Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 856 - 427: Assorted Vegetable Buns

The unexpected thing for Qin Huai was that the best-tasting snack on the table full of delicacies was actually the most unassuming-looking bun.

It was even a vegetarian bun.

Assorted vegetable bun.

Since it used the word "assorted," there were a variety of vegetables: greens, fresh bamboo shoots, dried bean curd, daylily, yam, carrots, black fungus, gluten puffs, mushrooms, and ginkgo. The ingredients were so rich that they could make a dish of assorted stir-fry. This filling was made by Master Zhou and stuffed into the bun.

Qin Huai felt that he had recently eaten many of these delicious buns that seemed like they had rich stir-fried or stewed dishes stuffed inside.

Could this be the true meaning of making buns?

An excellent bun filling only requires a plate of tasty stir-fried dishes.

Qin Huai said nothing and just focused on eating the buns.

The dining table was very quiet, with only the sound of Shi Dadan and Master Zhou chatting.

Master Zhou chatted because all these snacks were made by him, and he didn't have much of an appetite. Shi Dadan chatted because he had the skill to talk while chatting, maintaining clear speech and not eating slowly.

He was confident about the capacity of both his own stomach and others'. They certainly couldn't finish all the snacks on this table, and he would have to finish them off in the end.

Shi Dadan was having a casual chat with Master Zhou.

Previously, when Qin Huai asked Shi Dadan to be his ace assistant, he had noticed that Shi Dadan was someone who was very good at listening and encouraging others to talk. Perhaps it was his honest nature that easily made people feel close to him at first, or maybe it was the way he spoke that was pleasing to the ear. In any case, Shi Dadan was very skilled at drawing people out.

Often, even without him deliberately trying to pry, people would naturally open up to him in conversation.

It was only today that Qin Huai learned that Master Zhou had two daughters and a son, but none of them followed in his footsteps, and their professions had nothing to do with being a chef.

Master Zhou's eldest daughter was running a travel agency, his second son was a math teacher, and his youngest daughter was still studying abroad. Such a situation was rare among pastry masters, especially very renowned ones.

You have to know, even Boss Su's daughter is a pastry chef.

The chef industry was very traditional, and in the early years, it had always been a hereditary business. If the father was a famous chef, the son must also be a chef. Even if he did not have the talent, the father would pass the unique skills only to his descendants, rather than to other apprentices.

Of course, not every famous chef would do this. Many relatively enlightened chefs would choose to pass their exclusive skills to apprentices. However, if given a choice, they would always prioritize their own descendants.

This method of inheritance was reliable, ensuring the skills stayed within the family. But it was also highly risky because being a chef tested talent greatly. Bloodlines could be inherited, but talent could not. The loss of many famous dishes and snacks was due to the lack of a successor for the famous chef.

However, many famous dishes and snacks were carried forward because the descendants of famous chefs, who were not successful, sold the ancestral recipes to survive.

You could say it was a twist of fate.

Normally, it was quite common for someone like Tan Wei'an to have the grandson succeed because the father couldn't make it. Besides, Tan Wei'an's father wasn't without cooking knowledge. He learned, but his talent was mediocre, achieving nothing in the industry. Coupled with the fact that his father was extraordinary, Zhiwei Restaurant expanded and gained prosperity, allowing him to retire on dividends alone.

In a way, Tan Wei'an's father was the real winner in life. He retired before 40 and let his son take over the business, truly achieving the balance of having both parents and children to care for.

For Master Zhou's open-minded philosophy, Shi Dadan expressed great agreement. He also felt there was no need to force children to inherit the family business, just like he never forced his kids to study hard to get into a good college.

It's unnecessary for the children to inherit the family business anyway, Shi Dadan got so engrossed in the chat that he accidentally let slip, thinking his kids might not even become drivers in the future.

However, it didn't matter, as no one here knew his background. Up to this point, Master Zhou still believed Shi Dadan was some cousin or uncle of Qin Huai, even asking, in a slightly complaining tone, why Qin Family's relative hadn't tried applying to Zhiwei Restaurant before. It was really easy to get in as a recommendation from an old customer counts as a recommendation after all.

If they had brought Qin Huai here 10 years earlier, there wouldn't be anything for Zhao Cheng'an and they could have easily let Master Hua take over, who quite liked pulling noodles anyway.

Zhao Cheng'an: ?

Master, I'm still sitting at the table eating snacks, is it okay for you to say that?

"You're also good at noodle pulling," Qin Huai discovered another strong point of Zhao Cheng'an.

"Studied it for a while, I can do it, but I'm not proficient," Zhao Cheng'an admitted generously. "When I first became an apprentice, I thought I was a rarely seen genius. An average chef who could master one skill fully was already impressive, an excellent one could master one or two. Even the master chefs at Zhiwei Restaurant have their strengths and weaknesses."

"At that time, I thought they couldn't achieve it because they were simply inferior. I was sure I could do it. So I learned everything. If my master had researched Western pastry then, I would have wanted to learn that too."

"And then, as you can see, I learned a bit of everything. I can do everything a little. I can't handle anything too challenging or too complex. After years of learning, the things I'm best at are still pastry with flaky crusts and rice cake-like pastries. I initially thought I could at least become proficient in one or two things, but in the end, I wasn't good at anything, not even as good as my senior brother and sister."