Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 824 - 413: Zhao Cheng’an (Part 2)

Yes, the small plate for Qin Huai was taken by Wang Jiayi. His actions were so practiced and smooth that Qin Huai felt this was a habit Wang Jiayi had developed in his daily life.

No wonder Master Zhou liked Guli. He himself had a disciple of this type, so inevitably, when dealing with Guli, he had some affection that reminded him of his first apprentice.

Master Zhou’s second apprentice shared his surname, a very rare female chef named Zhou Yan. Although the percentage of female pastry chefs is higher than that of meat cooking chefs, the number of female chefs is still very low. In the meat cooking area, there are almost no female chefs, and top female chefs are even rarer.

Qin Huai met many Masters at Zhiwei Restaurant yesterday, but there were only two female chefs, which shows how rare Zhou Yan is.

In terms of talent, Zhou Yan was far superior to Wang Jiayi. However, since she was not as driven as Wang Jiayi and was eight years younger, her skill was much weaker than Wang Jiayi’s. In Zhiwei Restaurant, she was at the level of a reserve Master, with a long way to go before mastery.

Compared to the first two, Master Zhou’s third apprentice was younger, only three years older than Su Qian, named Zhao Cheng’an. When Zhao Cheng’an joined Zhiwei Restaurant, it caused quite a stir and he was considered a legendary figure. Tan Wei’an even mentioned him to Qin Huai when gossiping.

Unlike most apprentices who came to Zhiwei Restaurant to learn the craft, Zhao Cheng’an joined because he didn’t want to study, and his parents wanted him to endure some hardships. It so happened that his parents knew a relative of Boss Su, so they pulled some strings to get Zhao Cheng’an into Zhiwei Restaurant as an apprentice, to let him know that studying was the easiest thing he could do.

In the end, Zhao Cheng’an turned the tables on his parents and taught them a lesson, making them realize that their son had found a proper path by becoming an apprentice at Zhiwei Restaurant.

Before joining Zhiwei Restaurant, Zhao Cheng’an had no foundation at all, but he was only nine years old at the time.

Yes, nine years old. This kid stopped studying in the third grade of primary school, leaving his parents with no choice but to pull strings to send him to eat bitter hardships for two months during summer vacation.

A nine-year-old with no foundation at Zhiwei Restaurant, what kind of apprentice could he be? Just not being a nuisance would be good enough. Without his parents’ connections, he wouldn’t have been able to get in.

At that time, Zhiwei Restaurant was in a golden period of expansion, so Boss Su didn’t have time to care much about this connected kid. He casually asked a good-tempered Master to take care of the child, letting him experience some hardships.

As a result, Zhao Cheng’an was unexpectedly brilliant after experiencing those hardships.

He practiced all the basic skills smoothly and comfortably. Despite his good family condition, which made him somewhat like a young master from a wealthy family, because he was naughty and didn’t like to study, getting beaten by his parents often gave him resilience and stress tolerance, with a good physical constitution and great strength, and sensitive taste.

The most crucial thing was his amazing talent in pastry, alongside good aesthetics and a fondness for making snacks.

After two months of summer training, Boss Su personally visited Zhao Cheng’an’s parents, pleading with them to let their child stay at Zhiwei Restaurant. He used every reasoning he could think of, even saying nonsensical things such as although the child’s academic performance wasn’t great now, a pastry athlete counts as an athlete, and that he could definitely become a good student, but snacks could also be developed as a specialty.

The final outcome was that Zhao Cheng’an’s parents were bewildered by Boss Su’s persuasion and agreed to his proposal of regular schooling, weekend practice, and special training during winter and summer vacations.

Due to his astounding talent, Zhao Cheng’an was fiercely competed over by many Masters, and eventually, at the age of 10, he apprenticed under Master Zhou and became the nightmare of many other apprentices and direct disciples at Zhiwei Restaurant.

In Tan Wei’an’s words, if Zhao Cheng’an weren’t a bit lazy, relatively laid-back, and not much into hustle, coupled with the fact that his family was not in need of money and he wasn’t very passionate about work, even taking a fixed half-month vacation every year to travel, he would have already surpassed Zheng Siyuan as the number one young pastry chef, becoming a legend.

Moreover, due to this personality, after his twenties, Zhao Cheng’an surprised people less than he did in the past. Of course, he also didn’t become mediocre, remaining a regular direct disciple at Zhiwei Restaurant.

According to Tan Wei’an, although Zhao Cheng’an has this temperament, Master Zhou’s favorite is still Zhao Cheng’an. Not because Zhao Cheng’an is the most talented, but because he is the most charming with words, capable of saying anything to get leave to travel, and Master Zhou loves to hear nice words.

From Master Zhou’s three disciples, it’s easy to see that although Master Zhou tends to be sarcastic, he is very accommodating as a mentor.

He had a talented but very diligent first disciple, a moderately talented second disciple, and a gifted but relatively lazy third disciple.

Master Zhou, being today’s top pastry chef, could not even get a direct disciple who was both extremely talented and extremely hardworking. This shows the difficulty of taking on apprentices, and it’s no wonder that the Masters at Zhiwei Restaurant often fought fiercely over apprentices, getting into badly heated arguments.

All three of Master Zhou’s apprentices have studied under his guidance for many years and now basically require no attention from him, which is why most of Master Zhou’s mentoring effort now is focused on Su Qian.

This might make some people curious: why does Tan Wei’an know so much about Zhao Cheng’an? Does he have a good relationship with Zhao Cheng’an?

Yes.

Because, back then, the kind-hearted Master selected by Boss Su to take care of the child was Tan Wei’an’s grandfather.