From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Chapter 437 The commanding ability of the chef

At the banquet after the Huiquan Building was listed today, Feng Zhengming did not cook too much himself. He let other young chefs in the back kitchen cook many dishes.

Naturally, this is to give young chefs a chance to showcase themselves.

After all, after being listed, Huiquan Building will be an exchange base for Shandong cuisine.

Since it is an exchange base, it must not be just the chef Feng Zhengming who cooks in person every time.

It is necessary for other chefs in the back kitchen to also have certain skills.

After everyone has gotten along with each other during this period, Feng Zhengming has basically understood everyone’s characteristics.

Gu Zhicheng is a relatively well-rounded person. He is not outstanding in all aspects of the kitchen, but he can steadily cook dishes with different techniques.

This stability in his craftsmanship makes him the absolute core of the chefs besides Feng Zhengming.

Maybe if a dish is given to Gu Zhicheng to cook, he can't make some of Feng Zhengming's unconventional and classic designs.

However, Gu Zhicheng is able to cook the dishes perfectly according to traditional techniques.

This reflects Gu Zhicheng's solid basic skills.

Feng Zhengming came to him because he took a fancy to this characteristic of his.

After Feng Zhengming got to know him better, Feng Zhengming in particular broke down some key points of traditional cooking techniques and taught them to everyone.

Gu Zhicheng felt as if he had opened up the two channels of Ren and Du.

In one fell swoop, he integrated his long-standing experience and thoroughly grasped the key points of traditional techniques.

Qi Jiale has a more out-of-the-box personality, but if he is asked to be responsible for some stir-fried dishes, he can basically complete them very well.

Especially during the stir-frying process, Qi Jiale's control of some fire skills and spoon skills made Qi Jiale even more outstanding.

Therefore, Feng Zhengming will hand over most of the stir-fried dishes to Qi Jiale.

Compared with Qi Jiale's bold personality, Guan Wei is the more calm one.

When Guan Wei is cooking, he is the one who talks the least in the kitchen.

Sometimes even the two apprentices he led didn't know how to communicate with his teacher.

But Guan Wei's calm character is very good when it comes to cooking.

Guan Wei can be more patient and cook the cooked dishes until they are as they should be.

Feng Zhengming left the cooking to Guan Wei. Guan Wei was always very patient with the dishes that took a long time to cook, and would always pay attention and make adjustments according to Feng Zhengming's instructions.

For example, the classic Shandong cuisine dry-braised pomfret served on every table today.

The dish itself probably isn't very complicated.

But during the cooking process, because there are so many tables to be served at the same time today, the fish needs to be processed in advance, and even several fish need to be cooked at the same time.

After it is cooked in the big pot, put the fish separately on the plate.

This requires not only enough patience, but also sufficient mastery of the cauldron and firepower.

Guan Wei was guarding it alone, leading his two apprentices to handle every fish.

Cook multiple strips together in a large pot. The advantage of doing this is that when the dish is cooked in one pot, the juice will be richer.

But because they are cooked together in a big pot, there will be some difficulties.

That is, it is not so easy to control the taste.

After all, if the flavors of multiple fish are uneven, some fish may have too strong flavor, and other fish may not be cooked yet.

So burn it over high fire first to burn off a lot of soup, and then start to slowly remove it.

In this process, you need to gently turn each fish and adjust it according to the taste of the fish.

The whole process is one that tests your patience.

Guan Wei and his two apprentices looked a little anxious.

But Guan Wei always remained patient and moved and adjusted bit by bit so that the final taste of each fish was almost the same.

After cooking a large pot, carefully take out the fish one by one.

Place them on plates one by one, and then thicken the soup in the pot.

Divide the ingredients that have soaked up the soup evenly into each plate of fish, and spread them on the surface of the fish to make the fish on the plate more beautiful.

Guan Wei's patience made Feng Zhengming feel comfortable leaving the cooking to him.

Yao Zhenhui is usually responsible for some soup dishes, so he and Bao Feng, who is responsible for stewing the soup, cooperate more.

Usually if you need soup, you have to ask Bao Feng.

Bao Feng is very good at making soups and can prepare all kinds of soups needed by the kitchen as required.

Bao Feng is now in charge of several different soups including clear soup, thick soup, and milk soup.

Bao Feng and Yao Zhenhui will also be responsible for making soup dishes together.

For example, the most classic elbow cabbage in milk soup at Huiquan Restaurant is made by Yao Zhenhui and Bao Feng.

Bao Fengfeng prepared the required milk soup in advance, and Yao Zhenhui did all the processing of the elbows and cabbage.

Two people prepare it separately, and finally combine it and send it to the steamer to steam it.

A very classic dish, which is the most ordered by customers who come to Huiquanlou to eat, is elbow cabbage in milk soup.

Of course, under Feng Zhengming's subtle influence, Huiquanlou's back kitchen has gradually developed higher requirements for plate presentation, and has also extended a set of perfect procedures.

For example, during the cooking process, every young chef will carefully handle the ingredients.

For example, young chefs also pay attention to the shapes of some side dishes when cutting them.

When placing the dishes, we will choose the containers for the dishes very carefully.

This is also related to the fact that Feng Zhengming purchases a batch of new utensils from time to time.

In the past, these young chefs didn’t pay much attention to containers.

This is often not taught in vocational schools.

Now at Huiquanlou, Feng Zhengming has made everyone gradually realize the importance of containers in every dish.

Lu Chongshan is still in charge of the Bai case, but he often learns some cooking skills from Feng Zhengming.

For example, Feng Zhengming taught him some stir-frying techniques.

As a result, Lu Chongshan also uses stir-frying techniques to add a lot of characteristics to the noodles he makes.

For example, Lu Chongshan recently made some dumpling noodles inspired by Feng Zhengming.

Every noodle topping is a stir-fried dish.

Paired with Lu Chongshan's best hand-made noodles, it brought a different experience to some customers.

Feng Zhengming also asked Lu Chongshan to promote this kind of steamed noodles to the Feng Family Restaurant.

It can be regarded as providing something new for the late night snacks of the Feng Family Restaurant.

Of course, what Lu Chongshan benefited the most from was the production of pastry.

After research together with him, Feng Zhengming introduced many raw materials of Western desserts and added them to the production of pastry.

The pastry is not only beautiful on the outside, but also very delicious on the inside.

Together with Lu Chongshan's specialty silver silk rolls, it has become the unique feature of Huiquan Building. Speaking of silver rolls, Feng Zhengming, at the suggestion of He Yunqing, opened a window on the first floor of Huiquan Building like Jufengde, and would sell silver rolls outside the window every night.

Among the silver rolls, especially the deep-fried ones, it has now become a snack as famous as Ju Feng De You Xuan.

In the evening, when the window of Huiquan Building is opened, there will be people lining up in front of the window to buy it for home for dinner.

Feng Zhengming walked around the kitchen, observing the dishes each young chef was responsible for.

From time to time, I also provide guidance to some apprentices.

They will also use the cooking process of the young chefs to dismantle and explain some processes to the apprentices.

"Have you seen the stir-fried kidneys cooked by Chef Gu? This dish must be done quickly, so the whole process must be over high heat to bring out the aroma. You must remember to cook the vinegar first.

When many restaurants prepare this dish, they usually put the kidneys into the pot and add a bowl of juice at the same time. That is wrong. The vinegar must be cooked first.

After the vinegar smell develops, then add the kidney flowers. The juice in the bowl must be stirred with a spoon before pouring. "

Gu Zhicheng quickly stir-fried in the pot, allowing the condensed gravy to quickly coat the surface of each kidney flower when the bowl of juice was heated.

Finally, pour in the peppercorn oil before taking it out of the pan, and then put it on a plate.

After Gu Zhicheng loaded the plate, Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "Lao Gu is a little nervous today, a little slippery."

While talking, Feng Zhengming asked Chen Anbang to get another plate.

He directly changed the stir-fried kidneys on the plate to another plate.

After changing the plate, everyone immediately saw that the oil in the plate no longer spilled around.

This surprised Gu Zhicheng.

"How did you do it?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and asked Chen Anbang to bring the food to Chuan Caisheng.

Then he leaned into Gu Zhicheng's ear and whispered in his ear.

"Use a plate with a dent in the middle, so that the oil will flow to the dent at the bottom of the plate, and finally collect in the dent, so the oil will naturally not spill out on the plate."

When Gu Zhicheng heard this, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "You can still do this."

Feng Zhengming smiled and whispered: "It's just a little trick, but it won't make it to the stage."

"Hey, why don't you be the chef?" Gu Zhicheng laughed and said that he had learned something.

The kitchen was busy, and dishes were being sent out one by one.

Deliver it to the customers who came today.

Everyone knows that Feng Zhengming did not cook most of the dishes today.

When they tasted the craftsmanship of other young chefs at Huiquanlou, many people thought it was great.

The leader of the province smiled and asked Mr. Situ: "Mr., are you satisfied with the dishes in Huiquan House today? If Xiao Feng doesn't cook it himself, can you eat it, Mister?"

Mr. Situ smiled and replied: "Some of the dishes can be tasted as if he was not the one cooking them. But even though he did not cook them himself, you can still tell they are the characteristics of his Huiquan restaurant."

The leader looked at Li Zhifeng again and asked, "Vice President Li, can you eat?"

This question stopped Li Zhifeng.

If he hadn't said it, Li Zhifeng would have been unable to tell that these dishes were not cooked by Feng Zhengming himself.

When Li Zhifeng realized this, he was somewhat shocked.

If you can't tell whether Feng Zhengming cooked it himself, doesn't it mean that the other chefs in the back kitchen of Huiquan Building are also very skilled?

Thinking of this, Li Zhifeng really felt incredible.

There are a group of young chefs in the back kitchen of Huiquan Building, including Feng Zhengming.

In Quancheng Kitchen, they can be said to have no reputation.

Just like Huiquan Tower has been publicized to the outside world for so long, it is Feng Zhengming who is actually talked about by people in Quancheng.

Everyone chose to go to Huiquan Tower because of Feng Zhengming.

Such a group of unknown young chefs can make dishes that taste as good as those made by Feng Zhengming himself.

Aren’t all these young chefs as good as Feng Zhengming?

Li Zhifeng was shocked by this, and responded with an embarrassed smile: "I didn't notice the difference."

Mr. Situ then said: "It's normal. Just in terms of taste, there really is no difference.

And he is the chef. I have been to the back kitchen of Huiquan House before. He will break down the process of each dish and let every chef in the back kitchen cook it step by step.

As long as the chef's basic skills are sufficient, he will naturally be able to make the taste that Zhengming requires. "

As the vice president of the Provincial Culinary Association and the president of the Quancheng Culinary Association, Li Zhifeng is naturally very familiar with the kitchen.

Hearing what Mr. Situ said, Li Zhifeng was even more shocked.

When he was working in the kitchen, this kind of thing was usually done by the master chefs in the kitchen.

There may be some masters who have taken over the job. Most of them continue the process passed down by the previous masters.

Therefore, this also leads to some large restaurants not having new dishes on their menus for many years.

It’s not that the chef doesn’t want to introduce new dishes to try.

But maybe for a new dish, the chef may not be able to fully grasp the process, and cannot break the process into steps one by one and assign them to each chef.

So in a big restaurant, it's impossible to just let the chef cook a dish alone.

The preparation and cutting of ingredients in the early stage, the cooking process in the middle, and the final plating.

In a large restaurant, once there are many tables, these processes require the cooperation of everyone in the kitchen to complete.

But the chef cannot break down the process in detail.

Can’t you expect other chefs in the back kitchen to figure out what to do on their own? How to do?
So Li Zhifeng had an incredible understanding of Feng Zhengming's abilities.

After listening to what Mr. Situ said, the provincial leader probably understood the meaning even though he had never been a chef in the kitchen.

"It looks like Xiao Feng is an outstanding general on the battlefield."

Mr. Situ immediately applauded this metaphor.

"Okay, this is a really good compliment, and the metaphor is quite accurate. It proves that he is such a talented person in the kitchen."

The leader laughed and said, "No wonder Huiquan Building has undergone such a big change in just over half a year since he came to Huiquan Building. It's really amazing."

The leaders of Quancheng City took the opportunity to say: "From now on, some of the reception and catering work in our city in Quancheng will be given to Huiquan Tower. We also ask for the support of all provincial leaders."

These words made the provincial leader laugh immediately: "Your Quancheng is close to water and terraces."

The city leader said: "Huiquan Building is also close to our municipal party committee."

This conversation made everyone present laugh.

Li Zhifeng and several members of the Culinary Association felt somewhat uncomfortable.

To be able to win the favor of provincial and municipal leaders in this way, Feng Zhengming and Huiquanlou are truly the only ones in Quancheng.

Now in Quancheng, I am afraid that only Jufengde can be regarded as one end of the Huiquan Building that can stabilize the pressure.

In the National Cooking Skills Exchange Competition at the end of the year, Feng Zhengming comes back with another result. Huiquan Restaurant will completely surpass the big restaurants of Jubinyuan and Taifeng Restaurant.

(End of this chapter)