From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Two days later, Feng Zhengming rode his bicycle to the provincial meeting place early in the morning.

When he arrived, the other people who were invited to the meeting had not arrived yet.

Chen Zhiheng received him and took him to his office to sit down.

"Zhengming, you are a well-known figure now. The plan you proposed for the young chef cooking exchange competition was also unanimously recognized by the provincial leaders."

Feng Zhengming took the water that Chen Zhiheng poured for him and said a few humble words with a smile on his face.

"My plan was based on my participation in the national competition. I combined some of the experiences from the national competition and last year's first provincial youth chef cooking exchange competition, and made some improvements."

At this point, Feng Zhengming smiled sheepishly: "I can't say it's all my credit."

Chen Zhiheng sat down and smiled: "Zhengming, you are always so humble."

Then Chen Zhiheng talked to Feng Zhengming about some things about Confucius Mansion cuisine.

"In Qufu, many signs for Confucius Mansion cuisine have been taken down. I heard that next year there will be a Confucius Mansion cuisine performance in the local area to standardize Confucius Mansion cuisine, and then the signs for Confucius Mansion cuisine will be distributed."

Feng Zhengming nodded and said, "That's good. At least it won't allow some unskilled people to hang that sign and ruin its reputation."

Chen Zhiheng looked at Feng Zhengming: "The people of the Xia family should still hope that you can come forward."

"Me?" Feng Zhengming laughed, "I won't show up. The Xia family can handle this kind of thing themselves."

Chen Zhiheng shook his head: "The Xia family's craftsmanship is naturally very authentic, but the Xia family's abilities in other aspects are much worse than you, the top scholar."

Feng Zhengming was somewhat surprised by this. "Not really, right? Brother Chen, you are exaggerating."

Chen Zhiheng was very firm: "It's not an exaggeration at all. It just proves that you are very capable in all aspects. Moreover, you know how to take advantage of the situation and understand the importance of promoting yourself."

Feng Zhengming did not deny it.

Or should we say that after this trip on foot across Qi and Lu, he understood more clearly what fame means?
If you walk across the land of Qi and Lu, you will see that there are still quite backward villages and towns everywhere in Qi and Lu.

There will also be many good things in villages and towns that are difficult to publicize for the time being.

Those good things cannot be sent out of the villages and towns.

It is natural that the people in those villages and towns also appear to be so backward.

So Feng Zhengming immediately understood the importance of publicity.

There are many ways to promote.

For Feng Zhengming, what he can use is his reputation as the top scholar.

He wants to use his reputation as the top scholar to make his company more and more famous.

Become a representative brand of Shandong cuisine.

After that, you can use your own brand to promote products from all over the country.

He can even integrate some industries from various places.

Build a set of integrated production and sales industrial chain.

In this way, it will also drive the development of backward villages and towns, allowing them to promote and sell their good products and thus gain more profits.

Feng Zhengming looked at Chen Zhiheng, thought for a while, and then expressed some of his thoughts.

“Confucius Mansion cuisine is indeed a very good brand. If it is well promoted, it will become a brand of Qufu and even our province. However, if we want to make Confucius Mansion cuisine well, it should be done by professionals.

Therefore, the development and promotion of Confucius Mansion cuisine should be left to the Xia family, and they should be able to make Confucius Mansion cuisine well. "

Chen Zhiheng originally thought that Feng Zhengming would come forward to help the Xia family and take the opportunity to take control of the brand of Kongfu cuisine.

Moreover, Chen Zhiheng saw nothing wrong with Feng Zhengming wanting to get the signature dish of Confucius Mansion cuisine.

After all, he is the national number one chef and a representative and leader of Shandong cuisine chefs.

The signature dish of Kongfu cuisine is in his hands, and I believe it will convince everyone.

But Feng Zhengming did not intend to use the name of Kongfu cuisine.

He kept emphasizing that Confucius cuisine should be handed over to the Xia family.

This really made Chen Zhiheng a little confused.

"Zhengming, why don't you want to take charge of the Confucius Mansion cuisine?"

Feng Zhengming responded with a smile: "Because I don't have that ability, I haven't really studied Confucius cuisine systematically, although Confucius cuisine is a branch of Shandong cuisine, and many dishes are common.

But if you haven’t studied, you haven’t studied. Just because I’m the top scorer in the country, that doesn’t mean I can represent everything.”

Feng Zhengming's words were very straightforward. He didn't want to take over something he didn't fully understand.

Chen Zhiheng roughly understood Feng Zhengming's thoughts.

"It seems that we may want to interfere too much. Confucius Mansion cuisine should really be left to professionals."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, let the Xia family be responsible. They are more professional. I believe they will also conduct strict audits and will not allow the Kongfu cuisine brand to be used casually."

Chen Zhiheng then brought the topic back to the provincial youth chef cooking competition.

"Let's talk about this competition. Do you plan to hold a few auditions first to get a feel for all the young chefs?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, in the provincial youth chef competition, everyone should be given equal opportunities, but in the culinary competition, the skills still have to speak, so screening is necessary."

Chen Zhiheng was a little curious: "In your plan, you give all the registered chefs the opportunity to prepare three dishes?"

Feng Zhengming replied with a relaxed smile: "Yes, every young chef who signs up for the competition should have the opportunity to show off their skills, so give them the opportunity to cook three dishes so that they can show their knife skills, cooking skills and the whole dish."

"Isn't this plan like asking young chefs to take another exam?"

After hearing what Chen Zhiheng said, Feng Zhengming nodded seriously: "You can say that, let the chefs take another exam."

Without waiting for Chen Zhiheng to speak again, Feng Zhengming continued to explain.

"Young chefs are the key to the future development of Shandong cuisine. I think the province is organizing a cooking exchange competition for young chefs in the hope of understanding the abilities of young chefs from all over the country and giving them opportunities to learn and communicate.

So at the beginning of the audition, my design was to give young chefs a threshold so that they could enter the competition state in advance.”

Feng Zhengming concluded by saying: “Only when people understand their own shortcomings can they find the direction for improvement.”

Chen Zhiheng nodded and praised: "Sure enough, it is clear that your plan is for the development of Shandong cuisine. No wonder the old chefs are full of praise for your plan."

Feng Zhengming smiled and waved his hands: "My plan was indeed based on the national competition and the chef assessment process, and I finally came up with this plan."

This time, as soon as Feng Zhengming finished speaking, a voice suddenly came from outside the door.

"But your plan is indeed very good. It can give relatively equal opportunities to young chefs who sign up."

Hearing the voice, Feng Zhengming and Chen Zhiheng both stood up.

Seeing someone coming in, the two of them hurriedly greeted the visitor.

"Good leadership."

The visitor smiled and responded, "You don't have to be so polite. We didn't expect that our top scholar would come so early."

Feng Zhengming answered seriously, "It's about the Young Chefs Cooking Exchange Competition. I submitted my proposal, so I must come to the meeting early." The leader laughed and joked, "Yesterday I heard from Xiao Chen that you didn't want to come at first?"

Feng Zhengming did not hide the fact that he did not want to come.

"Yes, leader. I originally thought that after the plan was given, the leaders and the masters would be able to determine a suitable plan after discussion. It is not necessary for me to participate in the revision. After all, the plan was proposed by me."

The leader nodded: "Then why are you here again?"

Feng Zhengming continued to answer: "Because I feel that even though I have given a plan, I still need to personally participate in the revision of many details so that I can better see the shortcomings of my plan."

The leader looked at Feng Zhengming with obvious admiration in his eyes.

In the leader's view, Feng Zhengming's answer shows that he takes it very seriously.

It also shows that Feng Zhengming is willing to take the initiative to assume responsibility.

This is why the leaders value Feng Zhengming the most.

However, the leader did not discuss the plan, but instead asked Feng Zhengming about opening a branch.

Feng Zhengming was asked by his leader about opening a branch.

He was stunned for a moment, and then he had nothing to hide, so he directly expressed his idea of ​​opening a branch.

Feng Zhengming's ideas for opening a branch really surprised the leader and Chen Zhiheng.

They had previously thought that Feng Zhengming was planning to open branches outside of Quancheng in order to leverage his reputation as a top scholar to open branches in various locations and build a chain restaurant network of his own.

But after listening to Feng Zhengming's ideas and thoughts on opening a branch, the leaders and Chen Zhiheng discovered that it was somewhat different from what they had previously thought.

Feng Zhengming's branches are not intended to follow the industrialized and homogenized branch model.

His idea is to differentiate the branches in different places.

Especially when Feng Zhengming said that he would add local specialties and snacks to his branches across the country.

This made the leader and Chen Zhiheng feel very incredible.

However, soon, the leader and Chen Zhiheng both thought of Feng Zhengming's idea.

The leader sighed: "It seems that our top scholar spent more than half a year walking across Qilu, and it was indeed not in vain. He must have gained some good insights."

Feng Zhengming responded with a smile: "I may be a little dull, and I used to focus on cooking.

This time I went out and walked all over Qilu, which really gave me a lot of benefits. I saw the customs and practices of different places, and also saw the different needs of people in different places. "

The leader nodded and said, "Yes, we need to make something that suits the taste of people in different regions according to their needs."

Feng Zhengming took over the conversation: "So when I opened a branch this time, I wanted to introduce local specialties and snacks, so that my branch can be integrated into the local catering industry."

This idea of ​​active integration really made the leaders and Chen Zhiheng feel very good.

The leader praised again: "Well, it is not unreasonable that you can become the champion of the national cooking competition at such a young age. Your ideas are really good and advanced."

Feng Zhengming took the opportunity to say: "Maybe in the future, we will need some support from the province."

"Hahaha, what kind of support do you need from the province? Financially?"

When the leader mentioned the funding issue, Feng Zhengming quickly stated that it was not financial support.

"No, I have some savings in the past few years, and Mr. Situ has promised to invest in me, so the funding should be able to be solved."

The leader was even more surprised to hear that Mr. Situ was going to invest in Feng Zhengming.

"Oh? Mr. Situ wants to invest in you for this matter?"

Feng Zhengming responded: "Yes, Grandpa Situ thinks that my plan is very good and I am doing the right thing in promoting and publicizing Shandong cuisine, so he wants to invest in me."

The leaders were really satisfied that Feng Zhengming obtained investment from Mr. Situ.

Although Mr. Situ is now living in the country for a long time.

But no matter what, Mr. Situ is still considered an overseas Chinese.

Many places now hope to attract investment from overseas Chinese.

It is also a great thing for the province that Feng Zhengming can now obtain investment from Mr. Situ.

The leader then made a promise: "If you need any support from the province, the province will do its best to help you."

After receiving such a promise, Feng Zhengming quickly expressed his gratitude to his leader.

In fact, the support Feng Zhengming needs from the province is more in terms of personnel and technical support.

With the investment from Grandpa Situ, Feng Zhengming had basically no problem finding funds to open a branch.

But to make the branch what he envisioned.

We definitely need good chefs to help support branches in various places.

Feng Zhengming can certainly hire some good chefs with high salaries to head the branch restaurants.

But he still hopes to train some young chefs to take charge of the cooking in branch restaurants.

So it costs money to train young chefs and develop your own team.

Especially in terms of famous chefs, Feng Zhengming feels that this area needs support from the province, which can allow him to invite old chefs to come forward and help train the young chefs he has recruited.

The leader chatted with Feng Zhengming and felt that many of his ideas were quite advanced.

This also made the leader appreciate Feng Zhengming very much.

I think that as the national top scholar, he does have the ability and ideas, and will better inherit and promote Shandong cuisine.

Around half past eight, people who were going to discuss the planning for the provincial youth chefs cooking exchange competition arrived one after another.

The leader also left Chen Zhiheng's office first and asked Chen Zhiheng to take Feng Zhengming to the meeting room.

Feng Zhengming and Chen Zhiheng came to the meeting room together.

There were already many representatives from cooking associations from various places in the conference room.

When everyone saw Feng Zhengming coming, they all stood up and greeted him.

We should give enough respect to Feng Zhengming, the top scholar.

Feng Zhengming also had a smile on his face the whole time as he chatted with representatives of cooking associations from various places. He also talked about some of the characteristics of each place and exchanged views with representatives of cooking associations from various places on the development of some of their local specialties.

This instantly brought Feng Zhengming closer to representatives of cooking associations from all over the country.

Whoever it is, they are attending the conference representing the local culinary and catering community.

There is a national top scholar on the scene who can talk to you about your local special dishes and snacks, tell you about your local specialties, and even give development plans for the specialties.

I'm afraid anyone would have a favorable impression of the national top scorer.

Therefore, before the meeting began, Feng Zhengming really made a very good impression on the representatives of the local cooking associations present. (End of this chapter)