Chapter 51

One step, two steps, three steps...

The sugar strands still hadn’t broken!

He carefully stepped backward, holding the candied sweet potato high.

In the yard, the previously noisy crowd suddenly fell silent.

A few children ran over, wanting to see where theChapter 51: The matter of getting onto the famous chef roster has to be scheduled for a day...

While Wang Zhaoshan was carefully observing, Chen Ran was standing at the stove, experiencing the feeling of her fire-control skill finally reaching S-level.

So far, two of her skills have upgraded to S-level: one is fire control, the other is seasoning. However, the knife skills she has been relentlessly practicing still hover at A-level.

Was her practice method wrong?

Chen Ran didn’t just place hope on the system. Recently, she even bought a book called Deliberate Practice, trying to guide her culinary practice.

The book mentioned that when encountering a bottleneck, one shouldn’t attempt harder things but should do different things.

Judging from the fact that her fire control skill finally improved, this theory was correct. She tried a novel technique called “oil-base immersion,” which then triggered the skill breakthrough.

But knife skills… practicing cutting things over and over again, what kind of different thing could that be?

She couldn’t help but ask the system: “Give me another skill clue? Look, I’ve worked so hard on my knife skills. Besides hanging sandbags, what other methods are there to help me improve?”

The system was silent.

The progress in fire control skill was thanks to that old lady ordering candied sweet potato, which gave her the method of oil-base immersion, leading to the breakthrough.

Perhaps knife skills also need some kind of chance?

While Chen Ran was pondering, Brother Liu came over, lowering his voice cautiously and asked her, “Chef Chen, we’ve finished prepping the chicken and the pork knuckle. Do you think... should we start cooking?”

Not only was his voice lowered, even his breathing was quieter!

At first, they knew Chen Ran’s cooking skills were excellent, but excellence varies.

Dishes like Double Supreme Roast Chicken and Clear-Stewed Pork Knuckle easily give people the illusion that “if I have the recipe, I can do it too.” But this illusion quickly shatters in the face of absolute technical skills like oil-base immersion.

“Oh, okay, let’s start. I was a bit distracted.”

Only then did Chen Ran realize she had been too lost in thought, forgetting to start cooking. Several assistant cooks around her waited a long time before daring to remind her.

“I’ll cut the vegetables!”

“Oh, please don’t peel the sweet potatoes like that. Take another look at the chicken’s marinade?”

Today, when Chen Ran was checking the little chicken’s state and matching marinade packets, the assistant cooks, who usually avoided causing trouble, even kept farther away.

Chen Ran felt a bit emotional — indeed, real skill has to be proven by hands.

However, some people didn’t understand the significance of her oil-base immersion technique. Zhu Chenchen’s grandmother breezed in: “Hey, can I take some of that candied sweet potato to eat? This doesn’t count as a dish for the banquet, right?”

That dish was Chen Ran’s experimental trial, so of course it couldn’t be served at the banquet.

“Sure, you can have some.”

The old lady happily grabbed a piece with her hand right then and there, eating as she walked away. Aunt Wang looked annoyed but only spoke after the old lady left.

“I haven’t even had a bite of that candied sweet potato yet!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. We’ll make more later! After serving those dishes, we’ll keep a bowl for ourselves too.”

Chen Ran comforted Aunt Wang, “Besides, it was my first time making it. Next time I can do better.”

When Wang Zhaoshan came in, he heard this last sentence.

He couldn’t help but sigh again.

Last time at the cooking contest, watching Chen Ran so absorbed in cooking, he even thought perhaps he shouldn’t have given up cooking back then.

But hearing the phrase “first time,” he withdrew that thought.

Competing against such a genius? Better to just be a food critic honestly.

Wang Zhaoshan asked, “Chef Chen, is this really your first time making oil-base immersion?”

Chen Ran was somewhat surprised at how smooth it was for her, but such smoothness was not without foundation.

In the past month, she’d been frying goods from morning till night at Bai Tian’e, plus the caramelized sugar water she made when preparing roast chicken before — every step laid the groundwork for today’s oil-base sugar technique.

“It really is the first time I made oil-base immersion. But Uncle Wang, think about how many things I fried at Bai Tian’e. Just the frying alone used over a hundred barrels of oil. Was that oil wasted?”

Wang Zhaoshan sighed, “I’m starting to understand why your family’s culinary god ancestor worked all over the place rather than opening a restaurant immediately.”

Chen Ran nodded. Indeed, she couldn’t help but share a sentence she read recently: “Yes, I read in a book a few days ago that to improve, you don’t do harder things, but different things.”

Wang Zhaoshan thought carefully — that was really true!

At first, he thought Chen Ran’s working all over was partly for show, but mainly to avoid oppression from the Chen family.

But Chen Ran’s current culinary skill was beyond the Chen family’s capacity to suppress.

“People once came knocking to ask your culinary god ancestor, hoping to learn cooking from him. Chef Chen said back then, as long as they followed his path step by step, it was enough.”

“After this story got out, everyone thought he was brushing people off... but no one expected it to be true.”

Not to mention outsiders, even the Chen family themselves barely believed it. The one who truly practiced this was only Chen Ran herself.

Chen Ran felt a little embarrassed — this statement was only half true. The other half was that she had the system!

Unprecedentedly, the system didn’t remain silent but replied.

[Every recipe and technique released to the host is collected and created by Chef Chen during his travels. The host should not belittle herself.]

This greatly boosted Chen Ran’s confidence.

She quietly asked the system in her heart, “Really? But my seasoning skill is all given directly by the system... can that count as my own ability?”

The system paused before continuing.

[If the host’s taste buds are intact, this system can provide 2,536 compound flavor profiles for the host to taste and distinguish, allowing the seasoning skill to reach S-level within a month.]

[Seasoning skill is essentially a decision-making skill.]

[Decision-making mainly relies on information and knowledge.]

[With enough samples accumulated, the host can make the best decisions when facing different foods.]

The confidence revealed in these words even made Chen Ran feel the system had sneered disdainfully at first.

“So the recipes I’m making now... and those techniques like oil-base immersion are all collected by the ancestor on his travels?”

[There are also some original creations, such as the host’s Double Supreme Roast Chicken.]

This sentence made Chen Ran’s heart beat faster.Although her culinary skills were rapidly improving, she actually had some insecurities.

From Chen Ran’s own perspective, the rapid growth over the past few months was almost entirely thanks to the system; her own effort only accounted for a small part.

But now, she even received recognition from the system!

Facing Wang Zhaoshan, Chen Ran started brushing sugar color onto the roast chicken and couldn’t help but ask, “Uncle Wang, do you really think I’m suited to be a chef?”

When he heard this, Wang Zhaoshan was almost overwhelmed.

A genius who could perfectly complete the oil-bottom caramelization at once was actually asking him, an old man who gave up learning cooking in childhood and could only turn to food reviewing, whether she was suited to be a chef?

But looking at Chen Ran’s expression, he realized she was truly insecure about this.

Wang Zhaoshan sighed in his heart: Chen Yun almost destroyed such a genius from Lao Deng!

He composed himself, nodded seriously, and solemnly said, “Very suited. There’s no one more suited than you.”

In the past, he only thought Chen Ran was a bit too earnest and humble, but he didn’t expect that such an attitude actually came from her lack of confidence.

“Chef Chen, you have to believe that so many fan groups chasing after you aren’t because no one has ever eaten delicious food!”

Wang Zhaoshan took out his phone to show Chen Ran the fan groups he joined: “Look at how much everyone is drooling!”

Chen Ran smiled shyly.

“Alright, I won’t think too much about this. I’ll just work hard to keep improving my cooking.”

She didn’t have time to think much now—Zhu Chenchen’s graduation banquet would start in two hours, so she had to get cooking!

Seeing Chen Ran get to work, Wang Zhaoshan thought for a moment and called Chang Nian.

“I think we should move up the timing for putting Chef Chen on the Famous Chefs List.”

The two had discussed before, worried that promoting the young girl too early would affect her culinary progress.

But those assumptions were based on fears that she might become arrogant or be disturbed.

But now, was she arrogant? So many people followed her cooking, yet she still lacked confidence. Getting her proud would be harder than climbing to the sky.

As for disturbance...

Wang Zhaoshan glanced at the fast-scrolling messages in the fan group.

With Chen Ran’s style of working various part-time jobs everywhere, it probably wasn’t easy to really disturb her.

“Well…”

Chang Nian hesitated on the other end but agreed it might be possible to promote Chen Ran to the Famous Chefs List earlier.

Last time, she only thought the girl was very steady but didn’t realize the steadiness hid a lack of confidence.

Facing too many flowers and applause too early might make a prodigy fade into obscurity; but without others’ recognition to affirm confidence, even a genius would wither.

“I’ll find time soon to do another tasting. The rules for the Famous Chefs List can’t be broken. No matter how talented the chef, they have to be tasted twice to get listed.”

“Where is she cooking these days? Which restaurant is it this time?”

Mentioning tasting, Chang Nian also recalled the last time’s stunning clear-braised pork knuckle.This time when she goes again, she’ll definitely bring her own soy sauce and properly gnaw on half a pork knuckle!

Hearing Chang Nian’s question, Wang Zhaoshan was silent for a moment: “Right now, she’s running around with a group doing big rural banquets.”

Chang Nian rubbed her forehead.

The selection for the Famous Chefs List had been going on for many years, and some of the data she didn’t remember very clearly.

She no longer remembered if Chen Ran was the youngest famous chef, but she knew this was definitely the most unconventional famous chef!

“I get it. In the future, when she’s on the Famous Chefs List, our readers will look and say, ‘Hey, I like this chef, I’ll go try her dishes!’”

“Then, the readers will flip through the list, preparing to see which restaurant this young and impressive chef works at and how to make a reservation. If they can’t get a reservation, they’ll find a scalper.”

“But then they find out, to eat this famous chef’s dishes, they first have to find out where she’s drifting around, and second, they have to have some family wedding or funeral event at the right time just to get a taste.”

Wang Zhaoshan fell silent again.

“Maybe when she gets on the Famous Chefs List, she won’t even be working at these banquet places anymore; she might have moved on.”

Chang Nian laughed angrily: “Fine, anyway, the Famous Chefs List always lists the restaurants chefs have worked at. We’ll just add a line for Chef Chen Ran later.”

“Chen Ran, former restaurants: Qimingxing Kindergarten, Qiaotou Road Police Station, Yanglianshan Small Restaurant, Bai Tian’e KTV, right?”

“Yes… and also Shu Family Banquet Vehicle…”

There was a silence on the phone for a full thirty seconds.

Wang Zhaoshan had to comfort Chang Nian: “It’s okay, the Famous Chefs List has been hitting a bottleneck in circulation recently anyway! Director, think about it, this is such a great gimmick! When that food blogger Zhu Nan first posted about the kindergarten lion’s head meatballs, their followers went up by 300,000 instantly!”

“Alright, stop looking to the future,” Chang Nian raised the issue she cared about most now, “First, get me Chen Ran’s location for the next few days. If I, the Famous Chefs List director, can’t even try the food, that’d be really embarrassing.”

“Okay, I…”

Wang Zhaoshan originally wanted to promise Chang Nian he’d complete the task.

After all, to still sneak into banquets in the next few days, he, Shunzi, and Zhu Nan all tacitly agreed not to forward the video to the fan groups.

As long as the fan army didn’t catch on, he could still figure out a way to get a spot for Chang Nian.

But before he finished speaking, he suddenly saw someone had posted the video into the fan group!

The ID forwarding the video was “May This Star Be Like Last Night”…

Isn’t that Zhu Chenchen?

Your own maternal grandmother’s graduation banquet doesn’t bring you along, and you’re just going to fairly smash every group member’s meal ticket, huh?

Wang Zhaoshan quickly changed the subject: “I can only say I’ll try my best.”

Chang Nian, frustrated, said sharply: “It can’t be just trying, it must be done!”

Hearing the director hang up angrily, and seeing the crowd filling the banquet courtyard, Wang Zhaoshan felt a bit bitter inside.

But whether he could get the next spot was a matter for later. Now that he had managed to snag a spot using a photo with Zhu Chenchen, he had to get his money’s worth first!

He quickly dashed back to his seat.

The Chen fans present had already seen his earlier performance of pulling the sugar strands and asked eagerly, “How was it? Was the candied sweet potato delicious?”“You’re asking this? Is there any dish Chen Ran makes that doesn’t taste good? You should be asking how good it is!”

“Qiu Xian filmed a video; you guys watch it later,” Wang Zhaoshan specially emphasized, “Before watching, look up ‘you di chen jiang’ online and see how many people can actually do it, so you don’t get confused watching the video.”

When Wang Zhaoshan discovered Chen Ran using the “you di chen jiang” technique, he immediately called Qiu Xian over to record the video.

Such a shocking visual effect definitely had to be promoted for Chen Ran in the future!

Since Zhu Chenchen had already announced that Chen Ran was coming to the big banquet, Wang Zhaoshan went ahead and forwarded the video into the fan group.

Worried some group members wouldn’t understand the trick, he dutifully wrote a short introduction.

Wang Zhaoshan was waiting for the group’s amazed reactions but instead got a flood of complaints.

“Great! You got the info but didn’t post it in the fan group, secretly going to eat alone?”

“You had time to film the video but no time to share it with the fans?”

“You got in yourself, but don’t think about the fans? Strongly suggest this ID gets put at the bottom of the queue from now on!”

“Yeah, bottom of the queue!”

Wang Zhaoshan couldn’t believe it—bottom of the queue? Every time Chen Ran worked at these places they were packed with people. What would bottom of the queue even get you? Just eating dust?

He quietly closed the group chat and saw Zhu Nan laughing nonstop nearby.

“Don’t laugh. I actually have several alternate IDs in the fan group! If one gets pushed to the bottom, there’s another one,” Wang Zhaoshan rolled his eyes at Zhu Nan, “Once your video goes out, you’ll get the same treatment. You think you can just eat at the banquets and not post videos?”

Now it was Zhu Nan who was worried.

Although he was a freelance blogger, his schedule was packed too. This might be the only time he could eat Chen Ran’s banquet dishes.

Such precious footage definitely couldn’t just be filmed and not posted.

“Forget it, let’s focus on the present!”

Soon, the banquet started serving dishes!

The first to arrive were two cold dishes: one called “San Si Bao Dou” and one vegetarian mixed hearts salad.

San Si Bao Dou is a classic but not very famous Northeast dish. Chen Ran heard from Shu Jianmin that the old lady who runs this place was married from the Northeast, and on a whim added a hometown dish.

None of those present had heard of this dish, but just by looking at it, it gave off a simple yet tempting appetite.

“What’s this?”

“Hey, you still have time to ask what it is? Just start picking!”

Chen Ran thoughtfully divided the cold dish into two parts—considering many don’t eat cilantro, half was mixed with cilantro and the other half replaced cilantro with scallion strips.

At the table, only Wang Zhaoshan recognized the dish and couldn’t help but show off a bit: “You’ve never had this, right? It’s a specialty from Heilongjiang Province, San Si Bao Dou!”

“Don’t look down on it because it looks plain, it’s delicious!”

Zhu Nan had already picked a big forkful, first habitually feeding the fans in front of the camera before shoving it all into his mouth.

Although it was a cold dish, once in the mouth, there was an intense fried aroma!

Inside, the potato strips were actually fried crispy, combined with onion strips and cilantro, with a slight sweet and spicy taste that was incredibly appetizing.On the other half without cilantro, the scallion strips seemed to be treated so they weren’t too pungent. The combination of the spicy flavor and the crispy fried potato strips was incredibly satisfying.

The fried peanuts inside perfectly capped off this appetizing dish.

“Delicious!”

At this moment, Wang Zhaoshan’s explanation was finished, but the plate was already empty!

Mistake... After so many years without experiencing the rush to grab food, he forgot to pick first.

Luckily, there was still the vegetarian mixed hearts salad left.

Unlike the intense aroma of the San Si Bao Dou, this vegetarian salad’s flavor could be described as simple.

As a food critic, although Wang Zhaoshan couldn’t immediately identify all the spices in the marinade at first bite, he could roughly tell that this salad was seasoned almost solely with salt and sesame oil.

The light fragrance of the sesame oil and the perfectly balanced saltiness brought out the fresh, slightly bitter nature of the vegetable itself.

Fresh vegetables just pulled from the farm—this kind of preparation was already nearly perfect.

Wang Zhaoshan nodded.

Perhaps, compared to knowing what seasonings to add, knowing when not to over-season is the true level of a high-class chef.

He slowly picked up his phone and, while there was still some food left on the plate, quickly took multiple shots from different angles and sent them to Zhu Chenchen.

For every dish from now on, he would livestream it for Zhu Chenchen!

The “bottom of the queue” grudge couldn’t just be let go!

Meanwhile, when Zhu Chenchen was craving and itching to eat, her own grandmother was holding the plate of San Si Bao Dou, eating it with tears in her eyes.

She only mentioned the candied sweet potatoes but unexpectedly got another serving of San Si Bao Dou. She never thought she’d get to eat it again!

“Grandma, let me try a bite… you also try some of this vegetable heart.”

The old lady looked at her beloved Zhu Kuangkuang with some tenderness and generously offered half the cold dish.

Although the chef’s skills were good, did she not understand the vegetables from her own home garden? Blanching and dipping in sauce was already tasty, something she ate every day.

But this one forkful of vegetarian mixed hearts made her realize for the first time that the vegetables she grew... could taste this good?

The old lady became proud: “Come, come, everyone try it, see how good the little veggies I grew are!”

After these two simple cold dishes, the long-awaited candied sweet potatoes were brought to the table!

Almost every table had someone jumping up first to try pulling the sugar strands.

“Wow, it stretches so long and doesn’t break?”

“Enough, enough, stop stretching, it’s sticking to me!”

“You keep stretching, I’ll eat more pieces for you!”

Everyone had been looking forward to this candied sweet potato dish for a long time!

The length of the sugar threads was just a nice bonus for diners. The key was whether it tasted good.

One bite, the sugar crust was crispy but not too thick. The sugar coating outside combined perfectly with the sweet potato chunks inside.Especially, this sweet potato tastes sweet, soft, and fragrant, yet not greasy at all. The syrup is cooked through very well—while it can stretch into threads, it doesn’t stick to the teeth when eaten.

“How come I feel like this sweetness tastes a bit different from what I’ve had before?”

While filming the video of the sugar threads on the candied sweet potato for Zhu Chenchen, Wang Zhaoshan casually replied, “Because a bit of salt was added to the seasoning of these sweet potato chunks.”

This was the change Chen Ran made during the second trial.

Qiu Xian was a bit skeptical. She first ate the sugar crust of the candied sweet potato, rinsed her mouth, then cautiously bit into the sweet potato...

She didn’t... taste any saltiness!

But the sweetness of the sweet potato was indeed very prominent!

“If you could taste the salt, then the sweetness wouldn’t be this good!”

Wang Zhaoshan deliberately filmed Qiu Xian biting into the candied sweet potato and continued sending the footage to Zhu Chenchen.

“This method of adding salt is quite sophisticated...”

Indeed, Chen Ran herself hadn’t expected to achieve such a perfect effect in the end.

A very slight hint of salt can highlight the sweetness more perfectly—this is a consensus in the chef industry. But how to add that saltiness is a very difficult technique to master.

Chen Ran had thought that having S-level seasoning skills alone would do it, but she hadn’t expected that only after upgrading her heat control skill to S-level as well, the combination of these two skills perfectly achieved this effect.

Perhaps every chef skill doesn’t work independently.

She became increasingly eager to see what it would be like when her other skills also upgraded to S-level.

After finally finishing stir-frying the last dish, Chen Ran sat down on the armchair Zhu Kuangkuang brought over to rest.

Suddenly she remembered she hadn’t checked the flavor special effect mission for the candied sweet potato yet!

She quickly opened the system panel and clicked on the flavor special effect mission.

[Mission Requirement: Diners’ drooling value reaches 100,000 points]

[Mission Progress: (300/100000)]

Just moments after opening the mission, the anticipation value had already jumped +100, +100, three times!

Chen Ran vaguely felt this increment of one hundred at a time seemed somewhat familiar?

In a corner she hadn’t expected, Zhu Chenchen was painfully struggling yet couldn’t stop herself from clicking to watch the video.

This golden-red candied sweet potato was just too tempting!

“Damn you, Wang Zhaoshan... I will find all your alternate accounts and put them at the bottom of the queue!”