NOVPUBChapter 824: 823
Chapter 824: 823
After being scolded by the old man from start to finish, Jiang Feng felt a bit more clear-headed and seemed to have a bit of an understanding. All the preoccupations he had before, when put plainly, were just overworrying. The old man was right, he had indeed become a bit arrogant from the Three Master statuses and thought that he had no issues on the technical level, but in reality, there were still many problems.
Fundamentals are fundamentals, techniques are techniques, and there are actually many cooking techniques Jiang Feng is not quite proficient at. Take, for example, the Jiang Family Dishes’ special skill of ‘oil bed caramelized sugar,’ which Jiang Feng can do but not masterfully.
To learn this skill, he had no idea how many times he’d been scolded by the old man. Sun Jikai also learned from the old man for a while. This thing is difficult to start with, difficult to get the hang of, and even more difficult to master as you progress. From beginning to end, it does not give you any room to say it’s simple.
Of course, the large wok flip is even more difficult.
Wok flipping is one of the basic skills in cooking and demands certain requirements from the chef’s basic techniques, strength, and control over fire. It can have a decisive impact on the quality of the dish. There are many types of wok flips, such as small flips, large flips, assist flips, turning the spatula, and hand flips. If one were to describe them in detail and explain the steps, they could write a book, and with more fluff, even a series.
Within the Jiang Family Dishes’ wok flipping system, the large flip is the most difficult.
Before Jiang Chengde, a prodigy, came onto the scene, Jiang Family Dishes were all Shandong cuisine. After Jiang Chengde emerged and integrated various cuisines, the main focus of Jiang Family Dishes was still on Shandong cuisine. In Shandong cuisine, braised and roasted dishes account for a large proportion, and the large wok flip is particularly suited for these two types of dishes.
After Jiang Feng began learning the Jiang Family Dishes, the related techniques were basically taught by Jiang Weiming. Jiang Weiming had systematically studied under Jiang Chengde for many years and had a very complete system for Jiang Family Dishes, unlike the old man who relied on memory and imagination to figure things out. When Jiang Weiming taught Jiang Feng the relevant techniques, he also had a very complete system. Among them, the large wok flip was the last one taught, precisely five months ago.
For some well-known reasons, Jiang Feng had only learned the large wok flip for a very short period of time. He had just learned the techniques and points of exertion and had not practiced much since, because Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup really did not require wok flipping.
Making porridge also doesn’t require division of labor.
Damn, none of the things he was good at required wok flipping.
Jiang Feng thought about it overnight and realized that although many dishes do not require wok flipping, especially the ones he was good at and wanted to master, the large wok flip was still a very good skill, worth the hard work and effort to practice and refine.
The large wok flip requires the proper use of wrist and arm strength, requires the chef to precisely control the weight of the ingredients, master the fire control, can effectively reduce the loss of the food’s own moisture, and most importantly, allows the contents of the pot to remain intact even after a 180-degree flip, even those with soup.
It could be called a divine skill.
Mastering this technique would help Jiang Feng control the ingredients in the pot more accurately and effectively.
The old man was right to scold him. Jiang Feng locking himself at home and failing to figure things out after fifteen days showed that his capabilities were insufficient; they were not enough to support him to figure out the things he wanted to figure out. Even though he was learning from an expert’s tutorial and not online videos, the old man made a very valid point.
Why bury himself in videos at home, when he has so many living, willing to teach, and capable masters available for consultation, is he stupid?
Does he have a bubble in his brain?
No matter how good the video tutorials are or how skilled the masters are in the recipe column, they cannot answer Jiang Feng’s questions.
But Jiang Weiming could, Sun Maochai could, Peng Changping could as well.
The reason why masters are masters is not only because of their superb culinary skills but also because they are experienced and well-read. They can perceive many issues at a glance that others may struggle to see despite arduous study.
On December 22, Jiang Feng had a realization.
He was lacking, his skills were still not fully refined, and he still hadn’t practiced many things sufficiently, which is why he couldn’t make his own Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup.
He didn’t need to lock himself at home watching videos over and over, needn’t study the methods of Cao Guixiang, Jiang Zhonghe, or Sun Zheran. He just needed to learn and practice, forget that he was a Three Master and consider himself the original clueless person, humbly seek advice, and then just wait for it all to come together naturally.
Once, he would cry his heart out over how good his food was after eating Li Hongzhang hodgepodge. Now, he can proudly shout:
I am so bad at this! ≧∇≦
Being bad is not a sin, not knowing that you’re bad is.
.
The news of Jiang Feng reopening quickly spread throughout the circles of Taifeng Building’s regular customers, especially among the group of pure meat dumpling enthusiasts.
The art students in the pure meat dumpling circle suffered.
At first, when the pure meat dumplings became popular on a small scale at the art academy, their competition was only with fellow students, and the pressure was not great; they could always manage to snatch some if they checked their competitors’ class schedules well enough once a week.
Later, because of a painting by Xue Shaoheng sweeping major awards, pure meat dumplings became popular in the art circles nationwide, especially in Beiping. Suddenly, their competitors changed from fellow students to graduated seniors, school teachers, budding young artists, and well-known painters. Some artists from other places, unable to find inspiration, even traveled long distances to Beiping to rent a room, solely to wait for a serving of pure meat dumplings at Taifeng Building.
Too many monks, not enough porridge.
Later, for the sake of the competition, Jiang Feng introduced pure meat dumplings without the buff, which divided the dumpling aficionados into three groups. One was the tearful party, another was the plain bad-tasting party, and the largest group wanted both.
Just when the art academy students thought they would finally be able to enjoy pure meat dumplings every day, Jiang Feng went on strike.
The strike lasted for over a month.
Painters who had rushed from out of town and already rented places wept.
Taifeng Building’s official explanation was that Jiang Feng’s strike was due to the needs of recording a TV variety show, which meant that the art students who missed out on dumplings could only angrily follow the show on schedule, wanting to see what kind of crappy variety show it was that prevented their favorite chef from making pure meat dumplings in the store.
Meanwhile, everyone also got hooked on century egg and lean pork congee while following the show.
Of course, all these were digressions.
Jiang Feng’s return reinvigorated the business of Taifeng Building’s pure meat dumplings.
It also convinced the other staff members in the kitchen at Taifeng Building that Jiang Feng hadn’t returned to work for a half month because something was off with his mental state.
It was just too abnormal.
“Mr. Jiang, could you tell me again about the final thickening technique for your bizarre-flavor soup? I didn’t notice it before, but now I find it quite special. Today at noon, I saw you thicken the soup so much it almost became a thick soup, yet not exactly. Why do that? Is it because the soup’s texture is better this way?” Jiang Feng had been stewing sea cucumber in the kitchen and hurriedly called out to Jiang Weisheng as soon as he saw him enter.
Jiang Weisheng: …
“I just… my hand shook and I made a mistake during lunch…” said Jiang Weisheng weakly.
“A shaky hand mistake? But I think it’s quite interesting. Don’t you want to research it a bit? I think it’s not bad to improve on this method,” Jiang Feng continued.
“The customer also left a bad review,” Jiang Weisheng’s voice trembled a bit.
Jiang Feng: … 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
“Mr. Jiang, did you see Zhang? I wanted to ask him how he roasts the beef. I had meant to ask after eating, but as soon as the meal was over, he disappeared without a trace and didn’t reply to messages.”
Jiang Weisheng, like a skinny man who had mistakenly wandered into the Jiang family’s dining table, looked frail, pitiful, helpless, and had nowhere to go: “I… I don’t know either, I just wanted to come back and pour myself some juice. My spouse has been telling me to drink more juice without adding sugar.”
Jiang Feng had no choice but to let Jiang Weisheng go to the water station for his juice.
In the lobby, far from the kitchen, through a door and the perfect angle of the shelves, Jiang Weiming was propping the table with his right hand, tapping his fingers irregularly, with an expression that wasn’t very pleasant; he was obviously analyzing Jiang Feng’s current state.
“Little brother, did you perhaps go too far with the scolding on the night of the Winter Solstice? I feel like Feng isn’t quite normal now,” said Sir.
Sir sipped his tea very composedly. Because of Jiang Feng’s extreme eagerness to learn, his incessant questioning, and his readiness to ask anyone anything, even when there wasn’t much to ask about, he and Jiang Weiming now couldn’t go to the teahouse for a break; they had to stay in the lobby to drink tea in case Jiang Feng suddenly had a question and came out to ask them.
Sir sighed.
Alas, it was his own doing.
“It was abnormal to begin with, and being abnormal is fine. Who discovers anything under normal circumstances? I think his state is quite right now. Didn’t you praise his improvement with the big ladle flip just yesterday afternoon?” Sir stubbornly defended his position, getting up, “Ah, this won’t do. When you get old, your body gets stiff, and it’s hard to sit for long. I’ll go out for a walk and be right back.”
Jiang Weiming: ?
If you think it’s so normal, don’t run away! I want to go for a walk too!
No matter how Sir justified it with his words, his feet moved quickly, and before Jiang Weiming had a chance to speak, Sir was already heading for the door— impossible to stop.
He just brushed past Sun Jikai, who was jogging in.
“Master Jiang, is Jiang Feng inside?” Sun Jikai asked casually.
Jiang Weiming nodded: “What’s up?”
At such a time, someone actually dared to seek Jiang Feng out during the break, truly not wanting to rest.
“The program team just called to tell us that the semifinals’ date and venue are set. They want us to go have a look at the venue now, check if there’s anything wrong with the equipment, and also to record some extra footage. They couldn’t reach Jiang Feng by phone. I guess he hasn’t seen his cell phone. Wu Minqi and Master Sun have already gone over,” explained Sun Jikai.
Upon hearing that, Jiang Weiming perked up, straightened his back, and stopped leaning on the table, not forgetting to pretend to rub his waist a couple of times.
“Ouch, old age really makes it uncomfortable whether you stand or sit. I’ll go out for a walk. Feng is in the kitchen; you can go in and talk to him. Don’t hurry back too late, take it easy.”
After saying that, Jiang Weiming slipped away, and from his retreating figure, one could vaguely see that his pace was as swift as Sir’s.
Sun Jikai: ?
