Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 187 - 151 Master Qin is really a good person! _3

Chapter 187: Chapter 151 Master Qin is really a good person! _3

However, amidst a pile of bad news, there was a trivial piece of good news: although the pastry chef didn’t work at night, they left some new snacks to be sold in the evening—green bean cake and jujube and yam cake.

Zheng Siyuan, whom everyone knew as Master Zheng, also left some old snacks for the customers—fresh meat mooncakes.

To reassure a group of regulars, Huang Shengli personally came forward to explain. First, he clarified the rumor that the lunchtime pastry chef was Zheng Da, then he announced Qin Huai’s working hours and finally stated that during this period, both Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan would be regularly appearing at Huang Ji, so there was no need to worry about whether there would be more snacks available after eating them, causing over-purchasing. Fresh items were available every noon, so everyone could enjoy the freshest ones.

Without Qin Huai knowing, his name had already spread among the regular customers at Huang Ji.

Although most of Huang Ji’s regular customers didn’t know who Qin Huai was and hadn’t eaten his snacks, since Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan’s names appeared together, everyone had a rough estimate of Qin Huai’s skills and level.

The diners were very enthusiastic.

The reaction was intense.

Things are precious when they are rare. Huang Ji hadn’t had a pastry chef for three years, and now that one was personally certified by Huang Shengli, along with Zheng Siyuan’s fresh meat mooncakes not just being available after banquets but every day, of course, everyone had to visit Huang Ji to taste the snacks.

The days when you had to call a delivery service to Zheng Siyuan’s pastry shop to get snacks while dining at Huang Ji, waiting for the mooncakes to come out of the oven, were gone.

Now you can order them whenever you want!

Huang Ji is selling snacks!

Not only are there the beloved fresh meat mooncakes, but there are also many new snacks!

Dong Shi, to prove he wasn’t lying, directly took out his phone and showed Qin Huai numerous posts from regulars in their friend circles from last night, promoting the new snack chef at Huang Ji.

Qin Huai looked at them.

He knew there would be a tough battle to fight this noon.

But it’s okay; he’s no longer the rookie who was confused and had to make six different snacks in one afternoon.

Now, like Zheng Siyuan, he only sells two types at noon, take it or leave it, like an old hand.

Qin Huai looked at the fully loaded mantou waiting to be steamed and felt quite reassured.

At eleven o’clock, Qin Huai started putting color on the dumplings.

Zheng Siyuan had helped Qin Huai prepare the filling. When he learned that Qin Huai wanted to make six apple dough balls, he initially planned to help him make two. However, Qin Huai, having kneaded dough all morning to make mantou and baked buns, felt he needed to relax by shaping six dough balls, so he politely declined Zheng Siyuan’s help.

It may sound a bit far-fetched, but Qin Huai found making apple dough balls a very relaxing process.

Very easy, very simple, with no pressure at all.

Recently, Qin Huai only regained that kind of self-taught joy from years ago when making apple dough balls.

All the fire control, finger skill, they all require learning and practice, but only making apple dough balls felt as natural as kneading dough, as if he was born with the skill.

Maybe it’s just a feeling.

Qin Huai himself couldn’t quite explain why he made such excellent apple dough balls while other types of dough balls turned out to be a mess, and he wasn’t particularly fond of apples.

The pineapple ones he made were so bad he felt like apologizing to the pineapple.

Qin Huai hummed happily while making the dough balls to relax, unaware that the people around him were about to pop their eyes out.

Huang Jia was stunned.

Huang Jia thought that after yesterday and this morning, he understood Qin Huai’s style of making snacks.

The plain and simple style of a breakfast chef.

This style, combined with Qin Huai’s resume, was easy to understand and accept.

Though Qin Huai had excellent skills, he was self-taught and had limited exposure, spending years making breakfast. Even now, he’s still making breakfast and striving in the breakfast world.

Yesterday afternoon, Huang Jia tried two pieces of Qin Huai’s green bean cake and jujube and yam cake. The green bean cake was indeed very good, quite distinctive, a bit sweet but sweet without being cloying.

The jujube and yam cake was rather average; although it was above the standard and better than ninety-five percent of the similar cakes on the market, it was far inferior to those made by Zheng Siyuan.

Compared to Qin Huai’s other snacks, it wasn’t exactly stunning.

Based on what he had observed and heard, Huang Jia deduced that Qin Huai probably specialized in affordable snacks and certainly wasn’t knowledgeable or good at truly high-end pastry snacks, possibly having never seen or experienced them.

It’s normal for someone self-taught to not know high-end stuff.

Huang Jia even pondered last night after going home, looking through his contacts to see if there were any suitable pastry chefs to bring in for an exchange with Qin Huai.

He knew a few pastry chefs from Zhiwei Restaurant who were good at making fancy high-end snacks.

Whether they tasted good was another matter; the snacks were high-end and fancy for sure.

But now...

Huang Jia:?

??

???

What was Qin Huai doing? Was he not seeing right? Were his eyes deceiving him?!!

Dumplings?!!!

Apple dough balls!

They looked lifelike, indistinguishable from the real thing. Judging by the appearance, the technical level was certainly very proficient, indeed the work of a famous pastry chef producing apple dough balls.

Why make mantou if you have this kind of skill?

What kind of reputable high-end pastry chef would be making dumplings every day in a community canteen, making mantou, baozi, jiaozi, and baked buns!

Huang Jia finally understood why Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan got along so well.

These two were essentially the same kind of people.

One loved opening a pastry shop at the entrance of the neighborhood.

The other loved making breakfast in a community canteen.

It turns out the end of pastry is really at the neighborhood entrance.

Huang Jia understood.

Among those who saw Qin Huai making the apple dough balls, not only was Huang Jia full of questions, but Huang An Yao, who was sitting in a corner playing on his phone, was also full of questions.

As the young master of Huang Ji, although Huang An Yao hadn’t been eating well in recent years, that didn’t mean he was without experience.

He had eaten dough balls.

A few years ago, he had them at Zhiwei Restaurant, made by a master chef.

Huang An Yao remembered it was a culinary exchange event. Zheng Da didn’t have time to go, and Zheng Siyuan didn’t want to, so they ended up grabbing Huang An Yao to represent Zheng Da.

Since then, Huang An Yao loved attending culinary exchange events. Although he wasn’t a chef and didn’t like to socialize, he just loved attending them.

Huang An Yao smacked his lips.

His fond memories brought back the taste of the dough balls he had eaten before.

Last time he had mangosteen, mango, and chocolate flavors.

Delicious.

Huang An Yao stared at the apple dough balls, full of longing in his eyes.

He hadn’t tried the apple ones yet.

Huang An Yao made a move.

"Qin Huai." With a slightly awkward smile, Huang An Yao said, "These dough balls are..."

"A friend of mine who helped me out before is coming for lunch at Huang Ji today. I’ve arranged for him and his family of five to sit at table six. He made a reservation this morning, and these are specially made for them," Qin Huai explained. "What time is it?"

Huang An Yao glanced at his phone: "Almost eleven."

"Could you do me a favor and, in about twenty minutes, go outside and check if my friend has arrived? They’re a family of five, four adults and one child."

"No problem, a piece of cake." Huang An Yao agreed with enthusiasm, gazing at the already brushed apple dough balls, looking even more realistic up close.

Though it’s a pity these were for someone else and hadn’t been steamed yet, or he would have loved to touch them to feel their texture.

Feeling somewhat nervous, Huang An Yao swallowed hard. Whenever he was about to ask a favor or make a request he considered a bit unreasonable, he always felt extremely anxious and embarrassed. He asked, "Would you... could you... I haven’t tasted apple dough balls before. Could you make me one too?"

Qin Huai nodded calmly: "Sure, I have some leftover dough for dough balls. Let me see... would three be enough?"

"I’ll ask Zheng Siyuan to make a bit more filling since it’s all used up."

"Three will be plenty!" Huang An Yao nodded quickly, tears of gratitude almost flowing out of his mouth.

Qin Huai really is such a good person!

Could he risk being scolded by his dad, just to keep Qin Huai by offering 75% of his shares?

Huang Ji can’t do without Qin Huai!

Qin Huai loudly asked Zheng Siyuan: "Si Yuan, do you want to eat as well?"

Zheng Siyuan shook his head: "No."

"I’m waiting to eat pig head at noon."

"Huh?" Qin Huai was puzzled, "Eating pig head meat at noon today? I quite like it. Is there marinated pig ear? I love marinated pig ear the most."

"When noon comes, you’ll probably not love it so much," said Zheng Siyuan, "There is pig ear, but maybe not the kind you’re thinking about."

Qin Huai:?

"Oh, by the way." Zheng Siyuan counted the number of fresh meat mooncakes, "If you’re willing to make a few more, it would be best to make two for Huang Jia as well."

"True." Qin Huai agreed, "He made us such a special and sumptuous staff meal for us two at lunch yesterday. We should really thank him."

Zheng Siyuan glanced at the extra-large pressure cooker custom-ordered by Huang Ji.

The lavishness is still yet to come.

Thought Zheng Siyuan.