From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Before the state banquet officially begins, chefs like Feng Zhengming need to go to the scene first to familiarize themselves with the environment and prepare some of the dishes they are going to make in advance.

Feng Zhengming and the chefs once again stepped into the kitchen of the state banquet.

This time, a group of chefs in the kitchen who were usually responsible for state banquets signaled to Feng Zhengming and his team.

Obviously, Feng Zhengming and his team's design this time was also recognized by the chefs who are usually responsible for state banquets.

Feng Zhengming and his colleagues also signaled to the chefs of the state banquet.

Then Feng Zhengming and the others entered the kitchen and each went to the stove assigned to them.

The next step is for everyone to start making preparations in full swing.

There are a lot of things that need to be prepared here, part of which is preparation for the state banquet on the day of the event.

There are also some things that Feng Zhengming and his team need to try to make in advance to see the cold dishes on the map.

In the cold dish platter, the main cold dishes used by Feng Zhengming and his team include white braised pork elbow, amber pig's trotter, various braised cold dishes, and some vegetables and even fruits for color matching.

Feng Zhengming and his team prepared a lot of peppers of different colors.

These colored peppers can be said to be the key to the color matching this time.

Of course, in addition to these, some egg white cakes and egg yolk cakes are also used when watching the market.

The reason why the egg white and egg white are steamed separately into the cake is to make the color more prominent.

There are also many requirements when steaming.

When the steam is coming out, you must open the lid of the pot to let out the heat.

This will allow the egg white and egg white to be steamed more thoroughly without leaving many pores inside.

Because once there are holes, it will not look good when you cut it and put it on the plate.

In the kitchen, most chefs need to steam various kinds of cakes.

Therefore, bursts of hot steam would rise from time to time in the entire kitchen.

The steaming process is specifically supervised by the fifth and sixth senior brothers.

The eldest and second brothers are responsible for preparing the brine.

Feng Zhengming and his third senior brother worked together to process the various ingredients that needed preprocessing.

Although most of the time you don’t use the food you look at to eat.

This time, the huge plate is even more impossible to eat.

The main thing is to display it during state banquets so that everyone can see the map of the unified motherland. Everyone will feel it is very beautiful and have the atmosphere of the unified motherland.

But even if they are not usually eaten, you still have to make sure that the various dishes used to show the dish are edible.

Maybe even after they are displayed, these things will still be eaten.

It cannot be said that these things are thrown away after being displayed.

So some flavors still need to be guaranteed to be delicious.

Maybe when participating in a competition, some chefs on the field will not care about this, and will just throw it all away after looking at the plate and scoring.

But this is a state banquet, and the food at a state banquet, except for the small grasses used as decoration on the plates, basically has to be edible.

After all, if the food looks delicious to the foreign guests after you put it on the table, they will insist on taking a bite to try it.

You can't just tell the foreign guests at the last minute that they can't eat.

We must not let any problems occur in the food served to foreign guests.

Moreover, the Prime Minister once proposed that state banquets in China must be as frugal as possible and not wasteful.

So this time, Feng Zhengming and his team were approved to do this market review.

They were also given orders that they could look at the dishes but not eat them on the spot, but the dishes they looked at had to be edible.

This can be considered as increasing the intensity of Feng Zhengming and his team.

But in fact, this is also what a chef should be able to do.

So even when steaming egg whites and egg yolks, you are actually still adjusting the taste.

It is guaranteed to have flavor after being steamed, and you can eat it when you really want to.

As for Feng Zhengming and the third senior brother, they must ensure that all the ingredients are cleaned up.

Especially some elbows, pig's trotters and various internal organs used for plating.

All of them must be cleaned up thoroughly and cannot be done carelessly.

During the cleaning process, Feng Zhengming and his third senior brother used the muskets in the state banquet kitchen to burn the skin of the elbows and pig's trotters black in a large basin.

Then soak it in hot water and scrape it all clean.

Including the gaps between the pig's trotters and toes, all of them must be cleaned thoroughly.

The cleaned pig's trotters and elbows need to be blanched.

Get rid of all odors as much as possible.

As for the internal organs, Feng Zhengming and his third senior brother also cleaned them very carefully.

Make sure it is cleaned thoroughly enough so that there is almost no trace of odor left.

During this process, Feng Zhengming and his third senior brother were sweating profusely while working by the water platform.

Zhang Quande happened to see it and couldn't help laughing and joking.

"Our top scholar has started to work on the water stage?"

Feng Zhengming looked at Zhang Quande after hearing this and said, "Hahaha, Master Zhang, aren't you also working on the water platform?"

Zhang Quande looked helpless: "There is no other way. I have to do it myself. They also have their own work. If I don't do these jobs myself, who can help me?"

Feng Zhengming continued, "It's okay. When the state banquet comes, there will be kitchen helpers to help."

Zhang Quande sighed: "For a state banquet, we all put in a lot of effort. We just hope to show everyone the charm of our Chinese cuisine."

This statement was recognized by all the chefs in the kitchen.

Chefs from all over the country come to Beijing.

Perhaps everyone wants to have the honor of attending the state banquet.

But more than that, everyone still hopes to do their part for the state banquet.

This state banquet represents everyone's joy over the reunification of the motherland.

Being able to contribute to the state banquet for the reunification of the motherland is something that every chef will be truly proud of from the bottom of his heart.

Even if there is no money, after hosting this state banquet, everyone will still remain unknown after returning.

But these are no longer important. Everyone just wants to be able to participate and prepare this state banquet for the motherland.

"No matter how many years have passed, I will always remember this state banquet. Maybe no one will know my name, but that is not important. I can still proudly tell my juniors that I participated in this state banquet."

"Hahaha, will we get a higher status after we return from this state banquet?"

"Our top scholar can definitely do it. He has participated in this state banquet, so he will really become famous."

"It's true. After this state banquet, our top scholar will become a true state banquet chef."

Hearing everyone say this about him, Feng Zhengming also laughed.

"Hahaha, don't say that, everyone. You can also say that you are already the state banquet chef when you go back. And I believe that after this, we will all get better treatment."

Speaking of treatment, Feng Zhengming couldn't help but express some of the thoughts that had been in his mind for many years.

“I think that it is unfair to set the price of our dishes based on the price of the ingredients. What are our chefs best at? Making delicious dishes out of ordinary ingredients.

So our most valuable thing should be our craftsmanship.

However, when pricing ingredients, the value of our craftsmanship cannot be reflected.

Maybe in the future, craftsmanship will gradually become worthless, and everyone will only pursue more expensive ingredients, and even ignore the quality of the chefs' craftsmanship.

As long as the ingredients are high-end, the chef’s skills are not important at all.”

Feng Zhengming's sudden words startled all the chefs present.

Even the chefs in the state banquet kitchen were stunned.

The next moment, everyone looked at Feng Zhengming.

His words really resonated with everyone.

It can be said that every chef present here started out as an apprentice and learned step by step.

When being an apprentice, who didn’t spend a lot of time and energy honing basic skills?

We all learned the craft step by step through hard work.

But in the end, each dish is priced based on the value of the ingredients.

This results in the chef's cooking skills not being able to be directly reflected.

In fact, this will indeed dampen the enthusiasm of chefs to learn skills.

This may cause many young chefs to feel that it is pointless to learn the skills seriously.

The most obvious thing is that most people are now pursuing Cantonese cuisine.

This is because Cantonese cuisine uses a lot of expensive ingredients.

Many wealthy people feel that spending money on Cantonese food is a reflection of their wealth.

It seems to have elevated the status of Cantonese cuisine, but in fact it is simply promoting very expensive ingredients.

On the contrary, the real skills of Cantonese chefs may not be felt by diners at all.

Feng Zhengming saw that everyone was looking at him and a smile appeared on his face.

"Don't get excited, I'm just sharing some of my thoughts. We can discuss in a friendly manner and communicate while cooking."

Feng Zhengming's words made the chefs present come to their senses immediately and they all started laughing.

Long Kunbao spoke first: "What Feng Zhuangyuan said is right. A lot of times the chef's skills are often overlooked, but there is nothing we can do about it. Diners often don't know whether the chef's skills are good or not."

Feng Zhengming asked with a smile: "If diners don't know whether the cooking is good or not, how can they not tell whether the food is good or not?"

Without waiting for the other party to reply, Feng Zhengming directly used Cantonese cuisine as an example.

"Master Long, are those restaurants in your Hong Kong city that are crowded with people all old restaurants? Can the customers tell the difference between good and bad food? They can tell the difference between good and bad food, so they will choose the old restaurants they like."

This statement left Long Kunbao with no way to refute it.

The chefs present also felt the same way.

"That's right. Customers can tell whether the food is delicious or not. Customers can also taste the food made by a truly good chef. They also know that the chef has good skills."

The chefs all agreed and felt that everyone’s craftsmanship should indeed be respected.

Nowadays, too many people are obsessed with the expensiveness of ingredients, and indeed neglect to show enough respect for the chef's skills.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Feng Zhengming took the opportunity to tell everyone what he was going to promote in Qi and Lu.

"I am actually planning to imitate a restaurant rating system in foreign countries and set up a similar rating system in Qilu. I will then conduct some tastings of restaurants in various parts of Qilu. Then I will publish a magazine to recommend restaurants and hotels in Qilu."

These words surprised all the chefs present.

No one expected that Feng Zhengming would have such an idea.

Dai Long spoke first: "Feng Zhuangyuan is planning to imitate the Michelin guide abroad, right?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and nodded: "Yes, of course I know it may not be the right time to promote it nationwide, so I plan to give it a try in Qilu now."

The chefs present thought about it and gave their support to Feng Zhengming.

"Very good, Feng Zhuangyuan, you have enough reputation and everyone will trust you. It is indeed possible for you to take the lead."

"Yes, yes. If it can be promoted in Qilu, then it can be promoted to our side."

"It should be very appropriate to conduct a pilot program first and then implement it nationwide."

“But if you want to implement it, it may not be easy.”

"The key is to be fair and just, and it is not easy to ensure fairness and justice."

"Yes, Mr. Feng, you are in charge in Qilu, you can definitely guarantee fairness and justice, but if it is implemented in other places, or even in the whole country, it is really difficult to guarantee it."

Feng Zhengming also understands that it is not easy to ensure fairness and justice.

Just like what the last chef said.

He had the title of top scholar, and people from Qi and Lu trusted him.

There will definitely be no problem if we develop such a guideline in Qi and Lu.

But if it is implemented.

It would be difficult for Feng Zhengming to have the same reputation as Qi Lu in other places.

In addition to some transportation issues, it is impossible for Feng Zhengming to go to other provinces and travel around the places and eat at every restaurant and hotel in person.

Therefore, it is difficult to implement this policy in other provinces.

Not to mention implementing it nationwide.

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "This is just my idea. Even if it is implemented in Qilu, it will probably take a long time. It can't be done overnight."

Many chefs nodded in agreement.

Zhang Quande said: "This is true. Even if it is promoted in your Qilu, it will take a long time for everyone to accept it. So I'm afraid you, Feng Zhuangyuan, need to prepare well."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "I understand. I think I just want to mention it here. When I really start to promote it, I also welcome everyone to come to our Qilu to give us some guidance."

Many chefs said that if they have the opportunity, they will definitely go to Qilu to communicate with Feng Zhengming.

In the following time, the chefs started to get busy again.

After all the ingredients are cleaned, the next step is to prepare them in various ways.

Because it is necessary to ensure the color of the ingredients and the overall regularity of the ingredients.

Chefs are expected to do as much as possible.

This will make it easier for everyone to arrange the dish when it is finally ready.

When tasting the braised soup, each family has its own recipe, and they don’t hide anything from each other. They will communicate with each other to see if the other family has any ingredients that they don’t use.
In this regard, there is really no chef in the state banquet kitchen who would keep things secret.

With everyone's brainstorming, we have finally come up with some unique flavors.

What might have been a very traditional braised dish can suddenly be transformed into something more varied.

Feng Zhengming even went to the kitchen and tasted the flavor of a certain black duck brand in later generations.

I have to admire the talents of these chefs from all over the country.

As time went by, the chefs didn't even have time to eat lunch, and they worked hard to roughly make the first attempt at map viewing.

Then everyone discovered a problem.

The charts produced by various provinces are actually somewhat different in size. (End of this chapter)