From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Accompanied by Fu Shanfu and Xu Yong, Feng Zhengming was specially invited to two kitchens.

The two of them personally brought over their respective fried chickens.

In order to allow Feng Zhengming, the top scholar, to taste the food carefully, a lot of food was brought over from both sides.

This inevitably caused some people in the queue to express dissatisfaction.

"What's going on? How can he cut in line?"

"That's right, why isn't he lining up?"

"Didn't you ask us all to judge which restaurant is the best? Why did he go in without queuing? Is he a judge?"

"Even if he is a judge and the president of the cooking association, shouldn't we all decide whether something is delicious? How can he decide alone?"

Hearing the complaints from people in the queue, the apprentices from the two families immediately gave explanations.

"I'm sorry, he's actually the national champion of our Shandong cuisine, so Master wanted to ask him to be the judge."

"Yes, yes, don't worry, we still have some in the pot, everyone can have some."

"It will definitely be enough for today, don't worry."

After hearing the apprentice's explanation, I learned that it was the top winner of the national cooking competition.

It really shocked all the onlookers.

"Wow, he's actually our top scorer."

“It’s really our top Shandong cuisine.”

"What Shandong cuisine champion? He is the national champion."

"Yes, yes, he is the top scholar in the country."

"The national champion is also the champion of Shandong cuisine. He cooks Shandong cuisine."

At this moment, no one blamed Feng Zhengming for cutting in line. Everyone rushed forward and wanted to see Feng Zhengming.

Everyone also wants to hear how Feng Zhengming, the national number one scholar, would judge the fried chicken of the two families?
For a while, no one even lined up to taste the fried chicken from the two restaurants.

Feng Zhengming first took a careful look at the fried chicken served in front of him from the two restaurants.

"Well, first of all, I have to say that both of your families make fried chicken in an authentic way."

Everyone at the scene was a little surprised to hear that Feng Zhengming hadn't eaten yet and directly concluded that both restaurants were authentic.

Soon, someone in the crowd shouted, "Chef Zhuangyuan, you didn't say that on purpose, did you? To avoid offending both sides?"

Feng Zhengming was not angry at all when he heard the doubts.

Instead, he looked at the crowd with a smile: "Everyone knows that the fried chicken in Yicheng is considered a Shandong cuisine technique?"

Hearing this question, the crowd fell silent.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. First of all, no one knew what Shandong cuisine techniques were.
Secondly, what is the technique for stir-frying chicken? I don't know this even more.

But there are also smarter people among the crowd.

"I know, the number one chef is asking what cooking technique is used for stir-fried chicken. Stir-fried chicken, stir-fried chicken, it must be stir-fried."

When Feng Zhengming heard this, he looked at the person who was speaking in the crowd, smiled and nodded at him.

"Very clever, it is indeed a stir-fry technique, but do you know what it is exactly?"

This question stumped the other party again.

Seeing that the other party couldn't answer, the crowd burst into laughter.

Feng Zhengming then turned his head and looked at the chefs and owners of the two restaurants.

"Do you know what kind of stir-frying technique is stir-frying chicken?"

Fu Shanfu and Xu Yong answered almost in unison without any hesitation.

“Stir-fried.”

When Feng Zhengming heard the two people answering almost in unison, he looked at them with a smile.

The two of them also looked at each other.

At this time, the two seemed to understand.

To put it bluntly, the two people are from the same school.

So they opened a store in the urban area of ​​Yicheng. The two stores argued for a long time over which one was more authentic, but they still couldn't decide which one was better.

It's impossible to break the moves taught by a master.

Feng Zhengming turned around and looked at the onlookers with a smile.

"The technique used in Yicheng fried chicken is raw stir-frying. What is raw stir-frying? It means that before frying, the chicken is directly put into the pan to stir-fry without boiling water or oil. This is called raw stir-frying."

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the people watching understood it all at once.

"Why is Yicheng fried chicken so delicious? The reason lies in the raw stir-frying. Raw stir-frying requires the ingredients to be fresh. Only in this way can the delicious taste of the big rooster be preserved as much as possible during the raw stir-frying process.

While frying the chicken, the chicken is in contact with the pan and oil, and the surface of the chicken must be fried until it is brown.

In the words of our chefs, it is called frying until the carbonized layer appears.

How to explain it scientifically? It is also called the Maillard reaction.

For example, when we grill meat, the Maillard reaction occurs more intuitively.

Do you think barbecue smells good? And if you want barbecue to smell good, you must have some fat. If you want the fat to smell good, it will taste better, right? "

"Yes." Almost everyone at the scene responded to Feng Zhengming in unison.

The crowd of onlookers included the fried chicken chefs from the two stores and their apprentices.

At this moment, they all became Feng Zhengming's students and were listening to his lectures attentively.

Feng Zhengming then pointed at the chicken on the plate and asked, "When you fry chicken at home, do you often feel that it is not as delicious as the one in the restaurant?"

Many people present nodded at this.

Feng Zhengming immediately gave a way to make the chicken taste better.

"If you want to make it taste better, it's actually very simple. First of all, you must buy fresh, freshly killed chickens. Don't buy frozen chickens. If you buy chickens that are not freshly killed, there are actually ways to make them taste better, but of course it's more troublesome.

Let's talk about stir-frying. Buy the chicken and chop it into small pieces. Rinse it with water until there is no blood in the water.

Then when stir-frying, add half peanut oil and half lard.

Then add the chicken to the pan and stir-fry it. Remember to turn it over several times so that the chicken is evenly colored and has a bit of brown on the surface.

At this point, Feng Zhengming smiled and asked, "Do you remember what I just said, what is the reaction?"

"Maillard reaction." The crowd answered almost in unison.

Feng Zhengming clapped his hands for everyone: "Very good, it seems that everyone understands. In the future, everyone can become a gourmet who can judge the quality of other people's dishes."

This thoroughly amused the crowd, who burst into laughter.

Feng Zhengming then continued to teach everyone how to make fried chicken at home.

"If you make it at home, you can take the chicken out of the pan after it has browned.

Then use the remaining oil in the pot, add the onion, ginger and star anise and stir-fry until fragrant. Then you can add your own sauce. Remember to stir-fry the sauce thoroughly.

Pour the chicken pieces back into the pan and stir-fry to evenly mix the chicken pieces and the sauce.

Then add water. If there is soup, you can add soup. If there is no soup, add water. Remember to add warm water.

If you want soup, you can add a little more water. If you don’t want soup, the amount of water is basically the same as the chicken nuggets.”

Feng Zhengming spoke in great detail, as if he wanted to teach everyone a lesson.

"Remember, after adding water, you should taste it. According to your taste, you can add salt, sugar, and soy sauce appropriately. If conditions permit, you can also add a little bit of oyster sauce. If you like spicy food, you can add the chili peppers when you stir-fry the onions and ginger." After adjusting the taste, cover the pot and start to slowly stew the chicken pieces.

If it is a rooster that is over one year old, it should be stewed for at least an hour."

By this point, Feng Zhengming had already taught all the details of Yicheng fried chicken.

Whether it was the people watching on the scene or Fu Shanfu and Xu Yong, everyone listened with great interest.

After listening to this, Fu Shanfu and Xu Yong couldn't help but feel that Feng Zhengming was really amazing as he had covered almost all the details.

Listening to Feng Zhengming say it once, one feels as if one is doing it with him.

Wait for everyone to savor it.

Suddenly someone in the crowd started applauding.

Then, the crowd burst into warm applause.

Someone in the crowd also shouted, "Chef No. 1 is great."

As the shouts rang out, everyone became quite convinced of Feng Zhengming.

This top chef really knows everything.

Feng Zhengming smiled and pressed his hands a few times to ask everyone to calm down.

"Okay, now if I ask everyone, whose fried chicken is more authentic, Chef Fu or Chef Xu?"

There was a brief silence among the crowd, and then they began to shout.

“All authentic.”

Feng Zhengming smiled and nodded: "Yes, both are authentic. As long as their techniques are stir-fried raw and they use the big roosters from our Yimeng Mountain, then they are authentic.

As for when it is cooked, is there soup? What kind of seasonings are added? These are the secret recipes of each family, so don't force yourself.

In short, as long as it's delicious, we should support it, right? "

"Yes." Another unanimous response.

Fu Shanfu and Xu Yong looked at each other, and then looked at Feng Zhengming together.

At this moment, the two people truly witnessed the ability of Feng Zhengming, the top scholar.

Not only does he cook delicious dishes himself, he also has a good understanding of other dishes.

And he can teach everyone how to cook the dishes in very simple and easy-to-understand words.

Compared with Feng Zhengming, the two of them can only be considered cooks who can cook.

People like Feng Zhengming can be considered real chefs.

After saying this, Feng Zhengming asked everyone to continue eating their fried chicken.

"Everyone, keep eating. Don't let the two bosses' cooking skills go to waste. Besides, it would be a waste if we don't eat up such a good chicken. Don't you agree?"

"Yes." Another chorus of responses.

Then the crowd continued to line up and eat the fried chicken from the two restaurants.

Feng Zhengming also began to taste the fried chicken from both families.

There is a clear difference in the taste of the two.

It can be said that the two restaurants have their own merits in taste, but one cannot be said to be better than the other.

Fu Shanfu's craftsmanship retains the most original flavor of fried chicken.

It can be said that the ingredients used are good enough and it tastes quite simple, but the taste is not bad at all.

Xu Yong's craftsmanship incorporates more elements from other places.

In terms of taste, Xu Yong’s soup adds some oyster sauce flavor, and also has a sweet taste.

It should be said that Xu Yong’s approach may be more suitable for southern tastes.

But judging from the way the locals were queuing up to eat there.

It seems that the locals don't mind Xu Yong's tone of voice.

Feng Zhengming carefully tasted the fried chicken from both restaurants.

He smiled and nodded: "They are indeed delicious. The most important thing is that your pheasant tastes really good."

The two chefs burst into laughter at the compliment.

It is obvious that they are quite confident in the mountain roosters of Yimeng Mountain.

Feng Zhengming then asked directly: "I would like to ask, are there any counties and towns in the Yimeng Mountains that specialize in raising these big roosters that run in the mountains?"

After asking this, Fu Shanfu and Xu Yong looked at each other.

It was Fu Shanfu who answered first.

"In our Mengyin area, there are no specialized roosters now, but if you go to some villages, you can still buy big roosters, which are raised by families in the village. I bought them from there."

Xu Yong nodded: "Yes, I also bought it from some villages near Yimeng Mountain."

Feng Zhengming nodded and gave some suggestions of his own.

“I think, since you want to make Yicheng fried chicken a specialty, my suggestion is that you can organize villages like Mengyin or other counties to raise chicken in the mountains by enclosing a piece of forest to raise it.

There is no need to build a special chicken farm or anything like that, just let the roosters run freely in the fenced area in the mountains.

Of course, we also need to consult some agricultural experts in breeding in this regard.

We need them to give us some guidance, especially on disease prevention, etc. We need to ensure the quality of the chickens is good and that they don’t have any symptoms.”

Fu Shanfu and Xu Yong also felt that the ideas Feng Zhengming proposed were very feasible.

Just at this moment, several people came to Feng Zhengming and his friends.

"Feng Zhuangyuan, right? Hello, hello, I didn't expect you to come to our Yicheng."

Fu Shanfu and Xu Yong introduced him to Feng Zhengming together.

Among the people who came, one was the president of Yicheng Cooking Association.

As for the person who took the initiative to talk to Feng Zhengming, he was the leader of Yicheng.

Feng Zhengming politely got to know the leaders of Yicheng and the people from the Cooking Association.

Afterwards, the leader also took the initiative to invite Feng Zhengming, could he go to the office in Yicheng to give classes to everyone and let Yicheng receive him?
Feng Zhengming smiled and refused: "No, I was just passing by Yicheng and witnessed such a fried chicken competition. I think it's great. I just gave some suggestions on how to better develop Yicheng fried chicken."

He repeated some of his previous words to the leaders of Yicheng.

In particular, the idea of ​​raising mountain roosters in the Yimeng Mountains was specifically emphasized.

"I think this is a feature of the Yimeng Mountains and can also become a feature of Yicheng. Of course, I am giving a suggestion that this should be promoted together with Yicheng fried chicken.

However, I don’t know much about the specific aspects of breeding, so I still need to find professional breeding and agricultural experts to guide me in breeding technology.”

After listening to Feng Zhengming's words, several leaders present in Yicheng felt that it was very feasible.

The Culinary Association also feels that this is indeed a very good promotion project.

The leader immediately extended an invitation to Feng Zhengming again.

"Mr. Feng, we will arrange a symposium later. We should invite several people from the cooking association and some agricultural experts. Mr. Feng, please come and sit in on the meeting. He can help us get this done."

Having been invited by the leaders of Yicheng, Feng Zhengming had no choice but to accept the invitation.

After all, he was the one who came up with the idea, so there must be some specific implementation plans.

So Feng Zhengming also nodded and agreed to attend the seminar. (End of this chapter)