National Tide 1980

The five-person team of Tan Palace successfully saved this high-level and important banquet with five Chinese kitchen knives.

Their superb knife skills not only left a deep impression on the three French chefs.

At the same time, he also won the respect of Maxim's kitchen colleagues with his amazing hard skills.

After all, chefs are judged by their craftsmanship, and this applies to both Chinese and Western food at home and abroad.

What's more, since the five members of the Tan Palace have shown such skill, their positions in the Tan Palace have also been exposed.

Maxim's chefs were surprised to learn that although they were young, none of them were ordinary chefs.

All of them are actually the leaders of various groups in the Tan Palace, which is at least equivalent to the level in charge of various areas in Maxim's kitchen.

In this way, the excellence of these five people has a reasonable explanation, and Maxim's Western chefs will not have such a strong sense of frustration and tension.

On the contrary, I think this result is natural.

I think Tan Palace attaches great importance to this learning exchange, so it would send such an elite here.

I even feel a little embarrassed because I let people do dirty and tiring work for a month without knowing it, just like a boss.

Then naturally, resistance and rejection will disappear.

Instead, as descendants of the dragon, the common Chinese blood makes these Western chefs feel proud.

I am proud that these colleagues in the Tan Palace have earned a face for the Chinese people in front of foreigners, and I am also grateful that they have the ability to turn the tide.

After all, once things get out of control and a big mess is created, no one will be better off.

So just one day later, all the district managers of the kitchen came forward together and sincerely extended a hand of friendship.

On behalf of the entire Maxim's chefs, they invited five people from Tan Palace to have a supper together after get off work.

Even today, there are not many places to eat at night in the capital.

The so-called late-night snack was just to go to the nearby Qianmen Canteen, which caters to passengers catching trains, and order some simple cold dishes, a few bowls of wontons, and a few plates of steamed buns.

But the good thing about the people in the kitchen is that they are informal and have a strong charisma.

As long as we understand each other and respect each other, there will be no problems that cannot be solved.

In fact, everyone sat at the same table, toasted each other with a few glasses of wine, and said a few words such as "We are all brothers in the four seas, and harmony is the most precious thing in the world."

The feud between each other was over, and no one cared about it anymore.

Afterwards, we talked about our experiences in the kitchen, the differences between Chinese and Western food, jokes and anecdotes at work, and their respective difficulties.

So when we left, Xiao Cha, who was drunk, started to talk to each other like brothers.

However, grudges and misunderstandings between compatriots are easy to resolve, but the French hurdle is not so easy to overcome.

After all, Dai Hong is the nominal "culprit", and Xiao Cha goes too far to stand up for her.

They could not be completely cleared of the crime of almost causing damage to the kitchen.

Although there was no secret behind the pursuit of this matter, the two people's flirtation with each other seemed to have some meaning.

But according to the old kitchen rules set by France, the punishment that should be given cannot be avoided.

Just after the cleaning day, the three French elders held a meeting to announce the agreed-upon solution.

It was decided to return Dai Hong and Xiao Cha, who had caused bad influence, to Tan Palace and replace them with others.

Needless to say, the seriousness of this result suddenly made the atmosphere in Maxim's kitchen suddenly sour.

The other three people in Tan Palace could not accept this and thought the punishment was too severe.

After all, there were no real consequences, so it would be embarrassing to just retreat.

How can Dai Hong and Xiao Cha explain it to Manager Ning and their old colleagues in Tan Palace who value them?

Maxim's chefs also felt quite guilty about this, so the district supervisors bit the bullet and interceded for the two of them.

The clinker foreigners are bad enough, and they are actually very good at pretending to be foreigners, and they can feint a shot.

Seeing such feedback from the chef, I actually came up with another alternative.

That is if the two of them can show amazing talent in cooking.

Being able to launch a few Western dishes that can impress French chefs within a week can also allow them to continue to stay.

Needless to say, at first glance, this requirement seems quite high.

It seems that France is always changing the soup without changing the medicine, and is perfunctory.

Dai Hong and Xiao Cha, after just a few days of learning, how could they possibly make dishes that the French chef would appreciate?

However, the executive chef "Baimaoer" later added a statement, saying that he could not follow the restaurant's standard menu and do whatever he wanted.

As long as it meets the basic requirements and eating habits of French cuisine.

At the same time, other chefs are not prohibited from helping each other and helping them consult together.

These few sentences express another meaning.

It is probably because French chefs have become interested in Chinese cooking techniques and want to see what other wonderful performances their chefs can show.

Therefore, it can be understood that this is a disguised assessment method, and the French also want to find a step for everyone.

So not only did Maxim's chefs decide to try their best to provide technical support, but the five people at Tan Palace also gained a certain degree of confidence.

In the next few days, as soon as they were free, the five people from Tan Palace got together to discuss.

The first is the question of how many dishes to cook.

This is the simplest, and it doesn’t need to be too complicated according to common French dining habits.

Counseled by Maxim's chefs.

The consensus was that making one soup, one appetizer, two main dishes, and one dessert would be enough.

But what to do? How to do it? It's worth thinking about.

Xiao Cha is a straightforward person who doesn't like to think too much. What he thinks is simple.

"It's nothing. French food has oyster soup, and we also have mullet and egg soup. They have macaroni, and we also have fried dumplings. Isn't France famous for its baked snails? Let's have conch with scallion oil. Isn't that pan-fried foie gras also available? As for the name, let’s have a fried liver tip, and we can also follow the example of beef stew with burgundy red wine, and have beef stew with tomatoes..."

As soon as he said this, everyone burst into laughter.

Many people burst into tears, which greatly undermined the seriousness of the scene.

Jiang Dachun was very unhappy and taught his junior brother a lesson.

"You kid, aren't you trying to cause trouble? Do you still want to stay? Everyone is worried about you, so it's better for you not to take it seriously! That's ridiculous. Oh, I'm going to have home-cooked French cuisine. Cai Hu Nong? Then why don’t you make conch with scallion oil? Wouldn’t it be easier to stir-fry the snails with spicy sauce? Why do you do that? At the very least, the quality of the ingredients must be right."

What he said was a pragmatic consideration. Not only did Xiaocha accept the criticism with a smile, but the supervisor of the soup section of Maxim's kitchen also spoke in agreement.

"Yes, yes, French food is very concerned about the texture of ingredients. Formal banquets, important banquets, often use many precious ingredients, such as foie gras, caviar, Parmesan cheese, Yinbili ham, flower of salt, champagne crab , tuna, lobster, all kinds, all kinds of things. Your Tan Palace is the representative of palace cuisine, and it is also the face of us people in the capital. It can't be too different from others. Sea cucumber, abalone, shark's fin and bird's nest, you can have more or less. Get some high-grade materials.”

However, although most people nodded in agreement, Yang Feng provided another way of thinking.

"Of course you are right, but the problem is that the cost of cooking with expensive ingredients is too high. Who will pay for it? If Maxim's chefs bear it, the cost will be too high. The three French people are very You can't eat us alive. The five of us can't afford it ourselves. So if we can't do it head-on, I'm afraid we have to think of some clever way."

"Actually, I think what Xiao Cha just said cannot be said to be complete nonsense. At least we all have Western cooking methods in Chinese food, and similar ingredients can basically be found. The biggest difference is just that The processing of ingredients, the way of matching and the presentation of the dishes are all about it. As long as we make some improvements accordingly and make the shape and color of the dishes closer to French food, it may not be impossible to replace them accordingly."

"For example, this stewed elbow and braised fish can be said to be Chinese food that everyone can cook. But if you don't put soy sauce and put butter instead, it will immediately become a foreign flavor. The cooking method is just stewing. , the cooking time and methods are actually not much different from watercress. On the other hand, our delicate dishes, such as quick stir-frying with wine, beets, and white eucalyptus pasta, are not found in Western food."

"So for the quality of raw materials, I think we can use these things to make up for it, that is, the techniques and materials we have in Chinese food. As long as we don't have it in Western food, we will try to use what we can. The French chef looks fresh, Maybe you can be dazzled by it and not care too much about the texture of the ingredients. This should be the most feasible way."

When he said this, it was as if a bright light illuminated everyone's hearts.

Several chefs in Maxim's back kitchen were so excited that they almost jumped up and were greatly touched.

"Hey, don't mention it, this Western food is actually very similar to the cooking method of Chinese food. The main difference is seasoning, ingredient processing and presentation." A chef from Maxim said, scratching the back of his head.

"That's right, I have to follow your words. This Chinese food needs to be seasoned and processed differently, and the presentation needs to be more exquisite. It can really be served as Western food. If you use Western food seasonings, it won't taste like Western food."

Another big slap from Maxim's chef.

"Haha, this is a Chinese version of Western cuisine. I see no problem with this idea. Oh, by the way, I think the carving skills of Chinese food are quite impressive, and there are no steamed vegetables or tofu in French food. These are all places where you can show your full potential..." A division director also strongly affirmed.

In this way, the basic direction has almost been set.

What's more, Yang Feng also remembered another thing.

"Hey, Da Chun'er, it is said that when our Tan Palace first opened, Mr. Pierre Carton once reserved a table at our place to entertain guests from the French Embassy. I didn't seem to be transferred here at the time. Do you still remember it? You Remembering the dishes is very helpful for us to understand their French tastes."

After his reminder, Jiang Dachun remembered it.

"That's right, that's right, I still remember it. At that table, the French people's favorite snack is crab apple cake. They haven't eaten it yet. When they saw it, everyone said it looked good. The reporter also took a lot of photos. The clear soup jasmine also made them They all applauded. They had never seen anyone who could sprinkle flower petals into the soup when eating. As for the taste? They like the sour and sweet ones. Master Chang's "peach blossom" sauce is poured on the soft fried pork belly. They all love it. Food. There are also Master Zhang’s suckling pigs and milk tofu, which shocked them all. I don’t know why, but it seems that the French particularly like our Tan Palace’s pork dishes.”

At this time, a chef from Maxim Restaurant answered and gave the correct answer.

"It's not surprising. Their foreign pigs don't seem to be castrated. They are more aggressive than our pork. They are bigger and leaner. Originally, our pork here was also imported. Later, we all objected, saying it was more expensive. It didn’t taste good. The French people gave it a try and were convinced, and they changed it later..."

Anyway, brainstorm ideas.

After such a back-and-forth chat, everyone’s wisdom and experience were pooled together.

If you have a clue, you can make a move, if you have a clue, you can think of a clue. The question given by the French is really not that difficult.

When the seven-day deadline passed, Dai Hong and Xiao Cha turned in the answer sheets with confidence. They were all dishes that everyone had figured out together.

So after the restaurant closed for dinner that day, no one was in a hurry to leave, but everyone who worked in the kitchen stayed.

They all have to witness the whole process of the French assessment and see how the three Frenchmen react when they taste Western food made with Chinese cooking methods.

The first dish is radish soup made by Xiao Cha.

To be honest, in the eyes of the French, the cooking process of this dish is just like the name, it is too ordinary.

Just boil a pot of water and stew shredded white radish and some shredded tofu skin.

Then after the soup comes out, the modification is also very simple.

Just put some shredded chicken breast on top of the shredded radish in the soup bowl, and put a green coriander on top of the chicken breast to complete it.

See how simple it is.

This can't help but make the three French bosses shake their heads, feeling that there is really no merit.

For this reason, during the tasting, the two older Frenchmen did not move their spoons and let the sous chef "Happy Fart" do all the work for him.

But everyone knows that this bowl of soup is not as simple as they seem, but it actually has a lot of mystery.

The taste was not as bland and tasteless as they imagined.

In fact, this "lucky fart" took a sip of the soup and his eyes almost fell out of the bowl.

Then all that was left was to smack the taste in my mouth.

Then he drank a few more sips, then chattered a lot, letting "Baimao'er" and "La List" have a taste.

When the two Frenchmen drank it, they were equally surprised because it was so delicious!

What's going on? It's actually very simple to explain.

Why is the soup set in Tan Palace so hot all the time?

Isn't it because this is the best way to add the taste of the ingredients to the ingredients to increase the taste of the food ingredients?

The same goes for this radish soup. It was actually boiled in a large pot of white radish, and the concentrated soup was boiled, and Xiao Zha brought it to him.

After that, he used this concentrated soup to cook shredded radish again in front of the French people.

So can this taste be dull?

The French people all thought that what they drank was the soup cooked from the radish he cut, but it was actually the essence of twenty kilograms of radishes.

Moreover, the bean curd used by Xiao Cha is not a mortal thing, it is a leather stick.

What is a leather stick?

When making tofu, the wooden stick used to pick out the tofu skin has been used for a long time, and a layer of tofu skin has condensed on it.

Soak the wooden stick in water, wait until the bean skin is translucent, and then remove the wooden stick to become a skin stick.

This is the finest ingredient in soy products, and AH Yingjiang Temple’s is the most famous.

Use it to make soup, the soup is as thick as milk and delicious as chicken soup.

So Xiaocha cooked it with shredded radish. This auxiliary material not only makes the soup more delicious.

And because it is also vegetarian, it will not make the soup greasy, overwhelm the flavor of the white radish.

To be honest, these French people, who have long labeled Chinese food as greasy, never thought that there would be such a radish soup in the world that is not oily but has a pure and rich taste.

If there is no more chicken breast in the soup, it is completely vegetarian.

This kind of delicious food that is both fragrant and mellow is called "clear and plump taste" in classical Chinese.

It's something they couldn't even dream of making. It's simply too unreasonable.

Can they not be surprised?

But to be honest, this soup is really nothing to Tan Palace, it is just a quick fix.

There are different levels of real vegetarian soup.

The Suding soup in Tan Palace was used during the "fast days" of the Qing Palace in the past.

It is made from fresh bamboo shoot roots, fragrant stems, mushrooms, soybean sprouts, broad beans and other ingredients over slow fire.

It’s the most exquisite, and it’s much fresher than this carrot soup.