Jiang Bian and Yan Yuan also arrived at the opening ceremony early. Unexpectedly, Yan Yuan met an old acquaintance as soon as they arrived at the door. ¡ý:¡ýPiaotian Literature Network¡ýNet¡ý
Yuan Wenguang also came to the scene with his chef. He saw Yan Yuan at a glance and greeted him enthusiastically, "Oh, Yan Yuan, I am really surprised to see you here. I want to With the influence of your store, you shouldn¡¯t have the chance to directly enter the finals, but can only start from the qualifiers. A scene like today shouldn¡¯t have anything to do with you, right?¡±
Yan Yuan laughed, "Don't you like to watch the fun? It's nice to come over and see all kinds of faces. For example, it's interesting to see Brother Yuan running a carriage on his mouth, and his face changes like a magic trick. Isn't it interesting?"
Yuan Wenguang was very surprised that Yan Yuan was so cheerful, but regarding the cooking competition, Yuan Wenguang still felt very superior, "Haha, just have fun first. After the cooking competition, let's see if you can still be happy? Hey, this My friend is a bit unfamiliar, is he the chef of your fish restaurant?"
Yuan Wenguang looked up and down the riverside, his eyes full of contempt and disdain.
"I found out that you, Yuan Wenguang, have really good vision! He is the current chef of our fish restaurant. Last time, he prepared the secret soup that you tried so hard to steal." Yan Yuan said with a smile.
"Him? How is it possible? Haha, I understand, it turns out to be another guy who gnawed at the capital of his ancestors!" Yuan Wenguang laughed.
He glanced back at Fei Qishui and said, "Chef, I still admire Chef Fei, a culinary master who has steadily developed through his own efforts and talent. Those who eat the food of their ancestors will sooner or later run out of food and have nothing to eat in the end." !¡±
Jiang Bian laughed and said, "If you don't have something to eat, you won't have anything to eat. People in the countryside can earn so much and eat and drink well for a lifetime, so we don't have to be as sneaky as some people!"
"You!" Yuan Wenguang really has nothing to do with the river.
"Just wait and see! I think that's just a chance for you to participate in the first round of qualifiers!" Yuan Wenguang sneered.
"I said you have good taste, do you really think you have good taste? You don't even think about it. If I hadn't had the chance to directly participate in the finals, would I, Yan Yuan, have come here today?" Yan Yuan smiled and said, "Brother, let's go and follow Talking to people like this really disappoints me!"
Yuan Wenguang was very surprised and stared blankly at the backs of Yan Yuan and Jiang Bian, "How could they have an invitation letter to directly participate in the finals? If we hadn't been thanks to Master Fei's relationship, we wouldn't have been able to get two Invitation card!"
"Maybe he has some connections! Although there are not many invitations, not everyone is so rare! As far as I know, although there are several people who have received invitations, they do not intend to participate. The reputation has already been established, there is no need to participate in such a competition again. Only those newcomers hope to have such an opportunity to become famous!" Fei Qishui said.
"Well, that should be the case. So what if he has an invitation? Even if he reaches the finals, he always relies on one kind of dish and one flavor, and it is impossible to achieve great results. It is amazing that he has entered the top 32. "Yuan Wenguang said.
Jiang Bian and Yan Yuan were not interested in entangled with Yuan Wenguang anymore, and they quickly walked into the venue.
"Hello, sir, where are you?" The beauty guide at the venue came up and asked.
Yan Yuan took out the ticket and handed it to the beautiful guide.
"Please go that way!" The beauty guide pointed to the right and said.
Yan Yuan said, "Beauty, thank you very much! Brother, let's go!"
There were so many people in the venue. Not long after Jiangbian and Yan Yuan walked, they disappeared into the crowd.
At this time, Li Yueji and Xiao Yalin happened to walk in.
"Sister Yalin, there are so many people here today! I thought not many people would pay attention to such a cooking competition!" Li Yueji said.
"You're wrong. Although young people don't pay much attention to it, those who engage in cooking and middle-aged and elderly people love it very much. Don't you know that cooking is also a very popular TV program?" Xiao Yalin smiled.
"Let's go, the opening ceremony is about to start, let's find our place quickly!" Xiao Yalin said looking at Li Yueji who was looking around.
Li Yueji saw a very familiar figure from a distance. She looked at it several times but could not confirm it. Xiao Yalin was urging again. Li Yueji turned around and looked there several times, but the figure had already disappeared into the crowd.
"See an acquaintance?"Yalin asked.
"I don't know. He looks a bit like an acquaintance, but I didn't see him clearly. I don't know if he is right?" Li Yueji said.
"Fool, there are many people who look alike, do you know which one it is?" Xiao Yalin pulled Li Yueji and walked to the left.
At this time, Jiang Bian and Yan Yuan walked out of the crowd, and then found their seats in the row of seats on the right.
On the other side, Li Yueji and Xiao Yalin happened to walk through the crowd of people in the aisle.
After more than half an hour, the seats in the venue were basically full, and the distinguished guests on the podium began to take their seats one after another.
As the vice president of Qiantang Culinary Arts Association, Man Chengde will naturally appear on the podium. Since many of the top executives of the Culinary Arts Association are retired cadres from the past, the city still attaches great importance to such activities. At this opening ceremony, a deputy secretary of the municipal party committee and a deputy mayor came. Representatives from the National People's Congress, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and other departments also came to support the event.
Such a scene makes the riverside feel extremely boring, and sitting there is simply a torture. After Jiang Bian finished elementary school, he began to live a carefree life. He never sat quietly for several hours. Although fishing requires a lot of patience, meeting and fishing are very different, or incomparable at all.
Although you need to be quiet when fishing, there are things worth waiting for, including the surprise of catching the fish, the fun of fighting wits and courage with the fish, and a very comfortable environment.
But in the venue, there was only noise, buzzing noise, phone ringing from time to time, cliche lines on stage, and feeble applause from the audience.
"Now I announce that the 12th Culinary Competition in Qiantang City has officially opened!" After the city leaders said a lot of nonsense, they finally announced the official opening of the cooking competition. There was unprecedented warm applause.
Jiang Bian thought to himself, "It seems I'm not the only one who doesn't like hearing reports. At the beginning, everyone was lifeless, but as soon as they heard what they were saying, they suddenly became excited!"
"Now, please invite the sixteen contestants who participated in today's on-site qualifier to enter the cooking display area and perform a cooking performance for the audience present. We have arranged several areas at the venue for on-site cooking competitions. Those who are interested You can go to various areas to watch. I won¡¯t say much more, now invite the players to enter the scene.
Not many chefs actually came to the venue to participate in the preliminaries. Since there were so many people signing up to participate, the venue would definitely not be able to accommodate them. On the day of the opening ceremony, there were only a dozen or so people competing on site, and these dozen or so were chefs of a certain level.
Although Jiangbian didn¡¯t have much interest in the opening ceremony, he was still very interested in the live cooking performance.
Jiangbian did not follow Yan Yuan after the meeting, but observed in various exhibition areas by himself.
The contestants in the No. 1 exhibition area are not very old, they look like thirty years old, and their sword skills are very coquettish. It seemed a bit showy, but it won applause from the crowd watching.
"This cooking skill is really good! His knife skills are superb, for such a young age, he is really good!" "Amazing! Amazing! I don't know which chef he is from, but he will definitely become famous this time!"
The onlookers were filled with admiration. But no one thought that this cooking skill was about the manipulation of ingredients, not an acrobat or a magician. No matter how exciting your knife skills are, the final test is still about the color, aroma, taste and other aspects of the dishes you cook.
No one noticed that the judges on one side frowned when they saw the young chef showing off his knife skills.
Jiang Bian compared it with himself and felt that he couldn't use this sword technique, and it was unnecessary. It can neither cut vegetables more finely nor make the dishes taste more delicious. It can only earn some applause.
Jiangbian watched it for a while and then lost interest, even though the contestant had been tirelessly demonstrating his dazzling knife skills.
The contestant at the second booth is a bit older, in his sixties or seventies, and is an amateur. Although his knife skills cannot be compared with those of professional chefs, his meticulousness is completely in line with the true meaning of cooking.
Cooking is a career that requires people to devote themselves wholeheartedly, because the products they make will immediately enter the mouths of their customers, friends or relatives. This will condense a lot of things from the producer, including responsibility, sincerity, and love.
Although the old man¡¯s cooking skills are not high, his cooking skills are considered to be excellent. Because he gave his heart.
Seeing this, Jiang Bian seemed to have some enlightenment, and at the same time, he remembered a person who was once like an old man, so devoted to cooking a meal that was not very delicious.
After the old man finished his cooking performance, the two judging experts immediately said, "We don't need to try this dish! The dishes full of true feelings are the most delicious dishes in the world. We unanimously decided that Mr. Shen would directly Advance to the finals! The audience at the scene may be a little confused, why we will make this decision without tasting it. Here I will explain, of course, wait a minute, I still have to taste the dishes made by Mr. Shen. I think I can eat such I am lucky to have carefully prepared food! The preparation and processing of dishes are still very different for a product. It is not a simple work, a dish is full of many things.
Dishes cooked for loved ones are always full of affection! Dishes cooked for the elderly will be full of filial piety! Cooking dishes for children will be full of love! The dishes you prepare for customers will be full of responsibility! This is the real cooking skill. I think cooking skill can¡¯t be summed up simply by color, smell and taste.
Chapter 117 Cooking Competition (3)
Jiangbian agreed very much with the words of the judging experts, but he was also a little confused. If there were only emotions in the dishes and no color, flavor, or aroma, would he still be eligible for direct promotion? In addition, how to judge whether it is integrated with emotions and what kind of emotions it is integrated with?
Jiangbian didn¡¯t look at the expressions of the judges when they tasted the dishes. Who advances and who doesn't has no impact on Jiangbian, he just likes to watch the excitement.
There wasn't much excitement in Banshan Village. When I was in Banshan Village, Jiangbian didn't even watch the gala. Because there was no TV at home, and it was impossible to go to other people's homes on New Year's Eve, so every time during the Chinese New Year, I could only Listen to other people at home counting 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Such excitement is rare even in Shanmen Town. There are so many people in this city. If we hold a cooking competition, more people will come than the people who go to the New Year market in Shanmen Town.
Jiangbian walked hard forward among the crowd.
When Li Yueji walked out of the venue, she kept looking for that familiar figure in the crowd, but with so many people everywhere, where could she find another person?
"Why do you look so distracted?" Xiao Yalin asked, "Is that person so important to you? Is it your first love?"
Li Yueji shook her head. Facing Xiao Yalin's teasing, Li Yueji had no intention of responding. What she cared about most was to find that familiar figure again.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Xiao Yalin quickly pulled Li Yueji, "This "beggar chicken" is interesting. Let's stop and take a look."
Qiantang's famous dish is called Huaji, which uses Xiaoshan native chicken. First, wrap the chicken in lotus leaves, then heavily wrap the lotus leaves with wine jar mud, and "decorate" it to look like a big lump of mud, and then put it in Roast in the fire.
This wine jar mud is a bit particular. It is a thick layer of seal on the rice wine jar. After taking back the jar mud, you need to add distiller's grains and rice bran in proportion, and finally use it to wrap the chicken.
Since the quantity of wine jar mud from the rice wine factory is limited and cannot be reused, many restaurants simply omit this step, and some large hotels in Qiantang can only supply limited quantities every day.
This person made beggar¡¯s chicken using a very traditional method. In order to make the cooking process more exciting, he specially added a seasoning preparation process. It seemed that he was performing extremely hard, but in fact the highlight was in the fire.
Because it is wrapped in a thick layer of soil, the roasting time is not short. And in order to make diners truly aware of the difference of traditional ancient cooking.
This contestant also specially designed a link. Let the beggar's chicken wrapped in mud and roasted be served directly to the table like a dinosaur egg, "dang dang dang" three times.
Use a small hammer to smash the clay eggs open in front of the guests. A scent of chicken, lotus leaves and earth suddenly spreads from the gaps in the clay eggs.
Then sprinkle the condiments on the chicken, relying on the residual heat from the chicken to blend the aroma of the condiments into the chicken.
"Is this a beggar chicken?" Li Yueji asked.
Xiao Yalin nodded and said with a smile, "Yes, it is the beggar's chicken. The beggar's chicken mentioned in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is this. However, the beggar's chicken, a famous dish in Qiantang, is somewhat similar to the beggar's chicken in Jin Yong's novels. It¡¯s different, and it may require more attention. You see, the mud wrapped in the beggar¡¯s chicken is not ordinary mud, it uses rice wine mud. This rice wine mud is not so easy to find.¡±
"It should smell pretty good, right?" Li Yueji asked, "You can smell this fragrance from so far away."
Xiao Yalin said, "That's natural. First of all, this soil can be said to be the essence of beggar's chicken. Firstly, the sealing property of the mud locks in the aroma of the roasted chicken. Secondly, the fragrance of the soil itself can also penetrate into the chicken. Relieving tiredness and refreshing.
But nowadays, the beggar chicken eaten in many restaurants either steams the chicken first, then wraps it in a lotus leaf and serves it, or wraps it in a lotus leaf and then steams it. Neither the former nor the latter is considered qualified in the field of beggar chickens.
And this contestant not only strictly follows the traditional cooking method of beggar chicken, but also strictly uses high-quality rice wine mash. The beggar chicken is naturally fragrant and tastes very good. "
Xiao Yalin is right. After taking a bite of Beggar's Chicken, the judging panel immediately praised, "Thank you to contestant No. 10, Mr. Li, for allowing me to revisit the unique flavor of our famous Qiantang dish, Beggar's Chicken.
Everyone in the audience knows the name of Beggar Chicken. But there should be very few people who have truly tasted authentic Beggar¡¯s Chicken, especially authentic Qiantang Beggar¡¯s Chicken.
There are many famous dishes in Qiantang, and many people can list dozens of them. However, you may not be able to cook Qiantang famous dishes by following the recipes.
As Qiantang cuisine becomes more and more famous, the generous Qiantang people have already established clear standards for traditional Qiantang cuisine cooking methods, so that more people who love food can enjoy a delicious meal without even having to go to Qiantang. In fact, it is not possible to cook authentic Qiantang famous dishes with standardized recipes.
The beggar's chicken that Mr. Li showed us was cooked in strict accordance with the traditional beggar's chicken technique, and Mr. Li's control was also very good. This makes this dish show off its unique flavor.
So, this cooking performance was perfect. My colleagues and I unanimously agreed to give our direct promotion quota to Mr. Li. We hope to see Mr. Li once again recreate the style of Qiantang's famous dishes in the finals! "
Li Yueji was not as interested as Xiao Yalin. Even though she was somewhat interested in the beggar chicken, she still looked around many times during the whole process.
It¡¯s a pity that we have never been able to find any trace of the riverside.
Jiang Bian looked down alone. Those who came to participate in the competition had some unique things in their hands. They looked very novel and were very helpful to improve his cooking skills. Although Jiang Bian was not very interested in cooking. , but in order to cope with this cooking competition, Jiang Bian still worked hard to improve his level.
I have conditions that others cannot match, so there is no reason to lose to others in the cooking competition. Especially after meeting Yuan Wenguang, people who despise him should not let him be too proud. This is Jiangbian's consistent style.
Jiangbian, who originally just wanted to deal with it, has undergone a big change in his thinking.
Jiangbian visited several places in a row, and slowly gained some experience of this cooking competition.
The judging experts seem to have a special preference for Qiantang¡¯s famous dishes. Several contestants who were directly promoted cook all Qiantang¡¯s famous dishes. It is not ruled out that the Qiantang famous dishes cooked by these people are very good, but there is also the intention of the Culinary Arts Association to use the cooking competition to promote Qiantang famous dishes.
Especially recently, some special programs on Qiantang TV station are about Qiantang¡¯s famous dishes. There is a special topic called ¡°Recovering Qiantang¡¯s famous dishes¡±. This special topic was jointly filmed by the Qiantang Culinary Association and Qiantang TV Station.
Jiangbian watched a little bit during his free time. It shows that the Qiantang Culinary Art Association attaches great importance to the promotion of Qiantang's famous dishes, so in this cooking competition, contestants who cook Qiantang's famous dishes are more highly praised.
Although Jiangbian came to Qiantang not long ago, he still has a certain understanding of Qiantang¡¯s famous dishes under the influence of Liu Jiedong. There are many fish-flavored dishes in the famous dishes, including fish balls in clear soup, West Lake vinegar fish, steamed anchovies, dried herring, spring bamboo shoots, crucian carp with clams, fish head soup, shrimps with winter bamboo shoots, fried shrimps in oil, etc.
Jiang Bian feels that if he plays a role in these famous dishes, he may be able to achieve unexpected results. Some of these famous dishes are simply not something that others can make, such as steamed anchovies. If someone else wants to make this dish, the wild anchovies are not so easy to find, right? But for Jiangbian, it is not difficult. In the space by the river, several wild shad have been raised for a long time. These shad that have been raised in the space for a period of time are probably more delicious than wild shad.
Jiangbian raised his head and looked around. Just when he was about to sigh, he suddenly spotted a familiar figure in the distance.
"Li Yueji?" Jiangbian was a little confused, but when he wanted to take a closer look, he was completely blocked by the bustling crowd.
"Impossible! Although I heard that she is also in Qiantang City, it is not so easy to run into her!" Jiang Bian scratched his head and continued walking forward.
Li Yueji seemed to see that figure again, and it was not far ahead, but there was an exhibition area separated by it. The handsome guy in this exhibition area was showing off his coquettish knife skills, which attracted everyone to watch.
When Li Yueji squeezed through the crowd,The crowd of spectators suddenly let out an exclamation in unison, and saw the sultry chef swinging two kitchen knives up, then catching them lightly, and then the two knives flew together, scattering a blade of light on the cutting board.
Li Yueji managed to squeeze out of the crowd, where could she find that familiar figure?
"Yueji, Yueji, wait for me, don't walk so fast!" Xiao Yalin walked with difficulty among the crowd.
Li Yueji looked around with disappointment. There were bustling crowds everywhere, but there was no figure she was looking for.
Jiangbian walked out of the guild hall, and Yan Yuan was already waiting at the door.
"How is it? Do you see any clues?" Yan Yuan asked.
Jiang Bian smiled slightly, "If you can tell something about it from this look, then I will be the God of Cooking!"
"You are it, you must be it! I pointed out that you became famous and expanded the fish restaurant!" Yan Yuan laughed. @ya