From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Among the one hundred chefs participating in the final competition this time, there are many chefs from Feng Zhengming Catering Company alone.

Among the top 100 chefs, twelve are from Feng Zhengming Luxing.

Except for Feng Zhengming, the other six senior brothers are all famous chefs invited to participate in the competition.

There are also the head chefs of several of his branches in Qilu and Shanghai.

Including: Gu Zhicheng, Sun Hai, Xia Hui, Zhu Xu, Guan Wei, Xia Mingye.

Others also competed in the three divisions, but ultimately lost on their way to the next round.

Among them, brother and sister Xia Hui and Xia Mingye were both among the top 100 chefs.

It also made Master Xia feel proud.

Xia Zhennan felt that he had become much more confident at home.

The Xia family also has some other chefs participating in the regional competitions.

But the results were all failures.

After participating in the competition, other members of the Xia family also realized the cruelty of this competition.

Before the competition, many people may not have thought that the gap in basic skills would become an insurmountable hurdle for them.

Perhaps many chefs’ cooking skills are not bad, and they are also proud of their skills.

However, when facing the test of basic skills alone, the problem of many chefs' weak basic skills will be exposed.

For Gu Zhicheng, Sun Hai, Xia Hui, Zhu Xu, Guan Wei and Xia Mingye, the strict requirements they received in Feng Zhengming's store became the key to their victory in the competition.

To them, the requirements of the competition seemed so easy compared to Feng Zhengming's usual strict requirements.

They can even design their own dishes more easily during the competition.

Often, the dishes they prepare in competitions amaze the judges.

At the competition, these young chefs who had followed Feng Zhengming for several years truly realized what they had learned from Feng Zhengming.
Feng Zhengming's strict requirements for them, and his unconventional creativity may be seen as unconventional by traditional Shandong cuisine chefs.

The skills of several young chefs have been significantly improved.

This may be an opportunity that is not available in the kitchen of any large restaurant.

As for the other young chefs from Feng Zhengming’s restaurant who participated in the competition.

Although they were not able to advance into the top 100 chefs.

But this doesn't mean their craftsmanship is bad.

Each of them has good craftsmanship.

It’s just that in such a competition, in order to become one of the top 100 chefs of Shandong cuisine, it can be said that the chefs who came to participate in the competition showed the greatest enthusiasm and seriousness.

Therefore, many times, a slight gap will lead to your failure.

For example, the disciples of several senior brothers were almost promoted.

Among them, Zhang Lei was the most disappointed.

He always felt that being able to follow his junior uncle to Shanghai City and spending a long time in the Shanghai City store was a great opportunity for him to gain experience.

My skills should be able to easily advance from the sub-competition area to the top 100 chefs.

In the end, he made a mistake and failed to advance.

After the game, Zhang Lei was also very disappointed. At one point he ran back home and didn't want to see anyone.

It was his master Li Huidong who went to his home specifically to give him some advice.

Li Huidong first affirmed Zhang Lei's craftsmanship.

"Leizi, you have made great progress. Master is very pleased with you. Master has only officially accepted you and Yang Peng as his disciples over the years. Both of you have not disappointed Master.

This competition is an experience for you. Everyone will have the same experience of failure as you are now.

So you can't just be discouraged, you have to cheer up, believe in your craft, and in a few years you can participate in more competitions, and you will succeed one day. "

It was the first time that Zhang Lei heard his master say these things to him.

For the first time, he felt recognized by his master.

Li Huidong's words finally helped his apprentice regain his confidence.

Similarly, some other young chefs under Feng Zhengming were also comforted by him and his senior brothers.

Let everyone cheer up and not give up because of this failure.

Feng Zhengming still gave everyone affirmation and said that it will be held again in three years, and everyone will have the opportunity to become one of the top 100 chefs in the new session.

Although only six young chefs from Feng Zhengming's company made it into the top 100.

But still envied by some people.

Some people even wondered if Feng Zhengming intentionally cheated in this regard?

But this voice was not able to spread.

After all, the judges for the three sub-divisions of competition are all professional judges invited from Beijing.

There are also senior masters in charge of reviewing. If there are any doubts, wouldn’t that mean that the national judges and the senior masters will also question it?
There was also a video recording of the event, from which it was not difficult to see that the six young chefs who advanced did have excellent skills.

The dishes cooked by the six of them can be said to have a crushing trend in the sub-competition area.

Although no one doubts the fairness.

But Cheng Guosheng and some master chefs were still not convinced by Feng Zhengming.

They have made up their minds to defeat all the chefs under Feng Zhengming's company in the top 100 competition.

In the end, they must challenge Feng Zhengming and defeat him, the national number one scholar, fairly.

Some people even secretly felt that this time the fig leaf of Feng Zhengming's title of national number one would be torn off.

Let everyone know that Feng Zhengming's title of top scholar is also for fame and reputation.

These people also selectively forgot that Feng Zhengming attended the state banquet commemorating the return of Hong Kong to China and designed the dish "Mountains and Rivers of the Motherland" which was collectively created by famous chefs across the country.

They would not even take seriously the miniature version of the motherland's mountains and rivers map made of real sea bream that Feng Zhengming displayed in Gangcheng seriously.

Many times jealousy can blind people's eyes.

This time, Feng Zhengming hosted such a large event and even received national recognition.

He can issue certificates to Shandong cuisine chefs who are older than him and have been in the industry longer than him.

In the eyes of many people, this is a violation of the order of seniority and a violation of traditional etiquette.

But it was because Feng Zhengming brought in so much sponsorship and made the competition so big.

This forced these people to come and participate in the competition.

Even some master chefs took the initiative to find Feng Zhengming to sign up.

He also said that he should be qualified to be directly invited into the top 100 as a celebrity chef.

Feng Zhengming also saved face for them at the beginning.

If it was really according to his idea, he didn't want to invite forty famous chefs at all. He was going to let all the chefs start from the regional competition together.

His original idea was to have four competition zones, and arrange all the chefs to compete in Quancheng first, and only the winners would enter the top 100.

But the old masters all felt that it was inappropriate. Some provincial leaders and the judges, including Master Hou who was invited from Beijing, also felt that they should give the master chefs some face.

That is why Feng Zhengming directly invited forty people, allowing famous chefs to directly advance to the top 100.

Everything is ready, and the International Shandong Cuisine Top 100 Master Chefs Competition officially begins with live recording by the provincial TV station.

On the day of the competition, there were quite a few spectators.

There were even quite a few people gathered outside the stadium.

More people are watching the live broadcast at home on TV.

The 100 famous Shandong cuisine chefs present at the event first selected the ingredients in public.

There is sufficient supply of various raw materials on site.

Without time constraints, the chefs can choose carefully, and most of them choose more expensive ingredients.

For example, Cheng Guosheng chose a big lobster.

Feng Zhengming noticed everyone's selection of ingredients. Although he was not very optimistic about the chefs choosing expensive ingredients, he did not interrupt them to express any opinions.

After some selection, Sun Hai finally chose pork elbow and sea cucumber.

Apparently his first dish was going to be braised sea cucumber elbow.

This is a very traditional Shandong dish.

This traditional dish has been able to remain popular for a long time, and it does have its advantages.

Xia Hui chose a mandarin fish, which looked like the flower basket mandarin fish that was going to be made into Confucius Mansion cuisine.

From the preparation of the first course.

It can be seen that the chefs under Feng Zhengming's company, including his six senior brothers, all focus on traditional Shandong cuisine.

Cheng Guosheng and some master chefs are more focused on making innovative Shandong dishes with their own creative ideas.

This was noticed by the veteran chefs and judges from Beijing.

Everyone felt that this scene was a bit strange.

Several master chefs are somewhat uneasy about their apprentices making innovative dishes.

Shandong cuisine does need innovation, but some innovative dishes may not be suitable for such competitions.

This is a Shandong cuisine competition, so it will focus more on the cooking of some classic Shandong dishes.

Of course, master chefs including Cheng Guosheng also use their skills to support this innovative dish.

In a competition like this, it's not too arrogant for them to come up with innovative dishes.

The competition in cooking skills became intense with the first dish.

The top 100 chefs have indeed brought out their own specialties.

Xia Hui’s flower basket mandarin fish is a very traditional Confucius Mansion dish.

The cooking method has been passed down and improved through generations.

Nowadays, the flower basket mandarin fish will be processed in the same way as the yellow croaker in soup. While ensuring the fish body is intact, the mandarin fish's internal organs will be taken out from the fish's mouth and the fish bones will also be removed.

After obtaining a whole mandarin fish, stuff some fried stuffing into the fish's mouth.

Of course, there is another difficulty in making this dish in Confucius cuisine.

That is to scrape off the fish skin after scalding it.

The cooking technique of Confucius Mansion cuisine is called "undressing mandarin fish".

The method is to blanch the surface of the mandarin fish in hot water at 80 degrees.

Then carefully scrape off the fish skin with a knife.

This process must be done carefully as the flesh under the skin of the fish must not be broken.

After scraping the fish skin clean, clean it, remove the bones and internal organs.

Then pour the fried stuffing into the fish's mouth.

Then make some cuts on the fish.

Because there is no fishbone support, the carving process requires considerable attention.

Not too deep nor too shallow.

Then place the ham slices that have been prepared to be cut into willow-leaf shapes on the blade of the pattern knife.

Then wrap the whole mandarin fish with lard.

Place it in the prepared puff pastry and wrap the mandarin fish with the puff pastry.

The puff pastry is also molded into the shape of a fish and then carved into it so that the outer puff pastry looks like a mandarin fish.

Then put the wrapped mandarin fish into the oven and bake.

You need to take it out in the middle and brush it with a layer of egg liquid so that the crispy crust will appear more beautiful golden when baked.

Xia Hui retains the most traditional approach in its cooking.

She also incorporated some of the things she learned at Feng Zhengming's Shanghai store.

For example, for the filling in the fish belly, Xia Hui combined some Cantonese stir-fry techniques to make a very fresh filling, adding some diced ham, diced chicken, diced bamboo shoots and vegetables to add some flavor to the fish.

For example, Xia Hui also wrapped a layer of sauce between the lard and the fish to add flavor to the fish.

Finally, for the puff pastry, Xia Hui did not follow the traditional method of throwing away most of the outer puff pastry after baking.

She followed Feng Zhengming's instructions and made some improvements to the puff pastry. She used the puff pastry recipe of a famous overseas steak dish, added flavor to the puff pastry, and even used butter to make it crispy.

The baked crispy outer layer is also edible.

After making these improvements, Xia Hui's Confucius Mansion Flower Basket Mandarin Fish dish looks different from the moment it is served.

Master Hou saw the trick and said with a smile that the method was indeed very innovative.

"Yes, she is the only female chef among the top 100 chefs this time. Her cooking skills are really good."

Then Master Hou looked at Master Xia and said, "This is your granddaughter, Master Xia. She also cooked the famous Confucius Mansion dish, Mandarin Fish in Flower Basket. It's really amazing."

Another judge from Beijing also said, "Yes, her technique in stripping the mandarin fish is great. The fish skin is stripped very cleanly without damaging the fish meat inside."

The other judges also praised Xia Hui, which made Master Xia look very proud.

"Xiaohui didn't learn these skills at home. She learned them outside from Zhengming."

Hearing what Master Xia said, a judge from Beijing looked at Feng Zhengming.

"So, this female chef is your apprentice, Feng Zhuangyuan?"

Feng Zhengming was stunned by this question.

Then I saw that everyone, including several veterans, were looking at me.

He thought about it and responded with a smile: "Yes, I am considered an apprentice, but I haven't officially become your disciple yet."

Feng Zhengming's reply made Master Xia very happy.

The other masters also had smiles on their faces.

Master Yan, in particular, felt that it was a good thing that Feng Zhengming acknowledged Xia Hui as his apprentice.

In the eyes of the old masters, Feng Zhengming is now ready to accept apprentices and there is no need to wait until he is 45 years old as he had said.

However, Feng Zhengming said that he did not formally become a disciple, which also showed his persistence.

Master Xia didn't care about this, because it was enough for Feng Zhengming to acknowledge that his granddaughter was his apprentice.

There is no formal apprenticeship, just Feng Zhengming's verbal recognition.

It will also be of great help to Xia Hui's future development.

Before Xia Hui's dish was finished, many chefs had already finished their dishes.

After all, Xia Hui's dish is a little more complicated.

Sun Hai’s braised sea cucumber elbow is also ready.

Sun Hai also made some improvements to the cooking method. The pork elbow was fried in oil, and Sun Hai also added some auxiliary ingredients when steaming it in a bowl.

As for the sea cucumber, Sun Hai also processed it using the method taught by Feng Zhengming.

This allows the sea cucumber to maintain a taste almost similar to that of the pork elbow.

Finally, the soup from the steamed pork elbow is used to thicken the dish, and the sea cucumber is also put in to cook.

Sun Hai also stuffed sea cucumbers with stuffing.

When serving, Sun Hai specifically sliced ​​the sea cucumber so that it can be eaten better with the pork elbow. (End of this chapter)