From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Feng Zhengming and his second senior brother Chen Zezhi stayed in Dezhou, while his first, third and fifth senior brothers returned to Quancheng, and his sixth senior brother went directly back to Yancheng.

After the eldest brother and his companions left, Feng Zhengming and the second brother also started to get busy.

The second brother was responsible for site selection and decoration, Feng Zhengming was responsible for some publicity, and also dealt with the local chefs association.

In fact, Feng Zhengming didn't need to look for anyone from the local chefs association.

He could easily open his own store; his status as the top scholar was enough weight.

However, Feng Zhengming still decided to visit the local chefs association as a courtesy before force.

Feng Zhengming took the initiative to visit, and the local Texas Chefs Association gave him a very formal reception.

Although the local chefs association has done a lot of private work before.

But it was really hard to face Feng Zhengming, the national top scholar, who came to visit me on his own initiative.

They still have to receive them formally.

The president of the Texas Chefs Association led a group of people to greet them.

The president's name is Song Jinsheng.

The moment Feng Zhengming saw him, before any introduction, he almost immediately realized why Liang Xiaocheng dared to do something behind his back against his wishes after returning to Texas.

Because Song Jinsheng and Liang Xiaocheng cannot be said to look exactly the same, at least at first glance, you might really make a mistake.

Song Jinsheng looks very similar to Liang Xiaocheng, except that he wears glasses, has no hair, and looks older than Liang Xiaocheng.

There was almost no need for introduction; Feng Zhengming could probably guess the relationship between the two people.

Judging from his age and appearance, Song Jinsheng should probably be Liang Xiaocheng's uncle.

Song Jinsheng saw a smile on Feng Zhengming's face.

Even the way he smiled made Feng Zhengming think of Liang Xiaocheng.

Even Feng Zhengming would think about this in his mind when he was smiling and shaking hands with Song Jinsheng.

Will Liang Xiaocheng also be bald when he reaches this age?
"Hahaha, our number one scholar's visit really brings honor to our Texas Chefs Association."

Feng Zhengming smiled and responded: "President Song, you shouldn't call me the top scholar. You should call me the vice president."

These words made the smile on Song Jinsheng's face freeze.

He naturally understood why Feng Zhengming corrected him in this way.

Feng Zhengming was clearly telling him and everyone in the Texas Chefs Association.

Feng Zhengming is the vice president of the Provincial Chefs Association and the superior of their Dezhou Chefs Association.

Especially now that the original cooking association in the whole province of Qilu has been changed into a chef association by Feng Zhengming.

In other words, all the chefs in the province understood that although Feng Zhengming was only the vice president in name, he already had the power of the president in the Qilu Chefs Association.

Since Feng Zhengming is the superior, he can fully guide the Texas Chefs Association to replace the president when he comes to them.

When Song Jinsheng figured this out, he suddenly felt a pressure in his heart.

What if Feng Zhengming really attacked him.

It is to gather everyone in the Texas Chefs Association and replace him as the president.

I'm afraid Song Jinsheng really has no way to resist today.

Thinking of this, Song Jinsheng immediately put on a sad face.

"Oh, Vice President Zhuangyuan, please forgive me. Our Texas Chefs Association has been holding meetings during this period. We also want to make the Chefs Association more formal in the middle of the year.

These days we have been holding meetings every day to discuss our work issues in the second half of the year.

So we neglected to receive you.

You are right to be angry about this, but please don't blame others. As the president, I am willing to take all the responsibility and can give up the position of president."

Feng Zhengming couldn't help but sneer in his heart when he saw Song Jinsheng say this.

Liang Xiaocheng's cleverness in doing tricks behind the scenes might have been inherited from his uncle.

It sounds high-sounding, but it puts oneself in a position where one has no choice but to do the thing.

It also allowed him to occupy the righteous position, preventing Feng Zhengming from directly taking away his position as chairman.

But what Feng Zhengming found funny was that he had no intention of removing his position as chairman at all.

Feng Zhengming himself is not a native of Texas and has not had much contact with local chefs.

How could he just take down the president of the local chefs association so easily?

What's more, Feng Zhengming contacted Liang Xiaocheng through his family.

It can be probably guessed that the president, Song Jinsheng, also has his own forces in the local chef industry.

Feng Zhengming would never easily touch Song Jinsheng before he understood the situation of Dezhou Kitchen Business.

"What does President Song mean? I didn't say I was going to blame President Song. I've been busy with the Texas branch these days. I know you all have things to do.
So I don’t mean to trouble you. I just want to handle the branch’s affairs myself.

I came here today to visit the local famous chefs and to pay my respects to them for my branch."

Then Feng Zhengming let go of Song Jinsheng's hand, and he clasped his fists and bowed to everyone from the Texas Chefs Association present.

"Feng Zhengming from Quancheng has now opened a branch in Texas. I hope all the famous chefs in Texas can give me more advice in the future."

Everyone in the Texas Chefs Association was stunned.

No one expected that Feng Zhengming would pay a formal visit like this.

In the past, when chefs from other places opened restaurants in a local area, they would take the initiative to pay their respects to the local famous chefs.

After meeting the local chefs, the next step is a healthy competition of first courtesy and then force.

The competition is based entirely on skills, and no dirty tricks behind the scenes are allowed.

But if you don’t pay homage to the ancestors, you can just open a restaurant in someone else’s place.

That is clearly a challenge to other people's craftsmanship.

This means that once both sides decide the winner, only one will remain.

The losing company must withdraw voluntarily.

This old custom has not been used for many years.

It may not be the case that Feng Zhengming is conducting the grave worship so formally today.

Even among the people in the Texas Chefs Association, few people really know about it, let alone have seen it.

When Song Jinsheng saw Feng Zhengming like this, he could only quickly return the gesture with a fist salute.

"You are so welcome, Mr. Zhuang. It is a blessing for us that you can open a branch in Texas. If you need anything, please let us know. We will try our best to help."

Everyone in the Chefs Association also clasped their hands and bowed to show their courtesy to Feng Zhengming.

"You are too polite, Mr. Zhuangyuan. How can we feel good if you do this?"

"Yes, you are welcome, No. 1 Scholar. If you need anything, just let me know."

"It is really an honor for us in Texas that you, the top scholar, come to Texas to open a branch."

"That's right, that's right. If your branch needs help, just let me know." Seeing that everyone was so polite, Feng Zhengming stopped being polite to them.

"Since everyone is willing to help, I do have two small favors that I need your help with."

Everyone in the Chefs Association was stunned.

They didn't expect that Feng Zhengming, who they thought was just being polite, would actually offer to help.

This made a group of people look at each other in confusion, not knowing what to do?

Song Jinsheng didn't expect that Feng Zhengming would actually speak.

But everyone has said it, so it’s not a good time to refuse.

Song Jinsheng could only be polite: "Feng Zhuangyuan, just tell us. If we can do it, we will definitely help you."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "I'm sure you can help me with these two small favors. The first one is that I hope you can go and show your support when my branch opens. It can also be regarded as a friendly exchange between our culinary industry."

Naturally, everyone from the Chefs Association present agreed to do this favor.

Feng Zhengming then asked about his second favor.

"As for the second favor, my branch is a little short-staffed. I hope you can recommend some young chefs from Texas to join my branch."

Upon hearing this second favor, everyone present, except Song Jinsheng, immediately agreed with their eyes rolled.

"Hahaha, no problem, if you need help, we will definitely help you."

"Yes, yes, Zhuangyuan, you are short of manpower, so we will naturally recommend the best to you."

"It just so happens that I have a few young apprentices under my command. If you, Feng Zhuangyuan, don't mind that they are clumsy, let them work in your branch store and hone their skills."

"I also have a young apprentice who has also graduated, but he has no suitable place to go. If you don't mind, you can let him go."

Song Jinsheng felt uncomfortable when he saw others immediately recommending their apprentices.

Originally, Song Jinsheng was most optimistic about his nephew Liang Xiaocheng.

Moreover, Liang Xiaocheng was originally under Feng Zhengming's command.

He is also the person in charge of opening a branch in Texas this time.

As a result, Liang Xiaocheng was directly fired by Feng Zhengming.

Song Jinsheng couldn't recommend Liang Xiaocheng to Feng Zhengming again.

Then Feng Zhengming directly asked other people to recommend. Isn't this just giving face to other people in the Chefs Association?
Can they recommend their favorite apprentices or younger generations in the family?
What kind of opportunity is it to be able to enter the Zhuangyuan branch?
Those young people will definitely get more opportunities in the future.

And the reputation will also rise, at least within the province.

The most important thing is that Song Jinsheng and the Chefs Association originally worked together.

But now, with Feng Zhengming's actions, it was obvious that everyone else had instantly turned to Feng Zhengming's side.

Sure enough, everyone surrounded Feng Zhengming and completely left the president Song Jinsheng aside.

This is also the effect Feng Zhengming wanted this time.

He wanted to recruit the proud apprentices and younger generations of the people in the Chefs Association.

But Feng Zhengming had no intention of letting them stay in the Texas branch.

He planned to send this group of people to Quancheng and exchange them for a group of young chefs from Quancheng to Texas.

Afterwards, Feng Zhengming will personally teach this group of young chefs from Texas.

In the future, Feng Zhengming will let them come back to replace the current old men of the Texas Chefs Association.

In this way, Feng Zhengming can promote his own plan throughout the province in the future, especially to carry out restaurant and hotel rating in the province, without having to pay any attention to the opposition of the old guys.

Of course, now Feng Zhengming still wants to make these people from the Texas Chefs Association feel that they have got lucky.

Song Jinsheng saw that Feng Zhengming had sidelined him from his position as president in the blink of an eye.

In order to regain his right to speak, Song Jinsheng couldn't help but interrupt them.

"Feng Zhuangyuan, we are afraid that we cannot help you with the small favor you asked for. After all, if you let our apprentices work in the kitchen of your branch, it may affect your reputation.

After all, they are not your apprentices, and have not formally learned the craft from you.

If they were cooking in the kitchen of your branch, wouldn't others think you were cheating them?"

Song Jinsheng's words showed, in Feng Zhengming's opinion, that he had been defeated completely.

It is obvious that I cannot get this benefit.

So I just want to flip the table.

Don't let others take advantage of this opportunity.

Feng Zhengming didn't say anything. He was waiting for someone else to speak.

Sure enough, the vice president was the first to step forward.

"Old Song, what you said is not right. The young people we recommend to Zhuangyuan are definitely skilled. They just need to learn some of Feng Zhuangyuan's skills. They will be able to master them faster than ordinary young chefs."

"That's right. They learn from the No. 1 Scholar, and after he teaches them how to cook, they use the techniques and seasonings taught by the No. 1 Scholar. How can you say it's not the No. 1 Scholar's dish? How can you say that the No. 1 Scholar is deceiving everyone?"

"Yes, I think Zhuangyuan's method of recruiting young chefs in our area is very good, and it can also solve the employment problem of local young chefs."

"Yes, it can also allow young people to gain more experience."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "President Song, don't worry. All the people recruited by my branch will go to Quancheng for training for a period of time. In Quancheng, they will systematically learn a lot of things.

After the training is completed, they will be sent back to the branch to cook in the branch kitchen.”

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, everyone in the Texas Chefs Association became even more supportive.

"Our number one scholar has a solution. This solution is really good."

"That's right, it's a blessing for them to go to Quancheng to study with the top scholar."

"If I were 20 years younger, I would have signed myself up."

"Hahahaha, what you said, Lao Wang, really hits the nail on the head."

Perhaps before Feng Zhengming came, Song Jinsheng had imagined various scenarios of dealing with Feng Zhengming.

But he never expected that Feng Zhengming would easily dismantle their small group of the Texas Chefs Association.

In the blink of an eye, because they could let their favorite students work under Feng Zhengming, the top pick, these people in the Texas Chefs Association have completely sided with Feng Zhengming.

Song Jinsheng looked at everything in front of him, and he couldn't help but secretly curse his nephew Liang Xiaocheng as a big fool.

How can you, a kid who hasn't even fully mastered his skills, compete with a master who won the national cooking skills competition in his twenties?
Why do you fight with others?
A big fool who overestimates his own abilities.

Song Jinsheng cursed his nephew in his heart and could only force a smile on his face.

Next, we watched Feng Zhengming take over the Texas Chefs Association.

After Feng Zhengming had discussed everything with everyone, when he left, everyone surrounded him and saw him off.

They also assured Feng Zhengming that they would arrange young chefs and send them to Feng Zhengming for review and screening.

Song Jinsheng saw Feng Zhengming off with a smile.

After Feng Zhengming leaves, what else does he want to say to other people in the Chefs Association?
But before he, the guild leader, could even open his mouth, everyone else found an excuse to leave. (End of this chapter)