From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

After the first day of the challenge, the contestants and judges on site were all feeling very tired.

After all, there were more than 1000 contestants, and just watching the dishes one by one was a bit overwhelming for several older chefs on the scene.

The contestants on the scene also faced a lot of anxiety.

Do the dishes meet the specifications?

Can I stand out in the challenge?

What score will your dish get in the end?
At this moment, the more than 1000 chefs participating in the challenge are like more than 1000 students taking the college entrance examination.

Fortunately, in order to make it easier for the judges to review the scores accurately, there will be a one-day break after the first day of competition. Only then will the scores of all the contestants on site be announced, and the list of contestants who will advance to the next round will be announced.

This has indeed caused more than 1000 participating chefs to continue to feel anxious.

But at least it gives everyone some time to rest, allowing many chefs from other places who come to Quancheng for the first time to have a day to stroll around and have fun in Quancheng.

The participating chefs can take a break, but the judges and chefs cannot.

The contestants’ dishes need to be scored based on the on-site review.

Because there were photographers from TV stations and newspapers on the scene, we were able to retrieve some photos and videos for comparison.

This also prevents the situation where players with connections can get in through the back door.

After all, this time the commotion was quite big and attracted attention and discussion in many parts of the country.

The province also does not want to see an unfair and unjust situation that ends up being made a laughing stock across the country.

Provincial leaders were in charge and well-known craftsmen in the province were also present.

After the first day of competition, everyone sat together for a discussion.

At the forum, Master Cui said without hesitation: "The time on the first day of the competition was a bit tight, so many chefs may not have been able to perform well.

However, such a tight competition also brought us a lot of surprises.

It shows us that there are many chefs in our province who are very skilled.”

After praising the whole team, Master Cui also highlighted Feng Zhengming.

"There is one special case, Feng Zhengming. I believe everyone has witnessed the culinary skills he demonstrated today. To be honest, after seeing his cold dish, I already feel that he should not be allowed to participate in the challenge."

As soon as Master Cui said this, there was a burst of laughter at the symposium.

Everyone who was watching the game today knew it clearly.

The level displayed by Feng Zhengming is indeed a bit too high.

Just talking about his first cold dish that showed off his knife skills, Feng Zhengming did more than just show off his knife skills.

At the same time, he also demonstrated the creativity that a chef should have, as well as a chef's pursuit of excellence in a dish.

The most important thing is that among the more than 1000 chefs on the scene, only Feng Zhengming's cold dishes really made it, with the presentation beautiful enough and everything on the plate edible.

What is fine dining?

The most basic thing is color, aroma and taste.

If we go up one step further and consider the containers, then they are the color, aroma and taste containers.

When it comes to considering the "utensils", the dish and the container should be well integrated so that the container can bring out the beauty of the dish.

A chef who has achieved this can be considered a top chef.

The next step up is to consider the final presentation of the dish.

That is to say, the five elements of "color, fragrance, taste, utensils and shape" are all perfectly integrated.

The dish as a whole has a meaningful shape, and paired with a suitable container, the dish ultimately retains its color, aroma and flavor.

This may be something that many chefs, even if they have been immersed in the kitchen for many years, may not be able to do.

In today's challenge, Feng Zhengming showed his abilities to everyone.

Master Cui said: "I must say that Feng Zhengming has the ability to represent Shandong cuisine in the National Cooking Skills Competition. Of course, he still needs to pass the challenge and selection competitions to qualify."

As the president of the Provincial Cooking Association, Master Cui's words were a high evaluation of Feng Zhengming.

At the same time, because of Master Cui’s identity, no one at the scene would question what he said.

Cheng Guosheng, who was sitting at the symposium, lowered his head obediently in response to Master Cui's words and did not dare to raise any objections to Master Cui.

After Master Cui finished speaking, Master Su, who was always straightforward, started to speak.

"Lao Cui's words were not direct enough. If it were up to me, I think Feng Zhengming should be promoted directly and allowed to represent Shandong cuisine in the National Cooking Skills Competition."

Master Su's words were indeed quite direct, causing many people at the scene to laugh awkwardly.

In particular, representatives from cooking associations from all over the country, who, at the instigation of Cheng Guosheng, had voted that chefs participating in the selection must have a technician certificate or above.

Afterwards, some of them realized that they had been exploited and that the new regulations were somewhat targeted at Feng Zhengming.

But they didn't think it was wrong, and they didn't even think Feng Zhengming was that good.

In today's game, seeing Feng Zhengming's cold dish was like a slap in the face to them.

Previously, they thought that Feng Zhengming's winning of the provincial young chef title a year ago was due to a certain amount of luck.

Today, Feng Zhengming's cold dish of a bright future made it impossible for anyone to doubt his ability.

As for the local chefs in Quancheng, it was through this dish that they realized the gap between them and Feng Zhengming.

In the past, they had always been immersed in the status of master chefs and the bonuses brought to them by their respective restaurants.

Therefore, many master chefs always have a sense of superiority and often do not look down on young chefs.

The sudden emergence of Feng Zhengming this time allowed the chefs from major restaurants in Quancheng to witness the abilities of the young chef.

These master chefs have come to realize that they have been standing still all these years.

Perhaps when they were young, they also had the same fighting spirit and innovative ideas as Feng Zhengming.

But for so many years, they have been stuck in their comfort zone.

He is known as a master chef and is the chef in a time-honored restaurant.

They have lost the innovative spirit they had in their youth.

It can even be said that many master chefs have become complacent.

When the masters fell into this contemplation.

Master Wang suddenly spoke.

“Actually, I have left Quancheng and followed my son to Beijing. To be honest, I am no longer qualified to sit here and comment on the Shandong cuisine chef competition.

But the few months I spent in Beijing really allowed me to see more things and also made me realize the shortcomings of our Shandong cuisine.”

Listening to Master Wang's speech, Cheng Guosheng lowered his head even more, not daring to look up even once. In his heart, Cheng Guosheng kept praying: Don't look at me, don't click on me, don't look at me, don't click on me...

In the end, Master Wang ordered Cheng Guosheng.

"Guosheng, don't hide. Do you think your master will scold you and say that you didn't stick to the roots of Shandong cuisine?"

When Cheng Guosheng was called out, he had no choice but to raise his head.

However, after looking into Master Wang's eyes, he could only lower his head again.

He really wanted to yell and vent.

But I just don't have the courage to do so.

When Master Wang saw his apprentice lower his head again, he sighed before continuing.

“I don’t mean to blame you. In fact, after I went to the capital and saw a lot of things in the capital, I felt that some of the changes you and Mr. Du of Jubinyuan had made were not entirely bad things.

What I want to say is that the shortcoming of Shandong cuisine actually lies in the word "change".

We have always been adhering to tradition and sticking to the craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation by our Shandong cuisine ancestors.

There is nothing wrong with sticking to the basics and continuing the good traditional techniques, but we cannot just stay conservative. "

Master Wang paused for a moment here and exchanged glances with several masters.

“In the past, Shandong cuisine was overrated. While we inherited the skills of our predecessors, we also continued to be proud of Shandong cuisine.

But the pride of our predecessors is what they achieved step by step, through their continuous creation, summarization and inheritance, making Shandong cuisine famous throughout the country and building the former Eight Buildings in the capital.

So what do we have? We just inherited the skills of our predecessors and made the classic dishes well.

Is this something we should be proud of? Does it allow us to put on a high and mighty attitude and look down on other cuisines?

I think it is not possible and it should not be done.”

Master Wang's words were truly deafening.

His words expressed the thoughts of several veteran masters present.

Why have several master chefs continued to exchange ideas across the country every year since the first National Cooking Skills Competition?

Why did Master Yan take a young apprentice like Feng Zhengming, who has a solid foundation, to experience the culinary characteristics of different regions across the country?
Because the old masters all know that there is no end to learning.

Everyone knows that they should not be proud and should always keep an apprentice's heart when learning skills.

Several master chefs present, whether it was Master Cui, Master Yan, Master Su, Master Wang, Master Sun, or several master chefs from other places.

In recent years, in addition to training apprentices, they have also been constantly communicating with chefs from other regions.

Therefore, Master Cui not only understands Shandong cuisine, but is also proficient in many dishes from other cuisines such as Sichuan and Cantonese.

Master Yan is also able to integrate techniques from many other places into his cooking.

This is because the master craftsmen always maintain the heart of an apprentice.

Willing to communicate with others and learn the characteristics of other different cuisines.

Of course, through communication, the old masters also share some of the characteristics of Shandong cuisine with others.

This promotes the flow of domestic cooking characteristics and allows some techniques to be better disseminated and used.

Master Wang continued, "Why was it that after Feng Zhengming took over Huiquanlou, he was able to make it the most famous restaurant in Quancheng in such a short time?

In fact, many of his innovations were bold innovations, integrating elements of other local cuisines into Shandong cuisine, making traditional Shandong cuisine more diverse and no longer the traditional monotonous one.

It also adapts to the taste demands of more customers today.

This is just like the cold dish he made in today's competition, which fully illustrates the expression of color, aroma, taste, and shape in a dish."

After talking about Feng Zhengming’s success at Huiquanlou, Master Wang naturally had to talk about the changes at Jubinyuan.

"Jubinyuan has also made some bold changes after I left. Regardless of whether it is successful or not, I think we should still recognize your bold attempt with Boss Du."

It was clearly a compliment, but Cheng Guosheng felt even more ashamed and felt like finding a hole to hide in.

Cheng Guosheng's cheeks were really burning and he felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

Master Wang continued, “We should be bold in trying changes, but we must not lose our traditional things.

The reason why Feng Zhengming was able to succeed in his changes at Huiquanlou was that he adhered to tradition and made some clever innovations, allowing everyone to taste traditional classic Shandong cuisine techniques while having new visual, olfactory and taste experiences.

I have felt this even more deeply during the past few months in Beijing. The country is changing rapidly step by step, and too many new things are pouring in from abroad.

The influx of new things from abroad is bound to have a huge impact on our traditions.

At this time, we should seek some changes and make them without losing the tradition.

Try to adapt to the development of the times and to the people's more diverse food needs.

I think that is the better continuation and development direction of our Shandong cuisine.”

Master Wang's speech received very sincere applause from everyone present.

Everyone can feel that during the few months that Master Wang spent in Beijing, he did some serious investigations and learned about the current situation of the catering industry, which is why he made such a speech.

Such remarks were exactly what the other masters were thinking.

In today's era, how can we better inherit and develop Shandong cuisine?

This may be what every master is thinking about.

Perhaps if Feng Zhengming had not appeared, many of his ideas and thoughts would have gradually faded away in Shandong cuisine many years later and would have been slowly discovered by later people.

But now that Feng Zhengming has appeared, he is like a tube of fresh blood filled with vigorous power, which is injected into Shandong cuisine.

He is bold in innovation and has some unique cooking styles based on tradition.

Especially those of his that are liked by many people.

This gave the old chefs a glimmer of hope, and they suddenly discovered how Shandong cuisine could adapt to and keep up with the times.

When Master Wang was speaking, the applause at the symposium lasted for a long time.

Finally, the provincial leader asked, "Since this is the case, can we directly confirm Feng Zhengming as the representative chef to participate in the national competition?"

Several masters exchanged glances, and finally let Master Yan speak.

"As his master, I selfishly hope that he can directly represent Shandong cuisine in the national competition.

But I still have to deny such an approach. Since we have set the rules this time, we should follow them. We should set an example for other regions in the country this time.

So I think it is better to let Feng Zhengming continue to participate in the subsequent competitions normally.

If he really loses, it can only be said that we old guys misjudged him."

Master Yan expressed his opinion on behalf of the other masters, and everyone at the scene agreed that Feng Zhengming should continue to participate in the following competitions as normal. (End of this chapter)