Let’s Start a Restaurant Part 2
Author's note:
I have yet the courage to leave my current work to pursue writing. However, I will make sure to post a chapter Saturdays and/or Sundays (UTC+8)
Let this be its mark.
Hope you can support me. I am very open to criticism.
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レストランを始める 上
We were finally done with the interior. We now need to secure the ingredients for the food that we need to prepare for our menu.
After all, no matter how elegant your diner looks, it all boils down to the food prepared.
“Ace be very careful in treading the forest.” Lady Anna says while affixing the backpack properly at my back. “Don’t wonder too far, and run if it gets dangerous… and… and… make sure you don’t pick anything dangerous, okay?”
Anxiously, Lady Anna looks like a mother who is about to send her child on his first errand. Sir Heid could only chuckle on the side while observing us at the sideline.
“I will.” I could only answer as politely as I could not retort to the genuine care elicited from Lady Anna. Out of respect, I also give her my best assurance. “I will be back before the 18th bell.
Lady Anna does not know about my past and could only anxiously send me off to danger, while sir Heid was a bit calm since he still remembers how I had fended off the bandits when we first met.
“But still do be careful out there, Ace, we don’t know what kind of spooks reside in the deeper forest.” Although, he was not too worried, he still sends me off with a fair warning.
Where am I going…? Isn’t it obvious? I am going to the forest located at the western gate to forage ingredients.
Why, you ask? Well, just as we had problems securing tools and equipment preparing the restaurant, we were also unable to secure a route for ingredients needed for our menu. Thankfully, with my experience in foraging and hunting in the mysterious island (albeit only a year) it was up to me to secure those very ingredients.
Thanks to the LIZARDWOMEN in the mysterious island who had raised… ahem… who had taught me how to forage safely, I am now able to distinguish edible mushrooms from toxins. Moreover, with me being able to read to a certain degree allowed me to bring a book about edible plants and fungi, which added to my foraging safely scheme.
Now unto the Dark Forest.
*****
The Dark Forest, aptly named because it somehow gets darker as you go deeper inside the forest, as if light does not allow penetrating the deeper parts of the forest. Due to this, less contact with people, it is now a natural breeding ground for monsters.
The forest is a 916,666.67 km2 in size, home to a variety of trees, plants, and fungi. The prominent trees at the forest edge are Pine (which we used as tables, chairs, and cabinets). But as one goes deeper, a mix of Cedar and Aspen are also abundant which were quite good for lumber, unfortunately due to monsters’ activity being too rampant the deeper you get, these trees require a lot of courage to cut, process and transport.
Now, unto the foraging and hunting. While wild vegetables are easily distinguishable and so was easy to get, the problem lies on what type of meat we can harvest inside the forest. Luckily, the forest is abundant with monsters called ‘BORUS’ -monsters with boar-like features. They should pack some soft and hard meats. While they are easy to deal with a surprise attack, they however, can be troublesome; unlike the boars in my previous world, ‘BORUS’ size gets relevant to their age and can get to a maximum size of 600-700 cm. In addition, unlike their boar counterpart, they have more bite to them, they would only run when faced with overwhelming power and if cornered, and they tend to summon their pack.
While hunting for ‘BORUS’ meat, I met another adversary, monsters that I am quite familiar.
“FOREST WOLVES… is it?” Right, the first monsters I ever fought in this world where wolves and the first monster that had drove me to an almost overwhelming defeat was a wolf, and the one that had almost killed me in the dungeon (albeit defeating a much larger foe) was an undead wolf. “I must have a good (or bad) connection with wolves. Since they are also a good source of meat, I also hunted for them.
Thankfully, the lack of the Hunters Guild in Amarante was also something of a godsend for us, as we were able to get in and out of the forest to forage ingredients and hunt for the meats without regulation.
Sir Heid told me that the Hunter’s Guild is an independent entity that specializes on monsters.
Therefore, it should be within the guild’s jurisdiction to cull or hunt monsters and not private individuals. While it is okay to hunt for individual use however, it will be different if the hunted monsters were to be used commercially. Seeking ingredients would have to go to the guild and specialist will have to handle it.
But, for some reason, Amarante has had no guild for quite some time. Well, because of that I am freely able to hunt. If I do not upset the balance too much, and not attack younglings, there should be no problem.
In fact, thanks to my activities in the forest, the Lumberjacks who would try to courage themselves in getting those coveted Cedar and Aspen trees were safely able to do their jobs without being attacked by the Forest Wolves, which was a secondary meat source for me.
Allow me to make a small confession here, on the first day of my foraging I got a little bored and thought it would be nice to get some seafood so that we can use it on poor menu.
Using SENKOU, I went to an isolated place in the beach where I met the Romarias and hunted for monsters that prowl in the seabed. I used this as an opportunity to take Grimoire Atelier out in the sun for a while and took some ingredients for the restaurant, however…
“Where did you get this kind of ingredients… and how were you able to get seafood when we are very far from the sea.” While Lady Anna was mesmerizing with the selection of ingredients, sir Heid was a bit shock to see them… I mean the feat of getting to the sea from Amarante was no walking matter; we got here by truck you see and should not have been possible for me to get them. I got a bit careless.
“I kind of helped an old man passing by and let me have some of his catch.” I could see sir Heid eyeing me suspiciously, while Lady Anna continued to pick ingredients after ingredients to cook for the menu.
…and from then on, I decided to use only materials from this forest.
It would have been nice to have seafood on the menu. I mean, the food that Lady Anna prepared that night was pretty much ‘5 Star Restaurant’ rating stuff.
With that, our problem with the ingredients should have been alleviated a little. There was a slight inconvenience though; I could only take two ‘FOREST WOLVES’ and one ‘BORUS’ since I am only using wooden carriage to transport them. It would have been nice if I could use the truck with a better horsepower (no pun intended), but unfortunately with it usable only with MANA, it was bane. I still did the minimum action like dismantling them so that the remaining meat will be sent to the storage in Grimoire Atelier.
Overall, we were able to procure us some ingredients.
*****
Next to our preparation is to finalize our operations, here are our roles: we have Lady Anna as our (only) main chef to handle preparation and cooking, Sir Heid as Operations Manager to handle finances and other managerial duties, and lastly, me as one to procure ingredients and to wait on the tables.
Lucky for the two I had some experience on waiting tables since I had once worked on fast food chains in the previous world, albeit not the best one in the shed, I should be good enough to bus tables, get and deliver orders... how hard can it be… (Those who think it is easy has never worked in a fast food!)
But, our operations do not end simply with our roles, since we are unable to procure more manpower, we had to devise a system to ensure our operation can go if not smoothly at least manageable.
Since we do not want to get in trouble with the Sanitation Management and Operations Office, we made sure to get our workstation as clean as possible. Thus, Lady Anna will clean everything in the kitchen during the day and we can only help her at night where there are no more customers.
Relatively, I make sure that the whole dining area is always clean and presentable during the day. Sir Heid will do all miscellaneous cleaning, which unfortunately for him included the relief stations.
We also decided to have shortcut callouts for our meals so that we wouldn’t have to write long and increasing our wait time. So, instead of saying or writing Golden Mushroom Risotto we will only write or say ‘BF Meal 1’ and lady Anna will know it is for Golden Mushroom Risotto. This knowledge is something I am borrowing when I was still working in some fast-food chain.
In addition, as for my job of hunting and foraging, I can only do it twice a week every after the 17th bell so that we can have ingredients at the ready. I was a bit skeptical about foraging only twice a week and even tried to assure them that I can hunt every day after the 17th bell so that we can have fresh meat and vegetables.
“There is no need to worry about that matter.” However, the two had a better idea. In fact, the two were slightly confused at my assertion. “We can just use Ice Magic to convert one of the rooms to preserve meat and vegetables.” Sir Heid continued as if to point out the obvious.
Looks like refrigeration exist in this world. Well, not exactly a refrigerator that I am accustomed to, but a magical room turned to cold winter using magic.
In contrast to most fantasy novels, I have read so far, this world really is modern-like fantasy.
As much as I wanted to see how magic is casted and its inner working, but the Romaria’s MANA capacities were clearly above average and were able to create the room almost eternally using their magic. Therefore, when they made the room, I could only go out and be at my lonesome or be killed by the MANA that has accumulated. “Damn magic!”
Also, something worthy to note here, is that contrary to the templates I have read in light novels, magic is something that is gifted to everyone and not exclusively used by nobles. However, ‘MAGIC’ is strictly regulated by the state and only those who have licenses can use them openly and with just cause.
We have digressed too much, so to get back to the topic at hand, we also added another part of our ‘dining system’, that is to ensure that we don’t get too loaded with work to the point of exhaustion. Since we only have 3 staffs, for the time being, the restaurant can and will only serve breakfast from 4th to 6th bell, lunch 11th to 13th bell, and dinner at 16th to 18th bell. This way we can have time to prepare in between those times. This will change however, if we can procure more manpower, which for the time being a story that is still too far away.
To get used to the operations, we practiced and did them in repetitions all the while making sure that our daily lives and health are not in jeopardy and after 3 weeks of the said personnel training, we had our soft opening.
“Good morning sir, table for two?”
“Good morning sir, madam what can we get you for you today?”
“Thank you for waiting, here is your orders of 2 Golden Mushroom Risotto and 2 Tropicana Juice. Have a nice meal.”
“If it’s the relief room you want, you may use the one at the side.”
“Do you want a kiddy chair for your toddler ma’am?”
“Enjoying your lunch so far miss?
“Is there anything we can add to what you have sir?”
“Thank you for coming at the Lover’s Nest. Please come again.”