Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 781 - 396: The Official Recipe (Part 2)

Zheng Da himself knew well that there was a problem with the recipe for the Four Happiness Rolls, but he couldn’t find the answer for many years. Today, when Qin Huai pointed out the version answer, how could he not be excited?

Watching Zheng Da busily making the Four Happiness Rolls, Qin Huai couldn’t help but marvel at Xu Nuo’s culinary skills, or more accurately, his culinary thinking, which was even higher than he had imagined.

The recipe that stymied Zheng Da for decades was solved early on by Xu Nuo, who even made it at home every year for his own use.

Moreover, Xu Nuo’s version of the recipe was most likely not told to him by Master Jing, because Master Jing hadn’t even told his own direct disciples the version answer, let alone Xu Nuo, an outsider.

No matter whether Xu Nuo’s version answer was bought from outside at a high price like the Double Crab Bun, or came from his own enlightenment, it was astonishing.

The former is astonishingly wealthy, the latter astonishingly impressive.

Zheng Da was already thoroughly immersed in the art of making Four Happiness Rolls.

He worked very quickly.

If all the ingredients are prepared, especially when the dough has already been kneaded, making Four Happiness Rolls is very fast.

Four Happiness Rolls, in a nutshell, are fancy and highly challenging rolls, with the core difficulty lying in the rolling.

A forward roll, a backward roll, after the two rolls are completed, the final product cannot show the direct effect. Only after steaming and a cut can one see whether the cloud pattern in the middle is clear and beautiful, thus determining the success of the Four Happiness Rolls.

Inexperienced chefs cannot possibly judge the beauty of the cloud pattern based on just finished rolls; this is something purely gained from practice, and it is an entirely independent skill. High proficiency in basic skills like fire control and filling will not help; one has to practice from scratch.

Qin Huai could tell that Zheng Da had certainly been practicing the Four Happiness Rolls persistently over the years, but not very often.

Because he worked very fast, yet while being fast, he would often hesitate. He seemed skillful during the forward roll, but would stumble and pause during the backward roll, as if pondering something.

It almost wrote out in the process which part he was adept at, which part he was not, and why his Four Happiness Rolls used to earn the scolding of the neighbors.

It turned out Master Zheng was not bad at making cloud patterns, Master Zheng was poor at making the backward roll in Four Happiness Rolls.

An advanced version of not knowing cloud patterns.

Zheng Da rolled up the first one at an extremely fast speed, then started the second.

Like the first one, the forward roll was smooth, the backward roll was stuck.

Qin Huai focused on Zheng Da’s hand movements, but recalled what Guli said yesterday when teaching them to roll.

Tan Wei’an’s forward roll was always too arched, especially at the end, and he couldn’t control his bad habit of wanting to press down.

According to Tan Wei’an, he thought pressing the Four Happiness Rolls would make them look better.

Then Guli told him pressing would flatten the cloud pattern, but Qin Huai thought it wasn’t that exaggerated; it was actually an issue of the two brothers’ differing views.

Tan Wei’an wanted to press because his arch was always too big. Pressing on such a large arch was fine. This actually shows that Tan Wei’an indeed had a good talent; his first instinct when encountering a problem in making snacks was to correct it, even subconsciously, which is talent.

And Guli didn’t have this kind of talent, so Guli chose to do everything exactly the way he learned it back then, following the rules.

He would promptly correct any problems he noticed with everyone, but he didn’t understand that many people’s issues were actually to fix previous problems.

Since Zheng Da’s skills were sufficient, his performance was more like the standard answer Guli explained yesterday.

Especially the part of the forward roll.

It was almost perfect, seamlessly done, from laying down the diced ham and scallion, it was as textbook as can be. Each arch of the roll seemed meticulously designed. It was clear that Zheng Da had definitely put in hard work on the Four Happiness Rolls in the early years; otherwise, the rolls couldn’t be so standard and beautiful.

Then the sharp contrast came with the backward roll.

Qin Huai could even see where the problem was.

The backward roll isn’t simply reversing the Four Happiness Rolls to consider as success; it tests skills even more, and the chef’s adaptability even more. In theory, Zheng Da surely possessed these abilities, but whether it was the psychological shadow from the past being too strong, or Zheng Da simply being very unskilled in feeling, each of Zheng Da’s pauses declared a problem arose, with each pause marking a problem.

It couldn’t be more obvious.

Although Zheng Da was deeply immersed in his world of making Four Happiness Rolls, unable to extricate himself, Qin Huai still felt it was actually a good lesson, because Master Zheng simultaneously demonstrated a perfect Four Happiness Roll and one with issues.

A demonstration with two effects, double the gains.

If there could be an objective commentator explaining on the side at this moment, it would be even better.

Qin Huai looked at Guli.

Guli was watching very intently. He was the one among the Four Happiness Rolls research small group most cherishing this learning opportunity. Because for Guli, master chefs who could teach him cloud patterns are not nonexistent, but can be counted on one hand.

Otherwise, in the morning, Guli would not have mistaken Zheng Da’s critique for Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan’s assistance.

"Guli," Qin Huai spoke, "Master Zheng is working a bit too fast, we actually can’t quite understand it, could you help explain it?"