Culinary God in Wilderness

"Mommy, roasted chicken~"

The little girl sitting at the dining table babbled as she waved her chubby, pale little hands, pointing at the grouse hanging mid-air on the projected screen.

The woman and her husband, seated right beside her, were making small talk with the chef, Gray. A few plates of snacks were laid out before them.

Hearing her daughter’s cry, the woman casually popped the rest of her smoked Red Salmon and yogurt cheese cracker into her mouth. She walked over, patting her daughter’s head with a smile. "Sweetheart, this is a restaurant. If you want roasted chicken, who should you talk to?"

The little girl turned, tilting her head to look at Gray, who was watching her with a grin. In a tiny, milky voice, she chirped, "Roasted chicken~"

"You should call him Uncle Gray, or Chef."

"Uncle Gray~ Roasted chicken~~"

"Heh!"

Gray clapped his hands and stood up, putting on the baseball cap that was beside him. "Such a good girl. Sweetheart, what kind of roasted chicken do you want? The one just like in the video, or an American-style one?"

"I... I want that one!"

The little girl pointed charmingly at the grouse in the video, its skin already roasted to a faint yellow, her beautiful big eyes filled with longing.

The woman said, a little embarrassed, "We usually buy roasted chicken from the supermarket—the kind that comes with barbecue sauce. The kids might be tired of it, so they get cravings whenever they see a new kind. Isn’t this Great Xia style of roasted chicken a lot of trouble to make?"

She had noticed Lin Chen’s preparation steps while they were chatting earlier. Just listening to his description of the process made her head spin.

And this was just the simplified version he was making in the forest, without proper equipment or ingredients. She couldn’t even imagine how much more complicated an authentic Great Xia roasted chicken would be.

"It’s the first I’m hearing of it too, but based on the recipes this Chef Lin has shared before, all his food is delicious."

Gray stroked his chin, lost in thought. "His previous dishes were made with such simple methods, but they were still delicious. A complex recipe like this should be even tastier."

"Did he just say this technique was adapted from the southern Great Xia method of roasting duck and goose? Let me look up some videos online."

Gray’s restaurant was in a small coastal town with relatively little foot traffic. The town had no foreign shops, let alone restaurants or supermarkets.

Before watching this show, the only Great Xia dish he had ever tasted was spring rolls.

Although he knew almost nothing about Great Xia cuisine, as a chef, he spent a significant amount of time every week searching for information about food online to find inspiration for new creations.

He was, of course, aware that Great Xia cuisine was gradually becoming popular in big cities. He just never expected to see a Great Xia chef on a North American survival show, let alone one causing such a stir.

He went to his office to get his laptop and returned to the table. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

As he typed in the keywords, videos on how to make roasted goose and duck filled the screen.

The couple leaned in curiously. When they saw the glistening, date-red, and tempting roasted duck appear on the screen, their eyes lit up.

"Oh, it’s that!"

"When we went to Chinatown looking for food, we saw these hanging in the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of so many shops. We wanted to try one back then, but we got sidetracked and completely forgot about it later."

"Chinatown?"

Gray nodded thoughtfully. It was about a two-hour drive from here to the city center. ’Looks like I’ll have to find some time to go broaden my horizons.’

After watching several videos on how to prepare roasted duck and goose, he found himself in a bit of a predicament.

The roasting process itself wasn’t hard. The difficulty lay in the preparation, which actually required a dedicated air-drying area.

His restaurant was by the sea, and the humid sea breeze was unsuitable for naturally air-drying food.

Just as Gray was frowning and racking his brain, his gaze swept over the livestream, and his eyes lit up.

"That’s right! I can just imitate Lin’s method and use my oven’s convection fan mode on low heat to dry it!"

At that thought, he shot up from his seat and hurriedly pushed a cart toward the walk-in freezer.

He quickly emerged with two raw, already-marinated chickens and a host of other ingredients.

"This is our restaurant’s most popular lemon-roasted chicken. It’s only been marinating for about an hour. I’m going to wash off the surface marinade now and then re-marinate it according to the Great Xia roasted duck method."

The lemon marinade served a similar purpose to the wild apple puree Lin Chen was spreading on the chicken skin in the video. Coincidentally, he had maltose in his restaurant. Gray was full of confidence that he could successfully replicate the Great Xia roasted duck.

"My dear sweetheart, the Great Xia roasted duck takes a long time to make. It’ll be at least a few hours before it’s ready. Can you wait that long?"

A few other regulars from the neighborhood were also in the restaurant, enjoying the leisurely afternoon. Seeing him wheel out a cart full of ingredients, looking like he was about to replicate the dish from the video, they were instantly intrigued.

When the little girl heard she would have to wait a long time, she hesitated. But when she saw several of the other adults suddenly flocking around, she felt a sudden sense of urgency.

"Mommy, can we have dinner here?"

"Well..."

The woman looked at her husband, troubled. He just smiled and nodded. "It’s fine. I’ll pick up the kids from school later. It saves us from cooking at home. Let’s just call it a long-overdue family dinner night!"

"Yay!! Daddy and Mommy are the best!!"

"In that case, on my way back, I’ll swing by Chinatown and bring back an authentic Great Xia roasted duck for everyone to try. It might help Chef Gray get a feel for it, too."

"Deal! In that case, as a thank you, this roasted chicken is on me!"

「At the same time.」

Cantonese diners in Chinatowns everywhere started receiving numerous orders for roasted duck and goose.

It wasn’t just takeout orders. Many foreign customers were even walking in and specifically asking for the roasted ducks and geese hanging in the display windows.

"That’s weird. What’s going on today? Why are so many foreigners showing up in the middle of the afternoon, all ordering roasted duck and goose?"

The owner was lounging on a deck chair behind the cashier’s counter, playing on his phone. Hearing the commotion, he sat up in confusion, grabbed the printed receipts from the counter, and glanced over them.

He had been running this restaurant in Chinatown for over a decade. While he usually had some foreign customers coming in for congee or fried rice, they were typically regulars who came at specific times.

The afternoon was usually downtime for the staff, as there was almost no business.

For so many new foreign customers to show up at such a strange time was definitely not normal!

"Order up!"

Over at the open kitchen, someone quickly chopped up a few roasted ducks and geese, arranged them on plates, and added two kinds of accompanying sauces.

The owner reached out, stopping a server who was about to walk over, and rolled up his sleeves.

"I’ll take it."