From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

During the week of preparation for the trials, the TV station also recorded the final round of the challenge and broadcast it on TV after editing.

With the extremely high popularity of the first two rounds of competition, the broadcast of the third round naturally attracted a lot of attention.

Those who were unable to attend the event are looking forward to whether Feng Zhengming will be able to show off even more impressive skills in the third round of the competition.

After the show was officially broadcast on TV, everyone stayed in front of the TV, wanting to see Feng Zhengming.

However, the TV station seemed to be very clear that Feng Zhengming's performance in the third round was only average.

He did not display the exquisite skills he had shown in the previous two rounds.

Therefore, the video of the third round of the competition was edited to give more shots of other chefs.

In particular, there are many scenes of Xia Mingye demonstrating his bone-removing skills on the spot.

Doing so ensures that the audience will still feel great after the TV program is broadcast.

On the other hand, it also allows others, besides Feng Zhengming, to see that Shandong cuisine is not just the work of Feng Zhengming, a great chef.

Of course, there will also be some scenes of Feng Zhengming in the editing.

However, the edited footage is no longer about Feng Zhengming demonstrating his skills.

The scenes basically show Feng Zhengming and his two kitchen helpers preparing the food carefully.

The broadcast of the third round of competition naturally sparked some discussion.

Many people were slightly disappointed with Feng Zhengming's performance in the third round.

"Oh, Chef Xiao Feng didn't perform well in the third round. Did the TV station not show him the footage?"

"Impossible. If Chef Xiao Feng performs well, he will definitely be shown on screen."

"I think so too. The dishes that Chef Xiao Feng prepared in the last round were all home-cooked dishes."

“It’s a home-cooked meal, and I feel like there’s not much to photograph.”

"But Chef Xiao Feng's home-cooked dishes are also very good, and they make people hungry just by looking at them."

"But home-cooked food is home-cooked food, there is no technical content."

"Who said there's no technical content? Look at the dishes that other people make. Do you think you can definitely make them?"

"That's right. They prepare the ingredients on site, even the soup is prepared on site. The effort alone is something that not everyone can do at home."

Feng Zhengming always attracts a lot of attention. When the TV station released the video of the game that day, it really sparked a lot of discussion.

In the streets and alleys of Quancheng, many people who watched TV were talking about the third round of the game.

Likewise, many foodies across the country will discuss this after dinner.

The general debate is whether the home cooking Feng Zhengming prepared in the last round was perfunctory.
One group felt that Feng Zhengming was indeed suspected of being perfunctory.

The reasoning of this group is that the time given for the third round is sufficient and helpers are arranged in the kitchen, so there is plenty of time to choose to cook better dishes and it is not necessary to make home-cooked meals.

Of course, this group did not mean to blame Feng Zhengming. They felt that Feng Zhengming had demonstrated impressive skills in the first two rounds.

Therefore, it is understandable that they reserve their strength for the last round.

Another view is that Feng Zhengming was not perfunctory.

The reason is that although it is a home-cooked meal, Feng Zhengming did a good job of preparation.

Moreover, the broth was cooked on the spot, and all the dishes were made with the broth.

At the same time, scallion oil was also prepared on site, which can be said to be quite thorough in the preparations.

Just the preparation work that Feng Zhengming and the kitchen helpers did on site could not be described as perfunctory.

Feng Zhengming's way of cooking has gone beyond the concept of home cooking and is definitely a method used in restaurants.

With many people discussing the matter, some even started calling and writing to the TV station, and to Huiquanlou to offer Feng Zhengming some advice or encouragement.

As for the local people in Quancheng, many of them will go to Huiquanlou specifically to express their suggestions and encouragement to Feng Zhengming.

Neither Feng Zhengming nor the TV station had expected that it would cause such a big commotion.

Especially when I saw the letters sent from other places, many people gave very pertinent suggestions.

Feng Zhengming was really touched by all of this.

After reading quite a few letters, I found that many of the suggestions in them were very pertinent and detailed.

Feng Zhengming also replied to those letters.

In this era before the Internet, Feng Zhengming made many pen pals from all over the country through this method of letter writing.

There are even some pen pals who send Feng Zhengming some of their specially collected recipes via letters.

Feng Zhengming was really surprised to receive some recipes sent to him by his pen pals from other places.

Especially since some of these recipes are truly unique.

Although many of the techniques used in these rare recipes may not be as mature as they are now.

However, some of the more unique dishes above still gave Feng Zhengming a lot of inspiration.

For example, some recipes describe many ways to shape objects using egg batter.

Feng Zhengming also learned some experience from this and tried to use egg foam paste to shape some interesting and novel dishes.

Feng Zhengming really felt that he benefited a lot from exchanging letters with some pen pals.

He can also feel that many people really like cooking.

It's just that they may not have the time or the opportunity to delve into cooking.

So most of them collect recipes, and some of them collect interesting spices.

Then, with the presence of a chef like Feng Zhengming who was willing to take the time to exchange letters with them, they naturally opened their hearts and shared everything they had collected with Feng Zhengming.

Of course, this is also thanks to the TV station's publicity for Feng Zhengming.

Let these people see Feng Zhengming's craftsmanship through TV.

With an understanding of his craftsmanship, many people would feel comfortable handing over their collections to Feng Zhengming.

Although these people did not say it explicitly in the letter, they hoped to see Feng Zhengming cook the dishes on the recipes they provided one day.

But Feng Zhengming still felt that they had this expectation.

Therefore, Feng Zhengming conducted some serious research based on the dishes on some cookbooks, intending to launch some of the dishes in future competitions or in Huiquanlou.

During the one-week preparation period, Feng Zhengming did not make much special preparations for the trials.

However, some other chefs, especially the master chefs from several large restaurants in Quancheng, still made some preparations.

However, no one paid much attention to the private preparations of the master chefs.

But one piece of news still attracted a lot of people's attention.

Just when the competition was approaching, Cheng Guosheng suddenly announced that he would not participate in the trials.

In other words, Cheng Guosheng gave up the selection and the opportunity to represent Shandong cuisine in the national competition.

Cheng Guosheng took the initiative to give up the opportunity to participate in the national competition, which surprised many people.

Although the various strange changes in Jubin Garden during this period have indeed been criticized by many people.

But in the eyes of many people in the culinary industry, Cheng Guosheng does have some skills.

If they really had to compete in the selection competition, the other master chefs from Quancheng would not dare to say that they would definitely be able to defeat Cheng Guosheng.

When several old masters heard the news, they all felt a little regretful.

But Master Wang was more open-minded after hearing the news. "He needs to think carefully about what he really wants. Does he want to make more money? Or does he want to keep his craft?
It may not be a bad thing for him not to participate in the national competition selection. He has reached the age where he should face reality. "

Master Wang’s judgment of his apprentice is quite accurate.

Cheng Guosheng chose to give up the opportunity to participate in the national competition. He actually wanted to explore some different development paths with the owner of Jubinyuan.

He has made an appointment with the owner of Jubinyuan to go out of town together after the New Year.

For Cheng Guosheng, he doesn't want to be limited to Shandong cuisine.

He hopes to see more, or to have more opportunities.

Others may not understand some of Cheng Guosheng's ideas.

But Feng Zhengming could understand him.

Feng Zhengming is very clear that this is a period of transition.

Next, the era will enter a highway.

At this time, many changes are taking place everywhere.

On the contrary, there are fewer changes in the land of Qi and Lu.

But no change means that we may not be able to keep up with the times.

Shandong cuisine, in particular, is actually facing the comprehensive overtaking of Cantonese and Sichuan cuisines.

In the future, it will be suppressed by Huaiyang cuisine in terms of cultural attributes.

This is actually not because Shandong cuisine is bad.

It is because under the tide of the times, the next protagonists will be business and industry.

Cantonese cuisine and Sichuan cuisine just happen to meet the different needs of businessmen and workers respectively.

The moderation and peace of Shandong cuisine seem to surpass and influence other cuisines in terms of technique.

However, because it is too moderate and peaceful, Shandong cuisine lacks distinct characteristics and naturally loses out in all aspects of competition.

Therefore, Feng Zhengming is very clear that Shandong cuisine will face a huge impact in the coming era.

Under the impact of the times, many Shandong cuisine chefs may not be able to maintain their skills.

Cheng Guosheng’s current choice may be incomprehensible to some people.

But it won't be long before many people may make the same choice as him.

Although I know that the tide of the times is unstoppable.

Feng Zhengming does not intend to follow the same path as Cheng Guosheng.

He wanted to try to break through for Shandong cuisine in his own way.

The solution Feng Zhengming had in mind was the upcoming trials that would be broadcast on TV and the subsequent national competition.

He must take advantage of this opportunity to better promote himself and Shandong cuisine.

To lay some groundwork for him to leave Qi and Lu and head south.

Maybe some of his ideas are still ahead of their time.

But Feng Zhengming felt that some things must be done in advance, otherwise waiting would only make the situation worse.

The trials were held as scheduled. Although Cheng Guosheng gave up participating, other master chefs still gathered.

The chefs from several big restaurants in Quancheng were all present, as were the chefs from all over Qi and Lu.

Including Feng Zhengming and Liu Dewei who advanced from the challenge, there were a total of forty or fifty chefs participating in the competition.

It can be said that these forty or fifty chefs represent the peak level of the young and middle-aged generation of Shandong cuisine.

On the day of the competition, Feng Zhengming met several of his senior brothers on the scene.

Even fifth senior brother Cao Zhiguo, who hadn't been seen for a long time, was present.

The uncle Huang Tao also came to the scene.

Feng Zhengming was also very excited to see his fifth senior brother whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

"Fifth brother, you're back? Why didn't you come to see me?"

When Cao Zhiguo saw Feng Zhengming, he smiled and said, "How dare I go to you now? You are a celebrity in Quancheng now, and are known as the most powerful young chef in Quancheng."

Feng Zhengming couldn't help laughing when Cao Zhiguo said this.

"Fifth brother, you have learned bad things outside. You would never make fun of me like this before."

Cao Zhiguo smiled happily and then hugged Feng Zhengming.

Holding Feng Zhengming, Cao Zhiguo patted Feng Zhengming's back hard.

"Good, really good, Zhengming, you are really great. You saved Master's face and prevented those people from saying that the closure of Yanxilou was due to Master's poor cooking skills."

What Fifth Senior Brother said actually expressed the thoughts of several senior brothers towards Feng Zhengming.

Feng Zhengming rose to prominence in Quancheng in a short period of time and became the city's leading chef.

It really brings honor to the master and makes my fellow brothers proud.

The most crucial thing is that some people had discussed the closure of Yan Xilou before, saying that it was because Master Yan’s skills had declined due to his old age.

Now Feng Zhengming has proved to everyone that the closure of Yan Xilou was due to the incompetence of the management, not the poor craftsmanship of Master Yan and his apprentices.

It was also because of Feng Zhengming’s fame that Master Yan’s Yan’s Restaurant was able to open in Quancheng.

Of course, Feng Zhengming no longer needs the title of master now.

He became the only young chef in Quancheng.

Feng Zhengming was hugged by the fifth senior brother, and he was also a little excited when he heard his fifth senior brother's words.

"Fifth brother, I just listen to Master. I have to cook well at all times and I must not lose my skills."

Cao Zhiguo smiled and said, "That's right. You are the pride of our master and of us fellow disciples."

Huang Tao stepped forward and told Feng Zhengming what his fourth senior brother had said.

"Zhengming, your fourth senior brother asked me to tell you that he hopes to see you at the national competition."

Feng Zhengming was surprised when he heard this and asked, "Fourth brother is already able to participate in the national competition?"

Huang Tao nodded: "Yes, he is the representative chef of Beijing this time."

Hearing that Fourth Senior Brother was actually the chef representing Beijing to participate in the national competition, Feng Zhengming was very happy for him.

"Okay, I will definitely work hard and try to see my fourth brother at the national competition."

At the same time, the eldest brother Li Huidong, the second brother Chen Zezhi, the third brother Yang Bin, and the sixth brother Zhang Minghai all came forward to cheer Feng Zhengming on.

The seniors are all looking forward to Feng Zhengming being able to successfully qualify and participate in the national competition this time.

Because no matter what, Feng Zhengming is also Master Yan's apprentice. The fact that he can go to the national competition means that the cooking skills of Yan Xilou's kitchen are still excellent.

The atmosphere at the scene was very lively. Obviously, after the previous challenge, this selection competition attracted even more attention.

The provincial leader personally came out and delivered a speech at the competition site, encouraging the Shandong cuisine chefs to show their skills well and to bring their real skills to the competition.

Afterwards, Master Cui gave a brief speech on behalf of the Cooking Association.

Then it was announced that the National Cooking Exchange Competition and the Shandong Cuisine Chef Selection had officially begun. (End of this chapter)