Su Wei spoke at a steady pace, enunciated clearly, and his eyes radiated confidence.
Pierre suddenly turned around, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and stood in front of Su Wei, his eyes filled with suspicion.
"Give up slow cooking? Did you freeze your brain in the Alaska snow?"
"That's a bear paw. Without using red wine to remove the fishy smell, without using a long, cold time to soften its keratin, are you planning to let Mr. Charles chew on a car tire?"
Pierre's voice was sharp and piercing.
"Open-flame charcoal grilling? Mr. Yang, please get this straight, this is a fine French restaurant, not a roadside barbecue stall grilling meat over wire mesh. As the sous chef, I disagree with this practice that undermines the logic of French cuisine."
Faced with Pierre's questioning and contempt, Su Wei didn't even spare him a glance.
He simply stepped aside to walk past Pierre and strode towards the refrigerated display case against the wall.
Pulling open the glass door, Su Wei reached in with one hand and grabbed a piece of bear rib meat weighing fifty pounds, complete with thick bones.
His forearm muscles tensed instantly, and with the strength of one hand, he lifted the entire piece of meat out.
He turned and walked back to the main work surface, slamming the piece of meat heavily onto the plastic cutting board.
"Bang."
A muffled thud made the cutting board tremble.
All the apprentices in the kitchen were startled and stopped what they were doing, staring blankly at the scene.
Su Wei remained expressionless and reached behind him to touch his lower back.
With a soft "clang," the Alaska Harpoon Survival Knife was swiftly drawn from its sheath.
[ Bone Cleaning LV2 ] Fully activated.
[ Touch of X-Ray Vision activated: Periosteum position locked, fascia attachment points highlighted.]
In Su Wei's retina, countless pale golden auxiliary lines appeared on the surface of that huge piece of bear meat.
Su Wei gripped the hilt of the knife tightly, his eyes sharpening. The tip of the knife pierced vertically into the crevice of the first rib at a tricky angle.
Su Wei simply flipped his wrist slightly, and the blade, like a swimming fish, smoothly and firmly advanced downwards along the curve of his bones.
"Sizzle"
The tough fascia was cleanly and decisively severed, and the sound was clearly audible.
Immediately afterwards, a whole, thick rib with a perfect layer of meat was peeled off.
Su Wei's movements did not stop. The sharp blade moved quickly through the huge chunks of meat, and the "crackling" sound of dislocated joints rang out one after another.
In less than a minute.
The massive chunk of beast meat, weighing fifty pounds, was perfectly dissected.
Twelve thick bear ribs were neatly arranged on the left side of the cutting board.
The remaining pure pieces of meat had smooth, mirror-like edges, without a single scrap of meat left.
Pierre's hands, which had been crossed over his chest, had fallen limply to his sides at some point.
His cheek muscles twitched violently, his eyes were filled with disbelief, and his body even involuntarily took half a step back.
The apprentices beside them stared wide-eyed at the bones on the chopping board, forgetting even to breathe.
Laurent stood to the side, looking at the neatly sliced piece of meat, and let out a sigh of relief, a hint of admiration flashing in his eyes.
He thought of the A Song of Ice and Fire he had eaten last time, even though it was a simple recipe.
Yet, it gave me a very unusual feeling.
Since we have trusted Su Wei, we should try to put it into practice.
Charles is important; it's worth taking the gamble.
Of course, this is assuming that Su Wei's actions were truly without fault.
He would make several backup plans before serving it.
Only after a taste test to confirm there are no problems will the food be served.
Do as he says.
Laurent abruptly turned to look at Pierre, whose face was deathly pale, his voice rising sharply with the authority of a head chef.
"Everyone, from now on, all operations in the kitchen will be under Su Wei's command."
Su Wei casually placed the hunting knife on the edge of the sink to rinse away the blood, then turned around and gave the first order.
" Pierre, go to the storeroom in the backyard and get thirty pounds of applewood charcoal. Light the preheated charcoal grill immediately."
Pierre gritted his teeth, this time not daring to say "no," and slunk away towards the back door passage.
Su Wei pointed to the young apprentice who was still in a daze on the left.
"Go get the largest 60-liter commercial pressure cooker, fill it halfway with cold water, and turn it on high heat."
Then he pointed to another apprentice on his right.
"You, chop twenty pounds of onions and ten pounds of carrots. Listen carefully, chop them into rough, five-centimeter square pieces. I don't need French-style shredding."
The apprentices immediately dispersed and began their work as instructed.
Laurent glanced at the ticking clock on the wall, his eyes still showing a hint of worry.
" Su Wei, this is too risky. If the heat isn't controlled properly when grilling over an open flame, the natural gamey smell of the bear meat will ruin everything."
Laurent spoke as he walked to his kitchen counter.
He crouched down, opened the cabinet below, and carefully took out two pieces of top-grade Japanese A5 Wagyu beef with perfect snowflake patterns.
Then, a Brittany blue lobster that was still waving its pincers was taken out of the ice bucket.
"As the head chef, I will also prepare a backup French menu."
Laurent took his custom-made willow blade, his expression serious.
"If there's anything wrong with your food, I have to make sure the Chart Room's sign isn't smashed."
"Also, just in case, the red wine braised bear paw will still proceed, and we'll prepare two, no, three plans!"
"There's plenty of bear meat, we can't waste it, right?"
"Also, I hope there won't be any problems with your dishes later. We'll do a tasting to decide how to serve them."
Su Wei glanced at the Wagyu beef and nodded noncommittally.
"A very reasonable preparation. But you'll most likely never need this backup menu."
After saying that, Su Wei picked up a slice of bear steak and walked towards the hot iron plate that was being preheated.
On the stove to the left of the kitchen, a 60-liter commercial pressure cooker had already been placed.
Su Wei walked over and grabbed the bear bones that had just been removed from the cutting board.
He reversed the blade and struck the knife several times with a series of loud bangs, the sound of bones cracking echoing in the kitchen.
He threw all the broken bones, exposing the marrow, into the pot, turned on the tap to fill it with cold water, and turned on the gas stove.
Blue flames licked the bottom of the pot, and the water temperature began to rise rapidly.
A few minutes later, the water surface began to churn violently.
A large amount of grayish-brown foam, smelling of wild animal blood, surged out and covered the entire surface of the water.
Su Wei took a large stainless steel strainer and slid it steadily across the water's surface, skimming away the foam layer by layer.
He skimmed the water five times until only clear, boiling water remained on the surface.
Then, without hesitation, he picked up the pressure cooker with both hands and poured the entire pot of water, along with the remaining dirt, into the sink to flush it away.
He put the pot back on the stove and this time filled it with purified water from the restaurant.
Turning around, Su Wei walked to the work surface where the canvas bags were placed and unzipped them.
In an instant, a chilling Alaska wilderness scent emanated from the bag.
It was a rich, fresh scent of pine resin, mixed with the heavy, woody aroma of aged wood, which directly cut off the greasy feeling of butter in the kitchen air.
Su Wei reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of unremarkable, dark brown pieces of birch polypore.
Then, he pulled out a few more fresh green spruce needles, still covered in ice crystals.
Finally, there was a bunch of shriveled, purplish-black wild polar blackberries.
Pierre had just poured a basket of glowing apple charcoal into the oven, turned around and saw this scene, and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise again.
"Good heavens. You put leaves and wild berries in the soup? Are you crazy? That's broth, not witch's herbs."
Su Wei still ignored Pierre's questioning.
He methodically packed all the materials in his hand into a white non-woven fabric bag, tightened the drawstring, and threw the bag directly into the pressure cooker filled with boiling purified water with a "plop".
" Pierre, watch carefully."
Su Wei turned his head and looked intently at Laurent, who was standing to the side.
"Birch polypore provides a rich, woody base flavor, replacing the traditional beef bone broth in French cuisine. Meanwhile, the essential oils from spruce needles evaporate at high temperatures, giving this hot soup a cool, icy feel."
Su Wei casually picked up the spice box from the worktable.