Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 818 - 410: Someone Else’s Shadow_3

"To be honest, I don’t think the guo’er you made deserves the cover of the New Year edition. But you’re young, and Xu Cheng is a food critic who likes to support young chefs, so that might be why it ended up on the cover."

"Zheng Da has taught you for so long. Did he ever tell you what your biggest problem is?" Master Zhou looked at Qin Huai.

Seeing Master Zhou talk about such an in-depth issue, Qin Huai stopped working and thought carefully: "I’m self-taught, so I’ve developed many bad habits that are hard to change?"

Master Zhou shook his head: "That’s not a real issue. You’ve never formally apprenticed before, so having lots of small bad habits is quite normal. Actually, even now, I don’t understand what Xiao Tan meant when he said you learned snacks from the Snack Encyclopedia."

"But you’re not incorrigible; Xiao Tan has told us how you practiced your Knife Skills. What can’t be changed? With a good teacher, who guides you and corrects you, didn’t you change in no time?"

Qin Huai: ... What exactly hasn’t Tan Wei’an said?

"Your biggest problem is that you’ve always been imitating," Master Zhou said. "You’re not making your own snacks; you’re making someone else’s."

Qin Huai was slightly taken aback; he vaguely remembered someone saying this to him before, but he couldn’t recall who it was, and he didn’t pay much attention then. Because when it came to making snacks, he was very good at imitating, and he was good at imitating everyone, whether from the Snack Encyclopedia, online video tutorials, bizarre methods shown in TV dramas, or even learned directly from others. For Qin Huai, imitation was the fastest way to improve.

"I have this problem, but maybe it’s my habit, I..."

Master Zhou interrupted Qin Huai: "I’m not talking about that kind of imitation; I’m talking about a disciple imitating their master."

Qin Huai: ?

"Your snacks always have traces of someone else. When I ate the guo’er and Three Meat Buns at Huang Ji, I felt it, and when I ate the Four Happiness glutinous rice and the Three Meat Buns just now, the feeling was even stronger."

"But I find it strange because Xiao Tan clearly said you had no master. How does a disciple without a master end up imitating a master, making every snack have traces of a master?"

"This issue is common among professionally trained direct disciples, but you’re not one of them. So I’m curious whether someone taught you how to make snacks using the recipes from that Snack Encyclopedia when you were a child."

"Or maybe you have exceptional talent and can discern the methods and habits of recipe writers just by reading the recipes, so you learned from a single recipe book becoming the direct disciple of its author," Master Zhou couldn’t believe it even as he said it.

Qin Huai was bewildered, unconsciously following Master Zhou’s words and pondering if he was really that amazing.

"But none of this matters," Master Zhou said. "Since you came to Zhiwei Restaurant to exchange skills, we at Zhiwei Restaurant have to take responsibility for you. We must ensure you learn something before you leave."

"Finger Skill, pastries, steaming, and dough-lamination—these things are all superficial. Starting tomorrow, you’ll learn with me. You must correct this issue of having other people’s shadows in your snacks."

"Using someone else’s recipes to make someone else’s snacks, you’ll never become a top master chef."

"To be the best, you must create something of your own." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"I heard from Xiao Tan that you have trouble waking up in the morning, which I understand—I also have trouble. So let’s tentatively set it at 9 a.m. at Zhiwei Restaurant. Starting tomorrow, you’ll follow me. I want to take a good look at your basic skills and see what exactly is going on with your snacks."

In a few words, Master Zhou didn’t explicitly say he would take Qin Huai as a disciple, but he essentially defined Qin Huai as his student. Starting tomorrow, Qin Huai would follow Master Zhou, distinguishing him from other Masters.

"Understood, Master Zhou," Qin Huai respectfully replied.