The next day, Shi Jiahui, who had just woken up, called Feng Yifan in the hotel room.
On the phone, Shi Jiahui was still very frank in expressing her feelings.
"Yifan, I must say that your apprentice has really put a lot of effort into service and seasoning, but he is too focused on not making the food greasy, and has overlooked the most fundamental thing about fried rice. Fried rice should be dry but not dry, with distinct grains yet still retaining moisture and elasticity.
But after Ruifeng improved it, although it did reduce the greasy taste a lot, it also made the fried rice lose its distinct grains and chewy texture. "
Feng Yifan was not surprised when he heard what the senior sister said on the phone. He also asked directly: "So, senior sister, do you think Ruifeng lost this competition?"
Shi Jiahui thought for a moment and said, "I can't just say Ruifeng lost. After all, his fried rice does taste good, and he asked about my taste and preferences, so for me, apart from the lack of the chewy texture of the rice grains, it still tastes better than Ma Xiaolong's."
After another hesitation, Shi Jiahui said, "I won't say who wins or loses. I will give them scores respectively. Ma Xiaolong's gimmick is novel. He performed both the barbecue and fried rice very well. If the score is 10, I can give him 8 points. As for Ruifeng, I will give him 7 points."
After listening to the senior sister's score, Feng Yifan said seriously on the other end of the phone: "Well, thank you, senior sister, I understand."
After talking about the competition between Lin Ruifeng and Ma Xiaolong, Feng Yifan asked, "Are you in a hurry to go back, Senior Sister? If not, can we go back and meet next week? I have something I want to talk to you in person, is that ok?"
On the other side of the phone, when Shi Jiahui heard Feng Yifan's question, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, knowing that her guess should be correct.
Feng Yifan did want to invite her to join Su Ji.
Shi Jiahui was silent for a moment, then agreed on the phone: "Okay, I'll wait for you to come back."
Feng Yifan felt relieved when Shi Jiahui agreed: "Thank you, Senior Sister. See you next week."
Shi Jiahui agreed: "Okay, see you next week."
After hanging up the phone with Shi Jiahui, Feng Yifan looked at his father-in-law sitting in a wheelchair in the kitchen and directly relayed Shi Jiahui's words.
After hearing this, Su Jinrong laughed: "It seems that Jiahui is very serious."
Feng Yifan also laughed and said, "Yes, Senior Sister is very serious. It seems that it won't be easy for Ruifeng to win."
Su Jinrong said: "It doesn't matter. Losing once or twice can be considered a lesson for Xiaolin. It will let him understand that it is not easy to be a good cook."
Then Su Jinrong asked again: "Does Jiahui agree to wait for you to come back?"
Feng Yifan nodded: "Well, Senior Sister agreed to meet her when I return. I think Senior Sister should have guessed that I want to invite her to join Su Ji."
Su Jinrong continued, "If that's the case, Jiahui should be willing to join Su Kee."
Seeing his son-in-law nod, Su Jinrong continued, "The team you want to form now has a chef team, but you are still missing a very important person."
Feng Yifan looked at his father-in-law and said, "I know. I actually have a candidate, but I don't know if he is willing."
Su Jinrong smiled and said, "Maybe he is waiting for your invitation just like your senior sister."
At this moment, both the father-in-law and the son-in-law knew who the other was talking about, but they tacitly agreed not to say each other's name.
Ning Cheng, who was practicing knife skills in the kitchen, was full of curiosity about all this. But he knew very well that he could not ask because he was not qualified to become a disciple. Only after he became a disciple could he enter Su Ji and be qualified to know more.
After figuring this out, Ning Cheng worked harder to practice his knife skills.
Then the father-in-law and son-in-law changed the topic and returned to the research of new dishes.
Su Jinrong looked at Feng Yifan and asked, "By the way, was the eggplant fish you made earlier successful?"
Hearing his father-in-law's question, Feng Yifan nodded and said, "Well, I have conducted some experiments and improvements, and it should be considered a success. I can fry one for everyone at noon, and you can taste it for me, Dad."
Su Jinrong smiled and said, "Why do you need me to taste the dishes you cooked?"
Feng Yifan still said respectfully: "Dad, no matter what time, you are also my mentor, so being recognized by you is definitely the greatest affirmation for me."
When Su Jinrong heard what his son-in-law said, he couldn't help but fall into memories.
Speaking of Su Jinrong's disciples, there are indeed quite a few of them.
Not to mention the earliest Zhang Fenglin, Su Jinrong also accepted several apprentices before accepting Feng Yifan.
However, most of those apprentices thought they had grasped the essence of the skills before they had mastered them, so most of them left Su Ji’s cuisine early without waiting to learn the essence of Su Ji’s dishes. Most of them went to find their own way, and later on, few of them really remembered the teacher-student relationship between Su Jinrong.
The most fundamental reason for this is that Su Ji’s dishes have extremely high requirements in all aspects.
First of all, knife skills need to be practiced for three to five years, and then there is fire skills, as well as various seasonings and cooking techniques.
Su Jinrong was a master who strictly followed his father's requirements, so he was extremely strict with each of his disciples. From Zhang Fenglin's resolute departure, it was not difficult to see that some of the disciples who left later could not stand the strictness.
Those apprentices who leave Su Ji may get good opportunities at the beginning.
But over time, problems of lack of solid learning will be exposed.
In the end, the natural outcome is to be lost in the crowd.
In the absence of any achievements, those apprentices would naturally come to Su Jinrong's house to humiliate him.
Recalling the scenes when he was teaching apprentices, Su Jinrong seemed to remember all of him scolding his apprentices in various ways. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty towards those apprentices.
Fortunately, Su Jinrong was comforted that in the end there was someone like Feng Yifan who persevered.
Otherwise, Su Jinrong felt that the Su family’s inheritance might really be cut off in his hands.
While feeling fortunate, he also felt a little grateful towards his son-in-law.
The son-in-law lived up to his expectations and returned from studying abroad, bringing Su Ji back to life. Su Jinrong was even more hopeful that in the future his son-in-law would be able to restore Su Ji to its former prosperity and become an exclusive private kitchen restaurant praised by people.
Feng Yifan saw his father-in-law sitting there, staring at him without saying a word.
He vaguely felt the expectation in his father-in-law's eyes and could roughly guess what he was thinking at the moment.
Without saying anything more, Feng Yifan turned around and said to Ning Cheng who had stopped, "What's wrong? You're taking a break so soon? You don't have much time left. There are less than 20 days left before Ruoruo's kindergarten starts. Do you think your knife skills are up to par now?"
Ning Cheng, who had just taken a short break, suddenly came to his senses and quickly lowered his head to continue practicing his knife skills.
Hearing this, Su Jinrong looked at Ning Cheng, then at his son-in-law, and said with a smile: "Think more, don't just practice blindly, think more about some technical things."
Ning Cheng paused for a moment after hearing this, then raised his head and said, "Grandpa Rong, I understand."
Seeing Ning Cheng continuing to practice his knife skills with his head down, Su Jinrong nodded with satisfaction.
Feng Yifan looked at the time and started to prepare today's lunch.
The first thing is to take out the eggplant fish that was made earlier.
These eggplant fish jerky are made by Feng Yifan based on the ancient method in the book "Dream of Red Mansions" and have been improved upon.
There is a saying in the book called "nine steaming and nine drying".
Feng Yifan did not use that method. Instead, he cooked the sliced eggplant in clear chicken soup, then cut the cooked eggplant into cubes and slowly dried them in the sun.
After drying in the sun, stir-fry the diced eggplant with chicken oil, some ingredients and seasonings in a similar way to eight-treasure sauce.
After frying, put it in a small jar, seal it with chicken oil, and cover it with a lid.
During the frying process, Feng Yifan also uses chicken oil to fry, adding "dried shrimp, peanuts, diced chicken, scallops, dried tofu, dried bamboo shoots, and minced pork". The seasoning is mainly based on bean paste, with salt, sugar, and pepper. The whole process is dry-frying, and almost no soup is added.
The purpose of doing this is to ensure that the fried eggplant fish is dry enough, and then seal it in a small jar so that it can be stored for a long time.
The moment you open the jar, you can still clearly smell the aroma of chicken oil.
Feng Yifan dug out some eggplant cubes and put them in a small bowl.
Then remove the chicken from the drumstick, marinate it with scallion, ginger and rice wine, and start stir-frying it in the pot. When the chicken changes color, pour the eggplant fish in the small bowl into it, mix it together and stir-fry until it is tasty.
At this moment, the whole kitchen is filled with fragrance, making people swallow their saliva.
Even though Ning Cheng had been practicing knife skills in the kitchen these days and smelled the fragrance every day, he couldn't help swallowing several mouthfuls of saliva when he smelled the fragrance at this moment. It was really very fragrant.
Su Jinrong smelled the fragrance, swallowed his saliva and said, "Mm, it really smells good."
Feng Yifan was quite proud when he heard his father-in-law's words: "Since Dad said so, it seems that my improvement is very effective."
Su Jinrong recalled the production method described by Feng Yifan, and felt a little bit of admiration for his son-in-law.
"How did you come up with the idea of using the eight-treasure chili sauce to make this preserved eggplant?"
Feng Yifan explained to his father-in-law in a serious manner.
"Dad, first of all, according to the description in the book, the dried eggplant fish has to be steamed and dried nine times, and each time it is steamed in chicken soup. I think this is not true, or this method may be deliberately exaggerated by Cao Gong in order to express the extravagance of the feudal family."
Su Jinrong shook his head and said, "According to the research of some scholars, it seems that there is no indication that this practice is wrong."
Feng Yifan continued, "Yes, I don't think that's wrong. I just think that, at the time when the book was written, it was something that large feudal families could generally afford to do in order to demonstrate the family's strength. But we don't need to be so extravagant when restoring it now."
Su Jinrong nodded in agreement: "Well, what you said does make sense. It is true that we don't need to be so extravagant now."
Feng Yifan continued, "So, according to the description in the book, the taste should be like eggplant but not eggplant. The taste should be changed to make the eggplant have a meaty aroma. Chicken fat and chicken are obviously very important, so I improved the recipe to this version."
After listening to his son-in-law's detailed account of his improvement process, Su Jinrong nodded frequently and felt that his son-in-law's approach was indeed very good.
Although we haven't tasted it yet, it looks really good. And from the finished product cooked by the son-in-law, the rich aroma has aroused everyone's appetite, and it is really mouth-watering.
Feng Yifan took out a bowl from the cooked dish and said to Ning Cheng, "Take this bowl back and let your grandparents taste it."
Ning Cheng quickly slurped his saliva: "Well, thank you Uncle Yifan."
With such a delicacy in the book, the other dishes naturally go very well together.
Feng Yifan even specially made rouge goose breast to pair with this dish of preserved eggplant, which was like a Red Mansion banquet for his family at home as lunch.
If this matter became known to others, it would probably attract the envy of many people.
It was almost noon when Feng Ruoruo's voice was heard outside the kitchen: "Grandpa, Dad, Ruoruo is back. It's so hot today. Ruoruo is so hungry. Dad, have you prepared the meal? Ruoruo, Grandpa, Grandma and Mom, it's time to have a delicious meal."
Hearing his daughter's call outside, Feng Yifan responded in the kitchen: "Okay, okay, the meal is ready. Ruoruo, wash your hands quickly and prepare the meal right away."
After her father responded, Feng Ruoruo immediately shook off her grandmother's hand and ran quickly into the kitchen.
Feng Yifan saw his daughter running in and asked with a smile: "Isn't Ruoruo hot? Why did you run into the kitchen?"
Feng Ruoruo smiled and moved closer to her father. She said mysteriously, "Dad, did you prepare anything for Ruoruo?"
Feng Yifan pretended not to understand and asked, "What does Ruoruo want Dad to prepare?"
Seeing her father's puzzled look, Feng Ruoruo pouted and said, "Dad, you promised Ruoruo that when Ruoruo came back, you would prepare a cool and delicious fruit salad for her. But when Ruoruo came back, it was so hot. How could you forget?"
Seeing his daughter's anxious look, Feng Yifan couldn't help laughing: "Hahaha, Daddy remembers, how could Daddy forget? The fruit salad for Ruoruo to cool down has been prepared long ago. It was chilled in the backyard with well water."
Although his parents have a refrigerator at home, Feng Yifan still chills the fruit salad he makes for his daughter with well water.
Mainly because the well water is chilled and not too cold, my daughter can eat a little before dinner to cool off.
Feng Ruoruo heard her father say this and quickly turned around and ran out of the kitchen. Soon, the little girl outside shouted, "Grandma, Mom, the fruit salad that Dad prepared for us is icy in the well water. Let's wash our hands quickly and eat it. After eating the cool fruit salad, we will have dinner."
Soon, a burst of laughter was heard in the backyard, including from grandma, mom, and Feng Ruoruo.
The laughter floated throughout the house, filling the whole house with joy.