On Saturday, the 18th, Six Flavors Restaurant was still in good business, but Fang Tang had to leave early in the morning because it's Yu Maoli's birthday today. And Fang Tang already promised him to be the chef for his birthday banquet.
Fortunately, he is no longer the only chef in the Six Flavors Restaurant. Besides the three chefs he hired, he has also poached Ding Can, the son of master chef old Ding in "Life Pass Away", which satisfies him most.
Although old Ding's cooking skills are only about average level, his son is quite talented at cooking. However, like most strict fathers who expect their son to inherit their career, old Ding has too much worries to let Ding Cai cook the way he wishes. You can often hear him blaming his son: "How can you expect to be a chef if you don't even master a good cutting technique?"
As he said, cutting technique is indeed a weakness of Ding Cai in his cooking skills. Ding Cai is a fat boy, the meat shreds from his stubby fingers can never stay in an uniform size, and the meat slices cut by him are always thick. But he has a natural acuity at cooking. Unluckily, his father is the master chef in the kitchen, so Ding Cai seldom has opportunities to show his skills.
Because Fang Tang would go to "Life Pass Away" and give a hand from time to time, he is well aware of Ding Cai's talent. Therefore, he persuaded old Ding to let Ding Can work in Six Flavors Restaurant. With the help of Ding Can, Fang Tang can have a relief instead of being the only chef to take care of everything himself.
"Little Ding, this restaurant is all yours today, please call me if anything happens." said Fang Tang.
"Boss, I'm afraid that I can't make it without you." Ding Cai has never managed a kitchen alone.
"Be confident, I believe you. A good chef must learn how to handle things alone. Take this as practice. Ok, I have to go now." Fang Tang waved goodbye then got into the private car sent by Yu Maolin to pick him up.
Yu Maolin's birthday party was held in South Hill Star Hotel, the largest five-star hotel in South Hill city. Of course, Yu Maolin is the big boss of this hotel.
The executive chef of the Star Hotel, Qiu Song, looked at the young man brought by the hotel manager with an unhappy look.
"Where did you learn your cooking skills?" He looked at Fang Tang critically.
"My father taught me." Fang Tang answered honestly.
"Where did your father learn his cooking skills?" He asked again.
"My grandpa taught him."
Qiu Song gave a sneer and stopped asking.
"Our executive chef, Boris, graduates from the French Le Cordon Bleu Cooking Academy. He has also served as a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant." A chef next to Fang Tang says this, he serves in the hotel's western food department.
"Cooks like you can't even pass our resume screening procedure, let alone to be a chef here." The chef of the Chinese food department said scornfully.
"Oh, he is a Le Cordon Bleu graduate, that's terrific. Then who is Mr. Boris?" Fang Tang ignored their malicious words and asked.
With a sullen face, Qiu Song answered: " It's me, Boris is my French name."
"Well, do you have any dissatisfaction about your given name? Why not use your Chinese name while you are in China? Or do you think that you don't deserve your surname?" Fang Tang stopped being polite and hit him with three sarcastic questions.
"You…"
This designated young chef, Qiu Song, originally wanted to humiliate him so that this young guy knew who was the real boss in this kitchen. But it turned out he was the one being pissed off.
"Phony foreigner." Fang Tang muttered in a low voice which could still perfectly be heard by Qiu Song.
Qiu Song was really enraged and almost burst into swearing, but to maintain his gentility in front of so many people, he suppressed his anger and left. When it comes to quarrels, Qiu Song is never Fang Tang's opponent because Fang Tang grew up in a small restaurant surrounded by average men, so he is quite familiar with this.
The chef of the western food department looked at Fang Tang with a cold smile: "nice job on words, hopefully your cooking skill will be the same!"
"Thanks, that's just a small show." Fang Tang said to himself that it doesn't bother me even if your boss is here, so stop trying to intimidate me.
"Follow me, I will show you the kitchen." said the chef of the western food department. After all, Fang Tang was invited by his big boss. Although he didn't like Fang Tang, he could not kick Fang Tang out of the kitchen for no reason.
"These are the ingredients for the birthday party tonight." The chef of the western food department pointed to the kitchen counter in the preparation area.
"This is beluga caviar from Iran, each kilo is about 120,000 yuan." the chef introduced.
"What the hell, are they made of gold?!" Fang Tang was greatly shocked by the price.
"It usually takes 12 years for beluga to pawn, therefore, the production cycle of this caviar is 12 years. When the caviar is used up, it will be 12 years for you to eat it next time. It is quite rare, and that's why it's so expensive. Besides, this type we purchased was processed in Belgium, so it can be called one of the best caviar in the world."
"To taste this caviar, you can not use a gold or silver spoon because the surface of gold and silver will oxidize and rust, which will affect the taste of caviar. So we use this specially made shell spoon." The chef of the western food department raised a delicate shell spoon.
"We shouldn't use any utensils to hold it, but gently pour it on the back of our hands, so as not to spoil the taste of caviar. With this particular way to eat, we can maximally keep its unique flavor.
Fang Tang was stunned, he never knew that caviar could be so expensive in price and complicated in serving procedure. Even the tableware has to be made of certain material.
This is what the chef of the western food department wants to see. He wants this bumpkin to know that this place is quite different from his shabby and small restaurant. He also tries to tell Fang Tang that there is no place for him in this top restaurant, which mainly serves the rich and powerful people.
"These are goose barnacles. They are produced from confluence of ocean currents on the coast of Galicia. Every winter, goose barnacle catchers would risk their lives to catch them on steep reefs. On average, more than 5 goose barnacle catchers would die for this rare ingredient each year."
"This is Alba truffle. There are only Italy and Croatia. These two countries in the world producing white truffle. And Alba of Italy is the most famous region for its white truffle, the largest production is 3 tons each year. This 15 kg white truffle is the Truffle King of this year and was bought by our big boss for 300,000 dollars in Macau."
"This is Spanish Iberian ham, the best and most expensive acorn ham. It is made from 100 percent pure Iberian black pork. These pigs are naturally grazed, and they only eat wild acorns and drink mineral water. So the cholesterol content is quite low in their meat, and the fat is a clear and transparent color. Look at this, a piece of nice looking fat."
Although Fang Tang dislikes this snobbish chef, he has to admit that the ingredients here are really the best. The ham has a strong aroma, the lean meat is quite tough and in a bright ruby color, and the fat part, like an art, is as exquisite as the marble pattern.
Iberian ham should be eaten raw. This chef picked a thin piece of ham and put it in his mouth. It has a moderate salty and sweet flavor, strong fragrance, chewy and a slight, soft and melting feeling. And this thin slice will cost about a hundred yuan on the table menu.
Then the chef of the Chinese food department took Fang Tang to visit his kitchen, and there were bear paws, deer lips, wild humps, chicken feet of Vietnamese Dong Tao chicken, Bahaba flavolabiata, etc. All kinds of expensive and rare ingredients.
Even the desserts here will be served with specially made gold foil, which is edible, and each pound is worth 150,000 USD. And this gold foil is tasteless, it's just an embellishment, for the sake of nice looking.
Fang Tang would feel the utmost luxury and extravagance from the cuisines of this party. Everything here is a reflection of wealth and power. They are no longer simple food but the symbol of status, money and power.
But Fang Tang is not timid at all, he is very confident in his cooking skills.