Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Chapter 345: A New Approach to Grinding Skill Level


Qin Huai quietly watched Cao Guixiang cutting yam.

Cao Guixiang's knife was very fast, her movements were simple, cutting yam was no different from cutting a radish. Qin Huai felt that Cao Guixiang had neither hesitation nor thought; she was simply cutting yam by instinct, the knife was so fast that you could see an afterimage, and in almost a blink of an eye, a yam was sliced.

Qin Huai glanced at the yam slices, they were evenly thick, as if copied and pasted, slightly thinner than what he had cut just now.

"When your knife skills are proficient enough, you can cut as quickly as I just did. But fast doesn't mean good, many chefs pursue speed, thinking the faster they are, the better their knife skills must be, often making many mistakes. In fact, the time you take on these few cuts won't affect your work for the day, and going a bit slower won't affect the final product."

After saying this, Cao Guixiang began to cut a new yam, this time her speed was much more normal compared to the previous one, almost on par with Qin Huai's yam cutting speed.

Cao Guixiang's knife was very steady, slow but rhythmic, very detailed, detailed enough that Qin Huai felt he could see Cao Guixiang's points of force with each cut.

The incision, the angle, the position of the wrist, the way the arm exerts force. Cao Guixiang wasn't just cutting vegetables; she was teaching, very meticulous face-to-face teaching.

"You see, often slow allows you to notice the details, just now when I was cutting fast you couldn't see clearly how each cut was made. As an observer, you can't see clearly, and as the person cutting, you can't fully understand either, but if you cut slowly there's higher tolerance, time to find the feel."

As she spoke, Cao Guixiang finished cutting another yam.

"Not slow, right?" Cao Guixiang asked with a smile.

Qin Huai nodded heavily.

At this moment, Qin Huai understood that Cao Guixiang and Huang Shengli were two different styles of teachers.

Huang Shengli, being a very rare Gold Medal Master with very clear language expression and rich teaching experience, focuses more on detailed explanations when teaching. He likes to watch how Qin Huai does it from the side, then promptly points out the problems, only demonstrating once after the same problem occurs repeatedly with Qin Huai.

Cao Guixiang's teaching style is quite similar, but her language expression isn't as good as Huang Shengli's, so she tends to demonstrate with actual operations while speaking.

Cao Guixiang likes to let Qin Huai do it multiple times first, exposing all problems before making targeted corrections.

Both styles of teachers are masters, both are very traditional teaching methods.

Qin Huai watched as Cao Guixiang cut 10 yams and then began to fry.

The first time frying, Cao Guixiang used her style, the actions were simple without embellishment, and wielded the spatula just as it should be wielded, without any unnecessary movements.

Even the final thickening wasn't done with grand flourishes; it was a very plain, normal thickening.

"To learn thickening, you first need to learn how to mix the starch water. Why do I say your thickening has big problems? Because you were wrong from the beginning."

"The skill of thickening has a lot of knowledge in the starch water. Choosing what kind of starch, how to mix, whether thick or thin, ratio, whether to mix, these are all things that require the chef's own decision, testing the chef's overall grasp and judgment of the dish."

"Of course, you, as a pastry chef, don't need to be so proficient. In the document I gave you, the dishes that need thickening have the starch water preparation noted, just follow the recipe."

"Now I'll tell you how to mix the starch water for frying yam, you need to think about it when learning the recipe. When you understand why this dish needs this ratio of starch water during thickening, you've really learned thickening."

After speaking, Cao Guixiang slowly mixed a starch water in front of Qin Huai, mentioning the ratio while doing so, then started frying yam again.

This time, Cao Guixiang imitated Qin Huai's actions while frying yam, appearing somewhat flustered, not knowing how to wield, but the final product was still very good.

Qin Huai: ....

Was this really how he cooked every time?

Before, at Huang Ji, how did those chefs hold back their laughter while watching him cook?

"You can see, right, the action doesn't affect the final product. The purpose of practicing fire control and mastering spoon flipping is to ensure even heat for the dish, although your cooking looks odd, not sure where you learned it from, but your purpose is clear, you know the purpose of your spatula movements."

"So I think your foundation in heat control is good, without major issues."

"Of course, slightly correcting your actions would be even better. From whom did you learn these actions?"

Qin Huai: ....

Don't know, maybe it's just talent.

Qin Huai spent the whole night frying yam like this.

Using 10 yams as a unit, he fried 10, then Cao Guixiang fried 10, repeating the cycle. The yams fried by the two were worlds apart, no need to taste, just by looking at the appearance you could tell which plate was fried by Qin Huai and which by Cao Guixiang.

Zhang Chu sat outside with a small bench, watching, then grabbed and started eating. Taking a bite of what Qin Huai made, then a bite of what Cao Guixiang made, occasionally muttering some comments:

"The dishes Xiao Qin fries compared to the snacks he makes, there's really quite a big difference."

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