Chapter 642 - Grand Opening
‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ had been a well-known dish before Medicinal Cuisine House had opened. It had even attracted many influential officials to book in advance. Of course, this was thanks to the unsparing promotions from the emperor emeritus, Great Scholar Yuan, and more.
The medicinal chef in charge of cooking the ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ was Yangliu herself, as well as one of her trusted subordinate maidservants. Yangliu was highly talented in cooking. Not long after she learned the technique of cooking ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’, she had received the approval of her master. Her trusted subordinate maidservant, Jinhuan, was slightly lacking in terms of heat control. However, after Medicinal Cuisine House opened, Jinhuan had progressed considerably and was soon able to work on her own!
‘The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House’ opened for business on the sixth day of June. Although it was the height of the summer season, the hot weather didn’t extinguish the nobles’ anticipation of the opening of Medicine Cuisine House. What’s more, all the tables for the first month of operation were long booked. Only ten servings of ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ were served each day, so the nobles were in a fierce competition for the sake of eating this dish!
On the first day of business, many high status ‘bigwigs’ in the capital had deigned to come to ‘The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House’ for the plaque unveiling ceremony. Two full tables were occupied by the emperor emeritus, Imperial Prince Duan, Imperial Prince Jing, Imperial Prince Sa, as well as their princess consorts, heirs, and daughters-in-laws. It had almost turned into a gathering of the imperial family. There were also Duke Rongguo, Marquis Dingyuan, Prime Minister, Assistant Minister Yu, and Minister Li of the Ministry of Ceremonies… They had also brought their families over for the celebration.
There were some people who came that seldom had contact with Yu Xiaocao, and she didn’t even recognize their faces. They were influential people who had come with presents to congratulate the opening of their restaurant, so she couldn’t just drive them away. In addition, there were also guests who normally interacted with Xiaocao and the Fang Family. There were more than thirty private rooms upstairs, and the rooms barely accommodated all the guests. Xiaocao seriously suspected that some people had come today just to try out the medicinal meals.
Alright! She immediately went to the back kitchen in person to cheer on the medicinal chefs, “Today’s guests are either rich or influential, and they are all potential customers of our Medicinal Cuisine House. Whether it can become an instant hit will depend on your performances! Don’t spoil ‘The Yu’s’ good reputation!”
Seeing that several of the introverted medicinal chefs looked slightly nervous, Xiaocao quickly pacified them, “Relax! No matter how powerful they are outside, they would only have one identity once they enter our restaurant——a customer! I have personally appraised each of your culinary skills, and many have already surpassed your teacher. As long as you continue to do things as normal, they will definitely be amazed!!”
Her words seemed to have successfully soothed the hearts of the medicinal chefs. Some of them were diehard fans of Yu Xiaocao, and they had become even more spirited. They were ready and eager to let their master see their skills and efforts. Their master had said that in the future, the medicinal cuisine restaurant would definitely open branch restaurants. Manager Yangliu had limited energy. The position of the branch manager was like a carrot hanging in front of a donkey. It stimulated the medicinal chefs with ambitious hearts to strive for the position.
Let’s put aside the position of the branch manager to talk about the employee treatment at the medicinal cuisine restaurant! In addition to a good base pay, all medicinal chefs also received a commission for each dish. In other words, whoever got the most orders and sold the most dishes would get the higher salary. This was enough motivation for them to constantly improve the medicinal dish that they specialized in and strive to make every meal perfect.
The grand opening of ‘The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House’ would be talked about enthusiastically for a long time. Not to mention the creative and novel performances at the opening ceremony, but just the important figures who came to celebrate the occasion had almost covered more than half of the imperial officials who were third-ranked and above.
Almost all the members of the imperial family had come. Even the emperor had personally written an inscription for Medicinal Cuisine House, which was hung in the main hall on the first floor. As soon as one entered the door, one would be able to see the emperor’s calligraphy! The eldest imperial prince, who had been bestowed the title of crown prince, also visited the medicinal cuisine restaurant. He tasted the medicinal meals and gave a high evaluation.
As Xiaocao had said, the honored guests who had come today immediately became loyal fans of Medicinal Cuisine House after tasting the delicious, fragrant, and visually appealing medicinal meals. Based on their past experiences with the other businesses under ‘The Yu’s’, these people decided to gain the advantage by striking first. Almost every household made reservations for medicinal meals.
After all, ‘The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House’ had limited space and couldn’t accommodate too many customers every day. In order to let more people taste the delicious and nourishing medicinal meals, the restaurant enabled takeaway service. If booked in advance, it could be picked up at the restaurant or delivered to one’s door. Delivery fee must be added to the order!
Medicinal Cuisine House had adopted the tiered membership system. Diamond card members and gold card members could enjoy the service of imperial physicians’ medical consultation and customized diet plans based on their pulse examination results. If there was no improvement in their health within one month, then a full refund would be given! As for the other members, they could also bring their pulse examination results over and let Medicinal Cuisine House develop a nourishment plan. However, a fee would be charged!
In actuality, on the wall of the main hall on the first floor of Medicinal Cuisine House, there was an introduction of all the medicinal meals, as well as their effects. In addition, each private room had a menu, which introduced the medicinal dishes with pictures and texts. For this menu alone, Xiaocao had put in a lot of effort and invited an renown painter in the capital to help out.
Great Scholar Yuan was the one who introduced this leading figure of the painting world to Xiaocao. As soon as Xiaocao made the request, this famous painter immediately pulled a long face. Had he not considered his old friend’s, Yuan Sinian, face, he would have driven her out a long time ago.
His paintings were hard to get even with money, yet she actually wanted him to draw menus. It was simply an insult to him! However, the reason this great master painter could become close friends with Yuan Sinian was that they shared a common hobby——eating delicious food!
In order to be able to paint good works, he had visited well-known mountains and rivers. He had also boasted about eating all the delicacies in the world. When he got together with Great Scholar Yuan, they often bragged about the delicacies that they had eaten, in an attempt to best the other party.
This great master painter seemed rather angry and resolute at the beginning, but Yuan Sinian had a calm smile on his face and only needed to say, “If you help with this request, you can eat ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ for free for one year!!”
The great master painter had heard of the dish ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ from his old friend many times. His old friend praised the dish to the skies, and the gluttonous bug inside him had long been hooked. On numerous occasions, he had regretted that he didn’t have any relationship with the Yu Family. But he couldn’t be thick-skinned like his old friend and bum meals off others. He had long been tempted by ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’, yearning to try it.
He could finally taste ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, and it was for free for an entire year!! Upon hearing this, the great master painter had set aside all of his initial persistence as a cultured individual and reservation as an artist.
‘The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House’ became a hot topic again, and this time it had nothing to do with the taste of the medicinal meals, the curative effects, and the services! It was because the thin menu in the private rooms of the restaurant were original works of Old Lin!! Many literati were extremely envious when they saw the menu. They seriously wanted to steal the menu and admire it on the walls of their studies every day…
The staff in charge of the private rooms of Medicinal Cuisine House had a heavy responsibility. In addition to serving the customers, they also had to prevent others from taking away their restaurant’s menu, or secretly tearing a page out…
In conclusion, ‘The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House’ was very popular in the capital! In the capital, anyone who didn’t know about The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House would be ridiculed as a country bumpkin!
The most common topic regarding Medicinal Cuisine House was the curative effects of the medicinal meals! Since they dared to promise a full refund if there were no effects within a month, they definitely had the confidence! For members with gold card membership and above, members who had bad health showed apparent improvement in their health after consuming Medicinal Cuisine House’s medicinal meals on a daily basis.
The grand tutor’s migraine, the insomnia of the matriarch of the Minister of Appointments’ household, and the qi-blood deficiency of the wife of the assistant official of Crown Prince Affairs…had all cured miraculously without any medication! After a month, The Yu’s arranged a consultation with an imperial physician. The proven facts became another advertisement for Medicinal Cuisine House.
The second topic was the taste of the medicinal meals. When most people heard ‘medicinal meals’, they would think about the smell of medicinal herbs. But that was wrong! If one didn’t say that the dishes served at ‘The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House’ were medicinal meals, one wouldn’t be able to detect the taste of medicine. None of the medicinal meals were inferior to the delicacies of Zhenxiu Restaurant. How could it not be popular when it can be eaten and nourish one’s health?
Of course, these medicinal meals weren’t affordable for everyone! The third topic of Medicinal Cuisine House was the astonishing price of each dish!! Even a dish that seemed to have ordinary ingredients cost two hundred taels. But they claimed to have added precious medicinal herbs that were over a hundred years old, and thus it really wasn’t that expensive! Without good medicinal herbs, how could the curative effects be so good?
‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ was the signature dish of the restaurant. In addition to medicinal herbs, it also contained many precious food ingredients. All kinds of valuable ingredients were collected in one jar, so it was even more expensive. A jar of ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ cost five hundred taels, yet there were still people rushing to get it. Only ten servings were offered daily, and they had all been booked for the next three months. Poverty had limited one’s imagination, so one could only sigh that there were too many people who didn’t lack money in the capital!
If others found out that the so-called precious hundred-years-old medicinal herbs were just a drop of the little divine stone’s bathing water, they would definitely scold Xiaocao for stealing money!
Every day, the medicinal chefs of Medicinal Cuisine House received a special ingredient——mystic-stone water. Xiaocao claimed that it was extracted from over a dozen precious medicinal herbs. One drop was added to ordinary medicinal dishes, while two drops were added for dishes like ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’. She also told the medicinal chefs about the principle of ‘too much was as bad as too little’ to prevent people from adding too much mystic-stone water. If the effects were too astonishing, it would be too eye-catching.
In fact, those people were right. This medicinal cuisine restaurant was just like picking up money off the ground for Xiaocao, and she was using a rake to get the money. According to an incomplete calculation, the daily turnover for ‘The Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House’ was equivalent to the monthly turnover for Zhenxiu Restaurant, which was also very popular.
Shortly after the medicinal cuisine restaurant opened, Third Young Master Zhou brought his wife—a fangirl of Yu Xiaocao—over for a visit. He deliberately complained to Xiaocao that she had robbed him of at least half of his business, and if this continued, Zhenxiu Restaurant would have to close down for good. Before he had finished speaking, Xiaocao tsked at his nonsense.