Speaking of the twenty-four flavor types of Sichuan cuisine, Ding Junda has a posture of vertical and horizontal. In 2013, Ding Jun began to take the helm of Clean and Fine. Before that, he was a chef of his own cuisine.
Founded in 1927, the jie and jingchuan restaurant at nanchang intersection and Yandang Road has formed a unique feature of Haipai Sichuan cuisine and Yangbang dim sum in its long-term business activities, which are praised for making good use of "taste", of which fish aroma, red oil, strange taste, spicy and other flavor types are well-known. "Since you run a Sichuan restaurant, you must eat Sichuan cuisine thoroughly!" How does the new "head" Ding Jun make this nearly century-old Sichuan restaurant a new feature?
(i)
The clean and refined shop hall hangs a banner "Its taste is endless", which is very eye-catching. After tasting the dish, the master of art Liu Haisu improvised his gratitude. There are many famous artists who have visited this shop. Famous calligraphers and painters Liu Haisu, Wu Hufan, Qian Junzao, Cheng Shifa; theatrical performance artists Zhang Junqiu, Ye Shaolan, Zhang Yunpeng, Ding Shi'e, Yuan Xuefen; film performance artists Zhao Dan, Huang Zongying, Bai Yang, Zhang Ruifang; burlesque performance artists Yao Mushuang, Zhou Baichun, Yang Huasheng and so on.
Premier Zhou Enlai also has a relationship with Jie Erjing. Premier Zhou's pre-liberation apartment (Zhou Mansion) is located on Sinan Road, and he once patronized "Clean and Fine" and was very fond of dishes such as "dried sautéed beef shreds" that were clean and refined. In 1958, Premier Zhou visited the Shanghai Science Hall, and when he learned that the scientists and scientific and technological workers participating in the event had nowhere to eat, he suggested that "let Jie And Jing move to the Science Hall to serve the scientists." Under the direct care of Premier Zhou, Jie Erjing moved from the earliest Xing'an Road to the current site adjacent to the Science Hall.
"We are an old Sichuan restaurant with a long history, although it is Haipai Sichuan cuisine, but we don't understand the twenty-four flavors." Ding Jun said.
In fact, the flavor types of Sichuan cuisine, mostly compound flavors, have been passed down to twenty-four flavor types in the mouths of sichuan famous chefs to this day - ten with spicy or spicy tastes: spicy, paste spicy, red oil, . Strange taste, sour and spicy taste, pepper flavor, fish flavor, lychee flavor, home-cooked taste, tangerine peel flavor; eight flavor types based on spices and sauces: garlic paste flavor, ginger juice flavor, smoke flavor, sauce flavor, mustard flavor, bad flavor, five-spice flavor, sesame sauce flavor; salty and fresh sour and sweet flavor type of six types: salty sweet, salty and umami, sweet and sour flavor, soy sauce flavor, eggplant juice flavor, sweet taste.
"The key to the twenty-four flavors is that the proportion of sugar, salt, vinegar, and spicy is mastered, and the proportions have become mysterious twenty-four flavors, and if the proportions change, the kung pao chicken will immediately become spicy and completely out of shape." Ding Jun said frankly that the twenty-four flavor types, which he had penetrated thoroughly, accounted for about two-thirds of them. There are many flavor types, all of which are learned from the hands of the teachers in the store, or from the soft and hard bubbles of the hands of peers.
Ding Jun understands his mission: first of all, to pass on the clean and refined signature housekeeper dishes, the original taste, and to watch how the house dishes should be burned.
"What is inheritance, dried sautéed beef shreds, raw fried eel back, spicy tofu, kung pao chicken, fish flavored meat shreds... The practice of each dish is learned, containing the essence of Sichuan cuisine, inheritance is to break open and knead the essence I learned, let my apprentices master, I can't let the previous generation in the clean and fine kitchen, or the previous generation, point at me and scold the loser. Ding Jun said that he could not bear such an insult, and the purity and essence would not be broken in his hands.
Housekeeping dishes, each with its own reason.
For example, the clean and refined Kung Pao chicken is not slippery. The oil can be slightly more, put the chicken into the oil pot to sauté, after simmering the chicken to both sides, the oil in the bottom of the pot, and then put onion ginger garlic, watercress sauce, sautéed and then put balsamic vinegar, sugar, monosodium glutamate, slightly hooked, Sichuan cuisine is to see the oil does not see the mustard ...
Another example, born from the Chengdu Dengying beef dried sautéed beef shredded, beef shredded to a small fire stir-fried for more than half an hour, the water and oil in the beef are all simmered out, sautéed very thoroughly. Then put water, watercress paste, pepper powder, paprika, sugar, vinegar, monosodium glutamate, and then simmer for an hour, put celery segments when potting, the more the beef is chewed, the more fragrant...
"Our customers, many middle-aged and elderly people, have feelings for cleanliness and refinement, even more than our chefs, and some accompany clean and refined. They are familiar with these tastes, and once the taste is out of shape, they don't come. This is one of the reasons why Ding Jun insists on protecting these veteran housekeeper dishes.
The time is eleven o'clock in the morning, the store has successively had guests, indeed as Ding Jun said, the majority of middle-aged and elderly people, late twilight years, here can retain the memory of these old people's youth.
(ii)
Ding Jun, born in Shanghai in 1977, graduated from the Shanghai Cooking School, first in the old Shanghai restaurant of the City God Temple, and cooked the dishes for ten years. In 2003, he began to rely on cooking skills to walk the rivers and lakes, crawling and rolling, Ling Bo microsteping. His eyes were open and his mind was stable, and in 2013, he took root in this clean and jingchuan restaurant.
"When I first came to be clean and refined, the teachers were still there, teaching me to look at the house dishes and teach me twenty-four flavors, and I was lucky. Now, I am everyone's master. ”
Three years ago, he was sent by the group to the pudong elderly and hotel, and in the past two years, the chef has been frequently flowing, and the clean and refined dishes have declined.
Ding Jun encountered the bottleneck that the old brand also has, the masters are retired, the kitchen is green and yellow, no one can support the crisis, the dishes have lost their original taste, and even the old colleagues who are clean and fine are reluctant to come back to clean and fine meals. The word "a mess" even appeared on the Dianping Network.
Ding Jun began to "compare the way". "Tell them the flavor of my understanding, although complex, but must be trained."
He reformed the kitchen, practiced the basics, and changed the chef's taste. A few house dishes, to see who cooks well, specially handle the spoon. Because housekeeping is branded.
The teacher was invited to be a consultant, and when there was nothing to do, he came to taste and comment. "Even if you pick a bone in an egg, you're always telling chefs to respect history, respect tradition, respect the stuff in your hand."
Ding Jun said that the teachers still have real skills. "Dried sautéed beef shreds, usually used to be shredded along the texture, after the shredded beef is still hard. The master said that the knife can be tilted by 45 degrees, so that the shredded beef cut is not easy to break, and the meat is easy to crisp. Also, sauté the beef shreds until the later stage, dry and thorough. The teacher did not stop tapping the beef with a spoon. Then it dawned on me that it was to make the beef crisper. These should be recorded. ”
After Ding Jun presided over the work for two months, the situation began to improve, almost the same as the same period the previous year.
His biggest concern is the stability of the dishes. "As a chef, color, flavor and shape are important, every step is very critical, even including cutting, potting, but the most important thing is the understanding of the ingredients, so I like to chat with the teacher, the teacher's respect for the ingredients, sometimes respectful." 」
As soon as the year began, Ding Jun was already thinking about this year and next year. The store hall and several private rooms should be rearranged to reflect the past history, and the dishes should be introduced and innovated, combined with the market, and the service should be more superior. "To retain old guests, we must also attract young people." Let them know the history of cleanliness and refinement, which is an incomparably splendid cultural story. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Tang Ye Text Editor: Tang Ye Photo Editor: Xiang Jianying
Source: Author: Ye Shifu