Amateur at best

ZHUANG LI YU

Ling Fen entered the interview room in high spirits. She expected to see a panel of about five to ten people but on the table sat two people. One of them looked a bit old.

He had a white goatee which was trimmed perfectly and on his body was a white kitchen coat. The other person was relatively young. He wore simple clothes which were neat.

At the side were a cooker and some ingredients. The table was messy with a couple of things strewn all around; Ling Fen shuddered because she hated a dirty kitchen.

"Good afternoon. My name is Ling Fen and I am here for the interview."

Her mother had taught her manners at a young age. When meeting elders, you should greet them first before anything else. As she expected, the man who looked old nodded his head in silent agreement before motioning for her to sit.

"What made you apply for this job?"

The other man started. Ling Fen loved the way he went straight to the point. She thought for a while about how she would answer the question.

When everything came down, the only reason she would choose to apply for a job at a hotel would only be;

"Because I love cooking"

Her answer was simple. She loved cooking ever since her mother had told her what was what in the kitchen. Back then, cooking was the way both her mother and she spent their time together and as time went by, she fell in love with the art mere ingredients could create.

"Then could you show us some of your skills?"

The old man spoke for the first time.

"Use the ingredients on the table to make a meal from scratch."

His tone was firm and it reminded Ling Fen of her own grandfather, her mother's father. Now that he thought about him, she realized that she had missed him profusely.

She made her way towards the table. She kicked off her heels a bit further away and then started cleaning the table. The art of cooking relied heavily on cleanliness. She fished from her bag a hair net and gathered her hair into it.

Now that her hair was up, her beautiful face was left in full view. The young interviewer gasped, he had never seen such fresh beauty.

Ling Fen did not notice his gaze and continued cleaning. After she was done, she displayed the ingredients. Luckily, there was a pack of noodles on the side. The other ingredients were simply vegetables. There was nothing Ling Fen could cook as perfectly as noodles.

She first cooked the noodles to perfection. As the noodles cooked, she prepared the vegetables. The knife in her hand moved swiftly as she cut up the vegetables into thin pieces.

The two at the table looked at this with awe. Her knife skills were so great that they could not see clearly and only saw the end of finely chopped vegetables.

She then mixed the soy sauce with oyster sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and water. She left out some of the spices because of the old man up there. If her guess was not wrong, then the old man should be Zhuang Li Yu.

Elder Zhuang was known for his strictness and perfection but he was still old after all, many spices would do him no good.

Ling Fen hurried with the noodles and in no time, a perfect plate of vegetable noodles was placed in front of Zhuang Li Yu and his colleague.

The two dug in while Ling Fen stood at the side watching silently. She was not nervous at all even after the two had eaten her food with no change in expression.

There was silence in the room and this silence made the not nervous Ling Fen anxious all of a sudden.

The other man suddenly spoke, "Miss Ling, I have had vegetable noodles before but none as good as yours."

This was a comment that came from the bottom of his heart, the noodles were indeed good.

Ling Fen gloated on the inside but not for long because Zhuang Li Yu suddenly spoke,

"You call this good? It is amateur at best, nothing to praise."

His face showed displeasure yet his hands kept scooping spoonful after spoonful.

"Xiao Lu, give her the job."