From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

On the day of the official competition, Feng Zhengming and other participating chefs all got up very early, washed up in their rooms, and then changed into very formal chef uniforms.

All the participating chefs were wearing white chef uniforms, and they looked very impressive when they lined up and walked down the stairs.

The hotel where the competition was held was also specially decorated, with counters and stoves needed for cooking set up in the largest banquet hall.

All of Feng Zhengming's chefs lined up to enter the banquet hall and stood in front of the signs representing their respective cuisines.

The chefs on the scene generally looked a little fat.

Especially after wearing a white chef's uniform, he will look even fatter.

Among all the chefs, Feng Zhengming and Jiang Chengzhe are two relatively unique cases.

Jiang Chengzhe is not that fat and his figure is pretty well maintained.

But compared with Feng Zhengming, Jiang Chengzhe looks a little thin.

Feng Zhengming is really tall and strong, and the muscular lines on his arms show his strength.

Feng Zhengming would be particularly conspicuous standing among the team of chefs.

Because it is an official competition today, there were reporters taking pictures on the scene.

The TV station also specially set up equipment for live broadcast.

Leaders from Shanghai cities also attended the event.

The president and vice president of the Culinary Association were also present.

Professional judges specially hired by the Ministry of Labor also attended the meeting together with the leaders sent by the Ministry of Labor.

Just looking at the judges lineup on site, it is really quite impressive.

Almost all the judges present were true state banquet masters.

There are even two masters who frequently participate in state banquets.

In addition to professional culinary judges, some celebrities were also invited to serve as judges.

Among them are people who are engaged in research on delicacies from various places.

There were two other invited gourmets from Hong Kong and a country in East Asia.

The luxurious judging panel gives the participating chefs enough sense of pressure.

In addition, there were reporters taking pictures on site and TV stations broadcasting the event live, which really put a lot of pressure on every participating chef.

Even the chefs in Gangcheng were somewhat nervous when faced with such a situation.

The celebrities invited to be judges, especially the gourmets from Hong Kong and a certain East Asian country, are all very familiar to the chefs in Hong Kong.

The two gourmets often deal with chefs in Hong Kong.

Jiang Chengzhe was among the judges and also saw one of the judges he had served with during the Asian Cooking Competition.

The other party is also a very famous cooking master in the country.

He is a master employed by the Ministry of Labor, who is specifically responsible for grading and evaluation.

It can be said that the lineup of judges in the national competition alone is much stronger than those in other local competitions.

This also shows that the requirements in national competitions are definitely more stringent than those in local competitions.

Of course, this strictness is justified.

After all, the chefs participating in the national competition can be said to be independent and well-known chefs from all over the country.

If we still use more relaxed standards, it would obviously be a bit disrespectful to these master chefs.

After several leaders spoke, the arrangements for the first game were completed.

In the banquet hall, a separate counter was prepared for each participating chef.

The next part of the competition is knife skills, which requires all chefs to complete the cutting and preparation according to the requirements.

In fact, there are not many chefs participating in the national competition.

The total number of chefs selected from various regions to participate in the national competition is less than 400.

The number of participants is even less than that of Feng Zhengming and his team in the previous challenge.

However, in the banquet hall, with more than 300 chefs' counters set up at once, the scene was still quite grand.

The chefs took their own knives and came to their respective counters one by one.

The chefs were first given some time to prepare.

Wait until all participating chefs are ready.

Next, the president of the cooking association on site announced the rules of the first game.

"The first match is a test of your knife skills. The time limit is 5 minutes. You need to debone the whole chicken, cut the chicken breast into matchstick-thick shreds, and dice the chicken thighs into medium-sized cubes."

Debone the whole chicken and cut the chicken breast into strips, and dice the boneless chicken thighs.

And there is a specified time limit, it must be completed within 5 minutes.

These may seem very difficult to do to outsiders.

But for the master chefs participating in the national competition, this should be what they should be able to basically achieve.

In fact, there are two very hidden points in this question that may not be noticed.

That is, the chicken breast should be shredded into matchstick-like strips.

The chicken thighs should be boneless and diced into medium-sized pieces.

If you don't pay attention to these two points, it might be easy to overlook.

Match filament is actually a thread with a thickness similar to that of a matchstick. According to regulations, it must be 0.2 cm thick.

The medium Ding requires the Ding to be 1.2 cm square.

When the first topic was announced, the specific thickness and size requirements were not directly stated.

This actually poses a difficult problem for the participating chefs.

This is a test to see if the chefs can remember exactly how thick the matchsticks are and how big the middle ones should be.
If you can't remember clearly and just rely on experience to cut, there may be deviations.

Feng Zhengming realized this and also understood the strict requirements for basic skills of chefs in national competitions.

Fortunately, this time all the chickens were slaughtered and cleaned in advance.

So after receiving the first question, the participating chefs first chose a chicken each.

Feng Zhengming saw that most chefs chose smaller chickens.

He didn't choose like that, but picked one more casually.

Returning to his desk, Feng Zhengming looked around.

I saw several chefs from Hong Kong, including Jiang Chengzhe. Their kitchen knives were of different shapes, not all of them were Chinese kitchen knives.

For example, when Jiang Chengzhe's knife box is opened, there are individual knives placed inside.

Feng Zhengming took a look from a distance and could clearly see that those knives were not Chinese kitchen knives.

Basically, they are some narrow and slender kitchen knives.

It looks a little bit like a Japanese knife, and a little bit like a Western kitchen knife.

Feng Zhengming took a look and heard the vice president of the Culinary Association announce the start of the timer.

He immediately looked away and stared at the chicken he had chosen.

The next moment, he reached out and grabbed the kitchen knife.

Deboning a whole chicken is already a piece of cake for Feng Zhengming.

It was completed in almost less than a minute.

The separated parts are also neatly placed on the table.

He had just finished the split when the TV station's camera quickly captured him.

At the same time, the Feng family who were watching TV at home in Quancheng saw Feng Zhengming being given a close-up by the camera.

Zhang Hongwei was the first to jump up and cheer: "Great, he's the first again."

Seeing her son's expression, Feng Suying asked with a smile: "How do you know he was the first one?" Zhang Hongwei answered confidently: "Of course, because the TV gave him a shot, which means he was the first one to split it, so he was given a shot."

Feng Jiandong smiled and said, "These are too easy for Zhengming."

Grandpa Feng said: "It's not simple. It's not easy to do it quickly and well."

Hearing his father's words, Feng Jiandong added: "I said it was easy for Zhengming, but it must be difficult for other chefs."

As a result, while Feng Jiandong was speaking, the live broadcast camera came on and the participating chefs had almost finished deboning.

As soon as Feng Jiandong saw the scene on TV, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "Wow, these chefs are so amazing?"

Zhang Zhigang smiled and said, "Of course they are amazing. After all, they are the best chefs from all over the country. They are all master chefs who can be teachers."

Luo Qing stared at the TV nervously. Seeing so many chefs working very quickly, she was still worried about Feng Zhengming.

Feng Zhengming ignored the situations of other chefs and finished deboning the whole chicken.

That is, quickly remove the bones of the chicken legs and tear off the skin on the chicken legs.

There are two very flat pieces of chicken thighs left.

Then Feng Zhengming tapped the chopping board with the knife.

Pat the chicken thighs until they are relatively flat, then use a knife to smooth them out.

Make the chicken thighs smoother.

Then trim the edges of the chicken thighs.

Finally, you get two almost square pieces of chicken thighs.

At this time, Feng Zhengming began to demonstrate how to cut into cubes.

The cutting was still a bit slow at the beginning, but soon Feng Zhengming started to speed up.

It took him about a minute to finish dicing the chicken thighs.

Quickly scoop up the diced chicken thighs with a knife and place them on a plate nearby.

At the same time, use a knife to scrape the chopping board, and then wipe the chopping board and the knife clean with a clean rag.

Next, take the chicken breast.

Similarly, trim the chicken breast first.

Remove the tendons from the chicken breasts.

Finally, there was a whole chicken breast left, which Feng Zhengming first sliced ​​into slices and then cut into shreds.

The filming process should be a little slower.

Because in order to cut the silk into thin enough pieces, you first have to slice it thin enough.

If you can't slice it into 0.2 cm thin slices accurately, it will be impossible to cut it into 0.2 cm strips.

Feng Zhengming also arranged the slices one by one on the chopping board.

Slice all the chicken breasts into thin slices and arrange them ready for cutting.

Feng Zhengming heard a noise at the scene and realized that someone should have finished.

Everyone in the Feng family who were watching at home in front of the TV were also shocked.

Feng Shengnan said: "Oh, brother lost this time."

Zhang Hongwei was still a little unconvinced: "How can it be faster than my brother?"

Feng Jiandong's wife Lin Yun said softly: "It seems that the chefs who can participate in the national competition are all masters."

Feng Suying agreed with her sister-in-law: "They are indeed masters. This chef who surpassed Zhengming, I wonder where he is from? It should not be from our province."

Not long after, it was broadcast on TV that the other party was from Su Province.

He is a Huaiyang cuisine chef from Yangcheng.

Grandpa Feng couldn't help but say after seeing this: "A Huaiyang cuisine chef? He's really amazing. No wonder they call him the Three Knives of Yangzhou."

Zhang Hongwei curiously asked his grandfather: "Are Huaiyang cuisine chefs so good?"

Grandpa nodded: "Yes, Huaiyang cuisine chefs are known for their knife skills. They have a very impressive dish called Wensi tofu, which is tofu cut into thin threads as thin as cow hair."

Zhang Hongwei, Feng Shengnan and even Luo Qing were surprised to hear that tofu could be cut into threads as thin as cow hair.

Seeing their expressions, Feng Jiandong said with a smile: "Are you scared? I really saw it when I went to Yangcheng before. It was really as thin as a cow's hair."

In the few seconds when everyone was discussing and surprised, Feng Zhengming had also completed it.

He still cut the shreds, scooped them up with a knife and put them on a plate.

Also scrape the chopping board clean with a knife and wipe it clean with a clean rag.

After everything was done, Feng Zhengming raised his hand to indicate that he had completed the task.

In the end, Feng Zhengming only took about four and a half minutes.

The fastest chef on the scene was the Huaiyang cuisine chef from Yangcheng, who took only four minutes and a few seconds.

Then the other chefs also finished one after another.

Feng Zhengming's speed was not ranked very high.

No chef on the scene took more than 5 minutes to finish.

However, completion is only the first step, and the next step is to conduct on-site judging.

The judges also carefully inspected and evaluated each chef one by one.

When judging, the judges will use a clean white porcelain plate and put water in the plate.

Then place each chef's shredded pork in the water on a plate.

Use your hands to gently spread the silk in the water.

At this glance, the thickness of each thread can be seen clearly.

And you can also clearly see whether the cut chicken shreds are basically the same thickness?
If there are any points that are not cut off, 0 points will be given directly.

None of the chefs participating in the competition encountered any problems that were not cut.

When compared in clean water, the chefs were basically able to achieve uniform coarseness and fineness.

After checking the shredded chicken breast, the next step is to look at the diced chicken thighs.

Also, use a white porcelain bowl to fill it with water and put the diced chicken into the bowl for comparison.

Or should I first check whether the size of the diced chicken is basically the same?
When checking the diced chicken, another judge will use a caliper to measure the thickness of the chicken shreds on the spot.

Make sure the thickness is basically around 0.2 cm.

It has to be said that the time actually allowed for the chefs to compete is not as long as the time allowed for the on-site judges to examine and judge the food.

All the participating chefs’ shreds and diced meats have been checked.

The judges went back and began to score.

At the same time, the next game process was announced on site.

“The chefs have already finished deboning whole chickens, shredding chicken breasts, and deboning and dicing chicken thighs.

Then, please use the shredded chicken that you have cut to make a dish of shredded silver sprout chicken, and then use the diced chicken thighs that you have cut to make a dish of diced chicken.

There is no limit to the flavor, you can season it according to local tastes, and it takes fifteen minutes.”

After explaining the next steps of the competition, he immediately announced the start of the countdown.

Chefs including Feng Zhengming who were participating in the competition immediately began to prepare.

Whether it is shredded silver sprout chicken or stir-fried diced chicken, the chicken needs to be marinated and coated in advance, which is a very time-consuming process.

The chefs were given a time limit on site, so they had to hurry up to prepare.

In addition to marinating and coating the shredded chicken and diced chicken, the participating chefs also need to prepare the ingredients and seasonings.

The 15-minute competition time is quite tight for the chefs. (End of this chapter)