CHAPTER 441: CHAPTER 149 THE FIRST LESSON (PART 2)_3

"Don’t be nervous, it’s just enrollment, even if you don’t do well in the exams, we can try hard during the make-up exams." Although Shen Yiyi had a somewhat indifferent personality, she coaxed Shan Zhi patiently, like an elder sister.

"Mm, I..."

"..."

The two girls held hands and walked forward, while Du Xixi followed behind them with a gentle smile, occasionally glancing at Shen Yiyi and Shan Zhi. She thought their friendship was very precious.

The Food Department wasn’t very large, after all, it was newly established and didn’t have multiple sub-departments like other departments, which directly resulted in just a few students for one professor.

The Food Department was like a small sub-department; however, while other sub-departments had only a few students, the Food Department had a total of sixty-three students, with two classes daily, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with an additional class by Du Xixi on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the afternoon.

The curriculum seemed not tightly packed, and even with Du Xixi’s class, it only went until 4:30 PM, and the remaining time allowed the students to manage freely.

This was a "privilege" that students from other departments did not have.

But this wasn’t a relaxation of the Food Department’s discipline. Just like students in the Military Department needed "combat classes" for extra training, the Food Department students also needed "combat classes" to hone their culinary skills on their own—the spare time was their "combat class."

Today was Wednesday, and coincidentally, the first official class was taught by Du Xixi. In the afternoon, Du Xixi entered the classroom with her prepared lesson plan, wearing a light blue apron, looking calm.

As she looked up, the once-empty classroom was now filled with students, who all stared at her nervously, clearly curious and uneasy about their first university class.

Du Xixi: To be honest, I’m a bit curious and uneasy too.

Despite being alone against sixty-three pairs of eyes, Du Xixi squinted slightly as she scanned the students, and everyone immediately straightened their already-straight postures even more.

Du Xixi smiled in satisfaction and gently began, "Hello everyone, welcome to our Food Department. As your professor for your first class, I am honored to introduce myself to those who know me. My name is Du Xixi, one of your professors in the Food Department."

No need for applause like a speech, so Du Xixi didn’t leave time for clapping and continued, "We’ve all met before and among you, some are even..."

In the first class, Du Xixi didn’t intend to start with "practical exercises," since they hadn’t even learned to walk yet, how could they start running?

In a span of two hours, Du Xixi spent one hour laying out the specifics of the culinary system, including the eight major cuisines and basic flavors. In the next hour, she wasn’t idle either; according to records from the previous examination period, she divided the sixty-three students into three groups.

She didn’t simply group them by skill level; instead, she used an educational method from Blue Star, "Good helps bad," with each group having students whose overall cooking skills were decent and those who were poor but really hardworking.

Just like teasing crickets, if only one cricket was chirping wildly, even the person teasing would find it boring, but with the addition of another lively or non-lively cricket, the first one would feel stimulated, showing a side never seen before.

These three groups were like three sets of crickets; Du Xixi might not be the one teasing them, but the "crickets" within the group would get stimulated and improve their cooking skills.

Du Xixi had them start peeling potatoes and cutting potato shreds just like during the examination period, and even pointed out a few students specifically to prepare spicy and sour potato shreds using their best methods.

The tiered grouping seemed somewhat effective; at least, in the next hour’s observation, Du Xixi noticed several slow-moving female students speeding up, and those with poor culinary talent made substantial improvements with the help of those skilled in cooking.

Is this perhaps what you call mutual assistance? Du Xixi smiled, checked the potato shreds or the cooked spicy and sour potato shreds submitted by the groups, and found that their cooking skills hadn’t declined much, and many had even improved significantly since the examination period.

Du Xixi nodded in satisfaction and, after announcing the end of the class, tasted some of each product and felt that the heat and basics were already in place, needing only a slight touch-up before they could directly advance to the next level.

However, from one dish of spicy and sour potato shreds, one could see a person’s knife skills, but too much could be an overestimation. As she thought about it, Du Xixi shook her head and planned to change tack in the next class, aiming to gauge each student’s culinary foundation using the simplest methods.