food for lunch today."
Lunch was a table of authentic Sichuan cuisine, including boiled fish, braised pork with preserved vegetables, Maoxuewang, and Zhong dumplings, which Pei Song hadn't eaten for a long time.
"Grandma's cooking..." Pei Song tasted the boiled fish and his eyes immediately became moist, "It's exactly the same as my mother's."
The old lady looked at him kindly and said, "Are you homesick? After being abroad for so long, what you miss most is the taste of your hometown."
The afternoon sun shone into the restaurant, and the old lady told Pei Song about the past.
When she was young, she taught at a middle school in Leshan City and met a professor from Country D who was visiting her.
After they fell in love and got married, she went to Country D with her husband.
Later, because I liked the sunshine here, I settled in Italy.
"When Xiaochen was little, he was a greedy cat," the old lady poured Pei Song a cup of Longjing tea, "He would come here to stay for a month every summer vacation. At that time, he loved Sichuan cuisine and said that Chinese cuisine was too bland."
Shi Yanchen was helping to clean up the dishes, showing a shy expression: "Grandma..."
"Do you think our Xiaochen looks cold on the outside?" The old lady whispered to Pei Song, "Actually, he is very soft-hearted, but he doesn't like to talk. In the past, when a cat in the neighborhood got sick, he found that no one was taking care of it, so he burst into tears and secretly took it to the hospital in the middle of the night..."
"Grandma!" Shi Yanchen finally couldn't help but speak out to stop her.
Pei Song couldn't help laughing when he saw Shi Yanchen's rare embarrassment.
The sunlight shone through the window lattice onto Shi Yanchen's profile, outlining a gentle outline.
"By the way, can you make dumplings?" the old lady suddenly asked.
"A little, but not as good as my grandmother."
"Then I'll teach you today," the old lady said with a smile, "This is Xiaochen's favorite. He can eat thirty of them in one meal."
The tips of Shi Yanchen's ears turned visibly red.
In the evening, dusk gently enveloped the villa.
The old lady held Pei Song's hand and said, "You must come often to see this child of yours. I am very happy to see you."
Pei Song's nose felt sore. After so many years abroad, he felt the warmth of home for the first time.
On the way back, the setting sun dyed the sky crimson, and the olive trees in the distance swayed gently in the evening breeze.
"What are you thinking about?" Shi Yanchen asked.
"I was thinking about what my grandma said." Pei Song said softly, "She said that the most important thing in cooking is not the skill, but to make the people who eat it feel loved."
Shi Yanchen was silent for a while, then said softly: "So I have always liked the dishes you cook. I can taste the care you put into every dish."
On their second day in Florence, they visited a unique pasta shop that was small but doing surprisingly good business.
"I opened this restaurant," said the owner, an elegant middle-aged woman, "to prove that food has no borders."
Pei Song was deeply touched by this sentence. He thought about his own restaurant, wasn't he making the same attempt?
In the afternoon, they came to the handicraft market in Piazza Santa Croce.
Pei Song was caught off guard and felt Italy's unique culture of thieves.
The moment his bag was snatched by a thief on a motorcycle, Shi Yanchen immediately chased after him like a cheetah.
"Leon!" Pei Song shouted anxiously, "Don't chase me! I can get a new passport if I lose it!"
But Shi Yanchen seemed not to hear it, and his agile figure quickly shuttled among the crowd.
He had very long legs and ran at an incredible speed, and was about to catch up with the motorcycle.
Pei Song also ran, worrying as he ran: "These thieves might have weapons...Leon! Come back soon!"