However, he spoke one true thing: those with skills value their craftsmanship greatly. There’s a saying, "Teach the apprentice, starve the master," so it’s hard for anyone to want to pass down their skills to others.
The inn changing to a new head chef was indeed of no benefit to him.
Dahu said, "Master, rest assured, you should take back this money. If I’ve acknowledged you as my teacher, then you are like my father. You can teach me culinary arts wholeheartedly, and I certainly won’t harm you."
Altogether, six dishes were served, with an additional egg drop soup at the end.
After Zheng Shaochen started, Gu Nian picked up her chopsticks and first went for the braised pork.
The inn’s head chef’s culinary skills were decent; both the texture and heat were very good, tastier than what they made at home the last time.
However, compared to truly braised pork, there were still some shortcomings.
The main issue was with the soy sauce.
During the last time she got soy sauce, Gu Nian noticed that the soy sauce of this era was still using ancient brewing methods without filtering, more like soybean paste. Both in terms of color and taste, it was somewhat coarse.
She originally thought it was because she bought the cheaper kind, but after tasting this, she confirmed that the quality and price of the soy sauce weren’t related.
"How is it? Tasty?" Zheng Shaochen asked her. Read full story at novel⁂fire.net
Gu Nian nodded, "Hmm, quite good."
Besides Dahu, no one noticed the head chef standing on standby, quietly wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.
"If it’s tasty, eat more," Zheng Shaochen was satisfied but didn’t forget to add, "My cousin is fine in other ways, but he’s extremely picky about food. I want to visit him often, but unfortunately, he finds me annoying and doesn’t allow me to visit frequently. When you go back later, bring some for my cousin as well. This braised pork is new; he hasn’t tried it yet."
"Sure." The girl nodded and moved on to pick other dishes.
After tasting them, she had a rough understanding of this era’s food.
It seems, indeed as she suspected, that people in this world are still at the stage where food just needs to be filling. Even if there are some delicacies, compared to what she saw in her past life, there’s a significant gap.
Mainly, the food additive methods aren’t mature, and most haven’t been discovered at all.
Zheng Shaochen quite likes to talk, especially when it comes to Nan Jin Yu. His complaints aren’t hard to spot, mainly because Nan Jin Yu ignores him, giving him a sense of defeat internally. But more than that, it’s his admiration for Nan Jin Yu.
Gu Nian then learned that Nan Jin Yu was remarkably intelligent from a young age, becoming Yunyao’s youngest scholar at twelve, and his skills were also exceptional.
Unfortunately, all his glory came to an end early last year.
He was first ambushed when traveling, later poisoned severely and left in the deep woods. When found, he was barely alive.
Later, the toxins in his body couldn’t be controlled and had to be confined to his legs, resulting in paralysis.
Zheng Shaochen probably felt he had talked too much and suddenly fell silent.
Gu Nian excused herself to go out but actually snuck into the kitchen.
The head chef had some leverage, so he turned a blind eye to this and let Dahu and Gu Nian go out together to talk.
Gu Nian got straight to the point, "Brother, how did it go with the smoked sausages?"
Dahu smiled and said, "Master tried the method you suggested, and the taste was good. It’s just that he’s been busy these days and hasn’t had a chance to bring it up with the shopkeeper."