"What we’re doing this time is to resist the bad phenomenon of deceiving diners, purify the consumption environment of the restaurant industry, and let diners eat with peace of mind and assurance!"
Although He Dazhuang is a chef, his eloquence is quite good, and he elaborated a bunch of high-sounding principles, making everyone else in the private room nod continuously.
"Lao He is right. Diners are our bread and butter; how can we fool them? That’s just heartless!"
"Exactly! It’s too unethical, and we kind-hearted, honest people cannot tolerate this behavior; we must expose it!"
"What a pity, people like us are a minority, after all. Many know these people are deceiving diners yet still continue to praise them. Sigh, it’s really speechless!"
"..."
"Hey, we can’t control what others do, let’s just do our best ourselves."
Seeing everyone getting excited, He Dazhuang waved his hand with a smile and was about to say something else when there was a soft knock on the door.
The previously noisy private room suddenly quieted down, and everyone turned to look. The door to the private room was pushed open, and a pretty waitress walked in. She smiled sweetly and asked,
"Good evening, bosses, can we start serving now?"
He Dazhuang calmly put down his raised hand and nodded slightly,
"Serve the dishes, please!"
"Alright, bosses, please wait a moment."
The waitress nodded and turned around to leave.
At this point, the short and chubby Qian Yunfan curled his lips and sarcastically said,
"The waitstaff here all look pretty ordinary. Although their service attitude is okay, it’s clear they haven’t been trained.
Only a restaurant like Dinner Room No. 7, located in a school, could pull something like this off.
It’s just lowering the grade of the establishment! And they dare to call this a high-end restaurant?
Besides the high price, I can’t see anything high-end about it!"
The square-faced chef sitting opposite him couldn’t help but laugh and said jokingly,
"What you’re saying, Lao Qian, isn’t right. Among the array of cafeterias at this school, Dinner Room No. 7 is the most high-end. At least it has a private room and waitstaff!
Just look at the other cafeterias; they don’t even have this!"
"Haha, isn’t this just about picking the tallest dwarf, or a phoenix jumping out of a chicken coop?"
"Putting scallions in the nose of a pig to pretend it’s an elephant! This place is at best slightly better than a cafeteria, not even as good as small restaurants by the roadside! How good can the food here be?"
"..."
The group started criticizing the ordinary looks and unprofessional service of the waitstaff, attacking point by point, and eventually slandered the ever-popular and acclaimed Dinner Room No. 7 into being worthless.
The truth is, these chefs were just filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.
Imagine, if they could be as renowned as Jiang Yu, and have people willing to pay a hundred thousand to taste their banquet, would they still be stuck in a relatively unknown restaurant in Jiangxia, slaving away in the kitchen day after day?
By then, they would have been hired at high salaries to top restaurants in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, wearing pristine white chef uniforms and towering chef hats in spacious, bright, and tidy kitchens, commanding a team of chefs bustling around...
Dreams are beautiful, but reality is cruel.
They toil like dogs in the kitchen, at times being yelled at by ill-tempered diners.
Then, with a swift turn, there stands a younger chef than them who not only goes unscolded but is praised to the skies...
D**n it! Who the hell can stand such contrast?!
Enough said, if I can’t fly, how could I just watch others soar?
Even if I can’t knock him down, I have to pull him down, stomp him hard into the mud!
If in this process, I can step up on his "corpse" to advance further, that would be wonderful!
...
In the "Kyushu" room, the group of chefs continued to vehemently belittle Jiang Yu and his Dinner Room No. 7, until they all couldn’t help but laugh.
It seemed like everything they said was true, as if Jiang Yu and his Dinner Room No. 7 were indeed so terrible!
Seeing the crowd vent their frustration, He Dazhuang clapped his hands and said seriously,
"Alright, how we comment on Dinner Room No. 7 isn’t important; what the diners think is the most crucial.
Rather than saying all these random things, we should think about how to critique the dishes later, to let diners realize that the food here is actually average and not as delicious as rumored."
His words calmed down the initially excited crowd, and they all fell into deep thought.
Soon, the previous waitress started serving the dishes, beginning with a few cold appetizers: Crisp Double Cooked Beef with Fresh Peppers, Sichuan Style Rabbit, Spicy Hand-Torn Chicken, Crystal Skin Jelly, Old Vinegar Peanuts, and Crisp Fresh Melon Strips.
These six appetizers, each one was beautifully presented and brightly colored, making them visually appealing, and people hesitated to ruin their aesthetics by picking them up with their chopsticks.