Zhang Fenglin and Qi Deqiang have already stepped onto the stage, but some of the judges and diners at the scene are still immersed in the dish of chicken marrow bamboo shoots on the table, which was cooked by Feng Yifan himself.
You know, most people here should have read Dream of the Red Chamber. Even if they haven't read the book, they must have watched the TV series. At the very least, they should have heard of it and know that Dream of the Red Chamber is one of the famous "Four Great Classics".
But what most people present did not expect was that someone could actually cook the dishes from the book Dream of the Red Chamber.
For a moment, many guests watching at the tables below the stage were talking about this dish of chicken marrow bamboo shoots.
Seeing this, Zhuang Daozhong said, "Well, it seems that our two contestants need some time to prepare. During this time, I will talk about this dish of chicken marrow bamboo shoots."
After hearing Zhuang Daozhong's words, the Fujing Building fell silent and everyone's eyes were focused on Zhuang Daozhong.
Zhang Fenglin and Qi Deqiang, who had already gone on stage, looked at each other, and both of them were secretly a little relieved at this moment.
When they came on stage, they saw the lively discussion below. In fact, both of them were equally curious about the dish of chicken marrow bamboo shoots.
So although it seemed that the two of them were standing in front of their respective stoves, their minds were not on the game.
Now Zhuang Daozhong is willing to come out and talk, firstly to help Zhang Fenglin and Qi Deqiang solve their doubts, and secondly to give them some time to adjust their mindset.
The host stepped forward again and said, "Okay, I think Mr. Zhuang's suggestion is very good. Let us all welcome Mr. Zhuang to talk to us about the past and present of this dish of chicken marrow bamboo shoots."
There was a burst of applause at the scene. Zhuang Daozhong stood up, bowed to everyone, and then sat down.
Then, the old man looked at Feng Yifan and said, "Yifan, since you made this dish, shouldn't you also come out and talk about it with me?"
Seeing his uncle speak publicly, Feng Yifan, who was originally accompanying his daughter, had no choice but to stand up.
"Master Uncle must have more knowledge than me. I only know that there is such a dish in Dream of the Red Chamber. It should be the dish that Jia She presented to Lady Jia in the 75th chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber."
Old Master Zhuang Daozhong went on to say, "Well, that should be correct. In the seventy-fifth chapter, Yuanyang and Lady Jia had a conversation in which they said that the outside master sent some food to Lady Jia as a tribute. Lady Jia tasted a little and then had someone send the tribute back, saying that they didn't need to be sent every day, and she would ask someone to get whatever she wanted."
As he spoke, Zhuang Daozhong even recited a passage from the original text, which really surprised everyone present.
After saying this, Zhuang Daozhong smiled and said, "Many people have concluded from this that Grandmother Jia doesn't like Jia She, and that Jia She is not Grandmother Jia's biological son."
A state banquet master sitting nearby said: "There are indeed scholars who have studied this, but there seems to be another view that it is precisely because Jia Mu and Jia She spoke bluntly that they are mother and son."
Zhuang Daozhong smiled and said, "Those are things that Redologists study, so we won't discuss them here. Let's just talk about this dish, chicken marrow bamboo shoots."
The state banquet master followed up by saying, "Yes, yes, we only talk about food, not novels or romance."
As soon as these words were spoken, the people at the scene burst into laughter.
Zhuang Daozhong pointed at the chicken marrow shoots in front of him and said, "This dish is also a delicacy in Dream of the Red Chamber. Otherwise, why would Jia She specially bring it to honor Jia's mother?"
Another state banquet master nodded in agreement: "Yes, it is indeed a rare dish, and the preparation method is very complicated."
Zhuang Daozhong continued, "The characteristics of this dish are salty, fresh, and crisp. Although the taste is not strong, it is neat and refreshing. The combination of meat and vegetables is also very suitable for older people."
At this moment, everyone in Fujing Building stared intently, not even daring to breathe, and listened quietly to what Zhuang Daozhong said.
"The real difficulty of this dish is not in peeling the chicken and pounding it into minced chicken, or hollowing out the bamboo shoots and stuffing the minced chicken into them. The key point of this dish is the high-quality clear soup that needs to be used multiple times. Boiling and clearing the soup are both technical jobs."
The state banquet chef also said: "Yes, the stock is the key, and it must be clear stock. It looks like boiled water, but the taste of the soup must be very delicious."
Another said: "The singing voice is like the cooking soup. For us, the soup is very important."
Zhuang Daozhong looked at Feng Yifan and said, "Yifan, if you were making this dish at Su Ji, you wouldn't use the soup from the kitchen at Fujing Building, right?"
Feng Yifan was asked directly, and could only smile and nod: "Yes, mainly because we are too late to come here, so we can only use the soup stock from Fujinglou."
The two state banquet masters suddenly realized: "Well, that's no wonder, the soup is still a little lacking."
Su Liancheng was standing with Mei Ru at this time. The two of them listened to the conversation between Feng Yifan and the three state banquet masters, and finally understood some of the issues.
Some things in the kitchen of Fujing Building were indeed caused by the departure of Chen Wei and Tan Xueli, which made the people in the kitchen relax a lot.
Feng Yifan came over today and pointed out a lot of problems in the kitchen.
Su Liancheng just emphasized in the kitchen that improvements should be made as soon as possible.
Zhuang Daozhong continued, "A good soup requires good ingredients, whether it's pork bones or chicken racks, they must be fresh. Also, when making the soup, the timing of adding minced meat each time, as well as the control of the heat, all of these require years of immersion in research."
A state banquet chef nearby said: "Nowadays, when cooking in restaurants, many chefs no longer make soup first, but instead use various thick soup bases as substitutes, which is really a pity."
Zhuang Daozhong looked at Feng Yifan and said, "Yifan, why does Su Ji only serve lunch and dinner?"
Feng Yifan was stunned at first, but he soon understood why his uncle asked this.
He did not hide it and answered directly: "Because I need to prepare the ingredients in the morning, especially the soup, which takes a long time, so if I make breakfast at the same time, I won't have enough time."
These words made the three state banquet masters, including Zhuang Daozhong, nod their heads frequently.
This is a recognition.
Compared to the big hotels where the three state banquet masters worked, Su Ji was just a small restaurant. Therefore, there was no way to divide the work in the kitchen, and it was impossible for a chef to be responsible for making soup. It can be said that all the ingredients needed to be prepared by the chefs of Su Ji themselves.
Under such circumstances, Feng Yifan still insisted on preparing ingredients and making soup with real ingredients.
What's this
This is the bottom line a cook should stick to.
Zhuang Daozhong praised generously: "Everyone, do you understand now the bottom line that a chef should stick to? If you are not willing to spend time and effort to make a good soup, how can you seriously cook a good dish?"
At this point, Zhuang Daozhong picked up the chicken marrow bamboo shoots and said seriously, "Such a seemingly simple dish needs to be steamed with broth and seasoned with broth to add a layer of flavor. Without that good broth, how can there be such a delicacy?"
Mr. Zhuang said seriously: "So I hope all the chefs can take their dishes seriously and cook the soup first."
I have finished introducing Feng Yifan’s dish “Chicken Marrow Bamboo Shoots”.
Zhang Fenglin and Qi Deqiang on the stage were also ready. Zhuang Daozhong smiled and said, "Well, it looks like our two participating chefs have also prepared their soups. So let's wait and see. Feng Yifan has already made the pitch. Can the two chefs surprise us?"
Boom boom boom.
With the sound of drums, the final officially began.
There was no specific dish specified for the final, but the theme given was "eel".
After all, in Huaicheng, eel can be considered a specialty dish.
There was no specific dish specified for the final. It was only after discussion between Zhuang Daozhong and the two invited state banquet masters that they finally decided to test the creativity of the two finalist chefs in the final.
The apparent theme is "eel", but the focus of the assessment behind it is on innovation.
As for how to innovate, this tests a chef's specific abilities.
Feng Yifan returned to his daughter, and Feng Ruoruo immediately threw herself into her father's arms, followed by Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei.
There were three girls in front of Mr. Feng, and he took the three girls to watch the cooking competition together.
Two people are doing it at the same time, which is fair.
When the dishes are served later, they can also be presented at the same time, allowing the judges to evaluate them from multiple aspects such as color, aroma, taste and shape.
When Guo Jingyi saw three little girls next to Feng Yifan, she also moved over to listen to how Chef Feng would explain to them.
There was also Zhang Fenglin's son, who also quietly approached Feng Yifan.
Feng Ruoruo was in her father's arms, so she was more courageous and asked directly: "Dad, look, why does Uncle Zhang use that net bag? You also use that when you are at home."
Feng Yifan smiled and said: "The net bag is used to directly scald the eels. Boil the eels in the pot, so that it will be easier to handle after taking them out."
On the other side, Qi Deqiang did not use the scalding method. He prepared some eels that had been slaughtered in advance.
From the way the two people performed their duties, Feng Yifan could actually roughly guess what dishes they were going to cook.
Qi Deqiang spread the eel flat and hit it with a wooden stick.
From this step, Feng Yifan has guessed that Qi Deqiang is planning to make "Stew Raw Knocking".
Feng Yifan was a little disappointed. The dish of stewed raw clams could not be considered a local dish of Huaicheng. It should be considered a Jinling dish. And judging from Qi Deqiang's technique, he did not show any innovative means.
Feng Yifan felt that based on this point alone, Qi Deqiang might be at a disadvantage.
Next, looking at Zhang Fenglin, he had already finished blanching the eels.
The process of blanching eels seems simple, but in fact it involves certain requirements.
Because the eel cannot be completely cooked, it will be very troublesome to separate the eel after cooking, and it is easy to crush the eel meat directly. Once it is crushed, the incomplete eel will not look good.
However, if the blanching time is too short, although the eel is blanched to death, some of the unpleasant smells on the eel may not be cleaned away, which will affect the subsequent cooking.
Therefore, controlling the degree of scalding is a test for a chef.
Feng Yifan stared at it carefully, calculating the time. When he saw Zhang Fenglin fish out the net bag, he nodded.
Zhang Fenglin had a good grasp of the blanching time. Although Feng Yifan thought it was a little too long, it at least ensured that the meat still retained some elasticity.
In a competition like this, it is understandable that there are some minor deviations.
Next, Zhang Fenglin began to separate the eels with a bamboo skewer knife.
Seeing Zhang Fenglin's action, Feng Ruoruo immediately exclaimed: "Oh, Dad, Uncle Zhang is the same as you, he also uses that bamboo stick to kill fish."
Feng Yifan smiled and explained to his daughter and the children around him: "That is actually equivalent to a bamboo skewer knife. Because the eel has been scalded to a half-cooked state, if you use a normal knife, the meat will be broken, so you have to use that kind of bamboo skewer knife, which is not easy to break the eel meat."
Zhang Fenglin cut open the eels one by one, separated the eel's back and navel, cleaned out the internal organs, removed the spine, and also drained out some of the eel's blood.
In this way, the eel's back and navel are left intact, and the spine and eel blood are thrown into clean water to cook.
Seeing this step, Feng Yifan was a little surprised: "Oh, your Uncle Zhang wants to use eel bones and eel blood to make soup, this is a good way."
Zhang Fenglin continued to process the eel's back. After all the shaping was completed, he applied a layer of cornstarch, and then stuffed it with beaten shrimp paste, just like making "Eel Back Pot Stickers".
As for the other navel, Zhang Fenglin did not throw it away, but waited until the eel bones and eel blood were cooked into soup.
Use that soup as the soup base, then add some rice and chopped umbilical cord, and cook it into a small porridge.
Then make the eel back pot stickers and put them aside to be paired one by one.
In this way, Zhang Fenglin's dish becomes a kind of imitation breakfast.
Pot stickers are served with white porridge.
This immediately reflects a new idea.
Compared with Qi Deqiang's stewed raw chicken, it is obvious that Zhang Fenglin's is more innovative.
However, Qi Deqiang did not use magical eggs for his stewed raw croquettes, but fried quail eggs.
Then put the stewed eel slices into a small bowl, add a slice of pork belly, pour in some soup, and finally put the fried quail eggs on top to form a very beautiful shape.
It seems very innovative, but Feng Yifan knew at a glance that it is actually still stewed raw qiao, but the way of plating it now has a more sophisticated name, "Ming Yue Stewed Raw qiao".
The dishes on both sides were prepared at about the same time and then presented to the judges and diners on site together.
Judging from the presentation alone, the two sides are evenly matched.
Mingyuedunshengqiao embodies a sense of poetry.
Zhang Fenglin’s pot-sticked eel back with navel white porridge does not have that poetic feeling, but it reflects a very simple and friendly state.
After the dishes were served, Zhang Fenglin's son couldn't help but ask Feng Yifan softly, "Uncle Feng, do you think my dad can win?"
Feng Yifan turned his head to look at the older boy, smiled and said, "I dare not say that now, we still have to see the judges, but your father's approach is indeed very novel, I believe there will be a very fair judge."
Next came the tasting time, and Feng Yifan asked his daughter, Yang Xiaoxi, Chen Yaofei and Guo Jingyi to taste the food separately. He did this to let the four girls make the judgment.
Compared to Feng Yifan's casual approach, the judges were more serious and several of them were extremely cautious.