Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

Chapter 290 - 202: Supply Falling Short of Demand—Restocking in Front of Thousands

Cam really wanted to rush over to the line in the middle, but there were many others with the same idea.

After the two girl group members left with their agent, within three seconds, the middle line grew significantly longer, filled with people following the trend.

These foreigners had a simple thought; they didn’t care who these girl groups were or how famous they might be—as long as they knew they were internationally recognized celebrities.

Several stars chose to join the middle line first, surely there was insider information that the food at the middle stall was the tastiest!

Cam glanced at the endless line next to him, his mouth twitching, and could only silently abandon the idea of switching lines.

He was already halfway in line, abandoning it to join another long queue would take forever, and if they ran out of stock, it would be a pointless wait.

Better to grab something from this stall first as a backup.

Due to the crowd gathered in front of the stall, Lin Chen couldn’t figure out what was happening in the back, only hearing bursts of exclamations and then nothing more.

He didn’t pay much attention, assuming it was probably some famous girl group attracting fan cheers or something.

Compared to that, the current situation had become quite tricky.

Originally, he prepared thirty kilograms of chicken fillet, theoretically enough for six hundred small portions, and the challenge task required selling five hundred, so he put much effort into creating multiple flavor options, aiming to induce customers to buy small portions and thereby increase the order count.

Though he didn’t display it in the food truck, it didn’t affect the challenge task, because he also brought the truck over to use as storage and a refrigerator during preparations—a newly discovered approach during setup.

As long as the stall was within a certain range around the truck, the task calculation could proceed normally.

But the problem now is these diners have tremendous appetites!

Originally, he estimated each person would buy one hundred to one hundred and fifty grams for a taste, given so many other snacks available.

All three stalls combined offered a total of nine varieties, especially considering his takoyaki was a plus version, Chef Marchello’s meat sauce fries and taiyaki were filling items, and Nagishiro Sho’s beef potato croquettes couldn’t be underestimated in portion size either.

With so many hearty staple foods available, who knew these customers would buy five, six, seven, eight bags of chicken fillets each, and his chicken fillet stock was quickly disappearing.

At this rate, in less than ten minutes, the chicken fillets would be sold out, leaving only the slower-cooked takoyaki and Soka.

It would take over an hour before new supplies arrived, what should be done?

If he had known this kite festival would attract thousands of tourists, he would have prepared more.

In his frustration, he inadvertently glanced at Chef Marchello beside him and noticed his brows furrowed at some unknown point—clearly worrying about stock issues as well.

With only a few hours for stocking in the morning, limited stall space, and a refrigerator only so big, even when stuffed full, it couldn’t support so many people dining simultaneously.

Apparently sensing Lin Chen’s gaze, Marchello also looked up and exchanged a look of mutual concern—both bursting into a bitter smile.

"There are way too many tourists here, it feels less like a self-organized kite festival and more in competition with official events."

"Well," Lin Chen shrugged, "Maybe everyone’s here to see the girl groups dance; this kind of promotional method is quite popular here in Asia."

"Must be quite a wealth!"

As one of the hotel’s partners, Marchello felt both shocked and delighted.

In all his years in the industry, he had never experienced an event with sales surging to such a degree; the original stock intended to last four or five hours was nearly depleted in one hour.

To think a dignified Michelin chef can’t handle something as simple as a stall—if word spread, wouldn’t it be embarrassing?

Yet from another angle, a booming customer flow meant the hotel’s reputation would skyrocket after the event, and he could gain considerable benefits from it.

"Lin, is there a supermarket or farmer’s market nearby? If we don’t replenish stock, we’re going to run out."

Supermarket?

Lin Chen was stunned, suddenly realizing something with a look of joy.

"I’ve got it!"

"Just remembered our hotel owns its farm and fishery, covering most varieties of fresh foods on the market—if we can have them send a batch over first..."

Upon hearing this, Marchello also froze, then slapped his forehead.

"Right! How could I forget that? Quickly, make the call and ask."

Since he was just a guest here, Lin Chen was one of the visible restaurant managers, so he had to do the asking.

Half a minute later, Lin Chen received good news from John.

The hotel’s own farm cooperated with local markets and supermarkets as one of the suppliers, providing the most trendy organic foods.

They had specific farms and specialized butchers for slaughter—he knew this from personally slaughtering live animals a few days ago, though it hadn’t lingered in his mind.

Having John send over fresh chicken breast and fruits soon finally put him at ease.

With meats and crops settled, he called Magna for a box of octopus as backup.

Regarding the minced meat needed by Chef Marchello for his meat sauce, as well as the beef mince required by Chef Nagishiro Sho for croquettes, he would use the leftover beef from the restaurant—there were a hefty dozens of pounds.

Cam had just lined up at the front and could vaguely see the appearance of the neighboring stall through a few figures, so he couldn’t help but stand on tiptoe to look over.

Since those who bought food left from the left side of the line, he had yet to see what the food from the neighboring stall actually looked like, but he did hear the menu from others.

Fried chicken fillet, octopus balls, and beef-filled soka.

Other than the beef-filled soka, which seemed quite novel, the other two sounded like very ordinary foods.

He believed it was definitely his own issue, that he lacked the knowledge to imagine what the actual items looked like.

Just like the meat sauce fries the kid was eating at the next table ahead, even though it’s essentially the same thing, placing them together for comparison shows a vast difference.

After a wave of movement in the line ahead, two people left from the left side with fragrant food.

Moving forward two steps, he was finally able to clearly see the scene before him at the stall.

"Hello sir, what would you like?"

Helena smiled and greeted him and the customer in front, while Cam’s eyes fell on the small board menu in front of him. Just as he was about to speak, he heard several cries from next door.

"What!!"

"Sold out??"

"I lined up for so long just to taste this special Great Xia fried chicken fillet, how unlucky!"

"Is it gone for the day, or do we just need to wait?"

The news of the fried chicken fillet selling out immediately caught the attention of the customers in both adjacent lines.

Initially, almost everyone was scrutinizing the food sold at these three stalls, thinking about which stall to go to after buying from one, but upon hearing that the signature snack was gone, they all perked up to find out what was going on.

If it’s entirely gone for the day, they would consider lining up at another stall instead.

"Everyone, don’t worry, we’ve already placed an order, the ingredients will arrive soon..."

"Make way, make way~"

At this time, the familiar voice of Boss Magna came from the staff passageway, followed by a bearded uncle wearing a straw hat.

Seeing the two of them, Lin Chen smiled and called out to the customers, "Look, the ingredients have arrived. I will urgently process them now, please wait patiently for a few minutes."

"Phew..."

"Great, I almost thought I wouldn’t get to eat today."

"I’ve been waiting for over half an hour, what’s a few more minutes?"

"Chef, just proceed at your normal pace, no rush, safety is the priority, we’re the unlucky ones if you cut yourself and can’t cook while hungry."

"Rest assured, everyone."

Dais smiled and raised her hand to gesture reassuringly to the crowd, "Our chef can handle the ingredients blindfolded, there’s no way accidents like cutting hands would occur. If he couldn’t even manage basic knife skills, he wouldn’t be fit to set up a stall with two Michelin Chefs, right?"

Chef Marchello’s mouth curved into a faint smile, nodding in agreement but saying nothing.

She was indeed stating a fact.

Although Western chefs don’t require the same extreme knife skills as Chinese chefs, basic proficiency is still necessary.

If they can’t even cut vegetables properly, they stand no chance of advancing.

Blindfolded vegetable cutting is something virtually every qualified chef is capable of, the difference being whether or not the cut shapes and sizes meet the requirements.

Lin Chen now had no time to worry about people’s conversations. He took the box of chicken breasts from Uncle John and immediately started cutting it open and slicing them up.

This kind of supply for the supermarkets is cleaned at the slaughterhouse and packaged, so there’s no need to worry about hygiene issues.

They are freshly slaughtered chickens from today, which will be fried in high-temperature oil later, so there’s no need to redundantly rinse them, especially now that time is tight, saving a few seconds is saving a few seconds.

His speed was incredibly fast, with his left hand pressing the chicken breast, his right hand using a chef’s knife, slicing through it like a hot knife through butter, effortlessly dividing the chicken breast into three evenly thick slices.

He laid the three slices flat on the cutting board, flipped the knife, and the back of the knife swiftly tapped them from left to right.

The speed was so fast that it even created faint afterimages.

As he processed the chicken fillet, John and Magna stood to the side watching, looking curious as ever.

They both could cut vegetables and meat but at an amateur level. It’s not every day they get a chance to watch a head chef cook live, so they might as well take the chance.

Maybe they could pick up a trick or two to try out later.

The sound of the knife’s back striking the chicken breast caught Chef Marchello’s attention. He was also handling various fruits just delivered by John, his gaze entirely fixed on Lin Chen’s work.

"Using the back of the knife to tap the chicken breast? What kind of skill is that, it seems similar to a meat tenderizer?"