From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

After attending the commendation meeting, Feng Zhengming became really busy, and even the time he could actually spend in the kitchen every day was very limited.

He is busy in several areas.

One is that after the commendation meeting, both the provincial and municipal television stations would interview him.

Moreover, the provincial television station will make a special program for him.

It can be regarded as a brief biography specifically introducing Feng Zhengming.

This requires some cooperation from Feng Zhengming.

And there will be some parts where Feng Zhengming will need to recount his experiences in learning cooking.

There is also the story of him selling boxed lunches at the train station, and later making braised pork with dumplings, and running a food stall that all need to be introduced.

The TV station felt that oral narration alone would not be enough, and they also wanted Feng Zhengming to take out his original outfit so that the TV station could do some filming.

Feng Zhengming originally wanted to shirk this matter.

However, the provincial leaders gave him a specific order, asking him to cooperate as much as possible.

Because Feng Zhengming drank a little too much at the dinner after the commendation meeting, he took full responsibility and said that he would cooperate with everything.

So now that the provincial leaders have given the order, he can only try his best to cooperate with the TV station's filming.

In addition to television stations, newspapers and magazines in Quancheng also interviewed and reported on him.

Feng Zhengming's schedule is really full with all the interviews.

In addition to these, there were also many people who came to Feng Zhengming specifically to learn cooking from him because of his title as the top scholar.

He found it relatively easy to deal with some people he found himself.

But some found him through various connections.

For example, they would borrow the name of a master craftsman in Quancheng and come to the door and say that they were introduced by the master craftsman.

At first, Feng Zhengming found it hard to tell whether the other party was telling the truth.

All he could do was to comfort the other party first, and then find a way to contact the old master and find out what happened.

The natural result was that the old masters did not introduce anyone to Feng Zhengming to learn cooking.

In the words of Master Cui, "Even if we want to introduce someone to study with you, it will definitely be after the Chinese New Year. We all know that you are busy before the Chinese New Year."

Although I know that the old masters will not introduce people to learn cooking from them.

But it still couldn't be stopped, and many people came to Feng Zhengming to become his disciples.

Some people in particular want to stay and work once they arrive, and even claim that they don't want any salary.

It would be okay if there were only one or two such people.

But there are people coming to the door almost every day.

Some people even come to his house every day, which makes Feng Zhengming feel helpless.

This morning, Feng Zhengming had just arrived at Huiquanlou. Before he even stepped into the door, he was stopped by several people who acted very awkward.

Without waiting for the other party to speak, Feng Zhengming could guess the purpose of their visit.

"You don't have to tell me. First of all, I don't have time to teach apprentices now. Secondly, Huiquan Tower doesn't need anyone now. So it's really useless for you to come to the door of Huiquan Tower every day to block me."

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the people waiting at the door felt embarrassed to speak.

However, among the few people, an older man couldn't help but stretch out his hand to stop Feng Zhengming when he saw him about to enter the door.

"Chef Feng, we really want to learn something from you. We are all very hardworking and we just want to learn the skills from you. We want to learn the skills of making a living."

Hearing the other party's words, Feng Zhengming said directly: "Then why don't you go to cooking school?"

Without waiting for the other party to answer, Feng Zhengming rushed to say: "If you just want to learn a skill, you can go to a vocational school or a cooking school to learn it. There is no need to block me here."

These words left the other people speechless again.

Feng Zhengming looked at their expressions and sighed helplessly: "You all came to me to learn, but you just saw that I won the top prize in the national cooking competition, and you thought you could learn better by learning from the top prize."

This is indeed the real thought of many people who come to Feng Zhengming and clamor to learn cooking from him.

Feng Zhengming continued, "I can tell you clearly that with your current abilities, you are not qualified to learn cooking from me because you may not even know the most basic things.

Start from the beginning with me. Do you think I have enough time to teach you step by step from the beginning?"

Speaking of this, Feng Zhengming pointed to Huiquan Tower.

"Huiquanlou has customers every day. They all come for my cooking skills. I cannot let any customer down, so I am very busy every day, from morning to night.

Sometimes I am so busy that I don’t even have time to eat lunch.

In this situation, how can I have the time and energy to teach you step by step from the basics? "

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the people guarding the door of Huiquan Tower also felt a little ashamed.

In fact, they are similar to many people who come to Feng Zhengming and clamor to become his disciples.

To put it simply, we saw on TV that Feng Zhengming won the top prize in the national cooking competition.

I think it would be great if I could become a disciple of Feng Zhengming, the top scholar.

Then you can learn better cooking skills in the future.

Moreover, having a top scholar as my teacher will make me more confident when looking for a job in the future.

So the one thing Feng Zhengming didn't directly tell them was.

The reason why many of them wanted to become Feng Zhengming's apprentice was simply because they wanted the title of "top scholar apprentice".

Feng Zhengming could see this, so it was naturally impossible for him to agree to accept them as his disciples.

Seeing that the group of people at the door were speechless, Feng Zhengming waved his hand and said, "Okay, you all can go back. If you really want to learn a craft, then you don't have to come to me to become my apprentice.

There are vocational schools in Quancheng, and also a cooking school run by several master chefs. You will learn better there than if you learn from me.

If you want to follow me and use my title of top scholar to elevate yourself.

Then you should give up this idea as soon as possible. I can tell you the truth, I will not accept a disciple easily."

After saying this, Feng Zhengming prepared to walk into Huiquan Tower.

But suddenly, a young man rushed out and pretended to kneel down to him.

Fortunately, Feng Zhengming was quick-witted and grabbed the young man who was about to kneel down.

"Please don't be like this. If you do this, I will never accept you as my apprentice. Don't you understand that a man's knees are made of gold?

Do you think that if you kneel like this, I will have to accept you as my disciple?
I tell you, it's impossible. Even if you kneel down, I will not accept you as my disciple."

The young man looked at Feng Zhengming with a determined gaze.

"I don't want to be your disciple. I just want to work in Huiquanlou. I'm willing to start as a waiter."

Feng Zhengming shook his head: "Sorry, Huiquanlou is not short of manpower right now."

These words made the young man look disappointed.

At this time, the middle-aged man who had stopped Feng Zhengming before walked forward.

"Chef Feng, we know that we are not qualified to be your disciples. In fact, the main reason I came here today is to give my nephew a chance to enter Huiquan Restaurant."

The middle-aged man pleaded, "I really beg you, give him a chance and let him start as a waiter."

As he said this, the middle-aged man also wanted to kneel down to Feng Zhengming.

Feng Zhengming also quickly pulled him back.

Fortunately, he was tall and strong, and his hands were strong enough to hold the uncle and nephew. In Huiquan Building, He Yunqing heard the noise outside and came out.

Seeing the scene outside, He Yunqing hurried over to help.

"Alright, alright, why are you doing this? Huiquanlou doesn't lack manpower right now, why do you insist on forcing the chef? You even want to take the chef as your master, but the chef doesn't accept any disciples right now, so it's useless for you to keep pestering him."

A lot of people soon gathered in front of Huiquan Tower.

Seeing this scene, the crowd was talking about it.

Most people also felt that forcing Feng Zhengming to accept a disciple was indeed a bit unreasonable.

"Oh, this is really too much of a stretch to become my disciple."

"Yeah, Chef Feng just won the national culinary championship. How can you make such a fuss?"

"I learned my skills by myself. Isn't it a bit too much for you to ask me to become his disciple?"

"There have been several groups of people who have come to me these days and they all want to become my disciples."

"Chef Feng has a very difficult time."

"Yes, they are all deliberately making things difficult for others."

Feng Zhengming forcibly pulled the two men up and said in a serious tone, "I'll tell you again, I don't accept any disciples, and Huiquanlou doesn't have any positions for you, so don't bother me here."

This time, Feng Zhengming's attitude was quite firm.

He knew very well that this gap could not be opened.

Many people may follow this approach next.

Once more people follow suit, things will really get out of hand.

Especially at times like this, we cannot be soft-hearted.

Many troubles are often caused by a moment of weakness, which makes things even more troublesome.

Seeing that Feng Zhengming's attitude was quite firm.

And no one in the crowd spoke up to help.

The uncle and nephew in front of Huiquan Tower had to give up.

The middle-aged man who was the uncle said, "I'm sorry, Chef Feng, we shouldn't have forced you like this. We are really sorry for disturbing you."

As he said this, my uncle actually bowed to Feng Zhengming.

As for the young man, he was obviously still unwilling.

But in the end he was taken away by his uncle.

After the uncle and nephew left.

Feng Zhengming looked at the remaining person at the door and said, "You should go back too. If you really want to learn a skill, go to a vocational school or a cooking school. Don't come to the door of Huiquan Building to look for me again."

The remaining person hesitated and thought carefully for a while before speaking.

"Chef Feng, if I learn everything at a vocational school or cooking school, can I become your apprentice after graduation?"

When Feng Zhengming heard this question, he smiled and asked back: "What do you think it takes to be considered as having learned it?"

This question stumped the other party.

Feng Zhengming then asked, "Why do you insist on taking me as your master? Do you think that being my disciple will give you a lot of status in the future? Or do you think that learning something from me will make it easier for you to open your own restaurant in the future?"

When Feng Zhengming asked this, the other party immediately said, "No, I want to be your disciple because I admire you and think I can learn more from you."

Feng Zhengming waved his hand: "You don't need to tell me this here. Everyone who comes to me to become my disciple says the same thing."

The crowd around suddenly burst into laughter.

Everyone has heard about some of the situations these days.

I know that many people want to become Feng Zhengming's apprentice.

Those who came to Feng Zhengming to become his disciples, whether men or women, old or young, basically said that they wanted to learn something from Feng Zhengming.

There was even a man with gray hair who found Feng Zhengming before.

He expressed his willingness to be Feng Zhengming's apprentice, only hoping to learn some skills from him.

So Feng Zhengming had heard this kind of talk too many times.

In Feng Zhengming's opinion, most of the people who come to him say they want to learn a craft from him.

In their hearts, all they want is to win the title of top apprentice in the national cooking competition.

If Feng Zhengming was a little more docile, he would have accepted him as a disciple.

As long as this door is opened, it will be unstoppable. More and more people will try to become disciples and want to get the title of top disciple.

So Feng Zhengming rejected them all, and he had made up his mind not to formally accept a disciple before he was forty years old.

Why before forty?
Because before the age of forty, I was young and strong, so why would I need an apprentice to teach me skills?
He started accepting disciples at the age of 40 and has been teaching them for more than 20 years. By the time he is in his 60s, his disciples should be able to stand on their own.

Although Feng Zhengming's attitude was very clear, and the onlookers were still laughing at him.

But the remaining person who wanted to become a disciple still refused to give up.

"Master Feng, just tell me, what will it take for you to accept me as your apprentice?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and replied, "I have decided that I will not accept any disciples before I am forty years old, so if you really want to become my disciple, you will have to wait a long time."

The other party was a little surprised when he heard this.

Then the other party asked tentatively: "How old are you this year, Chef Feng?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and replied: "I am 27 years old."

After receiving such an answer, the person who wanted to become a disciple was so shocked that he was speechless.

The crowd watching also burst into exclamations.

"So Chef Feng is so young?"

"27 years old? To be the champion of a national cooking competition at the age of 27 is really amazing."

"No wonder I always thought Chef Feng was very young. I didn't expect he was really that young."

"He is only 27 years old. He is really too young and has an immeasurable future."

The person who wanted to be his disciple heard the discussion in the crowd and couldn't help but mutter, "He is actually two years younger than me."

Then the other party calculated that Feng Zhengming is now forty years old.

It takes more than ten years.

Those who wanted to become his apprentice have completely given up hope.

"It seems that it is really difficult for me to become a disciple."

Feng Zhengming saw the other party's disappointed look, smiled and said: "If you really want to learn the craft, you can go to a vocational school or a cooking school to sign up. The teachers there are all my senior brothers, and there are also old masters teaching. Those old masters are better than me.

Maybe in the future you will become a better chef than me, and then you won’t have to become my apprentice.”

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the other party stared at him for a while.

"Chef Feng, my name is Sun Anton. I will go to a cooking school to enroll in cooking school. If I cannot surpass you in cooking skills in the future, I will definitely come to your house again to become your apprentice when you are forty years old."

As he watched Sun Andong turn around and walk away, Feng Zhengming felt that he would see him again. (End of this chapter)