rpbooks Chapter 108 Depressed Michelin Stars and Unreasonable Diners
Chapter 108 Depressed Michelin Stars and Unreasonable Diners
The kitchen of Renxin Pharmacy was originally a storage room, but Pierre has now transformed it into the most hardcore molecular gastronomy laboratory in Changxiang City.
Instead of garlic and chili peppers, hanging on the wall were a precision balance, a centrifuge, and a sous-vide machine with a "biohazard" sign.
At this moment, Pierre was sitting amidst a pile of high-end ingredients, holding a top-quality cucumber he had gotten from Old Cai, looking as melancholy as a poet who had just broken up with his lover.
"Boss, I quit," Pierre said in French-accented Chinese, cracking the cucumber as he squeezed it. "I'm a chef, an artist! Not a nanny who only cooks pig feed!"
Wang Minyu sat opposite him, peeling a tea egg.
The tea eggs are boiled in a mutated mint water, giving them a cool and unique aroma.
"Who said you cooked pig swill?" Wang Minyu took a bite of egg white. "Last night's 'Braised Pork Sashimi' dish, although the name was a bit outrageous, those programmers licked the plate clean."
"That's for medicinal purposes!" Pierre angrily waved a cucumber. "They don't care about the nuances of flavor, or the presentation! They only care if it promotes hair growth and enhances virility! Yesterday, some nouveau riche actually asked me if he could blend the 'Aurora Scallops' into a paste, saying it would make absorption faster! That's a desecration of food!"
Just then, a commotion arose in the front hall.
"Get your chef out here! What is this rubbish? Even a dog wouldn't eat it!"
A sharp female voice pierced through the curtain at the back of the kitchen.
Pierre's eyes lit up, as if he had finally found an outlet for his emotions. He grabbed a boning knife and was about to rush out: "I'm going to defend the dignity of France!"
"Calm down." Wang Minyu pressed down on his shoulder and pulled the knife away. "You're a chef. Knives are for cutting vegetables, not people. I'll go check."
In the front hall, a middle-aged lady in a Chanel suit was pointing at a bowl of soup on the table and throwing a tantrum.
Li Siyuan and Zhao Na, standing to the side, looked like two frightened quails.
That's Pierre's new creation—The Beginning of Chaos (Black Sesame Paste with Stinky Tofu Mousse).
The appearance was indeed a bit... indescribable, like a few pieces of asphalt thrown into a bowl of cement.
"Madam, is there a problem?" Wang Minyu walked over, a professional fake smile on his face.
"Are you the owner?" The wealthy woman pointed at the bowl of soup. "Eight hundred and eighty yuan a bowl, and this is it? A dark, mushy lump, it looks disgusting! I came here on a friend's recommendation, saying you had some kind of miraculous medicinal cuisine, but I think it's just a scam!"
Wang Minyu wasn't angry; instead, he activated the [Aura Observation Technique].
Patient: Zhang Xiuying (52 years old)
Symptoms: Menopausal syndrome, liver and kidney yin deficiency, severe iron-deficiency anemia, accompanied by mild anorexia.
[Emotions: Anxiety, irritability, craving attention.]
"You look disgusting because your heart is 'burning'," Wang Minyu said calmly. "Have you been feeling hot in your palms and soles lately, experiencing night sweats, and finding fault with everyone, especially when you look at yourself in the mirror?"
The wealthy woman paused, her arrogance instantly diminishing: "You...how did you know?"
"This soup is black because it uses black sesame seeds that have been steamed and dried nine times, and it smells bad because it's made with the essence of fermented tofu that's been fermented for forty-nine days." Wang Minyu picked up the bowl of "cement." "In traditional Chinese medicine, black enters the kidneys. You need to use this extremely yin and black stuff to suppress your internal heat."
"I won't eat it! It's too ugly!" The lady was still being stubborn, but her tone had softened considerably.
"Pierre," Wang Minyu called out to the kitchen.
Pierre stormed out, brandishing a kitchen knife, his face contorted with malice: "Who said my vegetables are ugly?"
"Don't get agitated." Wang Minyu pointed at the wealthy woman. "This lady thinks your plating lacks soul. Could you demonstrate to her right now what 'inner beauty' truly means?"
Pierre was stunned, looking at the hint in Wang Minyu's eyes.
The tacit understanding the two had developed over the past few days hadn't been for nothing; he instantly understood what the boss meant.
"Hmph, superficial." Pierre sneered, pulling a spray gun and a small bottle containing white powder from his pocket.
He walked to the table, sprinkled the white powder (actually a mixture of ground phosphate rock powder and pearl powder) onto the bowl of dark paste, and then lit the blowtorch.
boom!
Blue flames swept across the surface of the bowl.
A miracle happened.
The black, pasty substance crystallized instantly under high temperature, forming a thin, brittle shell. The original black color refracted a colorful sheen under light, like the starry sky in the dead of night.
A burst of caramel and bean aroma instantly filled the air, masking the original strange smell.
"This is called 'Starry Sky'," Pierre said arrogantly, raising his chin. "Now, smash it."
The lady was stunned. She carefully picked up the spoon and tapped it gently.
Click.
The crispy shell cracked, revealing the warm, flowing filling underneath. She scooped up a spoonful and put it in her mouth.
Crisp and soft, sweet and salty, fragrant and pungent, all exploded in my mouth like a nuclear explosion.
More importantly, the warmth slid down her throat into her stomach, like a gentle hand, soothing the restless heat that had been raging inside her for months.
A tear rolled down the corner of the noblewoman's eye.
"It's delicious..." she choked up, "I haven't had anything this good in so long."
[Emotional value gained: Moved +800, Healed +1000.]
Pierre looked at the crying woman, still holding the spray gun, but the murderous intent on his face slowly turned into confusion, and then into an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.
"She cried?" Pierre turned to Wang Minyu and asked, "Because of my food?"
"Yes." Wang Minyu patted him on the shoulder. "This is the highest level of cuisine. It's not about making it look good, but about making the person eating it feel 'alive.' Before, at Michelin, you were making food for the eyes; now at Renxin, you're making food for life."
When the lady left, she not only bought a membership card, but also packed three "Starry Sky" meals.
Pierre returned to the kitchen and silently tore up the resignation letter.
"Boss," he said, picking up the cucumber that wasn't fully cut, "I think the way you're cutting this cucumber could be improved. If you cut it along the vascular bundles, the texture will be crisper..."
Wang Minyu smiled, turned around and walked out of the kitchen.
Outside the door, Li Siyuan was squatting on the ground counting ants.
"Master, were those lines you just recited impromptu?"
"What do you mean by making it up on the spot?" Wang Minyu tapped him on the head. "That's called psychological counseling. What that auntie lacks isn't iron, but someone willing to put in the effort to coax her. Pierre's approach was more effective than any medicine."
Just then, my phone rang.
It was Old Cai calling.
On the other end of the phone, Old Cai sounded like he was about to collapse: "Dr. Wang! Come quick! Someone drove a sports car into my vegetable garden! They ran over my radishes! Those were radishes I planted according to the Fibonacci sequence!"