Chapter 32

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation

Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

After ordering the ingredients, the big stone in his heart had finally been put down. The rest was up to his ability. 

“Today’s menu is Sichuan and Cantonese cuisine.” 

“Sichuan cuisine is fish flavoured pork shreds, mapo tofu, chili and sour potato.”

“Cantonese food is satay beef, sweet and sour pork with pineapple, and braised assorted vegetables with marinated tofu.”

These six dishes were all familiar to Xia Yu. He could get 60 points in the system if he paid a little attention. 

As for tomorrow’s dishes, he copied today’s three dishes and added three new Lu dishes. Braised prawns, braised intestines in brown sauce and steamed tofu stuffed with seafood and vegetables.

It was not hard to see that there were a lot of dishes with tofu as the main ingredient. 

This was Xia Yu’s helpless move. 

In his study of Magic Mapo Tofu, he almost filled the tofu cooking skills up. Xia Yu dared to say that if it came to tofu making, he was full of self-confidence.

However, the other two Lu dishes, braised prawns and braised intestines in brown sauce, were relatively unfamiliar to him. Occasionally, they could get 60 points. What Xia Yu needed to do now was to practice more and stabilize the quality of the cuisine.

Looking up and down the kitchen, Xia Yu was dumbfounded. The refrigerator was almost empty. Not to mention the two main ingredients of shrimp and pork intestine, other side dishes could not be found!

Moreover, Xia Yu thought that cooking with the ingredients he bought in the online shop for practice was very unreliable.

In the past, when the old man was there, he could empty his head and be carefree. He would practice with any ingredients that he saw.

Especially this week. Xia Yu recalled what he did, and his face blushed with shame.

The failed product of ‘Magic Mapo Tofu’ fell into one basket and another basket. 

The consumption of tofu was also terrible. From the beginning of soaking 5 kg of soybean to make soy milk every day, it increased to 10 kg on the third day, and to 15 kg on the fifth day. In other words, it was too extravagant if there was no financial support. Practice like this could ruin the family.

That was why a great chef was difficult to train.

If you did not go to a chef’s technical school like Togetsu, you needed to find a master to take you in. You needed to work in the kitchen of the restaurant, run errands, and start with the most basic work like cutting vegetables to accumulate experience. After all of this, you could become a chef, then become the head chef. After twenty years of accumulation…

The key was money.

The old man only left a million yen. This part of money had to be used to buy food ingredients. It was very hard. If Xia Yu continued to practice with the purchased food ingredients, the result was that he would unconsciously run out of money. The half-dead restaurant would turn into a completely dead one.

But he could not do without practice unless he used the same menu every day in the early stages and muddled through first.

Xia Yu shook his head.

He had already reduced the dishes from 12 a day to six. He could say that he had done his best to make this decision. That was the bottom line.

If he cut it down again, Xia Yu thought that it was self-exile.

Without pressure, where was the motivation to move forward? 

“System, how can I practice cooking?” He could only turn to ask the system for help.

“The host currently has a fame value of 220 points and can open the Chef God Space for practice. Every hour spent in the Chef God Space consumes 10 fame points,” the system responded.

Chef God Space?

Xia Yu just asked tentatively, but he did not expect the system to have a way, so he was overjoyed. But he immediately forced himself to calm down again. “System, with 220 fame points, what can I buy in the Chef God Store?”

“Blue recipe with an average price of 500 fame points.”

“Blue permanent kitchenware with an average price of 1000 fame points.”

“Blue extended skill book with an average price of 1000 fame points.”

Sure enough!

500 fame points could buy a recipe, and 220 points to open the Chef God Space could only support him for 22 hours.

Recipes were permanent learning.

Thinking of this, Xia Yu felt distressed.

He still only had half of the fame to buy a blue recipe. After careful studying, mastering new glowing dishes, increasing the number of cards in his hands…

However, due to his late start and his lack of cooking skills, a large amount of cooking practice was necessary.

Just like the protagonist Yukihira Soma from Food Wars, he started cooking at the age of three. He had been in the kitchen of the Yukihira Restaurant for 12 years and had an extremely rich experience as a front-line chef. 

Similarly, the brothers from Italy, Takumi and Isami, were professional chefs with rich practical experience before they entered Togetsu. 

Xia Yu’s foundation was very good. Even if there was no Chef God System, his knife skill was still outstanding among a group of students in Togetsu. But he was extremely lacking in the experience of being a front-line chef.

These experiences had to be accumulated slowly by operating a small shop, and before that, the Xia’s Chinese Cuisine Restaurant had to be operated!

“Practice! Practice!”

He bit his teeth; the fame points should be an investment for the restaurant.

“System, please give me 22 hours of the Chef God Space,” he said, “After the Chef God Space is open, can I enter and leave anytime I want?”

“Yes, when host leaves the Chef God Space, time freezes.”

“Then let’s go!”

Xia Yu ran up to the bedroom on the second floor, closed the door, and could not wait to lie in bed.

…

He seemed to sleep beautifully.

Waking up, Xia Yu found himself in an antique traditional kitchen. There was a gas stove, cabinets, pots and pans, and an unopened bottle and jar, all of which were shining.

It was like a classic luxurious dream.

In addition to the kitchen counter for chopping vegetables, there was a kitchen counter for fresh ingredients. Xia Yu walked over and took out a big salmon from a box that full of hard ice.

Smelling the fragrance of salmon, Xia Yu’s stomach seemed to protest. Somehow, the salmon turned into a dish and floated in front of his vision.

Just holding ingredients, and the inspiration was like an endless stream. Xia Yu took a breath and enjoyed this state of active thinking.

“The time starts now. Host can use ingredients in this kitchen at will. The ingredients are not limited in supply.”

“In addition, if the host makes a dish of 90 points or more, you can get a mysterious surprise reward from the system.”

After speaking, the Chef God System went silent.

Mysterious surprise reward?

His mouth twitched. Although this kind of temptation was similar to that greasy elder sister, or Dragon Sword that only needed you to click on, it could rudely arouse people’s desires.

Xia Yu began to look forward to it. ’90 points, right? I’ll show it to you!’

He started a sweating exercise.

…

Today, it rained heavily in Tokyo, and there was no sign of it stopping until evening.

The two Chinese female tourists, An Ya and Mu Xiaoyue, spent almost the whole day in Xia’s restaurant.

From two o’clock in the afternoon, the teenager who was the manager and chef disappeared, leaving the two Chinese ladies who had not known him for a long time to help him look after the restaurant. 

“Xiao Ya, our dinner has been settled tonight.” 

Mu Xiaoyue surfed Weibo again. She got up from the chair, stretched her lazy waist, and touched her belly to show a sweet smile. “After eating too much at noon, I have now digested most of it.”

“What are you going to eat tonight?” Her girlfriend, An Ya, the goddess-like girl, also held her cheek with both hands, propping it up on the desktop. She stared at the empty menu bar on the wall.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Is anyone there?”

With the knock on the door, a young couple put away their wet umbrella and entered the restaurant.