From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

My master pointed out that the black ginseng had a problem with not being flavorful enough.

Lin Bosheng still acted indifferent in front of his master.

"Master, isn't the main purpose of a cooking competition to see how the dish turns out? Show off all the basic skills, and when the judges see that I put so much thought into a dish, they will naturally give it a high score.

Often, judges may not really taste every dish carefully.”

Master Cui was very dissatisfied with what his apprentice said.

"Bai Sheng, you haven't learned much good things in these years away from home. You've only learned these crooked ways."

When Lin Bosheng heard his master say this, he immediately realized that his master was angry.

The next moment, he changed his words and said, "Master, that's not what I meant. I know that taste is also the key to a dish. When I cook in a restaurant, I always follow Master's instructions.

However, in the competition, what is competed more is basic skills and creativity. The judges will give high scores when they see good creativity and basic skills.

You know this, Master."

Master Cui looked at his apprentices. Lin Bosheng was his favorite among all his apprentices.

Among Master Cui’s many apprentices, he is also the one with the strongest cooking skills and comprehensive abilities.

He is also the deputy chef of Shandong cuisine in the Chinese restaurant department of an international hotel in Beijing.

There are so many achievements that make Master Cui proud.

But his words today made Master Cui very dissatisfied.

Master Cui said seriously: "You are in Beijing, you know some of the scoring criteria in the competition, you think you can master them, so you show off your skills casually in the competition.

But you have to understand that as a chef, you must first respect the ingredients in your hands, and secondly, respect every diner.

In the competition, no matter what the criteria are, will the judges seriously evaluate your dishes?

You have to go all out to make every dish you cook well, and make sure it looks and smells good, not just looks good.”

After hearing what his master said, Lin Bosheng understood that his master was not satisfied with his performance today.

On the surface, he showed a humble attitude and said, "Master, I understand. I will pay attention to it next time."

But in fact, deep down in Lin Bosheng's heart, he still didn't think there was anything wrong with his handling of the game.

After all, in today's competition, although the black cucumber in his Oolong Dengyun was not well-flavored, he still won the highest score with his exquisite knife skills in carving and creative plating.

Because he got the highest score today, it also gave Lin Bosheng a signal that his own theory had something to rely on.

So in his heart, he just sticks to his own ideas.

In the competition, the goal is to show off your skills as much as possible and use strong basic skills to make the dishes as gorgeous as possible so that you can get high scores from the judges.

Master Cui did not notice his apprentice's inner thoughts. Seeing his apprentice's humble attitude, he said he would pay attention to it in the future.

He did not continue to preach, because Master Cui had never been a master who liked to preach.

"Bai Sheng, what do you think of Feng Zhengming's performance today?"

Hearing this question, Lin Bosheng immediately became interested.

Although Lin Bosheng has his own ideas in his mind, he is also somewhat proud of himself.

But in Lin Bosheng's opinion, Feng Zhengming is still worthy of his attention and respect in this provincial selection.

“Feng Zhengming’s cooking skills are indeed very good, and unlike other older chefs, he is relatively conservative in his thinking, which does not mean that their cooking skills are not good.

In this selection competition, there is not a single chef whose cooking skills are poor, and everyone’s skills are considered the best in our Shandong cuisine.

But they are still too conservative in some creative ideas and the flexible use of some techniques.

Feng Zhengming is really not conservative at all, he dares to try something, which is much better than other chefs.”

Lin Bosheng's affirmation of Feng Zhengming came from the bottom of his heart.

After all, Lin Bosheng was the sous chef of Shandong cuisine in an international hotel in Beijing.

Nominally he is the sous chef, but in reality he is the chef in charge of Shandong cuisine in the hotel.

There are obviously many more things to see in international hotels.

With a broad vision, Lin Bosheng is very clear about some current trends in cooking.

That is, we cannot simply stick to traditional craftsmanship.

It is necessary to preserve traditional skills while being able to make more flexible changes.

This time I came back specifically to participate in the provincial selection.

On the one hand, Lin Bosheng wanted to represent Shandong cuisine in the national competition and increase his popularity in the culinary industry.

If he could win a prize in the national competition, Lin Bosheng would return to the hotel. Even if his position was not promoted, his salary and benefits would definitely increase.

On the other hand, Lin Bosheng also wanted to bring back some of the concepts he had learned in Beijing to promote the development of Shandong cuisine.

This time, I came back from observing the previous challenge competitions and now participating in the trials.

Among all the participating chefs, Lin Bosheng still saw the strength of everyone's basic skills.

This also makes Lin Bosheng feel very reassured about the heritage of Shandong cuisine.

Among all the participating chefs, the one that impressed Lin Bosheng the most was definitely Feng Zhengming.

It is amazing that a young chef in his twenties has such solid basic skills.

The key is that he can have many innovative ideas.

His philosophy is clearly not bound by tradition and conservatism.

Even in Lin Bosheng's opinion, the design and conception of some of his dishes did not seem like that of a chef who was only in his twenties and had never left the province to work in a big restaurant outside.

Lin Bosheng said to his master very frankly: "If Feng Zhengming is willing, he can go to some big restaurants outside the city or work in the Chinese restaurant of an international hotel for a period of time. I think he will improve faster."

Hearing his apprentice say this, Master Cui asked curiously, "Oh? Do you think he is not capable of taking charge now?"

Lin Bosheng said with a smile: "He is definitely famous in Quancheng. The things he launched in Huiquanlou are unique in Quancheng and even in our province.

But if we look at it nationwide, some of his small designs are not unique enough to be the first in the country."

Master Cui understood what his apprentice meant.

Feng Zhengming may have surpassed other chefs by a lot in terms of Shandong cuisine alone.

However, his craftsmanship is not unique across the country.

Especially if he wants to go further, it will definitely not work if he is limited to Quancheng and the province.

A truly top chef must be able to draw inferences from one instance to another.

Not only should you be able to master the cuisine that you are most familiar with, but you should also be able to understand other cuisines.

This requires long-term accumulation, and you need to go out and see more, eat more, and learn more.

Just like in today's game, Feng Zhengming lost to Lin Bosheng by one point.

There is no obvious difference between the dishes cooked by the two.

Even in terms of taste, Feng Zhengming may have a certain advantage.

But this one-point difference comes precisely from the fact that Feng Zhengming is less experienced in competition than Lin Bosheng.

Lin Bosheng suddenly asked at this time: "Master, how many places will be available for Shandong cuisine to participate in the national competition in this selection?"

Master Cui did not hide the truth from his apprentice: "There should be ten places." Lin Bosheng was a little surprised: "So many?"

Master Cui said helplessly: "This is the least we old guys have managed to get. According to the province's intention, there is no need for a selection competition. All of you 40 people at the beginning should participate."

Lin Bosheng was really dumbfounded when he heard this.

More than 40 people going to participate in the national competition together?

It really shows that there are many talented people in Shandong cuisine.

But it is not difficult to see from the trials that there are too many repetitions in everyone's skills.

We can’t have more than 40 people participating in the national competition. By then, all they’ll be doing is making scallion-fried sea cucumbers and nine-turn large intestines, right?

When Lin Bosheng thought of this, he suddenly realized something.

"Master, so today we are asking everyone to make sea cucumbers, actually..."

Master Cui did not allow his apprentice to say the rest and interrupted him directly.

"Just understand it, don't say it out loud."

Lin Bosheng really understood it in his heart.

The second round asked all the chefs to cook sea cucumbers, which was a round of screening for candidates to participate in the national competition.

The first round is a test of basic skills plus on-site theory, which tests the theoretical and practical basic skills of each master chef, and also tests the master chefs' on-the-spot performance and mentality.

The second round is actually the real screening.

The competition did not specify what dish to make with sea cucumbers.

In fact, it is to test whether the chefs have their own creative ideas.

If you still make the scallion-fried sea cucumber conservatively in this competition, your score will definitely be low, and if there is even the slightest flaw, you will definitely not be qualified to participate in the national competition.

Lin Bosheng guessed this, and he actually approved of this screening rule.

After all, in national competitions, everyone still hopes to see some innovations.

We can stick to tradition in terms of techniques, but we cannot say that the dishes will always remain the same.

This time there are some internal rules and requirements for the national competition.

On the one hand, we need to establish a set of technical standards, and on the other hand, we need to see some innovations.

Judging from the current selection competition, the only ones who can achieve these two points may be Lin Bosheng and Feng Zhengming.

There is nothing wrong with the other chefs' techniques.

But it lacks a lot in innovation.

Master Cui felt somewhat fortunate that he allowed Lin Bosheng to come back to participate in the selection this time.

Lin Bosheng's dish today may have some issues with being flashy.

But no one can deny Lin Bosheng's ability in applying basic techniques and the creativity he adds when cooking.

If he could make the black ginseng more flavorful this time, his Oolong Dengyun would indeed be better than Feng Zhengming's Oolong Xizhu in terms of completeness, color, aroma and taste.

However, Feng Zhengming's Oolong Xizhu is more creative than Lin Bosheng's dish.

So overall, the dishes prepared by the two people in today's competition were indeed equally good.

Master Cui couldn't find any other problems with his apprentice.

He also gave a final warning: "Remember, if you go to the national competition, you must pay attention to the flavor of the dishes, and don't just focus on showing off your skills."

This time, Lin Bosheng nodded seriously and agreed.

At Jufengde, Master Su was obviously even more dissatisfied with the results of his apprentices' competition.

So after leading his fellow apprentices back to Jufengde with a gloomy face, he immediately called them together and started giving them a lecture.

"I really don't understand. Today's competition topic asked you to cook sea cucumbers, but all you can think of is braised sea cucumbers with scallions, right?"

When these words were spoken, all the chefs participating in the competition were stunned, and then they all lowered their heads in embarrassment.

Judging from the results of the competition, the participating chefs have already discovered their own problems.

Especially seeing the first place Lin Bosheng's Oolong Climbing the Clouds and Feng Zhengming's Oolong Playing with the Pearl.

It really amazed several participating chefs from Jufengde.

When it comes to cooking, several master chefs can definitely make similar dishes.

But none of them thought of doing that during the game.

In other words, when seeing the topic of the competition, among the several master chefs of Jufengde, except for the current head chef of Jufengde.

The first thing that comes to other people’s minds is braised sea cucumber with scallions.

This is a safe-sounding mindset.

Because everyone knows that making scallion-fried sea cucumber is definitely the safest choice.

After all, scallion-fried sea cucumber is a classic representative dish of Shandong cuisine.

This is a dish that almost every Shandong cuisine chef can make.

So you can’t go wrong no matter how you make scallion-fried sea cucumber.

It was only after seeing the dishes cooked by Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng that the other participating chefs from Jufengde suddenly realized that they seemed to be a little too conservative.

Even Master Su's eldest apprentice, Jufengde's current head chef Kong Xingli, feels that he has made a conservative choice.

Kong Xingli made a dish of braised lamb with sea cucumber.

While he was doing it, he also made some improvements and innovations.

Finally, a bowl was used to put the sea cucumber and mutton together to ensure the beautiful appearance of the dish.

The result was that Kong Xingli's braised lamb with sea cucumber won third place.

But when he saw Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng’s dishes, he immediately realized the gap between their dishes.

Although Kong Xingli did not make scallion-fried sea cucumber, considering that it is late autumn now, he added lamb which is very suitable for the season, but the creativity is obviously lacking.

Master Su looked at his silent apprentices, shook his head helplessly and sighed.

"You guys have been in Quancheng for too long. You just rely on your old skills and lack innovative thinking."

Kong Xingli hesitated for a moment and said, "Master, if we can go to the national competition this time, we will definitely learn more from our two junior brothers."

Hearing his apprentice say this, Master Su felt much more comfortable.

"Xingli, you should be able to go to the national competition this time. Just like you said, when you go to the national competition, you must watch and learn more. Not only should you learn more from Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng, but you should also communicate and learn more from chefs from other places."

When Kong Xingli heard his master say that he could participate in the national competition, he felt happy.

He said very seriously: "Master, don't worry. I will definitely communicate more and learn more this time."

Master Su looked at the others and just sighed: "Which of you can go depends on your performance later."

The sea cucumber cooking in the second round of the selection competition was a lesson for many chefs.

This time, not only the old masters, but also the master chefs realized the gap in some thinking concepts. (End of this chapter)