Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 224 - 164: Zheng Da’s Teaching

Chapter 224: Chapter 164: Zheng Da’s Teaching

Although Zheng Da considers himself a low-key master, compared to a true master, he still has obvious shortcomings.

His language is extremely limited.

You could see this from when Zheng Da went to Yunzhong Restaurant to guide Qin Huai early on.

His language basically consisted of: Do you get this? I’m talking about this, not that. The key to this is this, it’s this feeling, yes, yes, yes, it’s this, not that.

A purely encrypted conversation.

This time, even though Zheng Da was well-prepared, he still didn’t overcome the language barrier.

Zheng Da chose not to overcome it and simply gave up.

As long as there’s no language in teaching, there’s no hurdle to overcome!

Using language to teach is something a master like Huang Shengli, who hasn’t taught geniuses before, would do. Zheng Da believes geniuses like him don’t need language; demonstrating directly is enough.

Zheng Da prepared thoroughly.

To prevent his teaching content from becoming too dull, when he extracted crab meat and crab roe, he tried to show off some tricks, intending to showcase his exquisite crab meat extraction skills to Qin Huai, but he ended up extracting too much crab meat.

No problem, if there’s too much flour, add water; if there’s too much water, add flour. This formula applies to most snacks.

Just add the right amount.

The process of making dumpling fillings is inherently full of uncertainties. The simple part is when a single filling isn’t handled right; the more complex part is when there’s a problem with a single ingredient. For example, the sweet potato isn’t sweet enough, the chili is too spicy, the carrot flavor is too strong...

Making dumplings isn’t about using formulas like solving homework problems—learning the sample problem doesn’t mean you can apply the formula to all similar problems. To be precise, whether it’s meat cooking or pastry, most dishes are like this. The more complex the dish, the greater the uncertainty, and there’s always a chance something will go wrong in the process.

Just like the longevity noodle recipe Qin Huai obtained, which was supposed to be a solid S-level longevity noodle, but could turn into an A-level one due to circumstances like the head chef stepping out and leaving the assistant to control the fire, and the assistant zoning out causing a huge mishap, a rare and absurd situation.

In Zheng Da’s case, it can’t even be considered a mishap; it’s just a small hiccup in the snack-making process.

Ignoring these minor hiccups, there’s nothing to criticize about Zheng Da’s craftsmanship.

As for kneading dough, Zheng Da’s level makes crafting simple, thin-outside-thick-inside dumpling skins an absolute ease, barely requiring serious attention, just like when Qin Huai makes ordinary buns. He can complete it mindlessly with muscle memory.

When it comes to making fillings, Zheng Da’s seasoning skills are far above Zheng Siyuan and Qin Huai. Qin Huai’s seasoning skills are certified as advanced level by the game system, according to the system’s rating, and he feels that Zheng Da’s seasoning must be at the master level.

Like his sparse language during teaching, Zheng Da’s seasoning is mostly based on intuition.

A chef’s intuition.

Handling the minced fresh shrimp meat, crab meat, and crab roe, placing them in a bowl, Zheng Da doesn’t even bother to find a small bowl to try a small portion for seasoning; he directly adds ingredients. Salt, Shaoxing wine, and sesame oil are just added straightforwardly. Watching him season, an outsider like Huang An Yao definitely wouldn’t know that the seasoning for Crab Dumplings is challenging, because Zheng Da does it so casually.

Effortless and seamless.

Yet, it wasn’t the kind of effortless and seamless that has a masterful vibe. Watching Huang Shengli make Three Course Duck, outsiders can clearly tell he’s an exceptionally skilled master because his process of making it is very high-end.

But watching Zheng Da make Crab Dumplings, laypeople can’t discern any tricks involved and may think that this middle-aged master is just mediocre, not taking dumpling-making seriously. It seems he’s just doing this and that, casually mixing, and then the filling is ready to start wrapping the dumplings.

Fortunately, Zheng Da’s dumpling-wrapping technique is beautiful.

Quick moves, skilled technique, and the dumplings he wraps are all beautiful, similar in size and appearance, looking as if they were made on an assembly line.

Zheng Da hasn’t forgotten the basic skills he acquired early on when he was a pastry chef at a state-owned restaurant.

The main thing is efficiency and quick work.

The entire process of making Crab Dumplings by Zheng Da, right until they were steamed, he barely spoke.

Pure action.

Qin Huai watched very carefully from the side.

The Crab Dumplings in the pot were still steaming, Qin Huai hadn’t tasted Crab Dumplings before and didn’t know the flavor, nor could he imagine what it would taste like, but he was already looking forward to it.

It must be delicious!

Qin Huai had never before so directly felt that Zheng Da was a top-notch pastry chef with extraordinary skills.

No wonder Huang Shengli always subtly compared himself to Zheng Da. Seeing his skillful junior abandon the path of chef and go into business, achieving financial freedom and living happily like a deity every day, with his exceptionally talented son inheriting his culinary skills—it makes sense that if he were Huang Shengli, he would also subtly criticize Zheng Da.

"Xiao Qin, how was it? Did you understand just now? It’s okay if you didn’t get it, the seasoning of this Crab Dumplings is indeed quite complicated. If you feel you didn’t grasp it the first time, taste the flavor after this batch is steamed, get a feel, and I’ll make it again for you, then you can try it yourself.

"Oh no, it’s already past three, if I make it again, you won’t have time to try it yourself. No worries, you can study and digest today, and try it on your own tomorrow. There’s no rush, your Master Huang has to go for therapy tomorrow afternoon and won’t be around.

"I need to tell him, this back problem isn’t a minor issue, more therapy sessions are necessary, what’s the point of just doing therapy for two days when it’s hard to get better, it needs more days!"

Qin Huai:...

Is there a possibility that the reason why Huang Shengli was never seen in the mornings before was that he was having therapy sessions?