AGN -Chapter 367 Master Qin Has His Own Considerations

After returning to Yunzhong Community, Qin Huai asked Shi Dadan whether he wanted to sit at Yunzhong Canteen or rest at his home. Shi Dadan had been staying at Luo Jun’s place in Shanshi this time, but Luo Jun was still at the amusement park, and Zhang Shumei had gone out shopping on her day off. Shi Dadan didn’t have Luo Jun’s house key and was effectively left with nowhere to go.

Shi Dadan chose to wait at Yunzhong Canteen. He said he wanted to be the first to taste the crab-roe pork buns made by Qin Huai.

Qin Huai felt that was fine too. Back when Xu Nuo made crab-roe pork buns, Shi Dadan had been the very first to try them. Although he hadn’t managed to try Xu Nuo’s later double-crab buns—and at the time, he probably hadn’t fully understood Xu Nuo’s concept behind the buns—Qin Huai believed Shi Dadan could still offer some constructive feedback.

At the very least, he would be better than Ou Yang. After all, Shi Dadan had been eating Chef Cao Guixiang’s excellent dishes for so many years and had seen the world. Even if he was easy to satisfy, his palate should have been trained by now.

Qin Huai led Shi Dadan to Yunzhong Canteen.

Although Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan and others were off today, the aunties and uncles were still holding the fort at the canteen. After all, the people from Zhiwei Pavilion were still around, and Su Qian was at least on duty.

Taking advantage of Qin Huai’s absence, the aunties and uncles were busy showering the Zhiwei Pavilion members with exaggerated praise, hoping to flatter them into a daze so that they would happily cook whatever was requested in the next few days.

When Qin Huai entered the canteen, Xu Tuqiang and Granny Ding were enthusiastically praising Su Qian’s crab puff pastries. Their compliments were so over the top that Qin Huai couldn’t help but stop and take a few extra glances.

Crab pastries—Qin Huai had recently been researching double-crab buns, so anything related to crab naturally caught his attention.

His glance made Xu Tuqiang and Granny Ding feel guilty. They exchanged looks in panic.

Xu Tuqiang: Did we overdo it? Did Little Chef Qin hear us? Is he unhappy?

Granny Ding: It’s all your fault for not writing new praise lines. You reused the ones for Little Chef Qin on Xiao Su—of course he noticed!

Xu Tuqiang: What do we do?! What do we do?!

Granny Ding: Follow my lead!

Qin Huai, of course, didn’t notice their silent exchange at all. Even if he had, he wouldn’t have understood it—their eye communication was practically encrypted Morse code.

He simply thought Su Qian’s crab pastries were quite good. His laminated pastry technique seemed to have improved.

With Su Qian’s current level, achieving this kind of progress in such a short time showed real talent—and hard work.

No wonder he was widely recognized as Chef Zhou’s direct disciple.

Less than a month of progress equaled what Tan Weian achieved in an entire quarter.

“Hey, Xu Tuqiang, don’t you think the crab pork buns Little Chef Qin made recently are also really good?” Granny Ding suddenly said loudly, deliberately raising her voice while facing away from Qin Huai. “It’s a pity he’s off today. I can’t get any of them this afternoon. My granddaughter really loves them. I’ll have to coax her again when I get home.”

Xu Tuqiang didn’t expect this move and froze awkwardly. He couldn’t even follow the act while facing Qin Huai.

Qin Huai: ?

Granny Ding immediately turned around with a surprised expression.

“Oh, Little Chef Qin! You’re off today, aren’t you? Why did you come to the canteen? You should be resting at home!”

Xu Tuqiang: …

He thought bitterly: If you’re this good at acting, why be a kindergarten director? You should go act instead. You might even win an award.

Qin Huai smiled. “I can’t really sit still. Granny Ding, you guys continue chatting. I’ll go make buns.”

“Old Shi, just find a place to sit. Wi-Fi password is 1234567. If you’re hungry, feel free to grab some pastries. Su Qian’s skills are very good.”

He pointed toward Su Qian.

Su Qian looked pleasantly surprised, clearly not expecting Qin Huai to praise him so directly.

After that, Qin Huai went to change clothes. When he came out, Su Qian was already in the kitchen, having even prepared the pork filling for the crab-roe pork buns.

The fat-to-lean ratio was perfect.

“Chef Qin, should the filling be pure minced meat or mixed with other ingredients? How fine should it be minced?” Su Qian asked respectfully.

Somewhere unnoticed, a nameless Zhiwei Pavilion apprentice was boiling water for tea.

“Just mince it into meat paste—finer is better. No special requirements,” Qin Huai said.

In the tutorial, that was all that was required. The real difficulty of Xu Nuo’s version of crab-roe pork filling lay in the stir-frying and seasoning. The meat mincing step had even been handled by Shi Dadan—pure brute force.

From that perspective, the best candidates for mincing were Qin Luo and Ou Yang. Those two were strong enough to make hand-shaken lemonade by sheer force. No one else compared.

Thinking this through, Qin Huai felt Su Qian was overqualified for such a task. Instead of wasting time mincing meat, he should focus on his own pastries. The more complex prep work could be handled by Su Qian, but simple labor like this…

It really was overkill.

Qin Huai said directly, “This is easy work. Su Qian, go focus on your own pastries. If you run into problems, ask me. I’ll assign someone else to handle the meat.”

Su Qian nodded without hesitation and left to continue his work.

That was one of his best traits as an assistant—he had his own ideas but followed instructions strictly. He read the situation well, obeyed orders, and was also intelligent.

Working with him was very comfortable for any head chef. No need to explain much—just give instructions, and he would execute them well.

Qin Huai scanned the kitchen and looked for someone with average culinary skill but strong physical strength.

He locked onto An Youyou.

Although her cooking skills weren’t great, her strength was impressive—comparable to many male assistants in Yunzhong Canteen.

Qin Huai even suspected she had developed it from working in her family’s breakfast shop since childhood.

An Youyou was currently frying radish cakes.

Qin Huai noticed that their interactions recently had decreased. Not only because she had mainly main storyline tasks that were difficult to complete, nor because he had been busy, but also because she didn’t seem very willing to interact with him.

When Qin Huai had offered her promotion and a raise, she had been very eager to communicate with him—almost constantly trying to work near him, asking questions, and seeking feedback.

Back then, she even actively liked and commented on his social posts.

That enthusiasm continued until she was officially promoted to team leader.

Of course, she hadn’t slacked off afterward. She was still hardworking, still improving, still trying to learn—just that her questions were now directed toward Li Hua and Pei Xing instead of Qin Huai.

Qin Huai also noticed she seemed less willing to approach him. That was understandable. Most employees didn’t want to constantly chat with their boss—especially when the boss was more skilled than them.

So he hadn’t actively tried to raise her “favorability” again, unlike how he once did with Gong Liang in Suzhou.

However, Qin Huai felt that continuing like this wasn’t a long-term solution. Today seemed like a good opportunity to communicate.

“An Youyou.” Qin Huai called her.

Hearing her boss call her, An Youyou quickly put down her radish cake frying work, casually asked an assistant worker to help watch over it, and ran over.

“Chef Qin, is the neighborhood committee rushing the radish cakes? I’m almost done frying them!”

“No, no rush there. First, help me mince this meat.” Qin Huai pointed at the pork Su Qian had prepared. “I know you’ve actually been practicing your knife skills recently. Let me see how your meat chopping is going.”

An Youyou looked both eager and a little afraid she might mess it up. “Chef Qin, I…”

“Just mince it into fine meat paste. Take your time. It’s fine if it’s slow. It just takes strength, understand?”

An Youyou understood.

“I have high expectations for you. I’ve seen your progress recently. I think your future isn’t limited to being a normal assistant. Many chefs in big restaurants started as helpers. If you keep progressing like this, even if you don’t become a pastry chef, becoming a chopping-board cook is very possible.”

To make sure she understood, Qin Huai explained in the same tone he had once used when Xu Nuo explained things to Shi Dadan: “The red kitchen (hot kitchen) is different from our white kitchen (pastry kitchen). In the red kitchen, assistants have more specialized roles. A chopping-board cook is still a proper chef position, and the salary is at least one-third higher than what you’re earning now.”

Hearing such a concrete “future prospect,” An Youyou’s eyes immediately lit up.

“So my talent is actually in the hot kitchen?”

“I think you have talent in both areas. Keep it up, and mince well.” Qin Huai encouraged her.

An Youyou instantly became full of motivation and happily went off to chop meat.

From a distance, Pei Xing—who had already had one moment of enlightenment before—watched this scene and gritted his teeth in jealousy.

“Why did he choose An Youyou to chop the meat? I was the one who taught her knife skills during this period. How could her chopping be better than mine? And I’m not even weak!”

Li Hua: …

Li Hua shook his head and said nothing. At times, he really couldn’t understand how Pei Xing could simultaneously be jealous and unwilling to work harder.

Meanwhile, Qin Huai moved on to preparing the crab-roe sauce.

Xu Nuo’s crab-roe pork bun used fresh crab roe. But that wasn’t a problem—Qin Huai’s fresh crab roe was also already seasoned, and the steps were very clear. With his current skill level, he could handle it easily.

After two or three attempts, he adjusted the crab roe sauce to a version he felt satisfied with, then began kneading the dough.

By the time the dough was ready, An Youyou had almost finished mincing the meat.

After simple seasoning, the next step was the most critical: stir-frying the filling.

At this moment, Qin Huai was deeply thankful that his training in sauce-thickening techniques under Cao Guixiang had improved his control over heat to an advanced level.

Otherwise, with his previous intermediate-level heat control, this step would almost certainly have failed.

The probability of failure? Probably close to 99.9%.

Before stir-frying, Qin Huai sorted out his thoughts.

Xu Nuo’s approach to crab-roe pork buns was very clear: if skill was sufficient, integrate flavors; if not, keep them distinct. Hot kitchen was hot kitchen—don’t mix in white kitchen thinking.

When stir-frying the filling, don’t think of it as filling preparation—think of it as cooking a dish.

Qin Huai clarified his mindset.

He heated the wok, added oil, stir-fried over high heat, then switched to low heat.

His wok movements were still flashy and exaggerated, but Qin Huai felt he was doing well.

Pei Xing, who had been secretly watching him, was completely stunned.

He asked in confusion, “Is Chef Qin… just hungry and frying himself a plate of meat?”

Li Hua: …

“Chef Qin has his own considerations.”

And Chef Qin, with his own considerations, finished stir-frying the filling.

And honestly—it smelled amazing.

The combination of crab roe and pork was already excellent, at least far more reasonable than crab roe with sea cucumber. After all, pork is very adaptable.

Pork is full of potential—everything tastes good with it.

Qin Huai suddenly understood why Shi Dadan’s first reaction had been to taste it when he saw the filling.

Because he also kind of wanted to try it.

After all, the quality of this filling was quite good.

【Crab-Roe Pork Filling: B Grade】

Being able to produce a B-grade filling—especially one made through stir-frying—made Qin Huai very satisfied with his performance.

He scooped a big spoonful and took a bite.

He chewed.

Mm. Delicious.

A very tasty crab-roe fried meat filling.

Whether crab-roe pork buns would taste good, he wasn’t sure yet—he had never actually eaten a proper version before. But this stir-fried filling was genuinely delicious and fragrant.

If served over rice with some vegetables, Qin Luo could probably eat three big bowls.

Qin Huai scooped another spoonful, eating with even more enthusiasm.

Now Li Hua was also a bit confused.

After thinking for a moment, he could only say: “Maybe Chef Qin is just hungry.”

“I heard there’s not much food in that amusement park. Chef Qin might have forgotten to bring snacks when he went.”

Before Li Hua could finish speaking, Pei Xing had already rushed over with slightly cooled steamed shumai.

“Chef Qin! I’ve got freshly steamed shumai here!”

Li Hua: …