Chapter 9 — Tomorrow's Kitchen

Two hundred lunch boxes are lined up in uneven rows in the warehouse, each row waiting for someone to sign.

The large order came from a company organizing seminars in an industrial park. They needed two hundred meals an hour, delivered at eleven thirty, the menu included braised chicken with ginger, stir-fried vegetables and pumpkin soup. The deposit is enough for Nha Kitchen to pay part of Binh's debt and repair the steam oven valve.

Khoi looked at the data board all night. Each box requires one hundred and fifty grams of rice, eighty grams of chicken, fifty grams of vegetables, two hundred milliliters of soup. The kitchen has two gas stoves, a steamer, and a packaging table. He drew a diagram of job rotation, divided shifts, and placed clocks in the four corners.

Ha asked: "Have you tried it with two hundred servings?"

"Not yet."

“So how do you know how to do it?”

“I have a process.”

“The process has never been subjected to heat for two hours.”

Khoi knew she was right, but the order needed an immediate answer. Man sent a text message asking about the progress of negotiations. Vy said they cannot miss a chance to repay their debt just because of fear.

“Let's try fifty portions,” Ha suggested.

“Not enough ingredients to try.”

“Use deposit to buy.”

“If the test fails, the deposit will be lost.”

Ha looked at the diagram. “If you don't try, you're putting the customer at risk.”

Khoi shut up. In the end, he chose to accept the application.

On the morning of delivery, the kitchen opens from four o'clock. The chicken carrier arrived in the rain, and the vegetables were divided into three boxes. Vy checks each invoice, Lan's mother cooks, Ha is in charge of the soup pot and six seasonal workers stand at the canning table.

Khoi checked the scale. The first batch of rice reaches one hundred and fifty grams. The second batch was ten grams short because the person sharing it used a different ladle. He changed the ladle and put colored tape on the handle. A seasonal worker asked if we needed to weigh it again. Khoi told me to use the green spoon from now on.

At six o'clock, the chicken hasn't finished braising yet. Khoi increased the fire.

Ha said: "If there's too much chicken, the bottom of the pot can easily burn."

“It needs to be transferred to the tray in ten minutes.”

“Can't increase the fire.”

Khoi divided the pot into two and added water. A burning smell began to rise. He couldn't smell it, but Ha turning his face was enough.

“Stop the pot on the left,” she said.

“Only the bottom burns.”

“The stock has changed its flavor.”

Khoi used a spoon to scrape the bottom, looking at the dark brown layer stuck on the stainless steel. I can't taste it. “Put the top into a new pot.”

Ha did not argue. She called someone to bring a tray and filter each piece of chicken. It took twenty minutes.

At seven o'clock, the pumpkin soup pot was opened. A seasonal worker mistakenly poured pre-processed squash into the pot of stir-fried vegetables. Khoi discovered that he was missing two hundred ingredients. He said to reduce the portion of vegetables and increase the soup.

Ha looked at him. “Customers order enough vegetables.”

“There is no other way.”

"Yes. Call the company to report a missing part and ask for money."

“I will lose the contract.”

“But don't deceive customers.”

Khoi went to the phone desk and called the person in charge. The other end of the line said they had paid the deposit and did not want to hear about the shop's difficulties. They said if there is a shortage, they can handle it themselves.

Khoi hung up the phone and opened the refrigerator. There's tofu, broccoli, leftover pumpkin, and some mushrooms. If you make stir-fried vegetables, the portions will be uneven. He called Binh to ask if he could get more vegetables. Binh said the goods were at the beginning of the market, at least forty minutes.

Vy asked: "Can I buy it at a nearby stall?"

Khoi knows prices will increase. But two hundred parts were received.

Ha put down the knife. “You are making decisions based on your fear of losing money.”

“I'm trying to keep my application.”

“No. I'm trying to prove I can do it.”

Hearing that sentence, Khoi felt like someone had thrown water on him. In the kitchen, the seasonal worker looked at them. Lan's mother returned from the rice cooker.

“Arguing outside the door,” she said. “In the kitchen, we only talk about business.”

Khoi Take a deep breath, even though you can't feel the smell. He took the paper:

Available vegetables: broccoli, mushrooms, tofu.

Missing: stir-fried vegetables according to contract.

Options: urgent purchase, exchange, notify customer, cancel.

Consequences: price, time, reputation.

Vy looked at the board. “Buy urgently at high price, still have time if someone goes.”

Binh called back. I can send my cousin to take me on a trip, but regular vegetables are not enough, and the payment is immediate.

Khoi said: "Get cabbage, mushrooms, and tofu. I'll tell you to change the dishes."

The person in charge on the other side did not pick up the phone. The auto-reply message will call you back within an hour.

Khoi decided to change the dish without waiting for their confirmation. Ha looked at him, not complimenting him. She just washes the mushrooms.

At nine o'clock, the canning table begins. The rice is divided by three people, each person uses a green ladle. The chicken has irregularly large and small pieces. Khoi told me to change the position of the tray so that the canner wouldn't choose the best pieces. Ha scooped the soup, but a seasonal worker scooped it up and poured it back because the bowl wasn't full. Ten minutes passed.

“Don't use bowls,” Khoi said. “Use a mug with lines.”

“This case has a blurred line.”

“Get another one.”

There are no other cases. Khoi ran to the store to buy it. Ten more minutes gone.

At ten o'clock, a seasonal worker burned her hand on a box of hot soup. Ha took her out, washed her with cool water and called someone to replace her. Khoi wanted to continue immediately, but Lan's mother blocked him.

“No one continues to work when they get burned.”

“We're late.”

"Even if it's late, it can be fixed. Injured people are not tools."

Khoi stood still. The canning line slowed further, but no one stepped past the girl.

At eleven o'clock, two hundred boxes were packed. Some boxes were missing vegetables because Khoi decided to divide them equally. The soup was packed in separate bags after Ha discovered that the bottom of the pot had uncooked squash. Boxes with a green icon are reheatable portions, red boxes must be used within the same day. They haven't had time to explain to customers.

The delivery van arrived at eleven forty-seven. The driver asked why there were two types of labels. Khoi said to stay safe. The driver asked if there was a record. Vy took out a handwritten note.

The order left the restaurant.

After that, the Kitchen was as quiet as if the power had just gone out. No one had lunch. Khoi sat on the warehouse floor, his back leaning against the rice barrel. Lan's mother gave him a lunch box that was kept for inspection.

“Eat it.”

Khoi opened the box and picked up a piece of chicken. He can feel the softness with his teeth, the heat with his lips. Don't know if it's salty or sweet. Ha stood next to her, taking a bite.

“The chicken was a little dry,” she said.

Khoi asked: "Is it because the pot burned?"

“Due to switching trays early.”

"Vegetable?"

"Lack."

"Soup?"

“The squash is not evenly cooked yet.”

Khoi put the box down. He wanted to call the company to admit the error, but the phone rang first. The person in charge sent a text message: "Some orders were missing vegetables, some soup boxes were overflowing. We will keep 30% of the payment and will not reorder."

Vy read, silent.

Khoi looked at the process board. Each arrow is clear, but the process does not have the line "if the person doing it can't speak in time". It also doesn't have the line "if the chef can't taste it and still decides to turn up the heat".

Ha took a red pen and drew a line through the diagram. “You want to know where failure lies?”

“Say it.”

"It's not that the mug lacks a line. It's not that the vegetables are spilled. It's that I think if I just control everything, the kitchen will obey."

Khoi did not argue. He didn't hear that as an insult. You sound like a record.

Man called at that moment. “Is the large order okay?”

Khoi said: “No.”

"I heard your customers' feedback. If you sell to me, my operations team Don't let this happen.”

“Your team won't accept an order of two hundred portions without the kitchen testing it?”

“My team knows how to take risks.”

“Your team can cancel.”

Man fell silent for a beat. “You need money, Khoi.”

"I know."

“You can't use principles to pay interest.”

"I also cannot use my promise to return a customer who received a box without vegetables."

Man did not say more. Before hanging up, he reminded: "The proposal is still valid for three days."

In the afternoon, Khoi and Vy went to the company to apologize directly. The person in charge did not let them into the meeting room, only took minutes. Khoi offered to return 30% of the money and an extra meal for those who missed out. The company refused to compensate, but agreed to receive part of the money back.

On the way home, Vy said: "You made the right moral choice, but the account is still seven million short."

"I know."

“Are you sorry?”

Khoi looked at the line of cars in front of him. “Yes.”

“Regret not choosing another way?”

“I regret accepting the application when I didn't know I could do it.”

Vy nodded. “At least you called me by the right name.”

In the evening, the whole kitchen meets. The six seasonal workers were paid in full, and the burned girl got extra medical expenses. Ha suggested that next time every application over a hundred places must have a test session, a person with the right to stop, and a reserve fee.

Lan's mother said: "There is no spare money."

Vy replied: "So I won't accept the application."

Khoi wrote new rules:

LARGE ORDERS SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR TEST SEWING.

Binh asked: "So I owe you money?"

Khoi looked at him. “Can we pay three million today?”

Binh nodded. “Okay. Because today I see that you guys don't push the blame on me."

After he left, Khoi took a portion of rice from the pot to eat with Ha. Both are not talking about taste. They talk about the speed of dividing boxes, desk positions, shifts, labeling.

At the end of the meeting, Ha asked: "Do you still want to sell?"

Khoi looked at the contract Man sent, then looked at the diagram with red lines.

“I want to know if selling makes me learn anything.”

“What if I sell it to avoid studying?”

“Not for sale.”

That night, Khoi opened a new recording file, clearly stating every mistake in the two-hundred-seat order. He wrote down the name of the decision maker and the consequences, not looking for the person most to blame.

When turned off, the phone lights up again. An email from an anonymous account sent to the restaurant's entire public address:

“Home Kitchen is hiding the use of poor quality food in delivery orders.”

Attached are two photos of the second-class vegetable bin at the back door.

Khoi looked at the photo. The shooting angle is inside the fence, where only the restaurant owner can stand.

The failed order had not yet cooled down, and the story about it had already begun to be retold by others.