In the late Qing Dynasty, , Empress Dowager Cixi was in power. She was arrogant and extravagant and licentious in her daily life, and it was very difficult to serve her. It was really difficult to cook for her!
The main manager Li Lianying In order to please his master, he asked imperial kitchen to prepare a small kitchen specifically for Empress Dowager Cixi. The small stove has a chef and a second chef, and there are more than 50 various staff members. On weekdays, the chef is responsible for cooking various dishes, and the second chef stands by and takes action. After a long time, the second chef had an idea: Why is he the same chef able to cook? I can only hand over a seasoning and cooking utensils? With this idea, the second chef was unwilling to serve the chef. He also wanted to take charge of the chef himself and become the chef!
At that time, this chef was not only skilled in cooking, but also very smart. He studied Empress Dowager Cixi's appetite thoroughly, and the dishes she cooked made her praise. The Queen Mother was happy and of course she was rewarded with silver, which strengthened the second chef's determination to replace the chef. The second chef knows that if you want to replace the chef, you must do your homework behind it. The reason why the chef is deeply loved by Empress Dowager Cixi is mainly because of a famous dish - carp.
The opening of the carp is actually a dish that can make Empress Dowager Cixi happy. It looks ordinary, but it has a unique skill, which is to make cooked sweet and sour carp , and can open your mouth a few times after serving it to the dining table. The eunuch in charge of serving the dishes took the opportunity to say, "God of Lafayette, Carp, wishes Lafayette a long life!" Empress Dowager Cixi likes to hear this sentence the most, so Carp became a must-have dish for her every day.
Although the second chef asked from many sources, he never got the secret recipe for this dish. Every time the chef cooks the carp, he drives away everyone else, saying that it is a secret recipe passed down by his family and cannot let outsiders know. If you don’t know how to make the dish of carp, you will not win the favor of Empress Dowager Cixi, and of course you will not be able to drive away the chef and replace it. The second chef couldn't figure it out. After being slaughtered, the carp was fried in the oil pan and tender on the outside and cooked with various seasonings. How could he open his mouth and "talk" after serving it to the dining table?
On that day, Erchu walked to an alley, and suddenly, a thin young man walked up to him, his eyes rolled, and he fell to the ground and twitched. If you usually go around this kind of thing when you encounter such a thing, but this time his eyes suddenly lit up, and he immediately enthusiastically helped the young man up and asked, "Young Master, what's wrong with you?"
This young man is the chef's only son!
The second chef has long heard that the chef's son is a big smoker, and he is a smoking addiction. The second chef immediately helped him into a nearby tobacco restaurant, and smoked a cigarette bubble, and the chef's son became energetic. He said that he had just thought of smoking a tobacco restaurant, but he was short of money and was kicked out... Erchu immediately took out fifty taels of silver and said, "I didn't bring much money outside when I went out. Please accept this little money with a smile!"
The chef's son did not know Erchu. He was moved by this "kind person". He stood up and bowed deeply, and said, "You and I met by chance. Please leave your benefactor's name. I will repay you in the future!"
The second chef made up a pseudonym casually and said that he was a foreign chef. I heard that someone in the capital could make carp and said that he came to learn from his master. He came to the capital to learn skills. Unexpectedly, he was not familiar with the place and didn't know where to find the chef.When the chef's son heard this, he immediately smiled and said, "What a coincidence, I am the chef's son!" Then, he attached himself to the second chef's ear and told the secret recipe of the family: "Every time my father put a live loach into the throat of the cooked carp. loach kept squirming after being heated, and the fish's mouth naturally opened and closed, as if he was about to speak!"
The second chef never dreamed that the chef would use this trick to hide the truth! He asked afterwards, "If Empress Dowager Cixi finds this loach, will it be exposed?"
The chef's son said, "Empress Dowager Cixi has dozens of dishes for every meal. Can she eat every dish clean? She just symbolically picked a few favorites to taste it. The live loach hidden in the carp's throat will never be exposed!"
The second chef nodded. He did not expect that the secret recipe that the carp said could be obtained in this way.
Soon, the second chef gave Li Lianying a lot of money and said confidently that the dishes he cooked, especially the carp, would never be inferior to the chef, and would be guaranteed to satisfy Lafayette.
The next day, the second chef replaced the chef as he wished and became the imperial chef.
After the dishes were placed on the table one after another, a little eunuch brought the carp and spoke. Li Lianying hurriedly said, "God of Lafayette, your favorite carp is coming!" He said, while winking at the little eunuch who served the dishes, meaning that he would say that auspicious words quickly. The little eunuch understood it and immediately said respectfully: "God of Lady, the carp said to wish Lady of Lady forever!"
But at this moment, the live loach hidden in the carp's throat actually came out of the carp's mouth! The little eunuch was so scared that he couldn't speak. Li Lianying was also frightened for a moment. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and immediately blocked Empress Dowager Cixi's view with his body. Then he picked up a piece of fish with his own hands and put it in Empress Dowager Cixi's bowl, saying, "God of the old man, try the skills of the second chef in the imperial kitchen."
The chief supervisor picked up the food himself, and Empress Dowager Cixi was also happy. She took a symbolic bite and said, "The carp tasted pretty good today!"
Li Lianying took the opportunity to hint the eunuch hiding the loach in her sleeve and retreated...
The second chef had such a big mistake, not only could he not replace the chef, but was scolded by Li Lianying and extorted a lot of money, so he was not driven out of the imperial kitchen.
Stealing chickens will not lead to a handful of rice, and the second chef becomes more and more angry the more he thinks about it. He never understood: the chef used live loaches to open the cooked carp, what method did the chef not let the loaches come out of the carp's mouth?
A few years later, the Qing Dynasty was destroyed, and the chef and the second chef were no longer imperial chefs. They opened a restaurant in the area of Qianmenlou , and continued to rely on their cooking skills to support the whole family.
Who knew that a storm broke out on the ground. One day, a lieutenant of Marshal Zhang Zuolin
came to the restaurant of Erchu's house with great might and said that the Marshal wanted to eat the carp that Empress Dowager Cixi had eaten back then. When Erchu heard this, he was immediately frightened: If the drama in the Imperial Kitchen replayed, Zhang Zuolin's temper would have to kill himself! In desperation, the second chef had to shamelessly ask the chef for a favor. After hearing the reason, the chef smiled and said, "Brother, don't be like this. I'll tell you the secret recipe!"
It turns out that the chef's secret recipe is: use a toothpick to fix the live loach on the carp's throat, and it won't be able to drill out!
The second chef suddenly realized and said, "Brother, I will always be the second chef in front of you!"
