Chapter 39 Assigned to the Cooking Class 8

  Lei heard two old soldiers say there was hope and hastily got up and shouted: "What training? I will definitely be able to take it!"

  The class leader gazed at Lei and slowly said, "In the cooking skills assessment, it's mainly divided into stir-frying and baked goods. Stir-frying is a profound subject, and you won't be able to get first place in just one month no matter what. Baked goods are different, though. Based on past experience, the baked goods competition is mainly divided into two categories: mantou and noodles. I've decided to have you focus on these two areas. Maybe you'll still have a chance at getting first place within a month."

  "Really?" Lei exclaimed excitedly, although he had never encountered a raw face before, but in order to get the first place, Lei didn't care about that anymore.

  Pang Hong didn't bother with Lei again, but instead glanced at the clock on the wall and said to Wang Zhen: "Skinny, it's almost time for dinner. Would you mind going to teach Lei how to knead dough first?"

  "Oh, no problem." Wang Zhen stood up and pulled Lei to rush into the operation room. Now cultivating Lei into first place has become the top priority for the whole class.

  The operating room is approximately thirty square meters, with a stove in the east, on which two large pots are placed, each with a diameter of about 1.1 meters; to the south is a water pool that is about 4 meters high, 1.5 meters wide and 3 meters long; directly opposite the water pool, three meters away, are two large panels, each 2 meters long and 1.2 meters wide, wrapped in aluminum alloy skin; next to the panel on the far left is an iron tripod, on which a face basin with a height of 0.5 meters and a diameter of 80 centimeters is placed, this face basin is used for steaming when making noodles.

  Lei and Wang Zhen were standing in front of the dough trough, Lei's eyes fixed intently on every move Wang Zhen made. In the well-kneaded dough, they added alkali, mixed it evenly, and then divided the large dough into small pieces, which eventually became identical round dough balls under Wang Zhen's hands. Next, Wang Zhen put the kneaded dough balls into a greased steamer basket. Every step of the way, Wang Zhen explained the key actions to Lei in detail. After he had kneaded over ten round dough balls, he pushed the large lump of dough towards Lei and said, "Now it's your turn."

  Lei picked up the knife and cut off a piece from the large dough, then imitated Wang Zheng's action, holding the separated dough with his left hand and stretching out his right hand to pull the dough. However, something embarrassing happened to Lei - the pulled dough stuck entirely to his palm. Lei asked Wang Zheng somewhat awkwardly: "What, what's going on here?"

  Wang Zhen smiled lightly and took the dough from Lei's hand, his right hand making slow movements as he said: "Lei, watch closely, you need to use force with your thumb, and be quick, once you pull down the dough, quickly throw it onto the pastry board." As Wang Zhen spoke, his hands moved swiftly, and all that could be heard were two slapping sounds, and on the pastry board appeared two pieces of dough of identical size.

  Lei took the dough from Wang Zheng's hands again, thinking about the key to the action that Wang Zheng had just said "Thumb force, quick action". With a "slap" sound, a piece of dough flew onto the board. Lei looked at the dough and laughed happily: "Hey, old soldier, look, look, I succeeded, I succeeded!"

  Wang Zhen patted Lei's head with his hand, and a white flour mark immediately appeared on Lei's hat. Wang Zhen chuckled: "It's just pulling down a piece of dough, what's there to be excited about? Hurry up and continue pulling!"

  Lei continued to pull the dough with a loud laugh, but trouble came again. Lei was originally holding the dough with his left hand and pulling it with his right hand, but now that he had pulled down another piece of dough, he found himself unable to pull anymore. Wang Zheng saw through Lei's thoughts (perhaps anyone would encounter this situation for the first time) and reminded him: "Silly, switch to your left hand."

  "Oh." Lei suddenly remembered that Wang Zhen had been attacking from both sides earlier. He stuck out his tongue and quickly used his right hand to grab the dough under his left hand, using his left hand to pull it. "Hey, old soldier, how did you get stuck again?" Lei asked Wang Zhen in frustration, trying hard to shake off the dough on his left hand but unable to do so.

  "Idiot!", Wang Zhen is now obviously less patient than before, he scolded a sentence with some anger and then took over the dough from Lei again, shouting: "Watch closely! Don't grip the dough so hard, just hold it lightly, switch hands quickly, move faster!" Along with Wang Zhen's shouting, another dozen or so small dough balls of roughly the same size appeared on the surface of the dough.

  Although Lei was scolded, he wasn't angry at all. Instead, his eyes stared intently at Wang Zhen's every move. When the dough returned to Lei's hands, he thought about Wang Zhen's words: "Just hold it lightly and switch hands quickly." With a "slap, slap", two pieces of dough appeared on the board. Lei excitedly shouted: "Wow! I succeeded again! I took another step towards being number one!"

  Wang Zheng looked at the two pieces of dough that Lei had just pulled down, his brow furrowed. He coldly said to Lei, "Hey, what's there to be so happy about?"

  "Hey! Lei, how's your training going?" The shout came from outside, and soon the figures of Pang Hong, Ge Hui, and Lu Liang appeared in the operating room.

  Pang Hong asked Wang Zhen as soon as he came in: "How is he?"

  Wang Zhen glanced at the dough on the work surface with a lack of enthusiasm and said, "It's okay, I guess we've made some progress."

  "Wow, who is this great hero that did this? It's really too clever!"

  Lei also took a look at the dough he had just pulled down, and saw that the one pulled down by his left hand was more than twice as small as the one pulled down by his right hand. He asked with embarrassment: "Is there something wrong?"

  Pang Hong also took a look at the two pieces of dough, chuckled and said: "Oh, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just that your skills are really too high, you can already make such small dough after just learning to make mantou. But we're not making small mantou today." After finishing speaking, Pang Hong turned around to Wang Zhen and said: "You'll have to work harder, it's the first time, who would succeed so easily?"

  Wang Zhen shrugged and asked Panghai: "Do I have a choice?"

  Scan the QR code at the starting point, everyone rushes to answer cold knowledge, gets a medal, and wins a big prize! Click on the + sign in the upper right corner of WeChat, select Add Friends, search for the public account "qdread" to participate! Various big prizes, easy to get!