Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 439: Chapter 273: Taking Over the Kitchen

Gray and another young chef were so busy their faces were flushed red, with beads of sweat covering their foreheads. They didn’t even notice him walk in.

Lin Chen didn’t disturb them. His gaze swept across the wall, where he saw a dense row of tickets lined up neatly.

Some tickets were crossed out with a pen, others with a fingernail scratch. They were all over the place, a chaotic mess.

The moment he saw the tickets, Lin Chen instantly understood why the kitchen, which seemed to have enough staff, was so slow at getting food out.

He quickly glanced at all the ingredients currently being cooked and matched them one by one to the orders on the tickets.

Just then, Gray pulled a box of marinated steaks from a refrigerated drawer beneath the grill. He was about to toss one on the grates, but he picked it up, then set it back down. He turned as if to check the tickets again.

As he turned his head, his eyes met Lin Chen’s.

Gray froze on the spot, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief. He clearly hadn’t expected to see this guy show up here at a time like this.

"Three flank steaks. Two medium, one medium-well."

"Two rare filets."

"Two medium sirloins."

"Four grilled salmon."

Taking advantage of Gray’s stunned silence, Lin Chen quickly rattled off the information he needed.

Gray blinked, then turned and started placing steaks on the grill, shouting loudly.

"Two medium flank, one medium-well flank, two rare filets, two medium sirloins, four salmon!"

In just ten seconds, eleven cuts of meat were neatly arranged on the grill.

Lin Chen glanced again at the simmering pans on the stove and tore down two tickets.

"Two coconut milk seafood rigatoni! Table 7 and Table 12, ready for pickup! Servers!"

At his shouts, two young, beautiful waitresses from the front of house immediately came over, waiting eagerly at the pass.

The kitchen was an open one, so the bustling scene inside was clearly visible from the outside. A long stainless-steel countertop—the pass—was all that separated the front of house from the back.

Seeing Lin Chen take command of the kitchen so quickly, the customers dining and waiting outside couldn’t contain their curiosity, craning their necks to get a better look.

The guests at the two tables that were called out were especially eager, even standing up to watch the moment their pasta was plated.

The words had barely left Lin Chen’s mouth. Seeing that the young man next to him was still busy and couldn’t free up his hands, Lin Chen turned without a word, used a clean towel to pull two piping hot pasta bowls from the warmer, and placed them on the counter by Gray.

The moment the bowls were down, Gray had already turned around with two pans in hand. He expertly began to twirl the pasta and plate it.

Although Lin Chen had never tried this pasta dish from Gray’s restaurant, based on the nature of the pasta, it would almost certainly need a sprinkle of Parmesan. However, the station next to Gray where the garnishes should have been was now completely empty.

"Hey, buddy, where’s the Parmesan?"

The young man who had been focused on chopping vegetables nervously called out, "In—in the walk-in!"

"Don’t be nervous. Relax."

Patting his shoulder gently, Lin Chen immediately turned to the prep cooks. "Who can go to the walk-in and grab me a bag of Parmesan? And all the garnishes needed for the pasta. Bring me whatever you can restock."

The woman closest to the walk-in immediately put down her knife, turned, and headed in. "Yes, Chef!"

Anyone who came to work all the way out here would definitely know who he was. Even if they didn’t know before arriving, they would certainly find out after.

So even though he had suddenly appeared and taken over the kitchen, no one said a word or questioned him. Instead, their eyes were filled with curiosity and anticipation, wanting to see how he would bring order to this chaotic situation.

Soon, two large bags of shredded Parmesan cheese were brought over, along with some pre-chopped chives and various colorful decorative herbs and flowers.

Just then, Gray finished plating both pasta dishes and immediately took the ingredients to begin the final garnishing.

"Service!"

With just one look at the dish Gray sent out, Lin Chen had already memorized the presentation of the coconut milk seafood rigatoni.

He casually speared the two tickets onto the ticket spike, indicating the order was complete, then began organizing the subsequent tickets in order.

"Three bolognese, two pesto."

"Yes, Chef!" Gray shouted again with a grin.

"Who’s on appetizers? You?"

The young man beside him nodded quickly. "Yeah, that’s me."

"I need five orders of onion rings and five fried chicken wings, four smoked salmon crisps, and eight grilled garlic oysters. What’s your plan?"

"F-first, I’ll get the onion rings and chicken wings in the fryer, then put the oysters on the grill, and make the salmon crisps last!"

Lin Chen glanced at the grill, which was completely covered, and nodded. "Good. Go for it."

After speaking, he walked over, picked up a pair of tongs, and began flipping the steaks one by one.

Under the high heat of the grill, the steaks’ surfaces were seared with enticing dark brown grid marks.

The grill grates were just for searing; it was impossible to cook the steaks through on them. But the stovetop was already crowded with pans, so Gray must use an oven for his steaks here.

He immediately grabbed a long metal sheet pan from the rack. Once the steaks and salmon were seared with grill marks on both sides, he transferred them to the pan, arranging them separately according to their doneness, and finally slid it into the oven, setting a timer.

By the time he had quickly cleaned the charred juices off the grill with a wire brush, the young cook had just dropped all the ingredients into the fryer and was walking over with a tray of plump, shucked oysters.

The timing was absolutely perfect!

Gray, who was simultaneously sautéing five pans of pasta sauce, saw everything. The smile on his face grew uncontrollably wide.

’This is the feeling,’ he thought. ’This feeling of being in my element!’

He hadn’t felt this long-lost sense of flow in the kitchen since his old man passed away.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to try; the restaurant just didn’t have much business back then, so he never had the chance.

When business suddenly boomed, he had tried hiring experienced chefs. But every chef had their own habits, especially foreigners—they were hot-tempered, had very little patience, and were quick to anger when things got busy.

After a few attempts, he ended up keeping these rookies. They weren’t as quick, but at least they were obedient.

The advantage was that he could control the kitchen, but the disadvantage was that he had to be on the line himself. This meant there was no one to expedite, and efficiency plummeted.

Lin Chen’s arrival perfectly compensated for the kitchen team’s shortcomings. He was like a lubricant, almost instantly boosting the entire team’s operational efficiency. The once-chaotic process was slowly returning to normal.

Free from worrying about mistakes, Gray could now focus all his attention on cooking. The dishes he made would be more delicious, there would be no issues, and his efficiency would also improve.

"Three Caesar salads, two fruit salads, five basil avocado salads. You guys are on these, right?"

"Yes, Chef!"

After calling out the dishes, Lin Chen took a moment to taste the garlic sauce, and his brow furrowed.

"Gray, this garlic sauce doesn’t taste right. Did you change the recipe?"

"Huh?"

Gray, who had just started to relax, instantly tensed up. "I didn’t change it. I just followed a recipe online. I’ve never had Great Xia’s grilled oysters before. Is there a problem?"

"It’s bitter."

Lin Chen pinpointed the problem. "You need to rinse the minced garlic with water a few times before frying it. That washes away the bitterness and keeps it from burning easily. Is there any more raw garlic in the fridge?"

"There’s a lot of pre-minced garlic. Is there enough time to remake it?"

"There’s time. I’ll do it. Hey, beautiful lady—yes, you—please bring me the ingredients for the garlic sauce. And be quick!"

Erica was standing alone between the bar and the kitchen entrance, silently recording everything. When she heard Lin Chen call the female chef "beautiful lady," her expression changed slightly.

She didn’t say anything, but she secretly filed the incident away, planning to settle the score with Lin Chen after he was done.

Lin Chen moved fast. The moment he gave the order, he had already grabbed a stockpot and placed it on a large, mobile stove, moving aside a pot of some unknown simmering soup. He then poured a large amount of extra-virgin olive oil into the empty pot.

"This oil is wrong, too. Normally you should use peanut or rapeseed oil. You probably can’t get rapeseed oil here, but you can definitely get peanut oil. Did you switch it because you were worried about allergies?"

"Yeah, that’s right."

"Peanut oil has a unique nutty aroma that’s a key source of flavor. You lose that fragrance by switching to olive oil, but we can fix it. Just fry some onion, scallions, and cilantro in it."

This time, he didn’t even have to say anything. The female chef, who had just wheeled over a full container of minced garlic, immediately turned around and headed back to the walk-in.

The large stove’s flame was incredibly strong. In just five minutes, the pot full of olive oil began to smoke.

He infused the oil, rinsed and drained the garlic, strained the aromatics out of the oil, fried the garlic, and finally seasoned it.

In less than twenty minutes, a pot of fragrant garlic sauce was freshly made.

The aroma was so rich it even drifted out to the dining room. Many customers stood up, sniffing the air.

"What a fragrant garlic smell! So this is what the sauce for authentic Great Xia grilled oysters is supposed to taste like?"

"No wonder the grilled oysters I just had were a little bitter. The garlic sauce was wrong. It’s rare to get something made by Lin himself. Darling, should we order another one to try?"

Max overheard the customers’ quiet discussions and immediately relayed the news to Lin Chen. He made a snap decision, waving his hand decisively.

"Remake them! A new one for every guest who ordered them!"

Max hurried out and clapped his hands again. "Apologies, everyone, for the unsatisfactory experience. In a moment, we will be providing a fresh order for all guests who had the grilled oysters. If you can’t finish it, you can take it to go. We’d like everyone to have a taste of Lin’s handiwork."

The words had just been spoken when Lin Chen placed eight orders of grilled oysters on the pass, followed closely by several salads handed over from the prep station.

"Is there enough oyster stock? If not, I need the four of you to start shucking oysters right now!"