Cut into cubes, heat oil, stir-fry, stir-fry, spoon ...... Tong Jieqiong, a post-90s Tsinghua female master, wears a white chef's hat and a chef's uniform, learning to cook in a smoky kitchen. Around New Year's Day in 2025, the story of Tsinghua master's degree to Lanxiang to learn cooking skills has been on the Weibo hot search list twice, and various discussions and questions have followed, some people ridiculed her as "the most educated in Lanxiang, the most good at cooking in Tsinghua", some people praised her "Not everyone has the courage to take off the gown, she is the most courageous person", and some people questioned her "want to hype up the popularity, be an Internet celebrity and cheat traffic......
Before going to Lanxiang to study, Tong Jieqiong was engaged in climate change and impact assessment, and she has also stood on the "stage" of international conferences such as the United Nations General Assembly many times. In December 2024, Tong Jieqiong, who is looking for a new job, decided to take advantage of this short "window period" to study cooking, on the one hand, to do something that makes her heart happy, and on the other hand, she hopes to learn a meaningful skill for herself. In a recent interview with a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily, Tong Jieqiong said that the short experience of learning to cook in Lanxiang made her constantly feel that life is like a "spoon", she can do whatever she wants, and maybe she will "turn upside down" into what she wants.
This year's Spring Festival became the chef of the whole family
Contract Chinese New Year's Eve 16 dishes
"I got the hot Lanxiang graduation certificate!" The moment she got her graduation certificate, Tong Jieqiong "officially announced" the news to fans in her short video account.
On January 18 this year, after a month-long study of frying and cooking, Tong Jieqiong, a post-90s Tsinghua female master, graduated from Shandong Lanxiang Technician College. On the day of graduation, she walked out of the school gate, packed her luggage and immediately went north and returned to Beijing. Tong Jieqiong told reporters that in the week before the year, she invited different friends to "just eat" together in the morning, noon and evening, and stayed in the kitchen almost every day to prepare for cooking. From selecting ingredients to cooking delicacies, Tong Jieqiong tries her best to do it herself, she skillfully flips the spoon and holds the pot, those ordinary ingredients continue to fly in her hands, and instantly become mouth-watering dishes, and she also successfully "captured" the stomachs of a group of friends with this skill.
When asked about her friends' evaluations of the dishes and techniques, Tong Jieqiong smiled heartily and said domineeringly: "It's delicious!" Do they dare to say it's not tasty? It's all coming to my house. However, the positive feedback from her friends has also given her a greater sense of accomplishment. I still enjoy cooking, and it's a very creative process to cut the common ingredients and then cook them. ”
This year's Spring Festival is also Tong Jieqiong's busiest Spring Festival in so many years, she returned to her hometown in Inner Mongolia and cooked a hearty Chinese New Year's Eve meal for her family, braised prawns, pork pork, pork ribs and lotus root soup...... 16 dishes fill the table. This menu was already drawn up by her when Lan Xiang was studying. "This year's Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was contracted by me, and I became the 'head chef' of my family, and my family gave me a hand."
"In previous years, when I went to my grandmother's house during the Spring Festival, my mother and my aunt were busy in the back kitchen, and I just sat in the living room and waited for them to prepare the dishes and serve them to the table, and I never had the opportunity to participate. But after learning how to cook this time, I also joined the army of back kitchens. ”
This year, Tong Jieqiong finally realized her little wish. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, she was busy at her grandmother's house from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. In the past few days of the Chinese New Year, Tong Jieqiong has been cooking every day, although she is physically and mentally exhausted, she is very happy.
"Fortunately, my skills have stood the test of my family, and I am very excited." Tong Jieqiong mentioned that when she was learning to cook, she originally planned to make nine-turn large intestines for her family, and even bought large intestines in Beijing in advance, but because she had no experience in buying cooked large intestines, she could not make nine-turn large intestines, and finally had to temporarily change to dry pot fat intestines. However, the family is especially good at providing emotional value, and the meat she makes is full of praise for her grandmother, and the flavored eggplant makes the most picky niece in the family take the initiative to pick up chopsticks and eat a few more bites. During the Spring Festival, Tong Jieqiong's cooking performance was also "officially" recognized by Teacher Lan Xiang, and she even wanted to go back to school to learn how to steam steamed buns.
Pursue meaning and influence in life
Hope to shine in the field of climate change
Tong Jieqiong has always been a "child of someone else's family" in the mouth of her parents, studying abroad, Tsinghua master's degree, these dazzling "halos" have always shrouded her.
Before going to Lanxiang to study, she studied finance in Canada, and after returning to China, she obtained a master's degree in international construction and project management from Tsinghua University. During her graduate studies, Tong organized several international events at the university, including a forum focused on sustainable development. It was the first time she had real exposure to climate change, and she seemed to have found her professional "home".
"After graduating, I stayed at Tsinghua University to work on the promotion of sustainable development, and later worked as a researcher at the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, so I also gained some work experience." Tong Jieqiong mentioned that it was precisely because of such an opportunity that the former unit threw an "olive branch" to her, and she became a climate change adaptation consultant, responsible for climate impact assessment of infrastructure projects, and she has also stood on the "stage" of international conferences such as the United Nations Biodiversity Conference many times.
"I'm a person who is particularly interested in meaning and influence in life, and I've always wanted my work to be at a certain level, and this job has made me truly feel the mission of this life." After working, Tong Jieqiong's understanding of the field of climate change has become deeper and deeper, and her love for this job has also increased day by day. She feels that work is not just about making more money, but about doing something worthwhile that she loves. Today, the fate of all humanity is at stake in the field of climate change, and she hopes that she can continue to shine in the field of climate change.
For example, she participated in the study of the transformation strategy of China's hard-to-abate industries, and combined China's existing policies and international standards to complete the report, which gave Tong Jieqiong a full sense of achievement.
Cooking is a meditative process
Cooking is a very practical skill
In October 2024, the restructuring led to the elimination of her and other non-permanent staff in the department. Going to Shandong Lanxiang Technical School to learn to be a chef has become a skill exploration trip arranged by Tong Jieqiong for her "window period".
"This is because an elder inspired me in my life. He changed jobs in the second half of last year and took advantage of the change of career to embark on a trip to Spain. He told me that it is difficult for you to have a lot of time to focus on one thing in the rest of your life, and you must make good use of this blank time to do what you want to do. The elder's words made Tong Jieqiong think, how can she make full use of this time to enrich her life?
Tong Jieqiong is an out-and-out activist, and she immediately made a list of several things she planned to accomplish during the "window period": learning to stir-fry, taking diving certifications, and learning yoga...... The reason why she came to learn cooking first is because Tong Jieqiong realized that cooking is a very practical skill, and cooking by herself can meet the needs of life, and can also invite friends and enhance relationships. "When I don't have a job, I have more free time, sometimes cooking for my friends, and I love the atmosphere where everyone eats and chats together. And for me, cooking is a meditative process, so since you have free time, why not improve your cooking skills? ”
The well-known skills schools New Oriental and Lan Xiang have become the first choice in Tong Jieqiong's mind, and on the one hand, she chose Lan Xiang to temporarily leave Beijing, on the other hand, she found that Lan Xiang's comprehensive cooking course pays more attention to some basic skills such as knife work, spoon skills and oil temperature control, which are the most indispensable basic abilities in the cooking process.
"In the past, I was not good at cooking, and cooking became my 'black history', and the elders in my family did not dare to let me enter the kitchen." Tong Jieqiong said with a smile.
Become the only female student in the cooking class
Sometimes the eyes learn, but the hands don't necessarily keep up
In December 2024, Tong Jieqiong came to Shandong Lanxiang Technical School from Beijing with her suitcase to learn cooking. There are more than 30 people in the class, and only a few students are trying to improve their quality of life through learning to cook. Tong Jieqiong remembers that the youngest student in the class was only 16 years old, and the oldest was 50 years old, and she was the only girl in the class.
On the first day of cooking, start by cutting turnips. Tong Jieqiong bought a kitchen knife, starting from practicing cutting radish slices, and throughout the morning, from radish slices to shredded radishes, and then to radish grains, she cut countless slices of radishes, and gradually mastered knife skills through repeated practice.
"We get the internship workshop early in the morning, starting from 8 o'clock in the morning and being busy until more than 4 o'clock in the afternoon, except for the 2-hour lunch break, basically studying all day. Classes are held 6 days a week, 6 hours a day, and the intensity is quite high. Every morning, Tong Jieqiong has to buy a cup of coffee to "prolong her life", and then go to the classroom to start the preparation work before studying, she likes to wipe her stove clean, and then melt the frozen and solidified cooking oil in advance. "Actually, my classmates take good care of me, and I need to go to the warehouse downstairs every Monday and Thursday to get supplies, and they haven't let me go."
In the whole process of learning to cook, Tong Jieqiong was most impressed by the spoon, the teacher would ask the pot to be filled with corn or sand, and let the students practice back and forth with the pot. This exercise requires a lot of strength in the arms and wrists, requiring precise control of small muscle groups and limb coordination, not only using the middle and ring fingers to distribute power, but also controlling the angle of the wrist. At the beginning, Tong Jieqiong couldn't do it at all, so she could only keep trying, and after a day of practice, her arm was so sore that she couldn't lift it.
In addition to flipping the spoon, Tong Jieqiong feels that another difficult skill is to control the oil temperature, which usually takes a week to practice, and she keeps frying lotus root boxes, fried eggplant boxes, and sweet and sour tenderloin...... Tong Jieqiong's deepest impression is to learn to fry the lotus root box, this dish seems simple, but it needs to accurately control the oil temperature, the heat is not enough, and the lotus root box is easy to become soft and fall apart; After the heat is over, it will be fried. Tong Jieqiong always feels that sometimes the eyes learn, but the hands may not be able to keep up.
"The dishes we learn are mainly Shandong cuisine and Sichuan cuisine, and we learn one dish in the morning and afternoon every day, and we can take these dishes home to eat by ourselves, sometimes they are very delicious, and sometimes they are very ordinary." During her cooking years, Tong Jieqiong was most proud of the dishes that involved fried sugar in the sweet potato, which required strict control of the heat to ensure the color and taste of the sugar, which gave her a great sense of accomplishment, but the teacher did not praise her much, always saying that she had to continue practicing.
"I still like the curriculum of the technical school, there are few theoretical classes and more practical classes. It's not a bit of a void at all, it's all about starting from a solid foundation, and then it's a little bit more difficult. Tong Jieqiong recalled that she also hopes that through solid basic learning, she can integrate multinational food culture and create more new foods in the future.
The best moment of my life
It's when I'm brave enough to try
The month-long culinary skills training ended before the Snake Year, and Tong Jieqiong not only learned the cooking techniques of 60 new dishes, but also mastered a lot of stir-fry "secrets". In the past, it might take her two or three hours to cook three dishes, but now she can cook a meal for three people in one hour, and the cooking efficiency has not only improved, but also the skills such as knife skills, spoon reversal, and oil temperature control are also improving rapidly. "Lan Xiang's learning method is mainly based on practice, after the teacher explains the operation steps, I can immediately get started with practical exercises, this is a relatively rare way of education, completely different from what I experienced during my undergraduate and graduate studies."
In addition to learning cooking skills, Tong Jieqiong also met many classmates from Tiannan and Haibei, including restaurant successors and veterans, who studied and communicated together, climbed mountains and rushed to the market together. Recalling that long-lost campus life, Tong Jieqiong said that Lan Xiang's life allowed her to experience a different splendor, it was a very unforgettable experience, although the students had different experiences, but they got along very well, she not only learned a lot from them, but also saw the diversity of social professions. "Most of the students in our class plan to get a chef certificate in February and March of the following year, and then find a related job, looking forward to starting a new and beautiful life."
Years ago, Tong Jieqiong was still "wool" everywhere in the technical school, experienced a nail art and hairdressing package for free, and even sat on a high excavator, manipulating a huge bucket, and wrote her screen name "Tong Haha" crookedly on a piece of red Spring Festival couplet paper.
From a master's degree from Tsinghua University to a chef at Lanxiang Technical School, Tong Jieqiong has appeared on Weibo hot searches twice, and various discussions and questions have followed, and some netizens even bluntly said that how can students who graduated from Tsinghua University be unemployed? Tong Jieqiong is very helpless about this, she said that the public always "deified" Tsinghua graduates in their minds, and Tsinghua students are just ordinary people, which can only mean that they study well, but it does not mean that they can be flawless in every field. "What I want to tell you most is that what we can do when we lose our jobs is completely in our control. The best moments of my life are when I'm brave enough to try! ”
There are also fans who left messages saying, "You are so bold and have done what I want to do." Tong Jieqiong mentioned that this is also an important reason why she can persevere, and she especially hopes that she can live as an example in everyone's hearts.
"Life is like a 'bumpy spoon', we can do what we want to do, maybe we turn it upside down, and it becomes what we want." Taking advantage of the popularity of this wave of topics, Tong Jieqiong also started the self-media "I am Tong Haha", using short videos to record her learning and life.
When asked whether she would consider working in self-media or changing careers to become a chef in the future, Tong Jieqiong said without the slightest hesitation: "In the future, I will continue to look for job opportunities related to climate change, because it is a career that I have always aspired to." I also hope to inspire more people to take action together and work together to combat climate change. ”
Editor/Ni Jianing
![Learn to make oyster tofu soup and easily improve your cooking skills, which is praised by your family[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)