Chen Hui, Executive Chef of Fuzhou Wenru Min Restaurant: "Be a good person, cook good food"

Chen Hui cooks live, showcasing traditional Fujian cuisine techniques.

Fuzhou Evening News reporter Lan Xiunan/Wen Yecheng/Photo

At the first "Rongsmith Cup" Fujian Cuisine Chef Skills Competition held not long ago, Chen Hui, executive chef of Fuzhou Wenru Min Cuisine Restaurant, performed well and won the third place. Recently, the reporter interviewed him.

Chen Hui is a native of Fuzhou, and at the age of 53, he has been involved in cooking for 35 years.

"When I was a child, my uncle told me that a good boy must have a good craft." Chen Hui recalled that when he became an adult, he chose to enter the fuzhou Rongcheng grand restaurant at that time to learn the art, and to worship under the door of The Master of Fujian Cuisine, Wu You, and mainly learn pot work.

When he first entered the industry, Chen Hui trained silently and diligently every day, practicing knives, lifting pots, spoons, and helping the kitchen to watch the fire and add coal and clean every day. "The master always taught me to be a serious person and cook vegetables seriously." Under the careful guidance of Wu Li, Chen Hui firmly established the original intention of "being a good person and cooking good dishes".

After 1990, he served as head chef and in 1998 he was awarded the title of Senior Technician of Chinese Cuisine. To this day, Chen Hui still adheres to the front line of the kitchen department, and the details of the process such as the selection of ingredients, the receipt and inspection of goods, rough processing, and the selection of utensils are carefully checked and meticulous.

"Now the happiest thing I do every day is to hear a great taste from my guests after tasting it." Chen Hui said that for many years, he has insisted on improving his skills, hoping to do a good job of Fujian cuisine and let more people recognize Fuzhou cuisine.

In 2008, Chen Hui met Guo Kewen, who was also a "Mincai maniac", and joined the Wenru No. 9 Hotel he founded. With the joint efforts of the two, dishes such as "Buddha Jumping Wall", "Chicken Soup Sea Mussels" and "Light Fragrant Snail Slices" of Wenru No. 9 Hotel have won national awards and won the good reputation of domestic and foreign guests.

Chen Hui said that over the years, when he has free time, he will travel to many parts of the country to learn the characteristics of different food cultures. After the establishment of Wenru Min Restaurant, it attracted many foreign tourists who came to visit. On this platform, Chen Hui and others have gained more opportunities to promote Fujian cuisine.

In September 2018, Chen Hui joined the cultural delegation of "RongQing Four Seas, Fragrant Fujian Cuisine" sponsored by the Foreign Affairs and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Municipal Government, and went to Russia, Hungary and the Czech Republic to demonstrate the production skills of classic traditional Fujian cuisine for overseas Chinese and Chinese food industry.

In August of the following year, he was again invited to join the "Rongqing Four Seas" cultural and economic and trade delegation, visiting the Netherlands and Belgium, and together with representatives of various industries in Fuzhou, he spread the long-standing Culture of Mindu to all walks of life overseas.

"Some local Fujian people came to me after tasting it, authentically, this is the taste!" Chen Hui believes that Fujian cuisine is not only a type of cuisine, it also carries a strong nostalgia, and wanderers in other places will be moved by the taste of this "home".

In recent years, in order to do a good job in the inheritance of Fujian cuisine skills, Chen Hui and Guo Kewen have jointly discovered successor disciples with endurance and talent.

"Today's Wenru Min restaurant, with the elderly leading the way, the new people relaying, the so-called 'shouzheng innovation', need the cooperation of the new and the old." Chen Hui said that the long-term development of Fujian cuisine requires a steady stream of inheritance of "living water" and a unique sense of innovation.

Source: Fuzhou Evening News