From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

The official competition began on the second day.

Although they had made sufficient preparations the day before, the chefs still did not dare to relax at all during the competition.

Everyone had already prepared the scallion sauce yesterday.

But we still need to roast sea cucumbers today.

You need to choose good white sections of Zhangqiu scallions.

First, fry it in oil to bring out the aroma.

Frying onions also requires good control of oil temperature and heat.

Use low heat to fry slowly to bring out the onion aroma.

The fried scallion segments need to be steamed with oil.

In another pot, use the scallion oil that was steamed with the scallion segments to stir-fry some new scallion segments. After the scallion aroma is brought out, you can add the sea cucumber and scallion sauce.

The next step is a process of slowly collecting the juice.

The scallion sauce should be thick enough to stick to the surface of the sea cucumber.

This process also requires precise control of the heat.

Before serving, drizzle with the oil used to steam the scallions.

Then take the sea cucumber out of the pot separately and place it on a plate, then place the scallion segments and sea cucumber together, and finally pour the scallion sauce in the pot on the surface.

It seems like every chef does it almost the same way.

It seems that there is nothing that can be done to make this dish in any new way.

But the masters present and the judges from Beijing were all aware that the difference had been determined yesterday.

Whether this scallion-fried sea cucumber is delicious or not, the most important steps actually took place yesterday.

Feng Zhengming also explained this to Kofman.

Kofman was a little surprised: "Oh? Feng, then yesterday was very important?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, yesterday was very important to every chef. The differences between their scallion-fried sea cucumbers were reflected in yesterday's preparation. You will feel it when you taste it later."

Many audience members were also curious, as they could not tell the difference just by watching the chefs’ actions.

“Is this done?”

“It feels like they all do pretty much the same thing.”

"Yes, it seems that this is how you cook sea cucumber with scallions. There are no special tricks."

"It's different. Some chefs serve it with two scallions."

"Hahaha, does it make a difference if it's paired with two green onions?"

"It's different. Haven't you tried what Feng Zhuangyuan cooked?"

"Did Feng Zhuangyuan do something different?"

"Of course. When I went to Shanghai, I went to Feng Zhuangyuan's restaurant and ate there. If you want to eat Feng Zhuangyuan's scallion-fried sea cucumber, you need to make an appointment in advance. You have to wait for Feng Zhuangyuan to confirm and release the menu in advance, and then you need to make a reservation."

“Is it really that delicious?”

"It's really delicious. It tastes different from the restaurants in Quancheng."

"I've tried it once, too. It's really delicious, especially the sauce. I wish I could eat three bowls of rice with it."

"Is it that exaggerated?"

"You haven't eaten it yet. You will know after you have eaten it."

"I've tried Jufengde's scallion-fried sea cucumber, and it tastes really good."

"Let's see today's competition. Which chef makes the most delicious scallion-fried sea cucumber?"

The audience at the scene were indeed very curious. One hundred chefs were all making scallion-fried sea cucumbers. How much difference would there be in the results of their cooking?
Finally, the chefs were almost done and it was time for tasting.

The judges were divided into several groups to taste and score the scallion-fried sea cucumbers prepared by hundreds of chefs.

The most traditional way to eat scallion-fried sea cucumber is to eat it with a piece of scallion.

In order to make it easier for the judges to taste the food, the chefs will also cut the sea cucumbers on site.

Similarly, the green onions will be cut into small pieces so that they can be eaten together with sea cucumbers.

Feng Zhengming specially invited Kofman to taste the scallion-fried sea cucumber made by several of his senior brothers.

As for the young chefs under him, they were handed over to more professional masters for tasting.

Following the chef's habit, Kofman first dipped the dishes in a little scallion sauce and tasted them.

Soon he could taste the difference in the flavor of the scallion-fried sea cucumber prepared by different chefs and the scallion sauce.

"Feng, it really is different. Each of them has a different taste for the scallion sauce."

Feng Zhengming smiled and nodded: "Yes, the dish of scallion-fried sea cucumber may seem to have no difference in making, but the taste of the scallion sauce will be very different when made by different chefs."

The tycoon from Australia City was also a little surprised after tasting it.

“This is very similar to the abalone sauce in Cantonese cuisine.”

Feng Zhengming replied: "Yes, the method is similar to abalone sauce. Some chefs even add abalone to the scallion sauce to enhance the flavor."

After Feng Zhengming said this, Kofman, the Australian City Tycoon, and several other judges tasted the food again and found that indeed, some of the delicious abalone could be tasted in the scallion sauce.

After a round of tasting, it can be said that the scallion sauces made by Feng Zhengming's six senior brothers all have different tastes.

After tasting Cheng Guosheng's scallion sauce, Feng Zhengming also tasted it carefully this time.

After tasting it, Feng Zhengming roughly guessed what Cheng Guosheng had added, but he did not point it out in front of so many people.

Compared with senior brother Feng Zhengming, Cheng Guosheng’s scallion sauce tastes a little sweeter.

This sweetness is not the kind created by sugar.

This slight sweetness really makes Cheng Guosheng's scallion sauce more flavorful.

But being too sweet can also have a fatal problem.

That is easy to make people feel bored.

Therefore, Feng Zhengming can make a very intuitive judgment.

Cheng Guosheng's sweet scallion sauce will make customers willing to eat it at first, but his scallion sauce will probably be left over.

Seasoning can sometimes seem very metaphysical.

Because different people have different tastes.

It is very difficult to create a taste that most people will like.

It takes a long time to study the balanced ratio of sour, sweet and salty.

For example, another very important point of the scallion sauce for scallion-fried sea cucumber is the scallion flavor.

If the onion flavor is too light, you may not be able to taste it in the final juice.

But if the onion aroma is too strong, it will steal the flavor of the entire juice.

Striking the balance between all of this is something a chef may need to ponder carefully throughout his life.

So many times, you ask a master chef or a veteran chef to give you a recipe with accurate proportions.

They can indeed give it to you, but the taste of what you make according to the recipe may be slightly different from what they make themselves.

This difference will be considered by many people as the experience of the old masters.

But in reality, is there any experience that can last forever?

However, when the master chefs and experienced chefs are seasoning the food, they will also want to taste it themselves.

After tasting it, I will compare the taste with my memory of it over the years.

When comparing the two, there will be some very subtle adjustments.

It is this little adjustment that makes the taste and recipe different. So this is why, in many cases, if you want to learn a classic dish well, you need to find a famous chef to learn from.

It doesn’t mean that you can’t cook dishes by looking at recipes of famous chefs without learning from them.

Rather, it is something that comes from experience. If you don’t follow a famous chef and watch, learn and taste the food in person, it is difficult to form a memory of the taste.

Without this taste memory point, cooking according to proportion will always be lacking a little bit.

But just a little bit can create a huge gap.

As the saying goes, a slight error can lead to a great mistake.

After tasting, the remaining scallion-fried sea cucumber was distributed to the audience.

This made the audience who came to watch the game feel that they had made the right decision.

"Hahaha, that's great. As expected of our top scholar, he will share the dishes from the competition with us to try."

"Oh, don't say that, this sea cucumber is delicious when it's roasted."

"I've cooked it at home before, but I always feel like the fishy smell of sea cucumbers is hard to get rid of. This one really doesn't have any fishy smell at all."

"Hahaha, there are 100 chefs here, all of them are the best Shandong cuisine chefs. If they can't get rid of the fishy smell, wouldn't it be too embarrassing?"

"It's delicious. I ate both and they were delicious, but they tasted different."

"Yeah, I ate two too, and it's obvious that they taste different."

"It seems that it is not easy to make scallion-fried sea cucumber."

At this time, after the chefs in the competition left the stage one after another, Feng Zhengming told the audience some ways to cook at home.

"Everyone, I'm sure you would like to try making sea cucumbers at home, right?"

When this question was asked, everyone at the scene naturally responded in unison: "Yes."

Feng Zhengming then told everyone how to dry sea cucumbers.

A lot of details were explained in detail, including what kind of water to use for soaking hair.

Finally, Feng Zhengming also taught everyone the simplest way to add flavor.

"You can make some chicken soup yourself during the last soaking. Make sure to filter it clean, then fry the scallions, put the scallions and oil into the chicken soup and steam it. After the aroma comes out, soak the sea cucumber in it.

After the final soaking, the sea cucumber will absorb some of the flavor of the chicken soup, and when you cook it later, it will definitely be very tasty.”

After teaching everyone this method, Feng Zhengming then asked the staff to arrange for the audience to leave one after another.

Then it was time for him and the judges to make a difficult decision.

The second dish is both scallion-fried sea cucumber, so it is not easy to rate it.

Each chef is given a sea cucumber for the final judging.

When the discussion began, Master Cui first mentioned his young chefs to Feng Zhengming.

"Zhengming, the young chefs under you cooked this scallion-fried sea cucumber really well. It's obvious that they put a lot of effort into it. You must have taught them very well."

Feng Zhengming laughed when he heard this: "Master Cui, please don't praise me. In fact, I haven't had time to teach them yet."

When these words were spoken, everyone present was stunned.

Then they couldn't help laughing.

Coffman still doesn't quite understand what's going on?

Feng Zhengming explained to Kofman in a low voice.

"Generally speaking, in Shandong cuisine, the dish of sea cucumber with scallions is something that the master will teach you only after you have formally become his apprentice."

After listening to Feng Zhengming's explanation, Kofman immediately understood and started laughing.

Master Su reminded: "Then Zhengming, you can take in apprentices. The young chefs under you are all very good. It would be great if you could take in one or two of them as apprentices."

Master Yan suddenly asked, "By the way, has Sun Hai become your disciple?"

Feng Zhengming nodded and reminded: "Yes, Sun Hai has become the apprentice of the third senior brother."

Master Yan suddenly realized: "No wonder, among the young chefs, we tasted and found that only Sun Hai's scallion sauce is the best."

This point was also unanimously recognized by other masters.

Feng Zhengming simply tasted the scallion sauce made by all the young chefs.

Among them are several of his subordinates, as well as young chefs who advanced through three sub-competition areas.

There were only about twenty people in total.

After tasting their scallion sauce, Feng Zhengming agreed with his master's judgment.

"Yes, Sun Hai's is the best one. The scallion sauce made by other young chefs is quite different in taste."

Master Hou said with a smile: "It's good that they can do this. After all, they are still very young and haven't really settled down and studied this scallion sauce thoroughly yet."

The dish of braised sea cucumber with scallions is indeed a bit unfair to young chefs.

Not to mention the forty master chefs who were invited directly into the top 100.

The older chefs who advanced from the three sub-competition zones also have certain advantages in the dish of braised sea cucumber with scallions.

Finally, after some comparison, some judgments were made on the flavor of the sea cucumbers and the presentation of the dishes.

The dish that received the highest score, the scallion-fried sea cucumber, belonged to Feng Zhengming’s senior brother Li Huidong.

When scoring, everyone scores after shuffling the scores.

When the scores were announced, everyone was really surprised.

Feng Zhengming was not surprised. His senior brother has always been very low-key. He has kept a low profile for so many years and often did not show any intention of competing.

Before Yan Xi Lou closed down, it was clear that the eldest senior brother had already contracted the brewery canteen.

He has already accepted a disciple and can leave Yan Xilou to work on his own.

But the eldest brother still often goes back to Yan Xilou’s kitchen to help.

This is to prevent the master from working too hard.

For a period of time before Yan Xi Lou closed down, it was basically the eldest brother who was in charge of cooking.

Just like the current Huiquanlou, the eldest brother takes over the cooking duties in the kitchen instead of Feng Zhengming.

So no matter from which aspect you look at it, Senior Brother Li Huidong has very impressive skills.

No one paid attention to Li Huidong in the past.

But this time, Li Huidong proved himself in front of everyone with this dish of braised sea cucumber with scallions.

"I knew that my senior brother would not lose. His skills have always been very good, but he is even more low-key than me and is unwilling to show it."

Hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the judges present all looked at Master Yan.

Master Cui smiled and said, "Old Yan, you are better than any of us at teaching apprentices."

Master Yan is naturally very proud of his apprentices.

But he was still humble.

"These achievements are the result of their own hard work. I just led them in."

Feng Zhengming said immediately: "Without you leading us into this, we would not have achieved this, so we still have to thank you for your teachings."

Master Yan quickly waved his hands and said, "Alright, alright, don't provoke them in front of your uncles and uncles."

These words made all the old masters burst into laughter.

Several old masters pretended to be jealous: "Okay, you masters and apprentices are jealous of us together."

Feng Zhengming glanced at the score of the dish "Scallion-fried Sea Cucumber".

The second-best scorer is Cheng Guosheng. (End of this chapter)