Chapter 715 [Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea]
The work pressure of the back-of-the-house chef follows that of the front office. As long as there are constant customers in the front-of-house, the back-of-the-house kitchen cannot stop.
Fortunately, Li Yi has done sufficient preparation work. One-third of the dishes are prepared in advance and only require a little processing before serving, which saves a lot of time.
However, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Li Yi faced a hard job.
Some customers actually ordered the [Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea] priced at 88,888 yuan.
After hearing the name of the dish reported by Liu Yifei, Li Yi went directly to the front hall and found the customer who ordered.
The diners who ordered this dish were several middle-aged women. They all had Zhang Guorong’s records and were all Zhang Guorong’s fans.
After seeing them, Li Yi reminded them that the dish "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" is purely a knife dish that tests the chef's carving skills, but the taste is indeed nothing unusual, it just tastes like tofu.
The middle-aged women also said that they were not here to eat this dish.
They wanted to thank the program crew for being able to commemorate Zhang Guorong on the program set, so they specially ordered the most expensive dish on the menu to express their gratitude.
After hearing what they said, Li Yi felt helpless.
They thanked the program team, he was the one who was tired!
But the menu is set by him, and if someone orders something, he can't help but make it.
The so-called "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" is an allusion to the Eight Immortals crossing the sea carved out of pieces of tofu.
For this dish, you first need to use a whole board of tofu to carve out the base, and then use eight pieces of tofu to carve the shape of the Eight Immortals and put them together.
Even with Li Yi's knife skills, it would take less than an hour or two to carve this dish.
The reason why Li Yi set the price of this dish so high is to prevent too many customers from ordering this dish, otherwise he would not be able to cook it at all.
But in the end, someone still ordered this dish.
At such a high price, there were already people buying it, so Li Yi had nothing to say, so he could only go back to the kitchen and start cooking.
After leaving the preparation of other dishes to Dai Long, Li Yi took out the prepared tofu.
Fortunately, Dai Long is here today, otherwise he would be really busy.
Dai Long has already seen how to make other dishes on the menu.
For a top chef like Dai Long, you can basically learn almost everything after watching it once.
The ingredients and side dishes are all ready-made, you just need to make them step by step, there is no difficulty.
Therefore, Li Yi concentrated on carving "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea".
Bringing a new stainless steel basin, after filling it with pure water, Li Yi put a whole plate of tofu in it.
Then, he took the carving knife, reached into the water, and quickly carved on the tofu.
The film crew arranged a separate camera to record Li Yi's carving movements. Many viewers in the live broadcast room watched with interest, guessing who Li Yi was carving.
“From this point of view, she looks a bit like He Xiangu!”
“It’s obviously Tieguai Li, didn’t you see the arc? It must be Tieguai Li’s wine gourd.”
“This point must be the tip of Lu Dongbin’s sword.”
“Are there lotus leaves on this side of the arc? Could it be Lan Caihe’s flower basket?”
The audience had a lively discussion, but after Li Yi carved the tofu board out of the water, the audience realized that what Li Yi was carving was the surface of the East China Sea, and those waves, arcs, and hooks were all rolling waves.
For a time, the live broadcast room was filled with speechless "..." and bursts of complaints.
After placing the Donghai base into another basin of clear water, Li Yi took a piece of tofu and continued carving.
As his sword flew, a graceful beauty appeared in his hand.
Seeing the beauty appear, the audience suddenly became excited again.
“It’s He Xiangu!”
"Wow! So beautiful!"
“This carver! So awesome!”
“Even the details of the skirt are so strong? Isn’t this too sexy?”
“Can it be made into a figure? I really want to buy one.”
After carving He Xiangu, Li Yi placed her on the base in a basin of water. The groove specially carved by Li Yi just got stuck on a wave, making it look like He Xiangu was riding the wind and waves.
Seeing this scene, the audience in the live broadcast room was so excited that they kept making rainbow farts.
"handsome!"
“Precision docking! This craft is comparable to high-precision machine tools, haha!”
“Oh! The sister who rides the wind and waves!”
“It really looks a bit like Yifei!”
Soon, one after another statues of the Eight Immortals appeared in Li Yi's hands.
There is the Chunyang real person Lu Dongbin who rides the wind with his sword, Zhang Guolao who rides his donkey backwards, and Tieguai Li who leans on crutches and carries a gourd. Each statue is vivid and lifelike.
After Li Yi fixed the positions of the Eight Immortals, the overall shape immediately stunned the entire audience in the live broadcast room.
“Wow! It’s so beautiful!”
“This is a work of art, right? Who would be willing to eat it?”
“It’s really ready for collection. Brother Yi, let’s find a piece of jade and carve it out!”
“It really looks like it was carved from mutton-fat jade, it’s amazing!”
“Does Tieguai Li’s crutch really have a fixed effect? It’s made of tofu! If it breaks, will he fall?”
“Don’t try it casually. It is a treasure that Tieguai Li dedicated to the Jade Emperor. After breaking it, he can walk as fast as flying. What if he runs away?”
The audience was joking, but they could not hide their envy.
When Wu Lei and others brought this dish to the front hall, it immediately aroused admiration from the diners in the front hall.
Everyone took out their mobile phones and took pictures of the dish, marveling at it.
The middle-aged sisters who ordered this dish also laughed from ear to ear, and repeatedly said that this dish was worth ordering.
After sending this dish out, Li Yi immediately deleted "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" from the menu.
It took him an hour and a half to carve just this one. If he ordered another one, he would not have the time or energy to carve another one.
In the end, the middle-aged sisters were not willing to taste the dish. They just took photos and left it intact in the restaurant, and then left.
Seeing them leave, Yuan Yongyi ran to the kitchen excitedly, found Li Yi and asked: "They don't want that [Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea] anymore, can you give it to me?"
“What do you want it for?”
Li Yi was puzzled: "Do you want to eat?"
“If you don’t want to eat it, I’ll take it back and look at it.”
Yuan Yongyi praised: "I really like its shape, it looks good."
Li Yi shook his head: "It looks good only temporarily. Tofu will lose moisture. It will collapse if it doesn't survive tonight. Even if it survives tonight, it will go rancid."
"ah?"
Yuan Yongyi was very disappointed: "Why can't such beautiful things be kept longer?"
“Yeah! Just like youth.”
Li Yi sighed softly.
“Youth? Me! How old are you? Ah! I’m going to make you mad!”
Yuan Yongyi almost didn't come up with a breath, and angrily glared at Zhong Zhentao who had put away the plate and came in, then turned around and ran back to the front hall to take a photo with the "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea".
Zhong Zhentao looked innocent: "What's wrong?"
“You are so handsome! Brother Xiaosha.”
Li Yi smiled and joked, then said, "Just put it in the dishwasher."
The tableware that was brought in was all completely eaten without any exception, and there were no leftovers, so it could be washed directly in the dishwasher.
Unconsciously, the time has reached 6:30 in the afternoon, and the last table of guests has finally been sent away in the front hall.
Today’s business is finally over.
3
(End of this chapter)