From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

All the dishes for the customers at Huiquanlou have been served, and the guests from Beijing upstairs have almost finished their meals.

After Feng Zhengming had tasted most of the dishes, he asked Lu Chongshan to make a special portion of hand-rolled noodles.

He also personally stir-fried the pot with tomatoes and green onions, and added thick, white and delicious fish soup.

Then he personally delivered it to the guests from Beijing in the private room upstairs.

The elderly people from Beijing love the unique aroma of the stir-fried hand-rolled noodles.

“I haven’t smelled this fragrance for many years.”

The old man looked at Feng Zhengming and said with a smile: "Xiao Feng also seems to understand the charm of stir-fried noodles."

Feng Zhengming smiled and nodded: "When I was an apprentice, I heard my master and his friends mention it. Later, when I first started running the dry rice shop, stir-fried noodles were also very popular in the dry rice shop."

When serving this stir-fried hand-rolled noodles to the guests from Beijing, Feng Zhengming also specially prepared a small dish of chili oil.

When the old man saw the chili oil prepared by Feng Zhengming, he was moved again.

"Spicy Oil, I still remember that year when I just returned to work, I was so busy that I had no time to eat. Until the evening, I felt hungry, but I didn't want to eat any greasy food.

Later, the kitchen prepared a bowl of noodles for me. When I ate it, I felt it had no taste. Later, they brought me a plate of chili oil.

Xiao Feng is really thoughtful. "

Then the old man also ate a small bowl of hand-rolled noodles.

Add some chili oil. Since Feng Zhengming added vinegar when sautéing the pot, there is no need to add vinegar separately.

The old man also added a few garlic cloves to the dish, and after eating it, he looked very satisfied and his face was beaming.

After the meal, the old man served Feng Zhengming a fruit plate and some snacks and asked him to stay for a chat.

Feng Zhengming was left behind, and he was still a little reserved when facing the old man.

The old man noticed Feng Zhengming's reservedness and said with a smile: "Don't be so reserved. Just treat me as an elder in your family, as your grandfather."

At this point, the old man suddenly remembered something and asked Master Yan who was present: "Master Yan, I heard that he is an orphan?"

Master Yan nodded and said, "Yes, he is an orphan who was wandering around the streets of Quancheng. I saw that he was a very down-to-earth kid. He had never thought of stealing despite his hard life, so I kept him in the kitchen of Yanxilou."

The old man nodded and said: "This is where we have an advantage over foreign countries. Our people are kinder and willing to help those in need.

So Xiao Feng, you are not an orphan, because we are all your family, and you are a child of our country.

From today on, you are also my grandson, you don't need to be nervous or restrained, just treat it as if you are facing your own grandfather."

The old man's words surprised everyone present.

Feng Zhengming also looked at the old man in some disbelief.

Then the old man smiled kindly and asked, "Xiao Feng, are you willing to recognize me as your grandfather?"

Feng Zhengming naturally said immediately: "Yes, Grandpa."

The old man laughed: "Hahaha, well, since you acknowledge me as your grandpa, I have to assign you a task."

Feng Zhengming nodded seriously: "Grandpa, you say."

The old man smiled and said, "You are going to participate in the National Cooking Skills Competition soon. This year's competition will be held in Shanghai, and there will also be famous chefs from Hong Kong participating. Grandpa hopes that you can represent Shandong cuisine and try to win enough awards to reduce the prestige of the famous chefs from Hong Kong."

After hearing this, Feng Zhengming felt a fighting spirit from the old man's mouth, even though the old man spoke to him with a smile.

It was as if the old man had once been on the battlefield, attacking the enemy with great momentum for his country and his people.

Feng Zhengming stood up without any hesitation and said seriously: "Grandpa, don't worry, I will definitely use my best cooking skills to defeat those famous chefs in Hong Kong."

The old man was immediately very happy when he saw Feng Zhengming's serious look.

"Hahaha, good, this is a good child of our motherland. Grandpa believes you can do it."

At this point, Feng Zhengming seemed to understand why the old man had brought a group of chefs from Beijing to exchange ideas before the national competition.

The other party's target was obviously Feng Zhengming.

Because in their opinion, in this national competition, Feng Zhengming may be the only one who has the opportunity to compete with the famous chefs in Hong Kong.

The old man said that he wanted to kill the prestige of Hong Kong’s famous chefs.

This is because for some time, Hong Kong’s famous chefs have been too powerful in China.

It advanced all the way from the south to the north, with the momentum to sweep across the country.

Many cuisines from all over the country have been defeated by the famous chefs from Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's famous chefs have integrated Eastern and Western cooking techniques, using a variety of domestic and foreign ingredients and seasonings. Some of their cooking skills are indeed superb.

Especially some of their fancy cooking techniques.

This is in stark contrast to the down-to-earth style of work that has always been practiced in China.

This makes it a bit difficult for cuisines from all over the country to cope with the situation.

Some of the famous chefs in Hong Kong are mostly middle-aged or young people.

This makes it difficult for the chefs of local cuisine to fight back.

After all, there is a generation gap between the two parties. Even if one party wins, there is a suspicion that the other party is using generation gap to suppress the other party.

What's more, if the old masters make mistakes and lose to the young and middle-aged people, it will further undermine their morale.

In the capital city, all the major cuisines of the capital have been gathered together, and the middle-aged generation of chefs have competed with each other.

Both sides won and lost alternately, but overall, Hong Kong’s famous chefs still had more wins.

Therefore, for this national cooking skills competition, the domestic cooking industry invited famous chefs from Hong Kong to participate.

The Hong Kong city also agreed, and specially selected the best from the middle-aged and young generations.

Especially there was a very young chef among them.

It is said that he is about the same age as Feng Zhengming.

Although he is about the same age as Feng Zhengming, he successfully won the gold medal of Asian Master Chef last year.

He is known as the youngest top chef in Asia.

There is such a young famous chef in Hong Kong.

Naturally, this has attracted great attention from the domestic culinary industry.

In the past, the cooking association in Beijing would always call together master chefs to conduct research.

I want to find a young chef who can compete head-on with me.

But Beijing did not find a suitable young chef.

The main reason is that I may not be able to compare with others in terms of creativity.

It was not until the Qilu selection competition that Feng Zhengming suddenly emerged, allowing the old chefs to see a candidate who could compete head-on with Hong Kong's young famous chefs.

The old man looked at Feng Zhengming and said, "You have to win, and you have to win honorably and beautifully."

After listening to the relevant introduction, Feng Zhengming understood the opponents he would face.

Naturally, my heart was filled with fighting spirit.

A young winner of the Asian MasterChef Award in Hong Kong. This is a very good opponent.

Feng Zhengming said seriously: "Grandpa, rest assured, I will do my best to show them the skills of our Shandong cuisine and the cooking details that we will not lose to them."

The old man was very satisfied with Feng Zhengming's attitude.

"Okay, grandpa believes in you."

The old man from Beijing chatted a lot with Feng Zhengming and learned some of his ideas on cooking design.

It was especially so when I heard Feng Zhengming say that he hoped to use Shandong cuisine as the foundation and its traditional techniques, and try to integrate ingredients from all over the world in order to enrich Shandong cuisine and his own cooking direction.

This made the old man appreciate it even more, and he felt that Feng Zhengming's direction was correct.

“Inclusiveness is very important in today’s era.

We need to see the outside world and understand the outside world, and food is also a part of it that we need to understand.

As we learn more about the delicious food out there, we need to integrate the best of others to enrich our own materials.

Use other people's excellent things to make our own food better."

The more the old man talked with Feng Zhengming, the more he felt that many of Feng Zhengming's ideas were quite to his liking.

So we chatted until very late, and the other guests of Huiquanlou had already left.

The people accompanying the old man came in to remind him, and the old man finally came to his senses and stood up to leave.

Feng Zhengming naturally saw the old man and his entourage off respectfully.

The old man reached out and held Feng Zhengming's hand, and said admiringly: "Zhengming, you must remember that you are a chef. You must cook well and spread our Chinese cuisine well."

Feng Zhengming nodded seriously: "Grandpa, don't worry, I will do it well."

In front of Huiquan Tower, the old man looked at the situation around Huiquan Tower.

He smiled and said to Feng Zhengming: "When you come back from the national competition, you can expand the area around Huiquan Restaurant so that it will look like a large restaurant."

The old man's words surprised everyone present.

Feng Zhengming turned his head and looked around, then he smiled and rejected the old man's suggestion.

"Grandpa, Huiquanlou should not be expanded. It should retain its own characteristics. After the national competition, I still want to go south to Shanghai to open a real Shandong cuisine restaurant. Since I want to compete with Hong Kong's famous chefs, I must face the challenge head-on."

The old man liked this head-on challenge very much: "Hahaha, okay, grandpa is looking forward to you going to the Shandong restaurant in Shanghai."

After seeing off the old man and his entourage, the provincial staff also gave Feng Zhengming some encouragement before leaving.

Feng Zhengming stood in front of the door of Huiquan Tower and finally breathed a sigh of relief at this moment.

It was all a bit dreamlike.

He never thought that he would be able to meet the old man.

Through some exchanges tonight, Feng Zhengming also felt the heavy burden on his shoulders.

Too many people have great expectations of him.

It can be said that this is also the dilemma that many traditional cultures in China are facing under the impact of the massive influx of foreign cultures into the country today.

This predicament will only get worse in the coming years.

Obviously the old man also realized this.

So when the old man saw Feng Zhengming's sudden emergence, he wanted to come in person to meet Feng Zhengming, a talented young chef who cooks the most traditional Shandong cuisine.

The old man hopes that Feng Zhengming can be the representative of Shandong cuisine and the representative of Chinese cuisine.

Give Chinese cuisine a better time to develop.

We must be able to preserve the roots of Chinese cuisine while being impacted by more foreign food cultures.

Feng Zhengming can understand the old man's heart, and he is willing to do something for Chinese cuisine through his own efforts.

When I returned to Huiquan Building, I saw that everyone had not yet left work.

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "Okay, everyone has worked hard today. We are closing for today. Everyone, clean up and go back to rest early."

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the service staff and apprentices in the kitchen also went to clean up.

He Yunqing looked at Feng Zhengming and said, "I didn't expect so many people would come."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yeah, I didn't expect that."

He Yunqing asked again: "Will Huiquanlou face some changes in the future?"

Feng Zhengming shook his head and said, "Don't worry, Huiquan Restaurant is still Huiquan Restaurant. There won't be too many changes. We just need to make the dishes and service as good as before."

Third Senior Brother Yang Bin asked, "So will you still go to the national competition as usual?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Of course we have to go. This national competition will have famous chefs from Hong Kong participating, so we have to prepare well."

Fifth Brother Cao Zhiguo said: "Sure enough, Hong Kong City also sent a chef to participate this time."

The third brother looked at the fifth brother and asked, "You knew this a long time ago?"

Cao Zhiguo replied: "I heard some news when I was in the capital."

"No wonder." Yang Bin suddenly realized, "No wonder you didn't participate in the trials. Did you know that you would have to face the famous chefs from Hong Kong in the national competition? So you didn't dare to go?"

Cao Zhiguo immediately said, "Third brother, you can't just say that no one is innocent. Am I the kind of person who is afraid of fighting?"

Yang Bin said with a smile: "They look very similar."

These words almost broke Cao Zhiguo's defense.

Feng Zhengming stopped the two senior brothers from quarreling in time.

"Brothers, please stop arguing. The participation of Hong Kong's famous chefs in the National Cooking Skills Competition is indeed putting a lot of pressure on us."

Yang Bin still chose to believe his junior brother: "What are you afraid of? You are no worse than them."

Cao Zhiguo still reminded: "We should still be more cautious."

He Yunqing asked at this time: "Can the chef's dishes guarantee that he will win the national competition?"

These words made Feng Zhengming and his two senior brothers fall into deep thought.

After a long while, even Yang Bin, who trusted his junior brother more, could only shake his head and said, "It's hard to say. Hong Kong has always been a place where the world gathers, so the chefs in Hong Kong are exposed to more things than us."

Cao Zhiguo went on to say: "The key is that some of the great chefs who inherited the tradition back then all went to Hong Kong, so the inheritance of some culinary skills in Hong Kong may be more complete than ours."

Yang Bin gave an example: "It's like when the imperial chefs cooked court dishes, they became common people, and many of their successors later went to Hong Kong."

Feng Zhengming added: "Hong Kong is also more closely connected with foreign countries than we are. They can get more foreign ingredients and spices, which is also their advantage."

He Yunqing listened to Feng Zhengming and his two brothers and couldn't help but feel a little worried: "So, the situation facing the chef is very difficult."

Feng Zhengming laughed: "Don't worry, Uncle He. Although it is a little difficult, I will definitely work hard. Perhaps in adversity, I can burst out more abilities."

Cao Zhiguo reminded: "Food is still relatively subjective, which means you must prioritize making the dish gorgeous enough."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "I will consider this. Don't worry, wait for me to come back with the gold medal."

Seeing that Feng Zhengming still had enough confidence, the brothers were not so worried. (End of this chapter)