From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

The thin skin, the chewy shrimp inside, and some fillings make the shrimp dumplings taste light yet delicious.

After eating it, Lin Bosheng immediately praised it: "This is really the best shrimp dumpling I have ever eaten."

Hearing Lin Bosheng's words, Long Kunbao said with a smile: "Chef Lin is exaggerating. These are what we made after preparing the ingredients. They can't be called the best."

Feng Zhengming said: "The shrimp dumplings you made are really delicious. The skin is thin but also a little chewy. The big shrimps inside are juicy and full of flavor. They are really fresh shrimps."

Jiang Chengzhe immediately said, "I want to taste this delicious food."

Feng Zhengming tasted it and said, "There should be shrimp roe in it, right?"

This made Long Kunbao and Jiang Chengzhe smile and nod.

I have to say that the shrimp dumplings brought by Long Kunbao and Jiang Chengzhe are really delicious.

This couldn't help but give Feng Zhengming some ideas.

"I don't know about shrimp dumplings. Can you teach me how to make them? Shandong cuisine also has many dishes using shrimp. I think these shrimp dumplings can be used in my restaurant."

Long Kunbao and Jiang Chengzhe were stunned at first when they heard this.

The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

Jiang Chengzhe said with a smile: "If you want to make shrimp dumplings in a Shandong cuisine restaurant, will people tell on you?"

Long Kunbao also said: "Yes, your restaurant is a Shandong cuisine restaurant. If you serve shrimp dumplings, will the customers dislike it?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "Huiquanlou is indeed a Shandong cuisine restaurant, but no one has stipulated that dishes from other places cannot be served in Shandong cuisine restaurants? There are some dishes from other places on the menu of my restaurant."

Other Shandong cuisine chefs have also testified that there are indeed some dishes from other places on the menu of Feng Zhengming Huiquanlou.

Kong Xingli smiled and said, "And it seems that some dishes from other places are also very popular in Huiquanlou in Zhengming."

Shi Yongjin from Taifenglou echoed, "That's right. In fact, many dishes from other places just didn't have chefs to cook them before. But in fact, the taste of some dishes is acceptable to people from all over Qilu."

A group of people here were talking about how to learn how to make shrimp dumplings and bring it back to Quancheng to launch it in Huiquanlou.

Suddenly, several more voices were heard.

Everyone turned their heads to look and saw that it was several chefs of Jiangsu cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, as well as Sichuan cuisine, and chefs from Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and the three northeastern provinces who came over.

Among them, the chefs of Ji cuisine were holding a plate of very fragrant meat patties.

Feng Zhengming smelled the aroma and immediately asked, "Is this Xianghe meat pie?"

The Ji cuisine chef smiled and nodded: "Yes, Xianghe meat pie, please try it."

At the same time, Huaiyang cuisine chef Zhang Quande took out the steamed buns they brought.

"Please also try our Sanding Buns and this Emerald Shaomai."

Chefs from the three northeastern provinces brought out grilled cold noodles, sticky bean buns, and pies.

The Jin cuisine chef brought out small bowls of knife-cut noodles.

The Henan cuisine chef also brought out buns, which were their famous soup dumplings.

The Sichuan chef brought a lot of things, including hot and sour noodles, yanmian, Bobo chicken and other spicy snacks.

Soon several Mongolian chefs also brought out their specialties of beef and mutton.

XJ’s chef brought out pilaf.

There is also sour soup rice noodles made by chefs from Yunnan Province.

Qian cuisine chef’s intestines and pork noodles.

Just at this moment, two pungent smells attacked the chefs.

Then everyone saw the snail noodles brought by the Gui cuisine chef and the stinky tofu brought by the Hunan cuisine chef.

The two stinky smells intertwined and made all the chefs feel dizzy.

"Oh my god, the smell of you guys is really too strong."

"Yeah, this smell is unbearable. I really can't stand it."

"Don't be polite, I really can't eat this taste."

"I can't do that either. I really can't eat it."

Many chefs explicitly rejected these two dishes with strong flavors.

At this time, the Gan cuisine chef smiled and said, "Then come and try our special white sugar cake."

The Fujian cuisine chef smiled and said, "How can we miss our meat swallows?"

The Hubei cuisine chef said: "Please try our hot dry noodles."

I saw that everyone brought out special snacks from all over the country.

The group of chefs in Qilu really don’t know how to deal with this.

Because there is a lot of preparation work for Shandong cuisine, especially since everyone was eating the winter melon and white radish prepared by Feng Zhengming, we didn't prepare some of the special snacks of Shandong cuisine.

Feng Zhengming saw that the Shandong cuisine chefs felt a little embarrassed because they had nothing to offer.

He smiled decisively and said, "Hahaha, luckily I was prepared."

After saying that, Feng Zhengming opened the small casserole that he had used to scoop out white radish for Long Kunbao and Jiang Chengzhe, and took out the braised pork with pork that he had prepared in advance.

"I opened a dry rice shop that specializes in selling braised pork. Today, everyone brought out local specialties to share, so I shamelessly brought out the braised pork from my shop and shared it with everyone to try."

When Feng Zhengming took out the braised pork belly, the Shandong cuisine chefs immediately felt that it was quite suitable.

Next, chefs from all over the country exchanged their special snacks with each other.

These snacks with local characteristics quickly allowed chefs to taste the differences in flavors from different places.

Distinctive snacks, unlike the dishes prepared by chefs in competitions, may not always reflect local taste preferences.

Snacks can better reflect the various taste preferences of ordinary people in different places in their daily lives.

By tasting the unique snacks from all over the country, Feng Zhengming personally experienced the feeling of eating his way around the country.

Especially the unique beef and mutton brought by the Uyghur and Mongolian chefs have very unique tastes.

For example, the pilaf made by Uyghur chefs tastes very meaty, and the rice has a very strong vegetable sweetness, which can effectively dissolve the greasiness of the mutton itself.

The beef and mutton cooked by Mongolian chefs are also very distinctive.

Eating it makes you feel like you are grazing on the grassland.

After eating the meat, try the Anhui-style double winter soup brought by the Anhui cuisine chef, which will immediately reduce the greasiness of the meat, and it is even more comfortable to pair with a bowl of sweet wine.

After tasting the unique delicacies from all over the world, Feng Zhengming also gained some inspiration from them.

He immediately began to think about how to better integrate the characteristics of various places.

In fact, the key lies in taste.

It seems like every place has its own unique taste preferences.

But in fact, the most important flavors in cuisines from all over the world are always salty and sweet.

It’s just that the ratio of salty and sweet taste may vary from place to place.

If a dish is a little too salty, it may taste heavy.

If it were a little sweeter, it might taste greasy.

So no matter what dish it is, you must balance the salty and sweet tastes during the cooking process. After determining the two most basic flavors of salty and sweet, add some other flavors.

Of course, the most common flavors added are probably sour and spicy.

Some people may think that spicy is not a taste.

But spicy food is often indispensable.

In addition to the spicy taste, there is another flavor that may often be overlooked.

This taste is sour.

The sour taste is quite special.

Maybe in some special dishes, sour will be a very important protagonist.

But in most dishes, sour plays a supporting role.

In other words, sour is a taste that many people tend to overlook.

It is also a flavor that is easily overlooked among the supporting roles.

But for many dishes, sour is actually an indispensable flavor.

Adding acid to some dishes will change the taste of the whole dish, or even make the whole dish more delicious.

Of course, it is more difficult to control the sour taste than the salty and sweet taste.

If a dish is not mainly sour, if too much sourness is added, the whole dish may be ruined by the addition of sourness.

But if the addition of acid is used well, it will add a lot of color to a dish.

For example, many dishes of Shandong cuisine have a process of cooking vinegar, which actually means adding acid to the dishes.

But the sour taste cannot be particularly obvious.

But if the step of cooking vinegar is missing, the dish may taste different.

The participating chefs exchanged snacks made with their leftovers.

Taste the flavors of different snacks and delicacies from all over the world.

At the same time, we are also communicating with each other.

Chatting about the unique understanding of cooking in different places.

At this moment, there is actually no regional distinction.

Many times, people will express their own understanding of cooking without reservation.

They will also point out each other's cooking shortcomings.

Even though everyone will be opponents in the national competition tomorrow.

But today, everyone is still willing to share and communicate with each other.

This is also what the event organizers hope to see.

The national competition nominally provides a stage for outstanding chefs from all over the country to compete in their culinary skills.

But the real intention of launching the national cooking competition was to hope that chefs from all over the world would gather together and communicate with each other openly and honestly.

When Jiang Chengzhe was communicating with Feng Zhengming, he also felt that he had gained a lot today.

“I didn’t expect that these snacks from all over the country are so delicious.”

Feng Zhengming laughed and said, "Of course it's delicious. Every place has its own specialty."

Jiang Chengzhe then mentioned Feng Zhengming's steamed pork.

"Your braised pork is also very delicious. Is this the braised pork you sell in your Quancheng dry rice shop? No wonder your business is so good, it is indeed very delicious."

Feng Zhengming shook his head and said, "I made some adjustments to the taste of the braised pork we serve today."

Jiang Chengzhe was a little curious: "Did you adjust the taste? How did you adjust the taste?"

“Bazirou is originally a dish that goes well with rice, so it tastes a little salty and not sweet.

I made it here, reducing the saltiness a little bit, and added some sweetness, so that the braised pork tastes slightly salty and sweet, and I also added a little chili. "

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, Jiang Chengzhe carefully savored the pork with batter.

"It's true. The taste of the pork is just right, salty and sweet, with a little bit of spiciness. The key is the aroma of the chili pepper, which is really well added."

At this point, Jiang Chengzhe added: "But Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Jiangxi cuisine, and Guizhou cuisine are really spicy. I really can't get used to their food."

Feng Zhengming laughed: "That's their specialty, but their dishes are not just spicy, they also have other flavors."

Jiang Chengzhe nodded: "Yes, they also have non-spicy dishes, and the taste is still good."

Feng Zhengming suddenly said, "Tomorrow we will officially become rivals. How about it? After these few days, do you think you can beat our mainland chefs?"

Jiang Chengzhe was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "Hahaha, this question is really hard to answer, we still have to wait and see the next game."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Then we'll see the result on the field tomorrow."

Jiang Chengzhe then asked: "You have tried so many different flavors with winter melon and white radish. What dish are you going to make with winter melon and white radish?"

Without waiting for Feng Zhengming to answer, Jiang Chengzhe continued, "We have all finished preparing the ingredients today. You should be able to tell me now, right?"

When Feng Zhengming heard Jiang Chengzhe say this, he simply told them the dishes he wanted to cook.

"I am going to use winter melon to make a bear paw-like mold, and I am going to carve the white radish into the shape of an abalone to pair with the winter melon and bear paw."

Jiang Chengzhe was a little surprised: "Are you going to use white radish to make abalone?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "Yes, white radish should be relatively easy to shape. It is not difficult to carve it into the shape of an abalone. You have eaten it today. White radish can be used to blend various flavors. If it is stewed with abalone sauce, it should also taste like abalone."

Jiang Chengzhe was somewhat surprised by Feng Zhengming's idea.

It’s not strange to use winter melon to make bear paws.

Since bear paws cannot be used casually in cooking, there are many bear paw imitation dishes in various places.

Including when cooking for previous banquets, Shandong cuisine chefs also deboned pig trotters to make imitation bear paws.

Cooking winter melon to imitate bear paw is also a common practice.

The usual method is to carve the winter melon into a bear paw mold, then hollow out the inside, stuff it with beef and tendons that simulate the taste of bear paw, and finally steam it to shape it.

Some people will remove the bear paw mold of the winter melon after steaming, and then pour a red sauce on it.

Some people will bring winter melon along and simmer them together, then pour the juice on the winter melon mold.

Although he didn't know how Feng Zhengming would do it, Jiang Chengzhe could roughly guess what was going on.

But he didn't expect that Feng Zhengming picked out the white radish and actually wanted to use it to carve abalone, and pair it with winter melon to imitate bear paw.

"So you're planning on making a completely vegetarian dish? You're replacing the bear paw and abalone with vegetarian ingredients."

Feng Zhengming laughed: "No, I will also put some stuffing into the abalone carved with white radish to make the whole dish more special."

Hearing Feng Zhengming's words, Jiang Chengzhe was even more surprised and curious about what Feng Zhengming would do.

Feng Zhengming then said, "In Tiao Ding Ji, there is a recipe for cooking white radish with stuffed radish, and I borrowed some of the recipes from it."

Jiang Chengzhe smiled and said, "Okay, I look forward to your dish." (End of this chapter)