Text/Li Shu (Food Writer)
At 6 p.m. on October 1, 1949, the Beijing Hotel on East Chang'an Avenue had never been so lively.
This was the day the founding of New China was proclaimed, and until dark, the voices were still boiling. Such a feast is enough to cook a feast.
More than 600 guests walked into the guarded Beijing Hotel to attend the National Day banquet after the founding ceremony, which was also known as the "first banquet of the founding of the country" later. In addition to Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and others, there were also representatives from all walks of life, including Mao Dun and Liang Sicheng.
It was the first banquet in a Beijing hotel to have such a big battle, even though they had the honor of providing food for the wedding party of the last emperor Puyi. But in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Beijing Hotel was the most suitable to accommodate nearly a thousand people at the same time, but it also had weaknesses - there was no Chinese kitchen - and finally a 200-square-meter Chinese kitchen was temporarily built.
Old beijing hotel kitchen old shadow
The state banquet dish of the day was mainly Huaiyang cuisine, which was Zhou Enlai's decision. Yu Xinqing, director of the Ceremony Bureau of the State Council (State Council) at the time, transferred nine chefs from the famous Huaiyang restaurant "Yuhuatai" in Beijing, namely Zhu Dianrong, Sun Jiufu, Wang Dukun, Yang Qirong, Li Fulian, Wang Bin, Li Shizhong, Yang Qifu and Jing Dewang.
Zhu Dianrong's younger brother, Zhu Dianhua, was a hairdresser at the Beijing Hotel at the time, and he also participated in the state banquet service. He recalled that the 9 chefs each had special skills, the pastry chef Sun Jiufu, walking with a limp, but the kung fu in his hands was mastered, and he single-handedly made Huaiyang soup buns for more than 600 people. Dozens of large round tables, each table seating 8 people, the route and space is specially designed, enough to keep the transmission of dishes smooth and fast. Zhu Dianhua was in charge of serving dishes in the front, and Shi Wanchun, who later became a football player, was responsible for pouring wine and cloth dishes for representatives from all walks of life at this banquet.
What did those new Chinese witnesses eat that night?
Zheng Lianfu, then the "banquet manager" of the Beijing Hotel, kept an original menu that was later destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. After that, people can only gradually piece together according to the memories of those who have experienced it.
Panorama of the early Beijing Hotel
According to Zheng Lianfu's recollection, the first banquet of the founding of the Country had 8 cold dishes and 6 hot dishes, namely four treasures of abalone sauce, Dongpo meat square, crab powder lion's head, chicken sauce boiled dried silk, stir-fried jade shrimp and family portrait. There are also four kinds of dim sum: fried rice cake, Huangqiao roast cake, Ai Wo Wo and Huaiyang soup bun. In the memories of Sun Jiufu and Zhu Dianhua, the banquet included braised large carp and braised lion heads.
The common memory is the lion's head, and it is no wonder that this is premier Zhou's favorite, who studied in Japan in his early years and has been ordering braised lion heads in Jimbocho. Mr. Kang Hui, a Cantonese chef, once said that they made lion heads at that time according to the prime minister's recipe. Pork belly is cut into meat pieces by hand, added water chestnuts, balled into balls, fried in oil until golden brown, set, and then simmered in a casserole for two or three hours. A spoonful goes down, the meat grains loosen and crack, and the mouth melts.
This is probably one of the few "gorgeous" state banquets. Cold dishes, hot dishes, desserts, soups, not hurried, eat for two or three hours. Soon after, the state banquet dishes were streamlined, and the standard of "four dishes and one soup" was roughly set, and later there were more attempts to "three dishes and one soup" and "two dishes and one soup".
In any sense, the state banquet was "first".
Zheng Xiusheng, who worked at the Beijing Hotel for 46 years, failed to catch up with the grand occasion of that year, which became a dream in his heart.
In 1971, 16-year-old Zheng Xiusheng was so confused that he was selected from junior high school to enter the Beijing Hotel. When the hotel went to the school to select people, no one knew what this group of people wearing four pocket mountain suits was doing, only that the leaders of the Education Bureau had come to examine the students' thoughts.
Those who can be selected are all top students and class cadres. After the first symposium, 47 students were selected, and Zheng Xiusheng was among them. Immediately after the second selection, there were 22 left, and Zheng Xiusheng stayed.
A group of half-grown children were sent to the farm for "special training" to learn foreign languages and room service. It wasn't until he visited the Beijing Hotel during the training that he learned that this was his future unit - here "only recognizes the work card and does not recognize people", with a special face.
He immediately planned his career direction: trying to learn a foreign language, being a waiter, and maybe one day he would be able to meet the older generation of revolutionaries. The foreign languages that I had learned didn't come in handy—chickens, ducks, and fish couldn't understand them.
Zheng Xiusheng was sent to the back kitchen and fell from the sky to the ground at once. Apprentices start practicing rough processing, responsible for picking up intestines and cleaning feces, "smelling fishy all day long, and they can't eat at first." After a year of work, he didn't want to do it, so he might as well be a railway worker, with good treatment and free tickets. To say that the only benefit of being a chef is probably to be able to take a bath every day and eat well. He specifically inquired with his classmates who were workers, and he had to take a shower once a week in the factory, and he had to spend 3 cents.
For these two benefits, he survived.
Learning to cook is like a game of fighting monsters, there is no way to jump levels, you can only break through a round, and the only criterion is in the master. From the rough processing of chicken, duck and fish to cutting vegetables and meat, to the rise of dry goods such as sea cucumber and abalone, Zheng Xiusheng has practiced basic skills for 13 years. The shredded potatoes should be cut into matchsticks, and the dry goods should be pinched with alkali and heated.
Zheng Xiusheng
If you want to get the approval of the master, you have to have a job in your eyes. "At that time, there was only work time, not off time," Mr. Zheng said.
The chef's job is everything to do with the kitchen. Zheng Xiusheng remembers that there was no gas stove at that time, and even the high-end Beijing Hotel was also a stove fire pier. The apprentices had to be responsible for piling coal, doing hygiene, brushing pots, and even helping the master wash the apron, "the master makes you tired, it means that he likes you, and the biggest punishment is not to find you."
Slowly, he became an apprentice, became a master among other people, and later became the head chef of a Beijing hotel, responsible for the production of state banquets many times. He prepared Western food for the representatives of the world's top 500 companies at the Temple of Heaven prayer hall, and also prepared meals for sports delegations during the Olympic Games.
In 2009, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zheng Xiusheng, under the guidance of Sun Jiufu, reproduced the menu of the national banquet, and the hot dishes include silver cup shark fin soup, canned stewed four treasures, dried shrimp, mushroom chicken nuggets, fresh mushroom hearts, braised carp, braised lion's head and clear soup swallow dishes.
This is his original intention, but also a dream, but also the courage to live.
When doing the state banquet re-enactment banquet, Zheng Xiusheng's partners were his good friends, Sun Lixin and Wu Jianli.
Sun Lixin entered the industry at about the same time as Zheng Xiusheng, and was the head chef of Huadu Hotel and Cheap Fang.
Sun Lixin
His experience is also quite similar to Zheng Xiusheng.
In 1972, when the teacher suggested that 16-year-old Sun Lixin go to beijing service management school, his heart actually refused. In the eyes of people at that time, "chefs belong to the service industry, they are waiting for people, and no one wants to do it." Afraid that Sun Lixin would not listen to the advice, the teacher deliberately encouraged him when he graduated: "China will not be old like this, sooner or later the door of the country will open." The teacher is an Indonesian overseas Chinese, and Sun Lixin is convinced that he knows more about the situation at home and abroad.
Although he still couldn't understand the teacher's words, Sun Lixin decided to do as the teacher said.
The newly enrolled students are divided into four or five classes, subdivided into hot and cold dishes classes, each with nearly 50 students. Most girls learn to cook cold dishes, and most of the hot dishes are male students.
The school teaches cooking, paying attention to all kinds of tong, Huaiyang cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, court cuisine must be involved. Every day a teacher comes to teach a dish, and the students think about making that dish well. Probably because it is rare for students who are willing to learn to cook, the masters pay special attention to it, from cutting vegetables to turning spoons, every link is staring, and even taste the bowl juices adjusted by students one by one, specific guidance.
The introduction depends on the master, and the practice also needs to be practiced by oneself. In order to carve flowers, he used to carry water radishes to his home basket all day long to practice. After practicing, I was reluctant to throw it away, wrapped buns of radish buns, steamed nest heads, stewed soup, and pulled the whole family to eat radish with flowers.
After graduation, Sun Lixin went to Shanghai Lvyang Estate for an internship. It was a famous hotel in Shanghai, and the ducks were excellently done. Deboning a duck is a hassle. The master never deboned the ducks in the face of an apprentice, and Sun Lixin was eager to learn this craft. Finally, once, he arrived at the hotel early and pondered the master's well-stripped duck. After a while, he took a chicken to practice, "the skin is not broken at all."
But this chicken was stolen. This is a big mistake. When the East Window incident occurred, the master was so angry that he wanted to bomb Sun Lixin back to Beijing. In order to stay, Sun Lixin asked and bought cigarettes to honor the master. Two boxes of Phoenix brand cigarettes cost him more than a piece.
Later, Sun Lixin studied under the Master of Sichuan Cuisine, Yu Dailiang, and then learned cantonese cuisine with Hong Kong chefs, becoming an all-round chef, working as a chef at Huadu Hotel, and innovating a roast duck for more than 600 years after joining CheapFang.
The relatively young wujian lijianghu people called "smoked master", and made a good hand of bacon and smoked fish. Wu Jianli's back kitchen was first cooked at renmin university. The so-called "school stove" is specially cooked for the principal and other school leaders. The school stove is more like a delicate small cooking workshop. Make menus according to the leader's meal standards, but also remember the preferences of each school leader in your heart, some people love to drink flower carving wine, some people like sweet taste, and some people finish writing at 11 o'clock at night and find a bowl of egg noodles here.
Wu Jianli
These three people set up a somewhat rudimentary "state banquet team", which is different from the super-large scale of the Beijing Hotel, they only have three people, two stove eyes, and the "guy things" they use are also ordinary, but they want to do more.
On February 1, 2019, the three of them got together and decided to teach the state banquet dish to thousands of households.
The platform was chosen on Douyin.
The place to open the gang was in the kitchen of the Wu JianLi family. The small place is crowded into three cooks who call themselves uncles, second uncles and third uncles, so common that they are like relatives who often rub rice: cooking while chatting, and it is not good that a person who does not pay attention will put an extra spoonful of sugar.
Some people say that they are the highest level masters who teach people to cook on the Internet; in the eyes of fans, they are the well-known "state banquet heavenly group". In 1949, people only saw the state banquet on the table, and this time, how a table of state banquets was born was clearly served with vibrato, so that everyone could see through it. Those legendary flower knives, frying techniques, and even secret recipes that are not passed on, have spread out. Watching them nag and cook, they suddenly realized, Oh, the original state banquet is like this, in fact, they can also make state banquet dishes.
What they want to pass on is not only the art of cooking, but also the "old rules".
Seeing that young chefs on TV are subverting or even violating traditions, Zheng Xiusheng still wants to do something, "We want to correct some things that are not standardized, and try to pass on the old rules."
In the "First Feast of the Founding of the People's Republic of China", there are those old rules that are not humane.
Zheng Xiusheng wanted to make the braised lion's head that was made more than 70 years ago. This was the first dish taught by his master when he learned to cook Huaiyang cuisine.
Pork belly pays attention to fat, four thin and six, and it is cut into "pomegranate seed size" with a knife. At that time, there was no meat grinder, and the machine was very easy to crush the meat completely, and it tasted too old to eat. Finely cut and coarsely chop to cut out the stickiness of the meat. Good cooks have scales in their hearts. Zheng Xiusheng said that at the opening of the state banquet, a lion's head almost had to control two or two or two or five. To make braised carp, you have to handle the fish cleanly, even the tail should be cut neatly and beautifully.
Sun Lixin, who was also in charge of the state banquet, even studied flower and bird painting with the teachers of the Academy of Fine Arts in order to better design the disc style. The same is to make a duck, he will spend his mind to make a hundred flowers camphor tea duck, white shrimp glue to make flowers, in the carving shape, "people who eat like this will feel respected", and making a chopped crispy duck is definitely not the same.
All intentions are the two words in Zheng Xiusheng's mouth: fine.
Sun Lixin once taught everyone to make a dessert "jujube walnut cheese" in the video. At a state banquet, he said, even a piece of date peel staining the throats of guests was an accident.
Can ordinary people really make a state banquet? There are also people who will question the video of the old rice bone. When they first started shooting videos on Douyin, they made more than 40 videos just by introducing a "pregnant mandarin fish", but the response was mediocre.
Third Uncle Wu Jianli said that there are always people who say things without conditions, and feel that the lack of conditions restricts the play, "In fact, at home, you can also make really professional dishes, as long as you follow what we teach step by step."
This group of "old rice bones" who have cooked for half a century still have a lot of energy when it comes to cooking.
Whenever they have time, they also cook for their families. Wu Jianli said that a truly professional chef can also make high-level dishes in the kitchen at home. Even after a week of scheduling, Sun Lixin will still prepare meals for his wife. For them, cooking is their life.
In the era when the cook was not welcome, the three uncles of the "old rice bone" plunged into the back kitchen, held their breath and worked for nearly half a century, cooking small and fresh as ruling a big country, no matter who the guests were, only the "old rules" were not defeated. Because no matter whether it is high in the temple or far away from the rivers and lakes, what reaches the hearts of the people is still the fireworks of the world.
Don't underestimate that breath. That's the taste of life. Cooking and living are actually the same art—the art of enlightening the little things. Look at the old rice bones to cook, often do not use anything rare, ordinary ingredients, essential onion and ginger water, spicy peppercorns, ordinary things brew a compound taste in a small day.
How many people follow them to cook? And how many people rely on them to eat? How many people's kitchens can these "old rules" go to? None of this may be of paramount importance. For the "old rice bone", don't be in a hurry, do it slowly, keep doing it, sooner or later someone will pass it on.
Life is like that. Everyone is the first time, everyone has something to ask for. You are the clumsiest cook and the most demanding food critic, but as long as you don't hesitate to take the patience to cook and pluck up the courage to swallow a few dark dishes, you can always cook simple ingredients that make people feel comfortable enough to sigh.
Old rice bone, worth mentioning a cup.