Chapter 286 New Member
Standing in front of the transparent kitchen of Ningyan Lu Mansion, Ms. Zhu watched the chef making cold dishes. After the chef finished the pattern of sunset, sunset glow, fishing boat and flying birds, he dipped a brush in the sauce and wrote: "The sunset glow and the solitary wild goose fly together, and the autumn water and the sky are the same color."
"Do all the chefs here have such calligraphy and painting skills?"
"This is one of our chefs, Chef Ma Yaoxing." Yue Ning said.
Ah Xing had been secretly thinking about how to debone a whole chicken. When he came to Hong Kong, Yue Ning taught him everything he knew, and he worked even harder to learn. Seeing that Yue Ning, Lu Peide, and Chen Jinying all had good handwriting, he also began to study hard. In less than a year and a half, his handwriting was definitely good enough for a chef.
"I know. I watched the last video and his knife skills are very good," said Sun Yuke.
“He is extremely hardworking and talented.”
"Ms. Yue, how did you come up with the idea of using a kitchen like this?" asked Ms. Zhu.
"Chinese food is defined as greasy, rough and low-class worldwide, and many people have a deep-rooted belief that Chinese restaurant kitchens are dirty and full of sewage. For me, whether it is Ning Xiaochu, a fast food restaurant, Baohualou, a mass catering restaurant, or Ning Yan, a high-end restaurant, the first element is cleanliness. A transparent kitchen is the best way to present it. What's more, the chef's cooking is very pleasing to the eye."
"Makes sense, I never thought of that."
They continued to move forward, and Fan Xiuqin was talking to Nicholas in a whisper.
"Who is this?"
"Nicolas, son of French chef Pierre, came to us for a year of training." Yue Ning explained, "Do you know that our six restaurants have established the Black Truffle Restaurant Alliance?"
"The representative of traditional French cuisine, Pierre Bourgeois?" asked Julie Ling.
"yes."
"Maybe it's too far away, so I didn't hear the news," said Ms. Zhu.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you in detail while we eat." Yue Ning led them to the glass in the main kitchen and stood there.
Lu Peide was seasoning the food inside, and next to him were two chefs from Yufenglou who were going to take part in the competition tomorrow.
"This is the head chef of Ningyan Lu Mansion, and the person next to him is Chef Zhou from Yufeng Building." Yue Ning introduced.
Sun Yuke asked: "What are they doing in your kitchen?"
"The chefs from Fuyunlou and Dongfenglou who are participating in the competition from the mainland have all received training here. Mainland restaurants are too out of touch with the outside world, so we will give them some guidance before they go on stage. Baohualou is also a participating team, so we will train our own opponents, is that okay?" Yue Ning said.
It seems that there is no problem. Sun Yuke asked: "But you promoted them, aren't you afraid that they will win the trophy in the end?"
"I can only improve some skills, but cooking skills are accumulated over a long period of time, and it is difficult to improve them significantly in a short period of time." Yue Ning said with a smile, "If we take improving the status of Chinese cuisine in the industry as a common goal, then whoever wins will be proud of it."
"No wonder you have achieved such success at such a young age."
Yue Ning walked to the kitchen door and said, "Brother Lu, please come out for a moment. I have a guest to introduce to you."
Lu Peide came out and Yue Ning introduced him: "Brother Lu, this is Ms. Zhu Liling, she has eaten the dishes cooked by your grandfather."
"When my late husband was teaching at Tsinghua University, he took me to the Lu family and ate the dishes cooked by your grandfather. The mountains and rivers are thousands of miles away, and that was a memory from forty years ago." The old lady sighed, "In my dreams, I remember that shark fin soup. I tried it many times, but it didn't taste like the Lu family's. Is your grandfather okay?"
"My grandfather passed away just after the liberation, and my father is gone too. Now my second uncle is in charge, he works at the State Guesthouse; and my third uncle is the chef at Tongqinglou."
"Feel sorry."
"Things change all the time." Lu Peide said, "Try my braised shark's fin later and see if it still tastes the same as it did back then."
"good."
Yue Ning invited the guests to go upstairs, and Ms. Zhu walked slowly. The chandelier above her head and the handrails of the escalator were antiques of not too long ago, as well as works by contemporary Chinese painting masters. The corridors were filled with various handicrafts, each of which attracted the old lady's attention.
These are also Yue Ning's favorites. She introduced their origins one by one and said, "In fact, the works of contemporary craft masters are of quite high quality."
The old lady looked at a piece of yellow peony brocade mounted on the wall, and then looked at Yue Ning's coat: "Your coat and this piece of brocade, are both masterpieces, right?"
"Yes, they are all made by Suzhou brocade craftsmen."
"It's so beautiful. I've often come to Hong Kong and Taiwan to look for these items over the years, and it's hard to find as many that suit my taste as you do."
"They are all from overseas Chinese stores and Friendship Stores in the mainland."
The waiter pushed open the private room. This private room was separated from the inside and outside by a Chinese-style window. There was a hexagonal hole in the middle of the window, which just showed the landscape painting on the opposite wall.
Yue Ning asked the tea artist to go out first and she would boil water to make tea.
On the tea table there is a complete set of cowpea-glazed tea sets, a Dahongpao-colored Sancai covered bowl, a Meirenzui-colored tea cup, and a green fairness cup.
"If you want to be poor, burn red. How many times do you have to burn red to get a set of tea?"
Zhu Liling picked up the green fairness cup and began to talk about the characteristics of cowpea red, saying that this fairness cup is bright green without a trace of red. The most beautiful cowpea red glaze fired in the wood-fired kiln is the bright red robe color, which is the most sought after; the red and green interlaced and bright red, fresh green beauty drunk, has many variations and makes people love it; the most rare is the delicate pure green color, which may not be found even after firing the kiln a hundred times.
"Isn't it? I fell in love with this tea set at first sight..."
The red tea soup is poured into the teacup, and the inner wall of the teacup is as white as snow.
Zhu Liling took a sip of the tea, and found it to be of very good quality. In the United States, buying good tea leaves depends entirely on luck, and even if you are lucky, you may not be able to get such a sweet taste.
The old and the young started talking about porcelain, tea, and everything else, including their thoughts on Chinese food.
In particular, Yue Ning's statement that he wanted to change other people's perception of Chinese food won Zhu Liling's heart.
Sun Yuke smiled and said, "Grandma, is Miss Yue more like your granddaughter than me?"
Ms. Zhu laughed and shook her head: "No, Ningning is my close friend regardless of age difference, and a bosom friend."
How can Yue Ning deserve this? In the 1960s and 1970s, in the United States, which was full of prejudice against Chinese food, Ms. Zhu used her own understanding to show Americans Chinese food and introduced them to Chinese food as a high-end food with heritage and connotation. This is very remarkable.
"It's my honor to be your junior. Can I call you 'Grandma Zhu'?" Yue Ning asked.
"Of course, of course." Ms. Zhu responded repeatedly.
The waiter knocked on the door and came in: "Ningning, Chef Lu asked if we can serve now?"
"Can."
Yue Ning asked the guests to sit down together, and Ms. Zhu picked up the handwritten menu on the table. She had heard that Ningyan Lufu's chef prepared the dishes and did not accept orders.
She looked at the elaborately written menu and said, "The Lu family is a Hanlin family. After I went to the United States, I took over the restaurant and thought about how to introduce Chinese food culture to Americans. The first thing I thought of was Lu's cuisine."
The appetizer was a picture of mountains, rocks and peonies made of cold dishes. The red peonies were made of king crab legs, the yellow peonies were made of eggs and shrimp paste, and the mountains were white fresh abalone slices sprinkled with black truffles...
A combination of meat and vegetables, and a blend of Chinese and Western cuisine.
"The story of the Black Truffle Restaurant Alliance has to start from the beginning..." Yue Ning talked while eating, saying why he went to France and met several French chefs.
The more Zhu Liling listened, the more she found that there were many stories. Yue Ning talked about the live broadcast of the Chinese banquet in Japan, which involved the Beijing-Shandong cuisine chef Chen Dexiang, and also mentioned Chen Jinying. In other words, the successor of the Beijing-Shandong cuisine master is the head chef of another Ningyan?
And Japanese teppanyaki master Kenichi Iwanishi and kaiseki master Miyamoto Benjiro are working with her?
At this time, the waiter came to serve the food, which was the Lu family's signature dish, pure braised shark's fin.
Zhu Liling looked at the bowl in front of her. The shark fins in the bowl were clearly visible, covered in thick soup, with a translucent luster on the edges. That aroma was a taste that she had tried many times but failed to recreate.
She scooped up a mouthful of the golden soup, and the shark fin mixed with the thick soup went into her mouth. The rich and fresh taste suddenly brought her back to more than 40 years ago. At that time, the Japanese had not yet invaded Beijing, and she and her husband lived a rich and peaceful life. The meal at the Lu family was the best meal she had ever eaten and the most delicious meal in her memory.
Later, he was displaced, and then he was in a foreign country.
“So we decided to establish the Black Truffle Alliance. We are both the inheritors of tradition and the pioneers who break boundaries…”
Yue Ning's voice awakened Zhu Liling, who has always adhered to tradition and wanted to bring traditional Chinese food to American diners.
She recalled the past and said, "When I opened my first restaurant in New York, I insisted on using traditional methods to make braised lion's head. Americans thought it was greasy and said my dish was no different from stir-fried offal. But I refused to believe it. I stood at the door of the restaurant every day and told every customer that the lion's head should be beaten for 30 minutes, that there are two types of soy sauce: light soy sauce and dark soy sauce, and that scallions and ginger should be stir-fried with lard to get a burnt aroma. I used persistence to break the inherent cognition of Americans. But now it seems that being too insistent on tradition may not be a good thing. After all, Pierre has sent his son to you."
The waiter pushed in a food cart and served glass crispy glutinous rice chicken.
I watched the waiter cut open the chicken's belly, revealing the filling inside.
Ms. Zhu, who just thought she was right to stick to tradition, shook her head and sighed after seeing this scene: "After all, I am a latecomer. I can restore the seasoning according to the taste I have eaten, but I lack the traditional skills of deboning a whole chicken, braising in Shandong cuisine, stir-frying in Cantonese cuisine, and knife skills in Huaiyang cuisine. This is also the biggest problem of our restaurant. I have always wanted to find a chef with such skills, but in the United States, our restaurant is already a rare high-end Chinese restaurant. The others are restaurants that make chop suey, General Tso's chicken, and egg foo yung. It is basically impossible to find a chef with such skills in the United States."
The waiter served the crispy glutinous rice chicken. Sun Yuke stared at the crispy glutinous rice chicken in front of her. The chicken skin shone with oil under the light. She poked it with chopsticks and the glutinous rice stuffing inside was exposed with a "crack". She took a bite and said, "I can't make the skin of Peking duck so crispy. The chicken skin is not as fat as the roast duck. How do you do it?"
"Starch and protein are added to the crispy water." Yue Ning said.
Sun Yuke was stunned for a moment. She just sighed, but Yue Ning actually told her the key to the recipe.
After hearing what Yue Ning said, Zhu Liling asked, "Ningning, what are the requirements for joining the Black Truffle Alliance? I also hope that we can have exchanges."
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