From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Seeing that the young chefs had basically finished selecting the ingredients, Feng Zhengming invited Luo Jinliang to leave together.

"Boss Luo, let's leave here first. We can go and see how everyone performs next."

Luo Jinliang naturally nodded in agreement and followed Feng Zhengming away.

The two of them soon joined the other judges.

Master Hou looked at Feng Zhengming with a smile.

"It seems that you are still a little worried about these young chefs, Zhengming? You went there specifically to watch them select ingredients and even gave you some encouragement. You are really qualified to be the top pick."

Feng Zhengming heard what Master Hou said and responded with a smile.

"There is no other way. I still hope that there will be more young chefs and more outstanding young chefs in Shandong cuisine, so that Shandong cuisine can be developed better together."

A chef from the capital asked, "Mr. Feng, have you ever thought about picking one or two young chefs to be your apprentices?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and asked, "Do you think I am old enough to take on apprentices?"

This question really stumped everyone.

Master Cui spoke at the right time: "Zhengming is in his prime now. It is too early for him to take on an apprentice. Moreover, many young chefs participating in the competition are older than Zhengming."

Master Hou took over the conversation: "Zhengming is indeed young in age, but his seniority is not low, and he is qualified to accept disciples."

Feng Zhengming waved his hand and said, "I'd better wait until I'm 40 before accepting any apprentices. If I haven't been eliminated by then, I can catch up with Master Hou and several other chefs in Beijing in terms of cooking skills.

Then I will be truly qualified to accept disciples and will not mislead them."

This really made the judges laugh.

Chef Hou joked: "Zhengming, is there anyone whose cooking skills have regressed?"

Feng Zhengming knew that Master Hou was joking and was just being modest.

"Master Hou, you are too modest. You can be a judge for my master and his classmates in the exam. I still have a long way to go to catch up with you, so I have to keep working hard."

Feng Zhengming did not intend to flatter Master Hou when he said this.

Master Hou is a national-level judge.

He is indeed qualified to participate in the rating of the masters.

Moreover, it can be said that Master Hou has been committed to quantifying the condiments of Chinese cuisine.

In order to quantify it, Master Hou also made a lot of efforts.

This is indeed worthy of calling him "Master".

Chef Hou still smiled and said, "Alright, alright, Zhengming, stop flattering me here. I participated in the rating of your master and the others, and that was part of the mission. It's not that my cooking skills are better than your master and the others."

Needless to say, everyone present understood this.

But the old masters still gave Master Hou enough face.

Many people said that Master Hou is worth learning from, especially his way of quantifying the amount of seasonings.

After everyone chatted with each other for a while, the young chefs finally started to get busy.

After they finish selecting the ingredients, they spend the whole morning cooking the soup.

As the head judge, Feng Zhengming took the initiative to lead everyone to visit the young chefs' cubicles one by one.

The layout of the scene was very thoughtful, separating the young chefs and giving them enough space. In addition, each compartment was specially equipped with a water table, a counter, a stove and other kitchen supplies.

The live competition offers a pretty comprehensive range of things.

Providing a venue for all young chefs to fully display their abilities.

Watching the young chefs cooking soup.

Feng Zhengming gave some explanations to the non-professional judges.

For example, when cooking soup, which ingredients need to be blanched in advance? Which ingredients cannot be blanched in water?

And when cooking soup, what other spices need to be added besides the main ingredients and auxiliary ingredients?
Feng Zhengming also pointed out some small details of how young chefs cook soup.

At the same time, professional chefs gathered together to discuss the performance of the young chefs.

Because starting from the step of cooking the soup, professional judges will give scores to the young chefs.

The professional judges watched more carefully.

I will carefully monitor the details of how each young chef handles the ingredients.

If there are some points that are not so standard, the professional judges will record them.

It was impossible for the young chefs participating in the competition not to be nervous when they saw that almost all the judges had arrived.

However, we still try our best to do every step carefully.

After all, for young chefs, this is an opportunity for them to better show themselves.

Especially for some young chefs outside Quancheng.

Their purpose of participating in the competition this time is more to show themselves so as to gain the favor of some old masters or chefs in Quancheng.

Many young chefs from other places hope to be noticed by Feng Zhengming, the top scholar.

Therefore, the more times like this happen, the more attention the judges will pay.

It will also make some young chefs more excited.

With Feng Zhengming's explanation, the non-professional judges also understood many details.

Know some key points to pay attention to when cooking soup.

The young chefs managed to cook the soup in the morning.

Finally, professional judges will carefully watch and score each entry.

The young chefs don’t know how many points each person can get for the time being.

After the soup cooking competition ended in the morning, the young chefs and judges were arranged to have lunch separately at noon.

In line with the principle of not wasting anything, Feng Zhengming collected some ingredients after cooking the soup and prepared some dishes and meals for everyone at noon.

Cooking dishes with ingredients used for soup was an eye-opener for even the non-professional judges.

"So these things that have been used to cook soup can still be used to make dishes?"

"Yes, and the dishes are so delicious."

"I still like the steamed buns. The steamed buns made with the ingredients that have been cooked in soup are also very delicious."

"Hahaha, don't you know there's a famous Huaiyang dish called Sanding Bao? The original buns were made by removing the chicken meat from the old chicken left over after cooking soup, then stir-frying it with diced pork and bamboo shoots and making buns."

"Doesn't that mean that the buns that Zhuangyuan made for lunch today are the three-diced buns from Huaiyang cuisine?"

"That's right. While the professional judges were scoring the soup, the champion gathered people and collected all the leftover ingredients from cooking the soup and used them all to cook."

“This is really good, no food is wasted.”

"Yes, not wasting things is a virtue of our Chinese people."

Feng Zhengming used various ingredients after cooking soup to cook dishes for the young chefs and judges, including the staff of the on-site event, at noon.

Even the reporters from TV stations and newspapers had the chance to have a lunch prepared by Feng Zhengming himself.

Even if it is a relatively simple employee meal, everyone still finds it delicious.

Luo Jinliang, the boss from Hong Kong, was really looking forward to working with Feng Zhengming after having the staff meal.

After lunch, there is about an hour's break.

During the break, some CEOs of sponsors came to Feng Zhengming.

As soon as these bosses started talking, Feng Zhengming roughly knew what they meant.

Apparently, after tasting the lunch that Feng Zhengming prepared with soup ingredients, the sponsors had more ideas. Maybe they wanted to recruit some outstanding young chefs.

Now they want to have the opportunity to invest in Feng Zhengming and open a restaurant with him.

In the eyes of these bosses, investing in Feng Zhengming, the top scholar, is a sure win just based on his title.

Coupled with his craftsmanship, it is hard for bosses to imagine how they could lose money by investing in Feng Zhengming.
However, Feng Zhengming directly rejected their investment.

"Everyone, thank you for your kindness, but whether it's the branches I plan to open in various parts of the province next year or the restaurant I plan to open later, I don't really need sponsorship for now."

Naturally, these words could not make the bosses back down.

“Mr. Feng, we know that with your current reputation, you can easily raise enough funds, but we are really sincere. As you know, we are actually engaged in the catering industry.

We just hope to help you develop your catering company better, and we are willing to invest in you."

I have to say that these bosses are indeed quite sincere.

They don't even want a lot of shares, and they are all willing to give Feng Zhengming a lot of investment.

In fact, their purpose is roughly the same as Luo Jinliang's.

What attracted me was Feng Zhengming’s title of the top scholar in the country.

If a company can invest in the top students in the country, their products will also gain greater visibility.

When the time comes, ask Feng Zhengming to help with advertising.

Their products will soon be able to easily open up the national market.

Feng Zhengming knew this very well, so he refused directly.

"I really appreciate your appreciation for me. My company does not need anyone to invest in it for the time being, because I am not really short of funds."

After the rejection, Feng Zhengming gave the sponsors a little hope.

“However, although I don’t need investment for the time being, we should still be able to have a lot of cooperation in the future.

For example, my company will have a mechanism to train more professional chefs and will train some more professional chefs.

In the future, my company will design some dishes specifically for the chefs trained by the company, so that each chef can make more different dishes. "

After hearing this, the CEOs of the sponsors present quickly understood what Feng Zhengming meant.

To put it bluntly, Feng Zhengming does not need others to invest in his company.

But he can provide chefs and technical support to help sponsors support their respective restaurants.

Feng Zhengming's design is very advanced.

In the future, there will be some cooking companies that specialize in designing dishes.

Of course, many of the dishes designed by those companies may be merely flashy.

Even some dishes that don’t taste that good.

After they design and package the products, they will sell them to others at extremely high prices.

Feng Zhengming certainly doesn't want to run such a company.

His culinary company will provide full support.

It’s not just about dish design, but also provides chef training.

And the dishes designed will not be flashy.

It would be like the fried snail slices in vinegar and pepper fish soup that made Feng Zhengming famous, and the Oolong Playing with a Pearl dish that won him the national championship.

The dishes are beautiful and delicious.

Of course, there is one point that Feng Zhengming did not tell the sponsors present.

That is, there will be too many chefs trained by the company in the future, and there must always be a suitable place for them to go so that they can make money based on their skills.

At this time, we can no longer rely solely on Feng Zhengming's own company's restaurants and hotels.

Other restaurants and hotels are also needed to divert some of the chefs.

Therefore, Feng Zhengming wants the sponsors to divert the chefs trained by his culinary company.

I can't say this now.

Feng Zhengming also believes that in the future, when his company is strong enough, more people will be willing to take the initiative to accept chefs leaving the company.

After some consideration, the sponsors all agreed with Feng Zhengming's ideas.

"Okay, then if our company wants to open its own hospitality restaurant in the future, we hope that Feng Zhuangyuan can give us more technical support."

"Yes, yes. In the future, the chefs in our company's employee cafeteria also hope to receive technical training from Feng Zhuangyuan."

"This kind of cooperation is also very good. Feng Zhuangyuan provides us with technical support, and the rest of the operation of the restaurant is our own business."

"Hahaha, that's right, Mr. Feng won't be under too much pressure."

The sponsors all said so, and Feng Zhengming smiled and nodded.

“Thank you for your understanding. I believe that you will be able to select the right young chef for this provincial young chef competition.”

Feng Zhengming is not going to stop sponsors from hiring any young chef who participates in the competition with a high salary.

There were even people who could afford high salaries and wanted to poach the young chefs from Huiquanlou. As long as the chefs from Huiquanlou were willing to go, Feng Zhengming would let them go.

As the saying goes, people always strive for higher positions, and Feng Zhengming hopes to see young chefs receive better treatment.

However, it is highly likely that the salary that sponsors can offer is not enough to poach people from Feng Zhengming.

In fact, the sponsors are well aware of this.

So they privately contacted some young chefs from other places.

The break time passed quickly, and the first official game was about to begin.

It is also the first dish for every participating young chef.

This time the non-professional judges were separated into groups.

They were arranged in each group's room, waiting for the young chefs to finish cooking and serve the dishes.

Professional judges still need to observe on site.

After all, professional judges also have to score the chefs' cooking process.

Reporters from TV stations, newspapers and magazines on the scene were also looking around to take pictures.

Wanting to capture some really great shots that can serve as the focus of their subsequent coverage.

Therefore, the first dish in the afternoon is not easy for the young chefs.

As the team leader, Feng Zhengming is still the busiest.

He needs to keep shuttling between the groups.

Pay attention to some unexpected situations on the scene, and also direct and coordinate the time for the judges to taste the dishes.

After all, if many hot dishes are cooled down, their texture and taste may deteriorate when eaten.

This will definitely affect the judgment of the dishes.

Feng Zhengming observed carefully and after a young chef served his dish, he would let professional and non-professional judges from each group taste the dish according to the group arrangement.

The on-site event organizers also arranged a number of people to assist Feng Zhengming.

The whole process was relatively smooth, ensuring the smooth progress of the competition.

While Feng Zhengming is coordinating, he will also give his own scores.

It was during the final controversy that he, as the team leader, gave his own scores to the young chefs participating in the competition, giving them the final authoritative scores. (End of this chapter)