Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 647 - 336: Time to Come Back_3

Wait, how does he feel?

Never mind, there’s no time to find out, let’s just take it one step at a time. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Cao Guixiang observed Qin Huai’s perplexity, confusion, hesitation, and decisiveness.

She knew that under normal circumstances, as Master Cao conducting an online class, she should loudly remind Qin Huai of her next steps, but she didn’t.

She just watched quietly through her reading glasses.

Qin Huai mixed a bowl of starch water, which in Cao Guixiang’s eyes, was filled with problems.

Qin Huai held the starch water and looked at the pot quietly.

The Crab Yellow Sauce in the pot had gradually started to boil, with one bubble after another rising and bursting. Even Zhang Chu beside Cao Guixiang knew it was time for thickening, but Qin Huai hadn’t moved yet.

"What’s Xiao Qin doing? The sauce in the pot is about to boil over," Zhang Chu murmured.

"Quiet," Cao Guixiang didn’t even spare a glance at her husband, put down the apple, and stared fixedly at her phone.

Finally, at the moment a small bubble in the corner rose and burst, Qin Huai’s instinct told him it was time.

He understood.

He mimicked Cao Guixiang’s motion, twisting his arm and wrist dramatically, pouring the starch water into the pot, swirling it in a large circle as he did so.

The starch water flowed smoothly and seamlessly, pouring down along the rim of the bowl in a standard pouring manner.

Yes!

The little person in Qin Huai’s heart cheered.

Another successful, instinctive thickening.

Qin Huai found that his feeling for thickening at the sauce-boiling stage was much better than during the sauce-frying stage.

With the afternoon’s lesson of being too excited to stir as a past failure, this time Qin Huai remembered to stir, picked up the spatula, and stirred chaotically before excitedly looking up to the phone camera and saying, "Master Cao, how was my thickening just now?"

Cao Guixiang’s face already had a standard satisfied and kind smile: "Very good."

"Beyond what I imagined."

Qin Huai continued to work on the Crab Yellow Sauce, and after the successful thickening, there was a slightly panicked reduction and a clumsy stir-fry.

Zhang Chu looked at the stark contrast in Qin Huai’s performance and couldn’t help but comment, "Xiao Qin, you’re really... you just did the thickening fine, how are you now so flustered?"

Cao Guixiang glared at Zhang Chu in annoyance: "You talk too much, Xiao Qin doing this well is already very good, don’t set your expectations so high. He’s a pastry chef, not a meat chef."

Zhang Chu felt that his wife’s attitude was a bit odd today.

In the short ten-odd minutes of Qin Huai making Crab Yellow Sauce, Cao Guixiang had glared at him several times, each time because he spoke.

Zhang Chu boldly guessed, "Did you teach Xiao Qin the thickening?"

"Isn’t thickening something that needs to be taught face-to-face? This online class seems a bit too challenging for Xiao Qin. When I was learning carpentry, the master had to watch closely."

"I didn’t teach him," Cao Guixiang had already seen what she wanted, moved her gaze from the phone, and took off her reading glasses, "Xiao Qin learned it himself."

"Learned it himself?" Zhang Chu didn’t understand, "But didn’t he just do the thickening exactly like you? Isn’t your thickening technique a unique skill in Tan Family Cuisine?"

"Yes, he learned by watching," admiration and disbelief filled Cao Guixiang’s eyes, "If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it. Someone can really learn just by watching."

"It seems like we’re out of shark fin, sea cucumber, and bird’s nest at home. You should contact Old Wang to get some good stuff."

"Xiao Qin loves mangoes, buy some mangoes next week."

"Oh right, and get some good pork belly. Go to the market early next week and pick some good ones to buy back. Xiao Qin complained several times that the chef’s braised pork with preserved vegetables at his canteen wasn’t good. He should get to eat some delicious braised pork with preserved vegetables."

"Has Qin Huai finished practicing his knife skills?" Zhang Chu asked.

Cao Guixiang didn’t respond immediately, instead opening WeChat to find her chat history with Qin Huai, looking for the recipes she had given him.

"It seems I really should take some time to organize these recipes, I can’t remember them all at once," Cao Guixiang muttered, only then answering Zhang Chu’s question.

"Even if he hasn’t finished, he should be about done, but I must teach him properly this thickening technique. Self-learning won’t capture the essence."

Zhang Chu looked at his wife’s serious expression, and a bold speculation came to mind.

"Gui Xiang, you’re not thinking of taking Xiao Qin as an apprentice, are you?" Zhang Chu asked.

Cao Guixiang shook her head, "I said I don’t take apprentices. Moreover, Xiao Qin might not even want to become my apprentice; after all, what pastry chef takes a meat chef as their teacher?"

"But I think it would be a pity not to pass on my skills to someone as talented as Xiao Qin."

"Then how is that different from having an apprentice?" Zhang Chu laughed.

Cao Guixiang rolled her eyes at Zhang Chu, "What’s it to you?"

"I like it."