From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

He appeared at the banquet and met with many foreign guests, overseas Chinese, veterans, model workers and representatives from all walks of life.

The confidence that Feng Zhengming maintained was greatly appreciated by several provincial leaders.

Among them, several invited veterans were full of praise for the dishes cooked by Feng Zhengming.

"Our national champion has excellent skills."

"Xiao Feng, with your cooking skills, you should go to the Great Hall to cook."

"Yes, Xiao Feng's cooking skills are good enough for the Great Hall."

"In the past, every year, the dishes cooked by some chefs were tasteless. Xiao Feng's dishes are still delicious."

"It's true. They are both Shandong dishes, but Xiao Feng's is very flavorful, while the dishes made by other chefs are always tasteless."

When faced with the veterans' questions, Feng Zhengming answered them with a smile.

"Grandpas, when I serve you the dishes, I specially made them to enhance the taste. I know that you came from the war years and your tastes may be a little bit heavier, so I will make the dishes I serve you a little heavier."

Hearing Feng Zhengming say this, several veterans immediately laughed.

"Hahaha, I was just wondering why the food tonight is so delicious."

"Xiao Feng, your seasoning skills are amazing."

"You were smart to make some temporary adjustments based on our different tastes."

"Cooking is just like fighting a war. We can't just attack blindly. We need to make appropriate adjustments and use different strategies to attack the enemy according to the different enemies."

"Hahaha, that's right. Back then in Taierzhuang, when we fought the Japanese, we had to use a variety of methods at the same time."

Then Feng Zhengming listened to these veterans talking about various interesting things that happened on the battlefield in the past.

And the various messes they ate on the battlefield during the most difficult times.

"In those days, we never thought about eating so well. We just wanted to fill our stomachs."

"Yes, at that time, I ate belts, cotton wool, weeds, and everything edible and inedible."

"Today's meal is so delicious and exquisite."

When Feng Zhengming heard this, tears welled up in his eyes.

He said to the veterans with a serious face: "Thank you, without you, there would be no today. I am here to prepare such a sumptuous meal for everyone."

When the veterans heard Feng Zhengming's words, they all laughed.

They patted Feng Zhengming on the shoulder together.

"Keep up your efforts. Over the years, the National Cooking Competition has been held for several times. You are the first Shandong cuisine chef to win the first prize. You have brought honor to our Qilu."

"That's right, let's make our Shandong cuisine better and let more people eat delicious Shandong cuisine."

"Hahaha, Xiao Feng can definitely do it. He's the top scorer in the country."

Feng Zhengming once again extended an invitation to the veterans.

"Grandpa, when you have time in the future, you can go to Huiquanlou for dinner. Huiquanlou will give discounts to all soldiers in the future. Whether they are in service or retired, we will give them at least 50% discount.

If there was no money at that time, Huiquanlou would have entertained every soldier even without paying."

After hearing this, the veterans all smiled and said that they would definitely go to Huiquanlou to try it if they had the chance.

Some attentive people at the banquet soon discovered it.

Feng Zhengming was mostly polite to invited foreign guests and some overseas Chinese.

But he really respects the model workers and veterans on the scene.

He always kept a low profile when speaking.

In this respect, he is completely different from some of the chefs who participated in this dinner and other national competitions.

People like Lin Guofu, Kong Xingli and Sun Fenggui mostly communicate more with foreign guests, overseas Chinese and some entrepreneurs.

And it is obvious that they will deliberately establish some relationship with each other.

What they did was not wrong.

Communicate more with foreign guests, overseas Chinese and entrepreneurs.

It may indeed bring them more opportunities.

By showing their performance in national competitions, they can easily gain the attention of foreign guests, overseas Chinese and entrepreneurs.

There were even some entrepreneurs who were invited to the event and left their business cards to Lin Guofu, Kong Xingli, Sun Fenggui and others, saying they could contact them later.

It is not difficult to see that there is a desire to invest in them.

Although Cantonese cuisine and Sichuan cuisine have become increasingly famous in China in recent years.

But Shandong cuisine is still a very well-known cuisine.

Some bosses who want to invest in restaurants and hotels would like to have award-winning chefs who have participated in national competitions as head chefs, which will give them more publicity for their restaurants and hotels.

For these entrepreneurs who are interested in investing in the catering industry, Feng Zhengming is of course their first target for cooperation.

But from what happened tonight, they could also tell that it might be difficult to cooperate with Feng Zhengming.

After all, Feng Zhengming had been specially invited by the province to host the dinner.

What's more, the Ganfanpu and Huiquanlou he ran were already very famous in Quancheng before he became the national top scholar.

Now he has won the title of the national cooking competition.

The business of Ganfanpu and Huiquanlou will definitely not be bad.

So for someone like Feng Zhengming, who is not only one of the top chefs in the country, but also the owner of his own restaurant and restaurant.

The entrepreneurs at the dinner also understood that perhaps Feng Zhengming did not really need their investment.

I talked about a lot of things with the veterans and model workers.

Feng Zhengming even drank a few glasses of wine with them.

Veterans and model workers all like him very much as he is the champion of the national cooking competition.

At this moment, the veterans and model workers could all feel that Feng Zhengming was in the same group with them.

I accompanied everyone to drink and chat for a long time.

Feng Zhengming had almost finished drinking and said goodbye to the veterans and model workers.

He then seized the opportunity and moved closer to Grandpa Situ.

"Grandpa Situ, are you satisfied with the food tonight? Is it to your taste?"

Grandpa Situ looked at Feng Zhengming, who had drunk a lot of wine, had a red face and spoke with a little lisp.

"Zhengming, you drank a lot tonight, didn't you? You drank with those veterans and model workers, which was a bit beyond your capacity."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "I can't help it. I feel very comfortable with them. I can learn a lot from them. We got along very well and had a few more drinks with them."

Grandpa Situ nodded: "You think it's right to be friendly with them."

Then Grandpa Situ asked, "By the way, there are some slices of what look like bamboo shoots in your first cold dish today. What is that?"

Hearing Grandpa Situ's question, Feng Zhengming smiled and explained: "That is chicken marrow shoots."

"Chicken marrow bamboo shoots?" Mr. Situ's eyes widened instantly.

Mr. Situ is quite familiar with this dish.

After all, before he went abroad, his family was a respectable scholarly family.

He has read Dream of the Red Chamber many times, and even read many different versions.

So Mr. Situ knew very well that chicken marrow bamboo shoots were a dish in Dream of the Red Chamber.

The old man also knew that the recipe of this dish had actually been lost.

Later people studied it and said it was a kind of bamboo shoot called chicken marrow bamboo shoot. Some also said it might be a dish made by hollowing out the middle of the bamboo shoot and stuffing chicken marrow into it.

In short, there are many different opinions on this dish, and there is no definite method to cook it.

Tonight Feng Zhengming actually made chicken marrow bamboo shoots and added them to the cold dish platter.

Mr. Situ was naturally very surprised.

“How do you make chicken marrow shoots?”

Feng Zhengming told Mr. Situ everything he had done.

After hearing Feng Zhengming's method, Mr. Situ was even more surprised. "You can actually think of this way to do it. You are worthy of being the champion of the national cooking competition. Your sudden ideas are always unexpected."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "This dish is not my original creation. I communicated with Jinling and Huaiyang cuisine chefs at the national competition. They have been researching the recipe of this dish, and I discussed it with them."

"Okay, okay, okay."

Mr. Situ once again expressed his admiration, thinking that Feng Zhengming's research spirit was indeed worthy of praise.

"Zhengming hopes you can make more delicious dishes in the future."

Feng Zhengming nodded: “Don’t worry, Grandpa Situ, I will study it seriously.”

The dinner ended successfully in a joyful atmosphere.

Feng Zhengming and the others went back to the kitchen to clean up.

The provincial leaders saw off the guests and then came to the kitchen to greet the staff working tonight.

Once again, I give recognition to Chef Feng Zhengming.

The leader said: "Zhengming should come here more often in the future and teach the chefs in charge of reception work here to prepare the reception dishes well."

Feng Zhengming nodded and agreed: "Okay, I'll come over when I have time."

Another leader smiled and said, "Xiao Feng doesn't have time to come, so arrange for the chef who works in reception to go to Huiquanlou for further study."

This made the leaders laugh, and they all said that this arrangement was very good.

Feng Zhengming also agreed: "Okay, if the province arranges for us to go there to study, we will also communicate with everyone. We dare not lecture everyone, but we will learn from each other."

"Hahaha, Xiao Feng is still so humble."

"This is very good. It shows that although Zhengming is young, he still has no pride even though he has won the national cooking competition."

"Having Zhengming is a blessing for Shandong cuisine."

"That's right. With Xiao Feng here, there's no need to worry about our Shandong cuisine not being able to flourish."

After the leaders left, Feng Zhengming finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew, it's finally over."

Everyone else in the kitchen also breathed a sigh of relief.

Everyone is on high alert tonight and dares not relax at all.

In particular, Feng Zhengming also temporarily added some of his own ideas.

Even when serving the dishes, the taste is adjusted to suit different customers.

It can be said that everyone else in the kitchen was scared.

Lin Guofu, Kong Xingli, Sun Fenggui and others wanted to object to the practice of adjusting the taste.

But Feng Zhengming only started to do it when the food was almost ready to be served.

They had no time to object.

So after the food was served, they were very worried.

Luckily it worked out well in the end.

The temporary adjustment of the taste made the veterans and model workers more satisfied with tonight's dishes.

Even on the spot, Feng Zhengming specially prepared extra rice, noodles, steamed buns and dumplings for them.

We want to make sure everyone has enough to eat at this dinner.

This may be a sight that some chefs in charge of reception and catering have never seen before.

After all, in the past, everyone felt that such a dinner party was not a place for people to eat their fill.

As a result, Feng Zhengming broke all those messy rules.

The dishes should be suitable for different people and everyone should be able to eat their fill at the dinner.

The result was of course no problem and received positive reviews from everyone present.

But before the end, most people in the kitchen were worried.

After Feng Zhengming breathed a sigh of relief, he stood up, packed his things, and called Xia Hui, Xia Mingye and the young chefs he brought with him to prepare to leave.

"Okay, okay, pack up. It's almost time for us to go back. We've been tired for several days. We need to have a good rest when we get back."

Everyone else also packed up their things, and soon Feng Zhengming led the group to say goodbye to everyone, and they left first.

I saw Feng Zhengming leading his men away in a dashing manner.

Kong Xingli smiled and said to Lin Guofu, Sun Fenggui and other chefs in the kitchen: "Our number one scholar really seems to care about nothing."

Lin Guofu said: "He really doesn't need to care about anything. He has all the honors he deserves, and he also has his own restaurant that makes money."

Sun Fenggui nodded: "The key is that before he went to the National Cooking Competition, Ganfanpu and Huiquanlou were already doing well. Now that he has become the top scholar, his business will definitely be even better."

Kong Xingli said: "To be honest, I really envy him."

These words reflect the thoughts of other chefs in the kitchen.

All the chefs envy Feng Zhengming.

Other chefs who come back from participating in national cooking competitions still have to come up with their own ways to do their work.

For people like Kong Xingli and Sun Fenggui, it is not easy to get a salary increase.

Not to mention other chefs.

Tonight they will have more interactions with foreign guests, overseas Chinese and business representatives.

I just want to see if I can find a new buyer.

If someone is willing to invest in them to open a restaurant, or even if they just intend to open a restaurant somewhere, they can ask them to be the head chef.

That is to say, it allows them to get a pay raise in disguise.

This way, at least they participated in a national cooking competition and won gold or silver medals, so their trip was not in vain.

Feng Zhengming no longer has these worries.

Not to mention that he owns Ganfanpu and Huiquanlou.

If he says he needs investment now, many people will be willing to invest in him.

Just because of his title as the top scholar, anyone would feel safe investing in him.

It is impossible to say that the other chefs in the kitchen are not jealous.

But what can you do about jealousy?
He has already opened up a huge gap with others.

Feng Zhengming led everyone out of the door, and the province arranged a minibus to specifically take Feng Zhengming and his group out.

On the way back, Feng Zhengming fell asleep while swaying in the last row.

After everyone found out, no one bothered him.

Because everyone knows that he has been very busy these days.

Especially today, he has been in a state of high tension.

It seemed like every spur-of-the-moment idea he had and every decision he made was under tremendous pressure.

If there is a problem with the food, you will be held responsible in this kind of situation.

Fortunately, it was finally completed completely and received good reviews from the audience.

Feng Zhengming was now relaxed, and fatigue and sleepiness overwhelmed him, so he naturally fell asleep in the back seat of the car.

Feng Zhengming woke up just as the car returned to Huiquanlou.

He found the car very quiet and thought everyone was asleep like him.

When I was about to get up, I found out that the others were still awake after paying them.

But everyone was worried about disturbing him, so no one dared to say a word, not even to breathe.

Feng Zhengming said with a smile: "Thank you all for letting me sleep well. Okay, let's get off the bus. We have all worked so hard. Let's go home and have a good sleep."

Afterwards, Feng Zhengming led everyone to get their tools and get off the car, said goodbye to the driver, and went to the dormitory in Huiquan Building with everyone.

Because he was afraid of disturbing his grandfather's sleep when he returned home so late, Feng Zhengming also slept in the dormitory rented by Huiquan Building for everyone. (End of this chapter)