Boss Wei looked at Shen Zhiyi with an inquisitive gaze. Instead of taking Chef Qiu’s side, he asked her directly, “Xiao Shen, what do you have to say for yourself?”
“What I want to say is that this is a dish I thought up all night long. Maybe nobody within a hundred miles has ever used soda to cook before, but I’m sure in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, people have been doing it for a while.”
“You’ve been to Beijing and Shanghai?” Boss Wei caught the key point immediately.
Shen Zhiyi shook her head. “No, I’m just guessing. But I believe that people need to innovate. Only then can society keep moving forward and prospering.”
This viewpoint struck a chord with Boss Wei.
“Both of you, stop talking. Let Xiao Shen try it. I’ll be in the restaurant today. If anything goes wrong, come find me on the third floor.” Boss Wei made the call decisively, giving Shen Zhiyi his full backing.
“Thank you, Boss.”
“You’re welcome. Go ahead and cook with confidence. If it succeeds, you get a share of the profits. If it fails, I’ll take responsibility. But Xiao Shen, I can only cover for you three times.”
“If all three of your new dishes fail, don’t blame me for being heartless and letting you go.”
“Got it. Don’t worry,” Shen Zhiyi said, accepting the challenge without hesitation.
Getting fired didn’t scare her anyway. After all… she wasn’t short on money anymore.
With Boss Wei’s approval, Shen Zhiyi took the chalk and wrote on the blackboard: “Today’s New Dish – Cola Chicken Wings (Can substitute Pork Ribs or Pig Trotters).”
Chef Zhao and Chef Qiu watched from the side. Putting everything else aside, her handwriting was actually very beautiful.
“Xiao Shen, your calligraphy is excellent. What did you do for a living before?” Chef Qiu asked, acting as if his earlier complaint had never happened.
“Before I was wrongly accused, I was a primary school teacher. I taught Chinese.”
“No wonder…” Chef Zhao murmured.
Chef Qiu was about to ask why she didn’t just go back to teaching and why she came here to be a cook instead, but Chef Zhao nudged him, and he shut his mouth.
Soon, lunch rush hour arrived.
The restaurant became busy. The three chefs each took a station. Most of the early customers were regulars who didn’t even look at the menu, just ordering their usual favorites.
Shen Zhiyi stood by watching Chef Zhao and Chef Qiu working furiously.
Feeling bad leaving her idle, when the third order for Mapo Tofu came in, Chef Zhao let Shen Zhiyi take over the wok.
Seeing this, Chef Qiu frowned in disapproval. “Hey, Lao Zhao, are you sure about that? Are you not worried she’ll ruin your reputation?”
“Come on, Lao Qiu, we’re colleagues. She’s young and she’s a woman. Boss told us to be more open-minded is this what you call open-minded?”
Chef Zhao had his own plans. He worked at Fumanlou mainly to learn business management from Boss Wei. One day, when he was older and had saved enough money, he wanted to go back to his hometown and open his own place. Learning new recipes could only be a good thing.
Who knew? If Shen Zhiyi’s new dish turned out to be a hit, he might even ask her to teach him how to make it.
“Okay,” Shen Zhiyi agreed readily.
She cooked the Mapo Tofu perfectly, and the waiter served it immediately.
A few minutes later, the waiter came back to the kitchen. “Chef Zhao, the customer wants you to come out for a moment.”
“…”
Chef Qiu wore a smug ‘I-told-you-so’ expression. “See? Trouble! How are you going to explain this to Boss Wei?”
Chef Zhao remained silent, and Shen Zhiyi started to feel nervous.
Had she really messed up the Mapo Tofu?
Two minutes later, Chef Zhao walked back in beaming. He handed Shen Zhiyi five yuan. “The customer loved it! He said I must be in a great mood today because the tofu tasted better than ever.”
“Xiao Shen, here. The customer gave me a ten-yuan tip. Since you cooked it, half is yours.”
Chef Qiu was stunned.
They called him out just to give a tip? Not to complain?
That customer was really generous! Ten yuan tip? The most he had ever received was two yuan.
Now they each had five, and Chef Qiu couldn’t help feeling jealous.
Shen Zhiyi was also surprised. She tried to refuse, but Chef Zhao insisted, so she accepted it.
“Thank you, Chef Zhao.”
“I should be thanking you! Xiao Shen, good luck with your new dish today. I hope it sells like hotcakes!”
“Thank you, Chef Zhao.”
At 12:10 PM, Shen Zhiyi finally received her first order for the new dish.
It wasn’t ordered by an adult, but by a little boy.
He said to his mother, “Mom, the writing on the board looks just like my old Chinese teacher, Teacher Shen’s handwriting! Can I please have the Cola Ribs?”
“Okay, we’ll order one,” the mother indulged him.
Shen Zhiyi didn’t hear their conversation. When the ticket came in, Chef Zhao handled the other dishes, Chef Qiu made the soup, and Shen Zhiyi focused entirely on her creation.
She had marinated some wings, ribs, and trotters beforehand. Not too much, since she wasn’t sure how popular they would be only enough for ten servings of each.
She thought selling all thirty portions would already be a great success.
Besides, if they didn’t sell, she could always cook them differently later, so nothing would go to waste.
The dish was served quickly.
Once the first customer ordered it, others followed suit. Later, when young people got off work and saw the ‘New Dish’ sign, many just ordered it without even reading the name properly.
Order after order came in. Before 1 PM, everything she had prepared was sold out.
All thirty portions were gone. It wasn’t just sold out; people were still asking for more.
Some wanted to take some away, but she had nothing left.
Thinking quickly, Shen Zhiyi started taking pre-orders. Customers could order now and pick them up later, and she would prepare fresh batches immediately.
The only thing she worried about was whether Ruyi could keep supplying her with enough cola.
She had used three large bottles for thirty portions. She had deliberately used less soda today because she was worried the taste might be too strong for people trying it for the first time.
But if she used more, the flavor and color would be even better.
As long as Ruyi could keep the cola coming, next time she would use one bottle for only five portions to make it taste amazing.
By evening, she had already received twenty more orders. But when more people kept coming, she decided to stop accepting orders for the day.
She wanted to create a sense of scarcity, telling them to come back tomorrow.
In total, she sold fifty portions on the first day. It was a massive success.
Boss Wei was delighted. Shen Zhiyi earned 0.5 yuan commission per dish, totaling 25 yuan just from this one item. Adding the tip from Chef Zhao, she earned a full 30 yuan in a single day, separate from her basic salary.
Shen Zhiyi was truly happy.
It had been a fulfilling and joyful day.
And she had even won over the two senior chefs.