Chapter 361 – True Disciple
The ceramic pot of Buddha jumps over the wall not only conquered Princess Consort Jing’s stomach but also conquered over the two head chef’s hearts. Out of the two head chefs at Prince Jing’s estate, one of them was born in the famous Jiang Family. They were from Jiangnan and, in history, had produced eight extremely famous chefs. Their family’s recipes and techniques were only passed to their descendants, and only to those born of the legitimate wife.
During the chaos of war, Prince Jing once saved the patriarch of the Jiang Family. In order to heal his wife’s body, Prince Jing personally went to the Jiang Family to ask them for a chef. At that time, the Jiang Family sent over the chef that was second only to the patriarch to Prince Jing’s estate in order to repay their debt.
The other chef was the chef who was the best at cooking medicinal cuisine in the palace, Imperial Chef Huang. He had previously cooked food for the emperor emeritus. Before the emperor emeritus retired, he had heard that Princess Consort Jing had a weak constitution and required a lot of nursing back to health. Thus, he sent Imperial Chef Huang to Prince Jing’s estate to have him especially prepare medicinal cuisines for her. It could be said that without Imperial Chef Huang there, Princess Consort Jing’s battered body might not have lasted and she wouldn’t have been able to meet Yu Xiaocao. Her soul might have left this earth long ago!
These two illustrious chefs, one world-renowned, and the other an imperial chef, had unexpectedly been conquered by the cooking of a ten to eleven year old little girl. If this came out, no one would believe it.
At this moment, Yu Xiaocao was not aware of any of this. She was currently in the middle of writing and editing the recipe for Buddha jumps over the wall in preparation to sell it at a very high price to Third Young Master Zhou! The popularity of Zhenxiu Restaurant’s fruit-scented roasted duck had gradually declined, so it was time to push out a whole new dish! ‘Buddha jumps over the wall’ was the perfect dish to send out next.
Why was she going to sell it at a high price to Zhenxiu Restaurant? All of the ingredients used in the dish were top-notch delicacies and were quite expensive. Thus, this dish had to be marketed to customers that had deep pockets and a willingness to spend money. Not only could Zhenxiu Restaurant make a pretty penny of this, but they could also boost their own reputation and make connections with wealthy and powerful people. It was a win-win from every side. No matter how high the price, it would be worth it!
The second day after Buddha jumps over the wall came out, Royal Prince Yang had reserved a private room at Zhenxiu Restaurant to celebrate Little Shitou passing the county-level imperial exams. They not only invited Rongxuan Academy’s Headmaster Yuan but they also sent out invitations to all of the teachers in Little Shitou’s grade. County Magistrate Zhao had also somehow found out that this was going on and shamelessly invited himself in and brought along a very generous gift. Other than the star of the day, Little Shitou, the Yu Family also had Yu Hai and Yu Xiaocao there.
At first, it was with great difficulty that they finally convinced Old Yu to come, but when he got to Zhenxiu Restaurant and found out the headmaster and county magistrate were there, he became frightened and refused to go. He had never interacted before with prestigious personages in his whole life, so he hid in the residence the Yu Family had in town and could not be convinced by anyone to do otherwise. This little episode was only known by the Yu Family and no one else.
Little Shitou had felt a bit embarrassed by all of this. Originally, this was supposed to be a celebration for the whole family, so how did it become filled with a bunch of unrelated people? He acted like a tiny adult and politely said, “I only passed the county-level imperial exams and didn’t even get first place. There’s nothing worth celebrating!”
