The finals of the Master of Chef Competition were very exciting and the competition was fierce.
? 8 chefs worked hard and showed off their special skills.
The last dish can be described as a battle between the dragon and the tiger.
Each of their dishes is very amazing, but five of them are slightly lacking in innovation or taste, and their scores are slightly lower.
The other three chefs are impeccable in terms of dishes, taste, level and innovation.
The scores given by the judges were the same in the end.
But there is only one God of Cooking, and the winner must be determined. According to the rules of the competition, an additional test is required.
The so-called additional test is not to cook a dish, but to compete in basic skills.
As the saying goes, a chef is divided into three parts: a stove and a three-part stove.
Basic skills are the only way to learn cooking. For a chef, basic skills play a decisive role, directly affecting the appearance and taste of the finished dish.
The basic skills of a chef mainly include:
???????? Fine knife skills, easy turning of the pot, moderate and even paste, correct identification and control of oil temperature, accurate and timely feeding of ingredients, flexible and appropriate control of heat, proper thickening, timely cooking, skillful loading, etc.
In the industry, knife skills, spoon skills, mashing, and butchering are generally regarded as essential basic skills for chefs to get started.
Today¡¯s additional test is to choose one of these four items.
In order to ensure fairness and justice, the host randomly selected one person from the audience for the draw.
The aunt came up to the stage excitedly and whipped out a knife worker.
The judges¡¯ table and the three chefs suddenly became a little quiet.
The aunt felt something was wrong in the atmosphere and asked the host nervously what was wrong.
The host told her that everyone might not have expected to choose knife skills, which was a bit surprising.
She gave the aunt a gift box of hotel meals, and the aunt left the stage happily.
¡°Xiao Hai, the judges and chef¡¯s reactions don¡¯t seem right. What¡¯s wrong?¡±
Li Xuanyu also felt that the atmosphere on the stage was not right and a bit strange.
Others were also puzzled and looked at Yi Xiaohai, waiting for his explanation.
"Sister Zhou, do you know the reason?"
Yi Xiaohai did not explain, but asked Zhou about the delicacies.
"I probably know a little bit."
Zhou Jiaicai began to explain.
Jiangsu cuisine is all about meticulousness. It can be said that it is the most delicate cuisine among the eight major cuisines, and it is also the most attractive cuisine.
It is different from Sichuan cuisine and Hunan cuisine. Because it is too light and for the sake of beauty and refinement, the style of Jiangsu cuisine will be very beautiful. The chefs who cook Jiangsu cuisine generally have better knife skills.
To ordinary people, a chef¡¯s knife skills must be very good, but at the top level, there is still a difference.
Chinese cooking is extensive and profound, including the selection of ingredients, knife skills, seasoning, and heat. Each local dish has its own emphasis.
For example, Shandong cuisine pays attention to heat, Sichuan cuisine pays attention to seasoning, and Jiangsu cuisine pays special attention to knife skills.
Wensi tofu, blanched dried shredded silk, and three sets of duck. Jiangsu cuisine¡¯s requirements for knife skills are almost demanding.
Wang Youjin is a master of Su cuisine, and his knife skills are his strong point. Compared with the other two, there will definitely be some gap.
After hearing Zhou Jiayao¡¯s explanation, everyone suddenly understood.
The judges and contestants probably didn¡¯t expect that they would win the prize of Knife Skills.
"Actually, Jiangsu cuisine has different compositions. It mainly consists of Jinling cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, Su Xi cuisine, Xuhai cuisine and other local dishes. Each chef is good at different things, and there are differences in knife skills. My chef is good at Huaiyang cuisine. That¡¯s why they feel like the outcome of the game is determined.¡±
Xue Peng scratched his head: "Huaiyang's kitchen knife skills are very good?"
Yi Xiaohai rolled his eyes:
¡°You¡¯re still from the food club, and you don¡¯t even know this basic common sense!¡±
"Hehe, I was just eating and drinking. I didn't understand the theory, and I didn't ask. Besides, if you ask Lao Wu, he still doesn't know."
Jiang Lei didn¡¯t expect that the flames of war would burn him: ¡°Don¡¯t get involved with me, I still know a little bit.¡±
"Stop bragging, tell me, what do you know, why is Huaiyang so good at cutting knives?"
Jiang Lei was very embarrassed. How could he know so much, but Su Rui stepped forward to help him out.
¡°Huaiyang cuisine emphasizes knife skills, which is related to its history.¡±
The Huaiyang area has been rich in Huaiyan salt since ancient times.
After the mid-Ming Dynasty, due to changes in salt industry policies, the Huaiyang area became the most important area in China.One of the producing areas, countless salt merchants moved here and made their fortunes relying on the salt industry.
Merchants had a low status in ancient times, and their clothing was strictly restricted. They could only use silk cloth, and were not allowed to wear silk, gauze, etc., and were not even allowed to wear mink coats.
The only place where businessmen can spend a lot of money is on food.
It became popular for salt merchants to keep their families and cooks, entertain each other, compete with each other, and fight with each other.
It is recorded in "Guangling Painted Boat Record",
"In terms of cooking skills, Jiabao is the best, Wu Yishan fried tofu, Tian Yanmen fried chicken, Jiang Zhengtang's ten kinds of pig heads, Wang Nanxi stir-fried sturgeon, Shi Fatzi stir-fried pork with pear shreds, Zhang Sihui's whole lamb, Wang Yinshan has no bones Fish, Wang Wenmi's chechel cake, Guanda bone soup, horseshoe crab soup, Kong Qie'an crab noodles, Wensi monk tofu, Xiaoshan monk Ma'anqiao, all the flavors are superb."
The competition among salt merchants is not only about money, but also about quality.
The Huaiyang salt merchants had close interactions with the government gentry, literati and poets. They were not only fighting for wealth, but also fighting for spirit. The emphasis on knife skills was also the result of fighting for spirit.
Xue Peng was thoughtful.
"So, they are not cooking, but showing off their skills?"
"It's not,"
Yi Xiaohai shook his head:
¡°The ultimate pursuit of knife skills is for the texture and taste of the dish.¡±
¡°There are two very famous dishes in Huaiyang cuisine, boiled dried shredded noodles and blanched dried shredded noodles. The raw materials are both dried noodles, but because of the different cooking methods, the requirements for knife skills are also different.¡±
¡°The boiled dried shredded silk requires 2cm thick square dried slices to be cut into 20 pieces, while the boiled dried shredded silk is required to be cut into about 22 pieces, because the boiled dried shredded silk needs to be simmered in chicken soup, and if it is cut too finely, it will easily shrink and break. It will affect the taste, but to scald dry shredded silk, you only need to scald it with boiling water two or three times. If it is too thick, it will have a beany smell"
"There is also the meatballs we usually eat. There is a lion head dish in Huaiyang cuisine. The cooking method also requires knife skills to create a different taste."
Before Yi Xiaohai finished speaking, Xue Peng questioned.
"The lion's head is made by mincing or mincing the meat. It has nothing to do with the knife skills"
"It's terrible to say that you are uneducated. You have already been expelled from the food club. It's really embarrassing."
Yi Xiaohai cursed.
In fact, not only Xue Peng, but most people think so.
????????In fact, the lion¡¯s head does not mince the meat into mince or mince, but cuts it out.
Wang Youjin said that the fat and lean meat need to be cut into pomegranate-sized pieces, and then the lean meat and fat meat should be matched in a ratio of 4:6.
Lean meat cubes, after stirring evenly, each lean meat cube will be surrounded by fat meat cubes, giving it a more tender texture that cannot be achieved with pureed meat.
After Yi Xiaohai finished explaining, they suddenly realized.