Chapter 19

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation

Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Di!

At this time, the oven was preheated to 160 degrees, and the red wine and water in the cast iron pot were also boiled. Xia Yu covered the hot pot’s edge with a cloth and put the pot into the oven.

Closing the oven door, he set the time to 30 minutes. Xia Yu turned to the kitchen table and left two kitchen hands looking at each other. Head Chef Kasumigaoka could not believe the baking time.

“30 minutes?”

“No way! Just now we carried out all the routine steps. I haven’t seen what secret processing he had done to beef. How can we get it out in 30 minutes? If it is a normal oven, it has to wait one to two hours.”

Chef Kasumigaoka listened to the whispers of the two kitchen hands and frowned deeply.

What was the difference?

He rested his chin on his hands. From the beginning of cutting beef to the final oven step, thinking back and forth, his brain finally flashed, and his heart lost his voice. “Wouldn’t it be… Something different on knife skills?” 

How could outsiders imagine? Xia Yu was busy with his back to them.

Xia Yu turned his back to them and took care of the cooking regardless of what the outsiders imagined.

He continued to fry the mushroom slices with the melted yellow oil in the wok.

Half an hour passed quickly. With the sound of ding, the oven timer reminded him. Xia Yu turned around and took out the cast iron pan from the oven. He poured all the soup into the pan and used a spoon to skim off a layer of foam and grease on the surface of the soup.

This was a degreasing step. If the taste were heavier, you could continue to add salt and pepper after degreasing.

The poured soup should be heated and boiled. Xia Yu poured it back into the cast iron pan and added the fried mushroom slices, then continued to cook on the gas stove.

In fact, many western restaurants would stop cooking boeuf bougignon at this step and put the lid on. They would put it in the refrigerator to prepare for tomorrow.

In other words, it was to leave the dishes that would be completed until tomorrow, and when the guests ordered, they could be served on the table after a little heating.

If there was no special treatment, it took an average of 4 hours to cook boeuf bougignon. Which restaurant’s guests would be so patient?

Boom, boom…

The silver kitchen knife leapt on the chopping board. Xia Yu finally grabbed the chopped parsley and sprinkled it on the cooking surface of the plate so that the boeuf bougignon with all kinds of flavours was completed.

“Let’s serve.”

Xia Yu took off his apron and kitchen hat and told the two kitchen hands.

The scent of dishes has been utterly fragrant during the display, and the whole kitchen had a strong smell of beef.

Their adam’s apple rolled.

The two kitchen hands sniffed the air and suddenly found themselves hungry. Their stomach acid secreted sharply.

Xia Yu glimpsed two kitchen hands drooling. They could not walk in front of the kitchen counter. Xia Yu laughed while washing his hands. “There is a little left in the pot that the plate can’t fit. You can try my craft.”

“Is it okay?” The two kitchen hands’ eyes brightened.

“If you don’t want it, I’ll eat. I have a big appetite. There’s never too much…”

“No!” 

A kitchen hand quickly found forks and gave it to his companion. The two of them surrounded the cast iron pan on the kitchen counter and sniffed at the close-up of the cooking flavour in the pan. Their eyes showed their hunger.

Chi!

Using the silver fork, with a slight prick, it penetrated one of the beef slices.

A small piece of beef collapsed on the surface, and a stream of broth seemed to find a vent. The hole pierced by the fork quickly overflowed. 

“It’s so soft… Why is there so much soup in the beef? The beef was fried and roasted. Why is the elasticity so amazing…?”

Head Chef Kasumigaoka was next to Xia Yu. His eyes narrowed.

As soon as the beef entered their mouths, the facial expressions of the two kitchen hands changed from the initial shock to the happiness of tasting something delicious, and finally a kind of piety looking up to the holy mountain.

Appetite also occupied his heart for a while. Head Chef Kasumigaoka found a knife and fork, carefully cutting a corner of beef, and slowly put it in his mouth.

The rich flavour of meat suddenly spread out at the tip of the tongue.

Then, another sweet smell of red wine spread all over his mouth.

The first feeling in the mouth was amazing. Head Chef Kasumigaoka tasted it carefully for a while before he bit down gently. He chewed the beef in his mouth. The richer flavour made him wonder and swallow the meat.

Grunt.

After swallowing, the enjoyment of Chef Kasumigaoka’s face turned into shock.

The body was warm and mellow, fluttering, and immortal.

Why did people feel full of happiness just by taking a sip?

…

Starlight Revolving Western Restaurant.

Three male diners yelled impatiently at the table.

“It’s almost been an hour. Where is our boeuf bougignon?” The bald diner rolled up his suit sleeve and looked at his watch. He kept shouting, “Letting the guests wait for so long, this is your restaurant service? Bad review!”

Two Chinese girls sat silently.

“The food hooligan is really disgusting.”

The lovely female tourist with a round face posted a vomiting Weibo and secretly took a photo upload and wrote: “It’s really a disappointment. Today, I met a legendary gourmet wandering in Ameyoko, Tokyo, Nihon. The head chef of the restaurant was too tender and almost got caught, but I also met an interesting young guy.”

She attached a smiley expression in the last statement.

“It’s time to eat!”

Her companion suddenly pulled her sleeve. The female tourist quickly put away her cell phone. Her hands were holding her round face with a very expectant expression.

The kitchen hands and waiters placed six white round porcelain plates filled with beef stew, side dishes and soup on two tables. Three servings here and three servings there.

As soon as the dishes were served, the eyes of the two female tourists were attracted.

“Presentation and dishes are perfect!” The round-faced female tourist could not wait to pick up the knife and fork and cut the corner of beef for eating. This was the first bite.

“It’s so soft and tastes great! I’ve never eaten such a soft beef. How did they do it?!”

After swallowing the beef, the round-faced female tourist turned her head to stare at the two kitchen hands.

“Moreover, after the beef was stir-fried and stewed, the meat quality did not change. On the contrary, it is very delicate, smooth, and overflowing with the soup. That feeling, I was almost immortal…”

The female tourist spoke excitedly, and her eyes were bright, but she suddenly remembered that this was a Japanese restaurant, and two kitchen hands who could not understand Chinese stood there awkwardly. 

A young chef spoke in English with a strong accent. He slowed down and said, “Sorry, ma’am, this is not the work of our Chef Kasumigaoka.”

Both female tourists understood.

“…Is it that little brother just now?” Both of them had tasted this western food and looked at each other with incredulous faces.

Not long ago, they tasted the boeuf bougignon of Chef Kasumigaoka. The dish was indeed good, and it was considered to be above the medium level in many western restaurants.

But when they tasted the boeuf bougignon this time, and then went back and thought about the taste of the dish in front… This one was clearly better.

More cruelly, the taste of both was not on the same level.