From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

After the seminar, Feng Zhengming continued to explain the various details of the specific competition.

Then the on-site leaders and people from the cooking association took some notes.

It is obvious that everyone agrees with Feng Zhengming's competition plan.

Feng Zhengming finally proposed something that was not included in the plan.

“The competition starts with the auditions. I think we can have the TV stations film some highlights of the auditions on site and then edit them into programs as reports on the daily competition.

It is broadcast on TV so that everyone can watch the live competition directly, and they can also find a knowledgeable master chef or veteran to accompany them.

While filming the contestants cooking, some explanations are given, so that the audience can even learn cooking through the competition videos. "

Hearing Feng Zhengming say this, the leaders present felt that this was indeed very fresh.

"Zhengming, your idea is very fresh. Do you mean that during the competition, we can also introduce how to cook to everyone?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, introducing it in the competition can make many people understand cooking more intuitively, especially our Shandong cuisine more intuitively.

It is not necessary to teach the audience how to make it, but at least they should be taught how to eat it.

Understanding the cooking techniques of Shandong cuisine will help the audience know how to eat each dish. "

It seems that Feng Zhengming has always been the one in the limelight.

Hearing this, Xu Deqing couldn't help but open his mouth to refute.

“Feng Zhuangyuan’s idea is really novel, but if you let the TV station film the competition and ask someone to explain it to the camera, will this affect the young chefs in the competition?
Moreover, can introducing Shandong cuisine to others through TV during the competition really help people learn how to cook?

What if the young chefs in the competition do something wrong? Wouldn’t that be a bad lesson for them?”

When Feng Zhengming heard the question, he immediately looked in the direction of the voice.

At this time, Feng Zhengming looked at Xu Deqing directly for the first time.

And the positions of the two people at this time are also very interesting.

Because Feng Zhengming was not the president of the Cooking Association before, he always sat below.

However, Xu Deqing, the acting president, sat on the podium with the leaders.

So now there is a situation where Feng Zhengming can look Xu Deqing face to face.

Feng Zhengming looked at Xu Deqing and then responded to the other party's question.

"President Xu seems to have opinions about my plan, but why didn't President Xu put forward his own ideas before? Or do you have your own plan to put forward, President Xu?"

Xu Deqing was a little unsure about how to answer the question.

In Xu Deqing's heart, he really looked down upon Feng Zhengming's plan.

But he didn't have a plan of his own.

Or rather, Xu Deqing just felt that Feng Zhengming, who was so young, was receiving so much attention, and he felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Xu Deqing hesitated for a moment and could only say: "I'm not saying that there is a problem with your plan as a whole, but you said that you want the TV station to follow and film the auditions, and you also want to find someone to follow the TV station and introduce cooking techniques to the camera.

Isn't this a bit redundant? The audition you mentioned is to screen out young chefs whose cooking skills are not very good.

Why do we need to introduce the dishes they cook? We also need to have the TV station film them. What if the person filming them fails the assessment? Wouldn’t that be a waste of energy?”

Feng Zhengming smiled and responded: "How can it be a waste of energy? If you didn't make it through the audition, doesn't that justify the fairness of our audition?

If the person explaining beside you tells everyone why they didn't make it through the audition, wouldn't it help deepen everyone's understanding of Shandong cuisine's cooking techniques?

You can also learn how to judge whether a dish is good or not, especially in competitions, and the judges’ judging criteria also give the audience an intuitive understanding.”

Without waiting for Xu Deqing to speak again, Feng Zhengming continued to explain the purpose of his arrangement.

“I know that this kind of format may not be something that most people have come across before.

But now we have entered an era where most families have televisions. Through television, we can better understand the world and learn more about many things around us.

Shouldn’t our Shandong cuisine also make good use of television to introduce some techniques and tasting methods?

This will allow everyone to better understand Shandong cuisine, what is so unique about it, and why it is one of the four major cuisines. "

Feng Zhengming's words were immediately agreed upon by most people present, including provincial leaders.

Everyone agrees that television communication is very important in today's era.

Everyone also feels that Shandong cuisine has not been understood by many people in recent years because it has not been promoted enough.

Well, if we want to promote it, isn't it a good way for Feng Zhengming to use television to report on the competition?

Everyone agreed with what Feng Zhengming said, that the competition should be used to explain the concept of Shandong cuisine so that everyone can have a better understanding of it.

Seeing the people present nodding frequently, several leaders also admired Feng Zhengming even more.

Xu Deqing understood that he was no match for Feng Zhengming at the moment.

It can be said that Feng Zhengming's plan has the great purpose of promoting Shandong cuisine.

There is such a great cause to bless him.

Then his plan will definitely gain everyone's support.

So Xu Deqing didn't say anything else and just watched the rest of the discussion quietly.

And all of Feng Zhengming's plans were finally approved by everyone.

Of course, the most uncomfortable thing for Xu Deqing was that he came back from the capital specifically and worked so hard for so long, and finally got the position of acting president.

I thought that if I spent more time, I would have the opportunity to remove the word "temporary".

Now that Feng Zhengming is back, he has gained everyone's support.

It also means that he becomes the president.

I'm afraid Feng Zhengming will continue to be the president for some time to come.

Because he is so young, how could anyone else be able to replace him as the president?

At the end of the seminar, Xu Deqing looked at Feng Zhengming being surrounded by people.

He really felt a little lonely and had to leave alone.

Seeing Xu Deqing leaving alone, Li Zhifeng still felt secretly happy.

Originally, Li Zhifeng was determined to become the president of the Provincial Cooking Association.

Unexpectedly, after Xu Deqing returned from the capital, he was parachuted in as the acting president by relying on his various contact methods.

Li Zhifeng was pushed down instead.

How could Li Zhifeng not feel resentful?
Now that Feng Zhengming is back, he has been directly named as the president with a more assertive attitude.

Li Zhifeng suddenly felt refreshed.

Although he was not the president, Feng Zhengming was a local chef in Quancheng after all. It was better to let him be the president than Xu Deqing, who came back from Beijing.

Feng Zhengming was not aware of the power struggle within the Cooking Association, and he did not care about the position of president of the Cooking Association.

The main reason is that the Culinary Association did not have any actual management over him.

There are many things he wants to do that he can do just as he pleases.

Even when he participated in the national competition, he won the spot through his own ability.

So Feng Zhengming didn't take the Cooking Association seriously.

This time, he was named as the president by the provincial leaders.

He was a little resistant at first.

I feel that as president I would be responsible for too many miscellaneous matters of the cooking association, which might affect many of my plans.

But I see that everyone supports me to be the president.

Moreover, everyone also supports me in the provincial youth chef cooking exchange competition plan.

Feng Zhengming accepted the position of president.

After the meeting, Feng Zhengming was still called away by the leaders individually.

Since he is now the president of the Culinary Association, some things still need to be explained to him.

Feng Zhengming followed the leaders to a relatively spacious office.

Of course, there were also several veteran masters who came with us.

Master Cui even looked at Feng Zhengming and encouraged him with a smile.

"It is well deserved that our top scholar is the president. You must work hard. I believe you will promote Shandong cuisine better and train more Shandong cuisine chefs."

Several other masters also gave Feng Zhengming their blessings and encouragement.

His master was even more excited and said in public that Feng Zhengming was his proudest disciple.

When Feng Zhengming heard his master say this, he responded with a smile.

"You are also my best master. Without your strict teaching, I would not have achieved what I have today. I am really grateful to you, Master."

Respecting teachers has always been one of the reasons why Feng Zhengming is particularly favored by the masters.

So when everyone sees the deep master-disciple relationship between Feng Zhengming and Master Yan, they are somewhat envious.

Then, everyone sat down and the leader asked Feng Zhengming about his ideas on becoming the president.

Feng Zhengming didn't think much about it and directly said that he wanted to make some changes within the Cooking Association.

“We should actually be considered a chefs association, because just the name of the cooking association means that many people who cook at home every day can also become members of the cooking association.

So we should correct the name first, we are the Chefs Association.

Secondly, there should be a unified survey of chefs to understand the capabilities of each chef in the association.

We also need to supervise the chefs and set a set of standards to regulate the chefs’ back kitchens and the restaurants where they work.”

What Feng Zhengming said made sense to the masters and leaders present.

However, although it makes sense, everyone also feels that it is not an easy task to implement it.

But Feng Zhengming then came up with a plan of his own.

"In fact, it is very simple to get everyone to comply. We can unify the standards across the province, and then have the Chefs Association certify it, and then publish a magazine every year to promote restaurants and hotels that meet the standards.

The magazine can then be distributed throughout the province and later across the country.

On the one hand, it can better promote our Shandong cuisine, and on the other hand, it can introduce good restaurants and hotels from all over the country to everyone.”

Feng Zhengming was very direct and published the recommendation booklet that he had originally prepared for internal use in his own company.

Just let the Chefs Association produce it directly, and then treat it as a magazine issued by the Shandong Cuisine Chefs Association.

On one hand, the magazine introduces some Shandong cuisine, and on the other hand, it also recommends restaurants and hotels that meet the standards in various parts of Shandong.

If we wanted to do this in the past, when Feng Zhengming was not the president, there would definitely be some obstacles.

But now he is the president, and he is the national cooking champion.

With the support of his dual identities, his plan will indeed gain great support if he wants to implement it throughout the province.

However, the leaders and masters are still somewhat worried.

"If this is really the case, and we formulate a set of standards to regulate restaurants and hotels, will this put some pressure on them? Restaurants and hotels in various places may not want to be regulated by us in this way, right?"

Feng Zhengming responded with a smile: "We are not forcing them to follow the standards."

This made the leaders and old masters a little confused?
The leader asked: "Why do we need to set this standard if we don't force all restaurants and hotels to follow it?"

Feng Zhengming explained: "The standard we set is what a best restaurant or restaurant should look like. How to judge it specifically requires the opinions of more people, including the opinions of the chefs in charge of various restaurants and restaurants.

More importantly, we should consult some customers and ask them what they care most about in a restaurant or hotel?
Then we combined the points that everyone cares about and broke them down into individual scoring points.

It is not necessary for every restaurant and hotel to do all of this.

Instead, we score them based on different scoring points, and then assign different ratings to restaurants and hotels based on the scores.”

After Feng Zhengming's detailed explanation, everyone present felt that it was indeed meaningful.

The old masters were the first to agree with this approach.

"That's good. This way, restaurants and hotels will have a set of evaluation criteria, which can give customers a more intuitive choice. If they like a restaurant or hotel that is better in a certain aspect, they can go according to their preferences."

Feng Zhengming emphasized: "The most crucial point is the chef's skills."

The old masters nodded one after another, saying that the chef’s skills must be the focus of the judging.

As for the standards, Feng Zhengming left the formulation of the standards to the old masters.

These master chefs are considered the most authoritative masters of Shandong cuisine today.

They give chefs a standard for cooking, and I believe no chef will object.

A whole set of reforms carried out after Feng Zhengming became the president.

After hearing this, the provincial leaders also agreed and said that the province would definitely support him.

"Making our Shandong cuisine more standardized will help preserve and promote Shandong cuisine. This proves that you are doing the right thing. You and a few other chefs can go ahead with confidence. The province will definitely fully support you."

Feng Zhengming knew that his plan was somewhat ahead of its time.

But if we don’t implement this system now.

Maybe after the millennium, when a set of foreign standards is introduced into China.

By then, it will be even more difficult to establish a set of standards that are more in line with Chinese cuisine.

Feng Zhengming does not have the ability to develop a set of standards for the whole country, but he thinks that with his current fame, the influence of the masters, and the support of the province, it should not be difficult to launch a set of standards in Qilu Province. (End of this chapter)