189: Wensi Tofu

The few people in the front hall looked at each other, their expressions a bit strange.

"Did you notice? After he looked at the menu, the corners of his mouth actually curved up slightly?"

"I saw it, I saw it! That expression is so awesome! It's the smile of a strong person~"

"Could it be that he really wasn't lying, and his cooking skills are truly exceptional?!"

"Damn it! If he has such good cooking skills, why is he still staying in this lousy place?!"

"I'm already looking forward to the finished dishes!"

A Zhen looked at the few people chattering endlessly, his face full of speechlessness.

But when he looked towards the kitchen, he couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation.

The teppanyaki at noon was already so delicious; in his opinion, even a top master specializing in teppanyaki might not achieve that level.

However, according to what the boss said, he would make any dish a customer ordered, and it wouldn't be inferior to the teppanyaki in the slightest!

Originally, A Zhen didn't believe it, thinking it was impossible for such a versatile prodigy to exist in the world.

After all, the Eight Great Cuisines of China are all-encompassing; even a top master who has dedicated his life to culinary arts wouldn't dare to say he had fully mastered a certain cuisine.

And how old was this boss to dare to speak such big words?

But when he noticed that Lu Chuan, when he said, "If it's not delicious, it's on the house," exuded a powerful aura of absolute confidence in his own cooking skills.

This kind of genuine confidence was extremely contagious and immediately "convinced" A Zhen.

Inside the kitchen.

Lu Chuan closed his eyes and finished receiving the recipe for "Wensi Tofu" transmitted by the system.

Then he opened his eyes, and there were no longer any distracting thoughts in them.

He had, in fact, already activated the "Saint-like Buddha" state.

At this moment, in his mind, the various methods of making Wensi Tofu recorded in the recipe were constantly rotating and alternating, refining the essence.

After a short while, an ultimate version of the Pinduoduo recipe was fully formed.

"First, the main ingredient: silken tofu."

As soon as he finished speaking, a piece of tender, smooth, and bouncy tofu appeared out of thin air on the cutting board.

Lu Chuan's right hand swept past the knife rack beside him, and without even looking, he accurately grasped the handle of a slicing knife.

When his gaze fell on the silken tofu, his right hand twirled the knife, then made several quick slashes.

Amidst the flashing cold light, the entire block of tofu was trimmed into a perfectly square shape.

He then pressed his left index finger against the back of the knife, and with a focused look in his eyes, he quickly began to cut.

The knife rose and fell, cutting vertically.

The distance between each cut was only 2 millimeters, and each slice of tofu cut was uniformly thin, like a piece of paper, and would immediately shatter into crumbs with a little force.

This control over the force and distance of the cuts seemed very difficult, and in reality, it was not easy at all.

Without a cheat, even a talented chef would need years of diligent practice to develop the eyesight, experience, and technique, with all three combined, to possibly reach this level of knife skill.

Once the tofu was sliced, Lu Chuan began the process of shredding.

This step raised the requirements for knife skills even further.

First, he gently picked up the tofu slices and stacked them neatly, then used the knife at a 45° angle to the tofu to slice diagonally, ultimately forming fine threads of 0.1-0.5 millimeters.

The textual description isn't very intuitive.

But if someone were to enter the kitchen at this moment and witness Lu Chuan's subsequent operations firsthand, they would surely be deeply shocked by his incredibly skillful knife work.

A silver light seemed to appear on the cutting board, dancing lightly over the stacks of tofu slices.

As the silver light slowly moved across, the touched tofu slices successively "softened into crumbs."

Time passed by, and the silver light disappeared, transforming into a silver-white knife blade with water droplets clinging to it.

And the tofu slices on the cutting board had also become lumps of "mud piles" whose original shape was unrecognizable.

Lu Chuan wiped the knife clean and returned it to the knife rack.

Then he brought a basin of clear water and gently transferred the "mud piles" from the cutting board into the water.

The next moment, the "mud piles" were like a flower bud, slowly blooming underwater, countless fine threads forming the shape of a pure white, elegant flower.

Lu Chuan reached out and gently stirred the water, scooping out the scattered tofu crumbs floating on the surface.

Once these actions were completed, it signaled that the most difficult hurdle of Wensi Tofu had been overcome.

Lu Chuan, in his "Saint-like Buddha" state, remained expressionless, only hurrying to begin the next step of the process.

He took the dried shiitake mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, and wood ears that had already been rehydrated, sliced them with a cleaver, then stacked and cut them into fine shreds.

The ham was sliced by pushing and pulling the knife vertically, then pressed and cut into shreds to prevent breakage.

The green vegetable leaves were treated similarly to the wood ears, but with different details; they needed to be rolled up and cut into fine shreds, then blanched separately from the other ingredients mentioned above to set their color.

At this point, the shredding of the side ingredients was also complete.

After the knife work and preparation, came the making of the soup base, which was also the source of Wensi Tofu's freshness and aroma.

Lu Chuan walked to the old hen soup simmering over a high flame, scooped out a pot, transferred it to a new stove, and added minced chicken breast and stir-fried button mushrooms to continue simmering.

Ten minutes later, he skimmed off the oil and impurities, filtering it into a clear broth.

Then he added the shredded side ingredients to the clear broth, and also added salt, sugar, and chicken powder for seasoning.

After boiling over high heat, he began the thickening process.

Because the tofu shreds are particularly fine, a very thin starch slurry is needed, giving the soup itself a gelatinous feel, like pork skin, so that the finished product achieves the best texture.

After thickening, Lu Chuan added the tofu shreds, gently pushed them with the back of a spoon to separate them, and finally turned off the heat and added the shredded green vegetables.

The ingredients for Wensi Tofu are not worth much; its worldwide fame comes purely from the superb knife skills required to make this dish.

Simply put, it's the craftsmanship that is valuable.

Lu Chuan took out several blue and white porcelain bowls and portioned them out one by one.

Then he used chopsticks to stir in a clockwise circle, making the tofu shreds float in a spiral shape, and finally garnished the center with shredded green onions.

At this time, the dishes cooking on the other stoves were also coming out one after another, and after Lu Chuan simply arranged them on plates, he carried them out together.