From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

When Feng Zhengming was handling sea cucumbers, Sun Hai and Chen Anbang were helping him and watching how he handled fresh sea cucumbers.

After breaking open the belly of the sea cucumber, Feng Zhengming did not take out the intestines. He just rinsed them carefully with water.

"Remember, sea cucumber intestines do not need to be removed, but when cleaning, you must insert your thumb into it like this and push it back and forth to clean it."

Sun Hai and Chen Anbang also learned from Feng Zhengming's meticulous and gentle cleaning.

After cleaning, Feng Zhengming put the sea cucumber into a prepared clay pot that is usually used to flavor the sea cucumber.

In the clay pot were bones, ham and half an old chicken prepared that day.

Of course, the most important thing is the soul that gives the sea cucumber its flavor.

That's the browned onion and ginger left over from frying the scallions in oil this morning.

Everything is packed in specially sewn gauze bags and placed in clay pots.

Put these things in the clay pot, and then put the sea cucumbers in gauze bags and put them into the clay pot.

This process of stewing sea cucumber to add flavor is a very important process.

This may be something that many restaurants don’t do when making this dish.

If the sea cucumber is not flavored in advance in this way, then after the sea cucumber is cooked with green onion, the flavor will only be attached to the soup on the surface, and the inside of the sea cucumber will not be flavored, resulting in a tasteless dish.

And this flavoring process is also very particular, including the stewing time and what kind of seasonings are added.

As well as the control of the salt when entering the taste, it can be said to be a test for the chef.

If it is not fresh sea cucumber, use water-dried sea cucumber.

Before the step of savoring it, you need to blanch the sea cucumber to let it spit out part of the soaking water.

Of course, the key to roasting sea cucumbers with green onions is also the key.

First of all, you must choose Zhangqiu green onions.

Only use the white part of the green onion.

After cutting the green onions into sections, fry them in oil first. Be sure to fry the green onions thoroughly until the surface is slightly brown.

Afterwards, seal the green onions and oil together in a small bowl and steam them again.

The onion flavor will be more intense in this way.

When Feng Zhengming makes this braised sea cucumber dish with green onion, for the sake of beauty and to increase the taste, he usually adds a green onion that will not be heavily colored by frying and has not been steamed.

Two scallions are paired together, followed by sea cucumber that has been grilled for flavor.

People who eat it will feel a very complex and multiple taste.

That’s how cooking happens a lot of the time.

A delicacy, I want it to be delicious enough.

Then you need to be careful during the cooking process.

As the saying goes: if something tastes good, it will come out; if there is no taste, it will come in.

The real point of cooking delicious food is to remove the bad taste of the ingredients as much as possible, and then give the ingredients a satisfying taste.

If you cook sea cucumbers with green onions, the sea cucumbers are not seasoned in advance, and the green onions are not fried first and then steamed.

Then the final result may be nothing but the flavor of the soup hanging on the sea cucumber and the little bit flowing from the surface.

No matter how beautiful the presentation is, it is just a flashy display.

Feng Zhengming's requirements for all the chefs in the Huiquan Building back kitchen are that they must be serious when cooking any dish, and must be able to show the characteristics of the ingredients and the chef's skills.

Just simply showing the characteristics of the ingredients cannot be called cooking in Feng Zhengming's opinion.

A chef should be an artist of taste.

Chefs must be able to present beautiful flavors to others.

Being able to preserve the beautiful taste of the ingredients while also presenting a richer and beautiful taste is what can truly demonstrate the skill of a chef.

The kitchen was busy, and as it got darker, customers who had reserved private rooms began to arrive, and the kitchen began to take away the dishes for the guests.

At around eight o'clock in the evening, He Yunqing walked into the kitchen and found Feng Zhengming.

"Tao Jingwu is here, and so is his second brother. They are accompanying people from the province. It should be the province that arranges to receive someone in our Huiquan Building today."

Feng Zhengming immediately understood that He Yunqing came to him with the intention of asking him to go to the private room to meet him.

After explaining to the chef, Feng Zhengming and He Yunqing went upstairs to the private room.

Opening the door and entering the private room, I saw brothers Tao Jingwen and Tao Jingwu in the private room, and Chen Zhiheng was also present.

Of course, the protagonists in the private room were not them, but a provincial leader present and several foreign merchants who were obviously involved in this economic and trade event.

Seeing Feng Zhengming come in, Chen Zhiheng stood up and took the initiative to introduce him to everyone in the private room.

"This is the young chef of Huiquan Building and the first young chef champion in our province, Feng Zhengming, Chef Feng."

The provincial leader naturally knew Feng Zhengming and greeted Feng Zhengming with a smile.

"Xiao Feng, thank you for your hard work today. These are the overseas Chinese who came to participate in economic and trade activities this time. They heard that your Huiquan Building is very famous now, so they asked to come to your place to try it."

After a short pause, the provincial leader asked: "Xiao Feng, you must cook well today and show the characteristics of our Shandong cuisine."

Feng Zhengming immediately nodded in agreement: "Don't worry, leader, it is our honor at Huiquan House to receive all the overseas Chinese. We will definitely cook the dishes well so that you can taste the characteristics of our Shandong cuisine."

At this time, a person sitting next to the provincial leader spoke first.

“Shandong cuisine can be regarded as the earliest cuisine in China. At that time, almost all the most famous restaurants in the capital served Shandong cuisine.

Qilu is my hometown. I chose Quancheng as my first stop when I came back this time because I wanted to taste the taste of my hometown and see if there is any new development in our Shandong cuisine. "

Although the other person's accent may have changed a bit because he has been living abroad for many years, he still retains some Qilu accent.

Obviously this time the other party came back to find their roots and taste.

I hope I can get back some of the flavors I once remembered.

This also makes Feng Zhengming a little strange. According to the other party's age and experience, shouldn't he go to Jufengde when he returns to Quancheng to find out more?
Although he was curious in his heart, Feng Zhengming still expressed his welcome to the other party on the surface.

"Sir, please rest assured that we at Huiquan Restaurant will try our best to use the most traditional techniques today to present you with the taste of classic Shandong cuisine."

At this time, another overseas Chinese said with a smile: "We were originally arranged to go to Jufengde, but these days we have seen a lot of publicity about your Huiquan Building in local newspapers and TV news, so we wanted to come and take a look. "

These words answered Feng Zhengming's doubts.

He also didn't expect that his publicity in newspapers and TV would really attract big shots.

The provincial leader also smiled and said: "Xiao Feng and your Huiquan Tower have become very famous in Quancheng during this period, and you can often be heard."

Feng Zhengming could only say: "The main reason is that I took over Huiquan Building again, and the business is indeed a bit cold, so I thought of using advertisements to promote it." Tao Jingwen opened his mouth to help.

"The wedding banquet you organized was very good. It combined tradition and novelty very well. At the end, you gave the bride and groom a blessing made of flower cakes. It really reflected our traditional folk customs."

After hearing this, Feng Zhengming quickly smiled and said: "Thank you, Director Tao, for the compliment. Our original intention of designing the wedding banquet at Huiquan Building was to restore our own customs."

The old gentleman among the overseas Chinese immediately said: "This is very good. Our own things need to be discovered and inherited by ourselves in order to continue."

Feng Zhengming continued: “Perhaps my understanding as a chef is shallow, I think that what is national is what belongs to the world.

Our Chinese nation has a splendid civilization and many traditional customs. After removing the dross and making some changes and continuation through development, our cultural inheritance should be more dazzling. "

These words made all the overseas Chinese representatives present very excited.

Especially the old gentleman couldn't help but clapped his hands and applauded: "Well, what belongs to the nation belongs to the world. This is a good saying. It's like we live abroad, but we still retain our traditional habits and still miss our homeland.

The splendid civilization of our Chinese nation should indeed be shown to the world in a more modern way. "

Having said this, the old man looked at Feng Zhengming and said: "Chef Feng, your concept is very good. Don't think that just because you are a chef, you are inferior to others. Top chefs abroad have great status.

Compared with some foreign chefs, I believe that our domestic chefs should be no worse in all aspects, or even better than them.

It’s just that we need to get out more and show our own food culture to the world. "

The provincial leader smiled and said: "Mr. Situ, you are right, our Shandong cuisine also needs to go out more and show itself to the world."

After saying this, the provincial leader said to Feng Zhengming: "Xiao Feng, you have to perform well today, we are looking forward to your performance."

Feng Zhengming responded: "Okay, leaders and gentlemen, please wait a moment. I will go down to prepare. I guarantee that you will taste the most authentic Shandong cuisine today."

After saying this, Feng Zhengming exited the private room and quickly returned to the kitchen.

Stepping into the kitchen, Feng Zhengming shouted: "Get ready to serve. Instead of serving mashed yam for the cold dishes, serve peach blossom shrimp mixed with soy sauce. Hurry and prepare."

When Feng Zhengming came back and said that he wanted to replace the yam puree originally prepared for the cold dishes, everyone in the kitchen was a little surprised.

But although it was strange, the chef had already said it, so everyone naturally prepared it immediately.

The first step is to prepare the peach blossom shrimps. This batch of peach blossom shrimps is delivered together with fresh sea cucumbers.

This aspect is also thanks to Feng Zhengming's sixth senior brother in the seaside city.

You can help him find these fresher seafood ingredients.

Among the four cold dishes, except for replacing the yam paste, the other three dishes: amber pig's trotters, white braised pork knuckles, and seasonal vegetable platter remain unchanged.

The peach blossom shrimps were quickly trimmed and cleaned, and Sun Hai followed Feng Zhengming's request to scald them with water at about 90 degrees Celsius.

After blanching, remove the shrimps and immediately cool them in pure water with ice.

After cooling, drain the water and mix the peach blossom shrimps with the prepared sauce.

The last step was performed by Feng Zhengming. He heated the peppercorn oil and poured it on the plated peach blossom shrimps, and quickly closed it with a lid.

Then Feng Zhengming asked people to start serving food in the private room upstairs.

"Let's take the food, take the food, remember to serve it slowly, give the peach blossoms and shrimp time to cook, don't be in a hurry."

Although he knew that the person serving the dishes was already experienced, Feng Zhengming still gave special instructions.

After the cold dishes were taken away, Feng Zhengming continued to watch the preparation of other dishes in the kitchen.

As for the sea cucumber roasted with green onions, the sea cucumber is almost flavorful and can be taken out of the clay pot.

Then it’s time to prepare some classic stir-fried dishes from Shandong cuisine.

Such as stir-fried kidneys, fried double crispy in oil, and cooked dishes such as braised chicken in soy sauce.

In order to avoid problems, Feng Zhengming cooks almost all the dishes himself.

Of course, all the cutting and matching work is done by other chefs nearby.

And some stewed dishes are also handed over to other chefs.

Feng Zhengming worked on the stove himself, which attracted the attention of the apprentices in the kitchen.

Although Gu Zhicheng and the other chefs in the back kitchen are now capable of cooking, their cooking skills are still inferior to Feng Zhengming's.

There was absolutely no sloppiness in Feng Zhengming's process.

Whether it's stir-fried dishes or various grilled dishes, he can handle them very easily.

The key is that even Gu Zhicheng and the others admire him.

Feng Zhengming’s seasoning is accurate with one spoonful.

This allows Feng Zhengming to save a lot of the process of tasting and seasoning again.

This makes Feng Zhengming's cooking look very neat.

Upstairs, four courses of cold dishes were first delivered to the private room.

Seeing the cold dishes on the table, the service staff introduced them to the guests.

When introducing the Braised Peach Blossom Shrimp, I uncovered the Braised Peach Blossom Shrimp. The rich aroma of Sichuan peppercorn oil and the umami flavor of the shrimp mixed together really made the entire private room fragrant.

The other overseas Chinese all raised their heads to look at the dish in surprise.

That old Mr. Situ was obviously well-informed.

Smelling the smell, the old man said: "This smell should be the smell of pepper oil and soy sauce. These peach blossom shrimps are very fresh."

The service staff immediately introduced: "Yes, the peach blossom shrimp was just delivered today. Our chef's brother is at the seaside in Laicheng, so he will provide us with fresh seafood."

Mr. Situ said with a smile: "Peach blossom shrimp is indeed only found in Bohai Bay."

In fact, this stewed peach blossom shrimp dish was the first time even the provincial leaders had seen it.

Mr. Situ asked the waiter: "Does your Huiquan restaurant serve this dish every day?"

The waiter nodded: "Yes, because fresh shrimps are not delivered every day, so it is true that they are not available every day."

These words made everyone else in the private room suddenly understand.

It turns out that it is not a dish that is available every day, so no wonder people don’t see it often.

Mr. Situ added: "You cover it with a bowl before serving it. After you cook it with pepper oil before serving it, you cover it with the bowl and stir-fry the dish during the serving process, right?"

The service staff smiled and replied: "Mr., you really understand. You are right."

"Hahaha, I don't know much, I just liked to eat when I was young, and I like to study when I eat something delicious."

After chatting for a long time, Mr. Situ saw that no one was using their chopsticks. He smiled and said, "Okay, okay, people talk more as they get older. Let's try it together. Chef Feng's craftsmanship should be very good."

After Mr. Situ and the provincial leaders moved their chopsticks, everyone moved their chopsticks one after another. (End of chapter)