The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

As soon as Master Chen left, Qianlima officially launched its seafood barbecue.

Everything was going according to plan, except for the four interns who were supposed to report for their internships; they would be arriving a few days late.

The city education committee, in response to national calls, now requires clear definitions of work duties and benefits when arranging student internships with various posts.

The previous method, where schools randomly arranged internship experiences for students, now requires approval from the city education committee before implementation.

This is also to protect the personal safety rights of students.

Originally, Dong Jun Tian thought that with four extra helpers in the kitchen, there would be plenty of staff, and even if the barbecue orders overflowed, they would manage just fine.

But plans couldn’t keep up with changes.

They had to temporarily assign whichever station received barbecue orders to handle the ingredients and skewers.

Fu Yu didn’t mind these arrangements.

Regardless of the new items the restaurant offers, he still gets his share of table commissions.

However, the only advantage is that this time, the restaurant’s plans seemed tailor-made for him.

Five hundred rounds of barbecue cooking may sound daunting, but if the restaurant successfully draws in crowds, the task could be easily completed in a few days.

Being an established restaurant with a stable customer base, it has a unique advantage that other places find hard to match—sufficient customer flow.

The restaurant is bustling with guests daily, many of whom need to order, so there’s no worry about having too many dishes, only about the order taker’s ability to promote the menu.

As the restaurant’s newly introduced specialty, back when they didn’t have it, guests would occasionally inquire. Now, with deliberate promotions, surely the orders wouldn’t be few.

Several large restaurants on the main street offer stir-fried dishes or hot pot barbecue, which ironically has made the barbecue restaurants on the side streets increasingly popular.

As business booms, some have keenly noticed new opportunities, incorporating mid-to-lower range seafood barbecue and stir-fried dishes in addition to the traditional meat and vegetable skewers.

If you do the math, a barbecue meal can cost two to three hundred yuan, and if there are more people, sometimes even five to six hundred isn’t enough.

It’s not a cheap expense.

However, the revenues of several barbecue restaurants have been visibly increasing, and customers are quite receptive to these seafood barbecues.

Yet Fu Yu has always been curious about one thing.

As a specialty seafood restaurant, why hasn’t Qianlima offered a barbecue menu? Is it because there’s no place for grilling or is there another reason?

In fact, others in the restaurant privately wondered if the owner had suddenly been stimulated by someone else’s success and decided to follow the trend by establishing a barbecue specialty area.

However, this isn’t of great concern to them; after all, they earn their salary based on table commissions, as long as guests can order and dine, it’s fine.

Fortunately, on the first day of promoting the new-style seafood barbecue, the kitchen began receiving corresponding orders.

Many regular customers came for the novelty, eager to taste something new.

After all, no matter how the external barbecue restaurants perform in terms of environment or food quality, they definitely can’t compare to the venerable Qianlima in people’s minds.

The temporary simple barbecue area could only fit three sheet metal grills.

So Zhao Meng and Gu Yunwu continued with the original order-taking model, having whichever station received barbecue orders handle the grilling.

Those who came to dine at Qianlima were not solely focused on the specialty dishes. Customers willing to embrace new things and try new dishes tended to be gourmet foodies.

These connoisseurs have quite discerning tastes.

So, within just a few days, the restaurant’s order list showed a clear inclination.

Most of the barbecue orders turned out to be from Zhao Meng’s loyal customer base.

Zhao Meng and Gu Yunwu usually took orders separately, which wasn’t particularly noticeable with regular cooking.

But since the barbecue area was occupied by Fu Yu and Sun Qingning on rotation, it was evident that Zhao Meng was receiving an overflow of orders.

With back-and-forth exchanges, Gu Yunwu inevitably felt envious and overheated.

However, Zhao Meng handled this himself, and Fu Yu and the others just focused on their work.

They had just finished grilling a horse mackerel when another server delivered an order.

Liu Yuqing tore the order slip into two parts, handing one to Zhao Meng and personally bringing the other to Fu Yu.

In just half a month, Liu Yuqing had become well-acquainted with both the front and back of the house staff.

Being young, pretty, with a pleasant personality and good manners, she was well-liked.

"Chef Fu! One grilled Pacific saury."

Fu Yu took the order slip, somewhat surprised: "Just one?"

Liu Yuqing sighed: "Even this one was ordered after much persuasion from me..."

The customer was a father and son duo.

As they entered, it was Liu Yuqing who greeted them.

When she approached them, she saw the father wearing a dark-colored thin T-shirt, and there was a large dark stain of something smeared on his pants.

"Waiter, what’s the price of this seafood?"

Seeing Liu Yuqing, the male customer pointed to the various seafood options in the ordering area.

Liu Yuqing paused for a moment before promptly explaining: "It depends on specifically what you order. What kind of seafood do you usually like? I can introduce you to our restaurant’s specialties."

The male customer seemed to be in a repair trade, whether it be car repairs or something similar, as a distinct motor oil smell could be detected up close.

The male customer hesitated: "Nothing too expensive... just for the two of us."

Liu Yuqing led them to the ordering area: "Sure, take a look and choose what you’d like, and I can make recommendations based on your tastes."

The man glanced down at his child beside him, placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder, speaking softly: "Come on, we’re here, take a look and tell Dad what you’d like to eat."

The boy was noticeably excited, eagerly looking at the various seafood in the tank, clearly overwhelmed by the choices.

The man grinned: "My son got a perfect score on his midterm exams this time. Although the teacher didn’t rank the students, it’s said he was the only one in the class with the highest score, definitely number one. I promised to treat him to a good meal for doing so well."

Liu Yuqing nodded, skillfully stepping forward, smiling as she introduced various seafood and ways of eating them to the young boy.

The boy took a look around and ordered some prawns and squid.

The man frowned: "You should pick something less common, what’s so special about prawns and squid?"

The boy, having heard this, carefully considered for a moment, before finally saying: "Then let’s skip the prawns. I’d like to have this fish! Grilled Pacific saury!"

The restaurant was currently highlighting grilled dishes, and Pacific saury was one of the top sellers. Liu Yuqing had emphasized it during her recommendations.

The boy was drooling, fixated on the Pacific saury with unblinking eyes.