The story of a cook

Chapter 577

The sharing session after the dinner was held in the small banquet hall.Hosted by Mr. Wu, Mr. Wang and I participated on behalf of Qinghua Pavilion.

"Master Tan, I am the head chef of Yaxuan Restaurant in Zhengzhou. My surname is Zhang, and my name is Zhang Hai. I saw that every restaurant in our family has a casserole dish 'pot bottom meat'. I also ate it just now. It is very good and has a small Potatoes are the finishing touch, can you share your recipe for this dish?"

This is the first question to ask this evening, and what he asked is what many chefs want to know. "Pot Bottom Meat" has been well received, and many people want to learn it.

"No problem." First gave an affirmative answer, and then said: "The pot bottom meat is a traditional Northeast dish, and it is also a local dish. It is characterized by fat but not greasy, melts in the mouth, and articulate. The fire is stewed to the end, and the house is full of fragrance when the lid is opened. One of the pots is a pot of meat, and one fire refers to putting the pork belly into the pot, adding cold water and seasonings, covering the lid, and simmering until the time is up. , you can’t turn the pot to change the fire in the middle. This is also the characteristic of making pot bottom meat. The heat must be controlled, otherwise the taste of pot bottom meat will be lost, and it is not called pot bottom meat, it is called stewed meat.”

"The pot-bottom meat that you taste today is improved on the basis of the old-fashioned pot-bottom meat. As we all know, people's diet is beginning to pay attention to nutrition, green, and natural, and it is too greasy to eat. If you serve the old-fashioned pot bottom meat , no matter how delicious it is, there are very few people, it is a whole piece of pork belly, it looks greasy, and no one likes to eat it."

"My chef made a flower knife on the pork belly through repeated research and development. Everyone has seen it. When I opened the lid of the casserole, I saw a whole piece of red pork belly. I thought it was a whole piece. I waited to pick it up with chopsticks. At the time, I found that the meat had been changed into dice, but the skin was connected. There are two advantages to forming such a knife, first, the shape is complete, and it is beautiful; second, the meat that forms the dice It matures quickly, and the fat is spit out clean, so it doesn't taste greasy."

"Just now, Master Zhang said that the added small potatoes are the finishing touch. Thank you for your compliment. Indeed, the small potatoes are well added and can fully absorb the fat spit out from the meat. The small potatoes are very fragrant after absorbing the fat, and they are soft and palatable. It doesn’t feel greasy, but it tastes better than meat. I believe everyone has tasted this, especially lesbians. If you guessed right, the lesbians have snatched up all the small potatoes in it.”

Everyone laughed softly.

"There are four key points in making this dish. I will explain it to you in detail. First, the choice of pork belly must be pork belly with three layers of pork belly. Three millimeters of meat is easy to fall off, and more than three millimeters will make the meat thicker, and there will be more fat storage, which will affect the taste. "

"Second, the small potatoes must be skinned, and they must be from Liaoning in the northeast. Because the small potatoes produced in Liaoning are dense, they can be simmered for a long time, the shape does not disperse, and the oil absorption rate is high. Potato cubes cannot be used, because potato cubes When it is stewed, it becomes mashed potatoes, which is inedible. Third, the choice of seasoning is different, cooking wine and soy sauce, the soy sauce is ordinary light soy sauce. You can’t put Yipinxian, Yipinxian is good, but the pot bottom meat is made It's too sweet to taste the original taste."

"Fourth, you can't add water to change the fire in the middle. After putting the processed pork belly and small potatoes into the casserole, add green onions, ginger, pepper, aniseed thirteen spices, cooking wine, soy sauce and cold water, cover the casserole, and turn on the fire. This At that time, you can no longer open the lid of the casserole, nor can you change the fire. According to the old master's words, it is better to stick to the bottom of the pot than to add water halfway, which is also the origin of the meat at the bottom of the pot."

"Master Tan, do you not add seasoning and chicken essence?" Master Zhang asked.

I smiled, and said to all the members of the inspection team present: "I don't know if you feel that there is no monosodium glutamate in all the dishes tonight."

A woman said: "I feel that there is no MSG when I eat it, but I'm not sure. You say it for sure." She laughed after she finished speaking.

"Master Tan, your family has canceled MSG?" Zhang Hai asked.

I nodded and said: "Cancelled. Now customers are very disgusted with MSG. MSG does enhance the freshness, but it also destroys the original taste of raw materials. Whatever dishes customers eat, they all taste like MSG, without any special features. As the saying goes, no matter how good the seasoning is, the soup made by an opera chef is not as good as a bucket of good soup. The kitchen in Qinghua Pavilion has no seasoning, only old soup."

At this time, a man in his 30s stood up and said, "Master Tan, I'm from Chengdu. My kitchen has long wanted to cancel MSG, but the chef said that he can't cook without MSG. Wei, I can’t do anything about it, I canceled it several times and I still can’t cancel it, can you talk about how you canceled it?”

"I also encountered the situation you mentioned. To be honest, there is no good solution. When my kitchen was canceled, I was still cooking on the stove, so let me start first. I don't use monosodium glutamate, and the dishes are recognized by customers. It is true. It’s more delicious than what they make, and it’s cancelled. There are two things you need to do before canceling the seasoning. The first thing is to hang a bucket of good old soup, and the second thing is to come by yourself and set an example. A chef who doesn’t know how to cook can’t do anything about it, so he needs to choose between miso and work. My principle is that other aspects can be negotiated, and there is no room for negotiation on the quality of the dishes.”

This is when a woman stood up and asked: "Master Tan, I am the general manager of Nanjing's "Grandma's House". Tang share it, I will learn and learn."

I laughed and said, "Saying this may be playing tricks in front of my peers."

"Master Tan, let me tell you. We just understand it, and we don't quite understand the reasoning. Please explain it to everyone." Zhang Hai, who was the first to ask the question, said loudly.

I said: "Everyone knows that the grandfather of our chef is Yi Yin. Cooking sea and salt makes food taste. Our most primitive cooking method is not roasting, frying and stewing, but grilling with fire. Popularity, the reason why people like it, why? We have returned to the most primitive time, eating the original taste.”

"Many restaurants want to have their own uniqueness, to attract customers and increase revenue. To be honest, there is nothing wrong with this, because we are all doing this. But what is uniqueness? Personal opinion, just for your reference, I think The traditional is the original, and the original is the characteristic. When I realized this, I also understood why people like to eat mutton skewers instead of scallions. The chili noodles are delicious? After much deliberation, this is not the case. It is because the mutton skewers are primitive, without adding too much seasoning and production technology. The simple barbecue technique fully stimulates the original fragrance of mutton, and it tastes like mutton. , so the common people like it.”

"Then, should our chefs keep every dish authentic and return to the original? I think this is the biggest feature of the restaurant. What do we chefs of the older generation use to cook? At that time, we guaranteed that there would be no monosodium glutamate, chicken essence, High-end seasonings such as fresh dew and delicious delicacy. Let’s not talk about the royal banquets in the past, but take the Manchu Banquet as an example, or more recently, the Marshal’s Mansion in the Republic of China. At that time, the cooks who cooked for the marshal did not have MSG , and some are a bucket of good old soup."

"From ancient times to the present, cooks rely on old soups for cooking. I see that there are Cantonese chefs who come here today. The most important thing in Cantonese cuisine is soup. It is almost to the point where there is no soup. There are top soup, high soup, upper soup, second soup, Mao soup, sub soup, what kind of soup to use for any dish, and there is absolutely no chicken essence in the soup. Not only Cantonese cuisine, but also the eight major Chinese cuisines all pay attention to soup. It gives you the feeling that the people in the Northeast are rough and rough, I believe everyone will come to Binhai I used to think that Northeast people still eat meat and drink in big bowls, but in fact, Northeast cuisine is the most particular about soup, because this is where the emperor stayed in the past, and it is also the birthplace of the Manchu Banquet."

"Our rap opera, whether it's Peking Opera or Pingju, Kunqu or Bangzi, has to pay attention to the correct words. So what do chefs pay attention to in cooking? The emphasis is on the mellow taste of the soup. I have been a cook for 16 years, and I have never heard of it. That cook is powerful by using MSG, and a real master has a bucket of good old soup. So there is no doubt about the old saying, 'the tune of an opera, the soup of a chef'."

Someone applauds.

Sharing continues.This kind of sharing is like answering reporters' questions. Some people ask and others answer.All the questions I answered were related to the dishes, and Mr. Wang answered all the questions related to the service.

Someone asked Mr. Wang: "Mr. Wang, I appreciate your team's presentation. It's very good. Can you share it?"

Mr. Wang said: "Of course. Our family adheres to two principles in team building, one is people-oriented, and the other is to proceed from reality. In terms of people-oriented, we start from the formulation of rules and regulations, and do not pursue comprehensive and detailed rules and regulations. Too many employees will be at a loss, and they will appear cold and impersonal. In this regard, our principle is that there are few systems, many standards, and smooth processes. As you can see, my family has very few rules and regulations, and there are only a few simple ones. Enough, not much."

"In addition, we have also done a lot of work on employee benefits, such as decorating dormitories for employees, equipping them with washing machines, distributing bath tickets, distributing daily necessities such as washing powder, soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes to employees every quarter, and holding staff dinners from time to time. , birthday party, try to make employees work well, rest well, and live well here. When these needs of employees are met, team building will proceed, because employees have a sense of belonging and feel comfortable and secure working here .”

A man in his 30s who looked like a boss asked: "Hello, Mr. Wang, I am from Changsha, Hunan. After coming to our house, the biggest feeling I have given me is that the management is very good, which touched me a lot. There are many things worth learning. Place. When I was at Fisherman’s Wharf, I communicated with Manager Li, and she said that our management will train every week, how do we train?”

Mr. Wang smiled, pointed at me and said, "Let Master Tan answer this question for everyone. He is responsible for the training. He is our teacher."

All eyes were on me.

He had already answered many questions, but he struggled with language organization, and his mouth was dry. He wanted to ask Mr. Wang to resist for a while, but unexpectedly he changed the topic again.

He cleared his throat with a sip of water, and then said, "Teachers are not counted, nor can they be called training. They are just some experience talks, which can be regarded as mutual exchange and learning, and the internal management sharing of an enterprise."

I don’t want to say more about this, because all the catering people here are from all over the country, and there are many elites in management, so it’s better not to play tricks.We must know that there are people beyond people and others.

The man who asked the question just now said: "Master Tan is modest, our management is so good, it has a lot to do with your training, can you tell me what the management should pay attention to and how to manage it?"

After thinking for a while, I said, "Let me just tell you what I shared with our management staff for the first time. It's my personal opinion, please correct me if I'm wrong."

"As a manager, I think you need to know what a manager is first, and only after you know what a manager is, can you manage well and become an excellent manager."

"The definition of a manager is, first, the maker and executor of the corporate system; second, the creator and defender of the corporate interests; third, the creator and disseminator of the corporate culture. Managers only know what they are doing Only then can we manage well.”

"Master Tan, can you repeat the definition of a manager? Slow down and let's remember it." Someone said.

I repeated it with a smile, seeing many people taking notes, I felt pretty awesome.

Those who finished memorizing raised their heads and waited expectantly for me to continue.

"There is no trick in management. I think the best way is to 'lead by example'. We must first do what we ask of employees, and don't ask employees what we can't do."

A woman stood up and asked, "Master Tan, can you tell me what you train the managers?"

I said: "Let me tell you about training. We all think that training is very important. For example, when a new employee arrives, the first thing we think of is training and training him to be qualified. I think so too, and I do the same. .But gradually found that only training can not solve the problem, training only completed 20.00% of the work, training is the most important, accounting for 80.00%.”

"For example, we have chosen a chef who is very good at cooking and has a good personality. We want to make him a chef. Before we ask him to be a chef, we need to train him, and teach him how to be a chef. What is the responsibility, what is the management, what are the job responsibilities, what are the work procedures and standards, etc. After training all these, can he become a head chef? Or should we train a head chef?"

"Actually, what we have done for him is only 20.00% of the job of making him the head chef, and 80.00% of it has not been done. To be a qualified head chef is only good at cooking. If you are good at cooking, you can only be the supervisor of hot dishes. , managing a hot food kitchen is almost the same. But the whole kitchen is not only hot dishes, but also cold dishes, noodles, roast meat, brine, smoked sauce, snacks, etc. If the chef is proficient in other stalls besides hot dishes If he doesn’t understand, or has a half-knowledge, then he can’t manage the kitchen, the most basic thing is that he can’t guide other departments in terms of technology, and he can’t guarantee the quality of products.”

"What is the most important thing in a restaurant? It is the quality of the products, and the head chef is the one who manages the quality of the products. He is not familiar with the production process of each stall in his house, so how can he guarantee the quality of the products? If this is the case, he is not a qualified head chef. We want to let As a head chef, it is not enough to have the early training, and he has to go through the later training. Arrange him to learn at various stalls, not to mention reaching the level of the boss of the stall, at least he must be familiar with how to operate and what standards the products meet. That’s fine, so that he can manage the entire kitchen. If training is regarded as getting on the horse, then the training is a ride. We just put him on the horse and forget about it. He may not be able to control the horse. In the end, he will either be thrown off or himself Jump off and give up."

"So training is indeed important, but training is more important. Don't just train without training."

"Thank you Teacher Tan for your wonderful sharing."

Someone applauds.

(End of this chapter)