[Poll] Could you cook to save your life?

@lychee You don’t need an oil press to make olive oil.
Step 1 de-seed a bowl of fresh ripe olives
Step 2 purée in a blender/food processor/food mill etc
Step 3 heat mixture 5-10 minutes in pot stirring constantly
Step 4 place in cheese cloth and tie up over bowl
Step 5 when cool squeeze oil out into bowl and let set overnight, this will let water and oil to separate. Skim oil off top with spoon in the morning and done.

 

Amazing! Thank you!

 

I didn’t intern in Italy for fours months an NOT learn how olive oil is made Lol

Fond of double negatives am I

 

Probably not at the moment!

 

I mean this depends on what you think of as an (average) restaurant, plenty run-of-the-mill resturants in the US reheat and microwave food and what not.

In comparison what you're talking about sounds a lot more high end than any regular restaurant I've been to.

I obviously wouldn't compare myself to the chef of some 3-star restaurant or anything close to it.

Ok, 2 things. You could totally make a book of this and I guess I wouldn't survive past the first or second week.

Though it could maybe work out if there's some other staff as well and/or depending on the monsters' taste etc.

Either way, it seems pretty doomed if I'll be done for as soon as there's a violet unhappy customer...

But if you heat it up it won't be virgin olive oil, will it?... Or does it still count as "cold pressed" if you cool it down afterwards?... I don't think so, but idk...

Edit: So it seems even in cold pressed or cold extracted extra virgin oil has actually been heated up at some point according to this wikipdia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaxation

Now I only know a smattering and from the wording you can still do it without heating up at all, but it seems like they do heat up at some point even with extra virgin oil?... What a marketing scam in that case to call it cold pressed

Edit 2: Honestly this seems a bit contradictory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil_extraction#First_cold_pressed_–_cold_extraction

I don't get it, so does cold mean that it hasn't been heated up or not? Well apparently outside of EU it doesn't mean shit since there's no regulation, but I live in EU so at least it shouldn't be a complete sham?

Edit 3. Ok I get it now, so there's two different processes. And cold pressed only means that it was not heated up during extraction, but the olives could've still been heated up at some other point (but still only up to 27 Celsius at max)...

 

When I was in Italy I took a tour of the local oil mill(? I’m not sure that’s the correct term) This was where all the small farms that grew olive in the area got their olives pressed for oil. There was two rooms, one had, kid you not a stone wheel hooked up to a belted motor that turned on a stone circle, this was the first cold press. After a while, they transfer the mashed olives to the second room where it’s put into a more modern machine and I assume it’s that then the process where it’s heated up slightly and pressed to get more of the oil out. Not every operation does this of course, but the local that gave me the tour explained the second press is lower quality but still cold pressed, apparently you can go one step further and heat the mash at a higher temp again and expeller press an even lower quality oil out. At that point it’s just olive oil not extra virgin.

Also, I never said in my previous post that was how to make cold pressed extra virgin olive, just homemade olive oil without an oil press. I’m really not sure how the industry standards define the terms but was always told first cold press is the highest quality, should not be used for cooking but as a finishing oil for salads and other cold applications.

Edit: olive oil has a low smoke point so I only cook with low quality olive oil on quick sautés and the like. as high temps break down the oil. Basically if you heat any oil to the point it smokes it breaks down and produces carcinogens.

 

1. What would you try making for the Monster?
Master dog would cook the monster for the Monster. If he wants to threaten Master chef dog and disrespect me by calling me a human he can die!
2. Can you cook? Are you good at cooking? What is the best thing you can cook?
Master dog is a michelin star chef clearly~
3. Could you run a restaurant if it came down to it? In this isekai world, would you continue operating the restaurant or would you try to do something else with your life?
Yes I run two mines a salt mine and a gold mine and am a michelin star restaurant owner so clearly.
4. Suppose a week later, a debt collector comes knocking at your door and they want you to pay rent. You find out that this restaurant is still under mortgage, and the rent payment alone takes up the majority of your income (almost no pocket money left). Would you keep running the restaurant even if it doesn't seem like you're making money?
Master dog is going to keep running the restaurant of course since no one would likely take the place over from me. Anyway I'm sure the dead monster will have enough money stored away somewhere to pay for everything. Plus I have infinite vegetables!
5. How would you try to improve your tavern/inn operations?
Depends on how the tavern is.

 

I’m in love with this thread. I don’t have enough time now but I would like to talk to all of you, lovely NUF chefs and home cooks!

 

I would say, it's rather likely most people who aren't chefs/cooks or familiar with restauranteuring will be in for a very rough time (probably dead within the week). In particular, since running a restaurant is a lot more complex and difficult than this scenario makes it out to be.

 

Umm... I seem to recall there was this nice gender bender novel where a guy deliberately asked to be turned into a woman, and their wish was granted and they were made ridiculously op as a bonus... but then they just started running a restaurant or something like that...

But in this scenario... I am not getting the GB... nor the OP bonus...

1. No idea... some meat, since its a monster...
2. I can follow a cook book/manual! (are there any in this restaurant?)
3. Possibly... Since there is nobody else there... if they kill me, they got nothing? or does someone else just take my place? I haven't got the skills, but if one survives long enough, I would imagine anyone could, given enough time, learn to cook something not too horrible...
4. Damn it! Where are my OP powers when I need em! But... anyway... if the restaurant is all there is, what would I do with the money?
5. Learn to cook?

 

Sort of the beautiful thing is that the difficulty is scalable.

The challenge of the restaurant varies with the expectations of the monsters, the volume of the restaurant, the cost of living, and the margin over rent/ingredients.

All of those variables are technically controllable by author-sama. Like, you could potentially get away with monsters having lower standards, or monsters getting addicted to @Innieminnie’s cookies, etc, etc. However there are plenty of opportunities to keep the plot moving and the life-or-death challenge keeps the story as a page-turner.

If I really wanted to rationalize this though — assuming the human summoning is random, and it would be a hassle if monsters needed to kill more than 50% of summoned humans... I actually think if you’re able to beat the average summoned human, you might get monsters willing to keep you around simply for being more decent than the run-off-the-mill random human the restaurant would summon if you’re dead.

It’s probably a huge annoyance if a decent proprietor dies because then somebody’s “favorite restaurant” would go back to sucking for potentially weeks or months.

 

You don’t get it? The restaurant is your cheat!

You have an amazing magic kitchen and a pantry with almost anything you can imagine. You have customers who were previously fond of the establishment (or at least like human food), a supplier who will get you anything you want, and the door to the restaurant prevents feral starving homeless monsters from crashing in and eating you.

It’s pretty nice!

I could have been evil and dumped you in that same setting without the restaurant! Then you would be dead!

 

But the human restaurant is only an alternative option for decent food, it's not like its the only one. And say, one powerful monster is obsessed with high-quality sushi and, if you can't make it, he instantly eats you. And another high powered monster loves French cuisine. So until you find someone who's good at making both, these two monsters will just keep eating the chefs because this society has very little order and structure to prevent that.

 

But what do you do if one high-powered monster likes you and a different one hates you?

“You are not touching my cookie human! That is MYYY cookie human! Don’t you forking DARE eat my cookie human!!!!!!”

And at the very least if you can get enough monsters to like you, then you have the potential to at least start a fight. The monsters have a society of their own, so who knows how it would turn out?

 

Basically, there has to be some system controlling it to help the human survive. Otherwise, you very likely will have a monster who simply hates human food or hates a monster who likes human food, who will just eat you for spite.

Maybe something like you need to satisfy 75% of your customers? But as it is, it's downright impossible to survive for long.

 

I think it depends on your imagination of what monster society is like.

I’m really a fan of stories that make you sympathize with the monsters, so if I were writing something like this, I would probably make a setting where the monsters appear scary/frightening, but actually a bunch of them are a lot nicer than they look.

Also I am a total human basher so if there were a later arc when human crusaders come, I would depict the other world humans like terribly.

EDIT: ...also I find the concept of potentially being food for someone else really fascinating.............

 

Umm... Somehow I suspect the magic kitchen and a pantry, etc... are there just as a trap to keep the unsuspecting humans there... What the customers are really fond of is the steady supply of fresh humans the establishment provides...

 

Oh! Here’s a dark idea!

Since you’re not a monster, you don’t have monster rights or citizen rights.

Actually, you’re technically the “property” of the “landlord” who built the restaurant — so there are a lot of under-the-table exchanges between the landlord and other monsters.

For instance, if a monster kills/eats you (or damages the property), they have to pay the landlord a fee. Probably not a crazy fee, but still a fee.

The landlord neglects to tell you that you’re legally their slave — at least because in their experience humans value their freedom and they get annoyed with power authorities if they’re informed they’re a slave. All the landlord cares about is that you cook and make money.

 

Ecchi lychee

 

no...i can not cook to save my life
butchering...no...can't even scale off fish