Gourmet: The God-Level Culinary Tycoon

As a star-rated chef certified by the Xia Country Chefs Association.

An Chongwen not only possessed excellent culinary skills but also had a comprehensive understanding of ingredients. Of course, he knew what a New Zealand black truffle was.

It was arguably the lowest quality variety of black truffle.

He ignored the meat patty before him, even though a customer had already taken a bite.

He took a spoon from his breast pocket, scooped up a piece of the meat patty, and popped it into his mouth, chewing carefully.

The next moment, his expression turned extremely ugly.

His face dark, he forced himself to swallow the meat patty in his mouth.

Seeing An Chongwen’s dark expression, Taotao asked cautiously:

"Executive Chef An, is there a problem?"

An Chongwen nodded, his face still dark:

"There is a problem. The customer was right. The patty really was made with New Zealand black truffle."

Hearing that there really was a problem, the expressions of some of the chefs who had been eavesdropping turned priceless.

An Chongwen didn’t waste any more words with Taotao. Instead, he quickly strode over to the station responsible for making the abalone truffle meat patties.

As a high-end private kitchen, Jiuhe Garden’s back-of-house was naturally different from that of an ordinary restaurant.

Since the menu was small, only a fixed selection of a few dozen dishes were made each season.

Therefore, each station in the kitchen had a dedicated person responsible for specific dishes, all in the pursuit of perfection.

After all, the difficulty of perfecting two or three dishes was certainly lower than that of mastering all of them.

An Chongwen arrived at the abalone truffle meat patty station. He glanced around and immediately spotted the black truffle used for preparing the dish.

He put on a pair of gloves and picked up the black truffle.

First, he carefully observed the truffle’s exterior. Then, he brought it to the tip of his nose and sniffed it.

A look of confusion appeared on his face. There was nothing wrong with this black truffle.

Even without tasting it, he could confirm that this was a Bena Plateau black truffle from Provence, France.

However, just to be safe, he picked up a sterilized paring knife from nearby, sliced off a thin piece of the black truffle, and popped it into his mouth.

He chewed it carefully before swallowing. The slight sweetness, the rich, fresh fragrance, and that unique musky aroma... He nodded. He was certain this was a Bena Plateau black truffle from Provence, France.

He was puzzled. ’This black truffle is clearly fine, so how did it take on the flavor of a New Zealand black truffle after being made into a meat patty?’

He immediately recalled what Taotao had said.

’The truffle on the outside of the meat patty and the truffle inside it were two different types.’

He immediately turned to the chef at the station:

"Zhao Ming, is the truffle used inside the meat patty the same as this one?"

Zhao Ming was the chef in charge of making the abalone truffle meat patties. The moment he saw his executive chef’s expression, he knew something was wrong. Not daring to hide anything, he told him everything:

"They’re not the same. The black truffle inside the patty has to be mixed evenly with the minced meat beforehand, so we used a different black truffle that was ground into a powder."

An Chongwen immediately ordered:

"Where is that black truffle? Get it and show it to me now!"

Zhao Ming didn’t dare to delay. He quickly bent down, opened the cooler under the workstation, and took out a small box of ground black truffle powder.

"Executive Chef An, this is the black truffle powder we mix with the minced meat."

"Is there a problem?"

An Chongwen didn’t answer him directly. Instead, he used a new spoon to scoop up a small amount of the black truffle powder and put it in his mouth.

He tasted the dirt-like flavor from the black truffle, along with a faint stench of fermented wood chips.

An Chongwen’s face became as black as the bottom of a wok.

He stared coldly at the chef responsible for the abalone truffle meat patties:

"Tell me, what is Rule #8 of the kitchen’s pre-service prep regulations?"

An Chongwen himself was over 1.9 meters tall, while Zhao Ming was only 1.75 meters. This height difference, combined with the disparity in their status and An Chongwen’s bone-chilling tone, made Zhao Ming feel as if a two-meter-tall, furious lion was staring him down. GULP. Zhao Ming forced himself to swallow, licked his dry lips, and said in a low voice:

"Rule #8 of the kitchen’s pre-service prep regulations... Rule #8 is, I think, that all ingredients must be personally inspected to ensure they meet quality standards. If there are any issues, they must be reported immediately to the relevant supervisor."

An Chongwen said coldly:

"Then did you inspect the ingredients required for your station today?"

"The black truffle on the countertop and the one in the cooler are clearly not the same type. How could you not even notice that?"

Zhao Ming really wanted to lie and say he had tasted it, to try and bluff his way through.

But every station in Jiuhe Garden’s kitchen had a high-definition camera. Even if he lied now, his lie would be exposed immediately when they reviewed the footage later. The punishment then would likely be even more severe.

After a moment of internal struggle, Zhao Ming decided to give up. He lowered his head, not daring to meet An Chongwen’s gaze, and admitted in a low voice:

"Sorry... Executive Chef... I... didn’t check."

"But, it’s mainly because black truffles are so expensive, so I was trying to save the restaurant money, so..."

"Besides, mixing up the truffle variety doesn’t have much to do with me. You should blame the purchasing department for buying the wrong black truffle..."

Hearing him still trying to make excuses at a time like this, An Chongwen almost laughed in anger:

"Do you even believe that excuse yourself?"

"Dead to rights and you’re still making excuses?"

"Do you have any idea what kind of black truffle was in that cooler?"

"New Zealand grassland black truffle!!!"

"That stuff only gets sent to factories to be processed into seasonings full of additives!!!"

"Even if you didn’t taste it, you could tell just by smelling it that this truffle is full of the stench of dirt and rotting leaves!!!"

"I’ll deal with you after service is over. Liu Wenjun, you take over his station for now. And while you’re at it, check and see just how many of the black truffles were mixed up."

"As for you, Zhao Ming, go to the break room and wait. You and the person in charge of purchasing—neither of you is getting away with this!!!"

An Chongwen took a deep breath to suppress his anger. He knew this wasn’t the time to punish his staff.

He hurried to the storeroom to carefully inspect the black truffles stored there, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed the ground black truffle in the cooler was the New Zealand grassland truffle, while the rest were all from France.

If there had been a large quantity of New Zealand black truffles, he might have suspected that the purchasing department had deliberately bought the cheaper version to get a kickback.

But since it was only a single truffle that was off, it was more likely that the supplier had accidentally mixed it in with the rest of the shipment.