After breakfast, Feng Yifan led everyone in the kitchen to clean up and then started working busy in the kitchen.
Although the opening time is 11:00 am, a group of people have to do a lot of preparation work in the morning.
Even if there are only noodles, fried rice and side dishes for lunch, the supply must still be guaranteed, and diners must also be able to taste Su Ji’s unique flavor through these things and understand what makes Su Ji different.
Among them, the most eye-catching thing in the morning, which even Shi Jiahui and others were very curious about, was the use of the pot of Su-style soup prepared by Su Jinrong himself.
Su Zao soup is prepared in advance, and at this time in the morning, it is time to start adding some things.
First comes the boneless pork elbow.
The elbow is soaked in running water overnight in advance to ensure that most of the blood is soaked out.
Next, it was time for Feng Yifan and his three senior brothers to demonstrate their knife skills.
Four people worked together to remove the bones from the soaked elbows one by one.
The whole process of deboning each elbow hardly takes more than a minute.
The four of them worked together and in the blink of an eye, they had finished deboning a large bucket of pork elbows.
Seeing this scene, the six people standing nearby, Ning Cheng, Chen Xu, Luo Yu, Catherine, Hans and Tom, were really shocked.
I never thought the speed could be so fast.
The most prominent among them is still Feng Yifan.
Not only was he the fastest among the group, but his movements were always so graceful. Every time he cut the knife, it was fast, accurate and ruthless, and his hand movements were always clean and neat.
In comparison, although the other three were his seniors, they still sometimes experienced lags.
But Feng Yifan never had any lag and he performed the whole process of deboning smoothly.
He stood next to the water table and picked up an elbow in that way, deboning it within a minute, and then separated the bones and meat and threw them into another bucket.
When Feng Yifan was halfway through his work, he noticed a group of people standing there staring at him in a daze, so he did not forget to remind everyone.
"Don't just stand there and work. Have you forgotten that we're opening today? There's so much work to do, and everyone is standing there. Who's going to do it?"
After Feng Yifan's shout, the onlookers suddenly came to their senses and started working quickly.
At this time, Feng Ruoruo did not forget to raise the small rag in her hand and shout.
"Dad, Dad, look, Ruoruo is working hard."
When Feng Yifan heard his daughter's voice, the moment he turned his head, the expression, attitude and tone on his face changed 180 degrees. He spoke to his daughter in a very gentle tone and with a bit of doting.
"Really? Our Ruoruo is awesome, Ruoruo, keep going, but don't get too tired. If you feel tired, you can stop and take a rest, then continue working after you've rested, okay?"
Feng Ruoruo smiled and nodded when her father said this to her: "Okay, good luck to Dad too."
When everyone in the kitchen saw the interaction between the father and daughter, they couldn't help but feel envious.
Luo Yu couldn't help but say, "Oh, the chef is so gentle to my daughter. He is completely different from how he treats us."
Shi Jiahui smiled and said, "She is a daughter after all. Come on, let's get to work."
When everyone started to get ready to work, Feng Yifan had already finished deboning the elbow.
The three senior brothers also had to admire him.
"Amazing! Junior Brother Yifan is really amazing. We can't compare to him."
"Hey, we brothers have been learning from the master for many years, and we have done all this step by step. I thought that even though it has been a long time, we should not fall too far behind. I didn't expect that Junior Brother Feng is so powerful."
"As expected of the chef, I admire you."
After the elbow is deboned, some trimming is required. The inner side of the elbow needs to be flattened and the thickness should be trimmed as evenly as possible.
After the trimming is completed, the elbow needs to be rolled up again.
These are the elbow rolls.
This process is another one that tests one's patience, strength, and some skills.
This time, Feng Yifan did not ask his senior brothers for help. Instead, he called his three apprentices over and demonstrated it himself.
"Okay, the three of you follow me. Remember, I will only demonstrate three times, and then the three of you will roll up the rest. This is your job for this morning. If you don't finish it, the three of you won't have lunch."
The three brothers were also confused for a moment.
But before the three people could say anything more, Feng Yifan had already started.
Then Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong and Ning Cheng hurriedly watched.
In fact, to be honest, rolling is not complicated. It is just rolling the flattened elbow into a cylindrical roll from one side.
However, during the rolling process, the internal unfolded part needs to be smoothed first.
This is indeed a time-consuming process.
Also, when tying the bundle at the end, you need to use a lot of force and tie it tightly with string. Otherwise, during the subsequent stewing and braising process, if it falls apart, it will become a pot of broth, and it will no longer be pork elbow.
Feng Yifan was also very quick. He used a knife to level the internal surface, then wrapped it with gauze and rolled it up.
"Pay attention, when wrapping the gauze, you cannot wrap the cloth inside the flesh. It must be wrapped like this. The gauze is just an auxiliary to facilitate rolling up and shaping. It must be rolled tightly so that it can be formed. Do you see?"
After Feng Yifan rolled it up and tied it tightly with a string, he handed the elbow to his father-in-law beside him.
Next, it is Su Jinrong’s performance time.
The old man had already prepared the Su Zao soup. The whole soup looked very white, with almost no color visible. Then the old man put the rolled pork elbow into it and started to stew it.
Looking at the white soup, Catherine, Hans, Tom and Luo Yu were all a little curious.
Luo Yu couldn't help but whisper to Chen Xu who was busy beside him: "What kind of soup is that? Is that how you cook the pork elbow?"
Chen Xu whispered, "No, the soup looks very clear, but it is actually a stewed soup. It's called white stew, which means it doesn't contain any soy sauce or anything like that that would color it. It's simply stewed with spices."
Luo Yu couldn't help but feel curious: "Is there any other way to braise it?"
Chen Xu nodded: "Of course, the white brine is to maintain the original color of the dish, which can make it easier to plate the dish and make it more beautiful, especially when used on pork elbow rolls. When it comes out, you will see that the pork elbow rolls are pink, which is very beautiful."
After Feng Yifan demonstrated three, he handed the rest to Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong and Ning Cheng to complete.
The three of them were very serious. Although the speed was not fast at the beginning, they tried their best to ensure that there were no mistakes.
Su Jinrong would occasionally give some pointers so that the three of them could get familiar with the situation as quickly as possible.
After handing over the task of rolling the pork elbow to his apprentice, Feng Yifan continued to process various ingredients with his senior sister and three senior brothers.
Among these, some of the noodle toppings need to be prepared in advance.
There are also some things that are needed for the evening banquet.
Another more important part is making and hanging the soup.
Fortunately, Shi Jinbin's three apprentices have followed their master in the Red Maple Hotel for many years, and they are quite skilled in making and hanging soups.
Therefore, if one of the senior brothers is responsible for this aspect, there won’t be too many problems.
In the process of division of labor and cooperation among Feng Yifan and his team, Catherine, Hans and Tom seemed a little bit redundant.
Fortunately, Feng Yifan quickly assigned them a task and asked the three of them to go next door to prepare the ingredients for the restaurant in the evening.
As a result, everyone in the kitchen is very busy.
As for the front of the two restaurants, after Su Liancheng and Fang Lin arrived, Su Ruoxi took over the command and asked the waiters to start making some arrangements.
Su Ji also has to ensure that the tables and chairs are neatly arranged. Although they don't need to be completely neat like a restaurant, they still have to be placed neatly and leave enough space for guests to walk around and enter and exit conveniently.
Therefore, when placing the table, Su Ruoxi also made very careful plans.
I even walked back and forth several times to test whether it was suitable and convenient to move around.
Of course, this is also thanks to the fact that Su Ji has enough space.
So even with so many tables placed there, the space is still relatively stable.
Su Ji uses only solid wood tables and chairs, so there is no need for tablecloths like the Ruo restaurant next door. However, Su Ruoxi still customized some wooden vases in advance and ordered a batch of fresh flowers, which were placed in the vases on each table.
Similarly, next to the vase, at a little distance, chopstick cages and some seasonings will be placed.
During the placement process, Su Ruoxi instructed very seriously: "This placement must be spaced a little apart. The flowers cannot be lowered so that they touch the chopstick cage. If that happens, the chopsticks will also become dirty."
After instructing on how to set up the table, Su Ruoxi added, “By the way, after the diners finish eating and leave, you must come and clean up immediately. Remember to wipe the table clean. Don’t leave any greasy stains that will affect the diners behind.
Especially here on the side of the table, you must wipe it carefully, and don't let diners sit down, their clothes will touch here and get grease stains."
The waiters also nodded and agreed very seriously.
Su Liancheng watched from the side and couldn't help but smiled and said, "Okay, now Ruoxi, you are becoming more and more like the boss lady, and you can take all these things into consideration."
Su Ruoxi said a little embarrassedly: "No, I can't go to the kitchen to help, so I just want to decorate the front so that guests will feel very comfortable eating at Su Ji. This way everyone will have a better impression of Su Ji."
Su Liancheng smiled and said, "Actually, you are a little nervous. The guests who come to Su Ji are definitely coming for your husband. As long as your husband's cooking is good, they won't care much about the environment."
Su Ruoxi immediately said, "That's not the case. A good dining environment will also make guests happy, so we must make sure the restaurant environment is good enough. Although this place can't be like Ruo Restaurant, it must be kept clean and tidy."
Su Liancheng nodded: "You're right, I didn't pay attention."
Su Liancheng clapped his hands, asked the waiters to look at him, and then said very seriously: "Okay, everyone should cheer up and do what our boss lady asks. Don't think that Su Ji is not a restaurant and you can slack off."
Su Ruoxi also said: "Since everyone is here to apply, I think everyone should have a passion to run a good restaurant, so please take it seriously. We are open for business and we must serve every customer. We must try our best to satisfy the customers within a reasonable range."
After hearing Su Ruoxi's words, everyone, including Su Liancheng, responded in unison: "Yes, Madam Boss."
At the same time, applause broke out in the kitchen.
Su Ruoxi looked over and saw that it was her husband who led everyone in applauding.
Receiving encouragement from her husband, Su Ruoxi gained more confidence.
Then, Feng Ruoruo ran out from the kitchen and handed a small flower carved from radish to her mother.
"Mom, this is a gift from Dad."
Su Ruoxi reached out to take the flower, and looked at her husband in the kitchen again, with a happy smile on her face.
Next, Su Ruoxi seemed to have gained strength and began to manage the restaurant very seriously.
Soon everyone discovered that Su Ruoxi did have her own unique contributions in personnel allocation and restaurant layout. It really saved everyone's effort while enabling them to complete various tasks well. The restaurant was also decorated very well.
Although everyone knows that many arrangements will be disrupted after the restaurant opens for business.
However, the restaurant still needs to be carefully decorated to let diners see the sincerity.
One morning, everyone was busy trying their best.
Finally, it was past ten o'clock. Although Su Ji had not opened yet, I could vaguely hear the noise outside through the door.
On the ancient street just across the gate, people from all over the country who came to visit during the National Day holiday have already gathered on the ancient street. Some are taking pictures in front of the door, while others are talking in front of the door, all of them looking forward to the moment when Su Ji opens.
When Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei's families arrived at the entrance of the ancient street, they saw the crowds of people on the street. They knew that there were too many people today, so they walked together into the alley behind.
As a result, because the alley behind the shop was being renovated, no one was sure which door it was.
As the group walked and searched, they felt that every door seemed to be very similar.
After searching for a long time without finding her, Yang Xiaoxi finally couldn't help but pull Chen Yaofei and shout.
"Ruoruo, Father Feng, we are here, Xixi and Feifei are here, where are you?"
The two little girls shouted twice, but no one in the alley opened the door and no one responded, which made the little girls feel a little lost.
But at this moment, a door in front opened and Feng Ruoruo poked her little head out.
"Come quickly, Xixi, Feifei, come quickly, here."
Finally finding the door, Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei quickly ran over and hugged Feng Ruoruo.
The group entered Su Ji's kitchen from the back and were a little surprised to see everyone busy in the kitchen.
However, Feng Yifan still took the time to make some arrangements and asked everyone to go to the front and prepare for Su Ji's opening.
As 11 o'clock approached, the ancient street was really full of people.
The ancient street, which was originally quite spacious after renovation, began to become crowded because there were too many people.
Finally, under everyone's expectant gaze, Su Ji's door was opened from the inside.