The Gourmet Customizer

Chapter 88: Chapter 72: Zhang Li: I’m Going to Turn to the Dark Side

"What?"

Hearing the orders from outside, Bai Xiaobo was the first to be shocked. "Is that even allowed?"

To afford Delicious’s 88-yuan stir-fried chicken, the remaining 20 Xinghui employees who hadn’t ordered yet actually formed groups of three to share a single portion!

There were two who couldn’t find any partners, so they just split an order between the two of them.

"I give up. Are these Xinghui employees really that cheap? They’ve been working hard all morning, what’s wrong with treating themselves to some stir-fried chicken?" He Shuting was also rather speechless.

She’d heard of people pooling money to buy lottery tickets, but never to buy a meal. Was this what you’d call a "meal pool"?

"Alright, that’s enough." Su Chen stopped everyone’s chatter. "We’re all working folk. It’s not easy for anyone. If they spend that much on lunch, it’s like they worked for nothing, right? Besides, didn’t you guys say the best part of this dish is the noodles? As long as they get to eat the best part, it’s all good."

With that, Su Chen began to prepare the stir-fried chicken.

Normally, after serving the Xinghui employees, there wouldn’t be many other customers. Su Chen wanted to quickly finish up and get some rest.

They needed three and a half chickens, so Su Chen just grabbed four and placed them into four separate large woks.

Thanks to his practice in the Gourmet Practice Room and the experience from the previous few chickens, he now cooked with incredible ease.

In just a little over twenty minutes, eight servings of stir-fried chicken were ready.

"Boss, didn’t they only order a total of 7 servings? Why did you make 8?" Liu Shengnan asked.

"Here." Su Chen gestured toward Zhang Li. "Are we really going to let her go hungry?"

"Me?" Zhang Li’s eyes widened. "Oh, it’s no big deal! When it’s busy, you work. I can just eat after the rush is over."

Zhang Li said this against her true feelings, wanting to leave a good impression on everyone.

Besides, everyone had been busy since the moment she walked in. How could she ask them to make a separate portion just for her now?

"It won’t be busy once these few people are done eating. You should eat too." Su Chen divided all the stir-fried chicken into individual servings.

Most of the people who ordered the scallion-seared noodles had already finished and left, leaving the twenty who were still waiting for their stir-fried chicken.

Liu Shengnan, He Shuting, and Aunt Fang were in charge of serving the dishes. Su Chen pointed to the last portion. "Here, you can eat in the kitchen. Or at your own workstation, if you want. I’m going to take a break."

"Boss." Ling Shuyu called out to Su Chen. "I’ll be in the kitchen this afternoon practicing the scallion-seared noodles."

Su Chen just nodded, left the kitchen, and went back to his office.

Between the morning and noon rushes, not counting Bai Xiaobo’s portion which the company paid for, they had sold a total of ten servings of stir-fried chicken, bringing in a gross revenue of 880 yuan.

Su Chen leaned back in his recliner and took a deep breath.

’I really need to raise the prices. Just a few people ordered the stir-fried chicken, and the revenue is already almost half of what we made from all 70 people from Xinghui.’

’If a few more people order it, completing the [Revival] mission in a week will be a piece of cake.’

’Too bad Liu Shengnan and He Shuting haven’t found any ’shills’ yet. But there’s no rush. I’ll see how effective Bai Xiaobo is as a shill first.’

In Su Chen’s opinion, if a dish was truly delicious enough, customers would definitely come back!

As his mind drifted over these various matters, Su Chen gradually fell asleep.

「In the kitchen.」

The "little chef" with the cold expression and contrasting personality held a spatula and a kitchen knife, facing the wok as if it were a great enemy.

’Damn it! Why is it that even though I follow every single one of Boss Su’s movements and measurements, the flavor is still so far off?!’

Ling Shuyu tried again, but the taste of the broth was still unsatisfactory. Luckily, green onions were cheap this year, or this would have been a real waste.

"Zhang Li, go get me a bundle of green onions."

The short-legged girl had just sat down at the prep station and had barely picked up a piece of potato with her chopsticks. "Okay, Sister Ling."

She put down her chopsticks and the potato. "Sister Ling, I’m sure the two of us can master the scallion-seared noodles! You can do it! I’ll keep being a good assistant to you!"

In reality, that just meant being a kitchen helper.

Ling Shuyu nodded solemnly. "If we want to get a firm foothold at Delicious, we need to show some results. Hurry up and go. Let’s try to master the scallion-seared noodles and the steamed buns as soon as possible. Then the two of us can stand on our own!"

"Mhm!" Zhang Li happily skipped out of the kitchen to get the green onions for Ling Shuyu.

"Sigh." Alone in the kitchen, Ling Shuyu stared worriedly at the empty wok from which she had just poured out the broth. "Just why is that?"

You can’t just practice blindly; sometimes you have to stop and think. As a top student, Ling Shuyu had understood this principle since she was a child.

She paced around the kitchen aimlessly. Her steps led her to the prep station, and without much thought, Ling Shuyu picked up a piece of potato and popped it into her mouth.

’Boss Su really has a gift for cooking. How on earth does he manage to fuse the flavors of the potato and the chicken like this?’

She took another small bite!

’At lunch, I was so focused on how to get more to eat that I didn’t even taste it properly. It turns out the chicken is this delicious, too~’

’Just one little bite shouldn’t be too much, right?’

OM NOM NOM~

Carrying the green onions, Zhang Li returned. As she passed the office area, she saw Wang Rui furiously slurping his noodles.

"Look at you, what a disgrace!"

Wang Rui, smacking his lips as he ate the noodles, lifted his gaze to look at her. "GULP~"

Only after swallowing the mouthful of noodles did he speak. "Assistant Zhang is looking refreshed now that you’ve left the old company, huh? What, looking down on your old colleagues now?"

Zhang Li proudly held up the green onions in her hand. "See this? We’re about to go cook. If you come to eat in a few days, you’ll be having scallion-seared noodles made by me and President Ling!"

Wang Rui scoffed. "If it’s really made by you two, I’m not eating it!"

"Heh, you say one thing but mean another. I’m afraid you’ll end up eating your own tongue!" Zhang Li said smugly. "I’m not going to chat with you anymore. Our boss specially made me a serving of stir-fried chicken—a whole one, mind you, not the kind you split three ways. I’m going back to eat now~"