Meet a Sichuan chef at Aixin Shangyan to taste famous dishes for state banquets

Autumn October, apricot leaves are yellow, red cinnamon fragrance.

In the afternoon of October 14, 2022, located in the main kitchen of Aixin Shangyan Hotel under Aixin Group, Shuguang Road, Chengdu, bright and clean, Vice general manager of Aixin Group, registered senior Chinese cooking master, Sichuan cooking master, Chengdu artisan, executive president of the Global Chuan Hui Chuan Cuisine Culture Promotion Association, the late national treasure Sichuan cuisine master Chen Haiqing was sent to meet Liu Cheng. Xiao Changhou, two registered senior Chinese cooking masters and Sichuan cooking masters came to the kitchen of Aixin Hotel to show their skills and teach Sichuan cuisine skills.

Two masters, Liu Cheng and Xiao Changhou, were born in Chengdu in the 1940s and 1950s. In particular, Master Liu Cheng experienced the baptism of the new and old society of Chengdu after the peaceful liberation of Chengdu, plus Hui Min studious, fell in love with Sichuan tourism and catering, from the Chengdu Yaohua Hall in the 50's to do the usher (had met the beloved Premier Zhou Enlai) work began, has been abroad (Zambia) to do the chief chef of the Great Wall Hotel, After returning to China as the Sichuan Province tourism kitchen administration cooking training teacher retired, this year has been 76 years old, still hale and hearty, thinking clearly, talking quickly, walking busy hands and feet, as if it is still the prime of life, giving people affinity and confidence!

Master Liu Cheng put on his work clothes and prepared to start work

Master Xiao Changhou entered the Chengdu catering industry in the 1960s, from apprentice chef to chef to the chief chef of "Beijing Hotel", engaged in Sichuan cooking for half a century, which can be described as the elder of Sichuan cuisine. Two Sichuan cuisine masters came to the big kitchen of Aixin Hotel, without saying a word, rolled up their sleeves, put on the authentic chef "battle robe" to put on the battle, do it yourself, a little "master" shelf is not, as if the two masters returned to the former kitchen post, they move a style, a knife everything, a scoop of a stir-fry, flexible, from the preparation of ingredients to seasoning dishes is almost familiar, easy to get! Sichuan cuisine master kung fu deep, hand move mouth taste, one shot, scoop scoop see the real work, dishes show wonderful! Let the author personally visit the culinary scene, witness the style of the master, but also to Yang Gang masters and apprentices to set an example!

Master Liu Cheng (left) and Xiao Changhou (right) are busy in the kitchen

As Master Liu Cheng and the author exchange Sichuan cuisine true words: the charm of Sichuan cuisine lies in color, aroma, taste, beauty, utensils... What is "color" : the dish has natural color, color, excellent chef painting color, that is, to give people visual communication. "Fragrance" is the natural aroma of the dish, folk called "heaven fragrance", plus the cook "wonderful fragrance"; "Taste" refers to the taste of dishes with chefs cooking seasoning, in line with ordinary people's tastes; "Beauty" refers to the "aesthetic feeling" experienced from inside to outside after food color and color; "Apparatus" is serving utensils, like people's clothing and wear, the image of the whole dish is "spirit" present without error! This kind of Sichuan dishes deserve to be called "delicious food"! The beauty of this truth, our Sichuan "Sichuan food" ancestor Mr. Su Dongpo once had a classic poem expression...

Master Xiao Changhou said: Why is Sichuan cuisine popular in every corner of the world? Because Sichuan people are gourmets, they love to use their brains to "drill and eat" sunflower seeds, and continuously inherit and develop Sichuan cuisine in life practice, and gradually push Sichuan cuisine to the world.

During the speech, Xiao Changhou master master and apprentice completed the skill of Sichuan dishes on the table: "crispy eggplant fish", "yellow dull turtle", "winter melon time vegetables" scattered out of the hot smell permeated among them.

Master Xiao Changhou (left) is teaching Yang Gang the secret of making "crispy eggplant fish"

Can two ordinary eggplants make a beautiful fish? Let's wait and see!

In particular, Xiao Master's skill "crispy eggplant fish" looks like a fish lying on the bottom of a pool, lying on the waves, and seems to be preparing for a leap!

Master Xiao Changhou said that this "eggplant fish" is the first "eggplant fish" cooked in Chengdu in so many years, which can be described as particularly precious (we also had the honor to taste the famous state banquet dishes, lucky!). On this "crispy eggplant fish", Master Xiao told us the origin of this dish: At a state banquet in the Great Hall of the People, the famous domestic cuisines gathered together to win honor for the state banquet, and they took out their skills to appear on the field. At that time, the leader of the state banquet asked Master Xiao to cook a Sichuan "fish", Xiao always thought: What kind of fish has not been eaten by national leaders? I'll make a fish they've never eaten before! So Xiao Lao made this dish with ordinary humble eggplant. When the dish was served, it was praised by the country's leaders.   Since then, the famous state banquet dish "crispy eggplant fish" has become Master Xiao's unique job! "Crispy Eggplant fish" fish is fragrant, soft inside and crisp outside, and melts in the mouth. After the meal, the taste of the mouth remains fragrant, which is unforgettable for a long time!

Who would have thought that this "fish" is actually made of eggplant

Meng Xunwen (first from left), Yang Gang's disciples Jiang Bo (second from left), Yang Gang (middle), Xiao Changhou (second from right) and Liu Cheng (first from right) pose for a photo in front of the famous dish "Crispy Eggplant fish" at the state banquet

Yellow turtle "belongs to the former" noble ", to Xiao Changhou (Chen Haiqing) "Chen school" disciple disciple Sun study and inheritance "Yellow turtle" with its ingredients soup material, fusion of all kinds of spices and other strange taste to make soup, in the selected to clean turtle block material slowly cooked into!

Braised turtle cooked in a royal style

"Winter melon vegetables" will peel the winter melon out of the round ball, and the tender green luffa peel cut into strips, the two cooked, placed into a stacked Luohan shape, with the modulated juice boiling into the good luffa and winter melon balls into the dish, fragrant, the food makes people feel back to "Meng Haoran wine words mulberry hemp" rural life state! This dish is especially suitable for the middle-aged and elderly people who nourish the stomach, and is of course a therapeutic food and food dishes.

Xiao Changhou (second from left) and Liu Cheng (third from left) are explaining to Yang Gang (first from left) the practice of "winter melon and seasonal vegetables"

Fragrant winter melon seasonal vegetables

Chinese folk spread "traditional dishes eat power, modern dishes eat charm, fire and oil eat more physical strength, chicken essence MSG salt Tuo Tuo is the problem"... The so-called laity eat a lot of people's strange elephant!

Forwarded from the author Meng Xunwen

This article from the "Great Micro Media" https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vbU-7oJDb1wJAxwNFgbAeA