Chef's Knife

My name is Ding Er, and I am the waiter of a tea house in Beijing.

It is now noon, the sun is shining in the sky, making people dizzy, and it is the best time of the day for the business of the teahouse.

"Xiaoer, here is a pot of high-quality Longjing."

"Hey, come on! Boss Wang, please go upstairs—" I threw the towel on my shoulders, and walked forward quickly, "I haven't seen you for a while, hey, you look good, on the second floor. You keep your old position."

Boss Wang is a regular customer of the teahouse, and he is also generous in his actions. I have always been very eager to meet such old faces.

"So-so." Boss Wang waved his hand very appreciatively, and threw me a silver coin, "I heard that there is Mr. Sun's place today?"

Mr. Sun is the storyteller in our teahouse, and he likes to tell anecdotes about the past.The reason why our teahouse's business is so good is half of Mr. Sun's credit.

"Hey, you came just in time!" I greeted Yinzi with a smile on his face like a flower, "Mr. Sun is about to give a lecture!"

It took less than a moment for me to finish speaking.The forty-something man in the green cloth gown standing in the middle of the stage put down his teacup, cleared his throat, and a wonderful show was about to begin.

The story happened in the winter of the Yongle period of the previous dynasty, which was not a smooth year.Several major events have happened. As for what it is, we will talk about it later.Let's just say that this twelfth lunar month, the sky is snowing like goose feathers, which can be said to be a good year for auspicious snow.

That year was the fifth year of Emperor Yongle's ascension to the throne. Emperor Yongle ascended the throne at the age of 25, and he was in his thirties at this time.This Yongle Emperor was a generation of Ming emperors, but he only worked for five years; he was a traitor of the Qing Dynasty at home, expelled the Tatars abroad, regained lost lands, and usurped grand ceremonies.He and Queen Zhenggongzhang had three sons, and Princess Anle was born this year.

For Emperor Yong Le's [-]th birthday banquet, he decided to order the household department to hold it.Wearing court clothes and a red crown, a Longevity Banquet was held in Chaoyang Palace, and all civil and military officials came.This day is celebrated all over the world, all nations come to congratulate, and there are countless rare treasures.Demonstrate the prestige of our country and deter the Quartet.

The head chef in charge of organizing this Wanshou Banquet is the fourth generation master chef of Baiweilou in Beijing.

To say that he is the God of Cooking is not just blowing out his mouth with empty teeth, but the emperor personally seals him!

According to legend, when Emperor Tai/Zu was in power, he was fond of food, and there were thousands of royal chefs in the court from all over the world.He has tasted all kinds of delicacies in the world all his life, but when he is old, he will never forget a dish that he ate when he was young and he can't name it or where he ate it.The old emperor hung his breath for a year before his death, just to fulfill this last wish.However, there are thousands of royal cooks in the court taking turns, but none of them can satisfy the Holy One.

In order to fulfill his filial piety and respect for human relations, the crown prince ordered people to post a list and call for famous chefs from all over the world.As long as he can cook that dish, he will be named as the God of Cooking, given a thousand taels of gold, and ten thousand hectares of fertile land.This imperial decree attracted many hidden masters among the people, all of whom were excellent cooks, but in the end they all returned in vain.

Until one day, as you and I expected, a young man came to the capital.

After he entered the city, he was not in a hurry to find someone to introduce him into the palace.Instead, it spent very little money to build this Baiweilou in a section of the capital that is considered too prosperous.

When Baiwei Restaurant first opened, it was not as overcrowded as other restaurants, but the business was not bad either.On the one hand, the location and decoration are the reasons why there are not many customers.More reasons are due to several rules set by young people.

[1] It turns out that this Baiweilou only has dinner, and people who come here, regardless of whether they are nobles or ordinary people, need to make reservations during the day.There is no menu, and the chef decides what to cook every day, and only [-] tables are cooked a day.Those who heard it were all amazed, and indeed some people came to try this novelty because their appetite was whetted; there were also some people who felt that this young man was arrogant, so they deliberately came to make trouble.But no matter what the purpose of the guests came, when they left, they either came back with a lot of fun, or they were convinced, saying that this young man is indeed a skillful man.

Some well-meaning guests said that the storefront of this restaurant is too shabby, and suggested that young people decorate it more carefully; some people think that the location of Baiweilou is really bad.

However, the young man was not moved after hearing this, he shook his head and smiled and said he was not in a hurry.Don't worry about these problems, someone will solve them.The guests couldn't help but wonder where the self-confidence of this young man who was not satisfied with Double Ten came from.

On the seventh and 49th day of the opening, someone came from the palace and called the young man into the palace.

After entering the palace, the crown prince didn't talk nonsense when he saw the young man.I typed a few words, and roughly translated it into the vernacular, that is: I have seen eight hundred famous chefs and craftsmen this year, and they all turned out to be helpless. My royal father is ready to take care of you, gold and silver mountains are up to you to choose, if you don’t serve well, if Gu is in a bad mood, I’ll just stew you straight away!

There was no fear on the young man's face, he smiled and nodded, saying that you look good.Rolling up his sleeves, he entered the imperial dining room and drove out all the cooks.He set up a pot and lit the fire, and he didn't come out for three days and three nights.

On the morning of the fourth day, the young man left the imperial dining room with a pot in his hand.He insisted on sending it over in person, all the way to the emperor's bedroom.

The young man has arrived, so let the eunuch who served the old emperor submit it.The young man just lifted the lid of the pot, and all the eunuchs and maids in the hall stretched their necks to take a look. Everyone knew it—it was a pot of bone soup boiled by ordinary people!

It was amazing, the aroma of the soup spread for two miles, and people could not know the smell of meat for three months, but they remembered the indescribable taste.

If you insist on describing it, it is a feeling that makes a full person starve and is rescued from hunger to satisfy.

According to the rules, the things imported by the emperor have to be tested by the eunuch with a silver needle, and then asked Shang Shi who specializes in food testers to taste it before it counts.However, it was an exception that time, the old emperor lay on the couch and said breathlessly, and all the court ladies and eunuchs in the palace heard it.

"Even if there are poisonous poisonous intestine-piercing grasses, I don't care..."

Those words definitely did not seem to be addressed to anyone in the palace, but rather seemed to be recalling some illusory fragment.

The soup was like a glass of rejuvenation wine. After drinking it, the old emperor was radiant for a while, as if he had become decades younger.Staring brightly at the young man's face, he asked his name.

"Grassman Luo Sheng."

The old emperor looked at the young man fixedly, and said four words 'good' in a row.

Since then, no one in the world knows the name of the God of Cooking.

Three days later, Emperor Shou went to bed in the Palace of Bliss, and left with a smile on his face.

Let's go back to Emperor Yongle's Longevity Banquet.

The reason why it is said to be the fourth generation of God of Cooking is that more than a hundred years have passed since the era of leaving Yuan Dynasty.The owner of Baiweilou is still named Luo Sheng, and he is still dressed in green clothes as in the rumors, but he is already a different person.Fortunately, the craftsmanship of Chef Chef has not ceased to be passed down from generation to generation.

From the beginning to the end, every dish was prepared by Luo Sheng himself, and he never let others intervene in cooking.One person can easily cook hundreds of dishes in just two days, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people. People can only sigh that this is the magic skill of the chef.

And at this state banquet, Chef Luo Sheng introduced the latest trick of Baiweilou - shabu-shabu, which was still very fresh and popular at the time.At the birthday banquet, singing and dancing were performed, accompanied by hot shabu-shabu in winter, and the atmosphere was excellent.In particular, there were many foreign envoys from the grasslands at the banquet, who were meat-loving by nature and would not like meat, so their needs were greatly satisfied at this time.

When the birthday banquet was coming to an end, Emperor Yong Le, who was very happy, summoned Luo Sheng and gave him a big compliment.The envoy of the Gentiles also gave a thumbs up and said in amazement.

"The way of eating this shabu-shabu is unheard of in our grasslands. The soup base is full of umami, and the lips and teeth are fragrant. The meat slices are especially commendable; the slices are as thin as a cicada's wings, and the texture of the veins is clear, which shows the skill of the knife. The taste is even better. But without losing its beauty...it really was a worthwhile trip!"

"Thanks for your praise." Luo Sheng lowered his eyes and said indifferently. He used to be dressed in green, but today he seemed to be wearing a red shirt just to suit the occasion.It's like the number one scholar on the horse, or the bridegroom official in the bridal chamber.He looks to be nearly thirty years old, just like a mature young man, but he has a lingering sense of depression and oldness inexplicably around him.

Emperor Yong Le clapped his hands and smiled when he heard this comment: "I also think this piece of meat is excellent, not smelly or fishy, ​​the taste is very light; the taste is not tender, like mature veal, but not as old as ordinary beef. "

"Your Majesty is absolutely right." Luo Sheng slightly raised the corners of his mouth after hearing this, "mutton is too stinky, pork is too greasy, and you don't like poultry meat. But, although beef is delicious, it is always a bit stale, Cao Min thought. How can I satisfy you? So...Your Majesty, you guessed wrong this time."

In an instant, Luo Sheng's old age was swept away, a perfect and impeccable smile appeared on his face, and the bright red dress looked as if it was about to ooze blood.After a while, his smile gradually disappeared, leaving only a trace on the corner of his lips.The almond eyes are round and sly, like a mischievous child uncovering a prank.However, he wrote it lightly in a casual tone.

"It's human flesh."

[1] Referenced from Beijing Lijia Restaurant