After a brief moment of daze, Feng Yifan watched Ning Cheng quickly pick up the flying carrot.
Then, when Ning Cheng raised the knife in his hand again, Feng Yifan decisively stopped him.
"Stop, stop, stop. Is this how you practice at home?"
Ning Cheng looked at Feng Yifan somewhat embarrassedly, put the knife in his hand back on the chopping board, and stood there with his head lowered without saying a word.
Seeing this, Feng Yifan continued to ask: "Haven't you watched my cooking videos? Is this how you learned from the videos? Did I teach you how to cut vegetables in the videos? Don't you know you have to hold it with your other hand?"
Ning Cheng hesitated for a while, but finally raised his left hand.
It can be clearly seen that Ning Cheng already has quite a few wounds on his left hand, probably from practicing cutting vegetables.
He said a little embarrassedly: "Uncle, I started practicing according to your video, but later I always cut my hand, so I didn't dare to press and cut with my hands anymore."
After hearing what Ning Cheng said, Feng Yifan was really at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
"Are you really throwing the baby out with the bathwater?"
Ning Cheng asked curiously: "Uncle, what do you mean?"
Su Jinrong couldn't help but explain with a smile: "That is to say, you don't dare to use your hands to cut the vegetables because you are afraid of cutting your hands. It's just like you choked once while eating and simply didn't eat. Isn't it the same?"
After listening to Su Jinrong's explanation, Ning Cheng immediately understood.
"Grandpa, I understand, but I, I'm just scared."
Feng Yifan rolled his eyes and said, "Are you scared? Then why do you still want to learn cooking? I think you should go home and work with your grandfather in the vegetable garden. It's a decent job anyway. Or you can learn to drive and help with transportation in the future. You can also get a salary every month."
After hearing this, Ning Cheng lowered his head again and fell into deep thought for a moment.
It was obvious that his self-esteem was hit at this moment.
This was a feeling he had never experienced in all these years, a feeling of being completely despised, as if Feng Yifan didn't even want to teach him anything.
After lowering his head and feeling wronged for a while, Ning Cheng finally raised his head and said, "Uncle, I, I really want to learn."
Feng Yifan also raised his head and looked at Ning Cheng. At this moment, he saw a sense of drive in his eyes.
Seeing such momentum coming out, Feng Yifan felt secretly satisfied.
Then he said, "Okay, since you really want to learn, then you should start with cutting vegetables. Knife skills are the basic skills of a cook. If you can't even use a knife well, then you don't need to be a cook."
Then, Feng Yifan walked over, picked up the kitchen knife from the chopping board, and picked up the two carrots as well.
"Look, you can't cut vegetables like me yet, so you have to start with the basics. Hold it with your left hand like this. If you're afraid of cutting your hand, stand a little further away. Then cut vertically with the knife like this. Remember to hold the knife steady. Practice cutting with a straight knife first, and cut vertically."
Feng Yifan began to demonstrate, cutting the carrot into slices with a vertical knife.
Then, Feng Yifan piled up the carrot slices and cut them into long strips one by one. Finally, he cut the long strips into small cubes of uniform size.
There is no speed in the whole process, it is just cut one by one, and the knife is kept straight all the time.
After cutting, Feng Yifan wiped the carrot cubes off the blade of the knife with his hand and placed them on the chopping board to show Ning Cheng.
"Look, these are pea-sized dices. Did you see the process of me cutting them? You are either pursuing speed or holding the knife steady. Use a straight knife and cut them one by one. First cut them into slices with uniform thickness, then cut them into strips with uniform thickness, and finally cut them into dices with uniform size."
Feng Yifan had taught Lin Ruifeng this process many times in Su Ji's kitchen.
However, Lin Ruifeng did have a certain foundation. After all, he had helped with breakfast at home, and he had a certain foundation in cutting vegetables and simple cooking, so Lin Ruifeng did not find it as difficult to learn as Ning Cheng.
Feng Yifan handed the kitchen knife to Ning Cheng: "Here you go. You have nothing to do in the afternoon, so you can practice here."
Ning Cheng was very happy when he heard that he could practice here: "Thank you uncle, no, thank you master."
Feng Yifan waved his hand: "No, you are not qualified to call me master yet. Practice your knife skills first. Remember, if you can't cut carrots exactly like mine before we go back, then don't even think about learning cooking from me. Go to work at the vegetable base honestly."
Ning Cheng immediately said: "Uncle, I will definitely work hard."
Feng Yifan didn't say much. He let Ning Cheng practice there while he continued to study the dishes.
Ning Cheng was very serious and started to follow the method demonstrated by Feng Yifan. He first held the knife steadily, and then cut the carrot in a straight line.
It was not until he actually started cutting that Ning Cheng finally realized that things were not as simple as he had thought.
The carrot itself is cylindrical, so if the force is not enough when cutting, it will slip. And if the cut is too hard, Ning Cheng will not be able to keep the knife straight.
As a result, every time I cut it, either the slice was cut sideways or the thickness was uneven.
Moreover, he only cut half of the carrot, not only did he fail to cut a perfect slice, but Ning Cheng also felt his wrist starting to ache.
At the same time, Su Jinrong saw Ning Cheng put down the kitchen knife and rub his wrist.
"How is it? Do you find that cutting vegetables is not as simple as you thought? It's easy for your uncle Yifan to cut vegetables, but when it comes to cutting vegetables yourself, do you find it difficult?"
Ning Cheng rubbed his wrist and asked, "Grandpa, I think it's very hard to cut vertically like this. Can I cut it in another way?"
Before Su Jinrong could speak, Feng Yifan said directly: "No."
Su Jinrong then explained: "The straight knife is the simplest knife technique. If you can't even master this, how can you learn other knife techniques? And this is the basic skill. If you can't bear the pain at the beginning, there will be more pains in learning cooking in the future. What will you do?"
Feng Yifan also said: "If you can't bear this hardship, then go back."
Ning Cheng said decisively: "No problem, I can definitely endure this hardship."
Then, Ning Cheng went to wash another carrot.
This time he specifically picked out one from the basket that looked larger and not so round on the surface. After washing it, he planned to continue practicing.
Seeing Ning Cheng being picky, Feng Yifan didn't say anything, but let him do it.
Ning Cheng cut again. He thought that this thicker one would be easier to cut, but after actually cutting, he found that it was not as simple as he thought.
It's still the same old problem, the knife will slip when cutting, or the thickness will be uneven when cut.
Ning Cheng cut for a long time and finally finished cutting the carrot, but he still couldn't cut out even a piece.
Su Jinrong finally couldn't help but remind him, "You can't cut it like this. You can trim the edges first and make the carrots into squares. Then you can slice, cut into strips, or dice them."
After being reminded by Su Jinrong, Ning Cheng quickly understood and went to wash a new carrot and start again.
This time he followed Su Jinrong's instructions and trimmed the carrot into a rectangle.
It was just because Ning Cheng was not good at cutting carrots, and after trying for a long time, there was not much left of the carrot.
Ning Cheng still tried to slice it very seriously.
The first piece is still thick on one side and thin on the other.
The second piece finally looked somewhat decent.
The third slice, I failed to hold the knife steadily, and it was again tilted, with one side thick and the other thin.
…
Ning Cheng patched it up like this, and finally there were two pieces left that were decent enough.
Then Ning Cheng began to try to cut it into long strips.
Following Feng Yifan's method, Ning Cheng stacked the two slices together and cut them carefully.
As soon as he made the first cut, Ning Cheng instantly realized that he had to start all over again.
Because when you cut the carrot strips with a knife, the two ends have completely different thicknesses. With one cut, the strips become biased, with one side being thicker and the other thinner.
Ning Cheng was really a little discouraged at this moment. He didn't expect that cutting vegetables would be so difficult
But after a brief moment of discouragement, he took out another carrot from the basket, washed it and started again.
Ning Cheng cut the carrots over and over again for the whole afternoon, and the carrots on the chopping board kept piling up, but he still couldn't cut the carrots into the uniform-sized cubes that Feng Yifan required.
As the sun began to set outside, Ning Cheng lost track of how many carrots he had cut. He finally cut out a row of relatively decent carrot cubes.
After cutting it out, Ning Cheng was a little excited, and a sense of accomplishment surged in his heart.
He carefully stacked them together with his hands, then Ning Cheng raised his head and wanted to say something to Feng Yifan.
But Feng Yifan got there first and said, "Do you think the little bit you cut is acceptable?"
The excitement in Ning Cheng's heart was instantly extinguished.
He raised his head and looked at Feng Yifan.
Feng Yifan said calmly: "Look at yourself, how many carrots did you waste in one afternoon? But what about the result? Look at the carrot cubes you cut, and compare them with the ones I cut for you. Do you think you can be considered qualified?"
Ning Cheng looked down and compared it with the way Feng Yifan had cut it.
I found that the carrot cubes, which I thought were very good, were actually far from being neatly diced. Not only were their sizes not uniform, some of them could not even be considered small cubes.
Looking at the many carrots piled aside and chopped up, Ning Cheng's excitement completely disappeared.
Feng Yifan came over and picked out some carrot slices that Ning Cheng had discarded from the pile.
He took the kitchen knife from Ning Cheng's hand, trimmed it briefly, and then cut it into strips and cubes.
What surprised Ning Cheng was that Feng Yifan actually cut out neat small squares.
Putting the knife down, he said to Ning Cheng, "See? These things you threw away can actually be used for practice. Starting tomorrow, you have to use all these things you threw away. Remember, there is no waste in the kitchen. You must make the best use of them."
Ning Cheng felt depressed at first, but suddenly realized that he could still come here to practice tomorrow.
"Thank you, thank you uncle, I will definitely come on time tomorrow."
Feng Yifan added, "It's better to come in the afternoon, not too early. If you come too early, Ruoruo will want to sleep, and your knife skills will disturb her sleep."
Ning Cheng nodded and agreed: "Okay, okay, I understand uncle."
Then he looked at the carrots and asked, "Uncle, what should we do with these?"
Feng Yifan asked back: "What do you think we should do?"
Ning Cheng thought for a while and said, "Uncle, how about I take it back and cook it to feed my dog?"
Feng Yifan asked seriously, "Such good carrots, are you just feeding them to the dog?"
Ning Cheng was speechless. He wondered what else these disabled people could do
Feng Yifan said, "How about this. Come over tomorrow at noon. I'll cook these and you can take them back for lunch. Since you cut them yourself, you have to eat them yourself. Do you understand?"
Ning Cheng looked at the pile of carrots and was a little embarrassed: "Uncle, can this be eaten?"
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "Of course you can eat it. This is the rule of the kitchen."
Su Jinrong also said, "That's right. We can't waste it. I don't know how many of Uncle Yifan's disciples have eaten the food that you have wasted. Only when you eat it yourself will you learn to cherish it and know that every ingredient costs money. Only then will you practice more seriously."
Ning Cheng had no choice but to nod: "Okay uncle, I'll come again tomorrow at noon."
Feng Yifan agreed: "Well, you go back first."
Ning Cheng said goodbye to Su Jinrong again, then turned around and left the kitchen by himself.
Su Jinrong saw Ning Cheng leaving, looked at his son-in-law and said, "It seems that this young man is your second apprentice?"
Feng Yifan nodded and said, "Yes, Dad. Because Su Ji will still need manpower in the future. We can't let Ruifeng do all the work. There must be someone who can help Ruifeng with the work."
Su Jinrong couldn't help but laugh: "Do you think this is recruiting voluntary labor?"
Feng Yifan responded with a smile: "Dad, I will give them money."
Su Jinrong asked again: "Do you think Ning Cheng really wants to learn? Can he learn well?"
Feng Yifan said seriously, "I think it should be possible. I asked my parents. Ning Cheng has indeed changed a lot since he came back from town. He has also worked hard at the vegetable base for a year. This shows that he really wants to reform himself, so I want to give him a chance."
Su Jinrong nodded: "Well, since you think it's okay, let's wait and see."
…
Ning Cheng walked out of the Feng family's door and when he reached the intersection, he happened to meet Feng Jiandong and Lu Cuiling coming back together.
He quickly greeted the two elderly people: "Hello, Grandpa Feng, Hello, Grandma Lu, you are back."
Feng Jiandong looked at Ning Cheng, then glanced in the direction of the house, and immediately guessed that Ning Cheng should have just come out of the house: "Are you here to ask your uncle Yifan for advice?"
Ning Cheng quickly replied: "Yes, Grandpa Feng, I have been practicing cutting vegetables under the guidance of Uncle Yifan in the afternoon."
This answer surprised the old couple.
Lu Cuiling and her husband looked at each other and said, "Well, since you want to learn, then study hard. Don't do those messy things like you did in the town before. Really learn some skills from your uncle, so that you can have a skill and support yourself in the future."
Ning Cheng humbly accepted the advice: "Grandma Lu, I know. I will definitely learn well from Uncle Yifan."
Feng Jiandong nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay, it's getting late, you should go back early."
Ning Cheng said goodbye to the old couple, passed them by, and walked home with excitement.