The master's cooking scriptures are only five words

This article is a collection of two magazine articles

"No tricks, chef's side dishes" &

"Tan Guofeng: Master Nuan's Cooking Edge"

Originally published in "Chinese Cooking Magazine"

Published in May and July 2022

[simple philosophy]

Sincere

The kitchen master I've seen,

Things are not that complicated.

side dishes seriously,

The big dishes are calm.

Three cooking and two cooking,

The principle of cooking,

In the end, it easily fell on "delicious",

No condescending posture,

But unconventional.

This hearth kung fu is described in calligraphy,

That is "simplicity".

My favorite calligrapher is "Liang Kuan". He learned from Er Wang, Huai Su, and Huang Tingjian. And his handwriting looks childish, but in fact it has extraordinary charm, and you will never get tired of reading it, just like the dishes you never get tired of eating.

In the three months from Lichun to Lixia, my appetite is often half hidden, and it is only when I go to the Wynn Palace in Macau where Master Tan Guofeng sits. He smiles like the sun in the clouds, always close. Liang Kuan once said a classic: "I usually dislike calligraphy by calligraphers, dishes by chefs and poems by poets."

Rather than being called Master Tan, I prefer to be called Master Tan, kind.

In his eyes, good ingredients are not measured by "expensive". Nine shrimps with yellow legs are not expensive, they are expensive in the wild. Wang Yi is better than Tsing Yi, and it is affordable because it is not famous...

Master Tan always hits the nail on the head, how many famous chefs have mentioned the plastic bag in his hand in order to receive his instructions. After I visited the Xiahuan Market with him, I felt like I was taking a ride in an open hood, and the oxygen in my brain surged. Anyone who pursues delicious food is like a fish that has been beaten with oxygen, jumping up and down. The warmth and softness in the ears actually come from the plastic sheds in the vegetable market, and the things in the eyes, nose, and throat just swallowed are all human fireworks.

He prefers to buy ingredients from the family-owned fisherman's seafood vendors, and he also has a good chat with the tricky shop owner who specializes in old gourmets.

Master Tan knows which ones are new arrivals, which ones only sell old gluttons, and which ones are of high quality. You can know the amount of paste for newly released crabs, and you can know whether they are wild by looking at the color of the tail fin of the yellow pomfret. through!

I couldn't help reconfirming in my heart that the person wearing a peaked cap and a T-shirt in front of me and taking me to the vegetable market was Tan Guofeng, the executive chef of Wynn Palace who has traveled all over the world and won numerous awards. Members of royal families and wealthy political and business tycoons from all over the world are his subjects. He is also a banner of "knowing the goods" in front of the restaurant vendors, and he can fight any smart housewife, and his eyes are hot when he encounters good ingredients.

The "expensive" ingredients in the hands of the master

Master Tan is a gold-lettered signboard in the entire catering circle in Macau. Having witnessed the symbolic history of the rapid development of catering, he said calmly: "I have been in Macau for almost 16 years since 2007. The changes have been quite big, especially the changes in economic catering. The development of food also requires a certain economic environment. The promotion is the supply-demand (supply and demand) process."

"Especially the choice of ingredients. For example, 15 years ago, Japanese cattle were still hard to come by, and they only appeared in Hong Kong and Macau airports 20 or 30 years ago. Now, whether it is the choice of consumers or our gourmet food, it is very important. There are more choices. Australia, the United States, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil... The customers have also changed. They have traveled to different places in the world and choose food. Sometimes their experience is really more than our catering experience. They're moving forward faster than we can."

Talking about the choice of local ingredients, "the supply of local beef is not as much as before, so we choose foreign beef. Taiwan likes local beef very much. For example, beef brisket, the taste of fresh beef brisket is actually very good, and imported beef is not comparable. In comparison. Because there were fewer workers for a period of time, and then many suppliers found different companies to supply the goods, pushing them to find more choices from other origins. This is the situation in the market. In fact, the price of fresh beef It is not much cheaper than the mid-range imported ones. The price is also a very important factor. Because it may be industrialized abroad, domestic free-range or relatively small farmers, the cost cannot be lowered.”

Masters use their brushes differently, and those who are good at learning from each other's strengths to make up for their weaknesses, domestic famous chefs also know this truth. However, this situation is similar to "calligraphy in ancient and modern times is innumerable, and there are still scripts in scriptures." Master Tan's "classics" are not in the cooking method, but in the ingredients themselves. The old people shook their heads and said that pork is not as delicious as when they were young, and the two-headed black meat is a rare commodity to live in. Chef Tan said softly beside him: "Sichuan pork is pretty good, and you can compare it when you visit more." He advocated that a good chef should travel more to find good ingredients, and refer to local techniques and techniques, so that the delicacies belonging to the Chinese market can be improved step by step.

Speaking of the combination of traditional techniques and brand-new ingredients, it is like old pen and new paper. I agree with Master Tan that traditional techniques are fundamental. "For authentic Cantonese cuisine, traditional techniques are really important, such as wok techniques, and other stewing techniques focus on seasoning. Those techniques can be passed down, no matter where you go in the world, the techniques can be followed. The chef’s piece is in his hand. But the ingredients should be forward-looking.” Master Tan talked about the large yellow croaker he bought with his mother in the market when he was a child. It was as long as an arm and weighed more than ten catties. "Now, we can get such a large yellow croaker for one or two thousand yuan, so the market has changed. When making fish dishes, we should be more open-minded. If there is really no yellow croaker to use, we can use any fish to make it. It must be considered."

Even though it is the fishing moratorium now, he can still feel his daily life seriously. I felt like I was in Tsukiji in old Japan, watching a senior high-end buyer go to his old friend's house to watch fish.

Master Tan talked about some ingredients that have changed in value, and still smiled warmly: "codfish (codfish), when I was a younger brother, I went to the Hong Kong market with the master to see the products. When I saw it was ice, I didn't like it. But when I arrived Today, cod is already a high-end dish, and it is only available on ice, which is already an indispensable ingredient in high-end dishes. Chefs have different ideas in different generations, and the feelings of customers are the same. It cannot be easily said that cod tastes bad. "

The revolutionary "innovation" of Chinese catering has been in recent years. China's catering list has given more people some motivation and opportunities, including the relatively high-end local list like Black Pearl, said Master Tan.

When it comes to "innovation", Master Tan appreciates the "younger" approach of restaurants such as Shanghai Fuhehui. "Using avant-garde techniques, compare the highest quality domestic products with some products that must be imported, and then decide which one to use to make their delicacies. Of course, the cost will be high, so operators who take this step, They must have considerable strength, have considerable passion (enthusiasm), and must also have a group of new-generation media professionals to spread the word."

"So we are chefs, especially I have been doing it for so many years. I personally think that everyone still needs to have a more generous vision to accept the state of a market, and then make some smart choices. High-end, It is the same for mid-range or mass catering. In fact, every city has different regulations and different culinary understandings. You must learn more concepts and strive for understanding before you can successfully run a pot of business. There are also people who understand the market. Ability to pay, their taste. For example, there were not so many young returnees 20 years ago. Now everyone has a lot of experience living in other places. When they come back with experience, their way of life is somewhat different from the traditional Chinese. So in terms of the market, Shanghai, for example, why there are so many different dishes to choose from, but they can continue to operate independently. Because they have a fixed number of customers, they have some experience in internationalization."

"For the sake of new markets, chefs will use imported, more fancy ingredients to make their dishes. I think it's better to do more comparisons before making sure. It doesn't matter." Regarding the combination of foreign ingredients. Master Tan only has five words "reasonable matching".

"Innovation" is not difficult, but "reasonable innovation" is difficult.

Master Tan's transparency can sometimes be as strong as the back of the paper! Diners see a reasonable "principle" that seems to be based on ingredients and techniques. Master Tan said it is a "Business model". "About the requirements of investors, what is the profit? If the kitchen team requires 25 people and cannot achieve the required profit, then reduce it to 20. In fact, it is an economic issue, and there are economic benefits. Therefore, many traditional dishes have many techniques that have disappeared. , because it is too difficult and needs to be simplified, for example, there are 5 steps, but now it is reduced to 3 steps, and the level of the same dish is different."

Master Tan also said frankly that there is no way to reduce the special dishes he has in hand. "If you reduce it, it will be much worse, such as stewing soup. One day, if you have to improve it according to the profit, if the proportion of water is adjusted to be different, the soup will be different immediately. It’s the same. Any kind of ingredients, if the grade and quality are adjusted, the taste will be different.” I noticed in the back kitchen that even the soy sauce and fish sauce used by Master Tan for cooking are carefully selected, and they cannot be bought casually in large supermarkets. . "A bottle of fish sauce costs 60 or 70 yuan, and soy sauce can be mixed with several kinds at a time. Many of the delicacies I pursue are cooked, and the customers who eat them can't tell. If you don't ask me, of course, you won't have the opportunity to tell the customers what is good. But if the guests are interested in understanding, he can introduce each bottle of seasoning to the guests, and explain the preparation methods of each dish step by step."

Some seem to be "unreasonable", but in fact, they can be reasonable under the special cultural tastes of the intersection. The choices on the table are parallel, and everything looks to the future. "My understanding is that in Macau, if we talk about the refinement, internationalization and universality of catering, Cantonese cuisine is more representative, so it may represent the future trend. Of course, it cannot be said that it is not inclusive. Existence. For example, consumers who eat spicy food, especially the new generation, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and even Macau, the degree to which the new generation of young people can eat spicy food is not much different from that of Sichuan. The ability to eat spicy food is training What comes out, especially Ma, it makes the whole person’s acceptance of food less delicate and dull. In fact, Portuguese cuisine and Cantonese cuisine are two very strange combinations for us outsiders, because Macanese The plates of national cuisine are very large and the sauce is heavy. Cantonese cuisine is actually becoming more and more sophisticated now, and there are many more advanced skills in it. Portuguese cuisine is still relatively rough to me. Like southern European dishes, such as Spain Vegetables, Portuguese cuisine, some gourmets call it 'lazy food', put together and stew, similar to hot pot. Then there is barbecue, their gathering, their party, the first thing that comes to mind is barbecue , pigs, beef and sheep are roasted, a large plate, and slow-cooked dishes are the main ones.”

As with any delicacy anywhere in the world, traditions are slowly being lost. Master Tan said that in order to protect, the Macau Tourism Bureau and the Institute for Tourism Studies will allocate some resources to fill in the leaks. "The disappearance of some small shops for local vegetables is unavoidable, because the operating costs of many small shops are too high to survive. Haidilao sells services. If you think about quality, you will never want to open a standardized chain store. To be honest, in the business environment, they pay employees’ salaries, food costs, and rent. If the store is not their own, it is basically impossible to do it. Especially some small stores from mid-range to mass , really can’t go on. So what I said just now is that a group of young people, such as Shanghai or other places, I understand and know a small number of people who have both. go down."

"Resilience" is not "the ability to copy"

In this process, some new "personalities" that make me laugh and cry are also born. "A piece of char siu, for no reason, should be put on a plate and set up well. Suddenly there is a batch of restaurants, they put each piece of char siew on a skewer, and then take some Himalayan salt, what kind of messy salt, and then pour half a bottle of it seems to be Rose dew, a cheaper white wine, roasted before cutting. Then another restaurant said, you take rose dew, I will take Moutai, in exchange for abalone! Is the abalone roasted? This is a question of rationality, but anyway if you shoot I’m on TikTok, and I think it’s cool. Other restaurants think about it, and I’ll bake it too.” It may be due to the laziness of some chefs, sometimes due to the pursuit of investors, and the promotion of the list, “So many people suddenly became popular. Some of the dishes I mentioned are available in all restaurants, and they are exactly the same. If you go to Restaurant A to Restaurant BCD, you may open a menu, half of which are the same. To be more clear, some are even semi-finished products bought back. Warm it up, and it would be better to serve some cold dishes. It’s not cuisine anymore.”

"Reasonable sometimes can't be eager for quick success. A plate of dishes should be done reasonably, the production process, and the way of presentation should be reasonable. We cook food, but to win attention or win awards. Chefs are sometimes under pressure. For example, what dishes can be After winning the prize, I brought the dishes over, or asked the chef over there to cook them. After a long time, I lost my kung fu.”

Good calligraphy needs to be practiced over time. I have to admit that many young chefs are unfamiliar with traditional techniques. "In terms of technique, I think every restaurant needs its positioning. Everything they do must match their positioning, otherwise it will be weird. When my grandmother cooks, we in Guangdong Some traditional seasonings are soy sauce, sugar, rice wine...a little bit of white pepper, four or five kinds of seasoning. In the past 5 years, many restaurants think that Japanese food is cool, their seasoning is good, taste good, and then miss For no reason, many Cantonese kitchens buy some teriyaki sauce, add a little bit of it, and when you close your eyes in a pot of beef, you will think you are eating Japanese food.”

Master Tan shared his cooking experience when he was young. For a dish, "I have to go to the library to find information. I have been working in the Greater China region for almost ten years. Good sources of Chinese food information are very important. Then I have to See more and taste more, I used to do a lot of cross-border cooperation and came into contact with different products." Master Tan's inclusive vision and the resilience developed during this process make him feel like a god. "For example, a situation happened to me. Once I went to Abu Dhabi in the Middle East for a dinner party. The director of the Tourism Bureau was from the Middle East in Abu Dhabi. In fact, my first dish was yusheng. Raw salmon, the seasoning is the ingredients used in Guangdong’s raw fish. The ingredients are no problem. Well, when the dishes are served, the local people don’t accept raw food at all. What happened at that time, I took a spray gun , Grill all the sashimi before they can be served. It’s just to test the resilience of each of us, which is actually not a bad thing.”

The culinary wisdom of a true master never shows itself, but the body of the diner is aware. When I was in Macau, I suffered from a bit of wind and cold. Before the careful chef arranged the dishes, he did not reveal his preparations. After a meal, it was full of greetings for nourishing yin, nourishing the lungs, and cooling the heart. Especially a bowl of pig zhan soup with wild kudzu and raw fish (raw fish is black fish in Cantonese), after drinking it, I feel that I have recovered more than half of my body.

The same dish "beef in oyster sauce", when he arrived in Germany, he used German beef, and he could cook a pot of seasoning with the same confidence, which is a taste recognized by the Chinese. He can also make full use of local products and bring out their advantages.

Master Tan feels that a closed situation like the epidemic will not last for too long. "There is an opportunity for catering professionals to try new things, find new opportunities to start, and try different directions again. The master of Huaiyang cuisine, because of the limited ingredients and market, practiced his skills back then, took time to consider, and went to the restaurant. Training their skills is what makes them what they are now. Of course, young Huaiyang chefs now have the opportunity to use any product in the world, and they can get the best seafood. For example, they can use Su Mei for fried shredded mandarin fish. They use big grouper, but they still use mandarin fish most commonly. In New Huaiyang, the effect is different when using new ingredients. Combined with different positioning and cities, there is magic. For example, Chuanjiangyue’s seasoning status today has no chance in Sichuan. It can be done, such a combination.”

Master Tan remembered the book of the master Jiang Xianzhu, and still felt grateful. "During the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, she was in Guangzhou and mentioned the five major restaurants in Guangzhou, each of which had its own signature dishes. For example, some had Da San Yuan and some had Braised Shark's Fin, so they would not copy other restaurants. Your dish. Even if he can cook your dish, he will not tell others that dish is his signature dish. Every restaurant develops and develops their unique products based on their own techniques and the management ability of the master. , and then launched it. For example, you are braised shark fin, I am pan-roasted abalone, and he is steamed seaweed, and they are sold in this way. The previous market was like this, this is the market we imagined, and I thought it should be like this .”

Finally, I asked Master Tan what kind of list should China make its own list? He said: "Build a trust first. I respect every list, and I also believe that they definitely have their own ideas. Some restaurants appear on different lists, and the list is in line with different ideas of different lists. Of course, the judges, I also want them to be just, fair, and open."

The master cooks freely, like good calligraphy, with method and agility.

Master Tan Guofeng's Summer Dishes

Master Tan said that Macau is also at a special time now, and many people have changed their lifestyles. Many people start growing vegetables at home and even become food bloggers. I asked Master Tan how to keep healthy and look beautiful if he is a "gourmet" at home. Master Tan clicked the maze with a few simple words:

1. Eat more seasonal vegetables, vegetables that appear in the market, and seasonal fruits. But there should not be too many fruits that are too sweet. Because from the perspective of Chinese medicine, all fruits in summer are heavy in moisture, so don't eat too much.

2. Control starch intake. Taking Master Tan himself as an example, he can eat half a bowl for a meal at most. His habit is to add half a bowl of rice with vegetables, then meat and seafood in moderation.

3. Learning how to cook simple and delicious dishes is necessary to increase appetite.

Same style as Wynn Palace in Macau: Fresh Lotus Crab Meat and Winter Melon Soup

Image from Wynn Palace Macau

Ingredients: local wax gourd, fresh crab meat, old chicken, pork tendon, fresh shrimp, scallops, shiitake mushrooms, tuberose buds

Winter melon soup is a classic summer soup in Cantonese cuisine. "Winter melon soup with fresh lotus and crab meat" uses whole winter melon as a container. Chef Tan chooses small local winter melons, removes the pouches and scrapes the meat, steams them with light soup and ginger juice until it is half-cooked. Add chicken, pork tendon, fresh shrimp, scallops, scallops, shiitake mushrooms, fresh lotus seeds and other ingredients into the winter melon cup, and add ham paste, tuberose flower buds, and fresh crab meat to the winter melon cup , stew until the wax gourd is ripe and delicious.

The same style as Wynn Palace in Macau: Lobster Roll with Net Oil and Yuzu Cucumber

Image from Wynn Palace Macau

Ingredients: Pork net oil, lobster, white fungus, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoot tips, cucumber, iced vegetables

"Lobster roll with net oil" is evolved from the loin and liver roll with net oil. First, the lobster is meat, served with white fungus, shiitake mushrooms, and bamboo shoots. Roll-shaped, deep-fried for three to five minutes, bringing out the rich layers of the ingredients and the oily aroma of pork net oil, which elevates this traditional old dish to another level.

The "Lobster Roll in Net Oil" is served with crispy grapefruit cucumber, made with grapefruit juice, ginkgo vinegar, and honey into a sauce, served with thin slices of small cucumber, and finally decorated with iced vegetable sprouts and cucumber sprouts.

The same style as Wynn Palace in Macau: Steamed Lobster with Huadiao Egg White for 20 Years

Image from Wynn Palace Macau

Materials: French blue lobster, 20-year-old Huadiao, Hokkaido 3.6 milk, eggs, fish roe, Spanish ham

Choose 20-year-old Huadiao and Hokkaido 3.6 milk, add two parts of milk to one part of egg white, stir well, sieve to make the egg liquid smoother, put it in a steamer and steam for six minutes. The blue lobster, which is known to be more tender than ordinary lobster, is shelled and steamed with Huadiao wine for five minutes. Put the blue lobster meat on the egg white, season the broth with marinade, add chicken oil and Huadiao wine to thicken the soup, and top with steamed lobster egg white. Finally, selected black caviar is added to further sublimate the deliciousness of the whole dish, and it is decorated with coriander seedlings.

Same style as Wynn Palace in Macau: Japanese Honeydew Melon Jelly with Coconut Fragrant Sago

Image from Wynn Palace Macau

Ingredients: Shizuoka Crown Honeydew Melon, Coconut Milk, Small Sago, Decorative Chocolate

First peel and dice the honeydew melon, add coconut milk, whipped cream, sugar, and isinglass to make pudding. Beat coconut milk, butter, and sugar into a milk slurry, and serve with small sago cooked with pandan leaves and sweet coconut milk. Finally, decorate with chocolate and fresh honeydew melon, presenting a fresh taste.

The same style as Chef Tan’s: capellini angel pasta

Ingredients: Angel pasta, tomato, garlic, sardine or tuna cubes, herbs

Because the angel pasta is very thin, it can be well mixed with the soup, and it is easy to hang the soup. It is usually cooked in 2-3 minutes. For the sauce, if you have fresh tomatoes, cut them into pieces, crush a small piece of garlic, fry them first, then add the tomatoes, add sardines or tuna, add a little Italian herb, and make a small can.

The same style as Chef Tan’s: loofah and clam soup

Materials: loofah, fish fillets, meat slices, clams

Master Tan said that the loofah tastes sweet and has a lot of fiber. Whether it is served with meat or fish fillets, it can be served with rice as a soup. If there are clams, put a few, and the sweetness will immediately increase. It is a comfortable dish at home in summer.

I was a little surprised that Western food appeared in Chef Tan's home-cooked dishes. But thinking about it, cross-cultural food research has given him a vast range of recipes. Moreover, the culture of Hong Kong and Macau is a combination of Chinese and Western cultures.

Master Tan’s favorite travel destination is Italy, and he has eaten almost all over the south and north. He thinks that Italy and Chinese people appreciate food from the same perspective. "Some seasonings that must be used in ancient Roman dishes, Italian fish sauce, are very interesting." Italian cooking concepts are more practical. They all choose ingredients that they think are right. Chefs are obsessed with good ingredients and get " That’s right,” before I started thinking about cooking. Even South Korea and Thailand are his inspirations, because the simple and fast street food culture and the link of noodles give the concept of fusion cooking a cultural basis. "I don't think France is bad, but their process (process) is a little bit fancy, not all, but a bit contrived." Master Tan joked.

I remember that every time I had supper with Master Tan in Macau, even in greasy, cramped and noisy shops, once his bag was unzipped, it was a Doraemon pocket, which seemed to be able to hold all the usual ingredients. Turn decay into something magical. He arranges everything for everyone at the table, so that every glutton has a home in Macau. Food believers like me who came to "worship" him have also become more devout, believing that the world is still beautiful.

Delicacy that doesn't show off skills is usually more heart-warming. I myself am from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. During the three months from the beginning of spring to the beginning of summer, according to the method of traditional Chinese medicine, I nourish the liver with sweetness. Master Tan used the sweetness and deliciousness of the ingredients to give this summer a comfort. Look at Liang Kuan's calligraphy, and eat Master Tan's small dishes, all of which are flowers blooming in the lower places and smiling in nature.

🍌

Goddess asks

what do you like to eat in summer

"If you come this way,

Pick and choose the path you might take.

If you came this way,

Taking the route you would be likely to take."

— Eliot, "Little Gidding"

Food Bless You!

Consultant of "Flavour World 3"

The owner of "The Dining Table Like a God"

Producer of "Food Wild China"