For the country, the state banquet is not just a meal, there are profound political connotations behind it, and diplomacy at the dinner table is the strength of the Chinese.
After the founding of New China, Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai planned and organized many state banquets, every detail in the banquet has been carefully designed, although some people will think that these details are harmless, do not care too much, but often the devil is hidden in the details, only by paying attention to these easy to ignore the place, can play the role of four or two thousand pounds, quietly achieve the purpose of diplomacy.
The state banquets have not only demonstrated to the world the breadth and depth of China's food culture, but also promoted the development of China's new China's foreign affairs step by step, knocked on the closed door of the Western world, and laid a good foundation for New China's rapid integration into the new world system.
However, when we follow the traces of history to trace the memory of the original state banquet of New China, we will find such a problem, the legendary "first banquet of the founding of the country" is placed, there are few rare delicacies rarely seen by the people, not to mention the rare dragon marrow phoenix liver, a braised shark fin is already the peak of luxury, although other dishes are also exquisite and delicious, but in the use of materials is quite grounded.
Why did Premier Zhou make such an arrangement?
There's another meaning to this.
The night of October 1, 1949, was destined to be a sleepless night.
In order to celebrate the founding of New China, the Central Government of the People's Republic of China held a grand banquet at the Beijing Hotel to entertain all Chinese and foreign dignitaries who came to attend the founding ceremony. This banquet is a grand event of cross-era significance, and later known as the first banquet of the founding of the country, its importance can be imagined.
In the evening, about 600 people gathered at the Beijing Hotel to witness and celebrate the first state banquet in the history of New China, including the founding leader of New China, responsible persons of the CPC Central Committee, senior generals of the People's Liberation Army of the Chinese, people from various democratic parties and non-party organizations, well-known personalities from all walks of life invited to attend the ceremony, as well as representatives of ethnic minorities, workers, peasants, and the People's Liberation Army.
For everyone, this banquet is of great significance, and everyone has high expectations for the arrangement of the banquet. However, the higher people's expectations for this, the greater the pressure on the staff behind the planning and organization, in order to make the state banquet sound and colorful, not only need to cooperate closely in many aspects, but also have a very appropriate and thoughtful design layout.
Who will coordinate the planning of this event is the first question before us.
The preparation of the state banquet is trivial and complex, and it requires a person who knows the etiquette and has the ability to control the whole situation. After careful consideration, the state finally entrusted this arduous task to Yu Xinqing, then director of the Ceremonial Bureau of the Council of Councils.
As a protocol expert retained by new China, he is not only familiar with all kinds of table manners and etiquette, but also knows the development and characteristics of Beijing's catering industry. Which restaurant in Beijing has what flavor, what are the signature dishes, and which famous chefs, he is even more precious.
However, although the theory is rich, there is not much practical experience, and for Yu Xinqing, the preparation of the founding banquet is still a great pressure.
The first problem to be solved is, how to choose dishes?
Chinese food culture is complex, with many southeast, southwest, and northwest factions, and different tastes.
Chuanlu Guangdong Huaiyang, Fujian and Zhejiang Xiang ben gang, each place has its own special way of eating, guests from all over the world, the taste is naturally different.
The so-called crowd is difficult to reconcile, and it is almost an impossible task to achieve the satisfaction of everyone. To this end, Yu Xinqing and Wang Ren, the manager of the Beijing Hotel at the time, and Shen Ping, the deputy manager, discussed many times that the Sichuan-Xiang diet was too spicy and stimulating, and the Northeast cuisine was too rough and not exquisite enough.
After much deliberation, they finally unanimously decided to choose Huaiyang cuisine, because Huaiyang cuisine has a moderate taste and complete dishes and noodles, which is the largest common denominator that can be taken out of the eight major cuisines with different characteristics in the country.
The location of the state banquet was selected, and the Beijing Hotel, a famous restaurant in Beijing, was selected.
But another problem ensued, due to historical reasons, Beijing hotels mainly operate Western-style meals, of which French-style meals are famous throughout the city, but how can China's founding banquet use Western food?
As an ancient oriental country with a 5,000-year-old Yangyang civilization, China has a very deep accumulation of food culture, and the dishes at the founding banquet actually use Western food.
There are several chefs in Tai Fung Lou, and they really have the ability.
They had cooked Chinese food for the representatives of the Chinese Communists in 1947 during the period of military mediation negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, and now they are not going to hold an ordinary banquet, but a grand founding banquet on a large scale, which is obviously impossible to complete by relying on these masters alone. Yu Xinqing sketched out a map of Beijing's food in his head, constantly searching for memories of top Chinese food.
Finally, he finally locked his eyes on the "Yuhuatai".
Yuhuatai is one of the most famous Huaiyang restaurants in Beijing, originally located in Thera Hutong near Wangfujing, where the chefs in charge of the spoon are all famous celebrity chefs, all of whom have extraordinary skills and extraordinary skills.
If you can invite these masters to participate in the production of the dinner, won't the problem be solved?
In order to ensure the smooth progress of the preparatory work, Director Yu Xinqing personally visited the Yuhuatai and did a lot of work for the operators and workers of the hotel, and finally invited the top pillars of the store, Zhu Dianrong, Wang Dukun, Yang Qirong, Wang Bin, Sun Jiufu, Jing Dewang, and Li Shizhong, out of the mountain.
In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, Yu Xinqing specially arranged for the chefs to prepare meals for the banquet of the CPPCC meeting, hoping to see what they had at hand. These chefs did not disappoint him, and with their skillful cooking skills, they easily completed the tasks given by Yu Xinqing, showed their skills in a banquet of more than 130 people, and captured the hearts of many CPPCC members with delicious and tempting food.
In this way, Yu Xinqing's heart was slightly bottomed.
But it is not enough to have a good dish, for such a grand event, the "banquet chief designer" is even more indispensable.
As for the chief designer of the banquet, Yu Xinqing already has a candidate in mind, he is Zheng Lianfu of the Beijing Hotel, Zheng Lianfu is a master-level figure in the catering industry, and he has a wealth of experience in banquet design for a long time.
In the face of the first banquet of the founding of the people held by the new government, although Zheng Lianfu was also full of pressure in his heart, he still completed the entire design of the entire dinner without losing his standards. Under his arrangement, the 600-person dining table is properly placed in the hall, and the main table position can be well highlighted, and at the same time, it can echo with the guests in other positions, which not only shows that the dinner atmosphere is very warm, but also solemn, such a layout makes people can't help but be amazed.
Not only that, Zheng Lianfu, who is as meticulous as a hair, has the appropriate arrangement for the route and order of the dinner, and even the width of the entrance and exit passage of the guest of honor is carefully designed by him, and it is under his careful planning that the dinner party can achieve the most ideal effect.
For such a high-specification banquet, the safety of food is the first priority, and only vegetables and meat that have undergone professional strict quarantine can be used for cooking.
In order to ensure the absolute safety of food, the Great Hall of the People has also specially equipped laboratories and two full-time personnel to check the safety of food. The two full-time staff are responsible for taking samples from the pot twice and placing them in the medium when cutting vegetables and hot dishes, and the food samples cannot be destroyed until 24 hours after the end of the meal.
The head chef of the banquet is Zhu Dianrong, who studied as a famous chef at the age of 14.
For him, who has a wealth of experience, making big dishes and running large cages is simply a piece of cake and is not worth mentioning.
The reason why he was chosen as the chief chef was not only because of his experience, but also because of his proficiency in Huaiyang cuisine, braised lion's head, roasted four treasures, etc. are his best skills.
When he received this task, Zhu Dianrong had unspeakable excitement in his heart, although he had cooked dishes for so many years and had seen all the big scenes, but it was the first time to cook to celebrate the rebirth of his country. With the belief that he must win this battle, Zhu Dianrong threw himself into the process of making each dish, and even more unreservedly used his housekeeping skills.
In addition to Zhu Dianrong, several other chefs who were in charge of the founding feast were also extraordinary, each with their own skills.
For example, Sun Jiufu, who has the name of "Sun Kuaishou", is especially good at making various Chinese noodles, and various soft and fragrant soup buns, such as "Huaiyang soup buns" and "ham rice roasted wheat" are his best skills.
In order to meet the needs of 600 people, the Beijing Hotel temporarily remodeled and expanded the original Chinese kitchen. The newly expanded kitchen conditions are limited, which is not conducive to the performance of the chefs, coupled with the lack of manpower in the kitchen, it is very difficult to cook hundreds of more complex dishes in a short period of time, and to achieve full color and flavor.
Until the official start of the banquet, all the staff, including Zhu Dianrong, were not fully sure of the effect of the final dish, and Yu Xinqing and other banquet planners were very nervous. At 6 o'clock in the evening, the lights inside and outside the Beijing Hotel were lit up, and under the bright lights, there were smiling faces with happy looks.
With the sound of the welcome music, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Song Qingling and other party and state leaders and Chinese and foreign dignitaries stepped into the banquet hall in turn and sat down one by one with cheerful music. Delegates to the Political Consultative Conference in Beijing and representatives from all walks of life throughout the country also gathered here, and the whole hall was filled with a festive and joyful atmosphere.
Yes, this is the first day of the founding of New China, people are proud and happy for the rebirth of the country, how can they control their laughter?
The banquet officially began, Zhou Enlai first delivered a speech, and the enthusiastic words pushed the atmosphere of the banquet hall to a climax, and everyone raised their wine glasses to greet each other and toast for the newly born China.
It is worth mentioning that there was also a special group of guests at the banquet, an air force that had just completed a dual mission. During the day, the pilots maintained a high degree of alert without a moment's respite. Until the end of the founding ceremony, they did not have time to rest, and they rushed to the banquet site without stopping under the instructions of Commander-in-Chief Zhu De.
It turned out that this unit not only had to be inspected, but also had to carry out the task of safeguarding the smooth progress of the founding ceremony in case the Kuomintang came to sabotage. It should be known that as early as a few months ago, Chiang Kai-shek had already sent military planes to bomb the Nanyuan airport in Beijing, in order to sabotage the founding ceremony by creating threats and intimidation.
Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth holding of the founding ceremony, this newly formed Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force unit must pay close attention to all changes on the scene and be ready to struggle against the reactionaries who deliberately sabotage.
Therefore, the fighters piloted by these pilots are loaded with shells, and as soon as the enemy comes, the pilots will immediately throw themselves into battle and completely eliminate the threat.
The Air Force, which successfully completed its mission, was highly praised by Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, who happily raised his glass to this group of soldiers who had not yet had time to take off their uniforms: "Comrades, you have worked hard! We have all experienced a historic scene together, and our people's country and people's army will open a new chapter in the future. ”
He also smiled humorously and said: "In the past war years, we only had one branch of the armed forces, and I was the commander-in-chief of an army, but now it is different, we have the army, navy, and air force, and from now on, I am the commander-in-chief of the three services!"
Hearing this, the pilots and guests present all laughed freely, and such a cordial and joyful atmosphere also infected the service staff in the hall. In the past, the people who came to Beijing hotels to spend were either rich or expensive, and some were either political dignitaries, or rich and powerful businessmen, or pampered petite ladies and rich wives.
The petty-bourgeois class character makes it impossible for them to treat others in an equal manner, especially before these workers who serve them, and it is their norm to be arrogant and arrogant.
As a result, service personnel rarely receive respect from others in their work, and they do not know how many American tycoons and Japanese soldiers have been humiliated and humiliated, and how many British gentlemen and fake foreign devils have seen the hypocritical faces of British gentlemen and fake foreign devils.
And this time the banquet was completely beyond their previous experience.
Because this time, they were not entertaining anyone else, but those who were just as simple and kind as them. Among them, some are peasants who live facing the loess with their backs to the sky, some are workers as strong as steel, and even more heroic soldiers who throw their heads and spill their blood for the country.
In these people, there is no natural sense of class superiority, but there is a sense of "brotherhood from all over the world", under the infection of this sense of intimacy, the staff of Beijing Hotel really have a feeling of being respected and valued. They clearly saw that today's China is no longer the China that constantly exploits the working people, the new China is the new country in which the working people are the masters of their own affairs, and the love for the country has become invisibly deeper.
Seeing that the guests were all seated one after another, and the time to serve the dishes was getting closer and closer, the waiter couldn't help but go to the back kitchen to check the cooking of the dishes.
At this time, everyone in the kitchen was in a state of "fierce fighting", they were methodically busy with the work at hand, and none of them could be distracted. This steady rhythm made the waiter feel a little incredible, but what surprised him even more was still to come.
Zhu Dianrong, the chief chef, was not idle, only to roll up his sleeves and directly pick up a large pot to stir-fry.
Seeing this picture, the waiter was stunned: Isn't this the kind of pot that cooks large pot dishes in the canteen?
But Zhu Dianrong, with a look of ten to nine stable, neatly poured a large pot of main ingredients into the large iron pot, and before anyone could see clearly, he grabbed all kinds of dazzling accessories and ingredients and threw them into this big pot, and the flames between the stoves quickly rose, happily licking the bottom of the pot, and the fragrance immediately drifted out.
The waiter still muttered in his heart: This is the "first banquet of the founding of the country", ah, and it is not a big pot of rice eaten by the village head, just use such a big pot to stir-fry vegetables, is it enough? Master Zhu should not be busy and confused, right? ”
Just as the so-called layman looks at the liveliness, the insider looks at the doorway, where does he know that this big pot of cooking is Zhu Dianrong's special practice for large banquets. Between the flashes of fire, Zhu Dianrong very quickly stir-fried the dishes, and then came out of the pot and plated, all in one go.
However, in three or five minutes, dozens of tables of dishes were neatly stacked out, and the movements of the clouds and water were breathtaking.
Seeing this operation, the waiter applauded one after another and hurriedly prepared the dish.
But everyone's hanging heart still has not been put down, although this dish is a good color and flavor, but the taste can not be said to be good, in case it is not in the middle of eating so do? This tension of the crowd also infected Zhu Dianrong, and for a while, this famous chef who had experienced hundreds of battles was also a little panicked.
In case the dishes you make don't meet the tastes of the guests, how can the chief criticize them? Besides, the democrats sitting in the banquet, as well as many picky foodies, are not so easy to please them.
But no matter what, at this time, the arrows were already on the string and had to be sent, watching the waiter bring the dishes to the table one by one, Zhu Dianrong's heart also mentioned the throat eyes, and the leaders of the hotel were also nervous. As previously designed, the dish was delivered first to the democrats and then to the tables of senior PLA generals.
Looking at the excellent dishes, the guests could not help but show a look of appreciation and anticipation.
During the conversation, the generals had already picked up their chopsticks and feasted on them, and while eating, they couldn't stop praising: "Well, the taste is great!"
"That's a famous hotel!"
"The cooking squad leader of our small stove used to be a chef at a big restaurant!"
Even the democrats with the title of gourmet on their heads praised the dish: "Good! The taste is excellent, it is the best! ”
"In my opinion, it can be called 'divine product'
During the banquet, a guest also specifically asked the waiter: "The scale of the banquet is so grand, dozens of tables of dishes come up at the same time, I don't know how many chefs are used in the restaurant, how many stoves are opened?"
Another person answered the call, there are many famous chefs in Beijing hotels, and more than a dozen chefs are used to cook dishes at the same time, which is of course a piece of cake. Hearing this, the waiter smiled and invited them to compare the colors and styles of the dishes at each table. Everyone looked at it, and a layer of questions arose in their hearts: "Are so many dishes cooked in the same pot?"
The waiter replied with a smile: "Our Master Zhu has this skill, and it only takes a big pot to cook hundreds of people's dishes." ”
Hearing these words, everyone expressed their admiration for Zhu Dianrong's superb cooking skills.
At this time, Zhu Dianrong's hanging heart really let go, and it was precisely because of his excellent performance at the founding feast that after this time, his "cauldron unique work" was also famous.
The well-prepared banquet was a great success, and every detail of the banquet was impeccable, and no one praised it. However, looking at the menu of the "First Feast of the Founding of the People's Republic of China", we can find a problem, these praiseworthy dishes are not the Manchu and Han dishes on cixi's table, but some exquisite but not expensive dishes.
According to relevant information, a total of eight hot dishes were presented at the banquet, namely braised shark fin soup, roasted four treasures, dried braised prawns, roasted chicken nuggets, fresh mushroom hearts, red grilled duck, braised carp, and braised lion's head.
There are also eight kinds of cold dishes: crispy grilled crucian carp, oil-dried chicken, braised cucumber strips, crystal dishes, shrimp seeds and winter shoots, bone-splitting goose paws, fragrant jellyfish, and fermented shrimp.
The dim sum is grilled wheat with vegetable meat, Huaiyang spring rolls, bean paste buns and mille-feuille oil cake.
Many of these dishes, although they can be regarded as exquisite, but if compared with the Manchu han full table, it may seem a little too rustic.
Why is this arrangement made?
In fact, this precisely reflects the concept of the Communist Party ruling for the people.
At the beginning of the founding of the country, the country was in a time of waste and waiting to be rebuilt, and the banquet should be simple and simple without losing its dignity and solemnity. New China is a country where the people are the masters of their own affairs, and everything should be done for the people, and the leaders of the country should set an example.
Using the state to grab resources for their own enjoyment is the practice of Kuomintang officers and old-fashioned bureaucrats.
Therefore, the banquet preparation workers carefully screened and screened the dishes, which not only ensured the quality and specifications of the banquet, but also did not cause the phenomenon of extravagance and waste, which contributed to the complete end of the "first banquet of the founding of the country".
Even so, Premier Zhou still felt that the state banquet was too extravagant, and later set the standard specifications for the state banquet of "four dishes and one soup" to avoid the state from wasting too many resources on such things.
Since then, no state banquet in China has been compared to the pomp and circumstance of the state banquet, and the firm belief of the CPC leaders in serving the people and the country has also been fully displayed in simple state banquets, which is why the Communist Party has always been supported and loved by the people!