From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

On December 12, Feng Zhengming picked up his luggage and once again took the wok and kitchen knife given to him by his master.

With my uncle driving the car himself and relatives and friends seeing me off, I went to the train station to meet up with my teammates.

This time, it wasn’t just people from his grandfather’s family who came to see Feng Zhengming off to the national competition.

There is also Luo Qing’s entire family and Master’s family.

The chefs, apprentices and service staff from Fengjia Gan Restaurant and Huiquanlou also came.

Even among the crowd seeing him off at the train station, Feng Zhengming saw Chen Anbang's brother's family, his eldest senior brother's family, and Liu Jiasheng's family also coming to see him off.

At the train station, Chao Xingxing's boss, Zhao Chaoxing, also brought his son to see Feng Zhengming off.

Chen Zhiheng also came to see him off with his father, wife and children.

Members of the Tao family also appeared in the crowd of people seeing them off.

I am so happy to see so many people coming to see me off to the national competition.

Feng Zhengming was really touched. Although he was an orphan in this life, he was not short of family.

The people in front of me were all relatives and friends who had helped me.

Without their help, Feng Zhengming might not have been able to grow up so quickly.

Feng Zhengming glanced at everyone who was seeing him off.

He showed his signature hearty smile: "Thank you all for coming to see me off. Don't worry, I will definitely go all out to make our Shandong cuisine famous in the national competition and win enough awards for our Shandong cuisine."

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, everyone present laughed and applauded him.

Liu Jiasheng shouted, "Xiao Feng, from the first time I met you, I knew you would be successful. You must show yourself well in the national competition this time."

Liu Fangyou also cheered for Feng Zhengming: "Come on, Brother Feng, you will definitely become the best chef in the country."

The old man of the Tao family said: "Xiao Feng, if you go to the national competition, our Shandong cuisine will surely impress many people. We all believe in your ability, so keep up the good work."

Tao Mengran said: "I must bring back the gold medal."

Zhao Chaoxing said with a smile: "Boss Feng, come on, bring honor to our Shandong cuisine. I will let my son learn cooking from you in the future."

Zhao Chaoxing's son, the fat boy, also shouted, "Come on, Uncle Feng."

Then everyone cheered for Feng Zhengming and looked forward to his return with honor.

Finally, Master Yan and Grandpa came out.

The two old men held Feng Zhengming's hands respectively.

Master Yan spoke first: "Zhengming, you are the master's pride. Regardless of whether you can win the gold medal in this national competition, the master is proud of you. Don't have too much pressure, just play well and show your style."

Grandpa followed up by saying, “Relax, don’t feel burdened, and believe in yourself.”

Feng Zhengming faced his master and grandfather and said seriously, "I understand. Master and Grandpa, don't worry."

After the master and grandfather returned to the crowd, Feng Zhengming waved goodbye to everyone, picked up his luggage and went to meet up with the chef team.

With his relatives and friends watching, Feng Zhengming and his team of chefs boarded the train heading south for the national competition.

This time the team is going to the national competition.

In addition to the ten chefs who stood out from the selection competition.

The team is led by Li Zhifeng from the Cooking Association, as well as Master Su from Jufengde and Master Sun from Taifenglou.

Feng Zhengming and his friends boarded the train and unexpectedly met Mr. Du from Jubinyuan and Cheng Guosheng, who was heading south with Mr. Du, at the train station.

Perhaps the most embarrassed person among all people was Lin Guofu when he saw Cheng Guosheng.

Originally he might not have had the chance to become a member of a team of ten chefs.

If Cheng Guosheng had not withdrawn from the competition, Lin Guofu might have had to give up his position to his senior.

Seeing Lin Guofu, Cheng Guosheng smiled and said, "Keep up your efforts and don't embarrass our Shandong cuisine in the national competition."

Lin Guofu also laughed when he heard this: "Brother, are you and Boss Du going to Shanghai too?"

Cheng Guosheng did not hide it: "We will go to Shanghai first, and then we should continue to go south."

I heard that Cheng Guosheng and his team had arrived in Shanghai and were going to continue heading south.

Lin Guofu hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help but say, "We can't lose the roots of Shandong cuisine."

Cheng Guosheng was stunned and looked at his junior brother.

He finally smiled and said: "You need to watch and learn more. Some things may not be the best in Shandong cuisine. Cantonese and Sichuan cuisine are more popular now. There are also many popular foreign restaurants. There are many things we can learn from.

We can’t continue to cling to the old things, we must try to change, otherwise we will be eliminated by the times.”

After hearing these words from his senior brother, Lin Guofu felt even more uncomfortable.

My former senior brother was a person who adhered to tradition.

Lin Guofu never expected that his senior brother would choose to abandon the tradition he once upheld.

Cheng Guosheng saw the change in Lin Guofu's expression and smiled: "Besides, don't you still have the persistence of Shandong cuisine? You are enough. I just want to learn more. I will try whatever customers like more."

After hearing what Cheng Guosheng said, not only Lin Guofu, but also Feng Zhengming and other chefs in the same profession had complicated expressions.

Master Su and Master Sun looked at each other, but neither of them interrupted.

However, Li Zhifeng couldn't help but say, "Old Cheng, your idea is not good. You should stick to what you should stick to.

If you lose the roots of Shandong cuisine, no matter how much you learn outside, it will all be someone else’s. If you just copy someone else’s things, your cooking skills will not improve.”

After hearing what Li Zhifeng said, Cheng Guosheng still had a smile on his face.

“President Li, in fact, anyone who has traveled abroad in recent years will feel that the outside world is developing rapidly with each passing day, especially in the south, which has undergone earth-shaking changes.

But how much have we changed? We have been unable to keep up with the times and are beginning to be considered a poor and unsophisticated place by many people in the south.

As a result, our Shandong cuisine is also considered out of date and no longer as fashionable as it once was.”

Cheng Guosheng's words left Li Zhifeng speechless.

With the rapid development of the South in recent years, the North has indeed been gradually left behind.

Therefore, many provinces in the north are gradually looked down upon by the south.

It is generally believed that the North is poor, rustic and backward.

Shandong cuisine was once the only cuisine in Beijing, but is now slowly being replaced by Cantonese and Sichuan cuisine from the south.

In particular, many restaurants that are considered high-end are almost all Cantonese restaurants.

Even in the kitchens of some big hotels, when salaries are paid every month, it is likely that the Cantonese chefs get paid more.

Seeing that Li Zhifeng was speechless, Cheng Guosheng couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"We have to keep up with the times, and most importantly, we need to make money to support our families, so I can only compromise with life and give up what I once insisted on."

Everyone present was speechless.

Even the two veterans, Su and Sun, who were with the team, were unable to blame Cheng Guosheng at this time.

Because just like in the already crowded train carriage in front of me, almost everyone is going south to work.

The reason why everyone goes south to work is to make a living.

So, in order to make a living and earn money to support his family, Cheng Guosheng gave up his adherence to Shandong cuisine. In such a trend of the times, who can blame him?

Cheng Guosheng finally said to Lin Guofu: "I know you still want to stick to Shandong cuisine, so do well in this competition. When you come back, you can go to Jufengde or Taifenglou, or you can just go to Xiaofeng's Huiquanlou."

After saying this, Cheng Guosheng looked at Feng Zhengming.

"To be honest, I'm very jealous of you. You're so young, yet you have the skills that we've worked hard on for half our lives. If I were your age, I would never give in to you so easily. I would definitely compete with you."

Cheng Guosheng laughed as he spoke, "We are not friends, we can even be considered rivals, but I would like to ask you to do our master's honor and keep Lin Guofu after the national competition, no matter what his performance is, if he is willing to go to Huiquanlou, please keep him."

Lin Guofu was a little surprised. He didn't expect that his senior brother would help him ask Feng Zhengming for the opportunity to enter Huiquanlou at this time.

In fact, Lin Guofu’s current situation is not very good.

Although he passed the selection and joined the chef team for the national competition of Shandong cuisine.

However, Jubinyuan is temporarily closed. After Boss Du and Cheng Guosheng return from their inspection, a new round of changes will probably take place.

Lin Guofu may no longer have a suitable place in the kitchen of Jubinyuan.

Among the big restaurants he could choose to go to, probably the best one is Huiquanlou.

So Cheng Guosheng, in front of everyone, helped Lin Guofu ask Feng Zhengming for a chance to enter Huiquanlou.

Feng Zhengming was stunned for a moment, then smiled and nodded in agreement.

"If Senior Brother Lin is willing to come to Huiquanlou, I will naturally welcome him. Zhu Xu is also with me. If Jubinyuan still has unused staff in the kitchen, they can all come to me. If we can gather enough staff, I can open a branch."

These words stunned everyone.

But then, everyone couldn't help laughing.

Feng Zhengming's words were equivalent to a declaration to Cheng Guosheng and Boss Du.

Don’t you think Shandong cuisine is no longer popular?

So I just want to prove to you that Shandong cuisine is still good.

I am not only willing to take over the unused staff in your Jubin Garden.

And I will also open branches when there is sufficient manpower.

We want to expand our business and prove to all of you that Shandong cuisine will never lag behind.

Feng Zhengming's announcement made the two masters, Su and Sun, very pleased.

At the same time, it also encouraged the Shandong cuisine chefs who were about to participate in the national competition.

Originally, everyone's morale was somewhat damaged by Cheng Guosheng's series of words.

It really makes everyone wonder whether Shandong cuisine is really unable to keep up with the times?
Has Shandong cuisine really become unfashionable?

Is it true that Shandong cuisine is inferior to Cantonese and Sichuan cuisine?
Feng Zhengming's words immediately cleared up the doubts in everyone's mind.

Although Shandong cuisine may be losing ground in other places nowadays, it still has to hold on in the land of Shandong.

Cheng Guosheng smiled and looked at Feng Zhengming for a while.

"I'm really jealous of you, you're so young and promising. I hope you can stick to Shandong cuisine. I wish you good results in this national competition."

Feng Zhengming responded calmly: "Thank you, Brother Cheng."

We had several conversations on the train heading south.

Cheng Guosheng didn't feel comfortable coming over to chat with everyone.

Maybe he still felt like a "deserter" who had given up resistance.

However, Mr. Du from Jubin Garden came over several times and took the initiative to chat with Feng Zhengming and others.

During the conversation, Feng Zhengming could also feel that Boss Du was indeed a boss with a lot of ideas.

From the conversation, I can hear that Boss Du really wants to run Jubin Garden well.

That’s why he turned Jubin Garden into a dance hall.

Now he called Cheng Guosheng to go south with him to study and learn from others.

He just wanted to come back and run Jubin Garden better.

However, some of his ideas were that since people in the South had successful experiences, he should go directly to the South to learn, or even copy them and use them back home.

From what Boss Du said, everyone even heard that he was planning to invite a Cantonese chef to Jubin Garden.

In the words of Boss Du: "Since it is popular now, we should introduce some popular things to keep pace with the times."

Maybe for Boss Du, he has no ambition to stick to Shandong cuisine.

From the perspective of a boss, he just wants to make Jubinyuan's business better so that he can make more money.

Feng Zhengming and others did not make too many criticisms about this.

After all, they are chefs, and many of their ideas are bound to conflict with the boss.

What's more, they run Jubinyuan, which is one of the larger restaurants in Quancheng. If it doesn't make money, they really can't continue operating it.

So after Boss Du left, the conversation between Feng Zhengming and the other two masters easily turned to the two conflicting issues of sticking to ideals and making money.

Some chefs participating in the national competition also feel that they still need to consider the issue of making money.

If some other dishes can be cooked and more people like them, and you can make money, it is not impossible to make them.

The two master chefs, Su and Sun, naturally insisted on preserving the roots of Shandong cuisine.

The two masters believe that if one cannot stick to one’s roots, it is equivalent to giving up one’s craft. If a chef gives up his craft, it is tantamount to destroying his own job.

Feng Zhengming and Lin Bosheng's views are relatively moderate.

They both believed that they could learn from others and introduce ingredients from other places.

Then Feng Zhengming’s ideas will be somewhat different from Lin Bosheng’s.

Lin Bosheng’s idea is to make it more high-end. Cantonese cuisine is considered high-end, so Shandong cuisine can also be made more high-end.

Feng Zhengming’s idea is that whether learning something from others or introducing ingredients from other places, the essential cooking techniques should still retain the Shandong cuisine techniques.

It doesn't necessarily have to be high-end, but it should be more palatable.

We need to constantly integrate the tastes of different people from other places.

The taste of Shandong cuisine can be made palatable to more people.

Feng Zhengming feels that in this way, the basics of Shandong cuisine can be preserved while being accepted by more people.

He thinks this will help promote Shandong cuisine to other places.

In particular, Feng Zhengming suggested that while the techniques remain unchanged, some appropriate adjustments can be made to the seasoning according to the different taste preferences of different regions, which will make it easier for more people to eat Shandong cuisine.

After discussing all along the way and pooling their wisdom, the group took the train to Shanghai. (End of this chapter)