The Gourmet Customizer

"Phew..."

Eight hours—no more, no less. The moment Su Chen saw the rating, he was back in the company’s cafeteria kitchen.

The alarm clock on the table had only advanced by a single second.

’Just as I thought.’

At the last moment, a thought had suddenly occurred to Su Chen.

Normally, the pork knuckle could be eaten right after being braised. But if it was stir-fried over low heat afterward, the moisture would evaporate, making the lean meat a bit dry and tough. That’s why, for his final attempt at the filling, Su Chen had chosen to add some of the leftover braising liquid back in.

He let the meat soak for a moment, waiting for the pieces to absorb the broth before he started making the buns.

’An A-Level dish of braised eggplant and potatoes was already intoxicatingly fragrant. What would these S-Level pork buns taste like...’

Listening to the GURGLE GURGLE of the boiling water, Su Chen found himself growing excited.

Twenty minutes later, the alarm rang.

Su Chen turned off the heat under the braising pork knuckle—another little trick he’d picked up.

When braising meat, you should simmer it for a while, then turn off the heat and let it soak, allowing the flavors of the spices to be fully absorbed.

While the meat was soaking, the dough resting on the other side had nearly doubled in size!

Stretching it slightly revealed a network of airy pockets inside.

’The dough proofed well.’

To achieve this on his first try, Su Chen was quite pleased with himself.

After kneading the dough repeatedly to press out all the air bubbles, Su Chen cut it into small portions, arranged them on the cutting board, and covered them with plastic wrap. This not only prevented them from drying out but also allowed the dough to go through a second proofing.

Through a cycle of waiting and working, the time reached six-thirty.

After nearly two hours of slow simmering and repeated soaking, the five large pork knuckles in the pot were stained an alluring soy-sauce color, and the entire kitchen was filled with a rich, meaty aroma.

It was finally time to start making the buns!

Su Chen fought back the urge to tear into one of the large knuckles and carefully lifted all five of them out of the pot.

Just as his hand touched a bone, a familiar voice came from the doorway.

"Huh? Boss Su, why are you braising meat? It’s just past six."

Su Chen turned his head and saw it was Aunt Fang.

"You’re here so early?"

It had to be said, out of the nine people in the entire company, including Su Chen himself, Aunt Fang did the most work and was also the most indispensable.

She was responsible for cleaning the entire office area.

"Oh, didn’t I ask you yesterday? My son’s on summer vacation, so I was thinking of bringing him over for meals. He can also study here at our company. That’s why I brought him in early for his morning reading..."

"Kids these days have it so tough with their studies." Su Chen looked sympathetically at the young man behind Aunt Fang. "Back when I was in school, I always waited until the day before school started to do my homework."

’Can’t even sleep in during summer vacation? And has to get up for morning reading?’

’What’s the point of a vacation like that!’

"He needs to work hard. This kid’s grades slipped on the final exams—he only got second place in the whole school. If he doesn’t put in the effort during summer vacation, he’ll fall even further behind when school starts!"

Su Chen: ???

’My mistake. Sorry to have asked.’

"Come on, Xiaobin, this is Boss Su. He started his own company at such a young age. You should ask him for advice more often, you hear?"

Su Chen was a little baffled. ’Aunt Fang, are you praising me or insulting me?’

"Good morning, Brother Chen! My mom often praises you to me and tells me to learn from your example."

Su Chen nodded, a bit embarrassed. "I’m just messing around. Anyway, you two do what you need to do. I have to get back to making breakfast for everyone."

Xiaobin gave a hum of acknowledgment and went out with his backpack to study, while Aunt Fang walked over to the cutting board to look at the five large, glistening pork knuckles.

"Boss, eating something so greasy first thing in the morning... won’t that be a bit much?"

’What kind of company serves its employees whole pork knuckles in the morning? Even if it doesn’t go bankrupt from other reasons, it’ll go bankrupt from the food costs, right?’

"It’s fine, we’re not eating the knuckles whole. I’m planning to use the meat to make some steamed buns." Su Chen had already started deboning the pork.

After being braised for nearly two hours, it only took a gentle tug for the large bone to separate cleanly from the meat.

Aunt Fang might have said that, but as she watched Su Chen, her throat couldn’t help but bob a few times.

’It’s braised so tender... a big mouthful dipped in vinegar would be so satisfying, wouldn’t it?’

’But it’s the morning!!!’

"Alright then." Aunt Fang saw that Su Chen had already cut the bun dough on the other side of the board. "I’m just standing around anyway. Let me help you wrap them."

With that, she went straight to the board and started rolling out the dough wrappers.

Su Chen didn’t refuse Aunt Fang’s kind offer. Rolling the wrappers and assembling the buns weren’t the critical steps.

In other words, whether a bun was pleated with thirty-six folds or eighteen didn’t really have a major impact on its actual taste.

Thanks to the eight hours in the practice room, Su Chen now made the bun filling with practiced ease. In less than ten minutes, he had mixed the meat from all five pork knuckles with the other ingredients.

Seeing Aunt Fang was eager to start, Su Chen said with a smile, "Aunt Fang, let me wrap one first to show you."

He scooped a generous spoonful of meat onto a round wrapper. Cupping it in one hand, he pleated the edges while deftly rotating the bun with his other. In just ten seconds or so, a beautiful bun was resting in his palm.

"Whoa!" Aunt Fang’s eyes lit up. "Boss Su, you’ve done this before, haven’t you?"

With her twenty-plus years of kitchen experience, she knew it was impossible to wrap a bun that skillfully without having been taught!

"Nope." Su Chen denied it. "I just learned from watching a video yesterday."

"Huh?" Aunt Fang was slightly taken aback by his words.

Before she could ask any more questions, Su Chen placed the bun in the steamer basket. "Aunt Fang, when you’re wrapping the buns, pay attention to this part."

Su Chen pointed to the center of the pleats. "Don’t seal this opening completely. You need to leave a small hole."

"Leave a hole?"

"Mhm," Su Chen nodded, not explaining further.

It was just something that had occurred to him a moment ago.

The instant he left the practice room, Su Chen had noticed that the surface of the final, S-Level-rated bun wasn’t pure white. Some spots had been soaked through by the meaty juices of the filling, turning them a soy-sauce color.

So, he figured leaving a small opening at the top of the bun might be a good idea. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

After explaining this final detail, Su Chen saw that Aunt Fang’s buns looked great and were no different from his own. He decided to leave the task to her and went back to his room to catch up on some sleep.

When his alarm rang again, it was exactly seven-thirty—not a minute sooner or later.

"Time to steam the buns!"

Back in the kitchen, Aunt Fang had already placed all the buns into a three-tiered steamer!

The cafeteria’s steamer was huge; each tier held a full 24 buns!

"The filling is already cooked, so they only need to steam for about ten minutes."

"Okay!" Aunt Fang replied, turning on the stove. "Boss, these buns are going to be delicious. The smell was making my mouth water the whole time I was wrapping them."

Su Chen smiled.

It wasn’t just Aunt Fang. He himself was also looking at these potentially S-Level pork buns with great anticipation!