Chapter 755 Western Food Chinese Works
The five-person team from 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 Chinese and Western food both 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.
Each of them is actually the leader of each group in the Tan Palace, which is at least equivalent to the level in charge of each area 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 was even a little embarrassed that they had done the dirty and tiring work for a month without their knowledge, just like a boss.
Then naturally, the resistance and rejection will disappear.
Instead, as the descendants of the dragon, the common Chinese blood makes these Western chefs feel proud.
I am not only proud that these colleagues in the altar palace have earned a face for the Chinese people in front of foreigners, but 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 after only one day, the district managers of the kitchen came forward together and sincerely extended a hand of friendship.
On behalf of the entire Maxim 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 the train, and ordered 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 give each other respect, there will be no unsolvable problems.
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.
After that, we talked about our experiences in the kitchen, the differences between Chinese and Western food, jokes and anecdotes at work, and how difficult each of them was.
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 it is not so easy for the French.
Dai Hong is the nominal "culprit" after all, and Xiao Cha went a little too far to stand up for her.
The crime of almost causing damage to the kitchen cannot be completely cleared away.
Although there was no secret behind the pursuit of this matter, the two people seemed to have some interest in the exchange of eyebrows over this matter.
But according to the kitchen rules set by the French, he still couldn't escape the punishment he deserved.
Just after the cleaning day, the three French guys held a meeting to announce the agreed-upon solution.
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 unpleasant again.
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 Zha explain 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 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.
We can launch a few Western dishes that can impress French chefs within a week, and we can also allow them to stay.
Needless to say, at first glance, this requirement seems quite high.
It seems that the French guy is just changing the soup without changing the medicine, and is perfunctory with the big guy.
Dai Hong and Xiao Cha, after just a few days of learning, how could they possibly make dishes that French chefs 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 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 Tan Palace 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. It doesn’t need to be too complicated according to common French dining habits.
Counseled by Maxim's chefs.
The consensus is that making one soup, one appetizer, two main dishes, and one dessert is about the same.
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. His thoughts are simple.
"It's nothing. French food has oyster soup, and we also have mullet 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 the pan-fried foie gras also famous? Let’s try the fried liver tip. We can also follow the example of the Burgundy red wine braised beef and have the tomato stewed beef...”
As soon as he said this, everyone burst into laughter.
Many people even burst into tears, which caused great damage to 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, but you'd better not take it seriously! This is ridiculous. Oh, my France Are you fooling around with home-cooked dishes? Then why don't you cook conch with scallion oil? Why not do that? At 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 area in 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, Iberian ham, flower of salt, champagne Crab, tuna, lobster, all kinds. Your Tan Palace is the representative of palace cuisine, and it is also the face of people in the capital. It can't be too different from other people's sea cucumber, abalone, and shark's fin bird's nest. We need to get some quality 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 expensive ingredients are used to cook, and the cost is too high. Who will pay for it? Let Maxim’s chef bear it, and the cost will be high. The three Frenchmen have to eat us alive. The five of us can't afford it, so we have to think of some clever way."
"Actually, I think it's small. What I just said cannot be said to be complete nonsense. At least we have Western cooking methods, and we can basically find similar ingredients. The biggest difference is just in the processing and combination of ingredients. As long as we make some improvements to make the dishes and dishes closer to French cuisine, it may not be possible to replace them accordingly.” It’s a Chinese dish that everyone knows how to cook. But if you don’t add soy sauce, it will immediately become a foreign flavor. The cooking method is just stewing, and the cooking time and method are actually not much different from watercress. The difference. On the other hand, our delicate dishes, such as stir-frying with wine, beets, and white pastries, 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’ll be dazzled and won’t care too much about the texture of the ingredients. This should be the most feasible way.”
His words seemed to illuminate everyone’s hearts. .
Several chefs in Maxim’s back kitchen almost jumped up with excitement 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 Maxim chef said, scratching the back of his head. .
"Yes, I have to follow your words. The 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 seasoning, it is not Western food. Taste.”
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 Chinese food carving skills are quite impressive, and French food doesn’t steam vegetables either. , there is no tofu, this is where you can play..." A division supervisor also strongly affirmed.
In this way, the basic direction has almost been set.
Besides, Yang Feng also remembered another thing.
"Hey, Da Chun'er, it is said that when our Tan Palace first opened, Mr. Pierre Cardon once reserved a table at our place to entertain guests from the French Embassy. I don't seem to have been transferred here yet. You Do you still have any impressions? What dishes do you want to remember? It will be 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. I haven’t eaten it yet. When I saw it, everyone said it looked good. The reporter also took a lot of photos. The clear jasmine soup also made them applaud. They had never seen anyone sprinkle flower petals into the soup. As for the taste, they liked the sweet and sour sauce. There is nothing they don’t like. Master Zhang’s milk pig and milk tofu also shocked them. I don’t know why, but the French seem to like our Tan Palace’s pork dishes very much.”
< br>At this time, a chef from Maxim Restaurant answered and gave the correct answer.
“It’s not surprising. Their foreign pigs seem to be non-castrated, and they are more aggressive than our pork. They are bigger and leaner. Originally, our pork here was also imported, but later we all mentioned They objected, saying it was expensive and not delicious. The French people were convinced after comparing it, and then changed it..."
In short, let's brainstorm.
After such a back-and-forth chat, everyone’s wisdom and experience were pooled together.
The questions given by the French are really not that difficult.
When the seven days 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.
We all have to witness the whole process of the French assessment and see how the three French guys 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 of the dish, it is too ordinary.
Just boil a pot of water and stew shredded white radish and some shredded tofu skin.
After the soup comes out, the modification is very simple.
The shredded radish in the soup bowl is topped with some shredded chicken breast, and a green coriander is placed on top of the chicken breast to complete it.
See how simple it is.
This made the three French guys shake their heads, feeling that there was 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 as everyone knows, this bowl of soup is not as simple as they seem. In fact, it has a lot of mystery.
The taste is not as bland as they imagined.
In fact, when this "lucky fart" took a sip of the soup, his eyes almost fell out of the bowl.
All that was left was to smack the taste in my mouth.
Then he drank a few more sips, then chirped a lot, letting "Baimao'er" and "La List" have a taste.
When the two French guys drank it, they were equally surprised because it was so delicious!
What's going on? It's actually very simple.
Why is the soup set in Tan Palace so hot all day long?
Isn’t it because this is the best way to increase the taste of food raw materials by adding their own taste to the ingredients.
The same goes for this radish soup. It is actually a concentrated soup made from boiling a large pot of white radish, which was brought to Xiao Zha.
After leaving, he used this concentrated soup to cook shredded radish again in front of the French people.
Can the smell be lightened?
The French people all think that what they drink is the soup made from the radish he cut, but it is actually the essence of thirty or forty pounds of radish.
And the tofu skin 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 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 cooks 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 and 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 dream of making. It's simply too unreasonable.
Can they not be surprised?
To be honest, this soup is 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, shiitake mushroom pedicles, mushrooms, soybean sprouts, broad beans and other ingredients over slow fire.
It is the most exquisite, it is much fresher than this carrot soup.
(End of this chapter)