Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

Chapter 484 - 396 Handmade Bread Doughs, Orléans Seasoning Powder

"That’s not going to work; I don’t have the habit of letting employees work overtime on their own."

Lin Chen rejected the idea immediately without thinking and was the first to get up and head towards the kitchen.

"If we work together, we can finish sooner. Everyone’s tired after a busy day, and we have to get up early tomorrow. You’re the main force."

Old Chen and Zhao Shun watched Lin Chen stride into the kitchen, exchanged a glance, said nothing, and silently got up to follow.

As they walked, out of sight from others, their mouths subtly turned upwards.

Chen Dongliang nudged Zhao Shun with his elbow and quietly said, "This boss is not bad, he has a human touch."

"Indeed, it’s the first time I’ve seen a boss voluntarily working overtime with employees. Not many would want to do such a tiring job as kneading dough."

"Didn’t you say we could use machines?"

"Nonsense, machines are machines, but after mixing, you still have to shape it by hand! There’s no fully automatic option; dealing with hundreds of portions of dough is not something light."

"Then why did you just now..."

"Ahem, you have to show enthusiasm in front of the boss, that’s how you get promotions and raises!"

"What if the boss actually leaves?"

"What if? Just deal with it. What else?"

From several meters away, Lin Chen’s ears twitched, catching every word of their whispered conversation, and he shook his head helplessly.

Zhao Shun, this kid, already knows how to play tricks at such a young age. He knows how to put on a show in front of the boss; he’s got something.

If he had gone along with it and gone straight to the hotel to rest, wouldn’t the two of them have worked until dawn?

No need to suffer like this; it’s really unnecessary.

Since he’s not exactly a baking novice anymore, with Raphael’s baking experience under his belt, making bread isn’t too difficult.

"I’ll make the toast dough; you guys start with other things. Is a hundred servings enough?"

"A hundred servings? Is that one loaf or one slice per serving?"

"Of course, it’s a loaf."

"Wow, a loaf of bread can yield at least ten to twelve slices. Three slices are used for a sandwich, cut in half to make two portions. Doesn’t that mean we can make seven or eight hundred sandwiches? Isn’t that too much?"

Zhao Shun did some quick math, almost dropping his jaw in shock.

"If there’s extra, there’s extra. If it doesn’t sell, we’ll keep selling it at lunch. It’s just toast that can make so many slices; other bread doughs are counted per head, aren’t they?"

"Sounds about right. So, do we make three hundred or four hundred of each kind?"

"Depends on your skills. Make as many as you can. We have ways to deal with leftover bread."

While Lin Chen was busy in the kitchen, the restaurant had already emptied out, leaving only the three head chefs sitting there, typing away at their computers.

It’s not that they didn’t want to return to the hotel to rest; there simply were no empty rooms.

At the restaurant, there was food, drinks, workstations, restrooms, and if they got tired, they could lie down in their cars. With a car window open during the Great Xia summer, they wouldn’t catch a chill. It was a simple but doable arrangement.

Most importantly, this area was part of the hotel parking lot, with 24-hour security patrols and surrounding cameras, maximizing safety.

The three of them each took a table, not disturbing each other, quietly getting work done. Taking advantage of the night when thoughts flowed best, they crazily captured and recorded every flash of inspiration in their minds.

As they typed away, Raphael suddenly paused, pinching his chin in thought.

"Strange, I feel like I’m forgetting something... What is it? Oh well, I’ll remember it later."

In the midst of busyness, time flew by.

An entire night passed quietly.

While the sky was still steeped in darkness, Lin Chen and the others had already returned to the kitchen.

Lin Chen didn’t feel tired at all; with his enhanced body, he’s not only enduring but also recovers quickly. Four to five hours of sleep had been sufficient.

Even though Zhao Shun and Old Chen were not fully awake, after lunch, they would have plenty of time to nap, so it wasn’t an issue.

"Good morning, boss!"

"Morning, boss."

Lin Chen nodded, "Morning to you too. You all look like you’ve got pinkeye; not awake yet?"

"Hehe."

Feeling sheepish, Zhao Shun scratched his head and quickly ran to wash his face with cold water, finally waking up.

The three entered the kitchen, opened the fermentation box, and took out the dough that had finished fermenting. Then, they put the dough covered with cloth overnight inside to start fermenting.

It’s summer now, and although the temperature here in Europe isn’t high due to latitude, to prevent the dough from over-fermenting at room temperature, Lin Chen had turned on the central air conditioning in the kitchen and set it to the lowest temperature the previous night.

Some of the dough was left on the kitchen table to ferment at room temperature, while most of it was placed in the cold storage for low-temperature fermentation.

At 25 degrees, the dough usually takes only about half an hour to forty minutes to ferment; any longer and it would over-ferment.

When the temperature drops to fifteen degrees, the fermentation time can be extended to about an hour and a half to two hours.

The lower the temperature, the longer the fermentation time.

As long as it doesn’t fall below zero, dough with yeast will inevitably ferment slowly.

The temperature of a normal kitchen’s cold storage will be between 0-4 degrees, and at this temperature, the fermentation time will extend to twelve hours.

They took out all the dough, turned up the air conditioning temperature, fixed the room temperature to about twenty degrees, and then sent the dough that hadn’t fully fermented into the proofing box for final processing one by one.

The dough that has finished fermenting is being shaped, divided, and shaped again; like the toast dough, this is more troublesome and requires secondary fermentation.

Fortunately, other doughs are simpler, just need to deflate the air then roll it into the needed shape, let it rest for a while before it can be sent to the oven.

If there’s anything the kitchen doesn’t lack, it’s ovens.

Besides a tall intelligent oven, every stove also has an integrated oven tucked underneath.

While Lin Chen is busy shaping the toast dough, Zhao Shun and Chen Dongliang are also not idle.

They didn’t choose to work on other types of dough but first helped him finish processing the toast dough.

Toast sandwiches are the most troublesome, requiring pre-baking, cooling, and then slicing into pieces before being used for sandwiches.

Other doughs like hamburger buns can be baked and eaten fresh, the baking time isn’t long, so there’s no rush.

Jonathan came quite early today, the meat he needed was delivered by John last night, marinated overnight, and now it just needs to be slowly roasted in the oven until noon.

Making the breakfast fruit oatmeal porridge is also quite convenient, plus it’s the current trend of the healthy version.

First, stir-fry steel-cut oats with coconut oil to release the coconut oil’s fragrance, then add a lot of frozen blueberries to bring out the juice; mix oat milk with almond milk, add cardamom powder and maple syrup, and stew for over an hour.

Having not worked in the kitchen for a long time, Lin Chen couldn’t help but glance more at the opposite side, seeing Jonathan’s process, a strong sense of familiarity arose in his heart.

He had made this oatmeal porridge recipe many times before, originally brought back by Raphael. Back then, the restaurant occasionally held breakfast events, making waffles, oatmeal porridge, omelets, and such.

Now it seems that this recipe was probably taken from the main store over there?

Western-style oatmeal porridge tastes pretty greasy, liking to cook with milk or coconut milk, which he couldn’t really get used to after trying several times.

Only this so-called healthy blueberry oatmeal porridge can he accept, it tastes very refreshing.

The sour-sweetness of blueberries perfectly neutralizes the greasiness of milk flavor, with cardamom’s unique aroma being the finishing touch.

Apart from the blueberry one, there’s also an apple cinnamon flavor, which is also quite popular among diners.

But cooking oatmeal porridge at a buffet... this guy is really trying to be lazy, right?

"Jonathan, shouldn’t you be hiring employees? This can’t go on like this."

"Hiring, hiring, someone is coming for an interview this afternoon."

Lin Chen nodded, didn’t chat with him much, he was too busy himself, no time for small talk.

Considering Jonathan’s lazy personality, being able to hold the kitchen alone for a month is basically like the sun rising from the west, or winning the lottery.

If he doesn’t hire soon, the restaurant’s buffet menu is going to enter a loop mode.

Although not impossible, if Marchello finds out, he’ll definitely get a good scolding.

While they were busy with the dough, Daniel arrived on time with a delivery truck.

"Good morning everyone!"

Seeing him coming out from the back with order slips, Zhao Shun swiftly put down his work and pulled Old Chen to move the meat.

The Orléans seasoning powder is ready-made, just add oil, dissolve it, and rub it onto the meat for an hour.

There’s still an hour and a half until six-thirty, if they hurry up with the marinating, counting the grilling time, it should be just right for on-time serving.

Other guests aren’t in a hurry, mainly Lisa can’t depart too late, at least by six-thirty two servings of sandwiches should be made.

The two divided tasks, Zhao Shun was responsible for preparing the marinade, and Old Chen rubbed it onto the meat.

Besides the Orléans flavor, they also need to prepare seasoning powder for fried chicken cutlets, as well as various sauce flavors, time is indeed tight.

Dais and her group of four will come at six to help wash and cut vegetables, mainly lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and purple cabbage, plus they need to fry eggs; the workload isn’t big.

Soon enough, Marchello, Raphael, and Nagishiro Sho came in with sleepy faces, instinctively making themselves a cup of coffee.

Seeing Lin Chen’s area bustling with activity, they got energized and quickly came over to check it out.

"What’s this red seasoning powder? It smells kind of familiar."

"It probably contains smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and the rest..."

"This is Orléans seasoning powder."

Seeing their puzzled expressions, Lin Chen voluntarily explained, "But I don’t know if it’s the authentic Orléans taste from the United States, because this seasoning powder is very popular in Great Xia, so much that people grow up eating it."

"I originally thought this flavor was popular abroad as well, but after going out, I found that it wasn’t, not many have even tasted this flavor."