8:00 PM, in the Seventh Dining Hall kitchen.

The chefs and part-time students had a slightly late dinner and cleaned up the kitchen and dining area before going their separate ways, leaving only Jiang Yu and Lu Shuwu still busy preparing for tomorrow's breakfast.

Recently, Hu Zhihai had been diving into the library again, only returning for meals. He was striving hard for the graduate entrance exam in a few months.

"Are we making beef fried rice noodles for breakfast tomorrow?"

Lu Shuwu, standing by the counter, was slicing lotus root with a "thud thud thud" sound, and said,

"I noticed the students love it. A big tray of fried rice noodles would sell out in no time."

He couldn't stop thinking about the beef fried rice noodles because they were just too delicious.

The rice noodles were soft, glutinous, and bouncy, leaving aside their fragrant and spicy taste, and the beef was tender and flavorful. Even as sweat poured down his body, he was reluctant to put it down.

Unfortunately, each person only got a small plate, and just as you started enjoying it, the plate was empty.

This makes it quite upsetting!

It's like watching an intriguing movie, and just as you're getting into it, the power goes out. Who can stand that?

So, the whole day, Lu Shuwu was a bit restless, constantly longing to try it again.

"Beef fried noodles?"

Jiang Yu was also busy trimming the claws off duck feet, preparing them for stewing later. He paused at Lu Shuwu's words and then realized, laughing,

"What, didn't you get enough in the morning?"

"Just that small plate, gone in a few bites. How could it be enough?"

"Alright, we'll make some more tomorrow."

Jiang Yu nodded and laughed.

It's not a big deal; he just wants to eat beef fried noodles, right?

No problem!

The two of them worked busily until after 10 PM before taking a break. Jiang Yu and Lu Shuwu had gotten used to sleeping on the second floor of the dining hall.

It's much closer than the dorm or Hu Zhihai's place, and they could sleep a little longer in the morning, as it's just a quick walk down to the kitchen.

After showering, Jiang Yu returned to his room to lie down, subconsciously preparing to summon the virtual panel of the Gourmet System.

Since the system function panel indicated an upgrade last time, it hasn't responded. His attempts to activate the virtual panel had been fruitless.

This made Jiang Yu a bit anxious, fearing that the system might have abandoned him, using "upgrading" as an excuse to disappear.

If that's the case, he might be the first male protagonist ever abandoned by a system since their creation...

If other system users knew about this, they might literally die laughing!

So, nearly every night before sleeping, Jiang Yu tried calling the system and attempting to activate the virtual panel.

But for so long, the system never responded, and the virtual panel showed no sign of existence whatsoever.

Originally, he thought there wouldn't be any response from the system this time either, but to his surprise, the virtual panel appeared with a "swish"!

Jiang Yu felt a surge of excitement; it seemed the system function panel had finally upgraded successfully!

The only question was what new features would be added to the function panel this time?

Taking a deep breath, he focused and looked closely.

Wealth Value: 0

Current Recipes: Chicken Soup Dumplings, Appetizing Sour and Spicy Soup, Sichuan Mouth-Watering Chicken, Chopped Chili Fish Head, Taro and Fermented Black Bean Steamed Ribs, Preserved Vegetable Pork...

Cooking Skill Level+: Advanced (26%)

"???"

After looking it over three times, Jiang Yu couldn't help but have three question marks slowly appear above his head.

After all that effort and over half a month of struggling to upgrade, this is it???

The same three items: Wealth Value, Current Recipes, and Cooking Skill Level, without any change!

Even more infuriating, he indeed cleared his Wealth Value before upgrading, but what about the Wealth Value accumulated during the upgrade?

Gone, just like that?

Darn!

After calming down a bit, Jiang Yu felt something was off and eyed the system panel again. This time he noticed something different: there was a small, inconspicuous "+" behind the Cooking Skill Level.

What does this mean?

He extended his finger and tried to tap the "+", and his view transformed. The Cooking Skill Level section expanded instantly, revealing a list of subcategories:

Knife Skills: Advanced (27%)

Ingredient Feeding Technique: Advanced (12%)

Battering and Coating: Intermediate (46%)

Heat Control: Advanced (32%)

Thickening Sauce: Intermediate (74%)

Flavoring Technique: Advanced (41%)

Flipping and Plating: Intermediate (39%)

Spot Raw Material Processing: Intermediate (84%)

Looking at this row of culinary techniques, Jiang Yu was a bit dumbfounded.

This upgrade resulted in something like this?

...

Early the next morning, around four o'clock, when Jiang Yu woke up, his mind was still a bit fuzzy.

He habitually got out of bed, dressed, and went to the bathroom to relieve himself before starting to wash up and brush his teeth.

Only after splashing his face with cold water did his consciousness gradually clear up.

Last night, he had studied the newly upgraded system interface for a long time before finally understanding the meaning of those subsections that appeared under "Culinary Level."

Those subsections, such as knife skills, ingredient feeding technique, marinating and batter application, are the eight basic skills that a chef must master.

Although Jiang Yu's overall culinary level has reached an advanced level, it doesn't mean that every basic skill he possesses is at an advanced level.

For instance, considering marinating and batter application, thickening sauce, flipping and plating, as shown on the upgraded function panel, they are only at an "intermediate" level.

After thinking it over, Jiang Yu could understand, because he rarely used marinating and batter application or thickening sauce in actual cooking. In the kitchen, most of the dishes were quick stir-fries, and he hardly ever cooked dishes requiring these techniques.

With such dishes being rarely made, it's only natural that the skill level wouldn't improve quickly.

In contrast, Jiang Yu has made slightly more dishes requiring thickening sauce, such as the hot and sour soup he made while running a shop at the second canteen, and the "Sister Song's Fish Soup" for Liu Shurong and her son, which both used thickening sauce in fact.

As for dishes using marinating and batter application, they generally require deep frying. So far, Jiang Yu seemed to have only made one, which was "Longjing Shrimp."

It was precisely because he made a bit more of them that the thickening sauce, although still at the intermediate level, had its progress bar reaching 74%, much higher than the 46% for marinating and batter application.

As for flipping and plating...

In the canteen's big pot cooking, how do you flip the ladle with a dish weighing several dozen pounds? No matter how strong you are, you can't flip it, you have to scoop it.

Besides not being able to flip, for the big casseroles contained in the stainless steel trays, there's no plating involved.

So, Jiang Yu's skill in flipping and plating isn't that high either.

After the interface upgrade, Jiang Yu could clearly see all his shortcomings in culinary skills. The progress of a chef requires a relatively high standard in all aspects, let alone these eight skills are just the basics.

Therefore, if he wants to take his culinary skills to the next level, he still has to keep working hard!

Having understood these, Jiang Yu took a deep breath, wrung out the towel, hung it up, and went out of the bathroom, went downstairs, and returned to the kitchen to continue working.

Improving culinary skills can't be rushed; it must be done slowly. But the canteen's breakfast needs to be prepared quickly.

...

The older one gets, the less sleep one needs.

This was the case for Jia Dequan: after dinner, he took a walk, then went back to take a bath and watch TV. He went to bed before nine-thirty, and when he woke up, it was just before dawn.

Lying there longer would make him uncomfortable and unable to sleep, so Jia Dequan simply got up, washed up, and went for a stroll around Jiangzhou University's campus.

Last night after going back, he kept thinking about one question:

What method can he use to both try new dishes and avoid competing with those students in line?

He thought about it until he was almost asleep when he found a good solution:

At home, his young grandson often said something like, "If you can't beat them, join them." Although he didn't understand what it meant, it didn't stop him from using it.

If he couldn't beat them in grabbing food, he'd become the one serving it!

Now that he wants to try new dishes without competing with students, why not become "one of the kitchen staff"?

Once he becomes "one of the kitchen staff," there's no need to grab anything, right?

He could eat whatever he wanted, as much as he wanted!

Thinking about it made Jia Dequan so excited he almost couldn't sleep.

He wasn't worried about being refused "joining" at all. With his skills, let alone a school canteen, if he spread the word that he plans to "return to the kitchen," famous restaurant owners would rush to hire him with high salaries...

By the time he walked around to the Seventh Dining Hall, the sky was already bright, and not many people were in line.

Unable to help but smile smugly, Jia Dequan thought, these kids don't wake up early like I do, huh? Why, are they sleeping in?

We elderly folks don't have any special skills, just don't sleep much!

As time passed, more students lined up, and the originally quiet Seventh Dining Hall became bustling again.

At seven o'clock, the canteen officially opened for business.

Jia Dequan didn't eat much in the morning. He ordered a basket of the "famous among students" soup dumplings, and a bowl of century egg and lean meat congee, then sat in a corner to eat slowly.

Picking up a fragrant soup dumpling with his chopsticks, he brought it to his mouth and gently bit a hole before sucking hard...

Jia Dequan was suddenly shocked, froze for a while before reacting, and then started eating in big bites.

At that moment, he was more determined than ever that he wanted to join the Seventh Dining Hall and become "one of the kitchen staff!"

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