From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

After Feng Zhengming adjusted the prices at his two stores, business actually became better.

First of all, the stores near the train station have become the first choice for more people from other places who come to Shanghai to seek jobs because of their lower prices.

Not only people from Qi and Lu, but also many people from other provinces who come to Shanghai to work choose Feng Zhengming's store.

A piece of pork with a generous portion of rice.

It has become the standard for many people's lunch and dinner.

Of course, Feng Zhengming also asked the store at the train station to provide everyone with a free bowl of soup every day.

And the soup provided every day is different.

But whether it is tomato and egg soup, seaweed and egg soup, or a bowl of milky fish soup.

The taste is absolutely perfect and many customers like it very much.

Because there were so many customers, there were almost not enough seats in the store.

The result is that some people line up to buy their meals, and then find a place to stand or sit at the door to eat.

Some smart people simply took the food they bought from Feng Zhengming's store and ran further away to eat at two overseas fast food restaurants near the train station.

This store on the Western Restaurant Street is also doing very good business.

The launch of the new menu quickly gained the favor of many people.

Although the price has increased a bit, it has not affected the patronage of white-collar workers working in foreign companies and many overseas people.

Many people working in domestic companies also occasionally visit Feng Zhengming's store.

Especially on weekends, reservations are required in the store.

Otherwise there will be a long queue in front of the store.

Of course, the booming business of Feng Zhengming's Western Restaurant on the street has also boosted the business of other Western restaurants on the street.

As a result, all the Western restaurants that were originally hostile to Feng Zhengming even felt a little embarrassed.

The owners of several Western restaurants even took the initiative to visit Feng Zhengming and give him gifts, expressing their hope that Feng Zhengming's store could continue to operate so that everyone could benefit from it.

Feng Zhengming naturally refused to accept any gifts from the owners of several nearby Western restaurants.

He was only expressing this to the owners of western restaurants.

“If you want your restaurant to have more business, you should work harder on the dishes, especially the chefs in the kitchen, you really need to find some decent ones.

Otherwise, even if you open a store next to my store, it may be difficult for you to do business.

In fact, because of the existence of my store, your business will only get worse and worse."

Feng Zhengming's words left all the bosses speechless.

Facing Feng Zhengming, a top chef who is well-versed in both Chinese and Western cuisine.

He opened his own shop and knows how to run it.

The owners of the surrounding Western restaurants really have no temper with his education.

Because they are indeed qualified to educate themselves.

Feng Zhengming also directly reminded the bosses: "If any of your stores really can't continue, you must notify me first when you want to transfer it. Maybe I will buy your store at that time."

This made the bosses even more depressed.

However, after this incident, Feng Zhengming learned about it from some customers.

There have indeed been some changes to the Western restaurants on this street.

It is said that first of all the service has improved, and secondly some of the dishes in the restaurant are indeed much more delicious.

Some of them even invited Western chefs from overseas.

The two Western restaurants invited overseas chefs, which helped boost their business.

It’s a pity that it was too close to Feng Zhengming’s store and was only popular for a week.

It still failed to retain the white-collar workers who pass by here every day to go to get off work.

Even those who work overseas in Shanghai are not able to visit frequently.

However, thanks to the presence of authentic overseas chefs, the business of those two Western restaurants has indeed improved a lot.

The business of the two stores has always been good, and Feng Zhengming is also very busy every day.

But no matter how busy he is, Feng Zhengming still kisses his daughter every night when he returns home.

He even changes his daughter's diapers in the middle of the night.

Almost every weekend, Feng Zhengming would take a day off to play with his wife and daughter in the yard at home.

Although in fact, my daughter is not even one year old and sleeps in her cradle most of the time.

But Feng Zhengming still felt that he could not miss his daughter's growth.

It's the weekend again, and Feng Zhengming stays at home to accompany his wife and daughter.

Grandpa and Grandpa Situ were also sitting in the yard playing chess.

Suddenly, Grandpa Situ asked, "Zhengming, your two stores are doing so well now, have you ever thought about recruiting some apprentices?"

Feng Zhengming held his daughter and looked at Grandpa Situ: "Recruiting some apprentices?"

Grandpa Situ nodded and said, "I took some time out the day before yesterday and went to both of your stores with your grandfather."

Grandpa took over the conversation: "We think that the business of your two stores is too good. Will it put too much pressure on everyone in your kitchen?"

Grandpa Situ continued, "In fact, some of the work in the kitchen does not necessarily have to be done by professional chefs, but can be done by apprentices.

Your two stores are already very famous in Shanghai, and you are also famous there.

I believe that as long as you announce that your two stores are recruiting apprentices, there will definitely be a lot of people signing up."

Grandpa went on to say: “When the time comes, you can select and recruit a few apprentices to take over the tedious chores in the kitchen, which will make your job as a chef a little easier.

At the same time, apprentices can also learn something from the kitchens of your two stores during their work.”

Feng Zhengming listened to the opinions of his grandfather and Grandpa Situ, and he thought about it carefully.

"Grandpa Situ, Grandpa, you are right, this is indeed a good idea. I will also recruit some apprentices in my store in Shanghai, so that we can speed up the training of manpower.

There is no need to simply rely on my senior brothers to help me train more manpower."

Grandpa Situ smiled and said, "That's right. If you rely entirely on Qilu to train you, it will be difficult to rotate the staff in your store, and it may be difficult to rest."

Grandpa took over again: "Besides, you are really putting too much pressure on everyone in the kitchen now."

Luo Qing heard this and said, "But if we recruit apprentices, we need to train them. Wouldn't that also increase the workload for the kitchen staff? Wouldn't the pressure also increase?"

Grandpa Situ put away his smile and said, "Xiao Luo is right, so this requires Zhengming, the head chef, to make a choice, and he may even need to coordinate."

Grandpa was more direct: "We need to make sure he breaks down the kitchen work process and decide which parts can be handed over to the apprentices."

Feng Zhengming pondered seriously for a while, going over some of the kitchen processes over and over again in his mind.

While going through the process over and over again, Feng Zhengming was also breaking down the kitchen process in his mind.

Finally, Feng Zhengming broke down the entire process in his mind.

Eliminate those parts that the chefs have to do themselves.

The remaining parts that can be handed over to apprentices are basically some early preparations and later plating and serving of dishes.

If the process can be well connected, a large number of apprentices can indeed be used to reduce the workload of chefs. But in fact, the kitchen of Feng Zhengming's restaurant cannot recruit some apprentices with no experience to learn from scratch like some Western restaurants.

Apprentices in the kitchen of Feng Zhengming's store must have certain basic skills, especially knife skills.

After going over the kitchen process again in my mind.

Feng Zhengming looked at Grandpa and Grandpa Situ with a smile.

"I will call a meeting in the kitchen to discuss this matter. Everyone is here with me, so I can't be too opinionated. I need to let everyone have a say."

Hearing what Feng Zhengming said, Grandpa and Grandpa Situ both laughed.

The next day, Feng Zhengming discussed this matter with Jiang Chengzhe.

After some contemplation, Jiang Chengzhe decided that this method was indeed feasible.

"Yes, we can recruit some apprentices and assign some of the miscellaneous tasks to them. This will make our life much easier. Although the initial training is a bit stressful, the kitchen will be much easier after the training is done."

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Since you think it is feasible, let's discuss it with everyone and see everyone's opinions."

Jiang Chengzhe agreed: "Okay, it's better to explain it clearly to everyone."

After finalizing the deal with Jiang Chengzhe, Feng Zhengming closed the two stores early one evening.

Ask all the people in the shops near the train station to come over.

After everyone gathered, Feng Zhengming told the story.

“Do you think it’s okay to recruit apprentices in the kitchen? Maybe everyone will be busy at the beginning, and they will need to teach the apprentices after work.

But then Azhe and I both thought that we could make life a little easier for everyone in the kitchen.”

After hearing Feng Zhengming's words, everyone in the kitchen looked at each other, and then began to discuss among themselves.

After some discussion, basically everyone agreed to recruit apprentices.

Zhu Xu talked about some of his previous experiences at Jubin Garden.

"When I was at Jubinyuan, the kitchen was almost always recruiting apprentices. Most of the apprentices did miscellaneous work in the kitchen. Many of them could not stand the hardship and would leave after working for a while.

Those who can stay and persevere will slowly learn something from the chefs. "

Sun Hai followed up by saying, "My master and I have been helping my uncle train apprentices in Quancheng. It's not that difficult and it does help share a lot of work."

Xia Hui said: "The master uncle will divide up the work in the kitchen. If we recruit some apprentices, it will definitely reduce our workload. This is really a very good thing."

Guan Wei asked: "Does the chef recruit apprentices? Do they need to have a certain foundation?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "It must have a certain foundation. We can't use it without any foundation."

Sun Decai asked naively, "If a new apprentice comes, will I no longer be an apprentice?"

This made everyone stunned.

Then everyone couldn't help laughing.

Feng Zhengming laughed and asked back: "Why do you still think of yourself as an apprentice? You followed me here, do you think you are still an apprentice in the kitchen?"

Sun Decai felt a little embarrassed, but still nodded slightly.

Xia Hui couldn't help laughing so hard that she almost fell backwards.

Everyone also gave Sun Decai a friendly smile.

Indeed, no one expected that Sun Decai still regarded himself as an apprentice.

Feng Zhengming immediately and formally announced that the two apprentices brought from Hong Kong City by Sun Decai and Jiang Chengzhe had officially left the apprenticeship stage.

"You will be the mentors of the new apprentices we recruit next. You need to pass on your experience to them, and then assign some work to the new apprentices."

Feng Zhengming said: "But everyone should remember that you are not allowed to discriminate against new apprentices, and you must not deliberately put your work on the shoulders of new apprentices."

Everyone in the kitchen nodded seriously and agreed.

Feng Zhengming also explained to Zhu Xu, Guan Wei and Zhang Lei.

"After you hire new apprentices, you can arrange for them to work in the kitchen. Let them learn something from you. They can't just help by your side all the time."

The two apprentices who came with Jiang Chengzhe from Gangcheng were immediately grateful to Feng Zhengming.

They chose to come from Hong Kong with Jiang Chengzhe because they initially thought that following Jiang Chengzhe had more prospects.

When I got here, I was assigned to work in the kitchen of a store near the train station.

There was still a little bit of resistance between the two of them.

However, after spending some time with Zhu Xu, Guan Wei and Zhang Lei, the two of them gradually adapted.

But in the store near the train station, the work in the kitchen is indeed getting busier and busier.

Originally, they also wanted to suggest to Feng Zhengming whether it would be possible to recruit some new people to work in the railway station kitchen?
Unexpectedly, Zhu Xu, Guan Wei and Zhang Lei have not yet proposed it.

Feng Zhengming took the initiative to propose a plan to recruit new apprentices in the kitchens of the two stores.

With the recruitment of a group of new apprentices, the kitchen of the store near the train station will definitely be a little easier.

Similarly, in this Western restaurant on the street, the work in the kitchen can be divided into more detailed parts.

In fact, this is equivalent to improving the treatment of chefs in disguise.

After the discussion, Feng Zhengming released the news of recruiting apprentices.

Then, a large number of people began to apply for the job.

Some of them not only have little experience, but have not even learned any cooking skills.

There are also many chefs who come to Shanghai from other places to find jobs.

Later, some master chefs in Shanghai even sent their apprentices or nephews to apply for the job.

I don’t know how the news spread after that.

Students from other local culinary schools began to apply for the job.

Some master chefs from other places also began to send their sons and nephews to Shanghai to apply for apprenticeship in Feng Zhengming's shop.

Seeing such a group of people applying for the job, Feng Zhengming felt somewhat speechless.

He probably understood the intention of the master chefs sending their nephews and nephews to his shop to apply for apprenticeship.

He just wanted his sons and nephews to get a promotion in Feng Zhengming's shop.

As long as you enter the store and work with Feng Zhengming for a period of time.

When I go back, I can brag to others that I have learned this from Feng Zhuangyuan.

With a little guidance and instruction from the master chefs, it will be easy to be recommended to some restaurants.

Sure enough, some bosses of the Shanghai Catering Association began to recommend some of their sons and nephews to apply for jobs in Feng Zhengming's store.

The goals of the bosses of these catering associations are even clearer.

They also let their children and nephews come here to gild their reputation.

But when their children and nephews return, they will go to work in restaurants or hotels.

They are going to go back and take over their own restaurants and hotels directly.

Seeing that more and more people are recommending, some bosses from the catering association have come to us.

Feng Zhengming had no choice but to hold an open recruitment for apprentices. (End of this chapter)