Nightfall!
It slowly descended.
As the stars twinkled, the entire brightly lit city quietly merged into a cozy night.
At this moment, it was 10 PM.
There were still two hours until the Izakaya closed.
A woman with long, dark green hair arrived at the Izakaya.
When Sonoka glanced at her, she was immediately shocked, because she was Anne, the WGO First Executive Officer who had inspected the Chun Guo Ting Restaurant today!
"Ugh~"
"I'm exhausted."
"Shopkeeper, a bottle of sake first!"
Anne seemed to notice Sonoka but ignored her.
She first placed the thick gourmet review book, 'THE BOOK,' to the side! Then she chose a seat and began to carefully observe the Izakaya.
Finally, she withdrew her gaze and nodded slightly, seemingly satisfied with the Izakaya's interior environment.
...
Fresh!
Fragrant!
At the same time, there was a faint scent of fermented rice.
This made Anne, who had just taken a sip of sake, close her eyes and feel it deeply.
And this cup of sake seemed to have a magical power, slowly relieving her fatigue and stress, making her mood gradually cheerful.
"Good!"
"This wine is good."
"The taste is quite delicate, perfect for pairing with Sashimi and light-flavored grilled fish!"
Finally, Anne couldn't help but open her bright eyes.
As a First Executive Officer, others always envied her status in the gourmet world.
But little did they know, her daily work was extremely busy; she often had to visit restaurants and hotels anonymously to dine.
Every year, she would eat hundreds of meals in restaurants and stay over 100 nights in hotels!
Just the travel itinerary alone, she could cover almost 30,000 kilometers a year, and even frequently take planes to inspect famous Japan cuisine restaurants around the world!
In short, it was constant traveling; it seemed leisurely, but in reality, it was truly very, very tiring!
Afterward, she put down her wine glass, looked at Sosuke for a moment, and asked, "You are the Shopkeeper here, and also the Chef?"
"Yes."
"Currently, I'm the only one in the Izakaya."
Sosuke nodded in response.
"Oh!"
"That's really not easy."
"This gourmet street is only 800 meters long, but counting the large and small cuisine shops on both sides of the street, the total number exceeds 100."
"What's more, next to your Izakaya, there's the one-star Harukatei Restaurant."
"And you are so young, yet you dare to establish yourself here; it truly makes me look at you in a new light!"
Anne, upon learning that Sosuke alone was managing everything inside and outside this Izakaya, couldn't help but show a look of appreciation.
"Ability has nothing to do with age!"
Sosuke replied.
"That statement."
"I really agree with it."
Hearing this, Anne blinked her bright eyes, becoming even more interested in this young Shopkeeper.
Then, she continued, "I heard that as long as a customer comes to your Izakaya, no matter what they want to eat, as long as you have the ingredients or can make it, they can order whatever they want?"
"There is such a rule."
"Not bad, making dishes directly according to the customer's needs is also a good marketing strategy."
Anne was still a bit surprised by this rule of free ordering.
After all, an Izakaya is not a buffet restaurant, and although the buffet format allows customers to choose freely, it is still limited by the ingredients; it doesn't mean you can eat whatever you want.
And daring to set this rule is enough to show that this young Shopkeeper has very strong self-confidence, believing he can make dishes that satisfy all customers!
"But."
"I don't know what I want to eat right now."
"Shopkeeper, can you recommend a dish for me?"
"Wensi Tofu."
"I recommend this dish."
"Ah?"
Anne was surprised again: "It's actually a Huaiyang cuisine from the Celestial Dynasty?"
Skewers, Tempura, sushi, Oden, Japan grilled chicken... She naively thought that this Shopkeeper would recommend common Japan cuisine dishes found in Izakayas.
The result, however, was Wensi Tofu, a dish that requires extremely high knife skills?
You should know.
The preparation of Wensi Tofu often deters many Chefs.
Just cutting a fragile block of Tofu with a kitchen knife until it becomes Tofu shreds as thin as hair strands is a great test of a Chef's knife skills!
Therefore, unless it's a very important occasion, most people rarely see this dish.
"What?"
"Don't you like it?"
"No!"
"Wensi Tofu it is."
Anne, after a moment of composure, quickly shook her head and chose a portion of Wensi Tofu according to Sosuke's recommendation.
Seeing the First Executive Officer agree, Sosuke simply smiled faintly, then turned and returned to the cooking counter to continue his work.
...
Worldwide.
The number of Chefs is countless!
And various types of cuisine shops can be found almost everywhere on the streets and alleys.
However, to date, there are only 72 three-star restaurants worldwide recognized by the WGO Gourmet Organization.
Moreover, these restaurants are often quite luxurious, and the dishes they make are ridiculously expensive; it's absolutely impossible to find a cheap Izakaya like Sosuke's!
To put it bluntly, the reason for this phenomenon.
It's still that no matter how the WGO Gourmet Organization sets its evaluation standards, it will ultimately become a feast for the rich!
From the definition, it can be seen that the evaluation of the first star mainly relies on the quality of the restaurant's dishes, which is purely based on the Chef's cooking skills.
So at this stage, some simple restaurants can successfully gain WGO recognition based on the Chef's ability!
However, starting from the two-star level, the evaluation standards become more diversified.
Service quality!
Decor!
Serving order!
Nutritional balance!
Selection of ingredients!
Even the table setting, the exquisiteness of the tableware, and so on.
These extremely subtle things are often the standards that the WGO Gourmet Organization evaluates.
Therefore, after a restaurant obtains one star, if it wants to reach two-star or three-star levels, it must invest heavily in staff training, utensil arrangement, ingredient procurement, and so on.
This causes restaurants without strong financial backing to quickly fail!
In other words.
Tonight, a First Executive Officer like Anne.
The reason she came to the Izakaya was definitely not for an evaluation.
Because according to the standards set by the WGO Gourmet Organization, only restaurants that have been in business for more than half a year are eligible to enter the one-star restaurant evaluation standard!
And this Izakaya has only been open for just over a month.
This is also why Sonoka was so shocked when she first entered the Izakaya.
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