The Imperial Palace's Head Chef Takes the Interstellar Entertainment World by Storm

[The completed food story, My Cafeteria's Food Is the Best in the World, is available in the author's profile. The blurb for the upcoming Bianjing Food Chronicle is below.]

[Blurb]

Lin Yu was the top imperial chef of the Great Wei dynasty. After dying, she came to a futuristic civilization rebuilding from ruin.

Here, her grandfather is a celebrated film and culture preservationist, and her father built a business empire. But she is a scandal-plagued, C-list actress with a tarnished reputation.

Netizens: This woman actually seduced Bai Wan's boyfriend? Get out of show business!

The newly arrived Lin Yu produced other videos of Shen Jun cheating. This loser? He's not worth chasing!

And so, Lin Yu cleared her name and became a star in the interstellar world through her cooking.

Pan-fried potato cakes, tofu pudding with a scenic twist, Kyoto-style roast duck wraps... How can everything she makes taste so good?

She improves cooking tools, reforms farming, restores lost ingredients. What can't she do?

Little by little, netizens realized that she wasn't just promoting modern cuisine. She was also inheriting and carrying forward the culinary arts of the ancient world.

Netizens: Is she one of those people whose ancestors are practically chasing after them to feed them?

Standing on the podium at the ceremony where she received the title of Interstellar Culinary Heritage Bearer, Lin Yu said, "No. I'm the ancestor myself."

Blurb for the completed, no-couple food story with a female lead:

My Cafeteria's Food Is the Best in the World

Xie Ci returned from studying abroad, only to discover that the cafeteria at her old university had become awful.

The sweet-and-sour ribs, chopped chili fish head, stir-fried pork with green peppers, and shredded pork in bean sauce from her student days had become today's green bean and fried dough sticks, spicy snack strips with pork, and orange-braised mooncakes...

The breakfast rice noodles, beef pot stickers, meat-topped rice, pan-fried buns, and soup dumplings had become today's leftover-meat dumplings, sweetened soy milk made with sugar beans, rice-free gruel, and plain noodles in clear soup...

Even quick dishes like spicy hot pot, sour-and-spicy noodles, and grilled cold noodles were incredibly bad. Xie Ci sank into deep thought.

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A University's cafeteria contractor: The cafeteria needs to make money. There's no other way to cook these dishes.

A University's students: The school cafeteria treats students like they're not even human. Even ghosts wouldn't eat there!

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The first day Xie Ci took over the cafeteria--

A University's students: One Xie Ci can't change the fact that the school's cafeteria serves dark cuisine.

The first month Xie Ci took over the cafeteria--

A University's students: Xie Ci is our second mother! The sour soup beef, crispy pork belly, twice-cooked eggplant, and charcoal-grilled potatoes are so delicious!

The third month Xie Ci took over the cafeteria--

A popular thread on a forum for students from universities around the area:

Post 1: Why does A University's cafeteria serve hot pot, rice noodles, soy milk and fried dough sticks, pancakes, stir-fries, and meat soup all day long? They even have barbecue and desserts at midnight!

Post 228: If they eat that much, won't A University's students all turn into pigs?

Post 600: If that's what being a pig is like, let me be that pig!

Blurb for the upcoming Bianjing Food Chronicle:

Lin Yufeng opened her eyes to find herself in the body of Lin Erniang, an orphan with the same name in Bianjing. Her parents and relatives had almost all been killed in a plague or by bandits who came down from the mountains to loot and burn. Her only brother was swept away in a flash flood while taking her to the capital to seek help from distant relatives.

Lin Yufeng went to the capital alone to meet those relatives and was met with a closed door.

With no family to rely on and not a penny to her name, she still managed to make a good life for herself in the capital thanks to her skillful hands and knack for cooking.

As envoys from every nation gather at court and people come from all corners of the realm, she takes in the capital's prosperous splendor at her leisure.

She brews tea and makes friends, braises meat with wine, and shares the many delights of ancient cuisine.

(A warm, slice-of-life story about food in Bianjing, mostly about leisurely cooking and eating in the city.)

Theme: Changing life through food