Chapter 53

Chapter 53

What? All done by the same chef...

“Really impressive, Brother Wang, you actually came up with a trick like this?”

Wang Zhaoshan calmly cupped his hands: “Ah, it’s all stuff I learned early on, still remember it, not forgotten! Also lucky this wedding was arranged so suddenly, otherwise who would let us in?”

“Indeed, I only learned the school military band music temporarily back in middle school...”

The strongest was Chang Nian—her big drum was even learned last minute. Fortunately, the wedding march was just that one song, practicing for five or six days was enough. Otherwise, she really couldn’t imagine how she’d even get in.

“Luckily this family’s wedding was last minute too, if there’d been more preparation time, we wouldn’t have gotten in,” Chang Nian said as she rubbed her arm at the table. Ji You next to her firmly massaged her shoulders. “Chef Chen is really amazing. I just heard outside, this wedding was originally planned for National Day next year.”

They moved it forward by a whole year!

But luckily it was like this; otherwise, how could this group of makeshift performers get in last minute?

While they were talking, Qingjiao Ge’s phone kept ringing. Suddenly he slapped his forehead and remembered: there was still someone outside!

Qingjiao Ge laughed embarrassedly and quickly went out to bring the big-bearded man leading the horse inside.

Zhu Nan was drinking water and almost spit it out when he saw the big-bearded man come in.

Though the upper half of his face was disguised, isn’t this the movie emperor Qian Jun?

The horse-leading spot had actually been sold to Qian Jun by Qingjiao Ge. After leading the horse, Qian Jun was afraid of being recognized and surrounded by crowds, so he obediently waited quietly for Qingjiao Ge to get information. After all, he couldn’t keep wearing that big beard during the meal.

“Hey, why are you pulling me? I haven’t even put on my sunglasses yet!”

The movie emperor was fumbling to put on sunglasses when Qingjiao Ge held his hand down: “Relax, no outsiders! Just our fan club people!”

Last time eating at Yanglian Mountain small restaurant gave Qian Jun a very high opinion of Chen Ran’s fan club.

In other places, he always had to worry about being recognized and then surrounded by crazy fans he couldn’t escape.

But whether at Yanglian Mountain restaurant or later at the White Swan KTV, everyone was at most politely taking pictures; no one blocked or chased him.

Everyone there was a foodie! The only one who chased was Chen Ran herself!

“Oh, then I can relax…”

Qian Jun pulled off the fake beard stuck on his face and sat down at the table, relieved. Looking at the people there, he had actually seen them all before when lining up at White Swan.

This wedding host, just now he felt she had an extraordinary aura. After Qingjiao Ge’s introduction, she was actually a female CEO?

And that white-haired female drummer in the band, impressively, was the director of Master Chef?

“Oh, how rude of me! You’re here to try Chen Ran’s dishes?”

Chang Nian stretched out her hand and modestly shook hands with the movie emperor: “Exactly, I was originally thinking of trying them later, but didn’t expect the chef to be so hard to catch...”

Everyone deeply agreed, and the table burst into laughter.

This whole table was made up of Chen Ran’s fan club members, even the backbone of the fan club. The chat was lively, and they even dragged Qian Jun and Chang Nian into the ‘Lion’s Head’ group chat on the spot.

“A month ago, I wouldn’t have dreamed I’d one day eat a banquet personally cooked by Chen Ran…”

Finally, the dishes at this table started arriving!

Before the food was served, the chat was still lively; after the dishes came out, the whole room instantly fell silent.Of course, it wasn’t completely quiet; there were still some verbal exchanges.

“Mine!”

“I’ll divide it evenly!”

“No, this fish has to be cut open!”

Almost everyone seated here had sneaked in with their own tricks, each with an extraordinary passion for good food.

Naturally… they also had an exceptional understanding of how to grab dishes.

At first, everyone was considerate of Ms. Chang Nian’s full head of white hair and deliberately tried to give her space.

But soon, everyone realized this elegant silver-haired lady was actually the best at snatching dishes in the whole room!

Don’t be fooled by her graceful way of holding chopsticks—underneath that elegance was a speed that no one else could match even if they tried to flatter her.

Moreover, she had plenty of reasons to eat more.

“I have to take a couple more bites of this dish, right? If Chen Ran gets on Master Chef, this would definitely be a highlight dish.”

“This pork knuckle is supposed to be divided by headcount, two pieces each. But as for me… judging by the appearance, I need one piece, then another by smell, and then to taste texture and flavor, I should have one piece each, right?”

A few college students from Qingjiao Ge’s dorm were unknowingly conned into losing one piece of pork knuckle each.

Ms. Wang couldn’t stand it and quietly reminded them: “It’s okay, our table can order extra dishes.”

They weren’t here just as guests; they were staff!

“The video we’re shooting is still with Zhu Nan and the others. Even if it’s to make the editing look better, the host wouldn’t let us go hungry.”

Makes sense!

Everyone stopped scheming and started eating like crazy.

“So nice... I really didn’t expect there’d be a day I could eat Chef Chen’s dishes until I was full.”

The photographer’s tears almost fell!

He himself ate two lion’s head meatballs, finally making up for the regret of the first kindergarten shoot.

“Indeed, I really hope Chen Ran ends her part-time job early and opens her own restaurant. Just don’t know where she’ll open it?”

“Definitely in the capital! Sister Chen Ran’s cooking skills are, out of all the chefs I’ve eaten from, the best!”

Zhu Nan, quite smooth socially, kept chatting with Ms. Chang Nian and Wang Zhaoshan.

After all, as a food blogger, getting along well with someone like Chang Nian, a heavyweight chef and judge, could only bring benefits.

“Ms. Chang, could you please comment on these dishes for us? We only know they’re delicious, but we don’t really understand exactly what makes them good.”

Chang Nian was about eighty percent full by now, savoring the food leisurely.

She rarely ate with so many people; having grown up in a monastery, she usually preferred quiet.

However, everyone at this table could be called relatively “pure” food lovers with high standards. This meal didn’t feel noisy to her at all.

Eating the same table of food with people who shared her interests sparked an unusually lively conversation for her.“Then I’ll start by reviewing this candied sweet potato dish.”

“This dish can be said to be extremely rare.”

Before coming, Chang Nian had already seen the video Wang Zhaoshan sent her and learned that Chen Ran used the technique of “oil-bottom sediment,” which made her particularly interested in this dish.

Sure enough, it didn’t disappoint her.

“The oil-bottom sediment technique is very difficult, but nowadays almost no one uses it because the cost-performance ratio is too low.”

“To make a dish more delicious, there are several main approaches.”

“First: fresher and better ingredients, which is also the relatively easiest.”

“Second: more suitable seasoning and cooking time. This can be gradually improved by repeated testing of the same dish.”

“Generally speaking, no one considers using more difficult techniques to improve a dish’s flavor. Take this candied sweet potato, for example—perfecting the common method can get this dish to 95 points.”

“But using a technique like oil-bottom sediment can raise the dish from 95 points to 98. But that’s about the best it can do.”

Chang Nian’s commentary was on the dishes, but every word could also be about the people.

“That’s why I said this dish is truly rare.”

“Why doesn’t anyone use the oil-bottom sediment technique now? Is it too difficult? Not really. Compared to the ‘Wensi Tofu’ method of cutting tofu into fine strips, this technique is actually easier.”

“Ultimately, it’s because its cost-effectiveness is too low. How much can a candied sweet potato dish sell for? At best, if placed in Weizhi Zhai, it would sell for 98 yuan, and even then the order rate is very low.”

“Also, the Wensi Tofu technique is something laypeople can appreciate as a show of skill. But what about oil-bottom sediment? To ordinary people, it just looks like throwing sugar into a pot of oil.”

“But a chef with this skill going to study Japanese cuisine? Going to Japan to polish their skills, then hype it up and open a restaurant with an average bill of one to two thousand yuan per person—isn’t that easy?”

The previously noisy dining table quieted down.

“Running Master Chef these past two years has actually been very difficult. I don’t know if anyone here has been following our rankings.”

“If you have, you’d probably notice that there are only two chefs under fifty on the entire list.”

“The cultivation of Chinese chefs… can even be said to be in a transitional gap.”

“This is an impatient era, an era of streamers and internet-famous restaurants exploiting customers. It’s an era when it’s almost impossible for anyone to learn a difficult skill like oil-bottom sediment just for a thirty-yuan candied dish at a restaurant.”

Chang Nian placed the plate back in the center of the table.

“After talking about the dishes, we end up talking about people… just like what we do is Master Chef, not Famous Recipes.”

“There’s a joke that foreign cooking is measured in grams, but Chinese cooking is all ‘appropriate amount’ or ‘a little’.”

“Chinese cooking relies most on the chef… even if the recipe is exactly the same, different chefs will produce subtle differences.”

“What makes Chef Chen Ran strongest is that you don’t taste any hint of opportunism in her dishes.”

Chang Nian sighed; she had tasted far too much of that opportunism in other chefs’ dishes.

“Not only this candied sweet potato, but also look at this Double Excellence Roast Chicken and this Salt and Pepper Pork Knuckle. Every dish is made with the most suitable technique, absolutely without any gimmicks.”

“Try them. If nothing unexpected happens, in ten or twenty years, she will be one of the top chefs on the Master Chef leaderboard.”

Wang Zhaoshan couldn’t help but glance at Chang Nian.He held Chen Ran in high regard but didn’t dare to think of the Top Tier!

Who are the chefs that can make it onto the Master Chef Top Tier? Even the old master of the Chen family, Chen Yuncong, who built such a big business, is only ranked eleventh on the Top Tier.

Chang Nian, a female chef who has served several state banquets and is the director of Master Chef, whose all-vegetarian banquet once earned praise from foreign heads of state, is only ranked sixth on the Top Tier.

The three servings of candied sweet potato on the table were quickly finished again.

At first, everyone just thought it was delicious, but after hearing Chang Nian’s commentary, that sense of deliciousness became more concrete.

Many of the diners here had been chasing after Chen Ran’s lion’s head meatballs from the start, so they understood this feeling even more deeply.

How many chefs would study things like Chinese-style fried chicken or small fried fish? Probably only Chen Ran.

“And I feel Chef Chen seems very dedicated to traditional Chinese cuisine; many of her techniques are quite old-fashioned.”

“Indeed, she has worked in many places, but she learned from their own Chen culinary master.”

“The previous fried dishes all seemed deliberately made to compete with the Korean fried chicken everywhere… but honestly, our ancestors’ food tastes better. Whenever I eat fried chicken outside now, it always feels like something is missing.”

Everyone had almost finished eating just now, but after Chang Nian’s commentary, the dishes that had been served again were completely cleaned up.

“It’s really satisfying to eat… When Chen Ran opens her own restaurant someday, I definitely want to treat her place like a canteen and eat there three meals a day!”

“Alright, three meals a day? Have you thought about how many people will be lining up then?”

As the group finished eating, curiosity grew: with such a high evaluation from Ms. Chang Nian, what rank would Chen Ran get on Master Chef?

“I won’t spoil that. Everyone should check out the new season of Master Chef and help boost our sales at the same time.”

Master Chef has its own official website and a magazine tied to the site.

However, this official ranking of Chinese chefs has always lacked marketing. Chefs within the circle all know it and watch it, but ordinary diners know very little about it.

By contrast, the Michelin system imported from abroad is very popular domestically.

Because of this, the magazine doesn’t even have a fixed release date; it’s usually republished only when the chefs’ rankings are updated.

Besides the standard rankings, there are usually introductions of new chefs and visits to their restaurants.

This makes Master Chef more like a niche circle newsletter rather than something for the general public. Those who know Master Chef are basically seasoned insiders.

The kind who will fly directly somewhere just to try a particular chef’s new dish. They follow Master Chef’s Weibo to quickly stay updated on food trends.

But Master Chef’s official Weibo hasn’t been updated for a full four months.

The last update celebrated three chefs moving from the People’s Tier to the Earth Tier. After four months, there are over ten thousand comments below.

Most of the comments, however, are just noise.

“Has Ms. Chang Nian been invited to do vegetarian banquets again recently? Is she really discovering new chefs seriously?”

“Up there, joke with some moderation. Ms. Chang Nian has never married in her life and has devoted her whole life to Chinese cuisine. You can question other things, but not her professionalism.”

“In this environment now, everyone is chasing quick money. Recently Michelin announced some three-star Chinese restaurants—wow, I went to eat at one, and it was actually a teppanyaki place. Impressive.”

“Of course, how much do you pay for teppanyaki once? You can film videos and check in to get views.”

“To me, a three-star Michelin restaurant can’t match a single dish from an Earth Tier chef. Of course, it’s even better to eat those on the Top Tier…”For many seasoned food lovers, the official Master Chef Weibo account is a somewhat niche place for交流. The chef-centered selection method means there is a certain threshold here.

However, today was destined to be a special day. While everyone was happily posting comments and chatting, suddenly the official Weibo released a new video!

“Wow! Not just pictures and text, they actually posted a video! Let me watch it quickly!”

“A video? Could it be that the capital city culinary competition is about to restart?”

He Xin was happily scrolling through Weibo when she suddenly noticed that the Master Chef official Weibo, silent for a long time, had just updated!

Right after the update, hundreds of comments appeared below!

It was too late to grab the “first comment” spot, so she hurriedly clicked into the video.

This video looked completely different from the usual grand style of Master Chef.

In the past, Master Chef occasionally posted interviews, basically one-on-one with Ms. Chang Nian, two people sitting and discussing culinary arts.

But this video was obviously edited from many different clips—various enticing dishes mixed together with leisurely background music.

“Who’s this chef? I don’t recognize him/her. I see stewed pork knuckle and lion’s head meatballs in the clips; could it be that the old Huaiyang cuisine master Xu is making a comeback?”

“Doesn’t seem like it. Xu the old master is already a Top Tier chef, it’s hard for him to improve.”

“Did you see the shot with the deep layer of oil? The chef looks quite young…”

“And the background looks very simple, doesn’t look like some luxuriously decorated restaurant. Could it be that Ms. Chang Nian, who’s been missing so long, really went to discover a new chef?”

The video only showed a few dishes, ending with a line of golden characters:

“Master Chef has been updated. Stay tuned.”

At the same time, the latest issue of the Master Chef magazine had already been sent out!

When He Xin received the newest issue, she had already been discussing it with friends in the group chat for a long time.

“I got the delivery! Can read it as soon as I get home!”

She’s in Beijing and was the first in the group to get the Master Chef: “Hurry up and send red envelopes! Once I get them, I’ll film it for you!”

“To be honest, I’m not very hopeful this time. From the video, it seems like the new chefs making it on this time are a bit unconventional.”

“Definitely unconventional—there’s Shandong cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine. That’s fine, but I haven’t heard of any chef whose signature dishes are candied sweet potatoes and small fried fish. Has Ms. Chang Nian, unable to find new chefs for so long, just picked someone at random?”

“Don’t say that about Ms. Chang Nian!”

Ms. Chang Nian is not only skilled at cooking, but also fashionable and beautiful, and has many fans among gourmets. Especially among this group of senior food lovers, many don’t hesitate to spend lavishly just to taste her vegetarian banquets.

“Wait till I open it, then we can organize a group to go eat there, right?”

“That’s true. Regardless of whether they are unconventional, I’m a bit tired of the few restaurants in Beijing. I was flying to Guangzhou every day recently, but now I don’t want to go anymore.”

“Perfect timing; it’s been a while since the group gathered. How about a get-together at the new chef’s restaurant?”

“That might be hard to book… Last time the new chef ranked 200th on the People’s Tier required reservations half a month in advance.”

“Let’s see first! He Xin, why haven’t you opened your delivery yet?”

He Xin herself can be considered part of the restaurant industry; she has invested in two restaurants herself.Some people in this seasoned food lovers group were her customers, and a few collaborators, making it an important channel for her to get information.

She set some members in the group as special contacts, so even if group notifications were muted, she could still promptly notice when they spoke in the group.

At this moment, her phone on the table was ringing off the hook. But holding the Master Chef magazine and staring at the new chefs' names, she couldn’t respond in the group immediately.

What… the heck is this?

The 32nd ranked chef on the Local List was highlighted with a pale green border, indicating this was a newly promoted chef.

To select a chef for her own restaurant, He Xin had watched the entire Master Chef magazine countless times. Although she didn’t memorize every name by heart, she at least knew whether someone was on the list.

This chef Chen Ran was definitely a first-timer on the list who directly entered the Local List!

She quickly looked up the restaurant where this chef worked to see if it was someone she could poach.

But… the places listed in this chef’s profile left He Xin a bit stunned.

“Morning Star… kindergarten?”

“White Swan… KTV?”

The phone on the table kept ringing too frequently; He Xin quickly snapped back to attention.

She hastily took a screenshot and posted it in the group chat: “Everyone take a look, this new chef… is kinda weird.”

Everyone in the group had been waiting for a while, but so far only He Xin had received the Master Chef issue, so they could only wait for her to share photos in the group.

Once the picture appeared, everyone exploded.

“No way, Ms. Chang is really playing big, huh? What is this nonsense? I don’t believe a kindergarten can produce a Local List top chef.”

“Kindergarten and KTV are one thing, but what the heck is Qiaotou Road Police Station?”

“Shu Family Grand Banquet class?”

Everyone was totally baffled. It wasn’t April Fool’s Day—was Ms. Chang joking this big?

“Wait, why do some of these sound familiar?”

Zhao Zhijie, a group member working in publicity, suddenly felt the name Qiaotou Road Police Station was a bit familiar.

He recalled a previous public opinion handling case, which involved banning some short videos that seemed related to that police station.

Zhao Zhijie quickly searched the work group chat and finally remembered what had happened.

“Oh! I remember now, this Chen Ran is the wife of the rolled pancake stall owner who helped catch a fugitive!”

Not just him, others in the group quickly connected several of these familiar places.

“I remember that Morning Star Kindergarten. Have you guys seen a food blogger called ‘Cook Man’? He posted a video saying this kindergarten’s lion’s head meatballs taste even better than those made by Chen Boduan’s younger brother.”

“Chen Boduan from Zhiweizhai? He’s good at lion’s head meatballs!”

“I know White Swan KTV! Do you remember when I went to book a spot at Huang’s Private Kitchen, and that old man told me on WeChat he was busy recently and recommended trying the small fried fish at that KTV? I suspected it was an ad and didn’t go…”

“Damn, Yanglianshan Small Restaurant, I remember! That actor said the food was so delicious in a video! That one!”

The latest issue of Master Chef quickly reached the hands of all these seasoned food lovers.The series of place names in Chen Ran’s profile quickly triggered memories across the internet.

What? All these food videos that had gone viral were actually from the same person?