Chapter 426 - 420_1
Lin Yue’s banquet this time was not the sour poetry gathering mentioned by Commandery Princess Roujia. As the hostess, if she indeed hosted a poetry gathering, she would have to prepare several poems to fit the occasion. However, Lin Yue felt that she was not cut out for that sort of thing and plagarizing old poems felt dishonest. Besides, she had no idea if those poems had already made an appearance here. Therefore, the banquet mainly consisted of dining and chatting, which was even more troublesome than a poetry gathering. Not only did she have to ensure the food and entertainment were adequately prepared, but also the servants had to be properly organized.
It was indeed a difficult task. Although Lin Yue had moved into a new residence, there were only a few servants that came with her. Aside from the fact that it was too late to buy new servants on short notice, even if she bought them, they would require training. Fortunately, Jiang Ziqi and Commandery Princess Roujia had both dispatched servants from their households to offer assistance. As for the dining arrangements, she naturally aimed for the best, considering her guests were all noblewomen from the capital, who valued both taste and elegance in their food. Lin Yue was quite confident about avoiding any lapses on that front. After all, if her cooking could satisfy Commandery Princess Roujia and Jiang Ziqi, there was no reason she couldn’t impress the other young ladies. However, she would need to ponder the selection of dishes carefully. It would not do to serve common home-cooked dishes and be deemed petty.
In procuring all the necessities for the banquet, Lin Yue once again found the capital city to be exceedingly expensive. She had only been somewhat aware of this when buying in small quantities, but now that she had purchased so much, just the ingredients alone had cost her over a hundred taels of silver. Not to mention, she had brought a considerable amount of homemade ingredients from her own stocks, which reduced the expenditure somewhat. However, they only planned to stay in the capital for two or three months before returning. Otherwise, Lin Yue would have to consider buying a farmhouse in the capital suburbs to grow grains, vegetables, and fruits.
"Wife, how do you plan to arrange the dishes for tomorrow? The two cooks sent by Doctor Jiang could take charge," Zhao Erhu said, also busy with arrangements alongside Lin Yue. Although the countryside also adhered to the notion that men should avoid the kitchen, Zhao Erhu never believed in such things. Moreover, he was unwilling to let his little wife be busy by herself and naturally assisted her.
"I’ll prepare the more difficult dishes and pastries in advance, and leave the rest to Xiaoling. Let her make the arrangements. The two cooks from Jiang Residence can just assist her. It’s better to rely on our own people for matters in our household. Xiaoling has been with me for quite a while now; she is both clever and nimble. She has learned a lot from me, especially when it comes to cooking, she has nearly mastered fifty to sixty percent of my skills. Besides, there should be no problems as long as she follows my instructions for the preparations I have made in advance."
Lin Yue said this, bearing in mind that she did not want her cooking skills to be learned by unrelated cooks. Even in modern times, renowned chefs would not easily share their recipes with others. Moreover, in this conservative era, Lin Yue—who had always been skilled in cooking and had improved further under Wang Dachuan’s guidance—did not want her skills to be picked up by irrelevant cooks.
"You just do whatever you think is best, my wife," he said. "I’m not good at this, and I cannot help you much more. You decide on your own. If there’s anything you need me to do, just let me know."