The story of a cook

Chapter 79
The hotel is preparing to open, and I am responsible for renting two dormitories first.

All the previously vacant rooms in the hotel were used this time, and the small private room I lived in was also converted into a private room, and I will also live in the dormitory from now on.

After looking for a house for two days, I finally rented two dormitories, one for men and one for women.After renting out, I began to install beds in the dormitory and tidy up the bathroom.The conditions of the dormitory are very simple, with a bed and a bathroom.Unlike the current dormitory conditions, there are showers, internet, and washing machines.From time to time, sometimes I am envious of the working conditions now. The living, food and rest are much better than I was back then, especially when there were rest days every month. I didn’t have any at that time. It is to deduct wages.

At that time, the conditions were tough, but they worked hard and learned. Now all the conditions are better, but there are fewer people who work hard and learn.

Master Huang went to the kitchen to check the kitchen stove.

The stove was built by ourselves. At that time, most social restaurants built stoves by ourselves. We couldn't afford stainless steel stoves, and the cost was too high.

Master Huang said: "I haven't used this old-fashioned stove for a long time. Stainless steel stoves are used elsewhere. This kind of stove built by myself is also fine. It's better to cook some dishes with low heat. It’s just that it takes a little trouble to clean up, it’s not as easy to clean up as the stainless steel stove.”

Then he looked at me and said, "Xiao Tanzi, from now on, if you serve me dishes, the sanitation of the stove will be yours."

I said, "No problem, just leave it to me."

Master Huang checked the kitchen equipment again, and said to Boss Zou, "Xiao Zou, you have to buy a four-door freezer, otherwise there is not enough storage space for raw materials, and there will be no place to put things when the time comes, and it will be too wasteful if it breaks."

Boss Zou said, "Then buy one."

Master Huang checked the warehouse and the cold dish room again. This time the restaurant was preparing to serve Korean barbecue, and put the cold dish and Korean barbecue in the same operating room, and the pastry room was next to the Korean barbecue.

After reading it, Master Huang said: "This kitchen is enough, the rest is to find someone. There is still a lack of a chef, a cutting board (water table), a cold dish, a pastry, a barbecue master, and a dish washer. Also, to serve Korean barbecue, there must be a stove to burn charcoal, have you found all these people?"

Boss Zou said: "I'm looking for it now, if you have a suitable one, please introduce it."

"It's better for you to recruit yourself. All the people I know work in hotels and guesthouses, and I don't want to come to our house. Recruit, let's try the dishes for those who come to sign up, and keep the ones that look good, and recruit based on merit." Master Huang said.

Boss Zou said: "That's fine too. Brother Huang, you will check it out and pay more attention."

I wanted to ask Master Chen to come over and cook with Master Huang, but Master Chen picked up a hotel for work in Dadong, so he didn't come.Manager Chen in the front office introduced a chef surnamed Guan, who cooks Cantonese cuisine and Dalian seafood. He did a good job during the test dishes, so he used Master Guan.

Master Guan is 27 or [-] years old, quite young, and he cooks well. I heard that he is an apprentice of a famous chef.Master Guan brought a cold dish master and a chopping board.

Boss Zou and Huang Ping found a dishwashing lady and a Korean barbecue chef in the labor market.The chef of the Korean barbecue is a Korean woman, surnamed Jin, everyone calls her Miss Jin.Sister Jin came with her son, who is 17 years old and works as a waiter.The pastry was introduced by the lobby manager of the "Leshan Hotel" opposite the hotel. It was her mother, a fat old lady, who called her Aunt Wang.

The people in the kitchen are fully equipped, and the preparatory work for the opening begins.I am mainly responsible for the dishes of Master Huang, and the chopping boards brought by Master Guan are responsible for the dishes of Master Guan.In addition, I am also responsible for the coordination of various departments in the kitchen, that is to say, whether it is pasta, cold dishes, or Korean barbecue, as long as there is something to do, please come to me.What lack of a kitchen knife, lack of a fresh-keeping box, missing scissors, and the water heater for washing dishes is not working, all these things come to me, and I have become the big housekeeper of the kitchen.I don't need to take care of the grocery shopping. Boss Zou's buddy who learns to raise seafood is in charge. I also save myself getting up early every morning.

The kitchen is getting ready, the front desk is getting ready.

Manager Chen trains the waiters every day.It was the first time I saw a manager give training to employees, I had only heard of it but never seen it before.Seeing Manager Chen's training, I thought that one day the kitchen will also have to be trained, so that it is a regular restaurant.

Master Huang did not train the kitchen, but just gave me a piece of paper with the preparations to be done and instructions on the main and auxiliary ingredients of the dishes, and asked me to follow the instructions written on it.

I took a look, and the first item above is the cut and standard of small ingredients. It is very clearly written. There are three kinds of green onions: chopped green onion, shredded green onion, and sliced ​​green onion; three kinds of ginger: shredded ginger, minced ginger, and sliced ​​ginger; Sample: sliced ​​garlic, minced garlic, and young garlic.Green peppers: pieces of peppers, shredded peppers, diced peppers; red peppers: shredded peppers, pieces of peppers, diced peppers; carrots: shredded carrots, diced carrots, pieces of carrots; parsley: coriander segments, coriander powder , coriander leaves; the rest are: green beans, shiitake mushrooms, sliced ​​bamboo shoots, shredded bamboo shoots, and so on.It takes an hour to cut these small materials according to the standard.

Then there is the combination and weight of the main and auxiliary ingredients of Master Huang’s dishes, such as: meat slices: six taels of meat, two taels of green and red peppers; Wait, very detailed.This is the first time I have seen such a detailed list. I haven't seen it before. It's all verbal and not rigorous.From the list given to me by Master Huang, it can be seen that he is a very serious and rigorous master in his work.

I took the list given to me by Master Huang to the printing company and printed two copies, one was plastic-sealed, and I took it to the kitchen and pasted it on the wall behind my workbench, so I could see it at any time, and the other was kept for myself.

Master Huang was very happy to see me sticking the list on the wall, and said to me: "Tan Zi, you are very caring, do it well."

I have been busy in the kitchen, I don't pay much attention to the things at the front desk, and I don't have time to pay attention. The kitchen things are enough for me to be busy.

The seafood fish tanks are assembled. There are two sets of freshwater fish tanks, two sets of seawater fish tanks, and a set of shellfish pools with ten grids.The length of the entire fish tank is [-] meters, and the height is [-] meters. It is placed in the front hall and is facing the door. Guests can see it as soon as they open the door. It really seems that the hotel is very classy.

Boss Zou’s younger brother, surnamed Gao, used to drive a taxi. Recently, he got into an accident and stopped driving a taxi. He happened to come to raise seafood.Master Huang sent him to a high-end seafood shop to study for a week. In addition to raising seafood, he was also responsible for lighting the stove and burning charcoal for Korean barbecue, which was busy enough.

It has not yet opened, whether it is the service at the front desk or the dishes in the back kitchen, you need to try it, practice and practice, and wait until the practice is almost done and you feel that you can do it before opening.

When a hotel opens, it is afraid that the preparatory work in the early stage will not be done well. If the preparatory work is not done sufficiently, there will be chaos and mistakes when the opening of the hotel opens, and it will be too late to make adjustments at that time.

Boss Zou began to invite some friends over for dinner, firstly to taste the dishes, and secondly to train soldiers, so that everyone can get familiar with it, so that there will be no confusion during the opening.If there is any problem now, it will be solved immediately, and the same problem will be prevented from happening again when it is opened for business.

Most of the guests invited were former regular customers, including the eldest brother, the leaders of various departments of the Teachers College, and some friends in the society.

These friends come to eat and talk about everything, some say good things and some say bad things. Fortunately, Boss Zou and Huang Ping have been running restaurants for a long time and are relatively experienced. Communicate with everyone, make improvements, throw away some opinions that are not opinions, and don't talk about it, so as to save everyone from being distracted.

After a week of running in and out, it officially opened.

The business was very busy on the opening day, and customers lined up to eat.Especially for the Korean barbecue area, there are a lot of customers. There are six tables in the front hall where you can eat Korean barbecue.When there are fewer tables and more customers, the table will be overturned, and the back of the waiter's tired feet will be hit on the back of the head.At six o'clock in the evening, Miss Jin, who was in charge of Korean barbecue, said that all the marinated beef and mutton were sold out, even squid and ink fountains were gone, so she had to inform the front desk to stop accepting barbecue guests.

The Chinese food here is also very good.The raw materials I have prepared here are quite sufficient, and they are almost sold out by eight o'clock, and the ones sold by Master Guan are similar, especially shellfish, which are sold out by seven o'clock.

Everyone is happy when the business of the hotel is good, and the boss and employees are all smiling.

When the market closed in the evening, I finished the purchase orders for the next day and started cleaning up.Master Huang had an apron hanging around his neck and was about to clean up the stove. I hurried over to him and said, "Master Huang doesn't need you, you just need to rest. I'll finish this job in a while."

Master Huang said: "You are quite tired today, I will clean up."

I didn't let Master Huang clean up, let him rest and I will clean up.After tidying up the stove, I began to tidy up my operating table and freezer. When everything was cleaned up, it was time to get off work, and everyone began to change clothes and leave work.

I went to the barbecue room to see that Miss Jin, who was in charge of the barbecue, was cutting beef there.

I asked, "Sister Jin, why are you still cutting beef after get off work?"

Sister Jin said: "Today the meat is sold out, so I have to cut it out and marinate it in advance, or if I don't make it tomorrow, the meat has to be marinated in advance."

"I'll help you cut how many more." I said.

"No need, I'll do it myself." Sister Jin said, she seemed embarrassed to bother me.

"How slow you cut it yourself, let's cut it fast."

I helped Sister Jin cut [-] catties of beef. I thought it was all right, so she brought out more than [-] catties of mutton.

I said, "Sister Jin, I'll cut the mutton, and you go to corned beef, so hurry up."

Sister Jin went to marinate the beef. When I finished cutting the mutton, Sister Jin finished marinating the beef, and then she started to marinate the mutton. I helped clean up. It was almost twelve o'clock when everything was done.

When I came to the front desk, the guests at the last table had just left. The waiter was cleaning up, and Brother Gao, who raised seafood, was helping out.

He is now in charge of buying vegetables every morning. I told him: "Brother Gao, you have to buy the vegetables early tomorrow. They are all sold out today."

Brother Gao asked, "How long does it take?"

"You can buy it before 07:30, I will arrive at 07:30." I said.

"So early? Then what time do I have to get up?" He was a little surprised when he heard that he had to buy vegetables at 07:30.

"You have to get up at five." I hit him mercilessly.

"Pull it down, I'm still asleep." He didn't want to get up so early, thinking I was fooling him.

I joked, "Two hours of sleep is enough, what are you doing with those sleeps?"

"Fuck, you don't sleep."

"Sleep, but you also have to work. You only have to work hard for a few days. It's a bit busy at the beginning of the opening. It will be fine in a few days."

"Fuck, tomorrow I have to talk to Boss Zou and tell him to find someone to buy groceries. I can't get up every day."

I said: "Just get used to it. It's useless if you say it. The second brother still tells you to buy it. I advise you not to say it."

I think if he told Boss Zou, if Boss Zou promised him that I would be the one who bought the vegetables, and I was too tired and too busy, he should buy them.

When I was about to go back after inspecting the kitchen, the waiter on duty and the greeter stopped me and asked me to wait for the two of them for a while, saying that it was too late to leave, and told me to see them off.

Waiting at the door, Brother Gao came over with the bar counter, saw me and said, "Tanzi, look at the shop for a while, I'll take her home."

Because I had to send the waiter and greeter back to the dormitory, I didn't know when Brother Gao would be back, so I asked, "How long?"

"Quick, ten minutes." Gao Ge said.

"Then hurry up, I have to send the waiter back to the dormitory."

Brother Gao and the bar counter left, and after waiting for a while, Brother Gao also came back after the waiter tidied up the hygiene. I left the restaurant with the waiter and the welcome guests.

On the way to see them off, the greeter asked me, "Brother Tan, where is your family?"

I said, "Beipiao."

She then asked, "Where is Beipiao?"

I looked at her and heard that her accent was very similar to mine, so I asked her, "Are you from Beipiao too?"

She said, "Yes, I'm from Heichengzi."

I said: "My fellow, I am also from Heichengzi, and my family is from Monkgou."

She said a little excitedly: "Really? My house is in Heichengzi Street, and our two families are eight miles away."

I said, "Yes, I have been working here for almost four years, and this is the first time I met a fellow from the town."

I am very happy, this is a family member.

(End of this chapter)