From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

The chefs on site completed banquets from all over the place one after another, making the entire banquet hall sparkle.

After Lin Moli and her mother had a little lunch, they hurried back to the scene.

As soon as I stepped into the banquet hall, I was instantly captivated by the fragrance that filled the entire hall.

The banquet hall was truly filled with the aroma of all kinds of delicious food.

Most people, including Lin Moli, can roughly distinguish the different aromas from different dishes from the aroma lingering in the hall.

It has the aroma of onions, sesame oil, fat, and various spices.

With so many aromas coming together, everyone who steps into the banquet hall feels as if they are in a gourmet wonderland.

Lin Moli couldn't help but sigh: "It smells really good."

My mother nodded as well: "It smells really good. This is probably the fragrance of Chinese cuisine in terms of color, aroma and taste."

Lin Moli said seriously: "Yes, it smells good. This is the first time I've smelled it. It turns out that food smells this good. It smells much better than the food in my grandfather's restaurant."

My mother smiled and said, "After all, your grandpa went abroad very early and didn't receive systematic training in Chinese cooking."

Lin Moli thought for a while and asked, "Mommy, can I stay? I want to stay in China to learn cooking."

Mother said, "Of course you can stay. I'm very happy that you like Chinese food. I think Grandpa will be very happy too."

Just at this time, Mr. Situ also came back from lunch.

After hearing the conversation between the mother and daughter, Mr. Situ interrupted with a smile: "Little Moli wants to stay in China to learn cooking? I have to tell you, learning cooking in China is very hard."

After hearing what Mr. Situ said, Lin Moli said very seriously: "I am not afraid of hardship. I am willing to start from the beginning."

Without waiting for Mr. Situ to speak, Lin Moli asked again: "Grandpa Situ, who do you think I should learn from?"

Mr. Situ smiled and replied: "You should go to a vocational school in China."

These words surprised both Lin Moli and her mother.

"Aren't we here to learn from these famous chefs who participated in the national competition?"

Lin Moli's mother was also very surprised: "Don't the chefs here accept apprentices?"

Mr. Situ shook his head: "Some of their older chefs should have already started to accept apprentices, but Jasmine doesn't seem to have any foundation.

If she were to become an apprentice here, she might not be able to learn the basics in a more systematic way.

The basics of Chinese cooking are very important, so if you want to learn the basics well, I think you should go to a cooking school first.”

These words made Lin Moli and her mother think carefully and feel that this was indeed the truth.

In fact, today I just watched the chefs cook for a few hours.

Lin Moli and her mother both realized that the basic skills of a Chinese chef are really important.

Just like Feng Zhengming who is cared for by Lin Moli and his mother.

He hardly cooked today, and most of the time he was helping other chefs prepare various ingredients.

And his ability to handle food is obviously very good.

This shows that his basic skills are very solid and other participating chefs trust him, so they let him handle the food processing process.

Many chefs on the scene are the same. They have great knife skills and are well versed in the techniques of handling ingredients.

These are obviously the result of years of practice.

And these can only be achieved with solid basic skills.

Lin Moli figured it out, and asked Mr. Situ again: "Grandpa Situ, which school should I go to then?"

Mr. Situ smiled and replied, "In fact, there are corresponding cooking schools in various places, but I would recommend you to go to the vocational school in Quancheng. There will be master chefs there to give special lectures, which will be very good for you to lay a good foundation."

Lin Moli nodded: "Okay, listen to Grandpa Situ, Mommy and I will go to Quancheng later."

While a few people were chatting, the banquets on the tables were basically completed.

First, let the photographers take pictures and take pictures of each dish individually.

You should also take a few photos of the dishes on the entire table as a whole.

Afterwards, the event organizers and sponsors invited all guests to taste the dishes together.

"Please line up and take your plates. Now it's time to taste the food. You can freely choose the dishes you like to taste. But please don't waste food. If it doesn't suit your taste, please don't take more."

Everyone was very excited to finally be able to taste the feasts on site.

At the same time, the chefs who had been busy for a long time preparing for this feast were tired and sat down to rest.

Although the chefs had not yet had lunch, everyone was very tired and had no appetite to eat.

Lin Bosheng stretched out in his chair and said, "I am really exhausted. Fortunately, Zhengming is here today. He helped me with a lot of the chores. Otherwise, I might not be able to handle cooking all these dishes."

Kong Xingli also nodded in agreement: "It's really thanks to Zhengming being here."

Sun Fenggui said: "Zhengming's basic skills are really great. There are many things I can't do."

When everyone was talking about Feng Zhengming, Lin Guofu suddenly turned his head, looked around, and then stood up abruptly.

"Where's Zhengming? Why is he gone?"

After Lin Guofu said this, the Shandong cuisine chefs realized that Feng Zhengming had disappeared.

Then the Shandong cuisine chefs began to look for it, and soon the participating chefs also knew about it.

Even the event organizers and sponsors knew about it.

Everyone immediately mobilized people to start looking for Feng Zhengming.

Master Su smiled bitterly as he searched for him: "Where did this kid go? Did he disappear after finishing cooking?"

Master Sun thought for a moment and suddenly said, "Maybe he is too tired? So he went back to his room to rest first?"

After hearing what Master Sun said, Master Su also felt that this was a possibility.

Then the two masters found the event organizer together, contacted the hotel, and went to Feng Zhengming and his room to look for him.

When the door of the room was opened, everyone entered the room and saw Feng Zhengming, wearing a chef's uniform, lying on his bed and sleeping soundly.

Seeing Feng Zhengming sleeping soundly on the bed, everyone who was worried about him breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Zhifeng didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "I knew he got up so early in the morning. He must not have slept well."

Lin Bosheng said: "He was still too tired. He was busy from nine in the morning until almost two in the afternoon."

Kong Xingli nodded: "Yes, it was almost five hours of intensive work, it was really hard for him."

Then everyone left the room quietly and closed the door for Feng Zhengming.

Upon learning that Feng Zhengming had fallen asleep due to exhaustion, the chefs who had helped look for him breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiang Chengzhe couldn't help but make a joke: "I thought he felt that he couldn't compete with us, so he just gave up and ran away."

Hearing this, Long Kunbao smiled and patted Jiang Chengzhe lightly: "Azhe, you are too confident. Although today's banquet is for communication and will not be counted in our personal results, his performance is better than ours."

Jiang Chengzhe agreed with this: "He is indeed very strong."

Chefs from other places also have some respect for Feng Zhengming.

The versatility he demonstrates in banquet cooking may be something that many chefs cannot achieve.

Every chef must have grown up step by step from learning the basics and doing odd jobs for the chef.

But most of the chefs, especially the middle-aged chefs participating in this competition are of high age.

Many of them have not been engaged in cutting and preparing work for many years.

In the kitchen of a large restaurant, when the processes are divided into more detailed parts, many tasks are done by fixed professional chefs.

In many cases, chefs will not personally handle all the detailed preliminary processes. However, every preliminary process is essential to a good dish.

Whether it is the main ingredients, auxiliary ingredients or seasonings, they all need to be processed accordingly according to the differences of each dish, and not every dish can be processed in the same way.

It can be said that every dish embodies the hard work and sweat of the chefs in the kitchen.

In this national competition, Shandong cuisine chefs ordered twenty dishes for each banquet.

It seems that on average, each participating chef only has two dishes.

It includes every step of the preliminary preparation of twenty dishes, as well as all the necessary auxiliary ingredients and small ingredients.

When all these things are added together, it can be said to be a very tedious and hard job.

Feng Zhengming had no complaints and he took on almost all the work by himself.

The twenty classic dishes of Shandong cuisine banquet can be completed smoothly, and each dish is cooked to standard.

In the eyes of all chefs, Feng Zhengming's responsibility is highly respected.

Zhang Quande sighed: "I never thought that he would be willing to do the most obscure job, and he can do it so well by himself. He is really a man worthy of admiration."

Dai Long also put away his usual cynicism and said seriously: "He is a person who truly loves the cooking industry."

Naturally, the other participating chefs also praised Feng Zhengming.

Of course, Feng Zhengming's performance was still appreciated by the old masters.

The old masters have experienced even more difficult times and they know very well how rare young people like Feng Zhengming, who are down-to-earth and hard-working, are in such a turbulent era as today.

Li Guansheng from Hong Kong praised: "He has a pure heart, which is very rare."

Master Liu from Liaoning Province also expressed his admiration for Master Su and Master Sun.

"I never thought that your Shandong cuisine would produce such a good chef."

Master Su quickly responded: "Brother Liu is so polite. I see you have quite a few good Liao cuisine chefs this time."

Master Sun echoed, “Yes, Liao cuisine chefs are also great.”

"Hahaha, you two are still so modest?" Master Liu said with a smile, "The chefs we sent this time are all at least ten years older than Xiao Feng. At their age, it is their responsibility to cook well."

At this point, Master Liu said seriously: "But Xiao Feng can not only cook his own dishes well, but also take on all the cutting and preparation work in banquet cooking. This is really worthy of our admiration."

Master Liu from Liaoning Province can be considered a true master of Liao cuisine.

Perhaps it’s not that people in the culinary industry know so little about him.

But perhaps everyone knows more about another Liao cuisine chef who also has the surname "Liu".

That Master Liu was the top scorer in the first national competition.

And that Master Liu was actually the apprentice of this Master Liu.

This time, the top scorer, Master Liu, is one of the professional judges.

Master Liu is the head chef of Liao cuisine.

Master craftsmen from other places also praised Feng Zhengming's performance today.

Masters Su and Sun were modest in words but very happy in their hearts.

In the banquet hall, the tasting banquet continued.

It can be said that all the guests who were invited to taste the banquet praised every dish on the banquet.

"As expected of a chef who can participate in a national competition, every dish is delicious."

“It’s really delicious, and each dish is unique.”

“Yes, each dish has its own local characteristics.”

“A lot of dishes look the same, but chefs from different places make them taste different.”

"Yes, just like the same fish, the taste of fish cooked in different places is different."

"Hahaha, the fish used are different too."

“But they are all delicious.”

“Yes, they are all delicious.”

During the on-site tasting, the one who enjoyed the food the most was probably Lin Moli.

She really wanted to taste every dish, so she just tasted each one.

Although every dish was delicious, each one left her wanting more bites.

But she still restrained herself and only took a small bite of each dish.

Even so, after eating at a few tables, Lin Moli felt a little full.

Fortunately, the dishes prepared by the chefs on site were relatively standard in order to ensure that they could be included in the recipe.

The taste is not too heavy.

So Lin Moli found everything delicious.

However, when eating Sichuan, Hunan and Jiangxi cuisine, Lin Moli was still deeply hurt by some of the spicy dishes.

Lin Moli also discovered through comparison that the spiciness of Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, and Jiangxi cuisine is actually different.

Some Guizhou dishes are also very spicy.

When it comes to these spicy dishes, Lin Moli still feels that she can't appreciate them to some extent.

However, Mapo Tofu, a spicy Sichuan dish, left a deep impression on her.

Because Mapo Tofu is a very famous dish.

Lin Moli had also eaten there at her grandfather's restaurant abroad.

It was made for her by her grandfather at that time.

Today she ate Mapo Tofu made by a Sichuan chef and experienced a completely different flavor.

Numb, spicy, fresh, fragrant and crispy.

Although it had cooled down a bit after being left for a while, the taste was still so good that Lin Moli couldn't help but eat one more bite.

When Lin Moli ate Shandong cuisine, she ate the sweet and sour carp that had been opened.

She fell in love with the dish almost instantly.

This dish was also prepared some time ago, but the carp still remains crispy. The sweet and sour sauce poured on the fish has a unique sweet and sour taste that Lin Moli finds very delicious.

Perhaps it was because she had just eaten spicy food before, but Lin Moli liked this sweet and sour carp very much.

She also couldn't help but eat one more piece.

At this time, Mr. Situ happened to come to the Shandong cuisine table.

Seeing Lin Moli staring at the sweet and sour carp, she seemed a little reluctant to leave.

Mr. Situ asked with a smile: "Why? You like sweet and sour carp very much, right?"

Lin Moli nodded: "Yes, I like this taste very much. This sweet and sour taste should be liked by foreigners."

Mr. Situ asked: "Do you feel a little confused after eating? Don't know how to judge the best dish?"

Lin Moli nodded and said, "Yes, yes, there is no choice."

“Hahaha…” Mr. Situ laughed, “You don’t have to think about the cuisine, cooking techniques, color, aroma, taste, and shape. As long as you like it, then this dish is the best in your mind.” (End of this chapter)