After the opening of Huaicheng Ancient Street, it naturally welcomed a lot of tourists, especially those foodies who came straight to Su Ji.
However, after the news came out that Su Ji was temporarily closed, many foodies felt disappointed.
However, despite the loss, the street scene after the ancient street was reopened after renovation still attracts many people.
At the same time, the introduction video shot by Meng Shitong and others was released online, coupled with some publicity from Li Feier's "Fei Chang Sees Witness", which made the popularity of the ancient street soar.
It can be said that the Ancient Street Night Market welcomes a large number of people every night.
Some people come to the night market to have fun, some come to eat snacks, and some come to experience the cultural atmosphere of the ancient street.
In short, after the renovation, the ancient street has indeed become a new check-in spot in Huaicheng.
Even some other new neighborhoods have gradually lost popularity to the ancient streets.
However, although the popularity of the ancient street is increasing, there is still no sign of Feng Yifan's two restaurants opening, which has become a big mystery in the hearts of Huaicheng people.
Everyone couldn't help but wonder, what exactly caused Su Ji to close
There are generally two or three generally accepted guesses.
One possibility is that Feng Yifan intends to make a splash by completely revamping the menu and interior design in order to create a unique Chinese restaurant.
At the same time, we also want to create a more approachable Western restaurant.
The second is a more extreme pessimistic view: they think Feng Yifan is just a name without much ability, and now that the ancient street is very popular, he is afraid of facing the test of popularity, so he dare not open Su Ji.
The third is a somewhat bizarre guess: Feng Yifan is having a conflict with his family. Originally, Su Ji was the property of his wife's family, but now he wants to take over the property, so he has a conflict with his wife's family. Now the ownership of the property is not clear, so he can't open the business.
No matter which speculation it is, it still makes people in Huaicheng more looking forward to Su Ji.
With this expectation, Meng Shitong and others released the video clips they shot about Su Ji.
Although it does not specifically introduce Su Ji and the Western restaurant, some of the pictures still show everyone some of the interior decoration, and there is also an interview with Feng Yifan about when it will open.
At the same time as the video was released, photos from the WeChat Moments of people who had taken photos and entered the restaurant were also leaked.
This proves from another aspect that Su Ji and the Western restaurant are not closed, but are in preparation.
After watching the video and looking at the photos circulating online, we can see that we have unveiled a corner of the mystery behind Feng Yifan’s two restaurants.
After seeing the interior decoration, many people understood that Feng Yifan had already made preparations.
And everyone also understood that his preparations were not just perfunctory, but were truly prepared with all his heart.
This also makes everyone look forward to Feng Yifan's two restaurants even more.
But even amid such expectations, Feng Yifan and his team were still not in a hurry, and continued their preparations at a leisurely pace.
After his daughter went to kindergarten, Feng Yifan’s first job every day is to gather his chefs to discuss how to formulate the menu.
Every day, people gather at Su Ji to try out and taste various dishes.
According to Feng Yifan's request, everyone must bring out at least two dishes.
This poses a big problem for everyone.
Especially with the success of Feng Yifan's Four Seasons and Four Banquets, the other chefs racked their brains to come up with two matching dishes.
In fact, when it comes to cooking, it is not difficult for any chef in Feng Yifan's team.
Even though Chen Xu and Luo Yu are full-time dessert makers, they can still make a few dishes.
Not to mention someone like Hans, who can not only make desserts in a western restaurant, but also various other western dishes, and can even create dessert-based dishes based on desserts.
However, it is not easy for everyone to prepare one or two dishes that can match Feng Yifan's cuisine.
Shi Jiahui also participated in it, discussing with everyone every day, making attempts again and again, and also checking all kinds of ingredients.
In order to support everyone, Feng Yifan tried his best to help find various ingredients.
Not to mention the top-quality ingredients from abroad, Feng Yifan even got some uncommon domestic ingredients through the relationship between Zhuang Daozhong and Shi Jinbin.
But the more abundant the materials are, the more confused it becomes for everyone to know where to start.
After letting them discuss for a few days, Feng Yifan finally stood up and spoke.
"I think you are all overthinking. Let's not talk about the western restaurant for now. As for Su Ji, you asked me to help you get this ingredient today, and tomorrow you asked me to help you find another ingredient.
Okay, I've found a way to get it all to satisfy you.
But have you thought clearly about what dishes you are going to make? Do you have a theme?"
After hearing what Feng Yifan said, everyone fell into deep thought.
After thinking for a long time, Shi Jiahui said: "We got the priorities wrong. We forgot that we should focus on Su Ji's characteristics. We only thought about getting a variety of ingredients, but in fact, many things may not necessarily be suitable for cooking in Su Ji."
After being reminded by Shi Jiahui, everyone gradually understood.
Feng Yifan said to the western restaurant: "You guys, don't just think about running a three-star restaurant. Think about what you can do."
Catherine, Hans and Tom fell into deep thought.
Feng Yifan continued, "I'm not saying that you shouldn't aim for three stars, but you must understand what kind of dishes you can make with your current strength, and what kind of dishes you want to present to our diners in China and to the diners in Huaicheng."
Feng Yifan pointed out the problems faced by both groups of people.
Both groups quickly understood their own problems.
These days, everyone has been a little too obsessed with how to surpass Feng Yifan, but as a result, they have fallen into a vicious circle, always thinking that they should use better ingredients to make dishes that will impress Feng Yifan.
But in reality, everyone has forgotten their own abilities and is a little bit beyond their own capabilities.
Feng Yifan finally said: "Perhaps I put too much pressure on you. I also forgot to tell you that I invited you here not to force or exploit your potential. I hope you can show your talents in Su Ji, in my restaurant."
After Feng Yifan's guidance this time, everyone gradually found the right direction.
Each of them chose an ingredient and tried to make a breakthrough on a certain ingredient or a category of ingredients.
This makes things seem much simpler for everyone.
Gradually, people started to make dishes.
It was no longer like the first few days when we were always racking our brains to come up with weird ideas, but in fact no one was cooking seriously.
The first person to cook the dish was Lin Ruifeng.
He tried making a braised pork dish.
The result was naturally a failure. After tasting it, everyone felt that not only was it not as delicious as traditional braised pork, it also did not truly deviate from the essence of braised pork.
Afterwards, Feng Yifan also talked to Lin Ruifeng alone.
"Your idea is good, but you overlooked one point, which is that the reason why tradition can be passed down is because it is actually the essence. You want to surpass the essence, which is a very difficult thing, but your efforts are still worthy of recognition."
Lin Ruifeng accepted it humbly: "Master, I understand. I was a little overconfident."
Feng Yifan shook his head: "No, this is not overestimating your own abilities. This is also an attempt. But have you ever thought about whether your thinking should jump out of the braised pork?"
Lin Ruifeng looked at his master with some surprise.
Feng Yifan pointed out directly: "Do you have to braise it? Is there no other way to cook pork besides braising it?"
After understanding this, Lin Ruifeng also had some ideas.
"Master, I, I seem to understand a little bit."
Feng Yifan nodded: "Don't limit your thinking, think divergently. You should think about how to cook a piece of pork belly."
Lin Ruifeng began to make new attempts with pork belly.
Lin Ruifeng’s first failure not only did not discourage everyone, but instead inspired everyone’s fighting spirit.
Because everyone has discovered that it is actually possible to make some attempts. Even if you fail, the worst that can happen is you can start over again. Based on the failure, you will always come up with better ideas.
If you keep thinking about this step, you may never be able to cook the dish.
So next, everyone started to try it out, and every night they would gather in Su Ji’s kitchen to study together.
In the first few days, Feng Yifan did not stay with everyone at night.
Later I felt that it was not good not to be able to make a judgment immediately.
He told his wife about this after putting his daughter to sleep at night.
"Wife, if I'm not here tonight, I won't be able to judge the dishes they try to make right away, and it would be a waste to cook them again the next day."
Su Ruoxi immediately understood her husband's intentions and said directly: "You go. As the head chef, you accompany everyone to study, which can also be regarded as encouragement to everyone."
Feng Yifan kissed his wife's forehead and said, "Okay, thank you for your understanding."
Su Ruoxi hugged her husband and said, "I'm just worried that you guys are not able to handle the research every day."
At this point, Su Ruoxi hugged her husband tightly and said, "I don't want you to run Su Ji and end up being exhausted one by one."
Feng Yifan thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, that's right. We can't let them suffer like this all the time."
Su Ruoxi added: "Also, let Xiaolin and Xiaoma close the stall earlier so that you can start studying the menu earlier and don't have to study it together until late."
Feng Yifan nodded: "Well, that's good. My wife knows how hard we work."
Su Ruoxi hugged her husband for a while, then let go and said, "Okay, go ahead, but remember not to be too late."
Feng Yifan kissed his wife again and said, "Okay, by the way, Mom is next door. If you need anything, you can call Mom. Be careful when you are alone."
Su Ruoxi said: "Oh, I'm not a child, and I'm not that delicate now."
Feng Yifan got up, put on his clothes, said goodbye to his wife and walked out of the room.
Before leaving, he said goodbye to his mother, then he took the house key and went out.
With the addition of Feng Yifan, research in the kitchen at night has become more active.
Perhaps because the chef was present, everyone tried various ideas throughout the night and then let Feng Yifan taste them one by one.
After tasting them one by one, Feng Yifan also reluctantly stopped everyone from trying endlessly.
"Don't try every idea. You won't get any result if you try it this way. You still need to have some ideas. Once you are sure it works, we can try it out."
After hearing this, Shi Jiahui couldn't help laughing first: "Hahaha, you guys are frightening the chef."
The originally tense atmosphere instantly became joyful because of Shi Jiahui's joke.
Everyone became happy instantly.
In the joyful atmosphere, everyone was no longer so nervous.
Finally, Shi Jiahui made a dish.
Shi Jiahui's dish is eel slices, and the cooking method is a combination of stewing and stir-frying.
The first step is to slice and slice the eel back after slaughtering, then cut it into small pieces and then stew and pound it.
However, the eel's back is not stretched by beating, but the meat is gently softened.
Then put it in the oil pan and fry it to make the shell crispy.
Next, stir-fry the fried eel slices with pepper, vinegar and salt in the same way as stir-frying soft eels.
Before serving, drizzle some hot scallion oil on it and add some cashew nuts for garnish.
After such a dish is cooked, it is decorated with bird's nest-shaped sugar threads on the bottom, which really creates a special shape.
After preparing this dish, Shi Jiahui asked everyone to taste it together.
When everyone took a sip, they found it tasted like fried soft eel at first, but when they bit into the eel pieces, they found the outer shell was crispy and the inside was very tender eel meat.
Eating it in one bite, it really gives you a unique flavor.
Ning Cheng ate it and immediately said, "This dish is really delicious."
Shi Jiahui smiled and responded: "Thank you."
Soon after, others also praised the dish, saying that this innovation was indeed very good, combining the flavors of two eel cooking methods, stir-fried soft eel and stewed raw eel, especially with cashew nuts, which made it taste unique.
But in the end, everyone still looked at Feng Yifan, after all, he was the one who had to make the final decision.
Feng Yifan tasted it carefully and thought about it seriously in his mind.
Finally, he said, "Well, this dish is great, but I think it can be improved. For example, you can add some eel bones and eel blood soup when frying. In addition, I think cashews alone are not enough. We should add some compound nut flavors. You can make a nut butter and add it in."
After listening to Feng Yifan's words, Shi Jiahui thought about it carefully and immediately clapped his hands in praise: "Great, Yifan, you are really amazing. You can point out the defects immediately and provide solutions for improvement."
Feng Yifan then said, "Well, let us first congratulate Senior Sister on the success of her new dish."
The success of Shi Jiahui’s first dish immediately gave everyone greater motivation, and everyone’s subsequent research entered a more vigorous stage.