Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

He’s always wanted to host a self-service dinner, but due to a lack of manpower, he couldn’t manage it.

Whether it’s Western or Chinese cuisine, dinner is undoubtedly the main event, and evening is when people’s appetites are at their peak.

He had previously discussed the restaurant’s operating model with President Wang, and as a businessman from Great Xia, he couldn’t be unaware of the importance of self-service dinner.

Wang Ziqin’s response was as he expected, simply not wanting to take the risk.

As a newly opened restaurant, without a fully integrated team or stabilized dishes, it clearly wasn’t a wise option to hastily open dinner service.

Choosing customized dinners was also to let the Head Chef explore possible directions for dinner dishes.

Now that the timing is right, Wang Ziqin didn’t say much more about his plan to open self-service dinner, allowing him to proceed unhindered.

A quick glance at the email titles showed out of over three hundred, about sixty were in Chinese. Though this number isn’t much, it was a significant improvement from before.

Back when he recruited Zhao Shun and Old Chen, there seemed to be just under half, but at that time, the restaurant’s reputation wasn’t as hot as it is now.

"Although surfing is developed domestically, the restaurant has only been open for about two months, so its recognition is limited, and most netizens probably don’t know we exist."

"Or even if they do know, it’s not really useful. People aren’t going to take a plane across half the globe just to eat Chinese food; it can only provide some buzz at best."

"I’m not sure how many people actually are willing to come and work here. The best would be to hire a few chefs who can work with Old Chen on big pot dishes, or those with experience in hole-in-the-wall eateries, hotel back kitchens would work too."

The recruitment targeted domestically mainly focuses on stir-fry chefs. For Cantonese chefs, it’s a matter of luck, as skilled ones are scarce domestically, and they may not be willing to go abroad.

After spending a full five hours, he finally replied to all the emails.

"It’s almost lunchtime already?"

He glanced at the time, a little past ten, and now should be when Old Chen is busiest.

No notifications popped up on his phone, not even a phone call, indicating everything was proceeding smoothly at the restaurant, with no unexpected incidents.

For no apparent reason, Lin Chen felt a bit of melancholy, but he quickly adjusted his mood, preventing such emotions from spreading further.

"The lack of problems means I hired well, trained sufficiently, and the employees are capable, rather than me being unimportant."

"How odd, why am I suddenly sentimental today, could it be that I’m getting old?"

He tapped his head as if that could chase away the cluttered thoughts.

Lin Chen stood up, stretched his muscles, and walked to the balcony, gazing at the tranquil azure sea to let his eyes fully relax.

Looking sideways, the restaurant entrance already had a long line, just like usual.

Dozens of little black dots were moving around the dining cart and stove, like diligent worker ants, seeking a continuous source of food for their queen.

"Being used to being busy, occasionally slacking off seems pretty nice too."

Though it’s not really slacking off, just transitioning from physical work to mental work, the body does truly relax, without the pressure of time constraints for serving dishes, bringing psychological ease.

The aftereffects of staying up late were barely felt, maybe just slightly red and dry eyes.

"A nap sounds good, once awake, tidying up will let me greet dinner guests in my best form."

...

A peaceful week passed, and the restaurant’s business grew steadily after officially opening to the public.

After a few days of team integration, the efficiency visibly increased manifold.

Lin Chen now almost doesn’t involve himself in the creation of the Chinese menu, focusing only on brainstorming dishes on the Western side, letting Zhao Shun, Old Chen, and Lucas freely handle the Chinese side.

Without the need to change menus daily, breakfast offerings continue to expand, from initially only four types of bun fillings to now eight, plus new additions like lamb shumai, beef shumai, and glutinous rice shumai.

This is not all; starting this week, Old Chen is also planning to make various flavored congees, saying not having congee for breakfast feels like not eating breakfast at all.

But making congee is simple—just pre-cook the plain congee base, then add ingredients to taste, which isn’t troublesome.

Building on this, Lin Chen made a small suggestion based on the Chaoshan congee recipe he had previously redeemed, about how to shorten the simmering time for plain congee while further enhancing the rice aroma.

"Boss, what time is it and we’re not starting to cook the congee? Will we make it in time?"

At five in the morning, as the coastline glimmered, Old Chen paced around Lin Chen, his face full of anxiety.

He certainly trusted Lin Chen, but the congee amount to be simmered was immense, and he feared two hours wouldn’t be enough, being unable to imagine any method to speed up the congee making process.

"There are two methods, the first is already in the freezer, go get it."

"Freezer?"

Old Chen pushed the cart towards the restaurant with a completely bewildered look on his face, unable to imagine why cooking porridge would involve going to the freezer. Could it be that he was supposed to fetch ingredients?

No way, with the Head Chef’s skills, it’s impossible that he’d forget to thaw ingredients in advance.

Filled with questions, Chen Dongliang opened the door to the freezer, where a chilling wind burst out along with a cloud of white mist, giving him a shiver all over.

"Huh??"

As soon as he opened the door, he saw several buckets of strange ice cubes.

Without a doubt, these were what the Head Chef wanted him to take out.

"Ice cubes?"

Old Chen suspiciously took out the heavy plastic bucket, and upon looking closer, the ice seemed to have tiny white grains frozen inside.

Without reason, an idea suddenly flashed in his mind: "Could these be soaked rice frozen?"

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense; since it’s a little trick, it must be related to the rice.

Frozen soaked rice overnight can shorten the cooking time for porridge?

"Exactly."

When he returned to the stove, Lin Chen was using a kitchen machine to crush the rice grains.

"These are all small tricks for cooking porridge. Soaked rice itself expands more easily, and freezing can expand the water within the grains, similar to how tofu transforms into frozen tofu."

"No matter how you cook it, tofu won’t absorb flavors, but frozen tofu can soak up the broth in just two or three minutes. Do you understand what I mean?"

Old Chen blinked and suddenly realized how the state of ingredients can greatly affect the final product.

Upon reheating the frozen rice, the air-filled grains quickly disintegrate, naturally forming porridge without needing the lengthy simmering and stirring, greatly reducing the time, without sacrificing texture.

Similarly, crushing the rice grains achieves the same effect.

"Personally, I prefer using the freezing method because it saves effort and doesn’t require washing tools. Using a machine to crush raw rice can easily cause the machine to overheat and stall, affecting the schedule."

Lin Chen demonstrated by crushing a cup of rice, adding boiling water, and setting it on the stove at high heat, turning it into a thick white porridge in minutes, resembling the porridge style typical in many Chaoshan porridge shops, with hardly any visible whole grains.

"Each bucket of ice holds ten liters, five of which are rice. If nothing goes wrong, it should be enough for a day’s breakfast. It’s fine to cook an extra bucket as a backup or use it for staff meals if it doesn’t sell out; just manage it as you see fit."

Lin Chen didn’t intend to intervene too much. Over the past few days, he had been gradually reducing his workload to let everyone unconsciously get used to the situation.

However, he didn’t disappear entirely. During meal prep, he openly sat in the restaurant working on a laptop, proving he wasn’t slacking off but dealing with other tasks.

Hardly anyone found anything wrong with this situation, and some even found it quite normal since the Head Chefs in the restaurants where they previously worked usually operated this way.

The only grievances came from a few tourists who had traveled from afar, drawn by Lin Chen’s reputation, only to feel a bit disappointed and slightly dissatisfied not to taste a dish personally made by him.

That afternoon.

Lin Chen was working under a sunshade, opposite the selected candidates from this extension round of hiring.

The number of applicants this time increased four to five times compared to last time, but he still hired around ten people. Jonathan also had five additional people from his side, so the interview screening process had to be more rigorous.

When this round of hiring concludes, the kitchen staff will increase to thirty-one.

Apart from Jonathan and his nine Western cuisine staff, there were twenty-one people on his side, divided into two groups.

One group handled breakfast and the afternoon retail, the other handled lunch and dinner production. Each group averaged ten people, all experienced chefs, and a few days of adjustment should suffice to manage the upcoming service flow.

Prep for Chinese cuisine is entirely different from Western cuisine. There’s no need to make sauces or side dishes, just cutting and marinating, reducing the workload significantly.

However, correspondingly, the working hours might increase by one or two hours, a point he deliberately highlighted during each online interview, allowing only those who agreed to make it to the in-person interview.

As they chatted, the phone on the table suddenly vibrated.

Lin Chen quickly glanced at it; it was a call from President Wang. He immediately raised his hand to indicate a pause: "Sorry, it’s my boss calling. I need to take this."

"Old Lin, are you available to talk now?"

"Will it take long? I’m in an interview."

"No, no, just a few words, but it might affect your schedule for a while."

Affect my schedule?

Lin Chen was taken aback; could it be he was being taken out for a hunt?

"You know the Olympics opened last week, right? According to internal feedback, the Olympic Village’s meals are quite poor, and many Asian athletes are not used to the food."