Grasp the farming script in the famous book

Ten days after the opening of "Tommy's Kitchen", Roland finally stopped being so "following what she wanted", and she began to design a set of plans for the operation of the small restaurant.

She goes out to purchase at ten o'clock every morning, and when she arrives at the port, the first batch of fishing boats that go out to sea in the morning just come back.

Roland buys the freshest seafood directly from the fishermen, then directly orders the menu of the day, determines the price, writes the menu on the small blackboard outside the door, and writes down the number of people who will serve the ingredients—usually 40-60 people.

Then Roland went back to rest, and in the afternoon he began to gather ingredients and prepare for cooking.

It opens at night, and the length of business hours is determined by the number of people serving—the restaurant can only accommodate up to 20 people at the same time, so she will turn over the table once or twice.

Before closing, Roland would invite Prissy, Mrs. Munro, and Sister Nannie down for dinner.If there are still enough ingredients at this time, she will make some late-night snacks and snacks casually, most of which are fried fish and shrimp croquettes.

I never thought that even these midnight snacks and snacks are extremely popular;

Every day, there are people waiting outside the restaurant door at this time, waiting for "leakage".

The most popular dish is the classic seafood risotto in Creole cuisine, which is the one Rhett took her to taste when she first arrived in New Orleans.

Roland was deeply impressed by that taste, coupled with her keen sense of taste and knowledge of various herbs, Roland quickly mastered all the recipes of this delicacy.

But the seafood risotto she made is better than blue.

Every time the menu with the words "Seafood Risotto" is hung outside the restaurant and the smell starts to waft from the kitchen, the waiting line outside the restaurant is extraordinarily long.

"The seafood risotto made by this restaurant is a bit different from what we used to eat..."

The diners who tasted this risotto were full of emotion.

"It's as if the seafood risotto has a soul!"

"The seafood is very fresh and smells like the sea."

——Naturally, this needless to say, the ingredients that Roland chose were all seafood that was caught that day, and she was always sharp-eyed, and the fish, shrimp and shellfish that died accidentally were not within the scope of her purchase.

"But there are many restaurants in New Orleans that use fresh catches, none of them are made like this one... The seafood seems to be able to dance on the tip of the tongue..."

Roland: My secret is, chilli.

She adds a little chile from southern Mexico to her risotto recipe, where they come in all kinds of spiciness and flavor, but Creole cuisine, true to its European heritage, hasn't yet begun to incorporate it. Seasonings that stimulate the taste are added to dishes.

Roland just added a little bit—the pepper she added was hardly recognizable, but it could stimulate the taste buds just right and set off the freshness of the seafood.

Diners with sensitive tastes can feel that this classic dish has been added with fresh condiments, while diners with less sensitive tastes can only groan that this taste is extraordinarily good, which is "more flavorful" than other seafood risottos. .

After Roland gradually figured out the complete process of "opening a restaurant", the days when she hung "0" outside the restaurant door gradually decreased.Even if the small restaurant can't be rain or shine, it can basically open every day.

The line at the door is getting longer and longer every day.

Roland was busy with the affairs of the kitchen, so he didn't care about looking at the situation outside.It wasn't until Pulissy told her one day that she didn't know that her restaurant had spawned an industry: valet lines.

It turns out that "Tommy's Kitchen" has a long line outside the door every day, and this reputation has long been limited to this small neighborhood.People from uptown and downtown come here every day, and the menu on the small blackboard can satisfy them, but they just can't get in line.

So some savvy locals promised to "queue in line for customers" and "sell" their seats when they were in line.

At the beginning, the "valet queue" only charged a few cents, then it was tens of cents, and then it became a dollar—it was already more expensive than the price of the dishes Roland ordered.

Even if these savvy people in the "valet line" fail to sell the queued position, they just sit down and enjoy a cheap and delicious meal-whatever you think.

Roland spread his hands: That's outrageous!

Instead of letting others earn all the money, it's better for her to earn the money herself.

So she cut off the booking service.

Guests who want to enjoy the dinner of the day can come early to make a reservation. A reservation fee is required for the reservation, which is equivalent to the price of the dinner of the night.

In other words, if you want to enjoy the 55-cent gumbo set meal, you can pay a reservation fee of 55 cents, and you can come at the designated time without queuing.

For the 60-cent seafood risotto set, the reservation fee is 60 cents.

Roland sometimes makes a $1 seafood platter with signature red bean rice, and the reservation fee goes up to $1.

Of course, the reserved seats may also be resold at a higher price, but Roland feels that they have already paid a certain cost and need to bear certain risks (such as not being able to resell them), so she is happy to hand over this business to those "courageous" "People do it.

In order to prevent all the daily positions from being occupied by booked guests.Roland will forcefully set aside about 20 seats for ordinary people who line up at the door of the store—most of these people are neighbors, and they are willing to spend their time craving the food produced in the restaurant.

The only request Roland gave them was to line up by themselves and not to sell their seats.Once discovered, they are never welcome in "Tommy's Kitchen".

Regular customers and neighbors knew that Tommy's Kitchen wasn't in business to make a fortune, or to be the number one restaurant in the city.

The restaurant is like a dream—a dream that summons back a life full of energy and hope from the past.

Even though people's lives are still dilapidated, seeing the reopening of the restaurant, sitting in the restaurant to taste the unique delicacies, and chatting with the beautiful chef in the restaurant from time to time, it seems that the vitality and hope really come back up.

Even if people come out of the restaurant and return to their own lives, they find that life is still gloomy and desolate... They will not lose hope again because of this, but will rely on and love this small restaurant more and more.

As the restaurant became more and more famous, there were more and more things going on in the store, and Roland became busier and busier.

At first, only Prissy could help her, but later Sister Nanni volunteered to help Roland in the kitchen, which relieved Roland a lot of pressure.

Then even Mrs. Munro came out of her upstairs cubicle.

Mrs. Munro was too weak to cook.She is in charge of making reservations at the entrance of the shop, explaining the rules of the shop to first-time diners in a soft voice, and charging a reservation fee—this is a great help to Roland, after all, it is difficult for Pulissy to make the rules all at once. It's all clear, and it's hard to figure out the booking fee.

Once Roland came back from her landlady after "squeezing" vanilla, and heard Mrs. Munro pointing to the signboard of the restaurant and explaining to people: "Tommy is my son, and he will be back soon."

Roland's heart sank inexplicably, and he sighed secretly, then turned to the kitchen and continued to work on her work.

After the restaurant became famous, Roland often received unexpected surprises.

Many fishermen also fell in love with this restaurant, and would specially send their high-quality catches to the restaurant and sell them to Roland at a low price.

One day, Roland actually received a whole boatload of crayfish.

Crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, is a freshwater shrimp whose origin is near New Orleans.When Roland first came to New Orleans, he used to grab prawns with his hands in a tavern boldly and taste the local delicacies boldly.

But the owner of the shrimp boat pleaded:

"Ma'am, just accept it!"

"I don't ask for anything in return, you take it all."

"By the way, I have to pay you back."

Roland: How can this work?

"As long as you cook it, let me have fun with a few fisherman brothers at night."

"No, no, we don't take up space in your store."

"It's okay to give it to passers-by, just treat it as me inviting everyone to supper..."

Roland looked at these domineering crayfish holding their big claws, feeling somewhat happy in his heart.

She intends to improve the flavor of cooking crayfish in Creole cuisine, adding a few relatively overbearing condiments, making it a holy night snack and a perfect match with wine.

"If you want to drink, bring your own. I only have sugar cane juice here."

Roland reminded the fisherman in front of him.

She knew that "selling alcohol" in this plane required a license.It is easy to sell food in a tavern, but it is more difficult to sell alcohol in a small restaurant.

"Cheng Chengcheng..."

The fisherman who delivered the lobster to the door agreed.

So, throughout the whole day, Roland and Prissy sat at the door of the restaurant, brushing the crayfish and cleaning the shrimp lines.

Everyone in the neighborhood immediately understood that "Tommy's Kitchen" was cooking crayfish for the evening—lots and lots of crayfish.

Sure enough, the restaurant only served 20 dinners and closed early.But the tempting aroma kept coming out of the kitchen.

Not long after, the door of the restaurant opened. Roland greeted two fishermen who had been waiting early, entered the restaurant, and brought out a whole cauldron—this cauldron was specially used to hang broth, and it was the largest pot.

People looked in by the light of the torches around the restaurant, and saw that the inside was bright red, and the whole pot was full of crayfish.

The scent is also very different, spicy and delicious, a bit pungent, but very attractive.Many diners who haven't seen the prawns already salivate and move their index fingers just by smelling the aroma.

"You guys are about to put all these shrimps into plates, and I will continue to use this pot."

Roland said: She still has more than half of the ingredients uncooked.

The impatient fishermen have already done this. They picked up the thick stack of plates brought out by Prissy, and directly used the plates to copy them in the pot—a plate of shrimp came out of the pot.One plate after another was handed out at such a low price.

People can't wait to grab a red crayfish, poke off the head first, and take a mouthful of the delicious brain.

"what--"

Everyone sighed loudly: "It's so fresh!"

The fishy smell of crayfish has been "killed" by seasonings such as onion, ginger and wild garlic.The umami flavor of aquatic products is all lifted out—more importantly, this umami flavor is wrapped in a mouth-watering spicy taste, which rushes straight into the mouth and nose.

People who are not used to the spicy taste are tearful, but the strange thing is that the more they do this, the more they can't stop.

Prissy looked at these fishermen with red hands and mouths, and tremblingly offered sugar cane juice.People gulped down, sighed with great relief, and then rushed back into the battle with the crayfish.

Roland stepped out in time to see people's reactions: "Do you need me to lighten the spiciness a little?"

In fact, she didn't add much chili, and it's true that she added a lot of peppercorns to add a "numbing" flavor.

Chili peppers are rarely used in local dishes, even if they were added to Roland's previous dishes, they were slightly added to enhance the taste.People don't have much ability to "bear" spicy food. Under the impact of this double spicy food today, Roland is really afraid that everyone will not be able to stand it.

"No, no need..."

Someone answered with a big tongue.

"Madam, the taste of your supper is really... amazing."

The fisherman who brought the prawns was sweating all over his head, but he enjoyed it.

"Don't change its taste, what you want is this feeling, enjoyable, drink!"

The fishermen brought their own rough local light wine, not even in a glass bottle, but directly pushed a wooden barrel over, beat out the wine pulp with a long-handled bucket spoon, and served it separately in thick porcelain cups.

But the rough wine with a dry taste is surprisingly paired with the spicy taste of crayfish.

Roland took a look and felt that everyone's reaction was okay.She went back to the kitchen to cook a second, third batch.

By the time the second pot of spicy crayfish comes out, the outside of the restaurant has become a sea of ​​joy.

Almost all the neighbors gathered here, and the frequent diners were even more reluctant to miss this gluttonous lobster feast.People, regardless of each other, drank wine and sugarcane juice heartily.People were laughing loudly, and some people sang songs under the drive of alcohol.

Before Roland's last pot of crayfish was out of the pot, she suddenly heard music outside.

It was the sound of the bow of the violin falling on the strings. It seemed that it was just trying a note, but it was enough to make Roland raise his ears and look out.

Then the trumpeter played a loud and clear note, and he showed off his skills and played a series of coherent coloraturas.It made everyone applaud outside.

Is this... is this really a band?

Roland still remembered hearing Bruce live when he first came to this city, and he was really envious of that tavern that could have a band live there.

But now, in such a happy supper scene, has she also waited for her own band?

She hurried out, forgetting to take off her apron.

"Ma'am, I heard that you are the owner of this restaurant?"

The black musician with the violin bowed to Roland in a gentlemanly manner.

"We'd like to talk to you about playing at your restaurant."

The trumpet player smiled at Roland, revealing a mouth of shining white teeth.

"This... I'm not the owner of the restaurant, I'm just the chef here."

Roland shook his hand and explained.

At this time, a black woman in her 40s walked over shaking her waist and said hello to Roland: "Ma'am, where have I seen you..."

Roland also remembered immediately: the band that played live blues that she had seen with Rhett back then were the people in front of her.

She likes this band very much and the music they play: the blacks have their own rhythm talent, and the lead singer's smoky voice is sad, which is the best match for the melancholy emotion conveyed by the blues "blues".

Before she could explain the situation, Sister Nanni squeezed out from the crowd.

"Mrs. Munro said it's okay to have a little music, as long as it's not too late and it disturbs the neighbors."

Roland thought to herself: No one can disturb the neighbors—all the neighbors are with her now.

Sister Nanni should have recognized the band, and she winked at the lead singer: "Show your bottom-of-the-box skills—"

"Besides, cheer up, cheer up! It's rare for everyone to be happy today."

"okay!"

The trumpet player immediately blew a series of passionate tunes, and all the diners who heard this sound turned around and began to applaud.

The sound of the violin began to join, and the violinist chose to pluck the strings. The crisp strings formed a bright rhythm, and the human voice also entered without hesitation. A joyful song was played outside the door of this small restaurant——

There are people everywhere outside the restaurant, and the gourmets are holding up their plates, unwilling to let go of any delicious food that falls into the plate.

Except for the diners who are eager to savor the food, the rest of the people are entertaining themselves and dancing freely to the sound of the music.

Roland was holding a small glass of sugarcane water, drinking and laughing outside the restaurant with his arms folded.

She was in a good mood--

If someone came to invite her to dance a jazz dance at this time, she would probably be able to dance up after putting down the glass.

Everyone around her is the same.

"I haven't been this happy for a long time!"

"Yeah, since..."

Since the day the war started.

"Really, it seems to be back to the best time before."

The satisfaction in her heart was almost overflowing, Roland thought to herself: She probably built such a restaurant with a live band in the shortest time in the plane.

Looking at the happy scene around him, Roland took another sip of the sugarcane water in his hand, feeling the sweetness in his heart.

She was standing downstairs in the restaurant when she suddenly heard the balcony door upstairs that had never been opened creak open.

Mrs. Munro had come out of her cubicle, and was standing on the balcony leaning on the railing, looking down at the happy scene in front of the dining-room.

Roland thought: I don't know if such joy can infect this painful woman and make her have a more optimistic mood.

From then on, Roland made an appointment with the black band. The band could come over three days a week, play in the restaurant, and collect tips from the guests.

The band can further attract business to Roland, and Roland provides the band with a venue to perform. This is a win-win cooperation.

But Roland didn't expect that just when her business was booming, she welcomed a guest with whom she had never dealt with——

It was a female guest, and she took off her hat to reveal her dyed red hair.

Pulissy recognized her, pointed to her hair and said, "You are...the 'bad woman' in Atlanta."

This little girl with zero EQ really annoyed Belle Watling, she pointed at the black girl's nose angrily, and said, "Go, go get Charlie Han's widow!"