From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

When Xia Mingye stepped into the kitchen of Huiquanlou, his first impression was cleanliness.

Neat, tidy, orderly, and clean.

The kitchen of Huiquanlou is so clean.

Xia Mingye also grew up in the kitchen.

Of course, there are times when the kitchen at the Xia family's Kongfu Restaurant is so clean.

However, when preparing ingredients, the kitchen may not be able to be kept as clean as Huiquanlou.

Through observation, Xia Mingye quickly understood why everyone in the kitchen of Huiquanlou was busy but still managed to keep it clean.

The key to achieving this is that everyone in the kitchen knows exactly what they are supposed to do.
In the kitchen of Huiquanlou, in the absence of Feng Zhengming, everyone still performed their duties.

Xia Mingye found this a little unbelievable.

In the kitchen of the Xia family's Kongfu Restaurant, Xia Mingye would occasionally see some people taking the opportunity to slack off.

When Xia Mingye first joined the kitchen, he once secretly reported someone to his grandfather and father because he found out that someone was slacking off.

Grandpa praised him at the time, but he did not punish the lazy person.

Xia Mingye didn’t quite understand at the time, and he even asked his grandfather why he didn’t punish him?

At that time, grandpa asked Xia Mingye how to punish him?
The young Xia Mingye, who "hates evil", directly stated that if someone was lazy, he should be fired.

He still remembers the answer his grandfather gave him.

“You see that person who occasionally slacks off. He is responsible for a lot of work in the kitchen. He leads people to do a lot of work at the water station. When the kitchen is busiest, he leads people to ensure that there are enough ingredients in the kitchen.

When you see him slacking off, it may just be that he is working too hard and occasionally slows down his work efficiency.

Because if we fire him, who will do the work he is responsible for?

If the new recruits don't do as well as he does, won't it affect the work in the kitchen?"

Grandpa's words left Xia Mingye speechless.

So in the end the matter was left unresolved.

Of course, Xia Mingye later discovered that the person who was reported by him became more diligent in the kitchen and no longer slacked off as he saw him do.

When he grew up a little, Xia Mingye found out that it was his grandfather who had specifically talked to the other party.

The other party was very grateful to Grandpa Xia Mingye for saving his face.

So in the kitchen, I will work very hard.

But after that incident, Xia Mingye always felt that the kitchen of his own restaurant seemed a bit messy most of the time.

He couldn't explain why he felt confused. How could he solve it?
Standing in the kitchen of Huiquanlou today, Xia Mingye seemed to understand everything all of a sudden.

Compared to the Xia family's Kongfu Restaurant and the kitchens of some other restaurants, everyone in the kitchen of Huiquanlou has their own job, but their jobs are not monotonous.

Many times, when someone is needed to take over in certain areas, someone who is not responsible for that kind of work will immediately take over.

In this way, the kitchen is in a state where everyone takes turns to complete their work.

It has greatly improved the efficiency of many tasks in the kitchen.

There will not be a pause in one link, causing the subsequent links to stop and wait.

Xia Mingye thought for a long time, and finally the word he had been looking for came up.

Smooth.

They seem to have their own responsibilities, but they can also take turns to complete the work.

This ensures smooth operation in the kitchen.

This way, the situation will not occur where some chefs are busy working while others are just watching and waiting on the sidelines.

It is this kind of smoothness that ensures the cleanliness of Huiquanlou’s kitchen.

Seeing her brother stunned for a long time, Xia Hui reached out and tapped his head gently.

"What are you staring at?"

Xia Mingye was awakened by his sister. He turned his head to look at his sister, and then looked at Feng Zhengming.

“The kitchen at Huiquanlou is great, and it makes me feel comfortable.”

Xia Hui knocked on her brother's head again: "Why do you feel comfortable? Do you feel comfortable when I let you come? Hurry up and get ready. I want to see if you can succeed in the challenge."

This time Xia Mingye did not refuse and quickly followed Feng Zhengming to the locker room to change clothes.

While changing clothes, Xia Mingye asked curiously, "Uncle Feng, how do you manage the kitchen? I see that everyone seems to have their own work, but it also seems that they exchange and cooperate with each other."

Feng Zhengming smiled and responded: "It's very simple. I won't stipulate what everyone must do or what they can't do."

Xia Mingye was stunned for a few seconds, and then he understood what Feng Zhengming meant.

Feng Zhengming broke down the preparation process of each dish in the kitchen and let everyone participate in the preparation of each dish.

This way, everyone can become familiar with the different steps.

When working in the kitchen, there will be more cooperation between each other.

What should you do when you understand each step of a dish?
If a step is too late to be completed because the person in charge is busy, you can naturally complete it yourself.

This approach improves the efficiency of work in the kitchen and prevents everyone from having to wait and rely on others.

Feng Zhengming changed into his chef uniform and said to Xia Mingye, "We chefs are hardworking, and many processes in the kitchen are tedious and complicated.

If you keep counting on others to do everything for you, isn't the waiting time wasted?
And if you wait and rely on others to do it, isn’t that unfair to others?

So in the kitchen of Huiquanlou, I don’t want anyone to have to wait or rely on others to do something for them.

I am mobilizing everyone's initiative to complete each dish."

Xia Mingye felt a kitchen management style from Feng Zhengming that was different from that of other restaurant chefs.

Mobilize everyone's enthusiasm and don't let the work be piled on just a few people.

Xia Mingye buttoned up his chef's uniform and followed Feng Zhengming back to the kitchen.

Seeing her brother coming back, Xia Hui, who had already changed her clothes, was a little dissatisfied with her brother's dawdling.

"You're a man, why are you so slow? I've already changed my clothes and come back, why are you only back now?"

Xia Mingye didn't know whether to laugh or cry and said, "I'm with the chef, so I'm not slow, am I?"

Xia Hui immediately said, "Can you compete with the head chef? Don't you know that you should take the initiative to do more things in the kitchen? I really don't know how your grandfather and dad taught you at home."

Xia Mingye felt a lot of pressure after being told this repeatedly by his sister.

Feng Zhengming was afraid that the brother and sister would have an unhappy argument, so he tried to smooth things over.

"Okay, it's okay. Didn't Xiaoye come here to practice today? It's not like you're going to work at Huiquan Building, so changing clothes quickly isn't a very important thing."

Then Feng Zhengming walked into the kitchen and took a look around to see how the ingredients were being prepared.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xia Mingye couldn't help but ask his sister.

"Sister, why do I feel like you are targeting me in particular this time?"

Xia Hui looked at her brother and asked, "Is there?"

Seeing his sister's expression, Xia Mingye could only say directly: "Why not? You see, when you see me, you start to find fault with me. You even scold me if I change clothes slowly."

Xia Hui said to her brother seriously, "This is to make you take the competition seriously." Xia Mingye was a little unconvinced: "I'm not not serious, am I?"

Seeing that her brother was not convinced, Xia Hui whispered, "You didn't take it seriously at the competition, and you said it didn't matter if you couldn't break through and enter the trials. Why don't you have any ambition at all?"

After hearing what his sister said, Xia Mingye seemed to understand why his sister was targeting him.

Obviously, although Xia Hui is no longer at the Kongfu Restaurant, she still cares about her family's reputation.

The elder sister is so strict with her younger brother because she doesn't want him to perform too poorly in the challenge and for others to say that Kongfucai and the Xia family have no successors.

Xia Mingye understood his sister's intentions, and his expression gradually became serious.

"Sister, I understand. You are worried that I will bring shame to the family."

Without waiting for her sister to speak, Xia Mingye asked, "If I don't perform well in this competition, won't it just happen to be seen by my family? Sister, are you better than me?"

Xia Hui couldn't help but raise her hand to hit her brother on the head.

But after raising her hand, she put it down again.

"I don't need you to help me like this. I won't go back and compete with you for the position of head chef, so you must perform well and defend the status of Confucius Mansion cuisine with dignity. Do you understand?"

After hearing what his sister said, Xia Mingye was a little surprised.

"Sister, are you really not going home?"

Xia Hui nodded: "I don't want to go back. It's fine if you take over the Kongfu cuisine. I still want to follow my uncle to see and learn more things."

Xia Mingye suddenly felt his sister's determination to achieve greater ideals.

Looking at his sister's appearance, Xia Mingye was also somewhat infected.

He understands the responsibilities he should shoulder.

My sister passed on the inheritance of Confucius cuisine to me, so I must shoulder this responsibility.

Feng Zhengming took a look around and pointed out some problems with the preparation of ingredients, so that the kitchen could make timely adjustments.

After making sure there was no problem, he called Xia Hui and Xia Mingye over.

The brother and sister came to Feng Zhengming together.

Feng Zhengming introduced them to the brother and sister.

"I have roughly heard about some of the items in the cooking skills competition. Since our challenge competition is the same as the selection competition, we must have similar tests. Anyway, we need to prepare carefully for knife skills, fire skills, and spoon skills."

As he spoke, Feng Zhengming took out his knife and chopping board and placed the ginger and onion next to them.

"There will definitely be slicing, shredding, dicing, graining and mincing on site."

Feng Zhengming said to Xia Mingye: "Try this one."

After hearing this, Xia Mingye felt that this was a bit too easy for him, so he reached out and grabbed the knife.

Standing in front of the chopping board, Xia Mingye first picked up the ginger, peeled the ginger, and then he started by slicing it.

Slices, shreds, dices, grains, and minced.

Xia Mingye's knife skills were very smooth and he finished cutting everything in one go.

After cutting, Xia Mingye looked at Feng Zhengming with some pride.

Feng Zhengming reached out to take the knife, then he stood in front of the chopping board next to him.

Then Feng Zhengming demonstrated a different process to Xia Mingye.

Slice from thick to thin.

Cut into strips, from thick to thin.

Dice, from large to small.

Even when chopping it into minced meat, find a small white porcelain bowl and place the minced meat in clean water in the bowl. Let the minced meat spread out in the water so you can clearly see the size of the particles.

When Xia Mingye saw Feng Zhengming's process, he was a little surprised.

Seeing her brother standing there in silence, Xia Hui tapped him gently.

"Did you see that? During the competition, you are not told to just cut it. The thickness, thickness and size must be uniform, and the sizes must be basically the same. Look at what you cut."

Xia Mingye looked at what Feng Zhengming had cut, and then compared it with his own. He suddenly felt that what he had cut was a little ugly.

Not only did he not cut it according to thickness, coarseness, or size.

The key point is that he was not very careful when cutting it before, so the thickness, coarseness and size are really irregular.

Compared with Feng Zhengming, Xia Mingye felt that he did not deserve any points.

In the kitchen of Huiquanlou, Gu Zhicheng and others all knew Xia Mingye.

So when they saw Xia Mingye being taught a lesson by Feng Zhengming, they couldn't help but smile knowingly.

Gu Zhicheng and his friends had experienced the same scene before.

In the kitchen of Huiquanlou, no one dares to say that they can challenge Feng Zhengming in any aspect.

If Feng Zhengming gets a little serious, he will definitely crush everyone.

Every step Feng Zhengming takes in the kitchen is really textbook-like.

Seeing Xia Mingye speechless, Feng Zhengming continued, "Just shredding, from bean sprout shreds, matchstick shreds, hemp thread shreds, embroidery needle shreds to cow hair shreds, you need to practice this set seriously."

After hearing this, Xia Mingye nodded: "I was too careless and didn't take the competition seriously."

Gu Zhicheng smiled and said, "Now you know why none of us signed up?"

Xia Mingye looked at Gu Zhicheng, then looked at the few people in the kitchen who had participated in the Youth Chef Competition with him.

He did understand why they hadn't signed up for the challenge.

Because this time we want to select Shandong cuisine chef representatives to participate in the National Cooking Skills Exchange Competition.

So we must select the best Shandong cuisine chef.

Therefore, the requirements for chefs must be the same as those for the best chefs in the country.

To be the best chef in the country, you must achieve perfection in all aspects.

Compared with Feng Zhengming, there is indeed a clear gap between Xia Mingye and others.

He looked at Gu Zhicheng with a wry smile and said, "I have overestimated my abilities."

Feng Zhengming smiled and patted him on the shoulder: "It's okay. There's nothing wrong with participating in such competitions to broaden your horizons. Don't be discouraged. Just give it your all."

Xia Mingye looked at his sister.

Before he could speak, Xia Hui said, "Go all out. It doesn't matter if you can't break through. Just treat it as a test of your uncle's strength."

After hearing what his sister said, Xia Mingye couldn't help but say, "Sister, didn't you say that just now? You also said that I should work hard to break through."

Xia Hui asked with a smile: "Is there a contradiction? I don't think there is a contradiction. Since you have participated in the challenge, shouldn't you strive to break through?"

Feng Zhengming encouraged Xia Mingye again: "Don't be afraid. Just like your sister said, you must have confidence in yourself. At least you must be serious in your attitude."

Xia Hui agreed, "That's right, you have to be serious about it."

Xia Mingye's attitude naturally became serious. For the next half day, he was in the kitchen of Huiquanlou, experiencing the atmosphere of the kitchen with everyone. (End of this chapter)