From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

After visiting Huiquan Building, 20 outstanding students from Quancheng Cooking School felt that they had gained a lot.

I witnessed the efficiency of Huiquanlou’s kitchen, and the strong personal abilities of even the apprentices in the kitchen.

The key is that even though the chefs and apprentices have strong personal abilities, they can still cooperate very well with each other under the command and dispatch of Feng Zhengming.

The students saw all this and found it unbelievable.

Of course, this visit changed the students' previous idea that as long as they had good skills, they could become the best chefs and run the best restaurant.

Judging from the situation in Huiquanlou’s kitchen, it is absolutely impossible for a large restaurant like Huiquanlou to rely on one person alone.

Even someone like Feng Zhengming needs cooperation from other chefs in the kitchen.

The tour ended at noon, and the students had a working lunch together with the kitchen staff of Huiquan Building.

When eating their working meals, the students all thought that the Huiquan Building meals tasted great.

The apprentices who were eating together couldn't help laughing when they heard the students' praise.

"At Huiquanlou, working meals are our only chance to cook."

"Yes, it would be embarrassing if we can't even prepare a good work meal."

"They are all home-cooked dishes. The chef said that these home-cooked dishes are home-cooked because they are simple and anyone can learn to cook them. If we can't even cook home-cooked dishes, then we are not qualified to be chefs."

"We have to fight for working meals, so everyone cherishes the opportunity."

The students listened to the apprentices from Huiquanlou.

They also realize that much of what they learn in school is somewhat different from reality.

After lunch, the kitchen of Huiquanlou officially began to get busy.

Although there were not many customers in Huiquanlou at noon, the first floor was basically filled up one after another.

In the eyes of the students in the cooking school, even if it is a very ordinary dish, Feng Zhengming and his colleagues will prepare it very seriously.

It was also the first time that the students saw that Huiquanlou’s kitchen displayed a calm strength.

This was different from the slightly messy preparation process they had in the morning.

Cooking officially starts at noon, and the kitchen of Huiquanlou appears to be quite orderly.

Each dish has a corresponding process and will go through the hands of different apprentices and chefs.

Finally, according to Feng Zhengming's request, the dishes will be served to the guests only after the plating is completed.

The students were amazed by the food presentation in the kitchen of Huiquanlou.

Only then did they suddenly realize that the rumors about Huiquanlou were true.

Huiquanlou really makes the dishes almost the same as the photos on the menu.

For example, a dish like cabbage and prawns, which is quite common among students, is cooked quite beautifully by Huiquanlou.

Especially when the dish is served at the end, the fried crispy shrimp head is the finishing touch.

These culinary school students could never imagine that.

It turns out that the shrimp heads that have been hollowed out and fried crispy can actually have such a function.

Even Sun Kuangyi, who led the team, was amazed by the many plating arrangements in Huiquanlou's kitchen.

After Feng Zhengming finished his work.

Sun Kuangyi couldn't help but come closer and praise: "Zhengming, your Huiquanlou's plating design is really amazing."

Feng Zhengming smiled and waved his hand after hearing this: "These are some ideas that we all came up with, but we try not to waste anything."

Try not to waste anything.

These words made Sun Kuangyi look at Feng Zhengming and Huiquanlou with a new respect.

When Sun Kuangyi was learning cooking from Master Cui, the master always warned everyone not to waste any ingredients.

This can be considered a warning passed down from generation to generation of chefs.

However, Sun Kuangyi, who was in cooking school, had somewhat forgotten this warning over the years.

It can be said that waste often occurs in culinary schools.

This is probably because everything in the school is purchased with student tuition fees.

And the quality of the things purchased is often not very good.

Therefore, teachers like Sun Kuangyi often don't care too much about saving materials.

In order to teach students as quickly as possible, teachers often use quite bold and extensive materials.

Sun Kuangyi couldn't help but feel that these students only learned the basics in cooking school and were a bit extravagant when it came to the ingredients.

It is possible that no matter which restaurant or hotel kitchen you enter, it is difficult for others to use it at will.

Just like the apprentices in Huiquanlou’s kitchen, their only chance to cook is to prepare employee meals.

During normal business hours, they are not allowed to cook any dish.

Not only apprentices, but even young chefs are not qualified to cook some of these dishes.

Most of the dishes in Huiquanlou’s kitchen are prepared by Feng Zhengming and his two senior brothers.

Most of the young chefs help out, but of course they are also responsible for preparing some simpler dishes.

As for apprentices, they can only do some auxiliary work.

After careful observation, the students had to admit that Feng Zhengming and his two senior brothers were indeed very skilled.

They control the heat of each dish very well.

This is definitely not something that can be learned in a short period of time.

It takes a long time to accumulate experience.

The culinary school came to visit these students, and through just one lunch they basically understood their own huge shortcomings.

This deficiency is not in theory, but in the actual practice of cooking.

Many dishes are not difficult to cook by watching Feng Zhengming and his two senior brothers.

But when you actually get started, you will need to accumulate very deep experience.

Just like the young chefs in the kitchen of Huiquanlou, when they start cooking, Feng Zhengming will usually watch from the side.

We will constantly emphasize many details and give timely reminders to ensure the quality of dishes prepared by young chefs.

For example, a customer ordered fried crispy food.

Feng Zhengming handed the dish to Qi Jiale in the kitchen.

Pork belly and chicken gizzards are prepared in advance.

However, when Qi Jiale was asking his apprentice to apply starch to the bottom of the pot, he made some small mistakes and was severely stopped by Feng Zhengming.

"Old Qi, you can't keep indulging your apprentice in this kind of deviation. How can you cook a good dish if he keeps making small mistakes? You can't allow even the smallest mistake."

Qi Jiale expressed his understanding very seriously.

He endured Feng Zhengming's harsh preaching.

He did not give direct feedback to his two apprentices, but did it himself and showed them.

When the time comes to lubricate the oil later, Feng Zhengming will be watching beside Qi Jiale.

Feng Zhengming was almost the only one who controlled the time during the entire process of frying the pork tripe and chicken gizzards.

Every time Feng Zhengming reminded him, “Yes.”

Qi Jiale will take it out immediately.

During the final cooking process, Feng Zhengming even personally prepared the side dishes and sauce for Qi Jiale.

Qi Jiale was able to finish the dish quite smoothly. After finishing, Feng Zhengming immediately asked the waiter to run and serve the dish.

The students looked at Feng Zhengming giving instructions to Qi Jiale.

They seemed to be aware of the responsibilities of Feng Zhengming as the head chef.

The chef may not prepare every dish himself.

But the chef must understand the cooking steps for each dish.

Even just by looking at it with your eyes, you can make an accurate judgment of the heat.

This made a deep impression on the visiting students.

If it were them, they would definitely not be able to make an accurate judgment.

After Feng Zhengming finished making the fried crispy dishes, he was communicating with Qi Jiale and asked the students to write down some of the things he said.

"The firepower of our kitchen stove is quite strong, so it doesn't take long to grease the oil. You can put the oil in the wok and take it out of the wok as soon as the temperature rises, because there is a stir-frying process afterwards. Jiale, you also need to get used to using iron chopsticks."

Qi Jiale nodded seriously: "I know, I will get used to it slowly."

In fact, not being used to using iron chopsticks is probably a common problem among students graduating from culinary schools.

In cooking schools, students are basically not taught to use iron chopsticks.

But when you are actually cooking in the kitchen, iron chopsticks are more useful than using a spoon directly.

After all, many dishes need to be smeared with oil after battering, and if you just use a spoon to stir them casually, the ingredients may be broken.

For a restaurant like Huiquanlou, the final dishes must ensure that the ingredients are intact.

You can't have a plate of fried crispy food if the plate is filled with broken chicken gizzards and shredded pork stomach.

Moreover, using iron chopsticks can help to separate the ingredients as quickly as possible without damaging them.

This allows the ingredients to be fried faster and prevents them from being overcooked when fried.

Dishes like fried double crispy dishes are really hard to save if they get old.

Lunch time is over and today's visit for this group of students has also come to an end.

Sun Kuangyi expressed his gratitude to Feng Zhengming and others.

A group of students also expressed their gratitude.

The students all claimed that they learned a lot from visiting the kitchen of Huiquanlou.

Feng Zhengming encouraged the students with a smile: "Work hard, I believe you will become great chefs in the future. Of course, you must love this industry and have a heart to cook the best dishes."

These words of encouragement were Feng Zhengming's final words to these students.

He didn't know whether any of these students would be willing to become excellent chefs in the future.

He just hopes to plant one or two seeds.

Sun Kuangyi took the students to say goodbye to Feng Zhengming and others, and led the students out of Huiquan Building.

After the visiting students left, Feng Zhengming returned to the kitchen with a smile on his face.

"Yes, everyone performed very well today. I believe that our Huiquan Building will leave a deep impression on those students and let them know how powerful our Huiquan Building kitchen is."

This made everyone in the kitchen laugh.

At the same time, a hint of pride appeared on everyone's face.

The students from the cooking schools will be convinced and will help promote the excellence of Huiquanlou’s kitchen when they go back.

This is the result that everyone in Huiquanlou hopes to see.

Especially some apprentices, during lunch I heard those students express their envy for being able to be apprentices in Huiquanlou.

This naturally gave the apprentices a sense of superiority.

A kind of vanity is satisfied.

This will make the apprentices cherish the opportunity to stay in Huiquanlou.

After all, their internship period is almost over, and a new batch of apprentices may come for internship soon.

That would be a huge threat to them. If they couldn't compete with the new apprentices, they might not be able to continue staying in Huiquanlou.

Feng Zhengming did not remind his apprentices about this.

He hopes to see real progress from his apprentices.

It's not just about making some plans in advance just to stay.

During lunch break, Li Huidong found Feng Zhengming to talk about some recent activities of the Cooking Association.

"It seems that the Culinary Association is planning to hold a meeting to discuss this year's Provincial Youth Chef Cooking Exchange Competition."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "This year is the second session, so we should indeed prepare in advance."

Li Huidong asked curiously: "Do you think it should be a big event?"

Feng Zhengming nodded again: "Of course we have to do it on a large scale, and we should give young chefs more opportunities. After this year's event, we can accumulate some experience and then hold it in other cities in the province next year."

Li Huidong also agreed with this view, but he also took into account the objective ability of the Culinary Association.

"The cooking association itself does not have the capacity to hold a large-scale event. It still needs strong support from the province and Quanzhou City, so it is not easy to hold a large-scale event."

Feng Zhengming smiled and expressed his thoughts.

"I think the Cooking Association can attract investment, find some commercial sponsorship, and help advertise for those sponsoring companies."

Li Huidong was a little surprised: "You mean, find some companies to sponsor you?"

Feng Zhengming explained seriously: "Yes, if we only ask the province and the city to fund it, there will definitely be some pressure. The budget cannot be very generous, so we should find some commercial sponsorship."

After thinking about it, Li Huidong expressed his concerns: "If we seek commercial sponsorship, will it affect the fairness of the competition?"

Feng Zhengming responded with a smile: "Don't worry about this. Just make it clear to the commercial sponsors in advance and don't allow them to participate in or influence the competition."

Li Huidong was still a little worried: "Can we really ask them not to interfere?"

Feng Zhengming thought for a moment and added: "This aspect needs to be controlled by the Culinary Association, and the Culinary Association must ensure fairness and justice."

Li Huidong was obviously not so confident about the Cooking Association.

"It's probably not easy for them to be completely fair and just."

Feng Zhengming smiled and reminded his senior brother: "This is simple. Let the province and the city intervene, and then let the masters form a supervision team to supervise the progress and fairness of the competition."

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, Li Huidong felt that this could indeed ensure fairness and justice as much as possible.

“This is indeed feasible, allowing all parties to supervise each other.”

Feng Zhengming also gave an idea: "We can do some publicity to get a lot of people to pay attention to the competition and build up momentum for the competition. When the momentum is big, people will think that the competition is to select suitable young chefs for the inheritance of Shandong cuisine.

In this case, even the sponsors themselves may want the competition to be completely fair and just.

After all, it concerns the reputation of Shandong cuisine and the entire Qilu region.”

Li Huidong had to admit that his junior fellow apprentice did have a lot of clever ideas.

He always comes up with ideas that can restrain others.

Finally, Li Huidong asked Feng Zhengming to go with him to attend the Culinary Association meeting and explain these ideas on the spot.

Feng Zhengming agreed with a smile: "The Cooking Association is holding a meeting for the Young Chef Cooking Competition. I will definitely go there. I also hope that our Shandong cuisine can gain greater fame through the Young Chef Cooking Competition."

Li Huidong agrees: "Yes, holding such a competition, as long as it is properly promoted, can indeed attract more people to pay attention to Shandong cuisine."

There is another point that Feng Zhengming did not tell the eldest senior brother.

He hopes to find some young chefs with good skills through the Young Chefs Cooking Exchange Competition.

To prepare for his future trip southwards, so that Shandong cuisine can once again go beyond Qi and Lu. (End of this chapter)