"Specific dining preferences..."
"At that time, Chef Yao gave him two bottles of good wine. I noticed he drank them, and the brand was..."
"Also, he doesn’t seem to eat onions or cilantro, doesn’t like meat, prefers vegetarian dishes, especially white jade mushrooms. At that time, there was a dish served, and I noticed he picked out and ate all the white jade mushrooms."
Liu Yunong became interested upon hearing this.
"Did you observe all this?" Liu Yunong asked.
Fu Yu replied truthfully, "Yes, I wanted to see how Chef Kang would review the dishes on that table, so I took a special look at his dining situation. However, I really couldn’t detect the specific taste preferences because the dishes ordered at that time had relatively mild flavors."
Liu Yunong was slightly curious; judging a customer’s dining preferences through inquiry is not difficult.
However, accurately knowing someone’s food preferences just by their dining behavior is much more challenging.
Liu Yunong instantly had some judgment about the preparation of dishes, and was somewhat surprised by Fu Yu’s attention to detail and reliability in this aspect.
After all, Fu Yu hadn’t been involved in kitchen cooking for very long.
To cook dishes that satisfy customers, besides excellent culinary skills, understanding customers’ preference needs is also crucial.
Understanding customers’ preferences sometimes requires direct communication for understanding, but it isn’t always convenient.
At such times, it deeply tests the chef’s response and coping abilities.
Like being able to accurately understand customers’ needs by solely observing their dining behavior is quite a sophisticated operation.
Even Fu Yu mastered this?
This made Liu Yunong genuinely expectant and curious about Fu Yu’s abilities.
No wonder Kang Guijie’s preferences were so apparent?
Thinking of this, Liu Yunong said, "I understand. Since you’re stuck in traffic, there’s no rush. It’s fine to be late."
Then she hung up the phone.
At this moment, Liu Yunong happened to see Wang Yulong and Liu Zhangpeng busy with their own tasks, so she loudly asked, "Who took over Chef Kang’s table?"
Liu Zhangpeng said, "Boss, I took over."
Liu Yunong looked at Liu Zhangpeng and said, "For Chef Kang’s side, pay attention when cooking. He shouldn’t eat onions, cilantro, doesn’t like meat, prefers vegetarian."
Liu Zhangpeng nodded, "Okay, I got it."
After giving the instructions, Liu Yunong turned and walked over to Wang Yulong, with another thing on her mind.
"Chef Wang, if we don’t inquire and communicate directly, just by observing the customer’s dining situation, could anyone in the kitchen accurately determine the customer’s dining preferences?"
As soon as the question was posed, Wang Yulong’s movements paused; he looked at Liu Yunong in some surprise.
What does it mean?
Why did the boss suddenly ask this question?
When customers dine in, don’t they usually order based on their preferences themselves?
If there are any dietary restrictions, wouldn’t they directly inform the order-taker?
It’s not easy to determine a person’s dietary preferences by dining situation without asking or communicating, right?
Wang Yulong has worked at the main store for decades and shares a deep bond with Liu Yunong, usually speaking whatever comes to mind.
Upon hearing this, he voiced his thoughts directly.
Liu Yunong nodded, also feeling that it’s indeed quite challenging.
However, it’s also a way to assess a chef’s ability.
Thinking of this, Liu Yunong suddenly thought of something. She decided to take the opportunity to teach a few of the kitchen staff how to determine a customer’s dining preferences based on their dining behavior after the cooking is done!
Cooking is a complex yet systematic process of transforming ingredients into food.
The goal is to make the food more delicious, visually appealing, and pleasant-smelling, better meeting people’s dining needs.
And how to make customers more satisfied is the lifelong pursuit of all chefs.
Culinary skills require exquisite operational techniques.
But it must be understood that the most fundamental way to prove good culinary skills is whether it can win the love and praise of customers.
Nothing makes one’s culinary skills progress more easily than understanding customers’ real needs.
Liu Yunong quickly finalized the customized menu for Kang Guijie.
In addition to the dishes originally on today’s menu, there are two of the store’s special dishes.
Originally, National Banquet Dongpo Pork was prepared for the reception, and the ingredients were readily available at the store.
However, after a little deliberation, Liu Yunong decided to follow Fu Yu’s suggestion, replacing the National Banquet Dongpo Pork with another special dish, white jade mushrooms in oyster sauce.
White jade mushrooms are naturally translucent, whether cooked alone or paired with other dishes, they are visually pleasing and the preparation is simple.
They can be stir-fried, fried, stewed, or braised...
In Liu Family Cuisine, there is a cooking method handed down from her great-grandfather, a secret method.
When it debuted back then, it won the diners’ love and has since become a timeless classic dish in the menu.
A common ingredient, made into a classic taste.
It’s always been the most revered cooking method in Liu Family Cuisine.
However, to cater to the times and be closer to customers’ dining preferences, some new seasonings have been incorporated, altering the proportions and cooking methods from classic flavor dishes.
When Liu Yunong was cooking, she didn’t make the improved version because Fu Yu had already said that Kang Guijie prefers vegetarian over meat.
Vegetarians generally pursue simplicity in ingredients and seasoning, especially emphasizing the nutritional pairing and original taste of the ingredients.
As the saying goes, light but not bland, simple but not simplistic.
And white jade mushrooms have always been known as "superior mountain delicacy."
Kang Guijie does indeed have a refined palate.
Liu Yunong instructed the assistant to speed up the preparation of the ingredients.
She then began checking the seasonings and kitchen utensils.
Once all the ingredients were ready, Liu Yunong started cooking the first dish, white jade mushrooms in oyster sauce.
This dish is smooth to pick up, light and tasty, most suitable as an appetizer.
Liu Yunong trimmed the old roots of the white jade mushrooms, rinsed them with clean water, and drained them.
Then she peeled and sliced the garlic, washed and chopped the green onion into sections, and washed, de-stemmed, and deseeded the green and red peppers, cutting them into small segments.
Liu Yunong has her own unique way of handling the knife, preferring to use a rotating knife for cutting segments like this.
The segments she cuts are uniform in size, but the cuts have a uniformly slanted angle, which is very distinctive.
She poured a little clean water into the pot, brought it to a boil over high heat, blanched the white jade mushrooms for 10 seconds, and drained.
The blanching removes the grassy smell of white jade mushrooms, improving their taste.
She then cleaned the water from the pot, added a little cooking oil, and when it was heated to 50% hot, added garlic, green onion, and green and red pepper segments to stir-fry over high heat.
Then quickly stir-fried the white jade mushrooms, adding soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, and salt consecutively, stirring evenly.
Finally, she added cornstarch water to thicken the sauce, collected the juice over high heat, and sprinkled a little sugar to enhance the flavor.
The key to this dish lies in the proportion of seasonings and the control of the heat.
White jade mushrooms cook easily, so the stir-frying time shouldn’t be too long; otherwise, they won’t be crisp.
The white jade mushrooms are cooked just right, with a crisp, tender and fresh texture, and a sweet taste.
The final sugar enhancement, this proportion, was determined after countless attempts.
You could say that every step in making this dish isn’t superfluous, incorporating the cooking experience and techniques passed down through several generations.
After finishing the presentation, Liu Yunong had the server take the dish away.
She then turned to separately cook carrot stewed lamb and steamed bass.
These two dishes are their store’s special dishes, highly praised by customers.
Especially the lamb, which is airlifted from another place, from large-tailed sheep, with tender meat and an authentic taste.
When Liu Yunong’s father was alive, he often cooked this dish to entertain family and friends.
Even though Kang Guijie prefers vegetarian, presumably this dish might evoke some memories from the past.
Later, bringing Fu Yu over to say hello might also go more smoothly and effortlessly.
It’s not that Liu Yunong’s mind is deeply cunning, but with an obvious opportunity to showcase right in front, not capturing it would be senseless, wouldn’t it?