The story of a cook

Chapter 345
The fourth child is married to Ge Xiaoxia.

The fourth child got married and Lin Yan came back, and we attended the fourth child's wedding together.

On the day of the wedding of the fourth child, many friends from the chef industry came to visit, some I knew and some I didn’t know. What made me most happy was to meet Master Chen, Zhao Gang, Zhang Jun, Yang Zhijun, and Meng Hongwei.Needless to say, Master Chen is still working in the restaurant in Dadong and has been very stable.Zhao Gang, Zhang Jun, Yang Zhijun, and Meng Hongwei hadn't seen each other since they left Heyuxuan, and they were very happy to meet this time.

Zhao Gang and Zhang Jun are still working in the hotel I introduced, doing a good job and very stable.Yang Zhijun and Meng Hongwei worked well in the nightclub on Taiyuan Street, especially Meng Hongwei, who is no longer the immature boy who just came out, but has grown into a young man.They were also very happy to see me, and had a lot of drinks with them that day.

After returning home from the wedding of the fourth child, Lin Yan told me, "Zhi Haoyang has been married every year."

I was a little surprised and asked, "So fast?"

"What's wrong now?" Then Lin Yan said, "Maybe his partner is pregnant."

"Zhihao is very good. This is to get on the bus first and then buy the ticket."

"Let's get it done, it's a matter of time, and it's a matter of getting it done early and neatly."

"That's right, are you ready for the things you need to get married?" I asked.

"Zhihao has been tidying up the house these two days. After tidying up the house, he will go shopping for furniture and home appliances."

"There's still more than a month left, and I'm going too."

"Hurry up, they won't be able to stay at home for a few days after they get married, and then they have to go to BJ, so they don't need to buy much."

"That's good, keep everything simple."

I was very happy to hear the news of my brother-in-law's marriage. After he got married, it meant that Lin Yan could have one less heart, so Zhiye was left alone.After the new year, Zhiye will be admitted to university again, and the mother-in-law's house will be fine.

To be honest, the past few years have been really tiring, and I don’t care about making money every year.Lin Yan and I didn't eat or drink much, and all the money was given to her family and my mother.She has more at home and less for her mother.Fortunately, all the foreign debts of my family are gone, and my mother's monthly living expenses can't be spent, which is considered a good life.

Now that Lin Yan is pregnant, it can be seen that she has changed a lot. She is not as family-friendly as before, and she has started to make plans for our small family.

I asked her: "How much money do you prepare for Zhihao's wedding?"

"Gift money?" She said, "I don't give him much. I get most of the money for the wedding, and gift money? Not a cent."

"That's not good."

"We don't follow the gift. If I have the money, I will keep it for my children. Now I don't go to work, and you are the only one earning money. The child will be born during the Chinese New Year. Save more money for the child." She said.

I said, "Yes, but we are not short of that gift money."

"Then don't write the ceremony, listen to me, we don't follow the ceremony, just here, I don't know what it will be like, when they get married, it's not sure whether they will recognize me as a sister, that's it, it's time to help We all helped too, we don’t care what happens to them, just live well.”

I didn't say anything, since Lin Yan said so, then that's it, it's fine if you don't seek meritorious deeds but seek no faults.

I told Lin Yan about Qiuping's partner, and at the same time told her about the situation at Qiuping's partner's home.Lin Yan said that Qiuping's partner's family is not as good as her second sister's. To put it bluntly, she has an urban hukou. Now an urban hukou is worthless, and it is not as good as a rural hukou.I say these are secondary, as long as the two children are willing.

"Look how lucky the second sister is, two girls." Lin Yan said enviously.

I said, "If you like a girl, let's have a girl too."

"I wish it was a girl. My mother said I was pregnant with a boy, and my aunt also said it was a boy."

She touched the raised calf and said happily.

I said, "They are better than the doctor, and they call them boys before the doctor says they are boys?"

"My mother said I'm not stupid at all, if I were a girl, I would look stupid."

"Anything else to say?" I asked.

"That's not too bad, even my aunt in the west courtyard of my mother's house said that I must be pregnant with a boy."

"Girls and boys are fine, I like them." I said happily.

"I don't know you yet, I just hope it's a kid, you don't like girls."

"Girls like it too, I'm not patriarchal."

When we talked about having a baby during the Chinese New Year, she still decided to have a baby at her mother-in-law’s house. She said that she had discussed it with her mother-in-law and that she would give birth at the Fuzhong Maternity and Children’s Hospital. It would cost less to have a baby there, just prepare 2000 yuan. , go directly to the mother-in-law's house after giving birth, and the mother-in-law can wait on her for confinement.My opinion is to go back to my hometown in Beipiao to have a baby. I may not be able to take care of it, but my sister and mother can.

She disagreed, and I didn't insist. It's okay to go to my mother-in-law's house to give birth, as long as she is happy.

After Lin Yan came back, I didn't live in the hotel, and went home to accompany her every day.She has nothing to do at home, just tidy up the house, wash clothes, cook, go out for a walk every day, and exercise.

The sister-in-law of brother Li's neighbor knew that Lin Yan was pregnant, so she told Lin Yan about her pregnancy when she was free, told Lin Yan what to pay attention to when she was pregnant, and found out her pregnancy clothes for Lin Yan.

Jiang Runping and Li Jian still always come to see Brother Li for a drink, but Brother Li's sister-in-law doesn't ask them to drink and smoke in my house, for fear of affecting Lin Yan.Especially the smell of smoke is not good for the fetus.

They were all very happy when they heard that Lin Yan was pregnant, especially Li Jian, who clamored to be a godfather before the child was born.At that time, the person Li Jian and Lin Yan introduced to him was in love, and he had a happy expression all day long.

Jiang Runping and his partner also get along very well, they are a very happy couple.

Sometimes Lin Yan doesn't like to cook at home, so she eats with Brother Li and his family of three. Brother Li and his sister-in-law take great care of Lin Yan.

Xiao Lele, his child, always asked Lin Yan: "Auntie, when was my little brother born?"

Lin Yan said: "Soon, you will be born on May [-]st of the Chinese New Year, and you will have a little brother by then."

Xiao Lele asked: "Then is he in your stomach now?"

Lin Yan said, "Yes, it's in Auntie's stomach."

Xiao Lele asked: "Auntie, can I touch your belly?"

Lin Yan said: "Yes, why not, come and touch it."

Xiao Lele gently touched Lin Yan's stomach with her small hand, and asked, "Auntie, can I play with him when you give birth to your little brother?"

Lin Yan said: "Yes, when the time comes, you can bring your younger brother to play together."

Xiao Lele was very happy to hear that, every day she hoped that Lin Yan would give birth to her little brother soon.

The work at Linjiangxuan is on the right track. Although I am not the head chef, there are some things that I can say better than the head chef.

Knowing that others are looking at Master's face and giving me face by the way, they don't care about these, and mainly do their own work and cook their own food.

After three or four months of intensive cooking, my cooking skills have been greatly improved. At this time, I can be called a cook.To be called a chef is almost enough, and he has not yet reached the level of being a "teacher".

I started to sum up my way of cooking.

I found that I have a soft spot for green vegetables, Tangkou dishes, and Sichuan and Hunan dishes.Especially Sichuan and Hunan dishes are better. This may be related to my love of spicy food. I like to study whatever I like to eat. I like to add some spicy food for seasoning. I gradually formed a habit.

"Tanzi, I think your cuisine is starting to develop in the direction of Sichuan and Hunan cuisine." Master said to me.

I said, "Yes, I like spicy food and I like to put some spicy food in any dish."

"It's okay to put something spicy. We also have a lot of spicy dishes in Northeastern cuisine, and they are delicious when cooked." Master said.

"Our Northeast cuisine is still more salty and less spicy." I said.

"That's right. Northeast cuisine pays attention to the blending of five flavors and hundreds of flavors. Our Northeast cuisine was originally a salty and fresh taste. Later, when we came to the east, the taste became more." The master said: "I saw your dishes, although they are delicious. It's a bit spicy, a bit like Sichuan and Hunan cuisine, but it's still the spiciness of our Northeast cuisine."

"Spicy taste of Northeast cuisine?" I was a little puzzled.

Master said: "Yes, let me tell you, the spicy taste of our Northeast cuisine is dry and spicy, just like our local chili peppers, dry and spicy, and has a fragrance while being spicy; the spicy of Sichuan cuisine is dry and spicy. Spicy, as the saying goes, Sichuan cuisine pays attention to ten spicy and nine spicy. The audience, many people like to eat it, because its spicy taste can stimulate people's taste bud nerves, arouse people's appetite, and it is enjoyable to eat."

I nodded, approving what Master said.

"Hunan cuisine also pays attention to spiciness, but it is different from the spiciness of Sichuan cuisine. Hunan cuisine is only spicy but not numbing, and the spiciness is not the dry spicy of our Northeast cuisine, but light and refreshing. Hunan cuisine pays attention to the original flavor of chili. They all use fresh chili peppers, or pickled chili peppers, the dishes made with such chili peppers are more fresh, and can taste the spicy taste of chili peppers, which is very refreshing and appetizing, which is why Hunan cuisine has become popular in the past two years."

"Master, do the chopped peppers used in Hunan cuisine belong to fresh peppers?"

"Yes, chopped pepper is fermented with fresh pepper and salt. When you eat it, you will first feel the saltiness, followed by the spicy and fresh aroma of the pepper, which is very refreshing. It is not necessary to use chopped pepper to make "Chopped Pepper Fish Head" You can also make "chopped pepper kidney flower" and "chopped pepper chicken offal". They all taste very delicious."

"Master, do you think our family can serve some Hunan cuisine?" I asked.

"It's okay to order some, but our house is an old Northeast restaurant. The guests who come to our house mainly come to eat old Northeast dishes and dumplings. It is important to make the old dishes well. Serving a few Hunan dishes is also an embellishment."

"Too."

"You can't learn cooking to death." The master said: "You have to lay a solid foundation when learning cooking. The Sichuan and Hunan cuisine I told you, they all use chili peppers, but each has its own characteristics and has its own characteristics. On the basis of basic cooking, chili is flexibly used to form the distinctive characteristics of its own cuisine, so that it can be recognized and accepted by the common people, the dishes will have a market, and the chefs will make money."

I said, "That's what happened."

"You are originally from Northeast cuisine. You grew up eating potatoes, eggplants, and peppers. The first thing you accepted was salty taste, so you are best at cooking Northeast cuisine. I saw the dishes you cook now, and the level has not improved much compared to before. Few, it means that your understanding of cuisine has improved. But Master tells you that cooking remains the same, whether it is Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Shandong cuisine or our Northeast cuisine. It is for customers to eat, whether the dishes are good or not is not up to the chef, nor the cuisine, but the customers. The customers play a decisive role, and the dishes that the customers like can be selected.”

I nodded.

"Every chef has his own way of cooking. For example, if you cook green vegetables well, sometimes I can't cook them as well. This proves that your understanding of green vegetables has reached a certain level, as well as your understanding of Tangkou dishes. It's also in place, I think your "Hot and Sour Soup" and "Double Fresh Braised Crab Roe" are very authentic and have a certain technical content."

"I learned it all from you."

"What you learn from me is one aspect. The main thing is your own understanding and understanding." Master said: "Cooking is like this. You can do it to the extent you understand it. If you don't understand it to that level, you can't make it to that level." When it comes to cooking, this has something to do with one's savvy, as much savvy as you can cook, you can't cook without savvy."

"Master, is my comprehension okay?" I asked a little proudly.

"You have good comprehension, and now you have your own way of cooking." The master said, "Some cooks work their entire lives without their own way of cooking. You are not bad."

"What kind of way is this for me, it hasn't taken shape at all."

"The so-called cooking method is simply a habit of cooking. The dishes are divided into Sichuan, Liao, Shandong and Guangdong. In fact, there are several different flavors, and the raw materials are the same. If the dishes are divided, they should be divided into soup dishes, green vegetables, and roasted vegetables. Fried dishes, stewed dishes, sweet dishes, pan-fried dishes, etc., this is what the chef learns, not any kind of cuisine."

"Take Sichuan cuisine as an example. Sichuan cuisine pays attention to spicy food, and Northeast cuisine also has spicy dishes, but there are not many. As long as you master the spicy taste, anyone can cook Sichuan cuisine. Huo, it’s because the cooks of Sichuan cuisine understand the spicy taste, cater to the taste of the common people, adults and children love to eat it, so the price of cooks of Sichuan cuisine has also risen, and it’s almost catching up with the price of Cantonese cooks.”

I said, "That's it."

"Do you think how many people are from the Northeast who are frying Sichuan food now? Almost all of them are from Sichuan, right?"

"They're all from Sichuan." I nodded in approval.

"Then look at Cantonese cuisine, isn't it all old Cantonese? Even if the cooks in Northeast China can fry Cantonese cuisine, they cook better than Lao Guang, but the price is only half of Lao Guang."

"Yes." I agree with this very much, brother Zhang Tao is an example.

"Let me tell you, it's not that monks from far away can recite scriptures. It's because they have grown up eating that kind of sutras. It's more authentic and tasteful than our half-daoist ones." Master said, "Let Lao Guang, or Try a Sichuan chef cooking our Northeast cuisine. Even a chef with tens of thousands of dollars a month may not be as delicious as our small restaurant chef. Why? He didn’t grow up eating potatoes and eggplants, so he can’t cook. Coming out is also nondescript.”

I nodded and said yes.

"That's why we Northeast cooks still have to cook Northeast cuisine. It's better than anything else." The master's tone began to be serious at this time, "I saw your dishes. You think it tastes like Sichuan and Hunan cuisine. In fact, you It’s still our Northeast cuisine, but it’s just a fusion of the spiciness of Sichuan and Hunan cuisine, and the root is still Northeast cuisine.”

"Yes, it's actually Northeastern cuisine." I admitted.

"Now the national leaders say that we need to look at problems from the perspective of development, and we cooks must also look at the development of dishes from the perspective of development. If I guess it is correct, in the future, dishes will break through the restrictions of cuisines and no longer subdivide any dishes. What kind of cuisine is it? It will be disrupted and re-integrated. There will be a situation where southern ingredients are cooked in the north, and northern dishes are cooked in the south. At that time, it doesn’t matter what kind of cuisine it is, as long as the dishes are cooked well. The dishes will be eaten by people at any time. Eating, delicious food is the last word.”

I nodded thoughtfully.

"For example, our Northeast cuisine will develop in the future, and it will also go out of the Northeast to the whole country, and it will blossom everywhere in the country." When Master said this, his eyes began to glow.

"that's for sure."

"To cook, you need to learn from hundreds of schools by yourself, integrate the strengths of each school, and form your own style. This is cooking. Don't learn Sichuan cuisine when you see Sichuan cuisine is good, and learn Hunan cuisine when you see Hunan cuisine is good. You are not from Sichuan. , not from Hunan, and few bosses use you after learning. People want to find Sichuan cuisine chefs, Hunan cuisine chefs, or Sichuan or Hunan people, and they will not look for Northeast people. So we Northeast cooks are studying Northeast cuisine. ,Did you know."

"understood."

I understood what Master meant.

"Our Northeast cuisine is very good, don't look down on it. In the past, it was eaten by the emperor, can it be good?" Speaking of this, the master smiled, probably because he thought of the time when the master cooked for the young marshal.

"I'm old and I can't do it anymore. It's up to you young chefs to make Northeast cuisine flourish. Now is the time for you to form your own way of cooking. First set yourself a goal and think about how to make a new model of Northeast cuisine and integrate it Let the common people accept and like it.” Master looked at me and said, “Don’t you like spicy food? Just study our Northeast peppers and understand our Northeast peppers. It is also a way of our own. Cooking Northeast cuisine is not cooking, but leading and interpreting.”

Master told me what I said with passion and blood, watching Master nodded solemnly.

Master's words touched me a lot. When I was not clear about my own way of cooking and was a little confused, Master's words were like enlightenment, which gradually made me feel clearer.

In cooking, I seem to have found my own path.

(End of this chapter)