Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe-Chapter 79: As Soon as Lin Chen Arrived, the Customers Left
The lifespan of stray cats in the wild is generally around three years. Apart from various dangers and diseases, malnutrition is the main cause of their short lives.
Lucas felt that Lin Chen’s business would definitely get more and more popular, and by then his own account would also experience a surge in traffic.
Since he’s free during the day, he could set up a stall to sell cold noodles or drinks, and feed the little guys some food in his spare time.
He decided to act right away and sent a message to Lin Chen, briefly describing what had happened just now, and casually asking if there was anything he could help prepare in advance.
Besides skewers, they’d also be selling milk tea at night, which shouldn’t be too hard to prepare, right?
As lunch approached, the head chef had already entered the kitchen to prepare in advance, while Lin Chen sat alone in the office fiddling with the menu.
Receiving Lucas’s message was a shock, but hearing he was okay was a relief, and his heart settled back down.
Thinking about the night market, he suddenly realized something very important that he had overlooked.
Stove modification!
Now that the Food Truck Upgrade Card was in hand, he could add a grill at any time, but the problem was that Lucas was now looking after the food truck, and he couldn’t just go in and pretend to fiddle with it and have new equipment magically appear, right?
If he waited until after work in the evening to drive the truck away, that would be even more ridiculous. It’s impossible for a modification shop to still be open.
"This won’t work, I need to find an excuse to slip out."
Checking the time, he hurriedly got up and ran into the kitchen.
"Chef! Can I apply to go for a walk to the supermarket? I feel like I’m missing some inspiration. The ingredients and seasonings you brought back are too few."
"Sure, no problem. Going to the supermarket is indeed a necessary part of menu development. Go ahead."
He thought he’d have to do a lot of talking, but the head chef agreed without hesitation, just reminding him to clock out at the end of the day.
The chef wasn’t worried about whether the kid would goof off or not.
There was no time limit for menu development; the quality of the dishes was the benchmark. Completing it within the week was just a requirement the kid set for himself.
If the kid didn’t complete the task, his performance score would be deducted, and he’d have to postpone the idea of promotion. It would be his loss.
To advance from an excellent chef to a sous-chef or even a head chef, it’s not just solid fundamentals and on-the-fly adaptability that’s needed; sufficient active thinking, creativity, time management, among other skills, are necessary.
Leaving the restaurant, Lin Chen took a cab directly to the food truck.
"Huh? Why are you here..."
Seeing him, Lucas was bewildered.
Wasn’t he supposed to be working?
"I was sent out by the head chef for something. Your reminder came just in time, I almost forgot we needed to do barbecue tonight. I’ll take the truck for the modification, you can head home if you’ve got nothing else to do~"
Watching the food truck drive off into the distance, Lucas’s mouth twitched.
Going home by subway and bus took over an hour, almost three in total for a round trip—no need for that!
If it weren’t for the fact that it was his home and he didn’t have to pay rent, he might just think about renting a place nearby.
"Ah well, idle hands are the devil’s playground, let’s see if there’s a pet supply store nearby."
Lin Chen drove the food truck home, immediately used a Food Truck Upgrade Card to redeem a grill, and watched as the stove began to transform, changing from a fixed stove to a detachable version, with an additional row of wire racks beside the tabletop.
The assembly process was simple, just remove the surface stove and place the grill on top, leaving space in the middle for charcoal.
He also checked on the ice jelly Lucas made, which had set and formed well with the flavor and shape about right.
He nodded in satisfaction: "This kid’s got potential, can follow videos and make stuff himself. He’s got talent in cooking. I might teach him more simple stuff. If he wants to set up a stall, he can use the food truck during the day."
The truck’s special functions would only activate when he used them; only the fixed space, like the refrigerator’s capacity, remained constant.
For now, it hadn’t reached an outrageous level and wouldn’t be easily noticed, so he was quite at ease.
Whether the kid wanted to use it or not was another matter since he still had to edit videos and so on; he was quite busy.
Once the fan base grew, he might not even have the United States time to set up a stall.
With the grill set up and nothing else pressing, preparing the milk tea too early wasn’t ideal as it could spoil, best to make it fresh as needed.
He drove his car to the supermarket for a stroll, fiddled with the menu, came up with seven or eight new combinations, jotted them down, and then took the ingredients back to the restaurant to start experimenting, proving he wasn’t slacking off.
And to his surprise, adding a touch of Great Xia seasoning elements breathed new life into the dishes, offering flavors the foreigners had never tasted.
From the head chef down to the sous chefs and front-of-house staff, everyone couldn’t stop praising the new dishes.
Especially the addition of spicy and sour flavors, which breathed life into seafood dishes.
"Using fermented food’s acidity as a substitute for fruit vinegar is brilliant, you kid! Using pickled veggies with fried fish, this sauce, this pairing—it’s genius!"
Faced with the head chef’s praise, Lin Chen rubbed his nose, modestly saying it was just the Western version of sauerkraut fish, nothing extraordinary.
The eight new dishes quickly set a general tone, still primarily Western with a hint of Chinese flavors, since the menu ideas came from the head chef, he couldn’t change the main direction without permission but could tweak the taste.
With the menu settled, it was already past eight in the evening.
Since he didn’t participate in dinner service, he didn’t need to help clean up the kitchen, and with the head chef’s permission, he clocked out early.
Of course, as they work by the hour, leaving early would mean earning less, but he didn’t mind.
He hurried home, drove the food truck out, and arrived at the stall spot before it was even half-past nine.
Arriving this early for the first time, he finally saw a queue of customers in front of Lunard’s food truck.
But Lunard didn’t share the sentiment.
Seeing the kid show up even before ten, his expression turned a bit helpless.
"Hey, isn’t that red food truck the one selling fruit jelly?"
"My girlfriend bought some a few days ago to take home, and after finishing, she kept talking about wanting to buy more. I’ve got to try it myself to see what all the fuss is about."
Just as he thought, there were eight customers in line originally, but after Lin Chen arrived, three of them immediately left the line and headed over, while the other five looked on curiously.
"Hey, Lunard, what do they sell over there?"
The customer at the front of the line waiting for his kebab wrap to be done just asked, when shouts of excitement erupted behind him.
"Oh my god, what are they all queued up for over there?"
"I thought they were just sitting around chatting, turns out they’re waiting for the food truck?!"
