After washing the dishes, Lu Cuiling walked out of the kitchen and looked at the watch. Seeing that it was almost four o'clock, she immediately said excitedly: "Oh, let's go quickly and pick up our little baby Ruoruo from the kindergarten."
Feng Yifan smiled and said to his wife, "Since my parents are here today, you can take them to pick up Ruoruo. I'll stay with Dad in the store."
Su Ruoxi hesitated for a moment after hearing this, but before she could say anything, she was pulled along by her mother-in-law.
Lu Cuiling took her daughter-in-law and said, "Okay, let's do as Yifan said. Let's go pick up baby Ruoruo. I really miss our baby Ruoruo."
Su Ruoxi thought for a moment and asked her husband, "Is it okay for just you and Dad?"
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "Why not? At most I can close the door a little and push Dad to the kitchen. Dad can still give me some guidance."
When Lu Cuiling heard her son say that he wanted his father-in-law to go to the kitchen to give guidance, she remembered that her daughter-in-law and aunt were coming to dinner.
"Oh, son, Su Lanxin said she's coming to dinner. Are you really going to entertain her? I think she'll definitely make things difficult for you. Are you sure you're okay?"
Feng Yifan said confidently: "No problem, let her come. If she is really trying to make things difficult for me, I won't serve her."
Hearing her son's words, Lu Cuiling smiled and nodded: "Yes, I like this. If you deliberately make things difficult for her, you won't serve her. You don't rely on Su Lanxin to order meals to make a living. Mom will help you drive her out."
Feng Yifan had experienced his mother's toughness in both his past and present lives, so it would be more than enough for him to let his mother deal with Su Lanxin.
"Thank you, mom. Your son will not embarrass you."
Lu Cuiling finally nodded with satisfaction, then glanced at the clock again and hurriedly urged her daughter-in-law and husband to go out: "Oh, let's go quickly, our little baby is about to finish school."
Su Jinrong, who was in a wheelchair, watched his daughter and her in-laws leave together, and did not forget to shout, "Be careful."
After Feng Yifan's parents and wife left, he thought for a while and came to his father-in-law and talked to him very seriously.
"Dad, my aunt came here this time, she must have intended to test my ability. I have been abroad for these years, and I have not given up on our family's things. I am also confident about those famous dishes, but there is one thing I am not so sure about."
Su Jinrong looked at his son-in-law with a serious expression and asked in a deep voice, "What?"
Feng Yifan answered truthfully: "Our most representative dish is 'Wensi Tofu'."
Su Jinrong asked seriously: "Yes, how much?"
The reason why Feng Yifan was unsure about Wensi Tofu was not because he had stayed abroad for a long time, but because the dish itself was special and could not be made in a short time by rebirth.
The focus of Wensi tofu is not only on the preparation of the soup, nor is it just on the amazing knife skills.
The key is that Wensi tofu requires a special knife skill to cut the tofu, otherwise it is impossible to cut the tender tofu as thin as a cow hair.
That kind of special knife skills cannot be achieved by memory alone. It requires a relatively long period of training and the development of muscle memory before one can truly use it with ease.
Feng Yifan, who had not cut it himself for many years in his previous life, would not be able to do it in a short period of time even if he knew the key points and techniques.
Su Jinrong looked at his son-in-law. He thought that his son-in-law had been abroad for five years and probably had not practiced the knife skills of Wensi Tofu in five years. So he could understand his son-in-law's concerns about this dish.
Su Jinrong hesitated for a moment and asked, "Are you sure she knows how to do it?"
Feng Yifan said confidently: "Yes, given my aunt's personality, if she said she was coming to eat, it would definitely not be as simple as eating. My aunt is very clear that when testing the dishes of Su Ji's chef, there must be a dish called 'Wensi Tofu'."
Su Jinrong also understood that what his son-in-law said was right. Before he had a stroke, his sister also ordered this dish when she brought people to his house for the first time.
That time, Su Jinrong lost, which led to his stroke due to anger.
But Su Jinrong didn't lose that time because of his knife skills. With his years of experience in knife skills, the chef brought by Su Lanxin was not good enough to beat him in knife skills. The loss that time was due to the seasoning of the soup.
Many people know Wensi Tofu, and most of them are amazed at the knife skills used to cut the tofu into thin strips.
Even in some large restaurants, shredding tofu is used for performance.
But in fact, Wensi Tofu is a soup dish, so as a dish, its most outstanding feature should be the taste of the soup, which is perfectly blended with shredded tofu, shredded mushrooms, and shredded green vegetables.
The focus of good Wensi tofu is not on the tofu shreds that look like an ink painting, but on the complementary flavors of the entire dish.
The artistic conception expressed by the "color, shape and meaning" of a dish is indeed important, but if a dish does not have "fragrance" and "taste", then it cannot be called a dish.
So showing off your cooking skills may attract attention, but if you really want to retain your customers, you still have to go back to the “taste”.
Su Jinrong lost before because he was too focused on showing off his skills and ignored the harmony and balance of taste.
Therefore, although Su Jinrong was angry at his sister's words, he also hated himself for not being able to truly inherit the essence of his father's Su's cuisine.
Although Su Jinrong has relaxed his mood these days, it does not mean that he will give up easily, completely forgive his sister, or even hand over the old plaque to her.
On the contrary, in Su Jinrong's heart, he was even more determined to protect the old plaque of Su's.
Thinking of this, Su Jinrong thought carefully and said: "When the form and meaning are achieved, the taste comes first."
When Feng Yifan heard what his father-in-law said, he didn't quite understand at first, but after thinking about it carefully, he slowly understood what his father-in-law meant.
The form and meaning just need to be achieved.
What's more important is the taste.
After figuring this out, Feng Yifan bent down and said to his father-in-law with a smile, "Dad, how about we go in? I'll make the soup, and you can help me taste it?"
Su Jinrong looked at his son-in-law, a smile appeared in his eyes and he nodded in approval.
Feng Yifan closed the second door of the restaurant and hung a sign saying "temporarily closed" at the door. He did not specifically lock the door, but just asked some people next door to help watch the door.
Then he returned to the restaurant and pushed his father-in-law into the kitchen, took out all the seasonings, and prepared several kinds of broth.
Then, under the witness of his father-in-law, Feng Yifan tried again and again to prepare the soup in order to make it taste excellent.
I mixed it again and again, and tried the flavors with my father-in-law again and again.
At this moment, the father-in-law and son-in-law almost fell into a kind of madness, a crazy pursuit of the ultimate taste, trying again and again, just to find the balance point of that taste.
It's not extremely delicious, nor is it an exceptionally prominent flavor.
It should be a kind of freshness that comes out in the smoothness, a kind of beauty that can be presented in the simplicity.
Only a soup prepared in this way can complement the most simple tofu shreds, and together compose a piece of music on the tip of the tongue with excellent "color, fragrance, taste, meaning and shape", allowing people to return to the taste of the dish itself, rather than simply appreciating the gorgeous knife skills.