From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

In the evening, after Huiquanlou closed, Feng Zhengming led everyone in the kitchen to the dry rice shop for a midnight snack.

While having supper, Feng Zhengming gathered the kitchen staff from both sides and announced the matter of the competition again.

Feng Zhengming said seriously: "This time, whether you are a chef or an apprentice, you must participate. I hope you all prepare well and can really show your best."

Third Senior Brother Yang Bin asked with a smile: "Zhengming, then do you want me and your Fifth Senior Brother to compete as well?"

Feng Zhengming immediately said, "Okay, Third Brother and Fifth Brother, if you guys want to compete, I'll join in too, and we can have a competition."

As soon as these words came out, Fifth Senior Brother Cao Zhiguo quickly said, "Don't drag me into this, I won't compete."

Seeing Cao Zhiguo instantly become timid, the young chefs and apprentices couldn't help laughing.

During the time when Feng Zhengming came back, fifth senior brother Cao Zhiguo simply stayed.

In Huiquanlou, Cao Zhiguo was Feng Zhengming's deputy, and some coordination work in the kitchen was handled by him.

This makes Feng Zhengming's work in the kitchen relatively easier.

He can spare more time to cook specifically for customers who have ordered larger dishes.

As a result, Huiquanlou's reputation improved rapidly after Feng Zhengming returned.

Whether it is the bosses who book private rooms, or ordinary families in Quancheng, they either call friends or bring family members to have a meal together.

Whenever I eat at Huiquanlou, I will be very satisfied with every dish on the table.

So now the young chefs in the kitchen of Huiquanlou will joke about this in private.

Cao Zhiguo is Feng Zhengming's shadow in the kitchen, so that Feng Zhengming does not have to do everything himself.

Even when Feng Zhengming is not in the kitchen of Huiquanlou, Cao Zhiguo can basically guarantee the quality of the dishes.

Feng Zhengming actually really wanted to fight with his senior brothers.

Just like when they were in the kitchen of Yan Xilou.

At the end of every year, the brothers would each cook a dish for the master to judge.

At that time, Feng Zhengming's skills were completely incomparable to those of his senior brothers.

But he just refused to admit defeat, and he was brave enough to try.

For example, at the end of the year when he officially became a disciple, he dared to make the fried double crispy dishes to compete with his senior brothers.

Although at that time, Feng Zhengming's fried double crispy dishes were still very poor.

But by competing with his seniors, he could gain experience and know where his shortcomings are.
Then he quickly made some improvements.

Looking back now, Feng Zhengming believes that those were truly a period of time that made him feel very fulfilled.

As a result, now that I have won the national cooking competition, I want to compete with my seniors, but they are unwilling to compete with me.

Feng Zhengming said to his two brothers with a smile: "Third brother, fifth brother, I promise not to make creative dishes. Let's just compete in some basic dishes. How about that?"

Yang Bin and Cao Zhiguo looked at each other and shook their heads in refusal.

"No, don't try to embarrass us."

"That's right. Who doesn't know your little calculations? Is it because you got the top prize and have no chance to compete with others? You're itching to do something, right?"

"We won't compete with you, we'll just let you itch all the time."

"That's right, I won't compete with you."

The two senior brothers talked to each other, making Feng Zhengming laugh and cry.

The young chefs and apprentices in the kitchen were all amused by the scene before them.

Feng Zhengming knew that his two senior brothers would definitely not be willing to compete with him.

He could only say to the young chefs and apprentices, "Okay, stop laughing. The competition between you will still go on. Master Yang, Master Cao, and I will be the judges at that time."

Then Feng Zhengming thought that it might not be enough for three of them to be judges.

After all, the three of them were in the kitchen and had too much contact with young chefs and apprentices.

There is no guarantee that there will not be some favoritism when serving as a judge.

Thinking of this, Feng Zhengming said, "Let's invite our senior brother and Master as well."

Yang Bin smiled and said, "Why don't you invite Uncle Cui as well and hold an internal competition for young chefs in the province in Huiquan Restaurant?"

Cao Zhiguo also laughed: "That's really possible. Zhengming is the national champion. Together with Master, and Uncle Cui, Uncle Su, and Uncle Sun, you five judges will definitely be the best in the province."

Feng Zhengming and his fellow disciples were joking.

But it made the young chefs and apprentices present sweat profusely.

With such an exaggerated lineup of judges, it will be hard not to be nervous.

Fortunately, Feng Zhengming did not intend to use such a lineup to add psychological pressure to everyone.

"Don't be afraid, we won't have such a lineup. I think we should just do this. I won't be a judge at that time. My three senior brothers are professional judges, plus Uncle He and my grandfather, there will be five judges. What do you think?"

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, everyone present immediately felt that this lineup of judges was very good.

If He Yunqing and Grandpa Feng were present, it wouldn't put too much pressure on everyone.

Feng Zhengming’s three senior brothers are professional enough.

The most important thing is that Feng Zhengming will not be a judge, so everyone will not feel so much pressure.

I see everyone agrees with this lineup of judges.

Feng Zhengming finalized: "Okay, that's settled, you all have to prepare well."

Then Feng Zhengming looked at Zhu Xu and Xia Mingye carefully.

"You two can't participate this year because you haven't worked in the dry rice shop for a full year, so you have to continue to stay in the dry rice shop this year."

Zhu Xu had no objection to this.

"Sure, I'm actually quite comfortable working in a restaurant, it's more comfortable."

Xia Mingye followed up and said, "Yes, the kitchen in the dry rice shop is really comfortable."

Feng Zhengming shook his head: "Your idea is wrong. You still need to find a way to improve. You can't give up on improving yourself. You should know that you are all the best young chefs in the province. You should be able to do better."

At this moment, hearing Feng Zhengming say this, Zhu Xu and Xia Mingye were a little touched.

Feng Zhengming is not much older than them.

Even one year younger than Zhu Xu.

But Feng Zhengming has already proved himself through the national competition.

In comparison, Zhu Xu and Xia Mingye both have some problems of their own.

Maybe the two of them cannot completely correct themselves in a short period of time.

And it is not easy for both of them to further improve their cooking skills.

So after Feng Zhengming won the top prize in the national competition, Zhu Xu and Xia Mingye both seemed a little slack.

They probably felt that no matter how hard they tried, they could not catch up with Feng Zhengming. Feng Zhengming's words today still touched them.

Seeing that the two were touched by his words, Feng Zhengming simply continued to say a few more words.

“I know that you all must feel pressured when you see me win the national cooking competition. I am not older than you, but at my age, I have achieved such success. You feel that you can’t catch up with me.

But have you ever thought that we still have a long way to go in life, and maybe after years of accumulation, you will suddenly burst out and surpass me.

So we can't just stand still, we must constantly improve ourselves.

We can’t slack off, we all have to work together.”

Feng Zhengming's words were a great encouragement to young chefs and apprentices.

Yang Bin followed up by saying, “What our head chef said is right. Even though he is the top scholar, it doesn’t mean that you can’t surpass him. Maybe one day in the future, you will be able to surpass him in cooking skills and become a master chef before him.”

Cao Zhiguo said: "Maybe you will become masters of Shandong cuisine in the future, but he won't."

After hearing what Cao Zhiguo said, Feng Zhengming asked: "Why can't I be a master of Shandong cuisine?"

"You've already started learning other dishes, so what do you mean by a Shandong cuisine master? In the future, you may not even know whether the dishes you cook are Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, or Huaiyang cuisine."

Cao Zhiguo's words immediately made everyone laugh again.

At the same time, everyone felt that what Cao Zhiguo said made sense.

Several of the dishes Feng Zhengming prepared in this national competition could not be described as Shandong cuisine.

He did use Shandong cuisine techniques, but the overall preparation and seasoning can no longer be considered Shandong cuisine.

The dishes he cooked in the competition had influences of Shandong cuisine as well as some other cuisines.

So just as Cao Zhiguo said, it may be hard to say in the future whether the dishes cooked by Feng Zhengming can be simply regarded as Shandong cuisine?

Feng Zhengming looked helpless: "I can see that you are targeting me today, Fifth Brother."

Cao Zhiguo laughed: "Hahaha, who made you the top scorer? Of course we have to create some trouble for the top scorer."

But jokes aside, Cao Zhiguo still said a few words seriously to Zhu Xu and Xia Mingye.

"You two have indeed been a little slack. Do you feel that working in the kitchen of a food shop is a waste of your time? You should know that you are chefs. Being able to cook in the kitchen is a chef's duty. There is no such thing as being buried.

What's more, the salary you get in the restaurant is no less than that of Huiquanlou, so you should work harder.

What's wrong with waiting another year? Can't you think about becoming the head chef at Huiquan Restaurant in a year?"

After hearing the last part, Yang Bin couldn't hold back and said, "Old Five, you just can't be serious. How come they can become the chef of Huiquan Restaurant?"

Cao Zhiguo was stunned, looked at Feng Zhengming, and could only say: "Oh, you really can't do the job of chef."

Then Cao Zhiguo continued, "But you can be transferred to Huiquan's upstairs kitchen. There you can also cook more delicious dishes and improve yourselves."

Zhu Xu and Xia Mingye looked at each other.

Then both of them rekindled their fighting spirit.

Zhu Xu said: "Okay, I will practice hard and I will definitely go to the kitchen of Huiquanlou next year."

Xia Mingye also nodded: "Yes, next year we will all go into the kitchen of Huiquanlou."

Seeing that the two men were motivated to fight, Feng Zhengming secretly gave a thumbs up to his fifth senior brother.

When Cao Zhiguo saw it, he just smiled and made a gesture, as if he was talking about a small problem.

After talking for so long, Xia Hui finally found an opportunity to speak.

"Uncle Master, what exactly are we competing for in our internal competition?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "For those of you who are cooking, each of you should prepare two dishes, one traditional classic dish and one dish of your own free choice to see your own creativity."

Then Feng Zhengming looked at the apprentices and said, "You apprentices, that's some basic skills competition."

The apprentices were still somewhat nervous at this time.

They are even more worried that if they rank low in the competition, they will not be able to stay at the end of the internship period.

It was Sun Decai who asked, "Chef, those of us who ranked low will not be able to stay after the internship period ends?"

Feng Zhengming looked at Sun Decai, then glanced at the other apprentices.

It can be seen that everyone is quite worried about this issue.

He simply said directly: "I didn't say that those who rank low will not be able to stay. In fact, the competition between you is more of an assessment of you. If you can meet the standards, you can all stay."

Upon hearing this, the apprentices immediately became excited.

“Can we really keep all of them?”

"So, we won't be eliminated?"

"So what is our assessment about?"

"Chef, can you reveal it in advance?"

Feng Zhengming saw the apprentices talking at once and wanted to ask what the assessment was about.
He shook his head: "I can't tell you the content of your assessment now. When the competition comes, I will tell you what to assess. If you can meet the standards then you can continue to stay."

The apprentices became nervous again because the content was not told in advance.

Yang Bin said, "What you should think about is to do your job well. If you can do all the work in the kitchen well, does it matter whether you know the content of the assessment or not?"

Feng Zhengming echoed, "My third brother is right. What you should do is not to worry about the content of the assessment, nor to think about how to pass the assessment and stay.

What you need to do is to do the work assigned to you in the kitchen well.

When the time comes, just do what you normally do at work, and you will certainly be able to pass the assessment."

After hearing what Yang Bin and Feng Zhengming said, the apprentices quieted down again.

Everyone stopped competing with each other and started talking and laughing again.

Then Feng Zhengming and his friends had supper together at Feng’s dry restaurant.

Feng Zhengming stayed in Feng's dry restaurant until the business was over. He cleaned and tidied up the Feng's dry restaurant with everyone before saying goodbye to his two senior brothers and returning to his grandfather's house.

Yang Bin and Cao Zhiguo watched Feng Zhengming leave.

Looking at his back, Yang Bin spoke first: "Do you think he is making some arrangements to gradually let us take over Ganfanpu and Huiquanlou?"

Cao Zhiguo nodded: "It can be seen that he still wants to transfer the eldest brother to the kitchen of Huiquanlou, right?"

Yang Bin suddenly smiled and said, "No matter what he needs me to do, I will definitely help him with all my strength."

Of course Cao Zhiguo understood why Yang Bin said that?
Because Yang Bin's whole family is now in Quancheng, and Feng Zhengming arranged all this for him.

Especially this time Feng Zhengming won the top spot in the imperial examination, and he successfully helped Yang Bin solve the household registration problem.

In this way, Yang Bin’s children can go to school in Quancheng properly in the future.

Seeing that Cao Zhiguo didn't say anything, Yang Bin said, "After the New Year, why don't you bring your family over? Isn't it easier to work in the kitchen of Huiquanlou than being alone in Beijing?"

Cao Zhiguo smiled and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you, Third Brother."

Yang Bin also laughed. (End of this chapter)