I'm the Culinary God-Chapter 640 - 297: Authentic Salt Baked Chicken, Not as Complicated as You Think! A Little Surprise at the Promotion Party! [Subscribe Please]_3

Chapter 640: Chapter 297: Authentic Salt Baked Chicken, Not as Complicated as You Think! A Little Surprise at the Promotion Party! [Subscribe Please]_3

But today, the Salt Baked Chicken really satisfied everyone.

The savory taste and the chewiness made everyone keep eating without stopping.

"Lin Xu, what do you think about introducing Salt Baked Chicken in our restaurant?"

Wei Qian’s words echoed the very issue Lin Xu had just considered.

The chicken was delicious; to indulge themselves only seemed somewhat wasteful.

For a chef, the most fulfilling thing isn’t to fatten up family and friends, but rather to monetize their skills.

Earning money from customers and gaining their following, that’s the real deal.

Only fattening up family and friends is more suited for breeding, not running a restaurant.

However, it was hard to say how interested people in the Yanjing Region would be in Salt Baked Chicken. Upon checking apps like Meituan for chicken rankings, the most popular were always Big Plate Chicken, Fried Chicken from Shandong, Spicy Chicken, various fried chickens, and... Roasted Chicken. Indeed, the Northern Region deeply loved Roasted Chicken, and almost every city or county had an old brand serving Roasted Chicken, typically savory and crisp.

If they rashly introduced Salt Baked Chicken, would customers buy it?

The others were also somewhat anxious.

Professionally speaking, the Salt Baked Chicken was extremely delicious; even if it were served in Meizhou’s Ke Family locality, it would be of the same caliber.

But being delicious doesn’t mean it will be popular. Roasted Goose and duck got the cold shoulder in the North, which showed that food preferences strongly depended on local conditions. Rashly adding a dish could lead not only to embarrassing unsold situations but could even impact the entire shop’s reputation.

After some thought, Lin Xu said, "The cost of this Salt Baked Chicken isn’t high, and the salt can be reused. How about we try offering it as a taste test to see how the regular customers react? If it works, we could do a limited sale."

This point made one really admire his senior brother. The surprise menu he’d created at the Fishing Platform was indeed interesting. If it didn’t sell, he withdrew it; if it sold well, he continued the surprise—he had complete control.

Zhu Yong, while nibbling on a chicken wing, said, "Anyway, no matter what we introduce, it’s about time our restaurant had a whole chicken dish. Summer is over, and more and more people are looking to gain a little autumn weight. It’s time for our customers to experience that joy of eating a big mouthful of chicken."

It was indeed time to introduce a whole chicken dish. But they couldn’t pin their hopes entirely on Salt Baked Chicken. Since Roasted Chicken is so popular in Beijing, they might as well introduce that instead.

Thinking of this, Lin Xu’s inherent ’uncomfortable if not spending money’ gene started stirring again.

Excited, he exchanged 3 million points in the Points Store for the Perfect Level recipe for Five-Spice Roast Chicken.

"Host spends 3,000,000 points, obtains Perfect Level Marinated Cuisine Technique—Five-Spice Roast Chicken, and triggers a Trial Task: Please sell two thousand Roast Chickens within a week of making them. Upon completion, the host will permanently obtain the Perfect Level Five-Spice Roast Chicken Cooking Technique. If not completed, the Skill will downgrade to Superior."

TSK, TSK, TSK, to sell two thousand Roast Chickens within one week. It would have been much better to have exchanged this before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Many areas in the North have a tradition of eating Roast Chicken during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Before the festival, these Roast Chicken shops would sell several thousand chickens daily. Exchanging for this Technique then would have easily completed the two thousand chickens without even looking. But now, the Mid-Autumn Festival had just passed. The sales of Roast Chicken weren’t going to be high.

He read the content of the Trial Task again carefully. He noticed the phrase, ’within a week of making the Roast Chicken...’

That is to say, if he didn’t make Roast Chicken in the near future, the task wouldn’t start counting time. In which case, he could completely wait a while longer. Wait until the Mid-Autumn Festival hype completely died down, and everyone had finished the leftovers from the festival meals at home before introducing the Roast Chicken.

「At five-thirty in the afternoon, guests for the advancement celebration gradually arrived.」

As Geng Lele’s future mentor, Cui Qingyuan, who had specifically changed into a new suit, arrived early. After presenting his own red envelope at the banquet hall’s gift table, the food-loving professor also stopped by the kitchen door to taste a couple of bites of the Salt Baked Chicken. He bestowed high praise on Lin Xu’s cooking skills.

Before long, other guests had started to arrive one after the other.

Essentially, everyone presented red envelopes—a simple and direct method. There were also others who brought different gifts. For example, Zeng Xiaoqi gave a Ming Dynasty inkstone, along with several certificates of authenticity from antique experts. Chen Yan brought a pure gold pen, taking her ’rich lady’ persona to the extreme. And Shen Guofu gifted a sailboat crafted entirely from gold.

The old saying goes that nephews resemble their uncles. Judging from the types of gifts given by Shen Guofu and Chen Yan, their attitudes toward gift-giving were indeed quite similar.

Lin Xu and Shen Baobao presented an Imperial Gold Medal—which, to be precise, should be called a ’Meow’ Imperial Gold Medal. The medal looked quite similar to the ones sold in the Imperial Palace, but instead of the large "I" character on the front, it bore ’Meow.’ On the back, in a line of clerical script, it read:

"’From this day forth, Geng Lele is officially appointed as the High Priest of the Meow Meow Sect.’"

Below the text was a large cat paw print, a genuine reproduction of Dundun’s right paw—the Holy Master’s personal stamp.

Geng Lele responded politely to the other gifts with a smile and a few words of thanks. But upon seeing the gold medal, Little Mushroom Head was immediately overjoyed.

"HAHAHA! I’ve finally gained the recognition of the Holy Master! The cat paw print on the back is even real! I must keep this safe and pass it down as a family heirloom!"

During the gift-giving, Lin Xu also met Geng Lele’s parents. They were a couple who seemed to often swim in a sea of knowledge, wearing thick-lensed glasses, always smiling at people, and concluding their greetings with just a few pleasantries. It seemed that these social niceties weren’t as interesting to them as their research.

Once everyone had arrived, Geng Lishan stood on the stage, expressing his gratitude to all the guests, the leaders of Haidian Middle School, and Professor Cui, among others. After his speech, Geng Lele’s parents also expressed their gratitude.

The teacher Geng Lele had previously impersonated for fake leave requests, representing Haidian Middle School, offered his blessings to Geng Lele. He also subtly hinted that Tsinghua University didn’t require leave slips, implying Geng Lele no longer needed to forge teachers’ signatures.

After these segments, the dishes started to be served.

The appetizers were all cold dishes. After a few more dishes were served, the Salt Baked Chicken was brought to the table.

"Wow, this chicken is really delicious!"

"Exactly! Both the texture and the flavor are superb."

"Brother Lin, is this the new dish you mentioned? When is it going on the menu at your restaurant?"

"Little Xu, the Salt Baked Chicken isn’t too high in calories, right? Can your mother-in-law and I eat it regularly?"

"Brother-in-law, I want to learn this! Teach me when you have time!"

"Me too, me too! The executive chef here needs to master a signature dish that’s worthy of showing off!"

"Brother Xu, you really outdid yourself with this chicken! I absolutely love it!"

"..."

Everyone showed great interest in the Salt Baked Chicken, further solidifying Lin Xu’s idea to trial it in his restaurant. If the customers’ reactions were good, then they would officially introduce it.

As he was thinking about this, Zeng Xiaoqi said to Lin Xu, "Boss Lin, the station plans to change ’Tastes of the World’ from twice weekly to daily broadcasts, still at six in the evening. We’re going to run out of stored videos all at once. Do you have enough time to record the show?"

Daily broadcasts? He had been quite busy lately and was uncertain if he could spare that much recording time. But just because he didn’t have time didn’t mean others didn’t.

An image of his senior brother flashed in Lin Xu’s mind.

Yes, it was time to let the viewers meet the ’villain’ from the Fishing Platform!

This Chapter is 5,400 words long; brothers, I need those Monthly Tickets!