1978 Yuan Zhou's teaching method
If Yuan Zhou’s culinary skills were not bad, what about the other chefs? He didn’t know how to cook.
Nobody took Yuan Zhou’s self-deprecation seriously. All the registered disciples combined their opinions into one sentence,””Don’t worry, master. We will work harder to learn cooking and follow in your footsteps.”
“Next, I’ll start with Cantonese cuisine and pay my respects to the master.” Seeing Yuan Zhou sit down, Cheng zhaomei stood aside and spoke on his behalf.
The customer of the Cantonese restaurant wasn’t an acquaintance this time as he had never been to Chengdu before. However, he had already sent the information to Yuan Zhou and he had read it.
One of them was called Huang Gang, and the other was Zhang Longquan. They were about the same age as Zeng Youwei and were already 50 years old. However, Zhang Longquan had maintained himself well and looked about five years younger than Huang Gang. He was the Vice President of the chefs ‘fitness Association.
The chefs ‘fitness Association was an Association that encouraged chefs to keep fit, and the president was Wang Jike.
When Huang Gang and Zhang Longquan heard that it was Cantonese food first, they eagerly picked up a box next to their seats and ran to the podium. Their steps were quick, and their excitement was obvious.
As they approached the podium, the two of them probably felt that they were losing their image and immediately slowed down.
“Master, this is the gift we prepared for you. Please accept it.”
Huang Gang and Zhang Longquan walked up to Yuan Zhou and respectfully bent down to hand over the wooden box in their hands. Their attitude was very sincere.
“This is your master’s gift.” Yuan Zhou passed the two notebooks to the two of them and continued,””You can also exchange it with each other after you’ve read it.”
“Okay, master.” The two of them said respectfully.
The next dishes were Jiangsu cuisine, Guizhou cuisine, Yunnan cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, and the foreign cuisines. They came up to the stage one by one to bow to Yuan Zhou, give him the gift of acknowledgment, and receive the gift at the same time. It was all a set of procedures.
It was worth mentioning that the gifts sent by the 14 chefs, including dashi xiujie and sucha, were all packed in wooden boxes. They seemed to be the same kind of gifts.
As for the in-name disciple quota of Lu cuisine, it fell to Zhuang Lei and Gu Qi. In terms of Sichuan cuisine, Cao zhishu could be considered as an old acquaintance. He was far ahead of the other chefs by relying on the little cooking experience he had gained from Yuan Zhou shamelessly. Thus, he was the first to get a quota.
As for the other spot, it was Zhang He, who was known as the little king of Sichuan cuisine before Yuan Zhou became famous.
When Yuan Zhou was an assistant chef, Zhang He was the little king of Sichuan cuisine.
Yuan Zhou was no longer an assistant chef. Zhang He was the little king of Sichuan cuisine.
When master chef Restaurant opened without a signboard, Zhang He was the little king of Sichuan cuisine.
Master chef Restaurant finally had a brand. Zhang He was still the little king of Sichuan cuisine. Now, he had finally made some progress and became Yuan Zhou’s in-name disciple.
Getting back to the main topic, Yuan Zhou’s gift to each in-name disciple was notes. Compared to Cheng zhaomei’s box, Yuan Zhou didn’t deliberately hide it. He just had his own arrangements.
“Let me make it clear. The ceremony is the same, including your eldest senior brother’s ceremony at the beginning.”
“The notebook contains my experience in studying various cuisines. However, your situation is a little special, so I’ll give you one or two first. After you finish reading it, there will be a small test. I’ll make arrangements after you see the test results. Is that okay?” Yuan Zhou said directly.
“No, master,” This was what everyone had expected.
“I’ll give everyone half a month for the first quiz. Half a month later, it’ll be the same time as today. I’ll inform you of the location then, and we’ll have a quiz.” Yuan Zhou said straightforwardly.
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can come and ask me at any time.” Yuan Zhou thought for a while and added.
Thinking of Cheng zhaomei’s previous situation, he felt that he probably needed some guidance. After all, Cheng zhaomei had also been like this in the beginning.
When Cheng zhaomei heard that the gift prepared by Yuan Zhou was notes, she instantly recalled the box of notes with millions of words that she had taken as her master. It felt quite familiar.
Seeing that the ceremony for the in-name disciples was almost over, Zhou Shijie went forward with Zhong Lili. After all, it was not even fouro’ clock yet.
“Little Yuan, let’s go upstairs and talk.” It was rare for him to catch Yuan Zhou. Therefore, Zhou Shijie wanted to have an exchange with Yuan Zhou.
In the past, before Yuan Zhou had served the Shandong cuisine, Zhou Shijie had liked to communicate with Yuan Zhou on the culinary skills. Both parties had gained something from that.
Ever since the Lu cuisines were put on the menu, Yuan Zhou’s knowledge of Lu cuisines had become more and more profound. Zhou Shijie had communicated with Yuan Zhou several times and came up with many ideas. He could clearly feel that his culinary skills had improved. Therefore, he was even more happy to communicate with Yuan Zhou. Moreover, he had the home advantage of Yuan Zhou being in Chengdu.
There was nothing better than this. For example, Song Ming envied him.
“Master, you can go with the president. Leave this to me. I’ll put the gifts of the junior brothers and sisters in my car and send you back.” President Cheng said, observing his expression.
“Alright, thank you for your hard work.” Yuan Zhou thought for a while and then agreed.
“It’s my duty to help master. ” Cheng zhaomei immediately said.
Seeing that Yuan Zhou was about to leave, the fresh apprentice immediately followed the steps of his big brother to make his presence known.
“See you later, master.”
It was not hard to imagine how loud the voices of more than a dozen people were. After Yuan Zhou and Zhou Shijie disappeared, only their own people were left in the meeting room. Then, Cheng zhaomei was surrounded.
“Eldest senior brother, do you have any insights from reading the notes? can you share them?”
“I’ve gifted master an ancient book titled “notes on wild vegetables.” I wonder if master will like it. Do you know that?”
“Eldest senior brother, have you ever taken a small test?”
One by one, Cheng zhaomei’s questions were thrown at him, and he answered them one by one. He still maintained the air of a senior brother.
As for the quiz, what a joke. Cheng zhaomei had survived the ‘homework’ time and time again.
While Cheng zhaomei was making friends with her junior brothers and sisters, Yuan Zhou and Zhou Shijie were also having a pleasant conversation.
“Little Yuan, do you also think that this hoof tendon needs to be marinated in advance before it is made to be more flavorful?” Zhou Shijie said.
“At first, I tried not marinating and using traditional marinating, but the taste change was very small. Then I changed the marinating technique. First, I soaked it in salt water, then marinated it with spice water, which would make it more flavorful.” Yuan Zhou explained in detail.
“In this case …” Zhou Shijie immediately said,””Then, can you use lilac, cardamom, rosin, and angelica roots as spices, and then add a little bit of honey? it’ll taste better this way.”
To be honest, if one’s cooking skills were weak and they didn’t know much about the ingredients, it would be impossible to communicate like this because they couldn’t imagine the taste.
Yuan Zhou pondered over Zhou Shijie’s spice recipe for a while and then nodded his head,””The taste will be good. This recipe feels a little familiar.”
“It’s a method to deal with the tendons mentioned in ‘the essentials of the Golden cauldron’. After I evolved it, I came up with the current method.” Zhou Shijie explained.
With such a reminder, Yuan Zhou remembered.
Time passed very quickly when the two of them were communicating. Not long after, Cheng zhaomei came to the office. Seeing that it was getting late, she came to send Yuan Zhou back to the restaurant.
After bidding farewell to Zhou Shijie, Yuan Zhou got into Cheng zhaomei’s car and was sent back to the master chef Restaurant.
……