From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Feng Zhengming and the Beijing chef observation group's brief test of their skills was just a small episode in the entire Qilu Province Youth Chef Cooking Exchange Competition.

Just through this little episode, the chefs in Beijing had enough respect for Feng Zhengming.

After all, when the national cooking competition takes place, not all famous chefs in Beijing will participate.

After this head-on confrontation with Feng Zhengming, the Beijing chef realized that he truly deserved the title.

Especially after both parties cooked, Feng Zhengming was very frank in expressing many of his ideas during the subsequent communication.

This made the chefs in Beijing look at him with new eyes.

The three-day audition of the Young Chef Competition really allowed some top talents from the public to stand out.

One of them was a young chef who had never attended vocational school.

Relying on his passion for cooking, he learned while working in the company cafeteria with his uncle.

Especially after seeing Feng Zhengming's performance in the national competition, he became more determined to learn cooking well, and he practiced hard on his own for a long time.

This time he came to participate in the provincial youth chef cooking exchange competition, and he showed his extraordinary performance in the auditions.

When the audition judges saw him, someone wanted to take him in as an apprentice, but he refused.

After passing the audition, he even publicly stated in front of the TV camera that he must become Feng Zhengming's apprentice.

After watching the show on TV at home, Grandpa Feng and Grandpa Situ both asked Feng Zhengming with a smile if he wanted to meet the other party.
"Zhengming, this guy has a very similar experience to you, and he looks very hardworking. Would you like to meet him before the official competition?"

"The TV station is really good at creating program effects. They even investigated this young man's background. Zhengming, the TV station reported on him like this, obviously to put pressure on you."

After listening to what the two grandfathers said, Feng Zhengming knew very well that this was a deliberate program effect created by the TV station.

Although TV stations nowadays still emphasize being relatively honest when making programs.

But honesty is only relative. It's not like writing a special script to perform a show like in the future. We will still deliberately arrange some plots that everyone likes to see for the sake of ratings.

So Feng Zhengming answered directly: "I will definitely not meet him before his official competition results come out."

Grandpa Feng said with some regret: "I think this young man is really hardworking and his basic skills seem to be very good. He is qualified to be your apprentice."

Before Feng Zhengming could speak, Grandpa Situ spoke for him.

"Xiao Feng, you can't just look at the surface of this kind of thing. When I was abroad, I saw too many TV stations specially making up some plots to show to the audience just for the sake of ratings.

So now we see this guy is very good, maybe he just wants us to think he is good.”

Grandpa Feng was a little surprised when he heard this: "Brother Situ, you mean, maybe it's an act?"

Grandpa Situ shook his head: "I'm not sure."

Feng Zhengming spoke to comfort his grandfather: "He is not acting, his situation is indeed true, and he does have a certain level. I asked my third uncle to help me investigate this."

Grandpa Feng heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this: "Oh, that's good."

Grandpa Situ asked, "Are you sure you want to take him as your apprentice?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and asked, "Grandpa Situ, what do you think, should I take him as my apprentice? Or should I take Xia Hui and the others as my apprentices?"

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the two grandfathers were stunned at first, then they looked at each other and suddenly laughed.

The two grandfathers had understood by now.

If Feng Zhengming really wants to take in a disciple, he has many people to choose from.

The first choice is Xia Hui.

She and Sun Hai were willing to start from scratch in the kitchen with Feng Zhengming when Feng Zhengming was not yet as famous as he is today.

The two of them didn't even care about their face and followed Feng Zhengming to set up shop on the street.

It can really be said that I have been through a lot of hardship following Feng Zhengming, exposed to the wind and sun.

Sun Hai has been accepted as Yang Bin's apprentice.

Xia Hui has not yet formally become a disciple.

In the kitchen of Huiquanlou, people like Qi Jiale have become Li Huidong's apprentice.

Chen Anbang also previously became a disciple of Feng Zhengming’s fifth senior brother Cao Zhiguo.

Among the others, except Gu Zhicheng, he had already become a disciple.

Basically, they are considered to be Feng Zhengming's eldest and fifth senior brothers.

But Xia Hui never became a disciple.

Everyone knows that in Xia Hui's heart, he hopes to become Feng Zhengming's apprentice.

But Feng Zhengming had also said long ago that he would not accept any disciples before he was forty years old.

However, although he will not formally accept any disciples, Feng Zhengming can first accept nominal disciples.

There is no formal master-disciple relationship between them, but Feng Zhengming will formally teach and give some guidance.

This young chef who was selected through a special audition by the TV station should have known something about this, which is why he publicly proposed to become Feng Zhengming's apprentice.

If you want to become Feng Zhengming’s registered disciple, you can learn cooking from Feng Zhengming.

He did indeed perform very well in the auditions, and the experience also gave Feng Zhengming some feelings.

But it’s like what Feng Zhengming asked the two grandfathers.

No matter what, Feng Zhengming didn't know this young chef from the audition as well as Xia Hui.

Therefore, if he had to choose a registered disciple, Feng Zhengming would definitely give priority to Xia Hui.

“Grandpa Situ, I’ve said before that I won’t formally accept a disciple before I’m forty, so no matter what others say, I won’t easily agree to accept a disciple.

If Lin Haobo really wants to learn cooking skills, I might recommend that he go to Master Cui's school system to study first.

Then, just like other chefs, he had to start from the kitchen of the restaurant.

Only when he can enter the kitchen of Huiquanlou will he be qualified to follow me."

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the two grandfathers looked at each other.

The two grandfathers understood that Feng Zhengming's words were not meant to embarrass the other party.

In fact, there are now quite a few young chefs who have not really learned cooking skills systematically from scratch.

As a result, after they achieve a little success or become the apprentice of a famous chef, they start to act pretentiously.

They even gradually forgot the basics of being a chef and no longer put their heart into making good dishes.

If such a chef goes to the kitchen of some restaurants, the quality of the dishes produced will fluctuate greatly.

It's not just the reputation of the restaurant where they work that is affected.

More importantly, it will also lower the overall level of Shandong cuisine chefs.

This may lead some people who don’t know much to think that there are many slackers among Shandong cuisine chefs.

So Feng Zhengming doesn't want to have such a chef around him.

He hopes that every chef in his company will work their way up from the grassroots level.

Only by starting from the grassroots level and working step by step can we hone our basic skills sufficiently.

Only if we give them the opportunity to stand on their own in the future can they truly do so.

It seems like the TV station deliberately promoted this Lin Haobo.

Feng Zhengming could tell at a glance that he would receive special attention from the TV station.

To put it bluntly, the TV station wants to take the opportunity to create a star.

We want to introduce a new star among young chefs through the Youth Cooking Exchange Competition.

In this way, the TV audience's expectation for the success of what would later be called "amateurs" was used to make the TV station's report on the Youth Chef Competition attract more attention and become a hot topic of discussion among people on the streets.

TV stations can gain higher ratings and more easily obtain sponsorship from advertisers.

At the same time, if a contestant who did not graduate from a vocational school and had no teacher and was almost self-taught achieves good results.

At the same time, it can also promote everyone's trust in the fairness of the Young Chef Cooking Competition.

Feng Zhengming knew all this.

So he won't give any response.

It is even more impossible for him to publicly declare and accept Lin Haobo as his disciple.

After listening to Feng Zhengming's very detailed analysis.

Grandpa Feng was a little surprised: "Is this how all TV stations operate now?"

Grandpa Situ was not surprised: "Xiao Feng, don't be surprised. There is nothing wrong with the TV station operating this way. This will attract more attention to the TV program and increase the TV station's ratings."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, and Lin Haobo's appearance will even make the whole country pay attention to our game."

What Feng Zhengming said was absolutely correct.

In the next few days, many people from other places did start to pay attention to the competition.

It was originally a competition for young chefs from Qilu Province.

But now it has sparked some discussion across the country.

Basically, the topic everyone is discussing is whether Lin Haobo can shine in official competitions?
Many people are also looking forward to whether Feng Zhengming will accept him as his apprentice?

As the case attracted more attention, naturally some good reporters started to appear.

They first went to Huiquanlou to find Feng Zhengming.

Then I went to the old Fengjia dry rice shop to look for it.

In the end, they were all disappointed.

But no matter what era it is, journalists always have some special abilities.

So the news of Feng Zhengming's presence in Xindian was quickly discovered.

On that day, a group of reporters flocked into Xindian.

They all clamored to interview Feng Zhengming.

Feng Zhengming had never expected this to happen in an era when the Internet had not yet emerged.

So many reporters suddenly showed up to block him for interviews.

After communicating with these reporters, he found out that most of them were from the South.

Basically they are reporters from various tabloids and magazines in the South.

In response to their interview, Feng Zhengming gave some simple answers.

"I've said before that I won't accept any apprentices before I'm forty, so if you're asking me if I'll accept Lin Haobo as my apprentice, I can only tell you that I definitely won't make an exception for him."

"If you want to ask me what I think of him? I would like to say that his appearance really surprised me."

Hearing this, the reporters immediately became excited.

"Excuse me, why are you so surprised? Is it because you see yourself in him?"

Feng Zhengming corrected it immediately.

“First of all, I must say that I don’t see myself in him, even though I once worked in the brewery cafeteria with my senior brother for a while.

But before I went to the brewery cafeteria with my senior brother, I had a master, and I am very grateful to my master for teaching me a lot of things.

I am also very grateful to my senior brothers who taught me a lot. I am even more grateful to my senior brother who was willing to take me to the kitchen of the brewery canteen and let me cook there. "

Having said this, Feng Zhengming paused for a moment and said something in a serious tone that surprised the reporters.

"So when I met Lin Haobo, I admired him. I admired his perseverance in learning cooking by himself, and I admired him even more for being able to master his cooking skills so well without the guidance of a famous teacher."

All reporters had done some research on Feng Zhengming before coming to interview him.

Everyone thought that Feng Zhengming might resonate with Lin Haobo.

But no one expected that Feng Zhengming actually said clearly that he did not resonate with it.

On the contrary, he admired Lin Haobo very much.

Feng Zhengming's words seemed to praise Lin Haobo as a genius.

The success of this young national cooking champion is not due to self-taughtness, but because he has the guidance of famous teachers and the help of powerful senior brothers.

These indeed surprised the reporters.

This was clearly not the interview the reporters had originally wanted.

Feng Zhengming then added: "I hope that you can report my next words word for word so that Lin Haobo and many young chef friends like him can see them."

The reporters became serious again and all listened carefully to what Feng Zhengming said next.

Feng Zhengming did not speak immediately, but waited for a while.

After a while, his junior uncle Huang Tao appeared.

Seeing Huang Tao appear, Feng Zhengming finally said what he wanted to say.

Because he couldn't guarantee that other reporters would really report what he said verbatim.

But he knew that his junior uncle Huang Tao would definitely report everything he said in full.

Huang Tao was not late. He was notified by Feng Zhengming through a phone call before the interview.

Feng Zhengming began to warn Lin Haobo in a serious manner.

"I know that Lin Haobo is very talented. Compared to him, I actually don't have much talent. It's only because I met a good master, had good brothers to help me, and worked hard step by step that I can get to where I am today.

So I want to say something to Lin Haobo and some young chefs across the country who may be like Lin Haobo.

You must learn cooking seriously and systematically, and master the traditional classic dishes.

Don’t think that you don’t need to learn how to cook old dishes just because their recipes are everywhere on the market.

The reason why old dishes are classics is that they are passed down from generation to generation by senior masters.

It becomes a classic only after generations of masters have made continuous improvements.

Therefore, you must temporarily put aside your talents, really calm down, and be patient enough to learn from scratch.

Only when you can really cook every classic dish well and master it, can you truly say that you are a qualified chef. "

Feng Zhengming's words stunned all the reporters, including his junior uncle Huang Tao.

The new apprentices of the new store who secretly came out from the kitchen and hid aside to eavesdrop were all shocked and inspired after hearing Feng Zhengming's words.

Several smart new apprentices have realized that Feng Zhengming's words are not just directed at Lin Haobo.

In fact, these words are also directed to the new apprentices in their new store.

Especially in the new restaurant, almost every dish cooked every day are very homely classic old dishes.

The new apprentices were even more touched by Feng Zhengming's words.

Feng Zhengming finished his words without waiting for the reporters to recover.

He turned around with a smile and said, "Okay, that's it for the interview. I've said everything I need to say. I hope that everyone who truly loves cooking can find their own goal in learning cooking." (End of this chapter)