Chapter 592: 592

While Liu Tong praised Yuan Zhou’s capabilities of cooking fish in various ways, the chefs all walked towards the exchange meeting place slowly .

The meeting place was in the banquet hall of this Century Kaiyue Hotel .

The layout of the banquet hall today was totally different from that in normal times . There appeared an oval in the central part of the banquet hall . It was separated with many kitchen counters .

Standing behind them were the chefs dressed in brand-new and neat chef uniforms and every kitchen counter was facing a table .

The food ingredients were right behind the chefs for the sake of convenience .

The tables were all made of solid wood and the color was the natural wood color . On the tables, the stuff used for tasting the dishes were placed .

A series of kitchen tools like chopsticks, chopstick rests, tooth glass and five small plates to put dipping sauce . And the chairs were naturally the mating wooden chair .

Such layout was naturally to provide the chefs with the most convenience to taste the dishes .

Apart from the oval azure stone countertops and dining sets, there were also many chairs around, which appeared to be a place for people to have a rest .

“They are really arranged neatly . ” Yuan Zhou had quite sharp eyes . Therefore, when he looked at the stuff on the tables and the distance between tables and chairs, he couldn’t help muttering .

“Tsk-tsk . The tables and chairs today must have been arranged by a person who has obsessions . It feels that every table and chair are exactly the same except the chefs . They are so neat and tidy . Wu Jun stroked his chin and said with great interest .

However, what he said was directly ignored . Lucky that a Japanese who was in charge of the reception arrived at that moment . It was the chairman of the Japanese Chefs’ Kabushiki Kaisha .

“Nice to meet you, everybody . You have gone through hardships and come a long way from China . I must say thank you for your kind support . ” The chairman of the Japanese party appeared more or less the same age with Zhou Shijie . He was dressed in the traditional Japanese-style Kimono, on which the exquisite Pictures of The Floating World was painted . While he was saying that, he nodded the head slightly to express the apology and appeared rather sincere .

Of course, this chairman spoke Chinese though he didn’t speak as standard as Chengtian Yilang, who had received them at the airport .

“You are way too courteous, Chairman Masheng . Chairman Zhou told me to send his best wishes to you . ” In such an occasion, it was definitely Li Minghui, the eldest apprentice of Zhou Shijie, that came up and greeted him .

“Mr . Li is so young and capable . Chairman Zhou is also so courteous . I hope we can learn from each other again by exchanging views next time when we go to China . ” The Chairman Masheng of the Japanese party said with a smile .

“Of course . You and Chairman Zhou just have the same thoughts . ” Li Minghui answered naturally .

“Alright . In that case, I won’t disturb your schedule . Please follow Mr . Chengtian to have a look around . ” Since he achieved the goal, Chairman Masheng said immediately .

“Okay . Sorry to bother you . ” Li Minghui nodded the head and answered .

It was another round of small talk right after that, but Yuan Zhou wasn’t interested in that anymore . He was quite curious about the culinary skills of these chefs .

“What are these chefs good at?” Yuan Zhou lifted the foot and prepared to walk towards those chefs .

He saw something like a small card on which something was written on every table and prepared to go and have a look .

“Hi, sirs . If you have finished the taste test, please remember to return to the chairs to have a rest . ” Zhong Lili realized the intentions of Yuan Zhou and other Chinese chefs first .

“Um . ” Yuan Zhou answered casually . As for another several chefs that didn’t like the small talk, they had already walked towards there .

That’s right . Not only Yuan Zhou himself but also quite a few people didn’t like those kinds of small talk, including the talkative Wu Jun and the grey-haired middle-aged man, etc .

After Zhong Lili said that, there were only Li Minghui, Liu Tong and the Japanese representatives left at this side .

“It’s really the introductions . ” Yuan Zhou walked to a table and took up the small card on the table . Only then did he confirmed his own thoughts .

Only four kinds of information was written on the small card, for example, the one in front of Yuan Zhou .

Name: Song Benqing

Age: 39

Working years of being a chef: 19

Skilled in: balloonfish cuisines

“Wow, the working years of being a chef are really scary . ” Yuan Zhou muttered to himself in a whisper .

“I don’t think it’s scary at all . The chefs that can step into this meeting place today are all top-grade ones of the two countries . The working years of 19 are only considered to be ordinary . ” Wu Jun appeared behind Yuan Zhou mysteriously .

“Um . Hurry up to taste the dish . ” Yuan Zhou answered lightly .

“I know, I know . Make sure the answer is short and brief shortly when you give opinions . ” After Wu Jun said that he directly headed for the dishes instead of pestering Yuan Zhou again .

Yuan Zhou didn’t really start the taste test immediately . If any of the chefs didn’t get seated, the chefs wouldn’t cook the dishes, because the process of the exchange meeting also required the chefs to watch .

While walking around all the oval tables, Yuan Zhou picked up every card and had a look carefully .

The content on the card was almost the same . Of all the chefs, the one that had as long as 35 years in this industry was nevertheless only good at one cuisine, Santian Beef .

Yuan Zhou knew something about the Santian Beef . It was actually the Wagyu Beef in the ordinary sense .

However, the Kobe City wasn’t actually a metropolis and didn’t produce the cattle . Those beef mainly came from the surrounding rural areas of Kobe City and the best of all was Santian Beef .

The judgement of the quality of the cattle over here depended on a certificate, a certificate called Child Cattle Registration Certificate .

It recorded all of the past three generations of the cow, including the names and telephone numbers of the people who raised it and who did the artificial insemination for it .

Such a cow required repeat inspections at the 14th month and 29th month after the certificate was awarded .

Moreover, the association that had awarded the certificate held a contest every year . For the cow which obtained the first prize, even a drop of sperm was worth tens of thousands of JPY .

“Tsk-tsk . What a same life with different prices! I’d rather be a cow in my next life . ” It was the sigh with emotion when Yuan Zhou got to know about this cow .

“It’s surprising the Hand-Pulled Noodles . Isn’t the Lanzhou Hand-Pulled Noodles more famous that this?” Yuan Zhou took the small card on the last table and ridiculed in the heart .

That’s right . The information recorded on this card showed that this chef was good at making the Hand-Pulled Noodles .

The first dish that Yuan Zhou tasted wasn’t the Hand-Pulled Noodles or the beef, but the eels, specifically, Kabayaki Eel .

The chef that cooked this dish was a middle-aged man, who had about twenty years of working age . He was good at cooking Kabayaki Eels and Eel Griped .

“Hello . What do you want to eat?” Seeing Yuan Zhou sit down, the chef asked immediately . His Chinese sounded quite awkward, but luckily, Yuan Zhou could understand him .

“This, this one . ” Yuan Zhou took up the introduction card and said while pointing at the Kabayaki Eels .

“One moment, please . ” This time, the person spoke Japanese . As far as Yuan Zhou could understand, it meant so, thus he got seated with ease .

Ever since the chef started to process the eels, however, Yuan Zhou’s brows had never been unknitted .

As the eels had no fish scales, its body was quite smooth and it was very difficult to get hold of it . This person wiped the fish carver with a piece of clean white cloth first and then caught an eel with the left hand and directly started to dissect it .

As it was very smooth and not easy to get hold of, the eels were partitioned by others at will like an cucumber . As a result, the actions also appeared smooth and natural .

However, Yuan Zhou had been denying the way to process the eels in the heart .

“The ironware has destroyed the freshness of the fish and the actions are rough . Just now, the knife was askew . ” In the opinion of others, the actions were smooth and naturally like the floating clouds and flowing water . In Yuan Zhou’s eyes, however, there were full of flaws .

The five senses that were more sensitive than others’ has provided Yuan Zhou with the extremely picky severity .

Therefore, Yuan Zhou directly returned to the chairs for a rest when he ate up two pieces of Kabayaki Eels prepared by the chefs .

According to the schedule, however, the chefs needed to give opinions of the dishes that they had tasted .

“How do you like the dish, sir?” Chengtian Yilan asked Yuan Zhou smilingly .

Since he asked in this way, he was actually waiting for Yuan Zhou to say complimentary words . After all, the dish of Kabayaki Eels was what he was good at .

Nevertheless, Yuan Zhou suddenly thought of Zhong Lili’s instructions that it wasn’t their home court and he had better not say much and keep low-profile . Consequently, Yuan Zhou summarized the flaws that he had found just now and gave his comment:

“Everything is good except that it doesn’t taste good . “

. . .