THE GAME OF LIFE

Chapter 660: Chapter 658: Great-Great Master Uncle

Jiang Feng practically floated home.

He couldn’t even remember what dessert he had eaten last at the dinner, only that Peng Changping had given him a phone number, telling him to call if he encountered any problems or had anything to inquire about.

This time, Peng Changping would probably stay in the country for a long time, possibly until the end of the year, meaning he would have plenty of time to guide Jiang Feng. So he told Jiang Feng not to rush; the essence of Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup was in the broth, and Peng Changping’s intention was for Jiang Feng to spend a few months practicing his broth-making to lay a solid foundation. This way, even if Jiang Feng couldn’t master the Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup within this year, he could still be taught across borders.

After all, times have changed. Back in the day, making a phone call was exceedingly difficult, but now it’s possible to make video calls across the Atlantic. As long as the foundation is strong, the teaching that follows, even via video, won’t be too poor.

Jiang Feng felt like tonight’s dinner was like a dream, and even after a long time of being awake, he still didn’t dare to move.

After getting home, Jiang Feng drifted around for a while, then turned on the TV to watch an episode of a drama whose plot he had completely forgotten. While watching, he stared at Peng Changping’s phone number in his mobile phone contacts, wondering if he should post on his friend circle to celebrate.

When Wu Minqi got home from work and pushed the door open, she found Jiang Feng sitting on the sofa with the TV on, watching his mobile phone intently, even though the TV volume was quite loud.

Wu Minqi: ?

This must be some new method of watching dramas.

“Fengfeng, how was dinner tonight? What do you think about the quality of the head chef’s set menu at the top-floor restaurant?” Wu Minqi asked as she set down her bag.

Jiang Feng looked up with a bewildered expression and incongruously replied, “Mr. Peng Changping said he would teach me how to make Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup.”

Wu Minqi: ?

Wu Minqi wasn’t too surprised and asked, “What is Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup?”

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“It’s one of our Jiang Family’s signature dishes, but it seems to have been lost.”

“That’s a good thing. Getting guidance from Mr. Peng Changping must be something every Chinese chef dreams of,” Wu Minqi said as she walked over to the dining table to pour a glass of water, only to find the kettle empty, so she went to fill it and boil some hot water.

Wu Minqi’s somewhat composed reaction made Jiang Feng instantly feel like the event wasn’t such a big deal.

“Qiqi, aren’t you surprised?”

“I’m a bit surprised, but…” Wu Minqi tilted her head, “my first reaction to the news was that it seemed very normal, probably because Elder Sun was willing to teach you the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, which is why it felt normal to me.”

“You haven’t said yet, how was tonight’s dinner?” Wu Minqi was more curious about the top-floor restaurant’s head chef set menu than about the Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup.

“It was delicious, no, I should say extremely delicious,” Jiang Feng began to recount to Wu Minqi the details of tonight’s dinner.

To be fair, the top-floor restaurant’s chef’s menu today should be considered one of the highest quality menus among Beiping’s upscale restaurants. Chef Arno’s skills were evident, and the ingredients used in the menu were the best and freshest, showing no signs of cutting corners. In all of Beiping’s restaurants, probably only Yonghe House’s top-notch Tan Family Cuisine banquet and Taifeng Building’s Roasted Pig could compete with this set menu.

Since Jiang Weiming’s taste hadn’t recovered yet, Taifeng Building’s Roasted Pig wouldn’t be back on the menu anytime soon, and Yonghe House could only set up a few tables of Tan Family Cuisine banquet a year; Jiang Feng could almost imagine how busy the top-floor restaurant would be in the coming days.

As Jiang Feng had anticipated, the top-floor restaurant, which had seen a slight decline in business due to the end of the opening discount and high food prices, instantly became bustling with customers again after the introduction of the chef’s special menu and the promotion of ten free meals a day. The business was even more booming than during the initial opening. People lined up daily in an endless stream, and the restaurant was so popular that it made the headlines in various media outlets without the need for paid news coverage.

It is worth mentioning that Wang Xiulian and Fan Mei, who had been paying close attention to the draw for the chef’s special menu, were surprised to find that during this period, aside from a few affluent commoners who won the chef’s menu, the majority of winners were celebrities and entrepreneurs.

While the top-floor restaurant appeared to be engaging in charity, it was actually winning over the hearts of high-quality customers, who could afford to treat the restaurant as their own dining room, through the fastest and simplest method possible.

It’s worth noting that the top-floor restaurant’s reputation wasn’t always positive; initially, they spent lavishly on advertising, securing spots on variety shows, seemingly at any cost. Later, they competed with other restaurants in Beiping of the same level quite overtly—when Eight-treasure House bought advertising spaces, they did too; when Yonghe House rolled out discounts, they followed suit; when Taifeng Building launched a spring special set menu, so did they. They could be considered the public enemy of Beiping’s upscale restaurants.

But now, the one-time enemy had transformed into the up-and-coming favorite, about to stand firm, establish a good reputation, and grow stronger.

During this unusual period when the top-floor restaurant was flourishing and Taifeng Building, along with other restaurants, was experiencing a downturn, what was Jiang Feng doing?

He was diligently practicing making stock.

In order to practice making stock, he even temporarily halted his intense training in knifework, which meant his knife skills had not yet reached the grandmaster level.

Regarding Peng Changping teaching him the Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup, everyone thought it was like a huge pie falling from the sky directly onto Jiang Feng’s head. It would be foolish not to extend one’s head and catch it.

In the face of such a windfall, all other matters could be given the green light; every big issue had to take a back seat, whether it was the decline in Taifeng’s business or anything else. Sir even thought to himself that if he were not so old—if he were twenty years younger, even if he was still the retired pig farmer from back home—he would have liked Jiang Feng to step aside so he could learn first.

Jiang Feng had many recipes for making stock at his disposal.

First off, he had the S-grade recipe for Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup. In addition, he also had S-grade stock recipes from Jiang Weiming. Alongside dishes such as lobster baked in superior broth, Buddha’s Jumping Over the Wall, and steamed green eel, many of them incorporated stock in various amounts. Jiang Feng could be said to possess a multitude of stock-related recipes.

The methods for making stock in these recipes each had subtle differences due to the distinct dishes and individuals involved. Just like how Buddha’s Jumping Over the Wall has different schools of thought, stock also has different schools, each with nuances, but all delicious in the end.

Most importantly, the overall principles of making stock and clear soup are the same—even though they branch off in different small details, much like the main trunk of a tree with varying branches and leaves that all come from the same root. If Jiang Feng could make a qualified stock, it would mean he could make a qualified clear soup, and the S-grade chicken and tofu pudding would no longer be just a dream.

During this time, Jiang Feng often visited Yonghe House.

Since Peng Changping was originally the head chef at Yonghe House, which was still open for business, it was impossible for him to coach Jiang Feng in Taifeng’s kitchen, so Jiang Feng had to visit Yonghe House’s kitchen for Peng Changping’s guidance. Peng Changping’s return to the country was not only at the invitation of Xu Cheng, but he also wanted to take this opportunity to mentor the disciples he had left at Yonghe House. This led to many of Peng Changping’s lineage chefs at Yonghe House mistaking Jiang Feng as his newly accepted disciple, nearly calling him “uncle-master” or “grand-uncle-master.”

Even though Jiang Feng clarified this in time, there were still young chefs of lower seniority mistakenly addressing him as “grand-uncle-master.”

Latter, no one knew exactly how, the story got out and mutated into Peng Changping taking a liking to Jiang Feng’s culinary talents and seeing him as a promising candidate, thereby making an exception to accept him as his last closed-door disciple.

Jiang Feng’s seniority within the chef community suddenly rose.

By the time Jiang Feng found out how high his seniority had become, it was already International Workers’ Day.

Jiang Feng: ?

There? Let’s hear you call me “grand-uncle-master.”

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