From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Many people at the scene were waiting for the final scores to be announced.

But the judges and masters were in a very difficult situation.

It can be said that every dish in the third round embodies the hard work of every participating chef.

Every participating chef, whether from Quancheng or from all over Qilu, truly brought out the cooking experience they have accumulated over the years.

The judges were already very hesitant. They always felt that if they gave a low score to any of the chefs, it would seem like they were letting down the chefs' performance today.

When the judges were hesitant, the masters gave them some suggestions after some discussion.

"Dear judges, please do not be affected by your emotions. Remember, you should judge a dish based on its color, aroma, taste, shape and utensils."

"Yes, just because a dish is the result of the hard work of the chefs, you can't let your emotions get the better of you and not rate it properly."

"In fact, if you give good ratings, you will be more worthy of the chefs' hard work."

"Yes, I hope the judges can give fair scores."

"Please don't hesitate and make fair judgments. We believe that no matter what the result is, every chef will be able to accept it."

After the masters said this, the judges suddenly relaxed.

Next, the judges began to score each dish carefully based on their impressions of each dish and the five points of "color, aroma, taste, shape and utensils" mentioned by the old chefs.

While the judges were giving their scores, the participating chefs also gathered together.

Kong Xingli from Jufengde, Sun Fenggui from Taifenglou, Cheng Guosheng's junior brother Lin Guofu, and some master chefs from other places first expressed their congratulations to Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng.

Kong Xingli said: "Today I saw Junior Brother Feng's carving skills again. It seems that Junior Brother Feng will definitely have a place in the national competition this time.

Junior Brother Lin’s cooking skills are also very superb, worthy of being the master chef in the Capital Hotel.

I really admire the skills of the two junior brothers. I believe that having two junior brothers represent Shandong cuisine in the national competition will bring glory to Shandong cuisine.”

Sun Fenggui also stood up and said: "Yes, the level of the two junior brothers really opened our eyes."

Lin Guofu is now the representative of Master Wang's disciples. Even though Cheng Guosheng voluntarily withdrew from the competition, he did his best and performed very well.

But through the competition, he also saw the gap between himself and Feng Zhengming, Lin Bosheng, and even Kong Xingli and Sun Fenggui.

Lin Guofu said very modestly: "I really have to admit that the skills of my seniors and juniors are better than yours. This competition made me realize my own shortcomings. I will work harder to improve myself in the future."

Some other chefs who participated in the competition from other places also expressed their congratulations to Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng.

Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng looked at each other and gave way to each other.

In the end, it was Lin Bosheng who spoke first: "Hahaha, everyone really doesn't need to be so polite, our skills are similar, maybe Zhengming and I are better at some details.

No matter who represents Shandong cuisine in the national competition, they must win glory for our cuisine and do their best. "

Feng Zhengming then said: "It is my honor to be able to exchange and compete with all of you senior brothers on the same stage. I also believe that with you senior brothers here, our Shandong cuisine will definitely get better and better."

Feng Zhengming remained as humble as ever, not showing off himself, but making his fellow seniors look more respectable.

So the brothers present could not find any fault with what he said.

Lin Bosheng smiled and looked at Feng Zhengming: "Junior Brother Feng was unreserved today. He actually cooked two dishes in one go. Both dishes were carved and presented on the plate. It's really hard for us to catch up."

Lin Bosheng's words also echoed the thoughts of other participating chefs.

After all, carving the patterns on a dish is actually quite tiring.

Feng Zhengming actually cooked two dishes and even designed beautiful carved plating for both.

This was something that no chef had thought of before the competition.

When everyone learned that the topic required the use of fish and shrimp, they all thought about how to make fish and shrimp into a dish?

Only Feng Zhengming cooked two dishes separately.

He also made good use of the same ingredients in both dishes.

A pumpkin and most of the place carved shrimp baskets.

He carved the remaining cut-off heads into a chrysanthemum basket.

Even at this time, Feng Zhengming still adheres to the principle of making the best use of everything.

It really means that not even a little bit of material will be wasted.

Facing the compliments from his senior brothers, Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "Senior brothers, please don't praise me. Actually, the reason why I made two dishes is very simple. It's because I don't know how to combine fish and shrimp to make a beautiful and delicious dish.

So I thought, since I couldn’t come up with one dish, I might as well make two dishes, cooking the fish and the shrimp separately.”

Feng Zhengming's words made the other chefs look at each other in surprise, and then everyone started laughing.

This answer is in line with what everyone thinks.

Originally, it was not easy for other chefs to design a dish with fish and shrimp.

Especially in competitions, plating design is also required.

So if you want to make the whole dish well, it is really not easy to design it.

Feng Zhengming's method is indeed very clever.

He made two dishes, cooking the fish and shrimp separately.

Although this added a lot of workload for him, at least both dishes were prepared well.

Judging from the results of the dishes, the two dishes were indeed very good.

As for the shrimp basket and flower basket he carved out of pumpkins, they were also carvings he had planned out.

When Feng Zhengming was asked why he made these two designs.

He answered very straightforwardly: "Because when I think of fish and shrimp, I remember the scene of catching fish and shrimp in the ditch in the countryside when I was a child, so I designed these two carvings with some childlike fun."

Lin Bosheng praised: "It is really great. The shrimp basket you carved is so lifelike."

Kong Xingli also agreed: "I used to think that Junior Brother Feng might not be good at carving, but today we have finally seen it."

Sun Fenggui said: "Junior Brother Feng is really versatile."

Feng Zhengming waved his hand and said, "I still have a lot to learn, and my current skills are still far from perfect. I hope you will exchange ideas with me in the future, so that we can make Shandong cuisine better together."

Speaking of communication, it is natural to gain recognition from the participating chefs.

Everyone feels that communication during such competitions is very important.

Through communication and competitions, I can always get a lot of inspiration from seeing other people’s dishes.

Just like today everyone was carving patterns and arranging dishes, I got the inspiration after seeing Lin Bosheng’s Oolong Dengyun dish yesterday.

Everyone realized the importance of carved plating in the competition, so they started carving together.

Through this selection competition, many chefs who are already master chefs have realized their many shortcomings.

They saw more innovative things from Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng.

This also gave these master chefs a lot of inspiration.

I believe that because of this competition, many chefs’ ideas will begin to change.

Then the development of Shandong cuisine will also be better and better as the chefs change their ideas, start to accept more other things, make more innovations, and develop better and better. After waiting for a long time, the on-site judges finally counted the scores.

Then Master Cui announced the scores on the spot holding the score sheet.

Master Cui's powerful voice made the scene quiet, and people watching the live broadcast in front of the TV were also very excited.

After taking a closer look at the score sheet, Master Cui said, “In today’s third round, every chef really performed very well and showed off their cooking skills.

I want to say here that every chef’s performance today was very good and lived up to your standards.”

After saying this, Master Cui announced today's scores.

"In the end, Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng tied for first place. Their dishes scored 100 out of 99 points."

There was a sudden burst of applause at the scene, and everyone obviously agreed with this score.

Next was Kong Xingli’s dish, which received the second highest score, with an overall score of 98 points.

The top ten dishes are basically those with scores above 95 points.

This also shows that the dishes made by the top ten have truly received great recognition.

After announcing the scores for the third dish, the judges quickly handed out a list of the ten chefs who would represent Shandong cuisine in the national competition.

Feng Zhengming, Lin Bosheng, Kong Xingli and Sun Fenggui are all on the list.

There are five other people, basically all of them are master chefs from other places in Qi and Lu.

What was somewhat surprising was that at the end of the list, Lin Guofu actually successfully made it into the representative team list.

Lin Guofu himself was a little surprised. He didn't expect that he would be on the list.

He went on stage with others and received passes to the national competition from the senior masters.

Then, gold, silver and bronze awards were presented for several dishes.

Among Feng Zhengming's three creative dishes in the competition, the Oolong Xizhu dish won the gold medal without any dispute.

And his creative shrimp balls also won the gold medal.

Lin Bosheng's Wu Long Deng Yun naturally also won the gold medal.

Feng Zhengming's chrysanthemum fish was slightly inferior and only won a bronze medal.

The fish and shrimp soup made by Lin Bosheng today only won a silver medal.

Another dish that won the silver medal was Kong Xingli’s Sweet and Sour Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate.

The dishes of Sun Fenggui, Lin Guofu and several master chefs who represented Shandong cuisine in the national competition also won silver and bronze medals respectively.

Certificates were prepared on site with the dishes and names of each winning chef handwritten on them.

A trophy was also presented to the winning chefs.

These were all prepared in advance and provided by the sponsors of this live TV broadcast.

This Shandong cuisine national chef selection competition has come to a successful conclusion.

After the live broadcast ended, the award-winning chefs, participating chefs and senior chefs had an exchange together.

Everyone gets together to exchange cooking techniques.

Even several of Feng Zhengming’s senior brothers participated.

Among the chefs participating in the exchange, there was only Feng Zhengming, a young man in his twenties.

So when everyone looked at Feng Zhengming, their eyes seemed a little complicated.

Especially some people from the Culinary Association.

They were very optimistic about Feng Zhengming and thought that if he grew up well, he would become a leading chef of Shandong cuisine in the future.

Become a chef like the old masters, who can stand on his own and support the future development of Shandong cuisine.

But what no one in the Cooking Association expected was that Feng Zhengming would be able to sit with them so soon.

From the challenge competition to the selection competition, Feng Zhengming demonstrated solid basic skills.

He is almost proficient in all the techniques of Shandong cuisine.

At the same time, he has his own understanding and can use various traditional techniques of Shandong cuisine, adding some of his own creativity to make some unique dishes.

This is especially true for middle-aged managers, including Li Zhifeng, vice president of the Cooking Association.

They were so impressed by Feng Zhengming's trick of playing with a pearl.

Maybe if I hadn’t seen Feng Zhengming do it.

No one would have thought that two classic Shandong dishes, scallops and sea cucumber with scallions, could be combined with some braised vegetable techniques to become one dish.

During the on-site discussion, everyone also gave some suggestions for improvement on Feng Zhengming's Oolong Playing with the Pearl.

In particular, several old masters gave Feng Zhengming some very precise advice.

Master Cui said: "Zhengming, you can indeed use the technique of braising vegetables in the process of coating the dish with sauce, but you just poured the sauce on the dish after arranging it, which still failed to blend the two dishes well.

My suggestion is that you can try to season the sea cucumber and stir-fry it with scallions, and then steam it together with the hydrangea and dried scallops.

After steaming, use the same braising technique to make the sauce, adding the steamed juice to the braising sauce. "

Master Cui is worthy of being called a living cookbook, and his suggestions gave Feng Zhengming a lot of inspiration.

Feng Zhengming thought for a moment and asked, "Is it possible to steam the hydrangea and sea cucumber together with scallion oil? When pouring the sauce on the sea cucumber, pour the scallion sauce on it first, and then cover the whole thing with the sauce?"

After hearing what Feng Zhengming did, the masters present all said that this method was also acceptable.

Master Su said with a smile: "Zhengming's idea is very good. He has mastered the techniques of pickling vegetables."

Master Sun said: "When steaming, add a little scallion oil and some broth to make the scallops taste good."

Several masters gave various suggestions on Feng Zhengming's Oolong Xizhu.

Let’s help Feng Zhengming improve his dish.

Everyone really has high expectations for this dish.

I hope he can demonstrate this dish well in the national competition.

By then, we can also let the masters from all over the country see the realm of harmony of Shandong cuisine.

Although the discussion focused on Feng Zhengming's original Oolong Xizhu, the discussion also focused on other dishes from chef competitions.

In particular, we discussed the dishes of several chefs who will participate in the national competition.

The old masters still hope that the chefs representing Shandong cuisine in the national competition can perform at a higher level and show the new generation of Shandong cuisine chefs to their peers across the country.

Finally, Master Yan said on behalf of several masters: "When you go to the national competition, the most important thing is to show and communicate. As for the competition, it depends on your own ability, but you must not lose the dignity of Shandong cuisine chefs."

I listened to what Master Yan said on behalf of the other masters.

The ten chefs who went to the national competition this time stood up together and bowed to the masters.

Then they all promised in unison that they would showcase Shandong cuisine well and would never lose its reputation. (End of this chapter)