Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 08/27/2023
Although Sun Xiangdong had said he would talk to Zhao Heping about Su Bai's matter, early the next morning, Su Bai earnestly went to Zhao Heping's office after his morning routine.
"Coach," Su Bai knocked on the office door, and Zhao Heping inside looked up, grunted, and then waved him in.
"That kid Sun Xiangdong told me about your situation last night. He said he has no objections, and he even praised your cooking skills," Zhao Heping, used to being a coach, spoke to Su Bai, the child he had watched grow up. He couldn't help but add, "Since he praised you, then work hard from now on. You know the treatment in our team."
Pausing for a moment, Zhao Heping continued, "Also, don't forget your own expertise just because you've become a chef... Since you're staying in the team, there's still hope for other paths in the future."
The latter part of this sentence was spoken softly by Zhao Heping, but Su Bai understood it clearly.
Su Bai hadn't expected that his coach wanted him to stay in the team, with such meaning behind it... He knew his coach had always cared for and looked after him. When he was younger, he had often been brought to his coach's house for meals.
Throughout the journey, as he gained an understanding of the limits of his own achievements, he realized that his disappointment wasn't due to his limited talent, but rather the fact that his potential couldn't live up to his coach's expectations.
Now that he had chosen to retire, his coach still hadn't given up on him and was still making the best possible plans for him.
Su Bai opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but he wasn't good with words, and he felt he couldn't express his genuine gratitude to Zhao Heping.
After hesitating for a while, Su Bai finally looked at Zhao Heping seriously and said, "Master... Can I come to your house in a few days? By then, I'll cook a meal for you and Master's wife. Let you both try my cooking."
Master, these two words were spoken. Zhao Heping, in front of his office desk, looked up at Su Bai deeply, then slowly revealed a smiling face, pointed at Su Bai, and said, "Alright, both your master and I will be waiting for you to come to our home."
Su Bai's eyes were slightly red. He blinked as if nothing had happened, bowed to Zhao Heping, bid farewell, and turned around.
The titles "master" and "master's wife" had not been uttered by him for many years.
When he first arrived at the provincial team, he was one of the only two members under Zhao Heping. The other member didn't pass the trial assessment and left later, leaving only him.
At that time, he used to address Zhao Heping as "master" and his wife as "master's wife."
For him, who was still young at the time, these terms gave him a sense of familial warmth.
Later on, more and more members joined under his master's leadership, and they all respectfully addressed Zhao Heping as "coach." Although no one objected to him using "master" to address Zhao Heping, as an orphan, he naturally felt sensitive and resistant to this "different from others" uniqueness.
He couldn't remember when exactly he started, but he stopped calling them "master" and "master's wife."
Times had changed, and looking back now, he realized he had been overly sensitive when he was young. But he was different now from his younger self.
His thoughts were somewhat jumbled, but in the end, he pushed these thoughts aside. Although he had retired, he could treat his master and master's wife better from now on, making up for his avoidance over the years.
Thinking like this all the way, when he returned to the dormitory, Qiu Wen had already finished morning training, had breakfast, and taken a shower again.
Seeing Su Bai return, Qiu Wen put on a face of grievance, "Xiao Bai... We agreed that you would provide me with three meals a day!"
Looking at his half-dead appearance, Su Bai contemplated for 3 seconds, then said, "But I haven't officially reported in yet."
Of course, Qiu Wen knew that. He continued to hold the back of the chair with a look of grievance and sighed, "I bet Chef Sun must have been craving your cooking after you left yesterday! This morning, there was a window in the cafeteria serving bone broth noodles, exactly the same as what you made last night!"
At this point, Qiu Wen's eyes were teary, "I was tempted when I saw it, so I immediately ordered a bowl! But as soon as I took a bite, I knew it wasn't the same taste as what you, Xiao Bai, made."
Qiu Wen muttered on the side, wondering why there was such a big difference in taste when they were both noodles.
After returning to the dormitory last night, Su Bai carefully examined the effects of the so-called Basic Culinary Skill Level 1. He realized why this was the case.
Basic Culinary Skill Level 1: The host's five senses will be significantly enhanced. As a result, sensitivity to ingredients, seasonings, cooking timing, and other culinary-related aspects will be proportionally increased. At the same time, Basic Culinary Skill Level 1 will provide a 10% enhancement in appearance, aroma, and flavor to the food cooked by the host.
This seemingly unremarkable Basic Culinary Skill Level 1 actually had surprisingly strong effects.
After enhancing control over ingredients, seasonings, and cooking techniques, and with the added enhancement to the final food product's appearance, aroma, and flavor, the combination of these improvements naturally led to the creation of enticing delicacies.
Qiu Wen kept nagging at Su Bai until he left the dormitory, "Xiao Bai, don't forget our agreement from yesterday. I'm entrusting all my meals for the next three meals to you, bro!"
Su Bai looked at Qiu Wen and calmly raised his index finger.
Qiu Wen: "?"
Su Bai: "I'm one year older than you."
Implied in his words was that Su Bai was the elder brother.
Qiu Wen was taken aback by this raised index finger and said with a heavy tone, "Xiao Bai, you've changed." Then, wearing a melancholic expression, he left the dormitory.
Watching Qiu Wen's departing figure, Su Bai smiled, a rare sight.
In just one day's time, he had also noticed a change in his mindset. Especially after leaving his master's office earlier, he suddenly felt much more relaxed.
Su Bai arrived at the kitchen after 1:30 PM. Several kitchen staff he recognized were resting and chatting. Sun Xiangdong was among them.
When they saw Su Bai, they greeted him with smiles."Hey, Xiao Bai, welcome!"
Evidently, Sun Xiangdong had already informed everyone about Su Bai joining the kitchen.
One of the men, Wang Wu, around thirty years old, greeted Su Bai and then playfully teased, "Xiao Bai, I've heard from Old Sun that your bone broth noodles are a masterpiece! This kid Sun Xiangdong here spent half the day researching today. We all thought the taste was pretty good, but he still says the taste he made is far worse than yours."
"That's right! I've had three bowls of his bone broth noodles today. When you have time, remember to make your bone broth noodles for us to taste and see what the real taste is like!" Another kitchen chef next to Wang Wu also joined in, laughing.
Regarding Su Bai's arrival, they evidently had no objections. They were all part of the provincial team, and this place was essentially a big collective. Everyone had a pretty good idea of each other's personalities within the collective. They knew the situation with Su Bai, and most of them didn't have any issues with him joining the kitchen.
Sun Xiangdong naturally saw Su Bai too. He waved his hand at Wang Wu and the others in a slightly annoyed manner, "I've already told you guys, don't bully Xiao Bai just because he doesn't like to talk. You dare to say anything to him."
Wang Wu and the others laughed, "Hey, we haven't bullied Xiao Bai. We're just telling him some embarrassing stories about you, Old Sun!"
After some laughter and banter, Sun Xiangdong quickly led Su Bai out of the kitchen and headed towards the administrative office.
On the way, Sun Xiangdong explained to Su Bai, "This time the kitchen is hiring new staff mainly to find an assistant for me. You know, apart from the cafeteria on the first and second floors, we also have a group of athletes who are aiming for the top. The team provides special nutritional meals for them."
"As the new year approaches, the 2018 season is about to start. Our provincial athletics team's performance was mediocre last year. This year, Lao Zhao and the others have really put in a lot of effort. They want to train their respective team members rigorously for their events."
"For this group of athletes, we need to take care of them meticulously in the coming year, including the nutritional meals. The team's requirement is to plan the nutritional meals well, adjust the individual meals of each athlete according to their training schedule and coach's plan."
Hearing this, Su Bai understood why Sun Xiangdong needed to recruit new chefs. People like Wang Wu and the others were responsible for the daily meals on the first and second floors of the cafeteria. Even the meals for the regular athletes needed to be carefully prepared according to regulations, which required a significant amount of manpower.
As for the elite athletes, while their provincial athletics team might be part of a larger track and field organization, track and field itself encompassed numerous disciplines like running, jumping, and throwing – adding up to more than forty events.
Among these forty-plus events, when you factor in both male and female categories, even if not all events have elite athletes needing specialized care, each event has at least one male and one female athlete requiring tailored meals. Sun Xiangdong alone couldn't manage all of them.
They walked to the administrative office together and completed all of Su Bai's employment procedures. Sun Xiangdong had also briefed Su Bai about the current tasks in the kitchen.
Their tasks mainly revolved around a few points. First, they had to be extremely cautious about selecting ingredients to prevent any substandard materials from entering the kitchen, avoiding any potential doping crisis in the athletes' diet. Second, they needed to plan the daily nutritional supplement menu for athletes of different disciplines according to the training schedules provided by the coaching staff. Third, they had to adjust the meals as needed based on changes in the training plan or the athletes' physical conditions.
In addition to these tasks, their responsibility was to cook for the athletes.
For now, among these responsibilities, Sun Xiangdong was handling most of the upfront work, and Su Bai's main duty was to prepare meals based on the nutritional menu Sun Xiangdong provided. While it might sound simple, Sun Xiangdong had more challenging tasks, so Su Bai was left with the meal preparation, which was more time-consuming due to the variety of athlete-specific diets.
After Sun Xiangdong finished explaining, he took a deep breath, patted Su Bai's shoulder, and said, "Currently, we have a total of 76 athletes who require special nutritional meals. However, many of these side dishes can be prepared together in large quantities, so we don't really need to individually prepare each person's meal."
While that was true, the volume of food Su Bai needed to prepare was still substantial.When Sun Xiangdong and Su Bai returned to the kitchen, it was almost 3 PM, and the kitchen was already bustling with activity. Everyone, including chefs and assistants, had begun preparing the nutritious dinner for the athletes in the evening.
Sun Xiangdong led Su Bai directly to the kitchen on the third floor, dedicated to preparing meals for the elite athletes. It marked the beginning of Su Bai's first day in the kitchen.Upon reaching the third-floor kitchen, Sun Xiangdong handed the master menu of nutritional meals to Su Bai and highlighted a few dishes for him. Once they confirmed that these were dishes Su Bai could handle, Sun Xiangdong left the preparation of these dishes to him and went on to handle other tasks.
The dishes Su Bai was given were Braised Beef, Spicy Eggplant, and Tomato Egg Soup. To Su Bai's surprise, all of these dishes were part of the reward nutritional recipes the system had provided him the previous day.
Upon opening the system's nutritional recipe list, he could find detailed instructions for these dishes.
The Braised Beef dish had beef as its main ingredient, known for its low fat content, making it suitable for athletes who engage in extensive and prolonged physical activity. It doesn't lead to fat deposits in the body and is rich in nutrients like B6 and linoleic acid, which aid in better physical recovery.
The Spicy Eggplant dish featured eggplant as the main ingredient, rich in Vitamin P, which maintains the elasticity and physiological functions of blood vessels, and promotes wound healing.
The Tomato Egg Soup, featuring ingredients rich in Vitamin C and protein, serves as a supplement to meet the daily protein requirements of athletes.
As he looked through these recipes, just like the learning method he encountered during the previous day's routine tasks, the cooking techniques for these dishes were being ingrained into his mind in a general way.
Meanwhile, alongside these recipes, there were stars indicating proficiency levels.Su Bai rubbed his head, recalling the cooking techniques for the nutritional meals that had been instilled in his mind earlier. Comparatively, they weren't significantly different from the skills he already possessed, but they included a few additional details that seemed to hold some hidden intricacies.
According to Su Bai's guess, considering the stars representing proficiency, these dishes' preparation might undergo different effects or changes when he achieved a certain level of proficiency.
As he speculated these possibilities in his mind, Su Bai began selecting various ingredients in the kitchen. Once he had gathered enough ingredients and materials, he earnestly started preparing the dinner.
Quality chunks of beef were washed and cut into pieces. Along with some green onions, they were thrown into a large iron wok for stir-frying. Beside Su Bai, an array of seasonings was ready, including cooking wine, light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce. With a simple flick of his hand, he added the precise amounts of these carefully selected seasonings from the dozens of options available in the kitchen.
As these seasonings hit the wok, the beef, already changing color due to the initial stir-fry, emitted a sizzling sound accompanied by the rising aroma. The hot air carried a mouthwatering fragrance that was hard to resist.
A rich aroma filled the air. Once the beef in the wok had been thoroughly mixed with the various seasonings, Su Bai took a massive lid and covered the wok, allowing the beef to stew quietly inside.
But the preparations didn't end there. While the beef stewed, Su Bai turned around and fetched the common spices from the kitchen. Following the ratios provided by the system's menu, he meticulously prepared the ingredients needed for the slow stewing process.
While preparing the Braised Beef, Su Bai also didn't neglect the other two dishes. The ingredients for the Spicy Eggplant were already set, and the fragrant Tomato Egg Soup was emitting a steamy, tantalizing aroma.
In the same kitchen, Sun Xiangdong, who was busy preparing other dishes, occasionally glanced back at Su Bai during his breaks. He was concerned that Su Bai, on his first day in the kitchen, might become overwhelmed and make mistakes while handling such a large-scale cooking task.
However, each time he turned around, he saw a composed Su Bai, which added a few more drops of satisfaction to his evaluation of Su Bai's performance in the kitchen.If there was anything that mildly annoyed Sun Xiangdong, it was the constantly rumbling noise of his own stomach triggered by the unceasingly delightful aroma wafting from the area Su Bai was in.
By around 5:10 PM, the athletes' afternoon training session had concluded. They flocked to the cafeteria, where the aroma of food had already permeated the air. This wasn't much different from usual.
It wasn't until some of the athletes, who were dining on the second floor, stepped into the cafeteria and were suddenly greeted by an enticing fragrance. This aroma seemed to carry a hook, guiding them towards the third floor's staircase. Some of them even managed to reach halfway up the stairs before recalling in dismay—oh no, they didn't have permission to dine on the third floor!
"Ahhhh!"
What on earth was happening on the third floor cafeteria?
That aroma today was almost driving people insane!
Most athletes had no clue why the third floor cafeteria suddenly emitted such a tantalizing fragrance that seemed to tickle their brains and hearts. However, there was one exception: Qiu Wen. As he reached the staircase on the second floor and caught a whiff of that aroma, Su Bai's name popped into his mind instinctively.
"Ah! It's this fragrance! Su Bai is cooking on the third floor today!"
Qiu Wen let out a shout and dashed straight to the third floor — he was on the list of the 76 athletes granted permission to dine there.
Several other key athletes from the track and field team who were walking alongside Qiu Wen exchanged puzzled looks.
"Su Bai cooking? Are you talking about that Su Bai?"
"This guy has been going on about how delicious the bone broth noodles Su Bai made for him last night were. Look at his expression, he seems pretty genuine about it."
"Come to think of it, we've never smelled something this alluring on the third floor before, have we? Enough talking, let's hurry upstairs! My stomach is actually growling from being enticed by this fragrance!"
The group of athletes exchanged glances and quickly headed for the third floor.
Following behind them was a young athlete whose steps were leisurely, and he maintained some distance from the others. He had been scratching his head in frustration earlier, but as he reached the staircase on the second floor, a rich and hearty aroma seemed to cut through the air. It reached him directly, the intense and seductive scent almost impatiently flooding around him. After a moment of daze, he couldn't resist being lured by this fragrance, unconsciously quickening his pace, and ascending to the third-floor cafeteria.
Once he reached the third floor, the enticing aroma became even more distinct and layered. Within the rich scent, there was a hint of refreshing sweetness that balanced out the intensity, making it even more tantalizing.
The cafeteria must have a new chef!
This thought flashed through the young athlete's mind. Unable to contain his curiosity, he joined his teammates who were also hurrying up the stairs and entered the cafeteria.
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