THE GAME OF LIFE

Chapter 658: Chapter 656 Main Course

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Peng Changping spoke in Chinese, and Chef Arno neither understood nor wished to understand. As soon as the soup arrived at the table, Chef Arno began to introduce the appetizers and soup of the day to the four diners.

After starting college, Jiang Feng had essentially given up on English. He only managed to pass level 6 in his freshman year thanks to his knowledge from high school, and if he had to take it in his sophomore year, he might not even pass level 4. Later, although he cheated in games to raise his English to an advanced level, this didn’t mean he could understand everything Chef Arno introduced.

Chef Arno spoke very quickly, babbling even faster than the listening portion of the level 6 English exam, and with an accent on top of that. Combined with terms full of various ingredients and place names Jiang Feng had never heard before, he could barely understand what the dishes were made of, then half-guessed that perhaps Chef Arno was talking about the preciousness and origin of the ingredients.

After the introduction, which lasted less than two minutes, Jiang Feng felt as if he had gone through an English level 6 listening test.

Once he finished introducing the dishes, Chef Arno’s job was done. He turned and headed for the kitchen without looking back. From his silhouette alone, Jiang Feng felt he seemed a bit upset, though he didn’t know what about.

No sooner had Chef Arno left than Xu Cheng began to introduce the soup, “This veal and chicken oil mushroom soup is one of Chef Arno’s signature dishes, into which milk is added during the stewing. However…”

Xu Cheng paused, “I remember this dish was originally the main course. It must have been changed later. I haven’t traveled much in the last two years, and it’s been almost that long since I’ve tasted Master Arno’s cooking.”

Jiang Feng was burying himself in the bowl of soup in front of him, which neither seemed like soup nor resembled a dish, a veal and chicken oil mushroom soup.

Despite the lengthy name of the dish, he couldn’t find much fault with it aside from the small portion. As Xu Cheng said, this soup was stewed with milk, but the method was certainly no ordinary one. At least, as Jiang Feng saw it, simply adding milk to soup wouldn’t result in a dish that’s so rich, smooth, and lightly fragrant with milk, yet still retaining the sweet essence of beef and the distinct flavor of chicken oil mushrooms.

The chicken oil mushrooms absorb oil and also trap the soup. When you bite into them, the mushroom juice, along with the fats and the soup absorbed during stewing, gush out, flowing into the mouth and down the throat, warm, delicious, and not scalding. The beef had clearly been marinated and lightly seared before stewing, creating a texture and flavor incomparable to ordinary stewed beef.

With each mouthful of tender chicken oil mushrooms and succulent beef, interspersed with thick soup, and coupled with the faint, lingering milk scent that tantalizes the taste buds, calling this dish a delicacy would not be an exaggeration.

Chef Arno’s spot in the top 10 famous chefs relied on more than just his argumentative and even sometimes acrid tongue.

Source: AllNovelFull.com, updated on ƝονǤօ.ƈᴑ

He truly deserved his reputation.

In comparison to the astonishing veal and chicken oil mushroom soup, the caviar egg pudding appetizer seemed a bit lackluster.

Not to say it wasn’t delicious; first, its price was certainly affirming. But beyond the price, the dish felt quite ordinary. The caviar itself didn’t have much flavor, and although the large and full grains had a wonderful bursting texture in the mouth, it still couldn’t make up for its lack of taste.

The sauce of the caviar egg pudding was slightly sour, and the egg pudding itself was sweet, very much in line with the sour-sweet appetizing nature of an appetizer, but such a combination of flavors was not outstanding. It only managed to play its role as an appetizer, qualifying it as acceptable.

After finishing the veal and chicken oil mushroom soup, Jiang Feng reconsidered the caviar egg pudding that he had polished off in just a few bites, and he even doubted whether the appetizer was actually made by Chef Arno.

The gap in quality between the two was just too great.

In fact, Jiang Feng didn’t need to doubt it because the appetizer was indeed not made by Chef Arno, and even the soup wasn’t supposed to be made by him.

For a 3-4 person set meal, the main course is the highlight. The kitchen seemed to time everything perfectly, as Jiang Feng and the others had just finished the veal and chicken oil mushroom soup when the first course of steak, which everyone got a piece of, was also served.

Besides the relatively common steak, the main courses included roasted chicken breast, cheese-baked eggplant, vegetable salad, seared salmon, and a roast chicken stuffed with fruits and other ingredients to enhance the chicken’s flavor, cooked in a way that resembled “Eight Treasure Chicken.”

There was a generous amount of food, creating the feel of a buffet from just a set meal.

While Jiang Feng had never cooked Western food nor made a steak himself, he at least recognized the ingredients. The meat chosen for the steak was prime rib-eye, and the salmon, too, came from an excellent part, and judging from the texture of the grilled meat, it seemed to be freshly slaughtered. However, those were not the surprising parts; what really amazed Jiang Feng was that the roast chicken was made from free-range chicken, not turkey.

The four pieces of rib-eye steak on the table were indubitably of great quality, with Snowflake marbling that was evenly distributed and visually appealing; just by looking, one could sense their tenderness and juiciness.

The cheese-tossed vegetable salad was a small bowl, looking very delicate and refreshing.

The chicken breast and salmon were both grilled, which felt somewhat repetitive, and compared to the salmon, the chicken breast was somewhat inferior and even somewhat superfluous.

Jiang Feng had never tried cheese-baked eggplant before. The name sounded a bit ominous, but the dish didn’t look too intimidating. Unfortunately, it was completely overshadowed by the roast chicken.

“`

As for the current dining table, the roast whole chicken is the undisputed king. In terms of color, aroma, size, and attractiveness, it utterly dominates and instantly defeats all other competitors.

Jiang Feng sat in his chair with a steak in front of him, but his eyes couldn’t help but continuously stare at the roast whole chicken on the table.

It was just too fragrant.

Unlike some fragrances that are forcibly produced by subpar spices and sauces, which shouldn’t be mentioned in polite company, the aroma of this roast chicken came from within.

The scent of chicken and the fragrance of fruit.

Besides these two aromas, Jiang Feng could faintly detect another very special scent, but he couldn’t place its origin; it wasn’t the smell of any seasoning. This made him suspect that the roast chicken might not have been cooked in a modern oven but rather with firewood, and this special fragrance should be the scent of wood.

The profit margins in the catering industry are astonishing, with the more upscale and luxurious restaurants having even more shocking profits. Initially, Jiang Feng thought that the top-floor restaurant’s chef’s tasting menu was priced at cost price, but now it seemed that it might very well be at a loss.

Whether the owner of Dingcheng Restaurant was a capitalist, Jiang Feng wasn’t sure, but they were certainly philanthropic, a great philanthropist at that.

When the appetizers and soups were served, Chef Arno even made a special trip to introduce the dishes, but now that the main course was finished, the chef hadn’t come out. After the last course of roast whole chicken was brought to the table, the four diners looked at each other, clearly hesitating whether to wait a bit longer to see if Chef Arno would come out or not to let the food cool down and immediately dig in.

In the kitchen, Chef Arno was talking rapidly to himself in front of a wall, in a low voice and at such a fast pace that it was almost inaudible to others. It looked like he was practicing a speech, but his expression was serious, and a flash of annoyance would occasionally appear in his eyes, making the other kitchen staff dare not disturb him and walk around him.

“Has the roast whole chicken been served? Where did that roast chicken go? Wasn’t it served yet?” Tao Shu, who was usually busy with her duties, suddenly looked up to find the roast chicken gone and immediately panicked.

“It’s been served, didn’t you see? It was served 5 minutes ago, what’s wrong?” an assistant cook asked nonchalantly.

“It’s over, it’s over,” Tao Shu said with a look of despair. “Just now Zhao told me that when the roast chicken was served, I needed to notify the head chef, and I just spaced out and didn’t pay attention at all, it’s over.”

Tao Shu looked as if she was about to be fired.

“Why not tell him now?” the assistant cook said, not understanding why Tao Shu was acting this way, “Anyway, we can’t understand what he says, and whatever we say, he can’t understand either, so just gesture to him, just point, and he wouldn’t know when it was served.”

Lightbulb moment for Tao Shu, she quickly ran to Chef Arno’s side and poked his arm cautiously. When Chef Arno turned around with a hostile expression, Tao Shu hurriedly pointed to where the roast chicken had been.

Chef Arno immediately nodded in comprehension, his expression looking somewhat relieved. He straightened his clothes and walked towards the dining area.

Tao Shu breathed a sigh of relief.

Her actions amused the assistant cook who had been watching, and the moment Chef Arno left, he chatted with Tao Shu, “Hey Tao, what’s the matter with you today? I never thought you were that scared of him, but today you act like a chicken that has seen a weasel, a Mouse who’s seen a cat.”

Tao Shu gave him an annoyed look, “What do you know, I made a mistake today and he caught it, if I made another…”

Tao Shu didn’t continue, just took a sharp breath.

“What mistake did you make?”

“I don’t know, I can’t understand these foreigners. I thought it was nothing, but the head chef, for some reason, just changed my soup. Wasn’t I supposed to make the Spanish gazpacho for the chef’s menu? I was counting on that to earn a bonus at the end of the month. The trial went well a couple of days ago, but just earlier, he came back and switched my soup without a word, and changed the original main course of veal stew with chanterelles into a soup,” said Tao Shu.

“Did you space out and add the wrong Seasoning when making the soup today?”

“No, the taste of the soup was very normal, I even tasted it separately,” Tao Shu grew more uneasy as she spoke, “Do you think this foreigner has it out for me, trying to find fault and fire me?”

“You’re overthinking it, surely there was something wrong with your soup. Why worry so much? As long as he doesn’t give you trouble before he leaves today, it’s fine. It’s just a bit of a hiccup with the dish, no issue if the guests didn’t notice. By the way, did the manager talk to you about next week’s day off?”

“Next week? No, not yet, but I heard…”

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