The kitchen in Zhixian Pavilion is second to none even in the whole city.
As for the "hardware", needless to say, all the good things that can be used are used; the iron of the iron pot is better than the iron of some poor weapons; the iron of the chopping board Wood is more expensive than the wood used for the best furniture in ordinary people's homes.
Ingredients and condiments are also available - southeast, northwest, delicacies from mountains and seas, and even materials not found in Dashu can be found here.
Take the fish just now as an example. You must know that that era was different from today. In modern society, even if you live in an inland city, you can still eat seafood that has been flown in at low temperature; But at that time, you were in a city far away from the sea. If you wanted to eat sea fish, let alone impossible... it was definitely extremely difficult.
In other words, in ancient times, if a person living in Sichuan never left Sichuan, he would probably never taste or even see any fish in the sea.
The situation in Luoyang is actually similar; Luoyang is adjacent to the Yellow River in the north, so it is not uncommon to get freshwater fish, but among the fish that Yuan Fangzhi brought out just now, anglers and mackerel are both marine fish, and anglers Generally operating in the deep sea, it is not easy to catch them, let alone transport them to the inland.
This alone shows that the boss here is not only rich, but also has great powers.
And the "software" of this kitchen, that is, the "people", is even more powerful...
The kitchen area on the first floor of Bugui Building is already very large. , there are a dozen cooks and helpers working in the kitchen; and the kitchen on the second floor is almost the same size as the one on the first floor, but only three people are used in it.
One is Yuan Fangzhi, the former imperial chef and known as the "King of Southern Chefs".
One is Yuan Fangzhi's deputy, an old eunuch named Zhang Ergui who left the palace with him.
There is another one who is a helper named You Jing.
Yuan Fangzhi is undoubtedly the core figure in this kitchen; as early as the age of twenty-five, he has already become famous, and the dignitaries who go to the restaurant where he cooks every day are full of praise for his craftsmanship. . As time passed, even the eunuch Li Qian, who was the supervisor of Shangshan at the time, heard about Yuan Fangzhi.
One day, Li Qian went incognito and came to the restaurant where Yuan Fangzhi was staying. He deliberately ordered a few rare dishes that the waiter had never heard of, hoping to test Chef Yuan's skills. When Yuan Fangzhi heard the name of the dish in the kitchen, he knew that the visitor had an extraordinary identity, so he also got motivated. Not only did he make every dish ordered by Li Qian the icing on the cake, but he also presented an original dish of his own—— "The spring tide brings rain in a hurry."
This dish is a seasonal dish. The main ingredient is spring bamboo shoots, and they must be freshly dug out of the soil for less than half a day, and they can be eaten raw. There is also a bamboo shoot. Seventeen kinds of accessories, all fresh fruits and vegetables unique to spring.
These eighteen kinds of materials need to be cut and peeled with eighteen kinds of knife skills, and then cooked, and finally the soup is used to collect the flavor, making these tastes delicious.Ingredients with different tastes gain an overall sense of harmony.
The final product, no matter the color, aroma, taste, meaning, or shape, is already in a state of perfection, especially Yuan Fangzhi’s superb knife skills are fully demonstrated.
Li Qian only took one bite and already made up his mind to recruit this cook into the palace.
In the same year, Yuan Fangzhi was promoted to the imperial kitchen as a matter of course, and fifteen years later he was personally named the "King of Southern Kitchen" by the late emperor. "The same name as Chen Jiurong.
However, as time passes, people will eventually grow old one day, and they cannot accept aging.
In this era when the average life expectancy is no more than sixty, Yuan Fangzhi, who has been doing high-intensity physical work, began to feel that he was a little unable to do his job in the imperial kitchen when he was fifty-six years old.
In addition, at this time, sixteen more years have passed since he was named the King of Kitchens, and his most prosperous years have long passed; today's Emperor Yongtai has no knowledge of eating. It's not very particular... He doesn't know who is who in the imperial dining room, and he doesn't care.
Yuan Fangzhi felt that there was no point in staying any longer, so he applied to resign and return to his hometown, and his superiors agreed.
As for Zhang Ergui, he is half of Yuan Fangzhi's apprentice. He has basically followed Yuan Fangzhi since he entered the palace. In fact, he is only two years younger than Yuan Fangzhi. The two are both teachers and friends. They have been friends for decades and have a tacit understanding at work. Therefore, as soon as Zhang Ergui heard that Yuan Fangzhi was leaving, he decided to go together.
Some people may ask, can the eunuch leave the palace if he wants to?
I have to explain here that "eunuch" is not all "eunuch"; before the Qing Dynasty, "eunuch" was an official position. Although eunuchs and eunuchs are both eunuchs, they can be collectively called eunuchs, but eunuchs It is the eunuch who leads the eunuchs.
If you don’t understand, let me give you an example and you will understand: In the unit, your department managers are part-time workers just like you. They can be collectively referred to as employees, but managers are the employees who lead the employees. Employees It can’t all be managers.
After the Qing Dynasty, the two words eunuch and eunuch were completely confused, and then the so-called "little eunuch" came into being.
As for Zhang Ergui, he is not a eunuch, he is an eunuch. If an old eunuch who has not yet been promoted at Zhang Ergui's age wants to leave the palace... no one will keep him.
In fact, in a few years, people will kick him out even if he doesn’t want to leave, because his body is no longer qualified for the physically demanding and serving position of a low-level eunuch. .
As for...that worker You Jing, he doesn't have a close relationship with these two, because he has always been the one who never returns to the building. They only got acquainted with Yuan and Zhang a few years ago when they came here.
Sometimes, not a single guest comes to this "Zhixian Pavilion" all night. In this case, their kitchen on the second floor only needs to be responsible for the food of the boss who lives on the third floor; And that gangFood is delivered by You Jing every day.
There is no doubt that the dishes prepared by the combination of these three people are even better than the royal meals in the palace.
However... today, Sun Yixie, who works in the fish market, actually wants to come in to "teach Yuan Fangzhi how to cook." Isn't this a strange thing in the world?
Unexpectedly, Sun Yixie led everyone into the back kitchen of Zhixian Pavilion in a swaggering manner.
Zhang Ergui and You Jing, who were waiting inside, were stunned when they saw them walking in. They had no idea what the battle was about.
While they were hesitating, Sun Yixie had glanced around the kitchen and walked towards the sink...
At the same time, Yuan Fangzhi came to him. He stood next to two colleagues and whispered to them what happened outside just now. Their expressions changed after hearing this, and they kept glancing at Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai, as if they didn't quite believe their ears.
On the other hand, Sun Yixie took a moment to get all the ingredients and then started cooking.
As for Sun Yixie's cooking skills...it's not bad, roughly at the level where he can make decent home-cooked meals; of course, in Dashu, in addition to professional cooks, Most men don't know how to work in the kitchen. Among non-professionals, there are really not many who can have his skills.
It’s just that in Yuan Fangzhi’s eyes, his little weight is nothing but child’s play...
"Master Sun..." After just looking at it for a while, Yuan Fangzhi felt that he was really a bit arrogant. Unable to bear it anymore, he stepped forward and interjected, "The way you cut the shallots (i.e. onions)...isn't right."
"Don't worry, I have my own routine." Sun Yi listened. , but he didn’t even raise his head and responded impatiently.
Yuan Fangzhi said heartily: "I reminded you with good intentions, but it turned out to be asking for trouble, okay... Anyway, you didn't give me any advice when I was cooking, so I'll shut up. ”
In this way, he silently watched Sun Yixie tinkering there for a long time. He didn’t see anything about the “fire skill”, because how to use fire varies from dish to dish, and He couldn't understand the food cooked by Sun Yixie... But Yuan Fangzhi could tell about the "knife skills" - this kid's knife skills are not very good. With this basic skill, he still wants to be better than me. Good whitebait? Where does the confidence come from?
The time of a stick of incense passes quickly.
Sun Yixie is quite nimble with his hands and feet. In less than half an hour, he brought out a plate of brightly colored and fragrant whitebait dishes.
On the plate, the outer ring is red, and it is made of chopped tomatoes, shallots, pickles, pickled cucumbers, etc. These ingredients... are not very neatly cut. It's a mess; the pile of white things piled up like a hill in the middle is whitebait, let alone... it's quite beautiful; on top of the "fish mountain", there is a pile of light yellow sauce; and before putting it on the plate , Sun Yixie finally sprinkled some chopped spices on this dish.
From top to bottom, from inside to outside, the four colors are green, yellow, white and red.The unique and rich aroma is accompanied by the elegant aroma of the fish itself... Judging from the color and aroma alone, this dish seems to be really good.
Then what kind of dish is this?
It is actually a French dish - French marinated beef.
However, Sun Yixie substituted fish for beef, vegetable oil for olive oil, and also used peppers, onions, garlic, honey, dry mustard powder, oil and salt wine, etc. to create a homemade version that went awry. of Dijon mustard.
In short, this is a "copycat cuisine" in which several ingredients and spices are replaced by genuine ones.
That's it...it's actually not easy; that is, this Zhixian Pavilion has everything in it. If you change the kitchen in another place, don't even think about it; like pepper, yellow mustard, Honey, thyme, onions... they are simply not found elsewhere. In the early dynasty, these were all rare things, and some were more valuable than silver.
No matter what, he made this dish.
Sun Yixie took a bite himself, and it was pretty good... Of course, the reason for this degree of completion was because this was not the first time he had made this dish.
In the original universe, he was a person who liked food very much, but after coming here, he can eat a lot of Chinese food, but he is completely satisfied with Western food and Japanese food. He was out of reach; and since this kind of problem couldn't be solved even with money, he had no choice but to solve it himself.
So, relying on his basic knowledge of foreign cuisine, his memories of tasting these dishes in the past, and...a lot of free time and money, he successfully restored many "dark dishes" ".
The one in front of him can be regarded as his proud work.
You have to say how delicious this method can be... No, but it is enough to make Yuan Fangzhi find it delicious.
Because "freshness" can add points to the deliciousness, and it can be added a lot.
If you let a person who has never eaten curry in his life and does not know its price take a bite of curry that can only be regarded as "averagely delicious" in the eyes of people who often eat curry, he will also Will be astonished.
But if you ask a person who often eats steak to eat a piece of "averagely delicious" steak, he will naturally have a mediocre reaction.
Instant noodles, which were once very popular in the 1990s, are in a similar situation - something that was considered a delicacy when you were a child, but now you may not want to eat it.
Actually, the taste has not changed, it may even have gotten better, but... you have changed.
Yuan Fangzhi is like a child who has never had convenience food. This bite of "French pickled whitebait" makes him beautiful.
No one in the old man’s life has ever taught him what Dijon mustard is. This is the first time he has seen the method of stewing those “Western spices” with vegetables, fish and meat; and this is the first time he has ever seen it. It was also the first time for him to taste the delicacies made with foreign seasoning methods.
After eating, he was convinced.
"Okay! Okay, okay!" Before Yuan Fangzhi put down his chopsticks, he said hello four times, "Sure enough, a hero comes from a young boy, and Yuan admires him."
Master, you have the magnanimity of a master; previously Sun Yixie uttered arrogant words, and Yuan Fangzhi was indeed unconvinced, but now that someone has really cooked something delicious that you have never tasted and cannot make, then Yuan Fangzhi will recognize it as he should.
The right way is to never tire of learning, and there is no limit to art. People with real talents and practical learning will not be afraid to admit that someone is better than themselves in some aspects, because that is a normal thing; only those who Only those who deceive the world and steal reputations will value false reputations more than facts, and often remain stubborn and their skills stop there.
"Haha... It's easy to talk, but Sun is also doing his own thing and making a fool of himself." Although Sun Yixie walked into the kitchen with 80% confidence, there were still two or three points that were still hanging in his heart. Avoid it. At this moment, when he saw that the other party was frightened, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and said something special with a smile.
This is emotional intelligence; if you don't have such tolerance and the ability to win people's hearts, how can you become the "big brother" of the fish market?
"Yeah...it's not bad." On the other side, Huang Donglai also came over to take a few bites of Sun Yixie's cooking.
His reaction was relatively dull; because to him, this was not a taste that he had no idea about. When he saw Sun Yixie cooking this dish, he already knew roughly what it would be through the ingredients. What does it smell like?
As a result, everyone had a taste of this dish, and Sun and Huang themselves didn’t even have to eat more than a few chopsticks before they were gone.
The more Yuan Fangzhi ate, the more he felt that this dish was good everywhere, and he even made up his mind: "This Mr. Sun may not be bad at knife skills, but cut it like this on purpose, because the whitebait itself Just cut the side dishes into different sizes, and it will taste more layered." This is the conclusion to explain the reason why I made a mistake just now.
It's a pity that no matter how much Mr. Yuan admires Sun Yixie, he can't just invite them to the private room for dinner... The rules are the rules, and they still have "two hurdles" to pass.
"You two gentlemen..." After tasting the food cooked by Sun Yixie and seeing Yuan Fangzhi's reaction, Xue Tui's attitude towards Shuangxie became much more respectful, "...Sure enough, he is not taking it easy. "He paused and then said, "Not only can Mr. Sun easily pass the 'First Grade' test, but he can also be praised so highly by Master Yuan with his cooking skills. It's really amazing." He praised first. The other party said something, then changed the subject and started to trick, "I think... this second level of 'one glance' will be easy for the two of you, right?"