Great Xia Dynasty, the twenty-fifth year of the Yuan Dynasty, mid-spring March.

Northeast of the capital, Tianshuifang, Yeguo Mansion, East Kitchen.

The sun was shining, the spring was just right, the flowers were blooming, butterflies were strolling among the flowers, and twenty-four boys and girls with an average age of twelve or thirteen stood respectfully in the kitchen courtyard, listening to Wen Gushan, the head of the kitchen, read out the rankings of their assessment results one by one in his ugly voice of cigarettes and alcohol.

With her head down, she carefully counted each name in her mind, and when she heard her name, she counted exactly to the sixth number.

The result of ranking sixth made Bai Ko finally breathe a sigh of relief, this time the ranking was one place higher than the last time, and the anxiety finally eased a little.

Wen Gushan continued to read the name, and Bai Ko also continued to count, but she stopped counting until she reached the tenth place, and those who were ranked after the tenth place were very difficult to enter the next assessment, and it was basically hopeless.

The others are the same as Bai Ko, they are also counting their rankings in their hearts, the top of the ranking is naturally happy in their hearts, happy on their faces, the backward ones are gray, their chests are stuffy, and they don't feel any warmth in the bright spring sun.

This is the second assessment of this group of new kitchen apprentices, there are no idlers in the Ye Guo Mansion, and after the third assessment is over next month, it will be the moment to decide the final fate of their group.

After reading the list, Wen Gushan, the fat kitchen manager, rolled up the paper, and then habitually took out the long pipe at his waist and held it in his hand.

"You are all the best apprentices in each workshop, the scores of these two assessments are actually very tight, it's really hard to score you, next time is the last assessment, this time the top ten work hard, don't relax."

As soon as Wen Gushan's words came out, it was immediately equivalent to announcing the future of the fourteen people from the eleventh to the last, and the sound of humbling cries came irrepressibly from the crowd.

Hearing this cry, the joy of the apprentices who were temporarily in the top ten immediately flew away.

Wen Gushan lit his pipe, ignored the sobs of the apprentices, and called the four stewards around him to go to the pantry to rest for a while, and discuss the firewood, rice, oil and salt that needed to be replenished in the kitchen, so as to tell the warehouse to prepare early.

As soon as the stewards and stewards were gone, the twenty-four apprentices were divided into two distinct groups, ten with hope on one side and fourteen with an uncertain future.

The fourteen men wiped their tears and went to the well to work with the handymen in despair, praying that they would have a chance to turn over in the next assessment and not be sent to a terrible place by the house.

As for the ten people, the men and women discussed separately, worried, and didn't know if they would be able to rush into the final six-person quota in the next assessment.

Of the twenty-four apprentices, only six will be left in the end, and it was a brutal elimination game.

"These two assessments are all about basic skills, and everyone is at the same level, and they are almost the same." The youngest Xiao Yue still looks like a child, pouting, looking playful and cute.

"Yes, the basic skills are no longer as good as the tricks." Mengmei, who was standing next to Xiao Yue and was half a head taller than her, looked at her hands, and she was confident that her knife skills were no problem even if she closed her eyes and cut vegetables.

"If only we could get on the stove, and we can compare them with real knives and guns on the stove." Bai Ko looked at the two kitchens of the red case and the white case and said leisurely.

"Who doesn't want to be on the stove......" Wan Qiu and Lu Doudou put their heads against their heads and sighed.

Bai Ko looked at the apprentices who were chatting in groups of three or five in the courtyard, and he was very puzzled by the current arrangement of the kitchen.

Two months ago, the government bought 24 excellent seedlings from different chef workshops and came back, saying that they wanted to select the best ones to supplement the kitchen manpower, but the apprentices did not get a single chance to go to the stove, and the two assessments were based on basic skills.

These apprentices, who were sold to the school at the age of **, are now twelve or thirteen years old, and even fourteen or fifteen years old, and they have been learning art for four or five years, and they are all good at the basic skills of cooking.

Spending money to buy so many apprentices, but not letting people try their skills in the stove, no one knows what the chief and stewards think.

Everyone is depressed, at the main gate of the kitchen, the girls from each room and courtyard sent back the food boxes for the afternoon snack, all of them are young girls, all wearing dark pigmented cloth skirts that indicate that they are in the filial piety period, simple light makeup, except for the necessary hairpins for curling hair, there is no extra jewelry at all, but it shows their peugeot faces and slim figures.

The handymen stepped forward to take the food box and take it down and dispose of it, and poured the leftover food into the bucket, and the apprentices could not stand still at this time, so they hurried over to take over and take the food box and cutlery to the well to be sorted and stacked, ready to be cleaned.

The girls put down the food box and turned around and left, without saying anything to everyone in the kitchen, except for a pretty girl of fourteen or fifteen years old, she swept her eyes, and the chief steward and stewards who had been resting in the pantry immediately walked out.

"Ouch, Miss Xiaoqian, but what does the third young master command?"

Wen Gushan, as the head of the kitchen, only cooks for the old man and the old lady, and now that the old man is dead, he only needs to serve the old lady alone, but he doesn't dare to slack off on any orders from the long house.

"Manager Wen, the young master asked who made today's jasper cake? The ingredients are wrong, and the sweetness is too much. ”

"Oh, it's not right that eighty percent of the sugar is given by the warehouse, they seem to say that they bought sugar from another shop."

"Yes, it turned out to be the treasury, then forget it, I'll explain it to the young master when I go back."

"Thank you, Miss Xiaoqian, thank you, girl." Wen Gushan bowed his hand and thanked him, and the residual smell of smoke on his breath and fingers made Xiao Qian frown slightly.

"By the way, also, the young master wants to eat barbecue at night, you do it well, it's rare for him to say that he wants to eat something, don't mess up again, the eldest lady will be angry."

"Don't dare, don't dare, we must do a good job and not disappoint the young master."

"You know the young master's temperament, so I won't waste my tongue, so I can do it myself."

Xiao Qian couldn't stand the smell on Wen Gushan's body anymore, so she turned around and left after speaking.

At the same time, without waiting for Wen Gushan's orders, the four chief managers had already dispersed, each performing their own duties, and was busy with the barbecue named by the third young master.

In addition to the red and white case rooms, which are the two largest kitchens, there are also many small single rooms for making zuò special food, and the chefs also have a separate small stove room to close the door and think slowly.

In addition to being used for roasting lamb legs and lamb in the cold season, the roasting moxibustion room in the house is also responsible for making all kinds of smoked meat and roasting sausages, but in other seasons it is basically the door is locked, and it is rare to use it.

The third young master is the eldest son of the eldest son of the long house, and now he is the grandson, and when the filial piety period is over, the eldest master will be promoted to the new generation of the prince as he wishes, although the east kitchen is to cook for all the masters in the house, but if there is a chance, who doesn't want to please this young master.

Especially the stewards and first-class cooks who have the right to go to the stove, if they can be promoted to special chefs by any master, it will be a glorious event with a light on their faces.

After the apprentices finished their chores, they were kicked out of the roasting room, and they were not allowed to watch, only a female butler named Zeng Zhu and two first-class cooks were busy inside, using a variety of complicated condiments to roast a plate of fragrant tenderloin for the third young master.