Here Comes The Lady Chef

"Sister Rou Er, in future you will work here!" After the compet.i.tion, Fang Dashi brought Wen Rou to the kitchen again, towards in the inner chef chambers, and a.s.signed her an unused room.

On the floor of the room were various fruits and vegetables. Hanged on hooks were different types of meat, including pork, chicken, duck, and Chinese sausages.

These things look very familiar to Wen Rou. Oh, there are some of each ingredient in the home!

A few trainee chefs were squatting on the floor peeling the potatoes, cleaning the chicken feathers, or de-scaling and degutting the fish. Because this place is quite remote, the trainee chefs were unaware that a cooking compet.i.tion had taken place.

Wen Rou was taking in the scene of this room. It is highly familiar to her. Just when she was standing there, someone knocked against her and she nearly fell down. "Oops!"

"Make way, make way! Who is it? Can"t you see what is happening?" A skinny teenager was carrying a ma.s.sive pot of chestnuts, and noisily made his way into the kitchen.

"Xiao Wu, why are you in such a rush?" Fang Dashi noticed this and immediately asked.

Wen Rou recognised Xiao Wu. This is the disciple of chef Zhang, and is also the son of chef Zhang.

For chef Zhang, when learning to cook, disciple and master relationship comes first. Then and only then are they father and son!

Xiao Wu looks as smart and bright like the monkeys, but in reality, he is quite dim. He could not master what he was taught, and was hopeless when it comes to cooking.

For most other chefs, their disciple had already begun to help out as a sous-chef. Xiao Wu had learned cooking from chef Zhang for over 3-4 years, but he is still a kitchen hand.

"Just now my Shifu says he wants to make some chestnut puree. I am to prepare the ingredients for him. Right now, I am behind time!" Xiao Wu immediately stuck out his chin towards chef Zhang. After saying this, he immediately sat on the floor, and immediately begin to peel the chestnuts.

"Such a big jar of chestnuts, you are going to have a hard time. Let me help you!" Fang Dashi is a kind-hearted man. Saying this, he squatted down and was about to help Xiao Wu.

"No, don"t! Brother Shi Tou, if my Shifu saw that you helped me, he will beat me later!" Xiao Wu forced a smile, and quickly informed Shu Tou.

Chef Zhang is a petty man. Not only does he hate Wen Shouzhen, he also disliked Fang Dashi.

"Oh… Sister Rou Er, this is chef Zhang disciple, Xiao Wu. You two get to know each other, I am going off to work. If you have any problems, let me know!"

Fang Dashi introduced them, and quickly left the room.

And left Wen Rou in the room standing there as she watched Xiao Wu peeled the chestnuts.

"Xiao Wu", Wen Rou gently called out.

"Who are you?" Xiao Wu did not even look up, and asked. But his hands did not stop moving at all.

"Oh, I am new here. I am here to learn how to cook." Wen Rou replied.

"New kitchen hand? Then you should not call me Xiao Wu. You should call me Brother Xiao Wu!" Xiao Wu finally found someone he could bully, and he did not raise his head, but barked, "What are you standing there for? Come and help!"

"You are just peeling the chestnut? Why do you need to be so fierce?" Wen Rou snapped back.

Chef Zhang specialises in dim sum. He is especially famous for his chestnut cake, chestnut puree etc, and Xiao Wu often had to peel the chestnuts.

"Ai Yo Yo! A newcomer dares to say such words! "Only peel a chestnut!" You try peeling one and show me! This task will make you cry because it is so difficult to do so!" Xiao Wu heard Wen Rou"s words and turned unhappy.

When he lifted up his head, he saw that the young lady in front him was as pretty as a G.o.ddess despite wearing a cotton robe. He was stunned.

Looking at Xiao Wu domineering manner, she suddenly thought of something. "Oh! Let"s not talk about peeling a chestnut. Even peeling a big bowl of these chestnuts is a piece of cake for me! If you do not believe me, let"s have a compet.i.tion!"

In her past life, she recalled that Xiao Wu had discovered a method of peeling chestnuts very quickly. In this life, she is going to use the method that Xiao Wu had taught her to tease him.

"What if you lose?" Xiao Wu become furious and asked.

"Whoever loses must eat all the chestnut sh.e.l.l!s"

"It is a deal!"

"Whoever renegades on this deal is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

A compet.i.tion to see who peel the chestnuts faster?

All the kitchen hands overheard the conversation and immediately crowded around.

"Xiao Wu, did you know who she is?" A young kitchen hand who peeled garlic came in and piped. He was enjoying himself as he looked on at Xiao Wu"s misfortune.

"I do not care who she is!" Xiao Wu coldly replied.

"Xiao Wu, she is chef Wen"s daughter!" Another kitchen hand who was picking beans immediately informed Xiao Wu.

"You dared to bully chef Wen"s daughter? You are dead meat!"

"En, I also felt that he is courting death!"

Wen Shouzhen"s daughter!

Xiao Wu was shocked. In his heart, he panicked. His Shifu and chef Wen were not on good terms. If chef Wen knows about this, he may fire me, even my Shifu could not protect me.

When he thought about this, Xiao Wu glanced at Wen Rou"s small hands.

White as snow, slender and smooth.

Then he looked at his hands.

It is rough and thick, and there are traces of mud on his fingernails.

Xiao Wu really wanted to slap his big mouth. If he had injured these hands, this time, he is unlikely to avoid the fate of being fired!

At this time, Wen Rou continued to ask, "How? Brother Xiao Wu, shall we begin?"

Xiao Wu hesitated.

"You dare not?"

"Look at him sitting there in a daze!"

All the kitchen hands immediately called out.

"Xiao Wu, accept the challenge!"

"Are you a man?"

"Let"s do it! Who is scared of whom? [1] "

With the crowd looking on,  Xiao Wu lift up his sleeves and prepare for t battle.

The kitchen hand in charge of peeling the garlic divided the chestnuts into two equal jars, one for Wen Rou and one for Xiao Wu. Then he declared that the battle had begun!

Xiao Wu used both hands to press hard against a chestnut, and occasionally use a small knife to widen any cracks the chestnut had. He used all his strength to open each chestnut and dared not pause.

Wen Rou was not in a hurry, and she took a pot of hot water and walked back to the jar.

Everyone was curious.

Then Wen Rou added the pot of water into the jar of chestnuts, and used a ladle to stir the chestnuts.

After a white, the chestnuts that were quite muddy seemed to swollen in size. All of them swell up, and some of them hissed with steam.

"Yi? Are these chestnuts female?"

"What do you mean?"

"Look, they all seemed to be pregnant!"

"Pui! There is a woman here! How could be so crude!"

The group of kitchen hands watched with interest and continued to talk rubbish while they are at it.

Xiao Wu looked at his jar. He had already peeled 5 to 6 chestnut. Wen Rou had not even peeled a single chestnut yet. In his heart, he relaxed a bit, but his hands did not slow down at all.

Everyone was worried about Wen Rou. What is she doing? After waiting for half the day, she has just added hot water to the chestnuts. She should hurry!

Wen Rou leisurely took out a swollen chestnut from the jar, and gently cut it with a sharp knife.

"Pai"! The Chestnut sh.e.l.l immediately cracked open. With just a few hits with the knife, the chestnut is already peeled!

Even the unruly fur did not stick to the chestnuts.

The golden chestnut was simply stripped off its sh.e.l.l.

Everyone was stunned.

Wen Rou"s hand moved faster and faster. In a short span of time, her jar of chestnut rapidly diminished in numbers, while the bowl of peeled chestnuts kept climbing higher and higher.

After a short while, you could see the bottom of the jar.

Meanwhile, Xiao Wu was painstaking trying to crack open the chestnuts. Some of the chestnuts had obvious defects, or the sticky hair of the chestnuts was struck to them, and look like a mess.

When Wen Rou finally finished peeling the last chestnut with ease, everyone cheered.

"You win!" Xiao Wu conceded defeat.

"Hehe, you may use this method! In future, when you peel chestnuts, you will not find this ch.o.r.e so troublesome anymore." Wen Rou said this, and she immediately felt that she was very thick-skinned. After all, this method was first discovered by Xiao Wu and taught to her by the same man.

"Do you want to roast the chestnut sh.e.l.ls or you want to boil them?" Someone interrupted.

"I think it tastes best when fried."

"All of you had made a mistake. Xiao Wu love the raw taste!"

"A bunch of ingrates! Tossing stones at me when I am down on my luck [2]!" Xiao Wu scolded them. He was about to continue scolding when he heard the roar of chef Zhang.

"Xiao Wu, where are you? Are the chestnuts ready?"

"Quick, what are you waiting for? Take all these!" Wen Rou immediately poured the bowl of freshly peel chestnuts into Xiao Wu"s bowl, and indicated that he should deliver these to chef Zhang.

"Oh, thank you, sister Rou Er." Xiao Wu heaved a sigh of relief, and immediately used this opportunity to get away as he ran towards chef Zhang"s personal kitchen.

"Do not forget to eat all the chestnuts" sh.e.l.ls!" Wen Rou shouted.

When Xiao Wu heard this, he stumbled and almost fell. The chestnuts in the bowl that he was holding on to are thankfully, quite intact.

[1] 谁怕谁 - translated as "Who is scared of whom"? It sounds weird to me. But remember that Chinese and English are different languages, and sometimes they do not translate perfectly. In this instance, the term is a Chinese slang and it means "I am not afraid of you!"  It is one of the weird translations you get when translating from Chinese to English.

[2] 落井下石 - for lack of the appropriate description, I translated this as "Tossing stones at me when I am down on my luck". I think these words described the situation perfectly.

[3] A picture of the chestnuts, so you know what I am talking about.