From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

After a full two weeks of anticipation, the awards ceremony was finally held amidst great excitement.

Not only local TV stations in Shanghai, but also national and local TV stations came to report and broadcast live.

Shandong TV station was even more proactive.

After all, Feng Zhengming's old villa restaurant in Shanghai is among this year's top ten restaurants in the world.

Feng Zhengming is a national culinary champion who came from Shandong province.

Everyone knows that Feng Zhengming became the national culinary champion by specializing in Shandong cuisine.

Therefore, in Shandong, some people might have questioned Feng Zhengming's excellence in the past.

Now that his restaurant has been named one of the world's top ten restaurants of the year, no one will question him anymore. All Shandong cuisine chefs will agree that he is the best Shandong cuisine chef today.

Accompanying Qilu TV were veteran Shandong cuisine chefs, including Master Feng Zhengming.

Although Feng Zhengming was busy preparing for the award, he still went to pick up his mentor and other experienced masters after hearing the news.

The veteran craftsmen were all filled with pride when they saw Feng Zhengming.

Master Cui spoke first: "Great, really great, you haven't let us down."

Master Su still had a loud voice, and it was quite powerful: "Hahaha, I knew it, I knew Zhengming, you wouldn't just be famous in China, you would definitely be famous overseas."

Master Sun: "Zhengming, well done! You've really made Shandong cuisine proud."

Master Chef Xia: "Hahaha, Zhengming, you are truly amazing to be named one of the world's top ten restaurant chefs of the year."

Master Yan: "Well done, I'm proud of you."

Hearing his master's words, Feng Zhengming was truly moved.

Over the years, he has been working tirelessly, never daring to relax for a moment.

In many people's eyes, he is a national culinary champion who can open branches all over the country.

But in Feng Zhengming's own eyes, he was just a chef.

Now his master told him that he was proud of him, making him feel that his efforts had not been in vain.

"Thank you, Master, and thank you to all my fellow disciples for coming to support me."

Master Su: "Zhengming, we are definitely coming. This is a big deal. In the past, which restaurant in China has ever won an international award?"

Your inclusion in the top ten restaurants of the year truly shows that Chinese cuisine is starting to gain more recognition from foreigners.

Master Cui: "This year has been full of good news. We won the bid to host the Olympics, and at the end of the year we successfully joined the WTO. It's really fitting that you won this Top Ten Restaurant of the Year award."

Feng Zhengming: "I benefited from the country's success. Our country's successful bid for the Olympics and its successful accession to the WTO proved to the world the strength of our motherland."

"It's precisely because everyone acknowledges the strength of our motherland that I was chosen as one of the top ten restaurants this year."

Hearing Feng Zhengming's words, the veteran workers all nodded in agreement.

The experienced craftsmen appreciated Feng Zhengming's humility even more.

Even though he is now the head chef of one of the world's top ten restaurants of the year, he is still not complacent.

He is clear-headed and knows why he deserves such honor.

Feng Zhengming picked up the master craftsmen and led them to the hotel to check in.

After the experienced workers and Feng Zhengming checked into the hotel...

They all really wanted to go to Feng Zhengming's restaurant with him.

After all, apart from Master Yan, none of the other Shandong cuisine masters had visited the restaurant.

Feng Zhengming agreed, and the hotel arranged a minibus to take the veteran drivers to his restaurant.

Upon arriving at Feng Zhengming's restaurant, the veteran chefs were already somewhat surprised even before entering.

Master Su: "Zhengming, is this your restaurant? Why is your restaurant located in someone else's house?"

Master Cui: "Old Su, Zhengming's restaurant is located in an old villa in Shanghai, and this old villa is really quite old."

Feng Zhengming introduced the process to the experienced workers.

"This old villa is indeed very old. I renovated it, but I tried my best to maintain the original appearance of the old villa and restore the interior decoration as much as possible."

Leading the master craftsmen into the courtyard of the old Western-style house.

The veteran craftsmen were quite amazed by it.

Especially the sight of the open space after passing through a small bamboo grove in front of the gate truly amazed the veteran craftsmen.

The three-story old villa in front of them was quite awe-inspiring to the veteran craftsmen.

Feng Zhengming invited the master craftsmen into the old villa.

Stepping into the old villa, the veteran craftsmen couldn't help but feel as if they had entered the Grand View Garden.

Feng Zhengming was very enthusiastic and led the experienced craftsmen on a tour of each room.

Only at the very end did he lead the experienced chefs into the kitchen.

Upon entering the kitchen, Master Su was the first to offer his opinion.

"Zhengming, isn't your kitchen a bit too small?"

Feng Zhengming: "Yes, but as you can see, this old house is only so big. I can't make the kitchen any bigger; I can only reduce the kitchen space a bit."

Then Feng Zhengming went on to explain in detail: "I have expanded the space here to the maximum extent possible."

He led his master and several experienced craftsmen on a thorough tour of the entire place.

The experienced craftsmen were quite satisfied, feeling that Feng Zhengming had done a great job in many areas.

Moreover, Feng Zhengming's restaurant kitchen also has many new tools, and the use of some of these new tools is quite amazing to the veteran chefs.

Master Cui remarked, "The kitchens today are indeed equipped with more advanced and sophisticated equipment than we did back then."

While Feng Zhengming led the veteran chefs on a tour, Fu Jun, Cai Tao, Hou Dong, Gao Yongfu, and Lu Haisheng led the kitchen staff, who had changed clothes, into the kitchen.

When they saw Feng Zhengming and several experienced chefs in the kitchen, they were all taken aback.

Seeing their terrified expressions, Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "Don't just stand there, come over and pay your respects to the advisors."

Then Fu Jun, Cai Tao, Hou Dong, Gao Yongfu, and Lu Haisheng led everyone over to pay their respects to the advisor.

The experienced chefs looked at the group of young chefs and apprentices in the kitchen.

Master Yan searched around for a while and asked, "Where is Xia Hui?"

This question was actually asked to Master Xia, who had come along with them.

Feng Zhengming replied with a smile, "Xia Hui is now in charge of the restaurant on my Western restaurant street. She is the head chef in the kitchen, and her status is the same as mine as the head chef." Upon hearing this, Master Xia couldn't help but say, "Zhengming, you can't let that girl graduate so early. She still has a lot to learn from you, her master."

Hearing Master Xia's words, Feng Zhengming laughed.

"Uncle Xia, don't worry. I didn't let Xia Hui graduate right now. I let her gain some experience at the shop over there."

I'll probably have her come back to work with me later. Someone else will be assigned to manage that shop, but I'll continue to mentor her for a while, letting her help me make this old-style restaurant even better.

Master Xia finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, she was his own granddaughter, so Master Xia naturally hoped that she could learn more.

Although Xia Hui had followed Feng Zhengming for many years, it was time for her to graduate.

Master Xia felt that his granddaughter should study more, especially by following Feng Zhengming.

Master Su chuckled, "Old Xia, are you trying to secure a better position for your granddaughter? This restaurant is about to become one of the world's top ten restaurants of the year, so you're having your granddaughter come back to boost its reputation, right?"

Upon hearing Master Su's words, Master Xia's expression immediately changed.

"You old Su, are you jealous of my granddaughter? Humph, it's no use being jealous. Who told you not to let your grandson work for Zhengming when he opened his dry food shop? Now your grandson wants to become his apprentice, but he has no chance."

Master Su was not to be outdone: "Hey, you old Xia, my grandson is now working in the kitchen of the old shop with Yang Bin. Maybe he'll have a chance to come here and work with Zhengming in the future."

Master Xia: "Hmph, even if your grandson comes here, he can only start as an apprentice. He's not qualified to become a master."

The two master craftsmen, disregarding the presence of their apprentices and grand-apprentices, engaged in a fierce and uncompromising competition.

Feng Zhengming was both amused and exasperated as he tried to appease the two veteran workers.

"Uncle Xia, Uncle Su, please don't say that. Since you trust me and are willing to send your children to me to learn cooking, I will definitely teach them the skills well. As long as they are willing to learn and work hard, I guarantee that they will all have equal opportunities."

Then Feng Zhengming added, "Of course, no matter what, Xia Hui will always be the senior sister."

These words immediately filled Master Xia with pride.

"Look, our Xia Hui will always be the senior sister."

This left Master Su speechless.

Why did so many people not have high hopes for Feng Zhengming back then?

Besides, who could have imagined that Feng Zhengming, who was just setting up a stall at the train station, would one day own one of the world's top ten restaurants?

Actually, when Feng Zhengming went to Jubinyuan to challenge Cheng Guosheng, Master Su was very optimistic about Feng Zhengming's future development.

He felt that Feng Zhengming's cooking skills were indeed very good, so he was also interested in sending his grandson to Feng Zhengming's dry rice shop to learn cooking.

At that time, Master Su's son disagreed, believing that his grandson should learn at a large restaurant.

At the time, neither Master Su's son nor Master Su himself thought that Feng Zhengming would achieve what he has today.

Fortunately, Master Su's grandson also graduated from vocational school last year.

Master Su promptly arranged for him to go to the old shop of Feng's dry rice shop.

Although he started as an apprentice, Master Su felt that at least he had the opportunity to learn cooking from Feng Zhengming in the future.

Moreover, Master Su felt that even if his grandson couldn't become Feng Zhengming's apprentice, he could still learn a lot from one of Feng Zhengming's senior brothers.

When Master Su sent his grandson to the old shop, he also gave his grandson some advice.

"If you really want to become Feng Zhengming's apprentice, you must study cooking well. Only if you have a good enough foundation will you have the opportunity to be noticed by Feng Zhengming."

Therefore, Master Su also hopes that his grandson will one day become Feng Zhengming's apprentice.

After a tour, the experienced chefs stayed in the kitchen to watch Feng Zhengming lead the kitchen staff in preparing ingredients.

Throughout the entire process, it must be acknowledged that Feng Zhengming displayed the strictness and elegance of a top chef.

It seems that Feng Zhengming no longer needs to do many things personally.

In fact, many of the tasks were assigned in advance by Feng Zhengming.

So often, he doesn’t need to give orders; the kitchen staff know what they should do.
Therefore, if you observe carefully, you will truly feel that Feng Zhengming and his kitchen staff work together very well.

In particular, Master Su, Master Sun, and Master Xia, who worked in the kitchens of their respective restaurants, had always wanted to achieve the same effect as Feng Zhengming, but none of them had ever truly succeeded.

For lunch, Feng Zhengming invited several veteran chefs to eat at the restaurant.

They also arranged a special room for the experienced craftsmen.

When the dishes were served, Chef Cui couldn't help but feel a little curious.

"Zhengming, is this how you always serve food? Can those people from foreign food associations really adapt to this way of serving food?"

Feng Zhengming explained with a smile: "If Uncle Cui is a foreigner, I will ask the staff to divide the dishes for the foreigners. After the whole dish is served to them, it will be divided into individual portions."

As he spoke, Feng Zhengming asked the service staff to demonstrate for the experienced workers.

I saw the staff dividing a dish into individual portions.

The experienced chef observed for a while and then discovered that each dish could actually be divided into individual portions.

When serving dishes, Feng Zhengming would divide them into portions in advance according to the number of guests.

Master Su asked, "Zhengming, so your restaurant asks how many guests are at a table beforehand when they order?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, we will have the staff confirm the number of guests and notify the kitchen when they take the order, so that the dishes will be served according to the number of people."

Master Cui: "Zhengming really has a great idea. Serving dishes according to the number of people is a kind of combination of Chinese and Western styles."

Feng Zhengming: "There's no other way. The restaurant needs to entertain many different guests from home and abroad. Many guests want to try more dishes from my restaurant, so I serve dishes according to the number of people, which also allows some guests to eat more dishes."

Master Yan: "This design is great. First, it avoids waste, and second, it allows guests to enjoy the deliciousness of different dishes."

Both Chef Sun and Chef Xia approve of this way of serving dishes.

Master Cui: "So, it's clear that when you order here, the cost is also charged per serving?"

Feng Zhengming: "At noon, I will offer some special set meals. Customers can order the special set meals and we will serve a complete set of dishes."

In the evening, you can choose a set menu or order individual dishes.

Of course, these rooms need to be booked in advance for the night, and there is a minimum charge for booking a private room.

The experienced craftsmen nodded in agreement, and everyone generally approved of Feng Zhengming's series of designs.

In fact, the experienced craftsmen were also learning from Feng Zhengming by listening to him.

Only by understanding all the details of Feng Zhengming's restaurant can we analyze why this restaurant was selected as one of the top ten restaurants of the year by the International Gastronomy Association.

Now, listening to what Feng Zhengming said, the veteran workers truly understand.

This restaurant reflects Feng Zhengming's own thoughts; he truly always designed it from the customer's perspective. (End of Chapter)