From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

After talking with Xia Hui alone, I managed to persuade her to let go of her prejudice against her father.

This made her willing to return to the Xia family and learn Confucius cuisine from her grandfather and father.

Just as Feng Zhengming and Xia Hui said, after he came back from this trip walking all over Qi and Lu.

He has become more certain about his next development direction.

The first thing, of course, is to open branches throughout the province.

According to the plan he had envisioned along the way, local branches will still have the signature dishes, such as braised pork, four-happiness meatballs, braised pork elbows and pig's trotters.

In addition to these signature dishes, adjustments will be made based on different dining environments and local tastes.

The most important thing is to add local specialties and snacks.

Feng Zhengming wants all branches in different locations to have local characteristics.

When outsiders go to a local place, they don’t know what kind of restaurant to choose to eat.

You can choose branches of Fengjia Dry Rice Shop in various places.

At least it can allow outsiders to taste some of the local specialties and snacks.

After opening branches in various places, the next step is to integrate the characteristics of Shandong cuisine from various regions.

In particular, we must make good use of all the raw materials with local characteristics.

As a result, some chain restaurants will be opened in various places.

Feng Zhengming’s idea is not to compete with those high-end restaurants in various places.

The goal is to open some more affordable restaurants in various places so that locals can taste authentic Shandong cuisine.

If these two steps go well, Feng Zhengming will eventually open a few distinctive high-end restaurants.

Among them, the two restaurants in Quancheng that Feng Zhengming has in mind are the former Yan Xilou and the Kongfu Restaurant which specializes in Kongfu cuisine.

After chatting with Xia Hui, it was almost time for business to start in the evening.

Feng Zhengming did not go to talk to others, but joined in the preparations for dinner.

Soon after adding dinner preparations.

Feng Zhengming soon discovered that he was unable to help with the material preparation work.

Obviously, during the time he was away from Huiquanlou, the eldest and fifth brothers took good care of the kitchen.

Feng Zhengming did not forcefully intervene.

Since there was no need for him to intervene, Feng Zhengming took the opportunity to carefully observe the situation in the kitchen.

It has to be said that Feng Zhengming was a little rusty as he had not been in the kitchen for more than half a year.

After observing for a while, Feng Zhengming was still full of gratitude towards his two senior brothers.

The current coordinated state of the kitchen is definitely inseparable from the help of the two senior brothers.

When all the ingredients in the kitchen are ready.

He Yunqing went to the kitchen to find Feng Zhengming.

"Chef, there are some provincial leaders coming outside, would you like to go meet them?"

Feng Zhengming was a little surprised to hear this, but he still nodded and agreed to go and meet him.

He felt more confident leaving the kitchen matters to his two senior brothers.

He followed He Yunqing out from the kitchen.

Came to a private room on the second floor.

When I entered the room, I saw the provincial leaders sitting in a private room accompanied by Tao Jingwen and Chen Zhiheng.

When he saw them, Feng Zhengming roughly guessed why the provincial leaders were looking for him.

Seeing him come in, Tao Jingwen and Chen Zhiheng also stood up.

The provincial leaders greeted Feng Zhengming with a smile.

"Zhengming heard that you were back, so we contacted your manager at Huiquanlou. We knew you were at Huiquanlou today, so we came all the way to see you."

Feng Zhengming smiled, closed the door of the private room, walked to the table and responded.

"I should have gone to the province to report. I shouldn't have let the leader come to me in his busy schedule."

The provincial leader smiled and asked Feng Zhengming to sit down first.

"Sit down, let's sit down and talk."

Seeing Feng Zhengming sit down, the leader continued to explain the purpose of his visit.

"I came to see you today mainly for two reasons."

Feng Zhengming nodded and waited for his leader to explain his purpose.

"First, you have re-standardized the Confucius Mansion cuisine in Qufu this time. The province attaches great importance to this matter. Everyone praises your approach. I hope you can continue to follow up on the restoration of Confucius Mansion cuisine."

Feng Zhengming nodded and agreed: "Don't worry, leader. Confucius cuisine is the representative of our official Shandong cuisine. As a Shandong cuisine chef, I have no choice but to make Confucius cuisine more standardized and restore some of the old dishes."

After receiving Feng Zhengming's response, the leaders were all smiles, and they were obviously very satisfied with his answer.

The leader went on to talk about the second thing.

"Secondly, the provincial youth chef cooking competition will begin at the end of the year. The province has already contacted the cooking association and has also obtained support from some companies in the province. Some specific details of this youth chef cooking competition may require you and a few old chefs to come up with a plan."

Feng Zhengming was a little surprised: "You want me to come up with a competition plan?"

The provincial leader nodded and said, "Yes, the province has discussed this matter with Master Cui, Master Su, Master Sun, and your master, Master Yan.

Several masters unanimously recommended you. They felt that you would definitely have more insights after returning from your hiking trip to various places in Qi and Lu.

You should be able to plan the province-wide youth chef cooking competition better, so I hope you can come up with a plan."

When Feng Zhengming heard this, he couldn't help but feel that it was clearly his master and the others who were giving him a difficult time.

This doesn't seem like I'm going to take the exam to become a young chef.

Instead, it was a bit like the masters wanted to test him.

But since the masters have already given themselves questions.

Feng Zhengming naturally would not back down.

Through this hiking trip to various places in Qi and Lu, he has come up with more ideas of his own.

Some of his past ideas are also changing.

He understands some of the responsibilities he should shoulder.

Since you are the top scholar in the country, you should shoulder the responsibilities that come with being a top scholar.

We need to better define the rules of Shandong cuisine.

Only a set of rules that adapt to the new era have been established.

Only in this way can we better inherit and promote Shandong cuisine.

When the provincial leaders saw that Feng Zhengming didn't say anything, they looked at each other in confusion, thinking that Feng Zhengming had objections to letting him be in charge of the provincial youth chef cooking competition.

The provincial leader spoke again: "Zhengming, don't feel pressured. If you feel that things are not going well, you can tell us what you think and we will help you as much as possible."

When Feng Zhengming heard this, he suddenly came to his senses and responded with a smile.

"Don't worry, leader. I was just thinking about how to formulate some details of the competition. Now I have an idea in mind. I will prepare my plan as soon as possible and give it to the leaders for review."

Upon hearing what Feng Zhengming said, several provincial leaders present, including Tao Jingwen and Chen Zhiheng, were a little surprised.

They came here specifically so that they could provide some help if Feng Zhengming refused.

But unexpectedly, Feng Zhengming not only did not shirk his responsibility, but instead quickly came up with a plan.

The provincial leader asked, "Zhengming, are you really not forcing yourself?"

Feng Zhengming responded with a smile: "Please rest assured, leaders. I will submit the plan next week at the latest." Seeing Feng Zhengming so confident, the leaders all nodded and expressed their anticipation.

"Okay, then let's look forward to our top scholar's plan together."

In the evening, Feng Zhengming also cooked some new dishes that he had seen and conceived during the trip, and let the provincial leaders taste them.

Provincial leaders felt that Feng Zhengming's craftsmanship seemed to have improved a lot.

Especially in the seasoning of some dishes, Feng Zhengming has really gone a step further.

Feng Zhengming’s recipes for many dishes tend to be a bit lighter.

Although the taste is a little light, Feng Zhengming uses broth and other ingredients to make the dish taste more delicious.

Several provincial leaders felt particularly comfortable while eating this.

In particular, Feng Zhengming cooked a vegetarian soup with lotus root, peanuts, mushrooms and carrots.

Just a simple pinch of salt for seasoning.

But the leaders found this soup quite delicious.

After the meal, several leaders did not hide their praise for Feng Zhengming.

"Zhengming, your cooking skills are getting better and better. The dishes you served to us today, although not as luxurious as your previous ones, each dish tastes more delicious."

"Yes, the lotus root soup you made last time was really great. It made people feel very comfortable when drinking it."

"It seems that our top student has learned a lot during this trip."

Feng Zhengming responded to several leaders with a smile.

"This trip allowed me to see the rich products of various places in Shandong and taste the local delicacies. It suddenly made me feel that delicious food may often be right next to us.

Maybe many things don’t need too many fancy techniques to make, the simple taste is delicious enough. "

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, several leaders nodded in agreement.

Finally, the provincial leader also mentioned the Confucius Mansion cuisine.

"By the way, Zhengming, you have made a lot of efforts to restore the Confucius Mansion cuisine this time. So, how do you think the Confucius Mansion cuisine should be better inherited and developed in the future?"

Feng Zhengming thought for a moment and replied, "On the one hand, the Kongfu cuisine signboard cannot be casually hung up by restaurants and hotels.

On the other hand, some incentives should be provided, such as asking the Xia family to take in more apprentices, letting the apprentices start from the most basic and learn the Confucius Mansion cuisine thoroughly.

Most importantly, I think we can do some folk collection work and collect some recipes from the folks.

Or you can learn about the cooking methods of some old Qufu dishes from some old folks.

Then we can organize people to revive some of the old dishes and modify them to make them more suitable for restaurants.”

After hearing Feng Zhengming's plan, provincial leaders nodded one after another.

This solution is indeed the best one.

We can restore some dishes of Confucius Mansion cuisine and re-establish the reputation of Confucius Mansion cuisine.

The most important thing is that the brand name of Confucius cuisine can no longer be used at will.

This will be more beneficial to the subsequent standardization, inheritance and development of Confucius Mansion cuisine.

Of course, if it weren’t for Feng Zhengming, the top scholar.

Perhaps the province does not have the confidence to hold on to the reputation of Confucius cuisine.

With Feng Zhengming, the top scholar, many of the things he initiates will receive responses from a large number of chefs in the province.

He does have a great advantage in this regard.

There are many plans that others may not be able to complete, but Feng Zhengming, as the national culinary champion, can easily solve them by relying on his appeal and will also gain great support.

After seeing off the provincial leaders, Feng Zhengming personally prepared some of the main dishes for Huiquanlou's customers tonight.

Basically, on every table, there are one or two dishes that are prepared by Feng Zhengming himself.

Although during this period, under the leadership of the eldest and fifth brothers, the chefs in the kitchen of Huiquanlou have made rapid progress.

But in front of Feng Zhengming, they still have a big gap.

In the past, Feng Zhengming was already quite skilled in seasoning.

Now when he adjusts the tune, he does it with complete ease.

According to the needs of different customers, Feng Zhengming can carefully make the difference in taste.

The customers tonight were all very satisfied with the meal.

Even when Feng Zhengming is the chef, customers can taste slightly different flavors of the same dish.

After closing one night, Feng Zhengming was in the kitchen while everyone was packing up.

He called Qi Jiale out to have a chat with him alone.

Before Feng Zhengming could speak, Qi Jiale took the initiative to admit his mistake.

"Chef, I know that I have been a little slack in your absence and have often made mistakes in the kitchen. I hope you can give me a chance to make amends and I will work hard to correct the problems."

Feng Zhengming was not surprised to hear Qi Jiale admit his mistake.

After all, before opening in the evening, he had a private chat with Xia Hui.

Xia Hui did not tell anyone the content of the conversation.

Naturally, everyone thought that he was looking for Xia Hui to discuss some problems in the kitchen during this period.

And Qi Jiale himself is also aware of his own problems.

So he didn't wait for Feng Zhengming to open his mouth to accuse him, but took the initiative to admit his mistake, in order to get leniency for his honesty.

After listening to Qi Jiale's words, Feng Zhengming smiled.

"You are quite self-aware. You know that you have made many mistakes and that you have been slacking off in the kitchen. You took the initiative to admit your mistakes in order to get a chance to be forgiven."

Qi Jiale looked up at Feng Zhengming and said, "Chef, I didn't expect that, but doing the same work in the kitchen every day will inevitably make me feel disgusted."

Feng Zhengming put away his smile and asked, "Then what do you think you want to do most in your heart?"

Qi Jiale suddenly fell into deep thought.

He was indeed busy in the kitchen day after day, and gradually felt tired and bored.

But what does he want to do?
Qi Jiale didn't know how to answer.

Seeing that Qi Jiale couldn't answer, Feng Zhengming asked again: "Are you still planning to participate in this provincial young chef cooking competition?"

Hearing this question, Qi Jiale did not hesitate at all this time: "Of course, I will definitely attend."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Since you want to participate in the provincial young chef cooking competition, do you also want to stand out in the young chef cooking competition? Do you want to strive for a place?"

Qi Jiale nodded immediately.

Feng Zhengming asked seriously, "Do you think you can get a ranking now?"

Being asked this question, Qi Jiale was speechless.

He seemed to confidently declare to Feng Zhengming that he would definitely win a place.

But when the words came to his lips, Qi Jiale felt that he couldn't say them at all.

Qi Jiale suddenly realized that his slackness in the kitchen was simply due to his lack of confidence in his cooking skills.

He knew that he might not be able to win a place in the young chef cooking competition.

That's why he developed a dislike for cooking in the kitchen.

Now that Feng Zhengming has pointed it out, Qi Jiale has realized his real problem.

Feng Zhengming must have realized the problem when he saw Qi Jiale.

He reached out and gently patted Qi Jiale on the shoulder: "You should first restore your self-confidence. You must believe that you can go further, win a place in the young chef cooking competition, and embark on the path of becoming a famous chef." (End of this chapter)