CHAPTER 801: CHAPTER 404: BOSS SU’S SKILLS

Passed down through generations, by the time it reached Boss Su, the craftsmanship had almost been broken. Boss Su’s pastry skills were average, but his management abilities were exceptional. He transformed Taste Restaurant, which once operated like the family workshop model of Huang Ji, passed down through generations where all the kitchen chefs were basically fellow apprentices, into today’s grand restaurant with numerous factions.

Su Qian, as Boss Su’s nephew, understood well the transformation history of Taste Restaurant and explained everything in detail to Qin Huai.

When Boss Su was still the Young Master, he realized deeply that his skills alone could not support Taste Restaurant. However, having more skilled fellow apprentices inherit or support the restaurant would inevitably lead to conflicts of interest over time, which was not a long-term solution either.

History offers the multitude of lessons from predecessors to future generations. Many old reputable restaurants collapsed in a day, disappearing in the long river of time not because there were no successors, but due to some unspeakable reasons.

In such a context, Boss Su made a decision against the ancestors’ ways. Through high salaries, dividends sharing, playing emotional cards leveraging the elder generation’s relationships, among many tactics, he recruited many master chefs.

Furthermore, he recruited a large number of apprentices, promoted exchanges between Taste Restaurant and other quite reputable pastry restaurants, boosting the fame and strength of Taste Restaurant rapidly.

When Boss Su was still the Young Master, Taste Restaurant was justifiably Hangzhou’s number one pastry restaurant. After truly becoming Boss Su, through decades of management, he cemented Taste Restaurant’s name as the nation’s number one pastry restaurant.

So much so that many people only knew the first, not the second; when it came to pastry, the first that came to mind was Taste Restaurant, with the rest forgotten.

These were the broad strokes of Boss Su’s operations, among which there were, of course, countless untellable fine operations.

For instance, how he managed conflicts between master chefs when there were more people, how he handled relationships between different factions, how he resolved situations when several master chefs took a liking to the same apprentice, and how he maintained a stable atmosphere in the kitchen, all demonstrated Boss Su’s true skills.

Su Qian, being Boss Su’s nephew, was the confirmed future direct disciple of Master Zhou. He not only learned snack-making techniques from Master Zhou but also learned managerial insights from Boss Su.

Su Qian had a deep understanding of the several master chefs at Taste Restaurant, introducing them one by one to Qin Huai, including their specialties in snacks, factions, temperaments, and interpersonal relationships.

He detailed how these master chefs were at odds with each other, which relationships appear harmonious but actually involved secretly undermining each other, competing in skill levels, reputations of the snacks, and the expertise of their apprentices.

This was Su Qian’s first time gossiping with Qin Huai, genuine gossip.

The words flowed smoothly, and the organization was clear.

Qin Huai listened so intently that he didn’t even want to return to the kitchen to see what beautiful snacks Zheng Da made, only wanting to grab Su Qian in a corner to ask more about Taste Restaurant’s gossip.

Su Qian was so thorough, even when gossiping, he did it so well!

At the end, Su Qian expressed to Qin Huai that these gossip pieces were merely his personal views and might not reflect the actual situation. Master Qin was the one truly sharp and discerning. As for the real situation, once Qin Huai spent some days at Taste Restaurant, he would surely notice.

In summary, although relationships at Taste Restaurant were complex and the master chefs were sometimes annoyed with each other, under Boss Su’s excellent work ability and mediation skills, there were no irreconcilable conflicts, and the overall work atmosphere remained very harmonious and competitive.

Qin Huai was eager to visit Taste Restaurant the next day to see if it was true, as Su Qian said, that this master disliked that master, and this master secretly competed with that one. The master’s son pursued the master’s daughter and it didn’t work out, leading the two masters to fall out.

Anyway, he packed incredibly fast.

While watching Zheng Da make snacks in the kitchen, Qin Huai almost couldn’t resist asking Tan Wei’an if what Su Qian said earlier was true, but he ultimately held back.

Based on Qin Huai’s understanding of Tan Wei’an, if the kitchen did have such interesting gossip, Tan Wei’an would certainly find an opportunity to tell him. That Tan Wei’an hadn’t said anything suggested the gossip might not be true or he hadn’t noticed it, with the latter being more likely.

Tan Wei’an was an employee and a shareholder at Taste Restaurant; before actually going there to exchange and find out what was happening, Qin Huai felt it was better not to rashly discuss things with shareholders.

The price for not speaking up was that Qin Huai could only silently relish these gossip stories in his mind, getting so absorbed in them that he didn’t even notice when Zheng Da stopped making snacks at 9:26.

By the time Qin Huai noticed Zheng Da had stopped, Huang Shengli had already approached Zheng Da to ask what was going on.

Zheng Da hadn’t addressed how to handle the snacks he’d made earlier, so no one dared to touch or eat them. After all, they were quite beautiful and delicate, and if Zheng Da wanted to align them for comparison or show them off on social media, no one dared to touch them.

No one could guess Master Zheng’s thoughts.

"What’s going on with you today? What’s come over you?" As a senior brother, Huang Shengli spoke quite unceremoniously, not forgetting to glance at Qin Huai as he spoke, with his eyes questioning whether Zheng Da got disconcerted because Qin Huai would be heading to Taste Restaurant day after tomorrow.