From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Feng Zhengming made some arrangements for Huiquanlou, and everyone could see that he was preparing to reopen Yanxilou in Beijing.

Many people are also looking forward to his reopening of Yanxilou in the capital.

After all, Feng Zhengming's reputation has grown both domestically and internationally over the years.

Although he opened a branch in Beijing, he also acquired many time-honored shops in the city.

He himself never went to Beijing to open a restaurant or tavern.

The chefs who had worked with Feng Zhengming at state banquets all understood that he was giving face to some of the chefs in Beijing.

Or rather, Feng Zhengming didn't really want to clash with some of the chefs in Beijing.

He has already achieved what many chefs in China have long aspired to in Shanghai, a city in southern China.

Therefore, for Feng Zhengming personally, he didn't need to go to Beijing to prove anything.

However, he himself has already achieved enough glory.

That doesn't mean he can actually avoid going to the capital.

Whether it's for his fellow disciples, or for his master and the Yanxi Tower of the past.

Feng Zhengming still needs to make this trip to Beijing.

He never intended to reopen Yanxilou in the capital for his own benefit.

It was for his senior brothers who had been silently helping him all these years.

It was also for the master who took him in and taught him various skills back then.

It's also for the sake of Shandong cuisine as a whole.

"Haha, perhaps it seems a bit presumptuous of me to say that I want to help people rediscover Shandong cuisine and let more people understand its beauty?"

Feng Zhengming's words made his two senior brothers and He Yunqing laugh.

Yang Bin: "You are our top scorer. If you are still considered arrogant, then we are even less qualified."

Li Huidong: "In fact, many restaurants in Beijing are influenced by Shandong cuisine to some extent. If Yanxilou reopens in Beijing, it may be more easily accepted than if it were to reopen in Shanghai."

He Yunqing: "Zhengming, don't worry, everyone is really looking forward to your trip."

Feng Zhengming: "I definitely will go. I'll take some time in the second half of the year to go to Beijing, find a suitable place first, then do some renovations, and also go through some procedures."

"I'll first pay a visit to the masters in Beijing; after all, I'm opening a restaurant, and I need to show them the respect they deserve."

Upon hearing Feng Zhengming's words, the two senior brothers exchanged a glance.

Li Huidong: "Zhengming, is this your strategy of starting with diplomacy and then resorting to force?"

Feng Zhengming: "No, brother, I really never thought I would fight tooth and nail with my colleagues in Beijing."

Yang Bin: "But if you go, they might not think that way."

Feng Zhengming: "There's nothing I can do about that. They have their own ideas. I can't stop others from thinking that I'm trying to steal their jobs. In short, we just need to do our restaurant well."

Li Huidong: "That's right. Reopening Yanxilou is a big deal, and many people will be watching it closely, so we must do it well."

Yang Bin: "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Not all the restaurants in Beijing can do as well as we do. Many of them can't compare to Huiquanlou, let alone the restaurants in Shanghai."

Feng Zhengming: "Third Brother, it's not that their cooking skills are any different from ours, it's just that they live in the capital and can't have as much freedom as we do."

Feng Zhengming paused slightly, somewhat helplessly: "This is also the reason why I never wanted to go to the capital."

The eldest brother spoke up: "There are some things you can't avoid."

Feng Zhengming: "Yes, there's no way to avoid it. Everyone hopes that I can go to Beijing and open a restaurant that can represent the top cuisine in our country."

Yang Bin: "It seems like there's no shortage of such establishments in Beijing, right? There's the Beijing Hotel, and those other ones too?"

Feng Zhengming: "Yes, there are so many time-honored brands in Beijing, and there are also restaurants that are truly up to the level of state banquets. Originally, it wouldn't have been our turn to go there."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "But the Beijing Hotel doesn't serve Shandong cuisine."

These words initially surprised the two senior brothers and He Yunqing.

After thinking about it carefully, they understood.

In the past, because of the existence of the Eight Great Restaurants in Beijing, there were no Shandong cuisine restaurants in Beijing.

The Beijing Hotel has always served Sichuan cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, and Tan family cuisine.

This can be considered a differentiated business approach.

But as the Eight Great Restaurants gradually decline, Beijing will begin to need a Shandong cuisine restaurant.

Now this heavy responsibility has fallen on Feng Zhengming's shoulders.

Who can blame him for being the most famous right now?

Moreover, he is already one of the world's most famous chefs.

As some people would say, since you've already run one of the top ten restaurants in the world in Shanghai, you can't be too bad in Beijing.

Some people even hope that Feng Zhengming can retain his title in Beijing.

"I think it's very difficult to retain the title. I wouldn't dare say that my restaurant in Shanghai can continue to be one of the top ten restaurants of the year. As for me to retain the title in Beijing? It's almost impossible."

Hearing what their junior brother said, the two senior brothers didn't say anything more.

Li Huidong and Yang Bin were well aware of how difficult it was to be named one of the world's top ten restaurants of the year.

The most crucial uncertainty behind this lies in the phrase "what suits one's taste is precious".

The judges of the International Gastronomy Association are almost all from overseas countries.

They grew up eating all kinds of Western cuisine.

It's really difficult to get them to accept Chinese food all at once.

Just like many students who go abroad to study, they often have all sorts of wonderful expectations about Western food before they go.

But once they get there, they might find that they really can't stand eating Western food every day.

Ultimately, it's a matter of habit.

Different lifestyles and dietary habits often make it difficult to tolerate and accept each other.

This naturally becomes a huge challenge for many Chinese restaurants when they are competing for awards overseas.

Feng Zhengming's restaurant in the old villa in Shanghai incorporated many Western elements from the very beginning, especially in the way the dishes were served, which broke with tradition.

His way of serving dishes is neither the Chinese style of large platters nor the Western style of small portions.

He used a compromise approach, serving the dishes in a Chinese style and then having the waiters portion them out according to the number of guests.

In this way, the unique aesthetic of Chinese dishes is preserved.

It also allows each guest to enjoy the food individually, making it acceptable to all guests.

In addition, there are various decorations and furnishings inside and outside Feng Zhengming's old villa restaurant.

He also incorporated a great deal of Chinese and Western elements into his menu design and seasoning.

This naturally enabled his old-style restaurant to gain recognition from international judges.

However, many things can only be done once and cannot be repeated, and it is not easy to replicate success.

Moreover, Feng Zhengming did not intend to turn Yanxilou in Beijing into a restaurant in an old-style villa.

He was planning to open a Shandong cuisine restaurant called Yanxilou in Beijing.

That's why he summoned all his fellow disciples to Yanxi Tower in the capital.

Of course, simply making Shandong cuisine is not enough.

Feng Zhengming also wants to improve some of the dishes. "We need to make the flavors more palatable to a wider range of people. Since we're going to Beijing, we might need to make Peking duck, and we can make some special modifications to the cooking method."

Hearing Feng Zhengming say this, the eldest and third senior brothers exchanged a glance.

The two senior brothers were well aware of their junior brother's thoughts.

The junior apprentice has worked so hard all these years because he wants to break the mold and shatter people's stereotypes about Shandong cuisine.

Unfortunately, Feng Zhengming did not actually achieve his goal.

His store seems to be very popular in Shanghai.

Many people like his shops, whether it's the branches of those dry rice shops or the affordable restaurant in that old-style house on the Western restaurant street.

Or perhaps a newly opened home-style restaurant, or a children's lunch kitchen specially designed for kids.

These restaurants all feature elements of Shandong cuisine.

However, no one considers these shops to be Shandong cuisine restaurants.

"This time, we're going to show the foodies in Beijing, and the foodies around the world who are in Beijing, what a new style of Shandong cuisine really is."

Upon hearing Feng Zhengming's words, Li Huidong and Yang Bin immediately burst into laughter.

Yang Bin: "Haha, Zhengming, you're really bold. Only you would dare to come up with the concept of 'new-style Shandong cuisine'."

Li Huidong: "Is it because your master doesn't want to go that you want to do what you like?"

Feng Zhengming: "It's not about my personal preference, but about making it acceptable to more customers."

He Yunqing: "It's the head chef who has the ideas. In Jinan, Jubinyuan is now the representative of new-style Shandong cuisine. Cheng Guosheng has been promoting it to the outside world. Now Jubinyuan is the new-style Shandong cuisine."

Feng Zhengming: "He is indeed a new style of Shandong cuisine. It must be admitted that Cheng Guosheng's skills are really solid."

Li Huidong nodded: "That's right, very solid."

"It's just that he didn't position himself well," Feng Zhengming gave a precise assessment.

Yang Bin: "If Cheng Guosheng had really stuck to traditional Shandong cuisine, he probably would have had a hard time making a comeback and wouldn't have the reputation and opportunities he has now."

Feng Zhengming: "Haha, so I really admire him for daring to make some bold changes."

However, Feng Zhengming then said, "I think that perhaps in the future, Brother Cheng will return to traditional Shandong cuisine."

These words left the two senior brothers and He Yunqing somewhat incredulous.

Third Senior Brother: "Why does he want to return to traditional Shandong cuisine?"

Feng Zhengming: "Because new-style Shandong cuisine can be made anywhere in the country, but it cannot be made in Shandong, especially not in Jinan."

This still doesn't make everyone understand?
If it can be done in other places, why can't it be done throughout the entire Shandong province?
Feng Zhengming understood everyone's doubts and gave a serious explanation.

"This is Jinan, the birthplace of Shandong cuisine. We Shandong people have always been proud of Shandong cuisine, so all parts of Shandong will adhere to the traditional Shandong cuisine."

In most people's eyes, modern Shandong cuisine is like a child that has gone astray.

These words clearly explain everything.

Of course, there was another reason behind these words that Feng Zhengming did not directly state.

That is, most people in Shandong prefer to stick to tradition.

This kind of persistence can often appear as stubbornness.

Therefore, many people in Shandong are unwilling to accept too many changes.

What they prefer to see is something that remains unchanged for thousands of years.

Therefore, Cheng Guosheng is considered by many Shandong cuisine chefs to be inauthentic.

As for Feng Zhengming?
In fact, if he hadn't already won the national cooking competition championship...

His restaurant in Shanghai was named one of the top ten restaurants of the year, and he has probably been expelled from the ranks of Shandong cuisine chefs long ago.

Because the dishes Feng Zhengming made in all his restaurants outside of Shandong were considered unorthodox by many Shandong cuisine chefs, and some harsher ones felt that they were not Shandong cuisine at all.

Feng Zhengming: "I wanted my master to go to Yanxilou Restaurant in Beijing before, hoping to follow the path of traditional Shandong cuisine in Beijing."

But my master explicitly refused to go. He took me to the Yan Family Restaurant, and after meeting his eldest brother, I understood his intentions.

Our master hopes we won't be confined to traditional Shandong cuisine, but dare to try and make changes based on it, to research and develop more new styles of Shandong cuisine, and to change more people's perceptions of Shandong cuisine.

This was Feng Zhengming's own wish, and also his master's expectation of him.

Every master hopes that their apprentice can "surpass the master in learning".

Li Huidong: "When we go to Beijing, we'll show off our skills and let our fellow chefs there have some idea what we're made of."

Yang Bin: "That's right, we need to let them know that our Shandong cuisine chefs are just as good as them."

Feng Zhengming: That's right. I believe you senior brothers have that ability.

Just as Feng Zhengming was having a lively conversation with his two senior brothers.

They started talking about some dishes they would cook at Yanxi Restaurant in Beijing.

Feng Nuanyou was brought to Huiquan Tower by her great-aunt and aunt.

As soon as she entered, the little girl swaggered in and shouted, "Where's your head chef? Tell him I want to see him!"

The waiters at Huiquanlou Restaurant saw a little girl walk in and immediately demanded to see the head chef.

At first, everyone thought the little girl was very cute and interesting.

Soon, a regular waiter at Huiquanlou recognized Feng Nuanyou.

"So it's our young boss. He's here to see our top scholar, Feng, right?"

Feng Nuanyou: "Yes, yes, is my dad here?"

Pan Fanglan stepped forward and said, "Yes, your father is in a private room upstairs. Would you like me to take you up?"

Feng Nuanyou was somewhat unfamiliar with Pan Fanglan, so she still held her aunt's hand.

"Then take us up there."

Feng Shengnan hesitated to go up: "Youyou, let's not go up. Let's wait down here. Maybe your dad is busy up there?"

Feng Nuanyou: "It's okay, Dad isn't busy, let's go."

Feng Suying: "This girl is just taking advantage of her father's doting on her, so she is fearless. I think we should let her father keep an eye on her from now on."

Feng Nuanyou: "Hehehe, let's go up together, Grandma."

As she spoke, the little girl reached out and pulled her great-aunt along with her.

In fact, a waiter had already gone upstairs to inform Feng Zhengming beforehand.

When everyone in the private room heard that Feng Nuanyou had arrived, Li Huidong and Yang Bin were naturally very happy and immediately took the initiative to go and greet her.

Seeing his two senior brothers so excited, Feng Zhengming was both amused and exasperated.

"Why are you all so excited? You even went downstairs to greet her? Aren't you spoiling her?"

Li Huidong and Yang Bin said almost in unison, "It's been so long! I've missed your little girl."

He Yunqing also stood up and said that he wanted to see Feng Nuanyou.

Feng Zhengming never expected that his daughter's arrival would be even more popular than his own visit to Huiquanlou.

When they arrived, they found out it was their second aunt and third uncle's daughter with a little girl.

Feng Zhengming also took the initiative to greet them downstairs, and invited his second aunt, sister, and his own daughter into the private room upstairs. (End of this chapter)