novelnext Chapter 465 - 377: Boss, You Eat This Well Every Day?!
Chapter 465 - 377: Boss, You Eat This Well Every Day?!
"What!?"
"Your head chef left three days ago?"
After hanging up the phone, Marchello frowned deeply and sat quietly in his office, lost in thought, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the desk.
"Nagishiro Sho has been gone for three days, and Raphael disappeared two days ago. Strange, very strange."
"If I remember correctly, just before that we were at his restaurant discussing dishes together."
"These two disappeared one after the other, could it be...?"
A flash of inspiration crossed his mind, and he suddenly stood up.
"Damn it, I knew it, Raphael must have gone to find Lin!"
"For someone who’s never skipped work without reason to leave the entire kitchen team, it must be because they hit a bottleneck."
Just thinking about those two sneaking off to learn skills from Lin made Marchello a bit restless.
Although things were going relatively smoothly on his end, who would mind learning more?
"No way, since today’s a day off, I’ve got to go check it out too!"
As soon as he decided to go, he grabbed his phone and strode out of the office.
Just as he got into the driver’s seat and was about to start the engine, he remembered the complaints he hadn’t dealt with yet, and couldn’t help but cover his forehead and sigh.
"Forget it, forget it, it’s none of my business. It wasn’t my mess to begin with. I’ll wait until I find Raphael and let him handle it himself."
"Who goes out without answering calls or checking emails? Deserves a scolding!"
So he decisively left the matter, slammed the accelerator, and sped out of the parking lot, rushing onto the highway.
Meanwhile.
Seeing that the stock was about to run out, Lin Chen finally found some time to dial Magna’s number in advance.
Surprisingly, the phone just rang once and was immediately answered.
Before he could speak, Magna’s voice came from the other end of the line.
"You’re almost sold out, right? How much do you want, two thousand or three thousand or all of it?"
"Uh..."
Lin Chen looked up at the crowd in front of him, "Just give me two thousand first, any more and I can’t store it here. If it’s not enough, I’ll trouble you again."
"On the way!"
Magna swiftly hung up the phone, as if he had anticipated Lin Chen would call him.
Twenty minutes later.
The familiar pickup truck roared in and steadily parked next to the food truck under the curious gazes of numerous people.
"Here they come!"
Magna jumped down from the passenger seat and waved to Lin Chen.
The next second, a strong young man jumped down from the driver’s seat, and two other young men stood up from the mountain of boxes in the trunk.
The four of them partnered up in pairs and quickly unloaded boxes of oysters.
"Here, freshly shucked oysters!"
Magna personally carried two large boxes of oysters into the food truck compartment and smiled at Lin Chen, who was busy inside.
"We shucked these ourselves, so we won’t charge you a processing fee, but can you treat us to an oyster feast?"
"Of course, of course."
Only when he mentioned it did Lin Chen realize why he hadn’t seen this guy all day or received any messages—it turned out he was busy shucking oysters for him personally.
Without much hesitation, he agreed on the spot.
Shucking oysters may not be hard for professionals, but doing it for a long time tests physical strength and endurance.
Especially the base of the thumbs, which can become unbearably sore and easily cramp.
Four people shucking a thousand oysters each is indeed a daunting workload.
Moreover, they had to juggle duties at the stall, so being busy all day was normal.
The manpower cost for four thousand oysters alone was a considerable amount.
Even if each person could eat two dozen, it probably wouldn’t offset the labor cost based on the selling price.
You should know that labor cost is the most expensive aspect abroad.
Magna’s approach was likely to earn some goodwill.
And he also introduced Angelica over, which was another significant favor.
It looks like he wants to treat this place as a long-term free cafeteria?
Lin Chen smiled wryly but didn’t mind at heart.
Cooking for a few hundred people was still cooking, one more uninvited guest like Magna wouldn’t make a difference.
Let him enjoy it for free; later, he wouldn’t feel comfortable overcharging Lin Chen, so he would certainly offer his services at cost price.
This was a win-win situation.
"Dais." Lin Chen gave a signal outside the window.
"Yes, Chef."
Dais nodded, instantly understanding his meaning.
The boxes Magna brought were from the same batch as Angelica’s; each box contained forty oysters after shelling. Two thousand oysters equaled fifty boxes.
With their joint efforts, they finished unloading the goods within minutes and started moving them to the three grills.
"Magna! Stop unloading, come and eat while it’s hot."
Lin Chen placed over thirty steaming oysters from the grill into a container on top of the oyster boxes, letting him take them as he pleased.
"Already ready to eat?"
Hearing there’s food, Magna immediately dropped what he was doing and happily ran over.
"Guys, let’s take a break and eat. Try Chef Lin’s skills, and don’t say I’m always eating by myself without sharing with you!"
"We won’t say that, we never did~"
"Haha, Magna is the nicest boss in the world!"
"I agree."
The three young lads were tactful enough; while they were flattering, they didn’t forget to carry over several boxes of oysters, saving themselves an extra trip.
The freshly roasted oysters were still sizzling with oil, crackling within the shells, emitting a rich garlic aroma.
Not only were the three workers tempted, but even Magna himself was enticed by the irresistible sight, unable to wait, and he lifted a box, opened the chopsticks, ready to dig in.
He first tasted the garlic sauce on top, and his eyes lit up.
"Hey! This garlic is delicious, salty and sweet, with a slight spiciness; it feels better than the buttery flavor, right?"
"Could it be that you’re tired of the usual, and suddenly finding a new flavor makes it naturally more appealing?"
"By that logic, we’re tired of the buttery garlic sauce too, so this version would definitely taste better, right?"
"Makes sense, let’s try it first; I’m starving. I skipped lunch waiting for this!"
The three of them each picked up a box, mimicking Magna’s movements, trying some garlic sauce, and their eyes lit up.
"Delicious!!"
"Damn, how can it be this good?"
"Slurp..."
The outer layer of garlic sauce wasn’t too hot, just warm.
The three of them gathered a few more chopsticks, finding it increasingly appetizing, assuming the oysters underneath were at the same temperature, they carelessly put them into their mouths.
At first, it didn’t feel too hot; but as they bit into it, the tender oyster meat burst open in their mouths, and the scalding juice shot out like a fountain, causing them to stumble and almost choke.
"Hiss!!"
"Oh, hot, hot, hot... Phew... Phew..."
Magna smirked as he looked at their comical appearance, shaking their heads and gasping, and he blew a few more puffs of air onto the oyster meat before bravely putting it into his mouth.
"Mm, not bad; indeed, Lin’s cooking is never disappointing."
From the moment he tasted the garlic sauce, he had a premonition that mixed with the oysters, the taste would be even more delicious.
The facts proved him right.
"Oh, right."
Lin Chen had just placed a new batch of oysters on the grill, seeing the four of them gathered at the entrance of the food truck for a meal, naturally chatting with them.
"John asked me to make some Great Xia flavored fruit pizza tomorrow; I thought I’d try some other tasty flavors too, Magna, are you interested in tasting them?"
"F-fruit pizza?"
Upon hearing this term, the expressions on the four faces varied.
Magna turned back to look at him, "Do you mean there are other fruit-flavored pizzas besides the Hawaiian in Great Xia?"
Having long been familiar with Lin Chen, he didn’t even need to ask to understand Lin Chen’s intent instantly.
Ordinary Hawaiian pizza could probably be found in any pizza shop.
Coming from a foodie nation, since Lin Chen mentioned fruit pizza instead of Hawaiian, it clearly implied other flavors!
Although unimaginable, his interest was piqued.
"Yeah, like durian."
"......"
The expectant expression on Magna’s face froze.
"What’s durian?"
"There’s such a fruit?"
"I’ve never heard of that name before; have you tried it, boss?"
"I did, just a couple of days ago." Magna nodded helplessly, feeling once again the faintly pungent smell at the tip of his nose.
If it wasn’t mentioned it was fine, but once that name was brought up, it felt somewhat strange.
Making pizza with that stuff, is it edible?
"Is it tasty?"
"Uh... how to put it, the taste is rather peculiar? Anyway, if you’re interested, we could drop by tomorrow to support Chef Lin."
"Interested!"
"Just waiting for your words, boss!"
Three mouths stuffed with oysters, their faces glowing, eyes filled with anticipation for unknown pizza flavors.
First, there was fish hotpot noodles, now delicious garlic roasted oysters.
A head chef who can make such dishes surely can’t make anything bad, right?
No wonder the boss keeps running to the hotel lately, if it were them, they’d do the same!
"No need to make time," Lin Chen curved his lips slightly, "You’ll need to help bring over some shrimp and squid, and sample some as well."
"Sounds good!"
"Need help with shelling? I’m great at peeling shrimp!"
"Of course, if you’re willing to help peel, you’d be treated to free pizza~"
"Then it’s settled!"
"What time tomorrow? How many of what type of shrimp?"
"Does the squid need to be handled?"
Seeing their enthusiastic looks, Magna silently rolled his eyes.
Never seen these guys be so enthusiastic towards him, damn opportunists!
But it’s got its perks too; in the future, whenever he wants them to work, he’ll just use Lin’s food as a reward, surely effective!
While Lin Chen’s side was bustling with oyster grilling, Wang Aiguo sat before the computer, inspecting last week’s orders in puzzlement.
"Strange, Radisson hasn’t placed orders recently, could they have switched suppliers?"
"Shouldn’t be, besides us, there aren’t other Great Xia suppliers nearby."
"Can’t go on like this; fortunately the batch ordered last time is arriving later. Looks like I’ll need to go personally and take a look to find out what’s happening."