From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

The next day, the competition entered a rest day, which was also the day when all the chefs were busy preparing the scallion-fried sea cucumber.

Just like the abalone sauce in the Cantonese dish Abalone Sauce Rice and the scallion sauce in the Shandong dish Scallion-fried Sea Cucumber, they also need to be made with broth made from various ingredients, and then seasoned by different chefs.

Different chefs have some differences in the way they cook the soup.

Normally, the broth is made by stewing old chicken, pork bones and ham over high heat.

Perhaps from a nutritional perspective, this broth would be considered an unhealthy purine soup.

But in fact, soup is a very important seasoning in cooking in countries all over the world.

You can say soup is unhealthy, it's full of purine and has no nutritional value.

But using high-quality broth in cooking can make the dishes more delicious.

Zhu Xu, Sun Hai, Xia Hui and Guan Wei have been with Feng Zhengming in Shanghai for a long time, so they have been influenced by Feng Zhengming and Jiang Chengzhe. The way they make their broth is a combination of Shandong cuisine and Cantonese cuisine by Feng Zhengming and Jiang Chengzhe.

All four of them chose old chickens, shanks, and ham, and also added some soaked dried seafood.

The old chicken and bones that have been chopped into large pieces must first be fried and then stewed.

The way they cook the soup is actually somewhat similar to Cantonese abalone sauce.

The difference is that Feng Zhengming and Jiang Chengzhe combine their techniques and also add a lot of leftover scallions and ginger from frying.

Especially Zhangqiu scallions, the most important ingredient in Shandong cuisine, are added in large quantities.

This is the only way to ensure that the broth contains a rich onion aroma.

Gu Zhicheng and Xia Mingye’s way of cooking soup is more traditional.

The ingredients are similar, except that they don’t add a lot of dried seafood. They also add leftover scallion and ginger scraps from frying, as well as a lot of green onions to make soup.

Different chefs have different soup recipes.

The main ingredients are the same, but adding some spices will make the dish different.

The amount of spices used also varies from chef to chef.

So the TV station also filmed the soup-making process on site.

But in reality, not much real tricks were revealed.

Feng Zhengming, the masters and the judges observed the scene together.

Coffman and Feng Zhengming had some exchanges.

"Feng, do you need to filter the soup stock?"

Feng Zhengming explained with a smile: "Of course they will filter it, because this soup is used as the base soup for scallion sauce, so they will not process it further.

If you are making some top-notch clear soup dishes, you will also need to sweep the stewed broth.

The soup should be cleaned until it is as clear as tea."

Coffman: "Oh, I know that. Didn't you demonstrate it in Hong Kong? That technique is really powerful."

Feng Zhengming: "In fact, if you master the skills, sweeping the soup is not that difficult."

Kofman asked again: "I noticed that they all use a lot of your local green onions. I have also tasted your local green onions and they do taste different. Why do they use so much green onions?"

Feng Zhengming explained: "Because their soup is made with scallion sauce, the key to scallion sauce is the scallion flavor, so when cooking the soup, they need to add a certain amount of scallions.

In fact, there is another way to give the soup a scallion flavor, which is to fry the scallion oil, and then steam the fried scallions and oil together.

It can better stimulate the onion flavor. Finally, when the onion sauce is out of the pot, adding oil into it can also stimulate the onion flavor. "

Coffman smiled and gave a suggestion: "In fact, you can also add vegetables from our Western cuisine into the soup to add some vegetable and fruit flavor to the soup, which can also remove the taste of those ingredients."

Feng Zhengming: “Yes, it is true. In many places, our cooking methods are common.

However, adding vegetables often changes the taste of scallion sauce, so generally vegetables are not added to the soup when cooking scallion sauce, but I will add a little bit. "

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, Kofman immediately looked at him with a smile.

"Feng, you are always so bold. Many of your dishes are creative and you dare to try."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "In your words, a chef can also be considered an artist. Shouldn't an artist be creative and have the courage to try out his own ideas?"

Kofman agreed with Feng Zhengming.

"Yes, our chefs are culinary artists in the kitchen. On the one hand, we have to make sure our customers are well fed, and on the other hand, we have to make sure our customers enjoy the beauty of our dishes at the same time."

Feng Zhengming: "The most important thing is to make sure our customers have enough to eat. Our domestic economic environment has only gradually improved in recent years. I hope everyone can have enough to eat."

Kofman also agreed with Feng Zhengming's point.

"Yes, eating is the first priority. Customers who come to our store should be able to enjoy the satisfaction brought by food."

The conversation between Feng Zhengming and Kofman aroused the curiosity of the masters and judges from Beijing.

But no one could understand much and could only watch them communicate in a foreign language.

Master Cui asked Master Yan curiously.

"When did Zhengming become so good at foreign languages?"

Master Yan shook his head: "I don't know either. Maybe he has been traveling a lot in recent years, so he took the time to learn some foreign languages. Besides, he has communicated a lot with some foreign chefs, so it is indeed easy for him to learn foreign languages."

Master Wang next to him interjected: "Yes, the language learning environment is very important. There are many foreigners in Zhengming's Hucheng store, so it is indeed easier for him to learn foreign languages."

Several old masters couldn't help but feel a little envious, thinking that it was really good to be able to communicate with others in a foreign language.

The old masters all went abroad to participate in some exchange activities in those days.

But they didn't know foreign languages ​​at that time and needed to communicate through translators.

So when they go abroad for exchanges, many of the things they want to communicate cannot be communicated well.

Now we see Feng Zhengming and Kofman communicating smoothly.

The old chefs all feel that Feng Zhengming’s ability to communicate with overseas chefs in a foreign language really allows them to have better conversations and explain their ideas to each other.

Feng Zhengming and Kofman continued chatting.

"I think that a lot of times, there are certain misunderstandings between our country and your country, or should I say some bias. Some people who don't really understand make some non-authentic Chinese food in your country, which leads you to misunderstand."

Coffman agreed with Feng Zhengming's statement: "Yes, many Western restaurants in your country have the same problem."

Feng Zhengming smiled. “So the reason I invited you here this time is to let you see some of the cooking processes of our Shandong cuisine so as to break some of the misunderstandings in the past.”

Kofman nodded: "This kind of communication is very good. This visit really allows me to better understand your Chinese cuisine."

All morning, the chefs in the competition cooked soup.

This base soup is crucial for the scallion sauce that follows.

Each chef brings out their own unique twist.

It can be said that this pot of soup embodies the experience and abilities of the top 100 Shandong cuisine chefs present.

While watching, Feng Zhengming told Kofman a story.

"In the past, there was a very special Shandong cuisine restaurant in our capital. The owner of that restaurant would get up before dawn every day to make soup. The dishes he made in his restaurant every day were determined by the amount of soup he cooked every day.

As long as that pot of soup is used up, the boss will close the business and never cook again.

But the restaurant was doing very good business, and everyone in the capital praised the owner's cooking skills.

Later, the emperor in the palace heard about this and sent someone to find the chef.

The chef was invited to the palace to cook a meal, but at that time, people were not allowed to bring their own ingredients. This made the chef very worried, because without good soup, the dishes he cooked might not be better than those cooked by the imperial chef in the palace.

Coffman found this very interesting.

He asked curiously: "What method did the chef use?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and continued, "After thinking all night, the chef came up with a solution. He cooked the soup in advance, filtered it out, and then used a piece of cloth to absorb the soup into the cloth.

Then she took the cloth to the palace to cook.

After entering the palace, he used a bowl of clean water to soak out the soup from the cloth, and used that bowl of soup to cook.

Afterwards, he won the favor of the emperor in the palace, and the emperor gave him many rewards.

He only took the gold and silver awarded by the emperor, refused to stay in the palace, and left the capital as soon as he left the palace.

After hearing Feng Zhengming's story, Kofman was stunned at first.

After thinking about it, Kofman understood the meaning of Feng Zhengming's story.

“Hahaha, Feng, you mean that the soup of Shandong cuisine chefs is very important, right?”

Feng Zhengming nodded: "We have an old saying in our country, the singing voice is like the cooking soup."

Coffman agrees: “Soup is really an important thing.”

It was almost noon, and the chefs who had been busy all morning had almost finished cleaning up.

However, the chefs did not turn off the fire, they just adjusted it to the lowest setting.

Next, you need to slowly stew this pot of soup.

Feng Zhengming immediately asked the event staff to prepare lunch and send it over.

Lunch was also prepared in advance and was cooked by someone arranged by Master Xia.

The dishes are also very rich, and the chefs are committed to ensuring that everyone can eat well and be full.

At lunch, Feng Zhengming, the master chefs, and the judges also ate with the chefs.

It's just that there seems to be a clear distinction between the two sides.

Everyone still abides by a tacit understanding and tries not to communicate with each other.

To prevent people from accusing them of secretly giving instructions.

The person who was being watched most closely was naturally Feng Zhengming.

Some of the master chefs, such as Cheng Guosheng, were obviously worried that Feng Zhengming would take the opportunity to impart his experience to the young chefs.

However, Feng Zhengming had no intention of teaching anything. He and Kofman chatted while eating, and Feng Zhengming acted as a translator to help Kofman communicate with the masters.

After lunch, a staff member came to find Feng Zhengming.

"Feng Zhuangyuan, several sponsors' bosses are here and they want to meet you."

Feng Zhengming was stunned for a moment, but soon understood why the bosses were looking for him.

The news that the chef in the competition was making scallion-fried sea cucumber must have spread, and the bosses of the sponsors also wanted to try it.

Feng Zhengming said this to Kofman, the masters, and the judges.

Then he followed the staff and left the kitchen to prepare ingredients.

When Feng Zhengming returned to the hotel, he saw that the tycoon who sponsored Australia City was also there.

Seeing Feng Zhengming, the other party smiled and greeted him actively.

"Hello, Mr. Feng."

Feng Zhengming quickly stepped forward and shook hands with the other party: "Hello, I didn't expect you to come all the way here."

"Hahaha, I watched some reports on TV and felt that your match was really well organized, so I made a special trip to come and take a look."

Feng Zhengming: "Welcome, welcome. Having you here really makes our game more impressive."

"I heard that in tomorrow's competition, the second dish will be a famous Shandong dish, braised sea cucumber with scallions?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, scallion-fried sea cucumber, please try it when the time comes."

"Okay, okay, it seems I came at the right time. I can try the Shandong cuisine's scallion-fried sea cucumber. Does it taste the same as the one you, the top scholar, made?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and said: "There is a difference. The taste of scallion-fried sea cucumber made by each chef will be different."

The Australian tycoon was surprised: "Each chef has a different taste?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, scallion-fried sea cucumber is the threshold for a Shandong cuisine chef. If a Shandong cuisine chef wants to become a master chef, scallion-fried sea cucumber is a must-try dish."

Hearing this, the Australian city tycoon became even more excited.

"Well, I came at the right time."

Feng Zhengming then arranged for the tycoon who came from Australia City to stay in the hotel. In the afternoon, he accompanied him to stroll around Qufu and visit the Confucius Mansion and Confucius Temple.

Over at the competition, the masters and judges were watching, and after a busy period, all the chefs were finally ready.

Some chefs will dip the already soaked sea cucumber into the prepared soup.

Some chefs will stew the sea cucumber separately with the cooked soup.

These steps are all for seasoning the sea cucumber in advance.

It is indeed difficult to flavor sea cucumbers, so if you don’t give them enough flavor in advance, the flavor of the scallion-fried sea cucumber will only be on the surface.

After Feng Zhengming finished accompanying the Australian City tycoon on the tour, he sent him back to his hotel room to rest.

He rushed back to the kitchen to prepare ingredients.

All the chefs' preparations here are basically completed.

The final sealing was carried out in the presence of the masters and judges.

The next step is to wait for the official competition tomorrow.

It will depend on the results of the chefs' busy day.

Feng Zhengming did not interfere too much. After the scene was almost sealed off, he reunited with his six senior brothers and the young chefs under him.

"How's it going? Looks like you're all well prepared?"

Fourth Senior Brother Wang Jialiang was the first to speak: "Zhengming, this competition you organized has given us a big problem. Can we just fry the scallions and sea cucumbers?"

Feng Zhengming laughed when he heard this: "Hahaha, from what Fourth Brother said, it seems like it wasn't done well?"

Wang Jialiang glared at him: "Who said it's not done? Can a scallion-fried sea cucumber stump me?"

Third Senior Brother Yang Bin immediately interrupted with a smile: "Look, Fourth Brother, you were set up by Zhengming, right? Zhengming provoked you with his words and you just told the truth."

Everyone burst into laughter at once.

After laughing heartily, Feng Zhengming looked at the young chefs under him.

"How are you guys? Are you feeling the pressure?"

Several people looked at each other first, and then all nodded to indicate that they were under a lot of pressure.

Feng Zhengming encouraged: "It's okay, just do your best and treat it as a chef exam."

This made all the young chefs take their work seriously, and they regarded this pressure as an incentive for growth. (End of this chapter)