Chapter 745: Pay attention to
With everyone’s hard work, by seven o’clock in the evening, all the ingredients needed were ready.
The rest are fresh ingredients that need to be cooked fresh. There is no way to process them in advance and can only be cooked tomorrow.
Hao Libao couldn't help but nodded with joy as he watched the ingredients being put into the crisper, freezer, and storage room in an orderly manner.
When he first came here, he thought that the chef was just a scumbag.
But after getting along with him for a day, he found that this grass-roots team did a pretty good job.
But this all depends on Li Yi's strong control. He seems to have three heads and six arms, and he precisely controls everyone in the kitchen.
He left all the difficult work to himself, and just let the guests do simple pre-processing of ingredients.
He is able to make all guests understand what they need to do and do their best within controllable limits.
Even if there are some problems, he can find various ways to remedy them.
In Hao Libao's view, Li Yi is like a spider, and the entire kitchen is his spider web. No situation can escape his perception.
Many times, he can predict what problems others will have, and will warn them in advance and tell them to pay attention.
The most important thing is that under such circumstances, he can still handle all highly technical and difficult tasks.
This ability is completely sufficient to serve as the executive chef of any large catering company.
After discovering this, Hao Libao suddenly realized that just in the morning, he was still considering accepting Li Yi as his apprentice and training him to be the next executive chef of the State Guesthouse.
But by observing his work status at the end of the day, Hao Libao found that he was definitely capable enough to serve as the executive chef of the State Guesthouse.
Even if he takes over the position directly, Hao Libao sees no problem.
This made Hao Libao a little surprised, and even found it a little difficult to understand.
How old is Li Yicai?
How did he do that?
For the chef, the head chef is the emperor of the chef, that’s for sure.
But it also bears direct responsibility for the production of each dish.
If you want to be a head chef, you must be familiar with every aspect of the kitchen and understand all the steps and possible problems of each dish from procurement to delivery.
In addition to making good dishes, the head chef also needs to know how to manage, know how to identify and hire people, plan each type of work, and formulate processes to save time and improve efficiency.
This is not the same thing as cooking, and it cannot be mastered in a day or two.
You must know that there are high and low levels of management.
Some chefs rely on merciless scolding to establish their prestige and use coercive management, which is the lowest level.
Some chefs are well-known teachers and have real skills. The people under them will find ways to please them and work hard to do a good job. This is driven by profit and is considered a middle strategy.
But Li Yi relies purely on his strong personal strength and backward compatibility. He has considered all possible situations in advance, made plans, and can respond to emergencies at any time, and can handle them all properly.
This was accomplished with a group of grass-roots team members, which further highlighted the terror of Li Yi's strength.
Hao Libao asked himself, if it were him, he might not even take this kind of job because it would be a thankless job.
Even if he accepted it, he might not be able to do it as easily and freely as Li Yi.
From this perspective, Li Yi seems to have more experience as a chef than he does.
After realizing this, Hao Libao felt quite complicated.
As the surprises accumulated one after another, they almost turned into shocks.
He found that he no longer had much advantage in front of Li Yi. In terms of cooking skills, Li Yi's level is definitely not worse than him, and his knowledge may even be wider than his.
In terms of kitchen management, he has already resigned himself to defeat, because he simply cannot prepare a banquet with so many unprofessional laymen.
The only thing he can bring to bear is his experience in hospitality.
Handwaiting is a job in the front office, responsible for recruiting and greeting customers, seating them and saying hello, introducing dishes, taking orders, taking dishes to the table, sending guests out, as well as tea service in the front hall, design of countertops, etc.
For restaurants, the job of serving at the front of the house is even more important than that of the kitchen.
Because he can't attract guests, no matter how good his cooking skills are, there is no place for him to use them.
That's why there is an old saying in the catering industry, which is called "the first hall, the second oven and the third pit".
The head hall is where the reception is held, while the stove and piers are arranged at the back.
As the top hotel in China, the State Guesthouse is also the most stringent in terms of customer reception.
Although the front office manager is mainly responsible for this work, the front office and the kitchen must cooperate with each other, so Hao Libao is relatively familiar with these details and rules.
However, compared with the level of cooking and management, this kind of experience can only be regarded as a side issue.
In the most important areas, Hao Libao found himself at a disadvantage.
After preparing the ingredients, the program crew did not leave, but just asked the guests to go back to the hotel to rest.
All the staff of the program team stayed with Li Yi and other five people to hold another meeting.
According to the program flow, although the guests have been helping in the kitchen these days, in the official filming tomorrow, the guests will participate in the program as guests.
After all, in so many previous issues, guests have been summoned, and in the last issue, it is always inappropriate to still summon guests.
So in the official recording tomorrow, the program team decided to allocate some people to help Li Yi and others to provide good service to the guests.
Li Yi has already made plans for this.
All male employees will help him in the kitchen, while female employees will work as service staff in the front office.
These require Li Yi to conduct training in advance. In addition, the preparation of props also needs to meet the needs of the [Dragon and Phoenix Banquet].
So, at the beginning of the small meeting, Li Yi asked the person in charge of the props team about the production status of Chang Ji and the Golden Dragon Banquet Table.
The main banquet of [Dragon and Phoenix Banquet] is placed on the Golden Dragon Banquet Table.
This table is a table reserved exclusively for the emperor. The table will be surrounded by yellow satin embroidered with gold dragons and inlaid with precious stones.
But because there are too many dishes, every dish cannot be reached, so a long table needs to be set up between the Golden Dragon Banquet Table and the diners to eat the dishes.
At tomorrow's banquet, Li Yi, Liu Yifei, Wang Tian and others will dine on the table.
In addition, all tableware must be made of sterling silver.
In ancient times, emperors often did not use gold tableware for dining, but mostly silverware.
Because most of the poisons in ancient times were mineral poisons and contained sulfide. When encountering silver, the silver would turn black, which could avoid the poison.
Li Yi asked the prop team to prepare these tools in advance.
Listening to the communication between Li Yi and the person in charge of the props team, Hao Libao looked calm on the surface, but he was extremely surprised in his heart.
He seems to have underestimated the abilities of Li Yi and this grass-roots team. Is tomorrow's [Dragon and Phoenix Banquet] so particular?
3
(End of this chapter)