From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Returning to the two masters' rooms, the Shandong cuisine chefs closed the door and had a private discussion.

The other chefs immediately gave Feng Zhengming a thumbs up and praised him.

"Zhengming is really amazing. He was able to successfully get the second place, which brought honor to our Shandong cuisine."

"Hahaha, Zhengming is awesome. Let those chefs from Hong Kong see that our Shandong cuisine can be made more beautiful than theirs."

"That's right, the judges were all full of praise for Zhengming's dishes."

"Zhengming's design is very advanced. He knew that the dish might be cold when the judges tasted it, so he made it into fish jelly directly. It was really an advanced idea."

After everyone else praised, Li Zhifeng also praised: “I didn’t expect that this time, chefs from all over the country are masters, especially those in Hong Kong City, they are really creative and skillful.

If we didn’t have Zhengming here, we might have really been suppressed by them.

Fortunately, we have Zhengming, who helped us to calm down the situation with our Shandong cuisine.”

Master Su and Master Sun smiled at each other. They were glad that a young and innovative chef like Feng Zhengming had emerged.

If Feng Zhengming hadn't been there, this year's national competition might have been suppressed by the chefs from Hong Kong.

After the competition for the two dishes in the first round, among the top ten in total score, only Feng Zhengming ranked second.

Chefs from Hong Kong City occupied four of the top ten spots.

There are also some of the best chefs from all over the world.

On the stage of the national cooking competition, no chef can be underestimated.

Lin Bosheng is currently ranked eleventh.

Judging from his score, he still has a chance to enter the top ten, but it will be a bit difficult to enter the top five.

Fortunately, what follows is a banquet exchange in which chefs from all over the country collaborate.

It will not be counted towards each chef's individual score.

However, the final individual dish presentation competition requires the chefs to show their true skills.

There will no longer be any such thing as local chef groups.

All chefs are given the opportunity to have a three course meal.

Whether you can get enough points in the three dishes and further increase your total score depends on the presentation stage of the last three dishes.

Of course, the final presentation of three dishes by each chef will also be used to select the gold, silver and bronze medals for this year's dishes.

This schedule also gives the chefs some buffer time to prepare.

Of course, it also reflects the spirit of cooperation among chefs from all over the world.

The chefs work together to prepare a banquet of representative classic dishes.

It allows the chefs on site to communicate with each other, and there will also be someone dedicated to record the cooking process.

After the national competition, the dishes will be summarized and compiled into a Chinese cuisine cookbook.

The above will systematically include the cooking steps and details of classic dishes from all over the world.

It can be regarded as a cookbook that truly and systematically introduces Chinese cuisine.

This book is also considered a key project in this national competition.

We want to show the standards set by the National Cooking Exchange Competition to chefs across the country.

How should each dish be prepared?
This cookbook can be considered a standard instruction manual.

So after praising Feng Zhengming's performance.

Master Su said, "Okay, next we have to prepare the banquet. The dishes on the banquet must be classic dishes of our Shandong cuisine, and they must be made using the most standard techniques."

Master Sun took out a handwritten recipe book.

"This is a recipe we wrote with senior Shandong cuisine chefs before the national competition. It is a standard recipe that we summarized based on our many years of experience."

Master Su saw Master Sun take out the recipe and pointed at it to remind everyone present.

"Every classic dish you make for the banquet this time must be made strictly according to this recipe and must be cooked to a high standard, understand?"

Seeing the recipe that Master Sun brought out, all the chefs present were filled with surprise.

When Master Sun opened the recipe, Feng Zhengming and his friends saw that every word on it was handwritten.

And each dish is described in great detail.

Including what kind of materials should be used in the early stage?

How should the material be handled?
What kind of flower knife do I need to use when changing the flower knife?

And how should the flower knife be used to cut?

How to marinate the ingredients after cutting them into pieces?
How to starch the pickled ingredients?
What oil do you need for cooking?
Even the onions and ginger should be cut into what sizes?

It can be said that the details of each step are written in great detail.

Through this handwritten recipe, Feng Zhengming and others can roughly understand that this recipe must be the result of the hard work of the master chefs.

Feng Zhengming also saw the recipes of several classic Confucius family dishes on the cookbook.

The recipe also includes instructions on how to make Confucius Mansion's imitation bear paw and how to debone the pig's trotters used to make the imitation bear paw.

The entire cookbook really has too many details.

Perhaps for many chefs, this cookbook is simply a "martial arts secret book" that allows them to stand out from the crowd.

If it weren’t for this national competition opportunity, this cookbook might not have even existed.

Now that this recipe book has been brought out, it also shows that many Shandong cuisine chefs attach great importance to the national competition.

The master chefs hope that Feng Zhengming and his team can use this recipe book to showcase Shandong cuisine in national competitions.

Through the national competition, more people can see what real Shandong cuisine is like.

Instead of just following the crowd and thinking that Shandong cuisine is dark and sticky.

Master Su said seriously: "I hope you can seize this opportunity and make good use of this recipe book written by a group of old guys like us. Remember, you are the future of our Shandong cuisine.

I hope you can pass on every classic Shandong dish on this recipe in the future.”

Master Su is over 70 years old.

But his words were still full of energy.

It boosted the morale of every chef including Feng Zhengming.

It also made Feng Zhengming and others feel the responsibility they must shoulder as Shandong cuisine chefs and as the people who will develop and inherit Shandong cuisine.

Master Sun also said: "I hope you can live up to your identity as Shandong cuisine chefs in the future."

The expectations of the two masters encouraged Feng Zhengming and his team.

It is also a spur to them.

I hope they won't become complacent just because they have made it to the national competition.

Warn them not to forget their roots, and even if they have their own innovations in the future, they must stick to the basics of Shandong cuisine's classic dishes.

Facing the encouragement from the two masters who represented a generation of Shandong cuisine chefs, Feng Zhengming and his team looked at each other, and then said in unison that they would definitely make every classic Shandong dish well.

The two masters also nodded with satisfaction.

The next step is some division of labor. The banquet menu submitted is basically selected from the recipes of classic Shandong cuisine handwritten by the master chefs.

These include classic Shandong dishes such as nine-turn large intestine, scallion-fried sea cucumber, sweet and sour carp, braised prawns, stir-fried kidney, four-happiness meatballs, hydrangea scallops, eight-treasure bag chicken, southern fried meatballs, milk soup elbow and cabbage, first-class tofu, eight-treasure gourd duck, scallion-fried tendon, floating oil chicken slices, Confucius Mansion imitation bear paw, Shili ginkgo, three beauties tofu, chestnut braised chicken, fried double crispy, and pot-collapsed water chestnuts.

There are a total of twenty classic Shandong dishes, which can be said to cover various techniques of Shandong cuisine such as frying, deep-frying, cooking, stir-frying, roasting, stewing and boiling.

And because there are handwritten recipes by the master chefs, the requirements for making each dish are also quite high.

Feng Zhengming and his colleagues discussed the matter very seriously and allocated their respective tasks. Everyone hoped to prepare these twenty classic Shandong dishes well.

During the discussion, Feng Zhengming took the initiative to assume the main responsibility for the work of loading and unloading.

“Please don’t argue with me. I’m the youngest and I’ve been doing all kinds of odd jobs for a long time, so the work like cutting and preparing should be left to me. You just need to do the follow-up work.

We all work together to prepare this banquet perfectly and to a high standard."

Feng Zhengming took the initiative to take on the responsibility of being the porter, and the work he needed to do became very tedious.

For example, you need to cut the carp into pieces, and debone the Eight Treasure Bag Chicken and Eight Treasure Fortune Duck.

The Confucius Mansion's imitation bear paw also requires Feng Zhengming to remove the bones from the pig's trotters in advance.

It can be said that the overall workload is very large, and it is all work that requires a lot of skills.

However, the two masters, Su and Sun, also understood that among the chefs present, perhaps only Feng Zhengming could do the best.

After all, there are some jobs that even two master craftsmen may not dare to say can be completed well.

Although other chefs can also do it, they are definitely not as skilled as Feng Zhengming.

After all, Feng Zhengming had hosted wedding banquets at Huiquanlou before, and he had cooked almost all of these dishes at the banquets.

So in terms of experience in this area, the other participating chefs are definitely not as good as Feng Zhengming.

Everyone is capable, but the communication at the banquet during this national competition needs to be of sufficient standard.

In order to ensure that the standards are met, both Masters Su and Sun agreed to let Feng Zhengming do it.

Master Su said directly: "Okay Zhengming, then you do it. You have to win the skill championship in this competition. If you do these, it can also give you extra impression points in the eyes of the judges."

Master Sun also agreed with this: "That's right, Zhengming, you should show more of your technical ability so that the judges will have a better impression of you."

Obviously, after the first game.

Everyone has great expectations that Feng Zhengming can win the top spot in skills in this national competition.

The other chefs did not compete with Feng Zhengming for the credit.

After all, after the first game, there was a gap between their skill scores and Feng Zhengming's.

It is very difficult for other chefs to catch up with the total skill score.

Next, let’s start dividing the dishes and see who will make them?
There were exactly ten chefs participating in the competition, and according to the distribution, each chef was supposed to cook two dishes.

Of course, in addition to preparing the two dishes assigned to you, everyone still needs to cooperate with each other to handle the early ingredients, prepare the soup and oil, and finally present the dishes.

The handwritten recipes by the master chefs were of great help to Feng Zhengming and his team.

Because the recipes written by the chefs are quite detailed.

This can also avoid major deviations in the cooking process of Feng Zhengming and his team.

Feng Zhengming also read it very carefully and wrote down many of the techniques.

Such as how to debone Budai Chicken and Fulu Duck, and how to debone the pig's trotters that imitate bear paws in Confucius Mansion.

The chefs have given very detailed descriptions of these in the recipes.

In the past, Feng Zhengming learned from his master, and later he tried and explored on his own.

Now let’s compare the details handwritten by the masters.

Some new insights can be gained from it.

Can you tell where you didn't do well in the details? How can you make the deboning good enough?

Of course, just having this recipe is not enough.

Although many of the techniques are written in great detail, in order to actually implement them, the chef still needs sufficient personal ability.

Is this why other chefs did not compete with Feng Zhengming for the opportunity to showcase their skills?

If we just talk about cooking skills, Feng Zhengming is indeed the best Shandong cuisine chef participating in this competition.

The more Feng Zhengming read it, the more he felt that this handwritten recipe by the master chefs was amazing.

In addition to the twenty dishes selected for this exchange banquet, there are also many classic Shandong dishes.

Feng Zhengming looked at the other dishes and couldn't help but ask the two chefs with a smile.

"Uncle Su, Uncle Sun, could you give me a copy of this recipe later?"

When the other chefs heard what Feng Zhengming said, they naturally expressed their desire to copy it.

The two masters, Su and Sun, looked at each other, then smiled and agreed.

"No problem. After the banquet cooking exchange is over the day after tomorrow, you can all go and make a copy."

"Actually, if you want, you can find a place to make copies and each of you can take one."

Feng Zhengming still insisted on making a handwritten copy.

"It's better to hand-copy it. A hand-copy may deepen your memory."

After Feng Zhengming said this, the other chefs present also expressed that they really hoped to have a handwritten copy.

The two masters did not force it.

"Okay, if you want to hand-copy, you can take a copy back home after the competition."

"I hope you can keep this recipe well and it will become a key tool for you to pass on classic Shandong cuisine in the future."

The two masters are always full of expectations for their younger generations.

I hope Feng Zhengming and others can inherit and develop Shandong cuisine.

Feng Zhengming and the others naturally agreed.

In the following time, everyone carefully studied and discussed the recipe.

And discuss what everyone should prepare during the next day of rest?
After all, it is a big banquet with a total of twenty dishes, so many things need to be prepared in advance.

The organizers of the event are also aware of this, and have set aside a day after the first competition to allow chefs from all regions to prepare well.

The old masters asked Feng Zhengming and others to discuss it, and then asked everyone to go back and have a good rest.

"Tomorrow morning, we will go together to prepare the banquet."

"Everyone should have a good sleep. Only when you have a good rest can you work more energetically."

Feng Zhengming and the others said goodbye to the two masters and returned to their rooms. (End of this chapter)