From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Feng Zhengming and his friends did not expect that they would be asked to cook two dishes right after they had just been judged on the shredding and dicing methods.

Even for chefs who have been cooking for many years, this kind of urgent cooking is quite challenging.

Feng Zhengming and the chefs came to the on-site ingredients and seasoning area.

Quickly make a selection on the spot according to your needs.

During this process, the differences in cooking styles among chefs from different places quickly become apparent.

The dish of shredded chicken with silver sprouts basically has no big difference in different places.

But the diced chicken dishes are obviously different in each place.

For example, Feng Zhengming and his family’s Shandong cuisine must make stir-fried diced chicken with soy sauce.

The general ingredients include some winter bamboo shoots and some green beans for color, and of course the most important thing is to add walnut kernels.

Onion and ginger are indispensable, and some garlic is also added.

The seasonings used are the essential salt, sugar, MSG, and the main ingredients for stir-fried fried dough sticks are sweet bean sauce and soy sauce.

Feng Zhengming and his colleagues also need to select the peppercorns and rice wine themselves.

Of course, when making the same stir-fried diced chicken, some chefs will only use walnut kernels.

Moreover, chefs in Beijing generally do not use sweet bean sauce, but dry yellow sauce.

The dish that Cantonese chefs make with diced chicken is Nestle Chicken Diced.

They have relatively more ingredients, including diced carrots, diced celery, and diced water chestnuts.

Sichuan chefs naturally have to make Kung Pao Chicken.

Not only Sichuan chefs make Kung Pao Chicken, but Hunan chefs also make Spicy Chicken.

Even Kung Pao Chicken and Spicy Chicken.

In fact, there are some differences in the cooking methods of chefs in different places.

For example, the cooking methods of Sichuan chefs in Beijing are slightly different from those of chefs in Sichuan province.

Similarly, Gan cuisine chefs also make spicy diced chicken, and the method is different from that of Hunan cuisine chefs.

It can be said that when it comes to cooking diced chicken, chefs from all over the world really have their own unique skills.

Of course, different places have their own way of cooking diced chicken.

However, the marinating and battering of the diced chicken are basically the same.

In fact, there are two dishes: shredded chicken and diced chicken.

It is a bit more difficult to marinate and starch shredded chicken.

Because the shredded chicken is firstly very thin and also very tender.

If you are not careful during the marinating and battering process, the chicken shreds may be broken.

If it breaks, then points will definitely be deducted in this game.

In addition, during the marinating process, if the bottom is not evenly coated, the taste of the fried shredded chicken may be different.

During the starching process, the shredded chicken cannot be stirred or mixed, nor can it be added with too much water and starch.

It can be said that marinating and starching shredded chicken is a job that tests the chef's basic skills.

Under normal circumstances, in the kitchens of the participating chefs, these tasks would definitely be done by apprentices or apprentices.

But today in the competition, they all had to do it on their own.

So in this way, the fifteen-minute time limit is really tight for every chef.

After preparing the ingredients and seasonings, Feng Zhengming returned to his workbench to marinate and coat the diced chicken.

The reason for doing this is that the chicken shreds need to be more delicate and may take more time, so it is better to marinate the diced chicken that does not require delicateness in advance.

First, marinate it, add salt and sugar, because you are making diced chicken with sauce, and then you need to stir-fry it with sauce.

Therefore, when pickling at this time, you can usually only enjoy 30% of the taste.

Add salt and sugar, then add a little rice wine and an egg white, then mix well.

Next is to prepare the water starch.

When coating the diced chicken with starch, you need to use wet starch, which needs to be diluted with water first, so that it can flow down slowly when you grab it.

Add it to the diced chicken, then stir it constantly until the diced chicken starts to become sticky.

After mixing it like this, cover it with some oil and set it aside.

Then Feng Zhengming marinated and starched the shredded chicken.

When marinating shredded chicken, add less salt and sugar, and at least one egg white, about one third.

Then don't use your hands to grab and stir the chicken shreds, otherwise the chicken shreds will definitely break.

You must press lightly on the shredded chicken with the back of your hand, and then rub it very lightly with the back of your hand.

Slowly spread the marinade and rub it into the shredded chicken.

Then add a little bit of water starch and knead it slowly with the back of your hands.

Make sure each piece of chicken is evenly coated with starch.

After marinating the shredded chicken, Feng Zhengming quickly cut off the heads and tails of the bean sprouts.

Only the silver bud in the middle is left.

And wash them all clean, and the length of each silver sprout is basically the same as the chicken shreds.

Then make another bowl of sauce.

Onion, ginger, cooking wine, salt, sugar, and a very small amount of water starch.

This dish requires a thickening technique.

The shredded chicken and silver sprouts should not be coated with too much starch sauce, but there should be a little bit of starch sauce to make the dish look more beautiful.

Everything was ready, Feng Zhengming first put the shredded chicken into the pan and fried it.

After putting the chicken into the pan, do not separate them first, but let the chicken shreds stay in the oil.

As the oil temperature rises, the slurry on the surface of the shredded chicken solidifies.

Then quickly and gently spread it out.

Then pour it out directly.

Leave some oil in the pan, first add the scallion, ginger and peppercorns to stir-fry, then remove the scallion, ginger and peppercorns, and add the silver sprouts to stir-fry in the remaining oil.

Stir-fry until the silver sprouts begin to become translucent, then add the oily shredded chicken into the pan.

The moment the food is put into the pot, add the juice from the bowl and also add a few cilantro stems of matching colors.

Quickly stir-fry over high heat until evenly combined, then remove from pan and serve.

The whole process can be said to be completed in one go, and it hardly takes any time to fry.

After the shredded silver sprout chicken is served.

The next step is to prepare the stir-fried chicken.

To make this dish, you first need to fry the walnut kernels until they are crispy.

Then put the diced bamboo shoots into the pan and fry them again.

Place the walnut kernels and bamboo shoots in a strainer.

Then use new cool oil to simmer the diced chicken.

When scrambling the diced chicken, Feng Zhengming did not put all the diced chicken into the pan at once.

Instead, grab the diced chicken with your hands and put them into the pan one by one, close to the oil surface.

In this way, the diced chicken will separate quickly one by one after being put into the pot.

As the oil temperature rises, the paste slowly covers the surface of the diced chicken. The diced chicken that slides out is quite white and tender.

After everything is out of the pot, add clean oil, a little lard and sesame oil into the pot.

First, add the scallions, ginger, and garlic into the pan and stir-fry until fragrant. Then add the sweet noodle sauce and stir-fry until cooked.

After the sauce is cooked through, add the diced chicken and stir-fry.

Then pour the prepared sauce into the pot, followed by adding the walnut kernels and diced bamboo shoots.

Stir-fry quickly over high heat until the juices and sauce evenly coat the diced chicken, bamboo shoots, and walnut kernels.

Finally, add the green beans into the pan and stir-fry evenly before serving.

After finishing the two dishes, Feng Zhengming also cleaned up the table and stove.

There were only two dishes on his counter.

Feng Zhengming raised his hand to indicate that he was done.

Someone came over and informed him immediately: "Chef Feng, you have finished within the stipulated time. You can take a rest first."

Feng Zhengming nodded, and seeing that there were still some chefs who had not finished, he tiptoed out of the competition venue.

After walking out of the stadium, I saw that there were already people in the rest area.

Another chef who is quicker than Feng Zhengming is still the Huaiyang cuisine chef.

In addition to him, there are two Sichuan chefs, a Cantonese chef, and a Beijing chef.

Feng Zhengming took the initiative to walk over and greet several chefs who were faster than him.

"You guys are really fast. I admire you."

Seeing Feng Zhengming coming over to say hello, several finished chefs responded with a smile.

“Chef Feng is also very fast.”

"Yes, Chef Feng is so young and his cooking skills are so good, it's amazing."

"I really admire Chef Feng for being the first one to finish deboning a whole chicken."

“To be honest, even though I finished within the stipulated time, the pressure on the field was still very high.”

I heard several chefs say that the pressure on the competition was quite high.

Feng Zhengming also nodded: "It is very stressful. The key is that the scene is live broadcast, and there is a time limit. In addition, there are standards to be met. It is really not easy."

The Huaiyang cuisine chef is named "Zhang Quande" and is fifteen years older than Feng Zhengming.

However, although he is fifteen years older than Feng Zhengming, Zhang Quande, who is just over 40 years old, is a chef in his prime.

Zhang Quande is quite concerned about Feng Zhengming and thinks it is very rare for someone of his age to have such skillful craftsmanship.

Zhang Quande asked: "Chef Feng, I wonder who your master is?"

Feng Zhengming replied: "I learned from Master Yan of Yanxilou."

Zhang Quande and several other chefs were a little surprised to hear about Master Yan from Yanxilou.

While they were surprised, they suddenly understood why Feng Zhengming had such good cooking skills.

Zhang Quande exclaimed: "No wonder your craftsmanship is so good, it turns out you are Master Yan's apprentice. With a master as good as Master Yan, your craftsmanship is really not exaggerated at all."

Several other chefs also nodded in agreement.

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "You are so kind. I am still too young and inexperienced. I hope to learn more from you in this competition."

Zhang Quande and several chefs laughed after hearing this.

They all expressed that they should learn from Feng Zhengming and they recognized Feng Zhengming's skills.

As we were chatting, more chefs had finished.

Jiang Chengzhe finished and came out quickly in front of Feng Zhengming.

"You're very fast."

Feng Zhengming smiled and replied: "It's OK. My speed is not that fast. Many chefs are much faster than me."

Then Feng Zhengming asked: "How are you doing?"

Jiang Chengzhe was still very confident: "No problem. Although I have never made shredded chicken with silver sprouts before, I made similar dishes when I was learning cooking, so it's not a big problem. As for the diced chicken, I made diced chicken in tomato curry."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "You really have incorporated a lot of Southeast Asian customs, haven't you?"

Jiang Chengzhe responded with a smile: "Of course, I just participated in a cooking competition there, and I think some of the things there can actually be used here."

Feng Zhengming nodded as well, "We can definitely learn from them. We didn't have many seasonings before, but now that transportation is convenient, we can import them and use them."

Jiang Chengzhe agreed: "Yes, we should not limit our cooking creativity by the cuisine, we should be bold in combining and trying different dishes."

On this point, Feng Zhengming and Jiang Chengzhe really have a lot in common.

Of course, they were the only two people who had a common language.

The other chefs participating in the competition were more or less resistant to this fusion approach.

In particular, several older chefs believe that cuisines from different regions should maintain their own characteristics and should not casually add other elements to them. Otherwise, it will change the original appearance of the dish, which is a disrespect to the cuisine.

Therefore, most of the participating chefs looked at Feng Zhengming and Jiang Chengzhe as if they were two different kinds of people.

Even some other chefs in Hong Kong think some of their ideas are too radical.

Of course, compared with chefs from other places, chefs in Hong Kong are not completely unacceptable to their ideas.

For example, when the two were chatting, Dai Long also came over and chatted with them for a few words.

After hearing about their ideas, Dai Long smiled and expressed his support.

"I still support you two to try. It is important to be bold in trying. For example, I have fried egg fried rice with abalone sauce before, and the finished product tasted very delicious."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "As for egg fried rice, it seems that Huaiyang cuisine chefs are more adept at it."

Zhang Quande, who happened to be standing next to him, heard this and said seriously, "Our Yangzhou fried rice is already world-famous."

Jiang Chengzhe looked at the other party and asked, "Is your Yangzhou fried rice really the local fried rice in Yangcheng?"

Zhang Quande said: "In fact, the Yangzhou fried rice that is popular outside is just a type of fried rice in our Huaiyang cuisine. The real name should be: assorted fried rice with minced meat."

Hearing what Zhang Quande said, Feng Zhengming, Jiang Chengzhe and Dai Long were all filled with curiosity.

At the same time, some other chefs who were on break were also listening curiously.

Feng Zhengming asked: "Assorted fried rice with minced meat? Is there anything special about it? Do you have other fried rice in Huaiyang cuisine?"

Zhang Quande nodded: "Yes, in addition to the assorted fried rice with minced gold, we also have some different fried rice such as crescent white and gold wrapped silver."

Then Zhang Quande introduced the assorted fried rice with minced meat separately.

"The so-called assorted ingredients means that various ingredients are added to the fried rice, usually eight kinds of ingredients, including diced sea cucumber, shredded scallops, diced chicken, shrimp, green beans, diced ham, diced winter bamboo shoots and diced mushrooms.

Then the eggs need to be fried into golden crumbs, and each grain must stick to the rice grains.

This requires a professional approach to cooking, rather than just throwing all the ingredients into the pot and cooking them. "

Although Zhang Quande did not explain the frying method in detail.

But just hearing him say this had already surprised many of the chefs present.

The eight ingredients alone are different from the Yangzhou fried rice that everyone knows.

The eggs must also be fried into golden crumbs and scattered throughout the fried rice so that they can stick to the rice grains.

This very unique Yangzhou fried rice has indeed gone beyond everyone's perception.

Jiang Chengzhe couldn't help but say, "I hope I can have a chance to taste the Yangzhou fried rice that Chef Zhang mentioned."

The other chefs also nodded and expressed their desire to see and taste it.

Seeing everyone's anticipation, Zhang Quande smiled and said, "Sure, I'll definitely cook it for you guys to see during the banquet. Please try it out." (End of this chapter)