Editor's Note
Local cuisine with Chinese characteristics carries the changes from ancient to modern, condenses the essence of culture and folklore, and conveys China's warm and upward spiritual outlook. Local cuisine with Chinese characteristics is the collective memory of Chinese taste, and it is also a veritable Chinese Chinese. The philosophy of life contained in local cuisine with Chinese characteristics is the most direct way to perceive people, culture and values in the Chinese values.
At present, the world pattern is changing, the international situation is becoming more severe and complex, China urgently needs to implement the "going out" strategy, Chinese cuisine is a bright cultural business card, an important grasp and implementation tool for China's "going out".
The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism is in charge of the first-level association: The Chinese Food Culture Research Association initiated, and joined hands with the National Chinese Food Industry Alliance (American Chinese Food Alliance), the American Chinese Food Industry Alliance, the Spanish Chinese and Western Food Exchange Association and other national food experts, enterprises and institutions to create a "Chinese kitchen" and complete the national project of global promotion of Chinese cuisine.
Wherever there is sunshine and water, there is Chinese. CCTV Rong Media "Chinese Kitchen" Spanish Chinese Food Communicator Series Interview Series has been launched, we have traveled the world to find people who spread Chinese cuisine around the world. The world's best Chinese chefs, good restaurants, and good bosses will serve them one by one, and the story of the soul will move China.
CCTV Media Network March 5, 2022 Special Report ("Chinese Kitchen" Innovation Group) Madrid is the capital of Spain, more than 400 years of history, here romantic, classical, full of artistic atmosphere, has always been the soul of old Europe and the vitality of the new world collided with a strong spark of the wonderful city...
Known as the "Gateway to Europe", Madrid, with a population of 3.4 million and more than 6,000 restaurants, is one of the benchmarks of europe. From the world's oldest restaurant certified by the Guinness Book of World Records to the innovative fashion of Michelin, which has long dominated the list, with a rich variety of ingredients, a variety of experts, Madrid is like the most discerning table in Spain, a country known for its gastronomy.
Spanish catering chef "Dawn"
In the Spanish Chinese circle, there is a very inconspicuous mysterious door in the bustling area of Madrid, Don Ramón de la Cruz Street, behind which hides a Chinese restaurant, creating countless beautiful stories of Chinese cuisine that amaze overseas. Here, the taste of China not only alleviates the homesickness of the Chinese, but also makes the taste of Chinese food set off a new trend of Chinese food, so that diners from all over the world flock to it.
On the chosen day, we went specifically to look forward to a big meal and soothe our Chinese stomach. Turning from Madrid's busiest commercial street, dive into the quiet and elegant side street, this restaurant called "China Crown" stands quietly in this prime location with a strong touch of Chinese red. Pushing open the low-key glass door facing the street, a typical Chinese-style solid wood counter stands in front of the eye, and it seems to cross into the ancient Chinese court in a trance.
Ceramics, wooden furniture, silk patterns, court patterns made me suddenly find a sense of belonging deep in the bones, and a few gentle and melodious exotic soft words came from time to time in the elegant and slow music.
This is a combination of European art nouveau and modern new Chinese style, western restaurants can be seen everywhere in the Chinese style special decoration, the two cultures and arts in the same space passionately collide and harmoniously blend, forming a new and unique jade food cuisine.
the living space on which Chinese depends, engraved with the memory code that has been in the same vein for thousands of years. A table and a chair, a thing and a food, through the barriers of space, to a foreign land, is still Chinese tireless yearning and pursuit.
A young Chinese man in white overalls walked up to us with a smile, and he was the manager of the "China Crown" restaurant, Felipe Bao.
His short black hair and orthopedic shape make him stand out from the restaurant's chubby, skinny, complex-skinned diners, who are known here as "the movie star of the restaurant world: Dawn."
The dining room was like his living room, and the conversation room took us around and naturally began to tell his own history and stories. Madrid's most popular high-end Chinese restaurant, owned by Spain's famous Crown Restaurant Group, founded by his family as early as 1981, now has more than 20 branches in Jeonseok, chinese restaurants including China Crown, Shanghai Mama and El Petit Dim Sum, featuring Chinese court cuisine, Shanghai cuisine and Hong Kong-style dim sum.
China Crown's recipes are based entirely on Chinese traditions, including traditional Chinese dishes such as court roast duck, Chongqing spicy chicken, fish-flavored eggplant, and hot pot that we are familiar with. However, Bao Mingyang, who has systematically received Le Cordon Bleu training, strives to push the tradition into the future, regenerates new cuisine with innovative taste, the pursuit of beauty performance, and emotional and cultural connotations, and understands Chinese cuisine from a Western perspective.
"The most important element of the future chef is culture. Once you have culture, you can express yourself well. "Bao Mingyang, who grew up in Spain, has a deep understanding of the cultural heritage of Chinese cuisine.
Under the requirements of the Michelin restaurant's management system, Bao Mingyang, with his rich knowledge and exquisite technology, has demonstrated the most traditional and fashionable Chinese culinary culture. The perfect combination of exotic ingredients and Chinese taste has vividly expressed the internationalization of Chinese food, making him a gastronomic representative of the Spanish Chinese food industry, and also pinning on the expectations of the overseas Chinese food industry to become an ambassador for Chinese food promotion.
Elegant culture travels through Chinese and Western cuisine
Haojin's luxurious lighting meets the mellow coffee-colored fresh walnut, and the brown elm green plants dot the quiet and quiet atmosphere, showing Chinese aesthetic pursuit of "elegance", beyond the material condensation of the Chinese ideal life.
Such a simple and ethereal restaurant space arrangement is inspired by the aesthetics of the Chinese Song Dynasty or the cultural genes that Bao Mingyang's parents and generations Chinese cannot be changed.
The Chinese food "Ya" culture is unique, first formed in the ancient Chinese Southern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty not only paid attention to food, but also the decoration and service of the restaurant were in place. Streets and alleys, stalls selling flowers and fruits, seasonal vegetables, and seafood and game are all over the place. The literati doctor burned wine and tasted tea, listened to songs and heard songs, and spread to the society, and since then Chinese elegant rhyme has been unforgettable.
From childhood, thanks to the comprehensive influence of Chinese and Western cuisine, beautiful scenery and Meitu, Bao Mingyang crossed the space of cultural differences between China and the West to achieve a balance of feeling art, and completed the pursuit of the aesthetics of his hometown in gourmet cooking.
Bao Mingyang's parents, who first immigrated to Spain from Qingtian, Zhejiang Province, in a strange land with a different language barrier, initially worked hard in a restaurant until they saved money to open their first small restaurant of their own. The restaurant was hung with Chinese red lanterns in the name of the restaurant, called "The Great Wall", and began to operate. This is the prototype of the current China Crown and the starting point of the entire Crown Restaurant Group today.
"To this day, in the eyes of foreigners, 'the Great Wall, Roast Duck, and Chinese Kung Fu' are still the three major symbols of China, with obvious recognition." Bao Mingyang said.
Bao Mingyang, who was born and raised in Spain, has never lived in China, but his parents often describe the beauty of his hometown of Qingtian. "There is a small village on the other side of the Atlantic, which is beautiful all year round, and there are many traditional food snacks, sugar cakes, wheat cakes, mountain flour dumplings, dried plum creek flour..."
His parents' words often tempted Xiao Mingyang to imagine the beautiful food of his hometown in his mind, so he was very happy to follow his parents and help in the restaurant from an early age, only to make him a sugar cake for his parents when they were idle.
Since then, Bao Mingyang has longed to grow up to become a chef and bring the taste of his hometown to more overseas Chinese. His father once told him: "Chinese cuisine is broad and profound, learning Chinese cuisine can not be anxious, innovative Chinese cuisine, not to mention the quick success, we must first spend time to improve their cultivation and understand the origin of food." ”
As an adult, Bao Mingyang embarked on an exciting journey home alone, like countless dream scenes, and finally returned to the familiar land of the motherland, successively visited and tasted a large number of Chinese cuisines, and studied and practiced in high-end restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing for several years.
This trip to his homeland made Bao Mingyang firm in his gastronomic direction, and he decided not to dig his heart out to "invent" any new Chinese dishes, but to immerse himself in and go deep into the classic dining culture of his hometown, and strive to excavate Chinese food symbols, whether in restaurant design or dish production. He liked to explain the decision in Gaudí's words: "Only a madman would try to portray something that doesn't exist in the world." ”
Relentless explorer of molecular gastronomy
Bao Mingyang grew up in Europe, received Western education, and successfully won the highest honor of the World's largest culinary school, the French Le Cordon Bleu Chef Academy, the highest honor for the Western Cuisine And Pastry Profession. His understanding of the overseas catering market is completed under the Michelin teaching system.
However, Chinese food is his dining dream. "How to make overseas people accept Chinese catering" has become the first problem he faced when he entered the catering industry, and the first stop began with the breakthrough of Spain, a big food country, which must start from understanding the life preferences and habits of Spaniards.
The British writer Maugham once described Spain this way: "In Spain, man is poetry, painting, and architecture. Man is the philosophy of this country. These golden age Spaniards lived, felt, acted, and they didn't think. What they pursue and discover is life, a turbulent, fiery, enthusiastic, diverse life. Passion is the seed of their life, and passion is also the flower they bloom.
Spain has a strong atmosphere of life, with many gastronomic cities and famous restaurants, which only France can match. Iberian ham, paella, la mancha cheese, etc., are known all over the world, highlighting the Mediterranean diet that is unique to the locals, but this does not prevent a highly talented chef from making the food he wants on this basis.
Dish innovation should be refined with authenticity, but not limited to authenticity. Draw nutrition from traditional food culture and resolve conflicts.
After returning to Spain from that family visit, Bao Mingyang wanted to show The authentic cuisine of China to diners from all over the world through proper re-collection and interpretation. However, it is difficult to implement, focusing on the restrictions on ingredients, spices and tastes.
Nevertheless, through foraging, careful research, and an almost instinctive understanding of Spanish dining culture and market, Bao Mingyang's Chinese cuisine has finally resonated with this warm gastronomic exotic and formed a strong personal label. As a famous foodie later strongly recommended: the famous restaurant is dedicated to terroir cooking.
It is precisely because Bao Mingyang has established his own new Chinese food cognitive system that he has given some traditional Chinese dishes a clever deconstruction and reconstruction, and industry insiders have called him a "practitioner of molecular gastronomy".
The so-called molecular gastronomy refers to the use of scientific methods to understand the physical or chemical changes and principles of ingredient molecules, and then use the experience and data obtained to recreate food, and molecular gastronomy is currently the world's most pioneering way of cooking.
Based on molecular gastronomy theory, chefs use a variety of tools and strange methods to completely break up the taste, texture, texture, appearance, etc. of the ingredients, and re-"combine" them into a new dish through physical or chemical changes. What Bao Mingyang is trying and practicing is to reconstruct Chinese ingredients, Chinese culinary arts and Chinese Ya culture, and combine Western food seasoning, Western food techniques and Western eating habits to create a new Chinese catering that meets "overseas tastes".
In his words, it's all about the unexpected, it's about the surprise.
The Crown Group, which is managed by Bao Mingyang, is constantly advancing in its exploration: in 2021, China Crown will become the only Chinese restaurant in Spain to make the Michelin list. In the face of more and more honors, he lamented: "That trip back home in China has shaped me more than any other place in the world, and it has left me with many personal memories." In fact, the Exploration and Experimentation of Chinese Food that I am doing now is based on past memories and emotions. ”
When Bao Mingyang developed his star dish "Court Roast Duck", he once "attacked the ancient and modern duck making strategy, studied the essence of the development of Beijing cuisine, repaired the contract system, and integrated the Mediterranean flavor", and finally achieved the conquest of the Most Delicious Old Food in Europe' China Crown Court Roast Duck.
The 48-day chicks are tender and slow-roasted on the stove for 1.5 hours, and the whole skin can be opened by making an incision under the wings while it is hot. The instantly melted, crisp but not greasy duck skin is eaten with spring cakes, beijing onions and traditional Beijing cakes in Beijing, and the mouth instantly sets off a climax of various delicious molecules competing to burst out.
The key to Crown's success is hidden in the meticulous design, creation and execution of each dish. In the necessary care of maximizing participation in all processes, Bao Mingyang guarantees the quality of every dish in the restaurant with exquisite technology.
Bao Mingyang also shared with us that in fact, for so many years, he fought a "silent war" with the Spanish media, and now, it seems that he has won. The Spanish media seems to have fully embraced his unique way of disseminating traditional Chinese cuisine, such as the innovative dishes of fresh shrimp Fu Bao, Shang Tang Yi Po Bai, etc., which are also as famous as Bao Mingyang's name.
Over the years, in fact, the Spanish media has also recognized Bao Mingyang's important position in the history of overseas Chinese food promotion. While everyone knows that innovation is the only way out for the pinnacle of cuisine in various countries, few chefs can proudly announce to the world that they have created a new style of cuisine – and the current Bao Mingyang can loudly declare that the new overseas Chinese food he created will be his lifelong legacy.
Chinese food going to sea is a new fusion of culture
Zhu Guangqian, a master of aesthetics, once said: "The reason why people are different from other animals is that in addition to eating men and women, there are more noble aspirations, and beauty is one of them." And Bao Mingyang believes that people's pursuit of Ya is equally important.
In traditional Chinese culture, Ya has always been the artistic conception pursued by the ancients. Ya is a unique aesthetic system formed by traditional Chinese culture, which conveys the essence of Confucian and Taoist culture and runs through all aspects of Chinese cultural life.
Bao Mingyang is to push the flower of Chinese cuisine in Spain and Europe to a higher level through the "elegant" culinary aesthetic system. Because of his vigorous promotion, "Chinese food" in Spain has thrown off the label of "cheap", and the restaurant brand Crown Group, led by him, has reached a per capita consumption of 70 to 80 euros in its restaurants (the per capita consumption of Spanish restaurants is about 40 euros).
At present, Bao Mingyang, together with his family partners, leads dozens of important Chinese restaurants in Spain, with business segments throughout the country. Based on the business philosophy of "branding the understanding and respect of Chinese gastronomic traditions, so that Spanish diners can immerse themselves in Chinese gastronomic culture", Crown Group has been the preferred brand for Spaniards for many years.
"But I find it still hard for people to understand that China Crown is more than just a restaurant," Mr. Bao said, "and it permeates an elegant way of life from China, a philosophy that transcends borders and races." ”
Bao Mingyang often holds various food promotion cocktail parties in China Crown, always attracting celebrities from all walks of life such as government and enterprises, culture, art, commerce, law and education. With exquisite European lighting, elegant new Chinese sets, and a fusion of Chinese and Western taste buds, this all-round modern and elegant Chinese food experience always amazes the high-end friends.
Chinese ya culture advocates a simple, healthy way of cooking, Bao Mingyang participated in the formulation of Spain's national food policy, advocating zero waste in the kitchen, which is why he is keen to study roast duck, because duck is an ingredient that can be fully utilized.
To that end, he often speaks all over Spain, "since doing this, the way we cook has changed irreversibly." We have gained a lot of extraordinary technology and knowledge from other places, and through research in various fields and projects, drawing on many experiences, science has increased the ecological awareness and sustainable use of our cooking," bao mingyang said.
On March 28, 2022, Bao Mingyang was invited to be the guest chef of the Madrid Food Festival, a world-famous gastronomy conference, and delivered a keynote speech on "Beijing: Palace Roast Duck, History and Evolution", celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Madrid Food Festival on behalf of Chinese cuisine. He also has high hopes for this peak collision of Chinese and Western food culture and art, hoping to promote a new understanding of Chinese food overseas in the world's top circles of cuisine.
Bao Mingyang revealed to us that in his speech, he will focus on the historical heritage, introduce the cooking techniques used by traditional Chinese chefs for generations, and compare them with today's restaurant technology innovation, and discuss the latest scientific and technological progress of duck embryo drying room and air drying technology for the world's best chefs and caterers. Of course, tradition, innovation and development are also important points that cannot be ignored. He will personally demonstrate, explain and discuss every step of the production steps before the court roast duck is brought to the table at China Crown.
Looking to the future, Bao Mingyang plans to cooperate with "China Kitchen", a cross-border food culture research and promotion project. The project, together with the Chinese Food Culture Research Association, the National Chinese Food Industry Alliance and the American Chinese Food Industry Alliance, conducted in-depth docking of Chinese food culture and catering art in the development of overseas industries and brand building.
Through the establishment of urban food experience stores, the opening of new urban food classrooms, the holding of food festivals, and the construction of urban food promotion centers, the four action plans will gather the strength of Chinese food from all over the world and push Chinese cuisine to a wider and higher stage and market.
Bao Mingyang is an important name for this overseas promotion project of Chinese cuisine. He regards Chinese food and elegant culture as a systematic and rigorous discipline to explore and practice in the overseas frontline, and Chinese cuisine will also be rejuvenated with the vitality and charm of the times from the profound cultural heritage with the joint efforts of many overseas Chinese food communicators such as Bao Mingyang.
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Source: CCTV Media Network
Author: Ming Yuan