Chapter 196 Chapter 196 Update.
Because Ji Xu was promoted to the position of chef, responsible for cooking for the imperial family and sacrificial offerings, he could no longer go to Ping'an Restaurant to be the head chef for diners, as this was against etiquette.
However, she can teach Sidou at home, and they can still go to Gao City and cook the stir-fried dishes she taught them at Ping'an Restaurant. The owner of Ping'an Restaurant has now changed to Tian family, and it is still open as usual.
Although Ji Xu felt a little regretful that she could not cook in the busy city, she also had a new path to take as a food official. In the Shaofu, she could do what she wanted, and cooking there could also make her feel peaceful.
After resting at home for a day, Ji Xu returned to the office wearing the orchid grass sling bag embroidered with silk thread by Tian.
She first arrived at her residence, put away the bag that Tian had packed for her, and replaced the old urine bucket in the corner with a new one.
There is an old lady who is responsible for cleaning the courtyard. She will throw away the ashes and empty the urine bucket every day, and then bring some firewood so that the kang can be heated at night.
It is said that Ji Xu, the cook, was no longer staying in the original cake and bait room. Because she discovered the cake fermentation method, which had never been used before, Tang Guan ordered the establishment of a new room called the "Cake and Bait Second Room" and she was in charge of it.
It was on an equal footing with Hua Shanren's original pastry room, and he recruited willing cooks from each room to work in Ji Xu's pastry room. This news spread throughout the residence.
"The cakes and snacks, fruits and vegetables, wine and soups in the soup department have always had their own rooms. Now the cake and snacks department has a second room, which is managed by the Jishan people. They say they are equal to the Huashan people, and have equal status."
"They're really on par. Why is it called the Second Room? The problem is the word 'Second'. It's inferior to the Old Biscuit Room."
"You all fawned over her like sycophants before, but now that the opportunity has come, are you all willing to work for her?"
Zhou Ping glanced at the next door and said in the yard.
Because Ji Xu was promoted and a position became vacant, with the recommendation of her aunt, she finally became a cook. She put on the clothes of an official cook and moved into the cook's room. The original room was left with only two kitchen maids, Xiao Hulu and Tong'er.
The cooks and nuns who had gathered here and were gossiping fell silent. They wanted to curry favor with Ji Shenren, firstly to share in her good fortune, and secondly because she was a higher official than them, so there was nothing wrong in putting on a smile.
But if they were asked to work under her, that is, in the bakery's second office, it would affect their future, so they naturally had to think carefully.
"We can't go. She's so young, and I don't know how long it will take for her to get promoted. If we continue to work under her, we won't be able to get promoted to chef until we get old."
"Who says it's not? After all, our original place is better. Those chefs are all old and respectable. They have a better chance of climbing up the ladder than her. Only then can we get promoted as well."
"Her place is still a concubine, which sounds inferior. They say it uses the cake fermentation method, but none of us have seen it before, and no one knows how her food is, or whether it will please the superiors. What if it's a pestle made of winter melon, which will produce water when it is pounded? If they set up today and disband tomorrow, wouldn't that delay us?"
"That's right, I can't go."
"I'm not going."
"I'm not going either."
They all waved their hands and refused to go. The male chef in the courtyard also said something similar. After discussing it, no one was willing to go.
"I'd like to go."
"I would also like to go to the bakery room."
Among the crowd, only Xiao Hulu and Tong'er were talking. People laughed and said:
"You two little girls, if you go to her place, you will still be kitchen maids, and you won't be able to become chefs, so what's the point?"
"That's right, can she still help you two? If she can help me become a chef, I will go to her and obey her orders tomorrow morning."
"Mrs. Ji Shan treated us well in the past. He often shared good food with us and didn't look down on us because we were kitchen servants. So naturally we are willing to go." said Little Gourd.
"That's it, we're willing to go to her."
Tong'er said that she was thinner than Xiaohulu, and they were good friends. She would follow Xiaohulu wherever he went.
Zhou Ping angrily twisted the two of them and cursed:
"You ungrateful bastards! Did my aunt mistreat you in the bakery? If you leave, don't even think about coming back. You'll be her kitchen maid for the rest of your life!"
The two scolding people went into the house and closed the door, refusing to come out. Little Gourd bolted the door and asked Tong'er:
"Are you still going?"
"go."
"I won't change either."
The secondary bakery room is near the old bakery room, about ten feet away. Originally, this room was used to store miscellaneous items.
Ji Xu got the key and saw dust flying as soon as he opened the door.
Inside were some worn-out cauldrons, pots, brooms, and half a bag of gravel and lime. They were probably useless after being repaired somewhere, and were covered with cobwebs and dust. Little Gourd covered his nose and said,
"I heard this used to be the old soup room. Ever since they moved to the newly built one, it's been left unused and used to store miscellaneous items. It's rarely used."
She and Tong'er both told Hua Shanren that they wanted to come to Ji Xu's place. Hua Shanren generously let them go and said some good things:
"After all, she was sent out by my men. When you get to her place, you should help her wholeheartedly."
However, in Tang Guan's fourth room, or now it should be called the fifth room, no one is willing to come except the two kitchen maids.
"The orientation is good, but it's a bit dusty. Let's clean this up first, then go to the storeroom to get new cooking utensils."
After hearing Ji Xu's instructions, Xiao Hulu and Tong'er rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Together they carried all the miscellaneous items to the warehouse.
Ji Xu fetched some water, sprinkled water on the floor inside and outside, and swept it. He used a long bamboo pole tied with straw to remove the spider webs on the ceiling. He also wrung out a rag and, together with the two of them, wiped the entire floor, revealing its original red paint and restoring the walls to their original lime white.
"Look at the ones next door, they're so tired."
Cook Kong chuckled.
"I've never seen a chef do any hard labor himself. He doesn't even have a cook under him. He's like a field of rapeseed with bare stems."
Zhou Ping said that because Ji Xu was gone, her aunt recommended her to be a cook. Her aunt had three cooks and a dozen kitchen maids under her. She seldom worked personally, so she just relied on her to direct everything. It was nothing like the one next door, which was too shabby.
"So what if I become the steward of a room? It's better for us to be the cooks here."
They worked facing the window while watching the jokes happening in the next room.
Ji Xu also knew that this was a newly established place, and people would not be willing to come unless she made achievements. The higher-ups were still in a wait-and-see state and would not force people to come to her.
Fortunately, we shouldn't need a lot of manpower in the early stages. The three of them should be able to handle it. They have all the necessary cooking utensils and the warehouse.
Ji Xu stamped his seal and took out cupboards, ceramic stoves, ovens, cauldrons, tripods, steamers, sieves, shovels, stove brooms, ox horn utensils, mallets, rolling pins, claw sieves, knives, forks, spoons and chopsticks and other utensils one after another and placed them in order.
Finally, there were some jingles at the door, and a wooden sign with the words "Bingbai Second Room" was placed on it, and it looked like it was ready.
For two consecutive days, the food inspector from the Guidance Office came to each room to deliver bamboo slips with the names of meals written on them. The four rooms that provided cakes and bait, fruits and vegetables, wine and soup all received them, but their cake and bait room did not.
"Master Food Supervisor, do you have our bamboo sign?"
Xiao Hulu ran to the food inspector and asked anxiously, but the inspector still shook his head.
Zhou Ping took the bamboo sign from the bakery room, which was densely written with the bakery orders for tomorrow, and said proudly:
"What's the point of cleaning it up? It's just sitting there collecting dust. Whoever eats the bread she makes will get sick from the sour yeast."
He glanced at the next room, turned around and went in, leaving the little gourd there. He held his breath and poked her back.
"Still no one for us?"
Tong'er saw her come back with a disappointed face, and knew that she had not received it today.
"What should we do? Has our bakery room really become just a decoration?"
"There is another way."
Ji Xu only heard that the daily bamboo cards had specific requirements for each palace; of course, most of them were pre-determined, and were made by the food supervisor of the Guidance Office based on the dishes already available in each room. What each room wanted to make was then written on the bamboo cards and distributed.
"We in the cake and bait room can't get bamboo cards. Firstly, the other palaces haven't tasted our food.
That day in Ganquan Palace, only the officials who attended the banquet had the meal. The concubines below the rank of Jieyu in the East and West Palaces and the Ye Ting were unaware of it.
"Secondly, even the Food Inspection Office doesn't have our recipes, so naturally, our food from the Bakery and Pastry Section won't be listed on the bamboo plaque. So, all we have to do is let the Food Inspection Office taste it first, and only then will we have a chance to receive the bamboo plaque."
"That's right."
Xiao Hulu and the others both nodded after hearing this.
Ji Xu took out a piece of bamboo from her sleeve. On it were written the names of various kinds of cakes and snacks. Little Hulu and Tong'er were illiterate and could not understand what was written. They asked:
"Mr. Ji Shan, what's written on this?"
Ji Xu read it to them:
"Butterfly rolls, thousand-layer fried cakes, assorted vegetables, crab roe, three-diced vegetables, chicken broth, steamed dumplings... 18 kinds of steamed cakes made with the bread-leavening method."
Because they were illiterate, they thought about it and said,
"I have the Cangjie Pian (Cangjie Pian) at home, which my younger sister read when she was a child. I'll bring it to you someday. If you're willing, come to my room when you have free time. I'll teach you how to read. You'll be able to use it in many places in the future."
But that’s all in the past. What we need to do now is to hand over this bamboo slip to the Food and Drug Administration.
"Master Food Supervisor, this is a new dish from our bakery. Please take some time to inspect and taste it."
Xiao Hulu went to hand the bamboo slip to the food supervisor. Zhou Ping also came out and handed her the new dish, saying:
"I've come up with a new sweet-scented osmanthus chestnut cake, and I'd like to invite the Food and Drug Administration to taste it."
The entire preparation process of each new dish in each room must be supervised by the food inspector, and only after tasting it can it be written on a bamboo plate and become the menu for a certain day.
If the food inspector does not like the taste of the food or has an upset stomach, he will never be able to serve at the food tables of the various palaces.
The food inspector first looked at Xiao Hulu's, and found that there were eighteen kinds. Xiao Hulu said:
"The bread fermentation method of Jishan people can produce much more than this. Please ask the food inspector to taste some first, and then send more later."
Zhou Ping said:
"It's not the quantity of things that matters, but the quality. What's the point of writing so much? If it doesn't get selected, it's all a waste of effort."
The Food Supervisor looked at Zhou Ping's report again and said:
"Tomorrow at noon, I will bring people to both of your places to inspect them one by one."
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