From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

The dish "scallion oil pork kidney" uses pork kidney and pork liver as ingredients.

Because the liver is associated with dryness, in the past when agriculture was the main industry, farmers would avoid dryness and worry that drought would affect their harvest.

Therefore, in some places, to avoid using the word "pig liver," it is referred to as "pig run."

This dish at Feng Zhengming's Hongcheng branch is a modified version of the original Jiangxi cuisine.

In the past, when Yu Fuxiang made this dish, because it was a "street food" style, he wouldn't make fancy cuts; he would basically just slice the pork kidneys and liver together and stir-fry them.

Feng Zhengming, however, did not follow that approach casually; he incorporated techniques from the Shandong cuisine's stir-fried pork kidneys.

The pork kidneys were scored with a crisscross pattern, but instead of a wheat-ear pattern, they were scored with straight cuts and then cut into small strips.

The pork liver is sliced ​​so thinly that it looks almost the same as the pork kidney.

When making this dish, Feng Zhengming also incorporated the Shandong cuisine technique of stir-frying scallions.

The pork kidneys and liver are fried separately in oil, and then quickly stir-fried with scallion oil before being served.

Unlike Shandong cuisine, the scallion oil pork loin at this restaurant is not thickened with cornstarch, and the sauce is mainly sour and spicy.

Master Xiong and his fellow local chefs, including Du Liangsheng, ate this dish.

The sour and spicy flavor immediately struck me as incredibly appetizing and perfect with rice.

Finally, someone couldn't resist and asked for rice.

Unlike Feng Zhengming's other shops, the rice at Hongcheng's shop is free, thanks to the relatively high rice yield in Jiangxi Province.

As soon as I raised my hand to ask for rice, the waiter immediately came over and pointed to the large rice pot next to the tableware not far away.

"If you want rice, you can get it yourself over there. Our rice is free, but please don't waste it."

After saying this, the waiter turned around and went back to serving other customers.

Master Xiong and Du Liangsheng looked at each other in bewilderment.

They really didn't know what to say for a moment.
However, the store was already packed with people, and there were still many people queuing outside.

Feng Zhengming even came out and asked the waiters to set up temporary tables at the entrance so that some people could sit down and eat, while others could take their food to go.

As noon approached, the store was packed with people both inside and out.

Du Liangsheng couldn't help but exclaim, "There are just too many people!"

The other chefs were also very shocked.

A chef who returned with a bowl of rice said, "They've gone through three huge pots of rice already. This is absolutely insane."

Master Xiong exclaimed, "As expected of Scholar Feng, his skills are far beyond our reach."

By this time, Master Xiong and his group had already eaten quite a bit of food.

I was truly captivated by every dish in the restaurant.

It can be said that every dish is the taste of their hometown from their memories.

This flavor is probably etched on the tongue of every person from Jiangxi Province.

This spicy bite truly brings back the taste of home.

Master Xiong's table had the most dishes served.

Many other diners who come alone usually only need to order one dish.

Some people can even eat two bowls of rice with just one piece of braised pork.

Du Liangsheng couldn't help but mutter, "If the rice is free, won't this restaurant lose money?"

Master Xiong: "We definitely won't lose money. Our rice production here is still quite large. Besides, even though the rice is unlimited, you still have to spend a dollar to buy a bowl, right?"

One chef did the math: "This piece of pork costs one yuan. If you spend another yuan on a bowl and then eat half a pot of rice, wouldn't that be a huge profit?"

These words made Master Xiong laugh in anger.

"Have you never eaten before? You want to eat half a pot of rice with just one piece of braised pork?"

Du Liangsheng and the other chefs also laughed.

Master Xiong: "Where are there so many big eaters who have nothing better to do than come here and eat rice?"
Feng Zhuangyuan's restaurant is priced affordably so that many ordinary people can afford to eat there. I believe those competitive eaters wouldn't deliberately come to cause trouble.

At this point, everyone present, including Du Liangsheng, felt the pressure.

Although Feng Zhengming doesn't run a restaurant, he doesn't seem to pose much of a threat to them.

But seeing how booming business was at Feng Zhengming's newly opened store.

It's impossible to say that you're completely without jealousy.

Which chef doesn't want their restaurant to be packed with customers?

Master Xiong noticed that the dishes on the table had been almost finished.

“Everyone looks like they’ve finished eating, so we should leave and let them do their business at the table.”

It seemed that Feng Zhengming suddenly appeared when he saw that Master Xiong and the others were about to leave.

"Has everyone finished eating? How did you find the food?"

When Master Xiong saw Feng Zhengming appear, he asked them if they had finished eating and how they thought the food was.

He realized almost instantly what Feng Zhengming was going to do.

"Scholar Feng, how much is our meal?"

When Master Xiong spoke up, Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "Oh, this meal isn't expensive. Our restaurant focuses on affordability."

With that said, Feng Zhengming still quoted the price to Master Xiong.

Other chefs heard that Feng Zhengming had actually made a price quote.

He didn't even bother to say that the meal was on his behalf.

Du Liangsheng didn't say much, and took out his wallet to pay for the meal.

Feng Zhengming didn't refuse at all; he took the money and even gave Du Liangsheng change.

"Thank you, Master Du. You are all welcome to come anytime you have time."

After leaving the shop, one of the chefs couldn't help but mutter, "This Feng Zhengming, he actually charged us?"

Du Liangsheng: "Shouldn't we charge him? Last time we treated him to dinner, he ended up paying the bill, didn't he? None of you said you'd pay the bill."

These words left the other chefs speechless.

A hint of guilt appeared on each of their faces.

Master Xiong: "They were trying to do business with us. They originally wanted to build a good relationship with us, but we didn't take them seriously, so they stopped trying to build a good relationship with us."

After Master Xiong said that, some other chefs, especially a few from the Jiangxi Provincial Chefs Association, felt that there was no need to cultivate a good relationship with Feng Zhengming.

"He does his business, and we do ours. We operate in different directions, so there's no need to talk about personal relationships."

"That's right, it's impossible for Feng Zhengming to voluntarily go to our Jiangxi Provincial Chefs Association."

Du Liangsheng was speechless for a moment.

He couldn't help but think: You guys are really audacious. He's the kind of person who can become the president of the Chefs' Association. What's he doing at the Jiangxi Provincial Chefs' Association? If he really comes, will you just hand over the presidency to him?

Du Liangsheng didn't bother to say anything more and left with Master Xiong first.

After Master Xiong and Du Liangsheng left, the remaining chefs looked at each other in bewilderment, and then they all left as well.

Feng Zhengming's new store in Hongcheng was a great success on its opening day.

In the following days, his shop quickly became famous in Hongcheng.

Almost every local praises the food at this restaurant.

By lunchtime, the way friends greeted each other on the street had changed.

Where should we eat?

"Where else can we go? It's Zhengluxing."

"Haha, I'm going too, let's go together."

"The food at Zhenglu Xing is really good." "You bet! Even though the braised pork, pork hock, pig's trotters, and four-happiness meatballs are all Shandong dishes, they taste almost exactly the same as what we have here!"

"The chef's skills are really good."

"The chef's skills are definitely excellent; the owner is a national culinary champion."

"Yes, yes, with such skills, it's no wonder the boss was the top scorer in the country."

"What I mean is, he's clearly a Shandong cuisine chef, so how come he knows our local tastes so well?"

"They must have eaten a lot of local food to understand our local tastes."

"By the way, the chef he hired is Chef Yu, who is also very famous."

"Master Yu's cooking skills are truly exceptional; I used to eat at his restaurant frequently."

"This shows that the national culinary champion is indeed very capable and knows how to recognize and utilize talent."

Because of its growing reputation, coupled with reports from local television stations and newspapers.

Naturally, this attracted more and more people to the branch stores.

People from other parts of Jiangxi Province who come to the provincial capital to make a living especially like this shop.

Firstly, the taste is appealing to them, and secondly, the price is acceptable to them.

Most importantly, this store did not discriminate against them in the slightest.

Some people had worked all day and were covered in dirt, but the waiters still let them in and let them sit down and eat as they pleased.

Sometimes, people who are a bit dirty are embarrassed and will say they want to take their food to go when they come into the store.

Then, after buying the food, we went outside the store and sat down on the curb to eat.

Seeing this, Feng Zhengming asked the waiter to prepare some small stools.

This allows people who are too embarrassed to eat in the store to sit on the stools outside and eat.

Feng Zhengming's arrangement has also made his store more popular.

This naturally gave him a very good reputation.

Seeing the store doing well made Luo Qing the happiest person.

She arrived early this time to conduct thorough investigations of the local area.

Even though I was already feeling hot from eating too much food, I still insisted on learning about the locals' tastes and trying out those small street restaurants that were popular with the locals.

It was precisely because Luo Qing conducted such a thorough investigation that Feng Zhengming was able to open the branch store so smoothly.

That's how Feng Zhengming found such a good chef as Yu Fuxiang to take charge of the cooking.

So Feng Zhengming has been praising his wife's abilities these past few days.

Luo Qing was overjoyed to see that all her efforts had paid off.

This time, she finally accomplished something for her husband herself.

In the past, Luo Qing often stayed by her husband's side.

She seemed to be involved in many things, but in reality, she didn't play a significant role.

This time was different. Without Luo Qing's extensive preliminary research data, Feng Zhengming's store could not have become so popular as soon as it opened.

Therefore, seeing the store doing well gave Luo Qing great satisfaction.

Feng Zhengming stayed in Hongcheng for a few more days with his wife and daughter.

It can be said that he gave his wife a great sense of satisfaction from her success.

Then he held one last meeting with everyone at the branch.

For this meeting, Feng Zhengming even had his wife preside over it.

Luo Qing was already very experienced, and she didn't waste any words. She sincerely expressed her gratitude for everyone's hard work and also sincerely thanked Yu Fuxiang for joining the company, handing over some of the subsequent tasks of the store to Yu Fuxiang.

Although Luo Qing didn't say much specifics, everyone was satisfied with her trust in them.

Yu Fuxiang, in particular, felt that his business had truly experienced a second spring since the business opened.

After his wife finished speaking, Feng Zhengming also offered some words of encouragement to everyone.

He simply instructed Yu Fuxiang, Gao Yongfu, and Hou Dong to cooperate well, especially to ensure the quality of procurement and cooking.

Yu Fuxiang, Gao Yongfu, and Hou Dong were all well aware of this.

The store's business is so good now mainly because of its excellent reputation.

To maintain a good reputation, it is essential to ensure stability in all aspects of procurement and cooking.

Yu Fuxiang also learned a lot from Feng Zhengming.

He greatly admired Feng Zhengming's grasp of the local people's taste preferences.

Another point is Feng Zhengming's unique style in technique.

Yu Fuxiang used to think that Feng Zhengming was particularly good at preparing banquets, or at cooking official Shandong cuisine, but he certainly didn't know much about local cuisine.

But this time, Feng Zhengming made Yu Fuxiang understand what it means to draw inferences from one instance to another.

When it comes to making Sichuan-style dishes, Feng Zhengming's skills are absolutely top-notch.

Even if it's not a cuisine he's good at, or a seasoning he's used to, he can still handle it very well.

Yu Fuxiang even believes that Feng Zhengming's branch in Hongcheng will completely change the landscape of Jiangxi cuisine.

Furthermore, the impact will gradually spread from Jiangxi Province to surrounding areas, and even the cuisines of other regions may be affected.

After giving his instructions, Feng Zhengming and his wife, along with their daughter, said goodbye to everyone.

Then he completely trusted everyone in the store and didn't even send anyone else to manage the accounts.

They went straight back to Shanghai.

Feng Zhengming and his wife brought their daughter back to Shanghai, and he rushed back to the old villa restaurant that same day.

During his absence, Xia Hui and several young chefs were in charge of the restaurant's kitchen.

Thanks to Xia Hui's presence, the quality of the restaurant's dishes did not decline.

Moreover, Feng Zhengming arranged for several young chefs, each specializing in the cuisine they had learned.

This also gives restaurant guests the experience of different cuisines.

Therefore, the restaurant's reputation did not decline due to Feng Zhengming's absence.

On the contrary, his absence has given people more choices of different cuisines, and his reputation continues to rise.

Many of his fellow chefs in Shanghai also admire him greatly.

I admire Feng Zhengming's skill in employing people.

They are a group of young chefs, but they are able to shoulder great responsibilities.

Feng Zhengming also dared to let them try.

If it were any other master chef, they might not dare to delegate everything to a young chef like this.

In fact, the first thing Feng Zhengming did upon returning to Shanghai was to go back to the old villa restaurant.

It's also because he wasn't entirely at ease or confident.

Fortunately, the restaurant is operating stably, and everyone in the kitchen is doing their job.

All of this pleased Feng Zhengming greatly.

"It seems you're all becoming more and more like master chefs. You're managing the restaurant very well even when I'm not around, so I can be more at ease and go do other things in the future."

Hearing Feng Zhengming's voice, everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing him return.

During the days he was away from the kitchen, everyone was really on edge, afraid that even the slightest problem might occur.

After all, Feng Zhengming wasn't in the kitchen, so there was no one to cover for everyone.

Now that the top-scoring chef has returned as a backup, everyone in the kitchen feels more at ease. (End of Chapter)