A few days passed, and the McTony's restaurant construction was well on its way. While the Rebornian Construction Workers were busy pouring concrete over the foundation and laying down rebar for support, Michael met with Tony to finish up their preparations for creating the McTony's chicken.
"How long do you take to cook your chicken from scratch?" Michael asked.
"Uh…I don't really know," Tony answered.
Michael almost forgot that a majority of the population was still living in a timeless world. They didn't have the well-engineered clocks that the Rebornians had to check the time.
To figure out the truth, Tony decided to show Michael how to make the chicken in his own kitchen, while Michael timed everything with his own pocket watch.
"First, I prepare the chicken, cleaning it with water and plucking out the feathers," Tony said as he took out a whole chicken from the box.
With the help of Remy, Tony was able to finish the preparation of the chicken in about 3 minutes.
"Then, I mix all the spices together, Dragon's Whiskers included, and turn them into a paste that I lather all over the chicken's skin. I let that marinate while I prepare the oil and the wok for cooking."
Michael watched as Tony ripped the Dragon's Whiskers from their roots and began dicing them with his knife. A minty odor released from the herb as it got cut into pieces, with a little bit of juice being squeezed out of the plant itself.
And with the combination of other spices, the signature flavor of the McTony's was created.
Once the seasoning was lathered onto the chicken itself, Tony let it rest while he prepared the cooking station. He took out firewood from under his desk and began regulating the fire under the wok-like cooking pan.
He then poured vegetable oil into the pan, and waited about five minutes for the whole thing to be warm enough to start cooking.
This part of the cooking process was fast considering how basic it was. The problem now laid in the cooking itself.
After the oil was at its ideal temperature, Tony plunged the chicken into the oil, with some drops spewing all over the kitchen table. It then took him about twenty minutes in total to cook the whole thing before he took it out of the pan and onto a clay plate.
All in all, the whole process took just under half an hour, which was the opposite of fast food.
Granted, there were only two of them working in the kitchen, and one of them was a child, but the time it took for the chicken to cook would still be too long even if they had five chefs cooking at the same time.
Michael wanted it to be like the fast-food chains in his previous world, where people would only have to wait about 2 minutes at most before they received their order.
ChatJK4, can you create a cooking system that will streamline the whole process?
[Understood, Michael.]
And after a few seconds, a new vision appeared in his mind. This time, the kitchen itself was very reminiscent of the kitchens in his previous world, with large ovens, multiple cooking stations that were temperature controlled, and even a dishwasher that could clean in a matter of a few seconds.
Then, ChatJK4 showed him a video of multiple silhouettes of people working in tandem. One was in charge of plucking and preparing the chicken, one was in charge of creating the seasoning and the flavoring, and there were five more chefs cooking the chickens.
[In this arrangement, it will take about 15 minutes for a chicken to arrive at the customer after ordering. However, this arrangement is only simulated at low capacity.]
This means that if there were more people ordering than normal, then the waiting times could become even longer than that, which was not ideal.
"Why can't you cook the chicken a day earlier and just reheat it then?"
That was the solution fast-food restaurants thought of back in his previous world. They freeze their cooked chicken and meats, and only reheat it or re-cook it once the customer ordered it.
"The effects of the Dragon's Whiskers will subside by then. It needs to be freshly cooked for it to retain that certain kick in the taste. After a day, it's gone," Tony answered.
It seems that the methods of the fast-food chains cannot be replicated in this instance. After all, that magical spice that the Dragon's Whiskers added to the chicken was what made it good in the first place. It's what he thought will be the reason McTony's will succeed in the future. It can't be disregarded.
Hmmm…I guess the drive-through option of the restaurant can't open yet because of this.
Despite that, Michael thought that this new cooking system will be good enough for now. 15 minutes per order will be a tolerable amount of time to wait for people.
And since the Dragon's Whiskers taste can still be retained for the whole day without it going disappearing, Michael planned to have Tony and the other chefs prepare a lot of chicken early in the morning to stock up for the whole day. That way, people can still receive their order relatively fast.
And besides, it will take some time before McTony's become popular enough for it to be filled at capacity.
For now, Michael estimated that there would be around fifty customers per day that would visit the restaurant after its construction in the Truck Stop, which would grow more and more as the time passed.
"You know Sheina right? She'll speak to you and assign some talented Chefs to help you work in your new restaurant."
Tony fiddled his fingers anxiously. "This new restaurant…it's on the Golden Road, right?"
"Yep. It's about three day's worth of travel West of Angora City."
The chef nodded, with a resolute look on his face. "Understood. I'll live in the desert if I have to. But can you please let my son live in your headquarters? I don't want him homeless."
Michael tilted his head. "What are you talking about? You'll have your own house in the Truck Stop itself. And not only that, but if you want to visit Angora City, then you can just drive your own car there.'
"But…I don't—"
Before Tony could even speak any further, Michael tossed him a small key with the symbol of McTony's engraved in front of it.
"That's your car. I can't have one of my subsidiary owners travelling on foot, right? Just make sure to go to the Reborn Driving School before you take it out for a spin."
Tony let the key fall into his palm, still disbelieving that it was real. Remy tiptoed up to his father's hands to try and look at the new key car that they had just been given.
BEEP BEEP!
They both looked outside their rundown restaurant house and saw a new automobile parked beside the streets. Its shiny polish was even more shinier than any glasses they owned.
"A CAR!!!" Remy shouted and immediately ran towards the automobile. "No way!"
The boy had seen many of these riding in the streets and always dreamed of riding in one. He never would have thought they would own one.
Tony followed behind his son, with the key in his hands.
He looked back at Michael, who gave him a reassuring nod. "Go ahead. It's yours."
Tony looked back with an awkward expression. "Uh. I don't know what to say."
"Haha, save it for when I awaken your talent."