gourmet food

Chapter 218 The Legend of Sichuan Cuisine

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha……."

The two presidents couldn't help laughing when they saw Chu Yunfeng being frightened.

"Don't be nervous. In fact, many dishes cannot be restored now, firstly because of the lack of raw materials, and secondly because they do not comply with current regulations and public aesthetics."

President Hou couldn't help but smile and said. This shows that Chu Yunfeng has a simple heart, which makes President Hou like him more and more.

"I'm scared to death, but it seems that Sichuan cuisine is really broad and profound. Can you tell me about its legendary history?" Chu Yunfeng was very curious and looked like he was listening.

"Okay, let me tell you about it. In fact, the origin of Sichuan cuisine is in the ancient countries of Ba and Shu. The seasonings at that time already included brine, rock salt, Sichuan pepper and Yangpu ginger.

Among the unearthed cultural relics from the Warring States Period, there are already various bronzes and pottery utensils, which shows that Sichuan cuisine sprouted early.

The formation of Sichuan cuisine was probably between the unification of China by Qin Shihuang and the establishment of the Three Kingdoms. At that time, the political, economic and cultural center of Sichuan gradually moved to Chengdu.At that time, regardless of the selection of cooking materials, the use of condiments, as well as the requirements of knife skills, heat and professional cooking level, they had begun to take shape, and there were already prototypes of cuisines.

King Qin Hui and Emperor Qin Shihuang immigrated to Shu in large numbers twice, bringing with them advanced production technology from the Central Plains, which greatly promoted and promoted the development of production.

The Qin Dynasty laid a good economic foundation for Shuzhong, and it became even more prosperous in the Han Dynasty.Zhang Qian went on a mission to the Western Regions and introduced courgettes, beans, walnuts, soybeans, garlic and other varieties, and also added cooking ingredients and seasonings to Sichuan cuisine.

During the Western Han Dynasty, the country was unified, and both government-run and private businesses were relatively developed.Five major commercial cities emerged with Chang'an as the center, including Chengdu.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Wei, Shu, and Wu were at the same level, and Liu Bei regarded Sichuan as the "capital of Shu."Although the country is divided, Shuzhong is relatively stable and has created good conditions for the development of business, including the catering industry.

This gave Sichuan cuisine a solid foundation in its early stages of formation.Then by the time of the Han Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, the initial outline had already appeared.

During the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, Sichuan cuisine developed greatly.During the two Song Dynasties, Sichuan cuisine had crossed the border between Bashu and Sichuan and entered Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty and Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, becoming known to people outside Sichuan.

Until the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, Sichuan cuisine used imported and grown chili peppers for seasoning, further developing the seasoning tradition of "high taste" and "good spiciness" formed by Bashu.

After the late Qing Dynasty, it gradually formed a system with extremely strong local flavor, ranking with Shandong cuisine in the Yellow River Basin, Cantonese cuisine in the Lingnan region, and Huainan and Yang cuisine in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

There are many records of Sichuan cuisine in ancient classics and poems and articles by literati and poets from various dynasties.

Then until the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), a Manchu chef Guan Zhengxing opened a banquet restaurant called "Zhengxingyuan" in Chengdu. Due to this chance encounter, many Sichuan cuisine masters were brewed and became the ancestor of modern Sichuan cuisine.

After the Revolution of 1911, the Manchus lost their power, and the Zhengxing Garden suffered a disastrous decline. Especially in October 10, a fire broke out in the "Zhengxing Garden", and the once prosperous and magnificent museum turned into ruins and ashes overnight. Unable to continue operating, it closed its doors completely in early 1912.

At this time, Qi Lezhai invested 300 silver dollars as capital, and jointly opened Rong Paradise with the Lan brothers who had no financial resources.

There are three Lan brothers, namely Lan Guangjian, Lan Guangrong and Lan Guangbi. All four of them are chefs in Zhengxing Garden. Among the four, Lan Guangjian has the most superb cooking skills, so he is appointed as the manager.

From then on, modern Sichuan cuisine began to be developed. " President Hou said this with a look of longing and admiration for that legend.

"That Guan Zhengxing is pretty good. All the Sichuan cuisine masters behind him are from his restaurant." Chu Yunfeng listened with interest, and now he realized that Sichuan cuisine has experienced so much development.

"Of course he is amazing. Do you know that he was the only chef in Chengdu who knew how to cook the "Man-Han Banquet" at that time." Chairman Xiong added that many people must have known about the "Man-Han Banquet".

"A banquet of Manchu and Han Dynasties? That was the most powerful palace feast in the Qing Dynasty." Chu Yunfeng was startled, and then he realized that Guan Zhengxing turned out to be such a great master.

"Haha, why do you young people look like this when you hear that the Manchu and Han banquet looks like this, as if you have never seen the world." President Hou shook his head and expressed that he did not understand.

"That's the Man-Han Banquet, not the roasted pot helmets on the street. By the way, Master Guan is so powerful, why did he come to Chengdu?" Chu Yunfeng flattened his mouth. There are many legends about the Man-Han Banquet, but it is really true. Not many people can eat it.

"It was because of the war. In the 1860th year of Xianfeng ([-] AD), the British and French forces invaded China. Tianjin fell one after another, and then the capital was captured. Emperor Xianfeng fled to Rehe in the name of hunting in the west. He died in the Rehe Palace in the fright the next year. .

At that time, with the barbaric invasion of Britain and France, burning, killing, looting and other crimes were committed. Many northern cities suffered catastrophes and social unrest forced a large number of nobles to move south to seek refuge.

While northern China was being ravaged by war, the Shu region in the southwest was still a paradise due to its rich products, dangerous terrain, and distance from the war. Many officials of the Qing government chose to move to Chengdu to settle.

It was at this time that Guan Zhengxing, a government chef, followed a group of Eight Banners officials to Sichuan.After coming to Chengdu, he found that the society here was stable, the economy was prosperous, and the people were wealthy, so he made up his mind to stay in Chengdu and develop.

Guan Zhengxing was 35 years old at the time. He had traveled extensively and traveled extensively in his youth, and was quite visionary and courageous.

After living in Chengdu for a period of time, Guan Zhengxing, who has a strong business vision, discovered that at that time, Chengdu people held banquets and entertained guests, which was not entirely limited to their homes.

Instead, more and more people choose to go to specialized banquet restaurants. From government banquets to private banquets, from regular seasonal banquets and elegant gathering banquets to casual picnics and travel banquets, the style of banquets is very popular. There is a wide variety and everything you need.

But throughout Chengdu, there is almost no decent "banquet restaurant". There is only one restaurant in Zhuangyuan Street that is famous for its big meat buns and serves as a banquet restaurant. However, that restaurant is of a lower grade and is only suitable for ordinary officials and ordinary people.

At that time, a large number of officials and their families moved to Chengdu, so the demand for high-end "banquet restaurants" was increasing day by day.

After careful observation and analysis, Guan Zhengxing felt that there was a market for high-end banquet catering business. Not only did he have superb cooking skills and was extremely savvy in developing dishes, but he had also accumulated extensive connections in the officialdom over the years, and he also knew If many famous chefs from the north and south and local masters can pool their efforts to open a high-end and elegant "banquet restaurant" with delicious dishes, they will not worry about running out of business.

After making up his mind, Guan Zhengxing resolutely resigned from his position as government chef. In 1861, with the help of his friends, he opened a "baoxi restaurant" that was compatible with the north and south, had ancient and new styles, elegant taste and exquisite dishes, and named it Zhengxingyuan. "

"Master Guan is a Manchu, and his main specialty is palace cuisine. So how does he make unique Sichuan cuisine?"

This is what Chu Yunfeng is very confused about. He is very curious about how a palace chef created the modern Sichuan cuisine system.

President Hou opened the cup he was carrying, took a sip of water and continued: "That's because the Qing Dynasty at that time had a "refugee" rule for provincial officials.

Namely: Cannot take office in this province, must be sent to other provinces to take office.When these dignitaries came to Sichuan to serve, they would bring their hometown chefs with them to entertain guests in Zhengxing Garden. Sometimes they would also send home cooks to Zhengxing Garden to cook. This gave Zhengxing Garden an opportunity to communicate with famous chefs from the north and the south.

Guan Zhengxing combined the essence of Sichuan cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine and Beijing cuisine into one pot, created more famous dishes, and finally created a systematic local cuisine - Sichuan cuisine. Only then will there be such a legend. "

"So that's it. Then what about Rongyuan Garden founded by Master Guan's disciples? Why were they the only ones to promote Sichuan cuisine?"

Chu Yunfeng is like a curious baby now, asking whatever he catches.

"Let me tell you this, I know it better." President Xiong volunteered. He is the vice president of the Hotel Association, and he has put a lot of effort into understanding Rongyuan.

"Let me talk about Lan Guangjian first. He entered the Sichuan cuisine industry at the age of 13. Because of his superb cooking talent, he was favored and supported by Guan Zhengxing, and even taught him all the ways to make a Manchu-Han banquet.

A well-qualified chef usually takes five years to become a chef. However, when Lan Guangjian was 5 years old, he cooked three Manchu and Han banquets in a row, causing a sensation throughout Chengdu.

At the same time, Lan Guangjian's enthusiasm for Sichuan cuisine is no less than that of Guan Zhengxing.According to statistics, Lan Guangjian has developed more than 300 Sichuan cuisines in his lifetime. It can be said that all his energy has been spent on the research and development of Sichuan cuisine.

If Guan Zhengxing is a master of product development, then Blu-ray Jian is a master of operations. Their relationship is like Apple's Woz to Jobs.

Guan Zhengxing is an official, and he is full of life and material, and the guests received by "Zhengxing Garden" are also officials who "have no white contacts".

He defined the great term "Sichuan cuisine", but unfortunately, he did not package the various dishes in Sichuan cuisine into a system and promote it nationwide.

But Lan Guangjian did what Guan Zhengxing didn't do.During his operation in Rongyuan, he created more than 30 banquet formats and created the first restaurant with modern significance in Sichuan cuisine - Rongyuan with private rooms and a hall.

It is not difficult to understand the gap between the two people's ideas, because the latter is a businessman.This businessman's idea eventually packaged Sichuan cuisine into a famous brand both at home and abroad.

Not only that, Lan Guangjian had a DIY concept and door-to-door service concept for the operation of Rongyuan Garden at that time.Supported by this idea, "side dishes, door-to-door delivery, and catering banquets" have become Rongyuan's main competitiveness.

Therefore, Rongyuan Garden stood out among the dozens of time-honored brands in Chengdu at that time and became famous throughout Chengdu. In 1970, a store with the best decoration was built in Luoma City, and everyone knew it as "old Chengdu".

In 1980, Wing Paradise opened across the street from the United Nations Building in New York and became an instant success.

Teresa Teng, Kissinger, Schultz, Sihanouk, Madonna, Michael Jackson and many other well-known dignitaries, entrepreneurs and celebrities have visited.

Since 1971, Rongyuan Garden has become the technical training base of CD City Catering Company. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the Huangpu Military Academy in the Sichuan cuisine world.

From this year on, Rongyuan will train a group of culinary technical talents every year. Kong Daosheng, Zeng Guohua, Liu Jiancheng, Wu Wanli, Zhang Songyun, Mao Qicheng... these older generation famous chefs who all have names are all from Rong Paradise.Some of them left the school and founded their own catering companies; some stayed and stuck to their obsessions.

But this is also its last prosperity.

The decline of the originator.

Rongyuan Garden later underwent a series of relocations, which cost a lot of manpower and material resources. Moreover, the rent of shops in prosperous areas of modern cities is much higher than that of old streets and alleys. These expenses will undoubtedly put pressure on capital turnover.

The second is environmental impact.The bustling area with a modern atmosphere has more special catering for modern people: fast food, hot pot (especially in a big hot pot city like Chengdu, the competition is even less advantageous), as well as imported barbecue, steak, etc.In this environment, Rongyuan is tantamount to surviving in the cracks.

Again, it’s the limitations of the dishes.Continuously innovating is the basic ability for a catering company to survive. Since Lan Guangjian's death, it has been difficult for Rongyuan's Sichuan cuisine to make breakthroughs, and the taste has gradually deteriorated with the death of the previous generation.

Due to various problems, Rongyuan Paradise faced profit pressure and kept closing stores, demolishing them, and reopening... The vicious cycle started over and over again.Internal funds were finally cut off, and this "old horse" that had been galloping for nearly a hundred years finally shed all its prosperity and died of exhaustion on the road. "

President Xiong was quite sad when talking about this legend.

“Now you know the glory of Sichuan cuisine, right? Due to limited time, there are many legends about Sichuan cuisine that I haven’t told you yet, including the boiled cabbage dish that the Empress Dowager of Cixi loved most.

I have to leave. If I don’t leave for a while, I won’t be able to catch the flight. There’s no rush to recover. We’ll talk about it after I return to Beijing to deal with some things. "

(End of this chapter)