From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

This impromptu young chef competition seemed a little too impromptu.

But at the strong request of three senior brothers and masters including the master.

Feng Zhengming had no choice but to organize this impromptu competition after the Little New Year and when Huiquanlou officially closed.

Although Huiquanlou has closed, quite a few people still gathered there because of this impromptu competition.

Several master chefs really took it very seriously and brought their favorite apprentices with them. Of course, there were also young chefs participating in the competition, who were the grandchildren of the masters.

There are also some young chefs who did not participate in the competition but were qualified to enter Huiquanlou to watch the competition.

As for Feng Zhengming, he and his three senior brothers will all be present.

There are also Feng Zhengming’s grandfather and Situ’s grandfather.

Including Feng Zhengming's wife and daughter, who had not seen him for several months, were also brought to the scene by Feng Zhengming.

There were a total of thirty-six chefs participating in the competition.

Most of them are chefs in Feng Zhengming’s current company.

Including all the young chefs in his Shanghai kitchen team.

There are also young chefs newly hired by several restaurants in Quancheng.

There are also several masters whose disciples and grandchildren are considered outstanding and have been given the opportunity to participate in the competition.

Feng Zhengming also felt a bit pressured when he saw this scene.

So before the competition, he had a special chat with everyone in the Shanghai kitchen team.

"You saw it today too? They all came with bad intentions, so you guys should stop hiding your skills and show them your best cooking skills.

Also, the things you have learned from Jiang Cheng’s philosophy during this period of time in Shanghai can be used in today’s competition.”

It was seen that Feng Zhengming had given some specific instructions to the people who followed him in Shanghai.

The fifth brother immediately shouted, "Hey, hey, hey, you are the top scholar, how can you teach your subordinates temporarily?"

The third brother also followed suit: "That's right, we want a fair competition."

Feng Zhengming knew that his two senior brothers deliberately chose his.

He disagreed: "You have more people and more power, so we must make full preparations."

At this time, the master also spoke up: "Zhengming, you have been in Shanghai for so long, haven't you made any progress at all? Do you still need to cram at the last minute?"

When Feng Zhengming saw his master speak, he could only smile.

"Some of the skills we learned in Shanghai may be a bit miscellaneous. In terms of the basics, we may not be as good as the chefs in Quancheng. This is also where I have to ask a lot of them."

Feng Zhengming is not being modest. After all, the skills of Shandong cuisine chefs have always been the most important.

Especially when it comes to the basic skills of cooking, both the old chefs and the master chefs have very strict requirements for their apprentices.

Therefore, through this small competition, Feng Zhengming also wanted to sound a wake-up call to the chefs in Shanghai, so that they would not forget the basic skills.

The competition is simple, each chef cooks a dish.

The ingredients are the leftover materials from Huiquanlou’s kitchen warehouse.

As for what specific dishes to cook?

It is up to all young chefs to decide for themselves.

This gives young chefs a great deal of freedom.

But this freedom can also be a huge challenge.

It is not easy for a young chef to cook a dish by himself and make it satisfy the master chefs on site.

The competition officially began, and the first thing a group of young chefs did was to go to the kitchen to grab ingredients.

This was also deliberately designed by Feng Zhengming.

The purpose is to test the chefs' ability to respond.

When you are not sure what ingredients you can get, can you make a dish with the ingredients you can get at the end?

This design can be said to have won unanimous recognition from the masters.

I saw young chefs screening and competing in the kitchen warehouse.

The master couldn't help but speak first: "Zhengming, your idea is a bit deliberately increasing the difficulty. They are fighting for the ingredients so much. If they don't get what they want in the end, what do you want them to do?"

Feng Zhengming was very confident at this time: "We are in Shanghai, I have absolute trust in them in this regard.

In addition, our Shanghai restaurant changes its menu from time to time, so I ask them to be well prepared at all times and to master the cooking of various dishes very well.”

While chatting, Xia Hui, with the help of Sun Hai, grabbed the pig's trotters and the ingredients to make stuffed pig's trotters.

Third senior brother Yang Bin was a little surprised to see how Sun Hai took care of Xia Hui during the fight.

"Hey, this Sun Hai, he's only thinking about helping others grab the ingredients? He doesn't want to cook for himself?"

Fifth Senior Brother Cao Zhiguo leaned over and whispered, "Can't you see? They are obviously a couple now, so your disciple has to find a way to help Xiao Xia grab the food first."

Yang Bin laughed immediately: "Not bad, not bad, Sun Hai finally got it."

Senior Brother Li Huidong looked a little worried: "Do you think the Xia family will agree?"

Yang Bin immediately said, "Why not? Sun Hai is my apprentice after all. He has our master as his mentor and his uncle Zhengming as the top scholar. He is no worse than the chefs in the Xia family."

Feng Zhengming smiled and continued, "I think Grandpa Xia Hui will definitely agree."

Yang Bin nodded: "Yes, I will definitely agree."

"Third brother, you don't understand what I mean?"

Yang Bin looked at Feng Zhengming: "What do you mean?"

Feng Zhengming lowered his voice and said, "For the Xia family, with Sun Hai, won't the Xia family have a powerful son-in-law?"

Yang Bin was stunned at first, then he understood immediately: "It's true."

At this time, Feng Zhengming saw that in the warehouse, Sun Hai helped Xia Mingye grab the ingredients he needed.

"Sun Hai, don't just focus on snatching it from your brother-in-law. You haven't taken it yourself yet."

Feng Zhengming's shouting made Sun Hai and Xia Hui's faces turn red.

Then Brother Feng Zhengming and the other masters who were watching the game all laughed.

Luo Qing moved closer to her husband and said, "You really have to say this in public?"

Feng Zhengming hugged his wife and looked at the baby daughter in her arms.

"You don't understand. This is why we need to announce it in advance. If we announce it in this situation, and then the news is passed on to the Xia family by others, it will be beneficial for Sun Hai to visit the Xia family."

While people were chatting outside, the competition inside became increasingly intense.

Xia Mingye and Sun Hai even teamed up to snatch ingredients from other chefs.

This made the person who was robbed look confused.

"Xia Mingye, we are from the Quancheng store, why are you still helping others?"

Xia Mingye was stunned for a moment, then looked at Sun Hai.

"He is my future brother-in-law. He just helped me grab the ingredients, so of course I have to help him now."

The other chef was stunned at first.

Then he couldn't help but shout, "This, this is not fair. Their family united and occupied both sides. We also have an undercover on our side." This shout amused everyone watching outside.

Laughter echoed in the kitchen of Huiquanlou.

Master Cui pointed at Feng Zhengming and smiled.

"Zhengming, you really know how to entertain us. You organized such an interesting activity for us during the New Year."

Master Sun also laughed and said, "Isn't it said that Zhengming always has ideas that no one expects?"

Master Yan couldn't help laughing: "We should have invited Lao Xia here today. Seeing this scene and looking at Lao Xia's expression, I think it's even more interesting."

Grandpa Situ also laughed: "We should keep this program every year in the future. Let Zhengming organize it before the Spring Festival every year."

Grandpa Feng nodded: "Yes, Zhengming, did you hear that? We must keep this program before the Spring Festival."

After hearing what the masters and the two grandfathers said, Feng Zhengming felt a little helpless.

"I can't have the final say on this matter. It depends on whether everyone is willing to participate, right?"

Then several master chefs present also expressed their willingness to let their apprentices participate.

As for the young chefs who were unable to participate today, each of them was even eager to try.

Feng Zhengming knew that this competition of scrambling for ingredients to cook dishes had indeed won everyone's recognition.

He also decided to do it every year from now on.

"When we hold the event again next year, I will make some adjustments to the ingredients in the warehouse. I will not let them find enough ingredients too easily. I will create some difficulties for them in finding ingredients."

These words immediately made the several masters and two grandfathers present feel that it was feasible.

The master chefs also felt that this approach would better cultivate their apprentices' adaptability. What's more, since the old masters all agreed, they, as apprentices, could only agree.

All the young chefs felt that the tasks ahead would be a bit difficult.

Although there was some competition, the Huiquanlou warehouse had sufficient supplies and everyone was able to get the ingredients for the dishes they wanted to make.

Xia Hui made Feng Zhengming's stuffed pig's trotter, which was very popular in Shanghai.

This dish is an innovation of Feng Zhengming.

He combined the techniques of Confucius Mansion cuisine from Shandong cuisine and also added some of the methods of the famous overseas chef Kofman.

So this dish is still quite novel.

There is not much difficulty in the method, which is just deboning the pig's trotter.

As for the cooking that follows, the steps are not that difficult overall.

But today Xia Hui knew it was a competition.

Even if it is just an internal communication competition of a joking nature.

Xia Hui will still be more serious, so he is indeed more meticulous in the process.

Seeing Xia Hui's craftsmanship, the old masters were quite appreciative.

After all, among the young chefs and chefs of other age groups present, there was only one female chef like Xia Hui.

So Xia Hui will naturally receive more attention.

Of course, the masters do not discriminate based on gender.

Even the old masters would highly appreciate Xia Hui's efforts when they see her craftsmanship.

The eldest senior brother looked at Xia Hui and whispered to Feng Zhengming.

"Xia Hui follows you in Shanghai and seems to be working very hard."

Feng Zhengming responded: "She has always worked very hard. Because she is a woman, she often faces some discrimination in the kitchen and is even looked down upon by some male chefs.

So she tends to work harder than many male chefs, and since she is with me in Shanghai, I think she has more freedom.”

Third Senior Brother Yang Bin took over the conversation: "It can be seen that she is happier with you in Shanghai."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "Do you know why she is happier? Because she will not be treated as a woman in Shanghai. She is no different from other chefs in the kitchen. I will treat them equally."

The fifth brother couldn't help but sigh: "It's true. In the kitchen of Huiquan Building, although we took good care of her, she didn't actually need that care. Instead, our care made her look different in the kitchen."

Senior Brother Li Huidong echoed: "The respect she wants should be the same as everyone else."

This sentence is easy for everyone to understand.

Seeing how confident Xia Hui is now, it shows that she has really made greater progress.

After removing the bones from the pig's trotters, soak them in the prepared spice water for a while.

During this time, Xia Hui prepared the filling for the pig's trotter.

When the filling is almost ready, heat the pig's trotters and cook them.

During the cooking process, keep cleaning off the floating foam.

As for the filling, Xia Hui followed Feng Zhengming’s instructions, which was to add ice cubes to a large bowl and then put the filling on top and beat it.

This process involves manually beating the filling into a state similar to ice cream.

After that, it is stuffed into the half-cooked pig's trotter together with other ingredients for flavoring.

Watching Xia Hui's cooking, the fifth brother asked curiously, "What did she put in the filling?"

Feng Zhengming replied: "It is pig brain. You have to clean the membrane of the pig brain first, then roast it over charcoal fire, cut it into small pieces and add it to the stuffing to ensure that the stuffing has more taste."

After hearing Feng Zhengming's answer, the three senior brothers looked at him in surprise.

The third brother asked curiously, "Zhengming, how did you come up with this idea?"

Feng Zhengming replied: "We have also done a lot of research on these, and finally found the most suitable taste and the best flavor fusion."

Xia Hui is a representative of chefs in Shanghai who followed Feng Zhengming.

Other young chefs in the Shanghai store also show their uniqueness to varying degrees.

Their basic skills are still the traditional techniques of Shandong cuisine.

But they will be more adventurous and integrate things from other cuisines.

Also, the dishes they cook are basically all innovative dishes created by Feng Zhengming in Shanghai.

These dishes are usually prepared by Feng Zhengming and Jiang Chengzhe in restaurants in Shanghai.

Usually, young chefs can only help in the kitchen and see the two people cooking.

Today might be the first time for them to make these dishes step by step by themselves.

Really trying to do it themselves will make young chefs realize how difficult it is to innovate each dish.

Because every step of the preparation of these dishes can be said to have been carefully designed by Feng Zhengming.

Simply put, if you want to replicate the dish made by Feng Zhengming, you can only follow the steps designed by Feng Zhengming. If the steps are different, the taste of the final dish may be different.

If some comparisons were made, it would be easy for all the onlookers present to see the difference.

In terms of cooking precision, the chefs Feng Zhengming brought back from Shanghai have to do better.

In comparison, there are the newly recruited young chefs in his several stores in Quancheng, and the apprentices of several old chefs.

We can’t say that their cooking skills are bad, nor can we say that their techniques are wrong.

But even in comparison, their craftsmanship seems a bit crude. (End of this chapter)