From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Chapter 247 Encouraging Female Apprentices

Everyone in the back kitchen of the dry rice shop, including Li Huidong and his two apprentices who had not left, saw Lu Chongshan mixing and rolling out noodles.

Everyone really has to admit that Lu Chongshan's skills are indeed extraordinary.

Because tonight was a trial, Feng Zhengming didn't ask Lu Chongshan to prepare a lot, so he asked him to prepare 5 kilograms of noodles.

In Lu Zhongshan's hands, these five kilograms of noodles were like a child's toy in the hands of an adult.

Lu Chongshan kneaded the dough almost effortlessly and quickly.

It’s still three times of relaxing and three times of kneading.

Finally, he gently pressed and patted the dough, and then Lu Chongshan directly used his longest rolling pin of 1.4 meters to quickly roll the dough into a thin crust.

Even this time, Lu Zhongshan completely let go and didn't use the small rolling pin to level it.

The large piece of dough rolled out is completely uniform in thickness.

At Feng Zhengming's request, Lu Chongshan finally cut three types of noodles: thin, thick and wide.

Among them, Lu Zhongshan cut some more lasagna and asked Li Huidong, who was waiting, to take some away.

When Lu Chongshan's hand-rolled noodles were ready, Feng Zhengming also took some of them to the food stall for use.

Naturally, the dry rice shop was handed over to the third senior brother Yang Bin.

Feng Zhengming and his senior brother left the dry rice shop together.

Li Huidong spent some time with Feng Zhengming and the others.

Li Huidong also said something to Feng Zhengming on the way.

"Zhengming, you must prepare well for this provincial young chef cooking exchange competition and strive to shine in the competition. Then you must take advantage of the opportunity to expand your dry rice shop, or take down the shop next to it. Directly expand the business, or simply find a big shop and open a new one."

When Feng Zhengming heard what his senior brother said, he naturally smiled and agreed: "Don't worry, senior brother, that's what I think. I will start preparations when the game is over."

Li Huidong continued: "Lu Chongshan is indeed a good person, and his hand-made noodles are indeed suitable for your dry rice shop. However, you and Lao San need to observe more about his specific character. Don't completely believe him too easily." ."

Feng Zhengming became serious, nodded and said, "My third brother and I will definitely keep an eye on him. I'll tell my third uncle later to see if he has any friends and help go to Tengcheng to investigate Lu Chongshan's background."

Li Huidong nodded immediately: "This is the best. Now, we don't have much feeling in Quancheng, but some places outside are still quite chaotic, so we still need to find out the details of the other party."

Feng Zhengming added: "Brother, if you need anything over there, you can come to me and my third brother. We will definitely help as soon as possible."

Li Huidong laughed: "Hahaha, I don't need your help here. I can handle it now with Leizi and Xiaopeng, not to mention my brother-in-law, and now the eldest cousin and the others are also working honestly, so the canteen is no problem. .”

Feng Zhengming still reminded the senior brother: "Be careful with Fang Jian. I always feel that there is something wrong with him not causing any trouble for so long. You and the eldest brother-in-law should be careful about him."

Li Huidong nodded and agreed: "Okay, we will definitely let him go."

At the intersection, Li Huidong and the others said goodbye to Feng Zhengming and the others, and headed towards the train station and the brewery canteen respectively.

Feng Zhengming led Chen Anbang and Xia Hui to the train station and quickly set up the food stalls.

Now Feng Zhengming's food stall has returned to the location closest to the small square of the train station.

After what happened to Xu Laosan, Feng Zhengming has become a real "local snake" in the eyes of other food stall owners.

In this area of ​​the train station, it can be said that no one dares to provoke him casually.

Even now, Feng Zhengming has simply set up a food stall and no longer lets Chen Anbang and Xia Hui attract train station passengers.

Because now every night, there will be some regular nearby customers coming to eat at the food stalls at the train station.

Therefore, in order to prevent too many seats from being taken away, Feng Zhengming simply did not attract outbound passengers from the train station.

And in this way, there will often be scenes that make other food stall owners helpless.

Some of the outbound passengers they recruited may immediately choose to eat at Feng Zhengming's food stall after seeing the sign.

In the past, these food stall owners might have argued with Feng Zhengming.

Or some persecution on the tourists they solicit.

But now facing Feng Zhengming, they can only honestly "respect" the customer's choice.

Sometimes, Feng Zhengming would be a little embarrassed and would tell some customers that they could choose to eat at other people's food stalls. If they wanted to eat their meat, they could buy it separately and take it there.

In this way, other food stalls can get some business at night.

Tonight, another table of train station employees came to Feng Zhengming’s food stall.

They just happened to change jobs and get off work. Several people got together and wanted to have a drink, so the first thing they thought of was Feng Zhengming's food stall.

When employees from the train station come, Feng Zhengming will naturally give them some discounts and receive them well.

Everyone really has nothing to say about the food at Feng Zhengming’s food stall.

It just so happened that tonight the train station employees ordered a plate of fried chicken with soy sauce.

Feng Zhengming gave Xia Hui a serious demonstration.

Xia Hui was on the side, watching carefully as Feng Zhengming fried walnut kernels at low oil temperature, then simmered diced chicken, fried sauce and stir-fried diced chicken. The whole process was done in one go.

After taking out the pot and putting it on the plate, Xia Hui glanced at her watch.

"Seven minutes in total."

Feng Zhengming handed the plate of fried chicken with soy sauce to Chen Anbang to serve, and then said to Xia Hui: "Seven minutes is still a bit slow. Of course, on the day of selection, you can slow down a little more and cook as much as possible." If you do it to a sufficient standard, you must remember that standard is the key to whether you can be shortlisted."

Xia Hui thought for a while and couldn't help but said: "Uncle, even if we are shortlisted, we will run with you."

Feng Zhengming said seriously: "You are wrong to think this way. This is a young chef cooking exchange competition. What is exchange? Exchange is for young chefs to compare with each other. The competition is not the key to your participation. After being shortlisted, show yourself, Communicating with others is key.”

When Feng Zhengming said this, Xia Hui fell into deep thought for a while.

Feng Zhengming saw Xia Hui deep in thought and asked in a deep voice, "Are you thinking whether you will meet your family members in the competition? How will you face them?"

After hearing this, Xia Hui raised her head suddenly, completely unexpected that Feng Zhengming had guessed what she was thinking.

When Feng Zhengming saw Xia Hui's surprised look, he smiled and said, "Don't be surprised. Although you didn't say clearly where your home is, or what kind of restaurant your home is? But I think this time, the whole province The young chef exchange competition, your family members should come, and your brother will participate."

Xia Hui finally nodded: "Yes, my brother represents my family's restaurant in the competition."

Feng Zhengming asked again: "So? Do you not want to face your brother? Or are you worried that you can't defeat him?"

"Both." Xia Hui was very honest. Feng Zhengming smiled and said: "Then you shouldn't worry at all. First of all, you and Sun Hai are still apprentices. When you were shortlisted and selected, the three fixed dishes were not difficult for you, but when you really enter the formal competition In the middle, you need to make dishes that show off your own cooking skills, which is very difficult for you."

Xia Hui also understood in her heart, so she just nodded: "I understand, it is very difficult."

Feng Zhengming shook his head: "You haven't fully understood yet. You may not know that among the three dishes I prepared for the competition, only one has been finalized. There are still two dishes that I haven't thought about yet. I may need to discuss it with the master again. one time.

So to truly enter the top ten, or even the top fifty, every young chef is not competing by himself, but there may be a team behind him to help them design the dishes, and then cook them on the spot. , be as perfect as possible to truly win high scores. "

Xia Hui was pointed out by Feng Zhengming, and she immediately understood the current gap between herself and her brother.

"My brother will have family members to help him. Grandpa and father will help him choose the dishes he wants to cook, and help him with the cooking process. The final presentation of the dishes is also designed for him."

Feng Zhengming asked: "Do you think it's cruel? Do you think you can't defeat your family through hard work?"

Xia Hui hesitated for a moment, then nodded helplessly.

Feng Zhengming laughed: "If you think so, you are totally wrong. You relied on your own ability to break through and enter the official competition, and you can also complete a dish in the official competition. This in itself means that you have won." Your brother, because you relied on your own ability, you showed your ability.”

Xia Hui looked at Feng Zhengming in surprise. She felt a sense of power from Feng Zhengming's words.

That is a kind of power that cannot be easily surrendered.

Maybe my brother has family members to help him.

My younger brother has better conditions than me to learn cooking.

But that doesn't mean that through my own efforts, I can show myself in the provincial young chef cooking exchange competition, which is not worthy of recognition.

As Feng Zhengming said, as long as you work hard to show yourself, you will have succeeded and won over your younger brother who needs help from his family.

Seeing the smile reappear on Xia Hui's face, she suddenly became enlightened and regained her confidence.

Feng Zhengming said: "Work hard and prepare for the selection first. After you break through, I will work with the master to design a dish for you so that you can compete with your brother."

Xia Hui was really touched at this moment. This may be because she had a falling out with her family because she was learning to cook.

This is the first time I meet someone who recognizes my desire to learn cooking skills and will sincerely help me.

Xia Hui stared at Feng Zhengming and said, "Uncle, I will work hard to break out."

After the two people chatted, the table of train station employees seemed to have finished their drinks, and a middle-aged man came out to find Feng Zhengming.

"Xiao Feng, do you have anything else to eat besides rice tonight? The rest of us drank a little too much tonight. We want to eat noodles with soup and water in the mouth. Do you have any?"

Because Feng Zhengming has always served rice with meat since he started selling box lunches at the train station.

Later dry rice shops basically served rice.

So naturally the food stalls only served rice before.

But tonight, Lu Chongshan's appearance allows Feng Zhengming to give customers one more choice.

"Stationmaster Wu, do you think it's a coincidence? A hand-made noodle chef just came to our restaurant today. I brought some of his hand-made noodles over tonight. If you want to eat noodles, I'll give you the next hand-made noodles. ?You guys drank a little too much, I’ll give you some hand-made noodles with sour onions, do you think that’s okay?”

Stationmaster Wu couldn't help but salivate when he heard this. He seemed to be thinking of the sour aroma of vinegar mixed with the aroma of green onion, plus the taste of hand-rolled noodles.

After taking a sip, Stationmaster Wu said, "Okay, that's it. Give us a big portion."

Feng Zhengming smiled and agreed: "Okay, I'll serve it to you right away."

Scallion soup noodles are made differently from soy pot noodles.

Scallion noodle soup is even simpler.

Feng Zhengming put oil in the pot, then put the chopped green onions into the pot and stir-fried until the green onions turned brown, and then added vinegar to the pot.

The moment the vinegar is cooked, the vinegar collides with the aroma of green onions in the pot, creating a pungent and alluring aroma.

Some people passing by the food stall were attracted by the aroma and stopped.

After cooking the vinegar, Feng Zhengming added soy sauce to the pot.

Soy sauce also needs to be stir-fried, and may even cause some coking.

Then Feng Zhengming added some soup and water to the pot.

While Feng Zhengming was doing this, he asked Xia Hui to roll out the noodles and cook them first.

By the time the soup is boiling, the flavor has been completely released.

Feng Zhengming asked Xia Hui to take out the rolled noodles and put them into his pot to simmer.

Then turn off the heat and put the pot of pickled onion hand-rolled noodles into a large soup bowl.

Afterwards, Feng Zhengming personally brought it in and served it to the employees at the train station.

"Come on, stationmaster Wu, please try it. This is the hand-made noodles made by the new hand-made noodle chef in our dry rice shop today. I made a simple sour onion soup for you, just in time for you to drink some wine. Be more comfortable."

As soon as the soup noodles were placed on the table, the smell rose and it seemed to wake up several people at the train station in an instant.

Stationmaster Wu inhaled the fragrance fiercely and swallowed saliva at the same time.

After a long while, Stationmaster Wu managed to swallow his saliva and said, "It smells so good. The smell of vinegar and green onions is so tempting. This is the aroma of our Qilu Noodle Soup."

Everyone else nodded, saying that this bowl of noodle soup was really tempting.

Then several people each took a bowl of noodles.

First, take a sip of the soup, and the vinegar and green onion flavors instantly hit your mouth. It really made several people feel like they were completely sober.

And when a few people are eating noodles, the chewy and non-stick noodles, paired with the aroma of vinegar and green onion, will make you unable to stop eating.

A large bowl of noodle soup was eaten up by several people in three strokes.

When Station Master Wu and the others were full and came out to pay, several people naturally praised tonight's dishes, but the hand-made noodles at the end were even more unforgettable for them.

Stationmaster Wu said with a smile: "No wonder your business is getting better and better. Your craftsmanship is incredible. The last bowl of noodles was so delicious. The hand-rolled noodles were really strong, and the sour soup was smooth to drink."

Feng Zhengming accepted the money and said politely: "I've taken the money. I welcome Stationmaster Wu to come often in the future."

Stationmaster Wu and others all agreed that they would come again.

(End of this chapter)