46 Preparation

Arriving at the restaurant, Wang Ming and Louzheng put the meat in the refrigerator and started to get to work. Wang Ming got Louzheng to keep on practicing walking around with plates in his hand and simulating taking orders. While Wang Ming went out to the last stop of the day, he had totally forgotten to buy some red firecrackers and a red ribbon. This was a tradition for many shops and restaurants. On opening day, they would light on some red firecrackers and cut a red ribbon to signal that it was the opening day and attract customers.

Arriving at a shop that sold things fireworks, Wang Ming saw the perfect firecrackers. They were mostly red but also had golden edges. The golden color is the color of prestige and prosperity. After taking the firecrackers he wanted to go a tailor to see if he could find and buy a red ribbon. But it surprised him to see that not only did the fireworks shop sell fireworks and firecrackers but it also sold ribbons in different sizes and colors. Looking around, he found a big red pull bow that was red and also had a golden edge it was also the perfect size being a bit over 5 meter long. Seeing it was the perfect one, Wang Ming snagged it instantly and went to pay.

Then making his way back to the restaurant, Wang Ming arrived at the door when he heard a loud sound coming from inside the restaurant. Opening the door, Wang Ming thought that someone were here to make trouble and fought with Louzheng. But facepalmed when he saw it was just Louzheng who had tripped and fell to the ground. Walking towards him and helping him up Wang Ming couldn't help but tease Louzheng.

"Such a big and strong guy, but can't even walk straight while holding a plate. Maybe I should sack you right here."

Hearing his words, Louzheng's eyes widened and turned around to beg Wang Ming not to kick him. But when he saw that Wang Ming was smirking and laughing, he knew that Wang Ming were just playing with him.

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"Don't scare me like that Wang Ming! I don't know why, but I become clumsy the instant I have a plate in my hands."

"I know, I'm just joking with you. Now lets resume the training. I think I know the reason for your clumsiness. You focus too much on how you are holding the plate, and you are too nervous and afraid of the plate falling or that food will slide off the plate. Just relax hold the plate with a steady hand not only focus on your hand but focus on your body. Let your body and eyes lead the way and you should be fine. So resume training."

Wang Ming had thought about Louzheng's problem and finally realized, that it was because he tunnel-visioned on the plate and the table he would serve and forgot about his surroundings. Which made him bump into other tables and chairs.

While Louzheng was training on his waiter skills, Wang Ming started preparing the food. Since he had roughly 100 pounds of meat, he needed to do all the prep work beforehand. That was to blanch all the meat which would take him at least an hour or two. Since he only had a pot big enough for roughly 20 pounds, he had to do it five times to finish the 100 pounds. (If you don't remember blanching is to cook the meat from cold water just to a boil to remove any impurities and blood from the meat.)

After blanching the meat and drying them with multiple clean towels. He then cut the meat into equal chunks, every chunk was roughly one pound each. This was the serving size for every order, you would get one pound of meat and a bowl of rice for every person at the table. Rice would be no problem to serve since the kitchen had five big rice cookers. After cutting the meat up, he placed them in a small clay pot that could room roughly three pieces of meat each. He would do one piece for each clay pot if he could, but he didn't have enough clay pots, neither did he have a big enough bamboo steamer.

Wang Ming decided to change up on how to cook the pork belly. Since last time he warmed the clay pot directly but this time after cooking the clay pot directly for 1 hour, he would transfer the clay pot to the bamboo steamer. The bamboo steamer was perfect for him to steam and cook multiple clay pots at the same time. So he would do the hard cooking directly but use the bamboo steamer to cook and tenderize the meat.

Wang Ming couldn't help but feel thankful for how big this kitchen was and how much stuff it had. He could cook roughly 12 clay pots at a time, which were roughly 36 pounds of meat. Then transfer them all to a bamboo steamer, and after doing this three times, the 100 pounds of meat should all be done and which would leave only the 8 hour tenderizing process left.

But he would not cook the meat yet, since the restaurant opened at 11am, if he cooked the meat now then it would not just a few hours old but half a day to a day old, that would deteriorate the quality too much. The clock was roughly 6.30pm now, so he thought he could take a break and eat, then train with Louzheng to roughly 10 pm and send him home. There after he would take an hour power nap before preparing the kitchen and start cooking through the night. He knew it would be hard, since it would mean that he would be awake for over 24 hours. But he would exchange everything to make the restaurant successful, so sleep was nothing.

Then looking at Louzheng, Wang Ming appreciated how hard he worked. It had been roughly 8 hours now but Louzheng kept on working hard and practicing. Wang Ming felt once again impressed by how much Louzheng improved after Wang Ming pointed out his problem. Louzheng had easily surmounted the problem and now looked like a seasoned waiter, though there were many advanced waiter rules he didn't know. But that didn't matter. Though seeing how good Louzheng were already, Wang Ming didn't see any point in more training and sent Louzheng home to eat and get ready for the opening day.

Sending Louzheng home, Wang Ming also went out to buy a large take away order. Since he would be in the kitchen for the whole night, Wang Ming thought it would be a good idea to have some food ready to eat. Though it sounded comical, a chef buying food to eat in his own kitchen while he's making food. But Wang Ming wanted to dedicate all his time to make the food, prepare the kitchen, and the whole restaurant. Since no one had cleaned up in the restaurant ever since Wang Ming moved in, though it wasn't dirty at all since they had had no customers. But there were some dust here and there he would have to clean up.

Walking out on the street looking for food, Wang Ming got hit by a nostalgic feeling. It wasn't more than some days ago he was also at this street selling meat. But now he was about to open up his own restaurant. Though not having a lot of time, Wang Ming went into the first place he could buy food which sold his favorite food wonton. After buying three bowls of wonton, he went back to the restaurant. Wonton was also something Wang Ming wanted to sell in his restaurant later since it was one of his favorite food ever since childhood.

After eating, Wang Ming went to sleep and slept for 2 hours, and woke up at roughly 9pm. Then it was time to ready up the restaurant and kitchen to cook the food. Starting with cleaning up the restaurant, it took Wang Ming more time than he thought to clean up the restaurant. Since there were a lot of places that had more dust than he thought. Which meant that the people that had cleaned up before had been lazy and didn't clean the dust, in places hard to see or hard to get to.

Using an hour to clean up the restaurant from the outside to the inside. Wang Ming finally felt satisfied by how clean it was. Now his job was to dirty it up again but in the kitchen. The clock was now 11pm, so Wang Ming started to heat up the ovens and readied all the spices. Then taking out 12 wine bottles from the refrigerator out popped them all open and poured all the wine in 33cl cups. Which was just the amount he needed-

After finishing the prep, the clock was now 11pm which meant he could finally start cooking the meat. Putting 12 clay pots on the oven, then putting all the spices and wine inside the pots, he hurriedly put on the lids. Cooking the food now would give him 3 batches of meat which would be ready at 8, 9 and 10am which was perfect.

After cooking the 12 clay pots for an hour, Wang Ming hurriedly put them in a bamboo steamer that had been steaming on another oven ever since he started cooking.

And repeated this process three times until all the clay pots were now in the bamboo steamers. Sadly, he couldn't check up on the meat because opening the clay pots now would make them lose a lot of heat, potentially destroying the dish. Since he wouldn't be able to time how long it would take to steam it up again. But Wang Ming felt confident since the last time the dish came out perfectly, it should come out perfectly this time too.

Seeing all three bamboo steamers now steaming, Wang Ming started to feel sleepy, it was roughly 4am now. One hour after the last batch started its steaming process. But since he had slept for two hours earlier, he could still hold on, else he most likely had to take a power nap. A sleep-deprived person in the kitchen could easily create a kitchen fire and be a danger to himself.

Though stopping himself from feeling too sleepy, Wang Ming kept doing small exercises to keep him awake, like push-ups, sit-ups and jogging around the kitchen. Though he never went too far from the bamboo steamers since he always had to monitor them.

Finally, when the time hit 8am, the alarm rang out. Wang Ming's body were drenched in sweat, since he had done almost a thousand push-ups, sit-ups and jogged around constantly. Wang Ming then hurriedly took the bamboo steamer off the oven and then hurriedly found a wet towel to wipe his face, hair and body. And changed clothes to sweatpants and a white t-shirt. Since he didn't want any sweat close to the food contaminating it

Though how Wang Ming looked now was definitely any girl's wet dream. He looked so manly in his white t-shirt that was wet because Wang Ming didn't thoroughly wipe his body, making it see through and clinging to his body. Which woman didn't want to see a man in a see through t-shirt with ripped abs big pecs and broad shoulders?

Then opening the bamboo steamer, Wang Ming carefully took one of the clay pots out and opened the lid. After opening the lid, a sweet and savory aroma erupted in the kitchen, making him hungry. So he decided to eat this first one, it would also serve as a texture test. If the texture of this batch wasn't satisfactory, then he could adjust the timing of the two batches that's left.

Cutting into the meat, Wang Ming felt nervous but confident at the same time. The knife cut the meat easily, which was a great sign, then taking a fork he stabbed into the meat and wiggled it in the air. The meat and fat looked to be tender but not mushy which was a better sign. Then putting the meat in his mouth, and the meat really surprised him this time. The meat tasted better and also had a better texture. The fat was soft and almost melted in your mouth. The meat still had a chewy texture and the best of all? The taste was spot on this time. Wang Ming felt proud for timing it to perfection this time.

Feeling confident in the dish now, Wang Ming then put all the clay pots inside the heating cabinet and waited for the rest of the meat to finish. Then the clock turned 9am and 10am. Wang Ming had now put all the 35 clay pots inside the heating cabinet. And had to make himself ready for greeting the few friends he had and doing the small opening ceremony for his restaurant. Since he didn't have any contacts, there probably wouldn't be any people at all. On the opening ceremony other than the 4 people he invited.

After taking a shower and changing his clothes this time to a red traditional Chinese dress, he bought from Fu Chunhua. Wang Ming walked outside to greet the guests that would soon be coming.