Watching the car drive into the freight yard, Shi Tao asked in surprise: "Three brothers, why don't we go to the vegetable market for shopping, but come to this freight yard instead?"
Ma Xiaolong smiled and said, "That's because some of the ingredients we're going to use for tomorrow's three-head banquet are not available at the local vegetable market."
Lin Ruifeng gave a detailed explanation: "Master specially found some domestic and foreign food suppliers and purchased a batch of top-quality ingredients. Most of them were shipped directly from the place of origin, so that tomorrow's three-head banquet would be grand enough."
Shi Tao was a little surprised: "Purchasing top-quality ingredients from home and abroad? And all purchased from the place of origin? Doesn't this cost a lot of money?"
Ning Cheng smiled and said, "That's for sure."
Shi Tao then asked: "But I heard that the Three-Head Banquet is free, isn't it?"
Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong and Ning Cheng all laughed when they heard this.
Lin Ruifeng asked back: "Why? Do you think Master is hosting the Three-Head Banquet to make money?"
Ma Xiaolong asked: "Do you think that our Su Ji and Ruo restaurants are not profitable? Do we have to rely on gimmicks like the Three-Head Banquet to make a wave of money?"
When Shi Tao heard what Ma Xiaolong said, he quickly explained: "No, no, brother, I didn't mean that."
Lin Ruifeng smiled and said, "Okay, Xiaolong, stop scaring Shi Tao."
Ning Cheng said from the side: "Let me tell you, the daily turnover of Su Ji and Ruo Restaurant is not low, so they have enough money for this three-person banquet."
Shi Tao nodded and said, "I know this. I've also seen it abroad. The orders for Su Ji and Ruo restaurants are all over thousands. I know they must be making money."
Lin Ruifeng said: "What you see are the orders for the private rooms on the second floor of Su Ji, as well as the set meal prices of the restaurant. Those are really not the key. In fact, the master said that those orders are not the main place to make money. Our Su Ji mainly relies on small profits and quick turnover of noodles at noon, and the large number of customers on the first floor at night."
Ning Cheng said: "Also, the desserts in Ruo Restaurant have very high sales every day."
Shi Tao asked curiously, "Will the restaurant sell desserts separately?"
Ma Xiaolong said: "Of course we don't sell desserts separately. If a restaurant sells desserts, they are usually the extra desserts in the kitchen that day. They are not made specially to sell. And if the restaurant's desserts are available, they can only be bought when it is open in the evening."
After hearing this, Shi Tao couldn't help but sigh: "Master uncle really has a lot of rules."
Hearing this, Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong and Ning Cheng couldn't help laughing again.
Lin Ruifeng said: "Do you think there are too many rules? But it is precisely because of the many rules set by the master that Su Ji and Ruo Restaurant are different from others. Moreover, these rules prevent some people from trying to make a second profit from Su Ji and Ruo Restaurant."
Seeing that Shi Tao was a little confused, Ning Cheng explained: "To put it simply, when the restaurant first opened, many scalpers booked seats and then resold them."
When Shi Tao heard this, he immediately understood.
To put it bluntly, the reason why Feng Yifan set down various rules was to eliminate those middlemen.
Of course, it also enhanced the status of Su Ji and Ruo restaurants.
While giving people the impression that there are many rules, the restaurant also uses very fine dishes and desserts, as well as very thoughtful service, to make the guests sitting in Su Ji and Ruo restaurants feel a sense of superiority.
The customers may not necessarily be wealthy, but being able to have a meal at Su Ji and Ruo restaurants will give them the feeling that even if they don’t have the money to go to a higher-end restaurant, they can still taste food that is even more delicious than that in top restaurants. This sense of superiority is also what attracts many people to make reservations and queue up.
Of course, Feng Yifan also tries his best to control costs, and most of the ingredients are domestic.
Doing this saves a lot of costs. At the same time, Feng Yifan can rely on his cooking skills to make up for some of the differences in ingredients without giving customers a bad feeling.
However, as Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong and Ning Cheng said, in fact, the most profitable part of Su Ji is still the noodles at noon.
This is mainly because there are too many people coming to buy noodles at noon.
It is often difficult to pack up dinner dishes, but noodles for lunch are very easy to pack up.
In particular, Feng Yifan specially purchased suitable packaging boxes.
Noodles, soup, and various toppings can be packaged and stored separately.
Customers who buy the noodles can mix them together and eat them directly after returning home. If they cannot eat it right away, they can even leave it for a while and then slightly heat it up in a microwave before eating. As long as they don't mix the soup, noodles and toppings together in advance, there is almost no difference in taste.
As a result, Su Ji’s lunch noodles are able to sell a lot every day.
It also became Su Ji’s real flagship product of small profits but quick turnover.
Shi Tao thought about it and asked curiously: "If you make a lot of noodles every day, will it affect the improvement of your cooking skills?"
Ma Xiaolong heard this and said, "It's just the opposite of what you think. You have to know how many kinds of toppings there are at Su Ji's noodles. It can be said that those toppings are a combination of various ingredients from all over the world, and also include the flavors of cuisines from all over the world. Making those toppings well is a test of cooking skills."
Ning Cheng said, "Shi Tao, you may not know that I am still not qualified to be a topping."
Ma Xiaolong smiled and said, “Don’t talk about you, our eldest brother also has some toppings that he can’t make.”
Lin Ruifeng gave a bitter smile after hearing this, but he had no way to refute anything.
Seeing that Lin Ruifeng did not argue, Ma Xiaolong said again: "Brother, don't be angry, I was just joking. In fact, if you work harder, I believe you will have more opportunities soon. But I'm afraid Ning Cheng may be assigned by Master to wait in the hall next."
When Shi Tao heard this, he saw that Ning Cheng also had a helpless look on his face, which was a bit strange.
"Why does Senior Brother Ning still have to wait in the hall?"
Ning Cheng did not ask Ma Xiaolong to help answer, but said himself: "The main reason is that Master thinks that I still need to practice my knife skills. I am not qualified to cook now, so he hopes that I can go to waiter to gain some experience. So Master said that I have to waiter after New Year's Day."
Lin Ruifeng said: "Master made this arrangement for Ning Cheng's own good."
Ning Cheng said: "I know, I actually want to go too. I am really getting less and less able to help in the kitchen now."
When Shi Tao heard what his three senior brothers said, he also deeply felt the horror in Su’s kitchen.
Different from the kitchens of other hotels and restaurants, Su Ji’s kitchen really needs to be of extremely high standards, otherwise there may not even be a chance to cook the noodle toppings for lunch.
But this made Shi Tao more determined to learn cooking at Su Ji.
While a few people were chatting, Feng Yifan in the front was getting a little impatient.
"How long are you guys going to chat? I asked you to come out together, so that you can chat over there, right? Don't you know what we are here for?"
Hearing Feng Yifan's urging, the four of them hurried over, not daring to say a word, and followed his pace, walking into the cargo yard together.
Many people in the cargo yard would take the initiative to greet Feng Yifan when they saw him.
Shi Tao could see that most people in the cargo yard knew Feng Yifan.
And he seemed to be familiar with other people in Su Ji and Ruo Restaurant.
Some people even waved and said hello to Hans and Tom.
Someone even offered cigarettes to Hans and Tom.
However, in front of Feng Yifan, although the two of them took the cigarettes, they obviously didn't dare to smoke.
We went deep into the cargo yard and finally arrived at a huge cold storage.
Feng Yifan shouted to the people in front of the cold storage door: "Hey, are all the goods inside?"
The person guarding the cold storage door saw Feng Yifan and quickly ran out to greet him.
"Chef Feng, you are here. Don't worry. All the things you ordered have been delivered from last night to this morning. They are all in the cold storage. I guarantee they are all fresh. No one has touched them. The packaging is intact."
Feng Yifan heard this and said, "Take the things out and let us have a look."
The other party also opened the cold storage, and then Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong, Hans and Tom went in to check it together.
After confirming that there was no problem, the four people directly carried some of the goods out of the cold storage.
"Master, everything is complete, no problem."
Feng Yifan nodded: "Okay, let's load the things into the car."
This time Shi Tao also joined in and together they moved the goods in the cold storage onto two trucks one by one.
Seeing the pile of boxes on the car, Shi Tao was also a little surprised: "Wow, there are so many?"
Ma Xiaolong smiled and said, "There are a lot of good things in here, including top-quality Wagyu beef from abroad and very good domestic abalone and sea cucumber. They are all solid goods. These are also the main ingredients we will use tomorrow. Of course, there are also some top-notch seasonings from home and abroad."
After listening to Ma Xiaolong's introduction, Shi Tao was really surprised. He didn't expect that there were so many kinds of ingredients.
The two trucks carrying the goods left the cargo yard and did not return to Su Ji.
Instead, the group headed directly to another place.
After arriving, not to mention Shi Tao, even Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong and Ning Cheng seemed a little unfamiliar. Hans and Tom got out of the car and said they didn't know where it was.
Feng Yifan led everyone into the yard of a bungalow.
"Are you home, buddy? I'm here to pick up the goods."
After Feng Yifan shouted, a strong man with a beard walked out of the house.
"Chef Feng, you are finally here. If you hadn't come, I wouldn't know what to do with the food inside."
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "I'm sorry, we'll go to the cargo yard to pick up the goods first."
The strong man continued, "The three pigs inside have been processed. Do you want to take them back now?"
Feng Yifan nodded: "Yes, take them all back together."
The strong man said, "Okay, I'll carry it out for you."
The strong man returned to the house and soon came out carrying two pigs.
At this time, the people who came with Feng Yifan finally understood that Feng Yifan came here to take the pork back.
All three pigs had been slaughtered and cleaned.
The strong man was obviously well prepared, including packing all the internal organs separately.
Of course, what shocked everyone present the most were the three complete big pig heads.
Feng Yifan saw the pig heads and said with a smile, "Great, these three heads are simply amazing."
The sturdy man also laughed and said, "Hahaha, it's only because you, Chef Feng, gave us a heads up in advance, otherwise it wouldn't be easy to get such a complete pig head. Nowadays, most pig heads are separated after the pigs are slaughtered, so it's really hard to buy a complete one."
At this moment, everyone realized that Feng Yifan had indeed made arrangements for the three-headed banquet in advance.
Usually you can't buy a complete pig's head at a butcher's factory or meat stall.
Because pig heads are usually cut into pieces, for example, the pig nose and ears must be cut off, and these must be sold separately.
What’s more important is the pig brain, which will also be divided up and sold separately in advance.
Then things like pig tongues would be taken away.
This time, Feng Yifan specially contacted a butcher and got three very complete pig heads.
The sight of three pig heads being put into the car still shocked everyone.
Finally, it was covered with canvas.
After loading everything, Feng Yifan smiled and said to the butcher: "Thank you so much, brother."
The sturdy man smiled and said, "Hahaha, you're welcome, Chef Feng. If you need anything, just tell me. I promise to make it clean for you."
Feng Yifan also directly extended an invitation: "Tomorrow there will be a three-head banquet at Su Ji in Gujie. Please come and support us if you are free."
The other party was not polite: "Okay, let's go and show our support to Chef Feng."
Then Feng Yifan and others drove away.
The last stop of the day is still back to the farmers’ market, and the destination is very clear, the seafood shop.
This time, the boss prepared three fresh and equally large silver carps for Feng Yifan.
Seeing the three fish once again shocked Shitao.
“Oh my god, is this fish so big?”
Feng Yifan laughed and said, "Hahaha, that's nothing. In the past, one fish weighed over 100 kilograms, and these three of mine only weigh over 30 kilograms."
The owner of the seafood shop said, "Chef Feng, these three pieces took me a lot of effort. Please don't ask for heavier ones. I'm afraid I really can't help you with them."
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "Okay, boss, don't worry, these three are enough. If they are bigger, I'm afraid I can only go to the winter fishing places in Chagan Lake to prepare a three-head feast."
After settling the bill with the seafood boss, Feng Yifan asked his apprentices to take the fish away.
After going through three places, I finally got all the ingredients.
On the way back, Feng Yifan smiled and asked Shi Tao, who was riding with him, "How was it? Was this trip interesting? Did Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong, and Ning Cheng teach you anything?"
Shi Tao said: "Uncle Master, the three brothers have indeed taught me a lot."
Feng Yifan added: "That's fine, but you have to be careful. The three of them are not good people. You have to be careful in Su Ji and don't fall into their trap."
Shi Tao asked curiously, "Uncle Master, will they set a trap for me?"
Feng Yifan shook his head and said, "I can't tell you now. Anyway, I can only remind you to be careful."
After hearing this, Shi Tao immediately became alert.
When Feng Yifan and his group returned to Su Ji, the three little girls, Feng Ruoruo, Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei, had all finished school and had been picked up from kindergarten.
The three little girls were happily playing with the older girl, Tian Lang.