From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

After touring the capital for a few days, Feng Zhengming and his team officially began preparing for the state banquet.

These chefs from all over the country were also invited to the kitchen of a state banquet for the first time.

When we actually stepped into the kitchen of the state banquet, we felt that it was similar to the kitchens of our own restaurants.

Perhaps the only difference is that the kitchen at the state banquet is indeed very large.

It is obvious that it has the ability to host banquets for hundreds or even thousands of people.

And there are quite a lot of chefs in the kitchen here.

The division of labor among so many chefs is also very clear.

It’s not like in most restaurant kitchens, where the chef may be responsible for a lot of work.

Here, chefs are divided into different groups.

Each group is basically responsible for a specific process.

And as chefs like Feng Zhengming know.

Most of the dishes at the state banquet need to be prepared in advance.

Basically, there are no stir-fried or fried dishes.

After all, most stir-fried and fried dishes require a good control of the heat, and there are also strict time requirements for serving them on the table.

At a state banquet, the kitchen may not have enough time to prepare so many stir-fried or fried dishes at once.

In addition, guests may not eat the dishes immediately after they are served.

Once stir-fried or fried dishes are left to cool, their delicious flavor will be lost.

In terms of taste, most state banquet dishes are light.

Especially to cater to foreign guests, there will not be any spicy dishes.

Moreover, some overseas Western guests prefer sweeter tastes.

Therefore, many dishes at state banquets tend to be sweeter in taste.

The seared fish fillets prepared by Feng Zhengming and his team perfectly met this requirement.

After the visit, Feng Zhengming and his team also communicated with the chefs in charge of the state banquet.

The chefs for state banquets come from all over the world.

Many of them were famous chefs in their local area before, and were later transferred to the capital to be responsible for state banquets.

During the discussion, everyone expressed their admiration for Feng Zhengming.

I think some of his creative ideas will really be suitable for the development of culinary skills.

Like what he proposed this time, chefs from all over the country joined forces to create a cold dish platter based on the shape of their own province.

The chefs of state banquets also appreciated it very much and thought it was a very good idea.

Finally, display it and show it to all the guests.

The Chinese people’s expectation for the unification of their motherland.

Therefore, this creative idea not only received unanimous praise from the chefs, but also received appreciation from many leaders.

Although there is no clear statement yet, many chefs in the capital can roughly guess it.

After this state banquet goes smoothly, Feng Zhengming should receive great rewards.

Therefore, many chefs of state banquets also have a lot of exchanges with Feng Zhengming.

I can also learn some innovative ideas from Feng Zhengming.

Feng Zhengming did not hide anything and directly expressed many of his ideas.

His frankness won him more respect from everyone.

Here, Feng Zhengming also met Master Zheng and others with whom he had communicated before in the island city.

They were also very enthusiastic when they saw Feng Zhengming.

Master Zheng encouraged Feng Zhengming with a smile: "Well done, Xiao Feng, you didn't let us down. After we met in Daocheng last time, we often thought of you when we came back. We didn't expect to meet again so soon."

Feng Zhengming was also very happy to see Master Zheng.

He introduced several of his senior brothers to Master Zheng.

"Master Zheng, this is our first time attending a state banquet. We hope you can give us some guidance."

Master Zheng laughed and said, "Don't be so polite. I can only participate like you. I mainly look up to the masters. I also need to learn a lot from them."

As they were talking, the kitchen became quiet and several white-haired master chefs walked in.

After seeing these people, Feng Zhengming and others truly felt what a master's demeanor is.

These are the real masters who host state banquets today.

Although they are not young anymore, they are still full of energy.

Obviously, the master chefs really attached great importance to this state banquet.

Several master chefs have also experienced countless state banquets in the capital over the years.

But this time, the state banquet for the reunification of the motherland still attracted great attention from the chefs.

Feng Zhengming, together with chefs from all over the country, took the initiative to step forward and greet the master chefs.

The masters all had smiles on their faces and shook hands with the chefs from all over the country who were present.

When it came to Feng Zhengming, the old masters all looked at him differently.

A senior chef spoke first: "Feng Zhengming, our youngest champion in the National Cooking Skills Competition."

Another old master immediately smiled and said, "The young man looks great."

Then other masters also praised Feng Zhengming.

Feng Zhengming felt a little embarrassed by the praise.

In terms of age, these old masters in front of us are almost catching up with Grandpa Feng.

When shaking hands with them, Feng Zhengming could still feel the strength in their hands.

Also, after years of working in the kitchen, their hands are very rough.

Feng Zhengming has great respect for these masters.

Almost all of them participated in the first banquet of the founding of the country.

That is the greatest pride of their lives.

They have also cooked various dishes for many leaders and foreign guests.

It can be said that they used their cooking skills to show the characteristics of Chinese cuisine to foreign guests.

In front of them, Feng Zhengming is still just an apprentice.

Seeing Feng Zhengming's humble look, the old masters all encouraged him with a smile.

"Don't be so modest. You are the top scorer. You should act like one."

"Yeah, don't meet us, why do you seem to have no momentum?"

"Don't be afraid, our skills are not necessarily better than yours now."

"Besides, you dare to think and do, which makes you better than us old guys."

Feng Zhengming also laughed when he heard this.

He can also understand the expectations of the masters.

Just like he is their own master, the old chefs all expect him to pass on his skills, to make traditional classic dishes well, and to bring more innovations to Chinese cuisine.

Feng Zhengming straightened his back and responded with a smile: "Okay, I will work hard."

Then, the chefs asked Feng Zhengming about the design of dishes on the national map.

Feng Zhengming gave his ideas seriously and told the masters many details.

The old masters nodded and gave their own opinions.

Afterwards, Feng Zhengming did not back down, but instead invited the old masters to join.

"I wonder if I could invite you to join in the creation of our dish? Could you give some pointers to our chefs from different regions? So that we can better make dishes with local characteristics." The old chefs did not expect that Feng Zhengming would directly invite them.

After exchanging glances, the old masters naturally agreed.

"Yes, since they are going to make a map of our entire country, we should indeed contribute."

"That's right. We should work with young people, but we can't let them think that we are just bossing them around."

“Hahaha, on the Chinese food map, this dish will definitely be the most eye-catching one.”

The old masters’ agreement to participate also gave chefs from all over the country more confidence.

Next, we will move on to the design of specific dishes.

The patterns on the dishes are naturally maps of various provinces.

But since it is a dish, you can’t just pile a bunch of ingredients on it and arrange it to look provincial.

Some specific details still need to be designed.

It is necessary to reflect some important mountains, rivers and streams based on the maps of each province.

The most important point is that the colors must be matched.

And different color combinations also require different dishes to match.

These dishes must also be some specialties of each province.

It can be said to be a very huge project.

This not only tests the chef's aesthetic ability in composition.

It also tests every chef's knowledge of various local cold dishes.

Although under normal circumstances, the plate is usually not used to eat directly.

But since it is a dish, it still needs to ensure a certain degree of edibility.

This aspect also poses a big challenge to all chefs.

After the state banquet menus in various places were submitted for confirmation, all their time was now spent on designing maps of various provinces.

Everyone thinks for themselves first and then displays the cold dishes they have thought of.

Afterwards, everyone worked together to match different colors to ensure the bright colors of the cold dishes.

During this process, chefs from all over the world will also communicate with each other.

Everyone will teach each other some different cold dishes.

This can make up for the lack of color in the other party’s cold dishes.

Such mutual communication and cooperation has enabled chefs from all over the world to learn some unique methods of preparing cold dishes from different regions.

For example, Sichuan chefs have taught everyone how to make various types of pickles.

A chef from Northeast China teaches everyone how to store sauerkraut and make spicy cabbage.

There are also Cantonese chefs teaching everyone how to make cured meat.

It can be said that chefs in every place will bring out some unique cold dishes.

Feng Zhengming also took the opportunity to bring out his specialty white-braised pork elbow and amber pig's trotter.

It was also liked by many chefs present.

Let everyone have more choices in color matching.

Feng Zhengming then took out some stir-fried shrimps.

It has also become a dish that many chefs present thought tasted great.

Although Feng Zhengming’s most classic stir-fried dishes are peach blossom shrimp and Chinese toon, which are only available in spring.

The sautéing techniques can still be used to make other dishes.

After several busy days, Feng Zhengming and his team learned a lot from chefs from all over the place.

At the same time, Feng Zhengming and his senior brothers have basically confirmed the dishes they are going to make.

As for cold dishes, they are mainly braised dishes, paired with some vegetables for color matching.

Feng Zhengming also added stir-fried shrimps to add more color and edibility to the dish.

Li Huidong was very interested in the rouge goose breast he learned from the Huaiyang cuisine chef.

"The rouged goose breast is really good. It is very good for color matching after it is cooked, and it feels like it will taste very good too."

After hearing this, Yang Bin took the opportunity to make fun of his senior brother.

"Hahaha, big brother, are you in love? So you want to put on some rouge to attract girls?"

These words immediately made all the fellow disciples laugh.

Li Huidong laughed and scolded: "I didn't realize that you dare to make any jokes now, Third Brother."

"Anyway, the master is not here, and we have all become masters, so of course we can joke around." Yang Bin said with a smile on his face.

Li Huidong pretended to be angry: "Okay, then let's discuss cooking skills later. Let me see if you have improved recently? Or have you regressed?"

Yang Bin was not intimidated at all: "Okay, if the elder brother wants to test me, I will definitely accompany you."

Feng Zhengming certainly knew that the two senior brothers were joking with each other.

"Then I, the junior brother, will be the referee. Where will you two brothers compete? What dish will you compete in?"

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, it seemed that the matter was actually true.

Li Huidong couldn't help laughing: "Hahaha, okay, let's continue discussing our Qilu map, right?"

Then he asked his fellow apprentices, "What do you think? Should we make Taishan stand out?"

This question made the fellow students fall into deep thought.

For Qi and Lu, Mount Tai is indeed a very important classic.

If you want to make a dish based on the Qi and Lu map, it would be unreasonable not to highlight Mount Tai.

But how to highlight Taishan?

This immediately became a difficult situation for everyone.

Zhang Minghai asked: "Can we just make a small mountain?"

Li Huidong said: "You can, but if it's just a small mountain, how can people know that you are representing Mount Tai?"

This is indeed a somewhat tricky question.

The fellow disciples looked at each other in bewilderment for a moment, and no one could come up with a better idea.

Cao Zhiguo suddenly thought of something: "Can we show the highest peak of Mount Tai like this? Then decorate the peak with eye-catching colors to show its towering momentum."

When Feng Zhengming heard what his fifth senior brother said, he suddenly thought of a form of expression.

“I thought that we could actually present it in a way that looks three-dimensional but is actually two-dimensional.”

These words stunned the fellow brothers. No one quite understood what Feng Zhengming meant.
Seeing that his fellow students didn't understand, Feng Zhengming carefully gave his own explanation.

In fact, it is a kind of visual deception.

Even though it looks flat, it can give people a sense of three-dimensionality through visual deception.

Of course, this aspect of the design will be more difficult, and the color matching is not easy to come up with.

Feng Zhengming felt that since it was in the capital, he could find more professional people to help with the design.

"We can find someone to help us design according to our requirements, and then we fill in the pictures drawn by others with our own dishes and match the colors.

In this way, we don’t necessarily have to know the principle, we just need to fill in the blanks according to the diagram drawn by others.”

The senior brothers thought about it and felt that Feng Zhengming’s idea was indeed a good one.

Although it is very bold, it can indeed save you a lot of design trouble.

Feng Zhengming did not delay and found Lao Yao who received them the next day. He told Lao Yao some of his ideas and hoped that Lao Yao could help contact someone who could produce that kind of visual effect.

Old Yao was also a little surprised by what Feng Zhengming said. In the end, he just agreed to report it and could not make any promises. (End of this chapter)