Chapter 383 - 198: My Dear Senior Brother, Is This How You’re Going to Play It?

Chapter 383: Chapter 198: My Dear Senior Brother, Is This How You’re Going to Play It?

"Snowflake Chicken Porridge? That’s not one of our Kong Sect’s dishes, is it? We’re using this to commemorate Master?" Zhou Yan’s eyes widened, his expression a little strange.

Xiao Lei shook his head, his expression serious. "You just don’t get it. Back then, when the Luo Family’s culinary line was broken, it had a huge impact on our Master. It was the catalyst that made him decide to start teaching classes at Le Ming Restaurant and share all of the Kong Sect’s recipes.

For many years after that, he was always studying the recipes Luo left behind, trying to recreate Snowflake Chicken Porridge. But he never succeeded. It only looked the part; the flavor was completely different from what Luo made. It became one of his regrets. In his later years, he often mentioned it to me, telling me I should still give it a try if I had the chance.

He said that a dish like Snowflake Chicken Porridge—one you don’t often see in regular Sichuan Cuisine restaurants—isn’t ordered by many people, has a very particular cooking method, and is even particular about its diners. He was afraid it might one day be completely lost to time.

I could never learn it just from the recipe. But if you learn how to make it, and you show off your skills in front of everyone, maybe even get featured in the Jiazhou Daily, then the story of your Master giving up his family’s inheritance to teach and pass on Sichuan Cuisine will have the perfect ending."

Zhou Yan fell silent after hearing this, looking at Xiao Lei with some surprise.

’My master is actually quite profound.’

The fact that his Master, Kong Huafeng, had tried to recreate Snowflake Chicken Porridge was quite unexpected.

Luo died suddenly, and Luo was too young to carry on the tradition, so several classic dishes from the Luo Family’s line ended there.

In a way, this meant the tradition was broken for Jiazhou as a whole.

Snowflake Chicken Porridge, Pottery Pork... these were all signature dishes at Le Ming Restaurant back then. They were high-end, classy dishes. Le Ming Restaurant consistently had the upper hand over Feiyan Restaurant, and Luo could be credited with half of that success, holding up half the sky for Le Ming Restaurant.

The three men of the Kong Family—the father and his sons—held up the other half of Le Ming Restaurant’s sky. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they were evenly matched back then.

Today, the disciples of the Kong Sect are scattered throughout the restaurants of Jiazhou and even Rongcheng. There are respected Special Level Chefs like Kong Qingfeng, famous Grandmasters like Fang Yifei and Song Bo, and great chefs like Xu Yunliang, who has carved out a solid place for himself at Rongcheng Restaurant. There are also many other chefs, shining brightly in their respective restaurants, who all bear the mark of the Kong Sect.

But the Luo Family is rarely mentioned anymore. The once-young Luo has now grown older, and he too works as a chef in the kitchens of Le Ming Restaurant, cooking a decent selection of Kong Sect dishes.

A fourth-generation disciple of the Kong Sect recreating the Snowflake Chicken Porridge that the Luo Family once excelled at—it truly felt like things had come full circle.

Zhou Yan nodded. "Alright, I’ll make Snowflake Chicken Porridge then."

"Wait, Junior Brother, you actually know how to make it?" Zheng Qiang looked shocked.

"How confident are you?" Xiao Lei was also surprised. He had just been testing the waters; if it didn’t work out, showing off a different dish would have been fine too.

Zhou Yan considered this. "It’s hard to say. I think it tastes pretty good. It meets the standards described in the recipe: ’eat chicken without seeing chicken, eat meat without seeing meat,’ tender, smooth, and mellow."

Xiao Lei thought for a moment, then nodded. "If you think it tastes good, that’s what matters! I have faith in your abilities. Tomorrow at noon, once you’ve braised the meat, bring it to Number 8, Linjiang Street, Lijiang Town. That’s your Master’s old family home. The courtyard feast will be held there.

Your Master’s Uncle said the notice was rather sudden, so everyone should bring their own ingredients for whatever dish they plan to make tomorrow. Everyone’s expected to bring out their signature skills. When you prepare your own things, they’re easiest to work with, and if you mess up, you have no one to blame but yourself."

"Got it." Zhou Yan smiled and nodded. All he needed to prepare was a tender chicken, which he could pick up on his way to buy groceries tomorrow. It was just that he wasn’t very good at the killing part. His gaze shifted to Zheng Qiang at his side. "Zheng, do you know how to kill a chicken?"

"Kill a chicken? I’m quite good at it." Zheng Qiang nodded, his eyes holding a hint of melancholy and world-weariness. "I killed chickens at Rongcheng Restaurant for three years. My heart is colder than my blade."

"Then can you help me kill a chicken tomorrow? My chicken-killing skills aren’t very polished," Zhou Yan said.

"There are fifty tables tomorrow, you know. I’m not sure I’ll have time to kill a chicken for you." Zheng Qiang scratched his head. "Why don’t you just grab a random senior brother to help you tomorrow? Or you could even have my master do it. I heard my master is coming tomorrow; he’s supposed to be heading back to Jiazhou this afternoon."

"Master Xu is coming too?" Zhou Yan was a little surprised. Qian Siyuan, their Master’s own maternal nephew, finding his way back to the family was a major event. For Xu Yunliang, as the eldest disciple of the Kong Sect, to take time off work to be there personally—that was true responsibility.

’Having Master Xu kill it... that seems a little inappropriate, doesn’t it?’

Xiao Lei said irritably, "If you know it’s inappropriate, then you should find some time to properly learn how to kill a chicken from your Old Man. You sell three or four cold-dressed chickens every day. Your Old Man’s skill at killing chickens is on par with his skill at butchering cattle—it’s top-notch. For a chef’s Knife Skills, slaughtering chickens, ducks, and even pigs is basic training. It’s on the chef certification exam. One time, the Knife Skills test was to debone and portion half a pig."

"I get it, I get it." Zhou Yan nodded repeatedly. He shouldn’t have even asked.

Still, what his master said made a lot of sense. His Knife Skills were pretty good, but he really hadn’t handled live animals like chickens, ducks, or geese much.

His Old Man was an expert at slaughtering cattle, pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese.

The best teacher was right there beside him. He really should ask for instruction with an open mind and study hard.

’I’ll definitely have to take the chef certification exams in the future.’

’Think of how impressive that title would sound. Wherever you go, when people introduce you, there’s a huge difference between "Boss Zhou, the small restaurant owner" and "Grandmaster Zhou, the national Special Grandmaster." The feeling is completely different.’

Zhou Yan couldn’t just run a small restaurant in Suji for his whole life. Without a formal education, professional certifications were his key to opening doors.

In this era, the chef certification exams were still very strict. The number of spots for each level was limited each year. It was different from later on, after short-form videos became rampant, when seemingly everyone was a First-Level or Special Grandmaster.