From a barbecue stand to a global gourmet tycoon

Chapter 206 Food Critic, Brooke

Michelin gourmet detectives are just like any other customer.

They enjoy food and love the experience of dining. Every gourmet detective can be unique because they are full-time Michelin employees and most of them graduated from the School of Hotel Management.

On average, each food detective travels about 30000 kilometers a year, dines about 250 times in different restaurants, and stays in more than 160 hotels in order to select the best restaurants and hotels in terms of comfort and price.

——Gourmet detectives will visit the selected restaurants and hotels anonymously, make reservations, order dishes, dine and pay just like ordinary customers, and will never take any notes during the meal.

Michelin only focuses on the food itself, taste, ingredients, cooking skills...

If you think that the evaluation of each restaurant is based on public reviews, obviously you don't know enough about Michelin.

It's a group of mysterious, spy-like food critics who actually review restaurants!
Maybe,

The little partner next to you is!
……

The 45-year-old Brooke wore a gray windbreaker, a turtleneck black sweater underneath, more casual trousers and black shoes. He was not wearing a hat, and a few strong and sparse hair on his head was blowing in the wind. The rest of his hair was Bald.

He got out of the taxi and looked up.

The restaurant in front of him is a very famous one in Xia Guo recently.

It is located in the mountain city, in a very inconspicuous place. I heard that there was not even a signboard in the past. It was blocked by a wall outside, and the universe inside could not be seen.

But after changing the boss.

They still put the sign on the door.

Pasted on the stone brick pillars of the door frame.

Chu Shi·Happy here.

The gate is open, and there is a universe inside. In autumn and winter, a small path in the courtyard extends into it, with half-cleaned fallen leaves and dead branches on both sides.

The view of the courtyard is a bit more bleak, but the interior of the thick Chinese-style building is full of enthusiasm.

Can Michelin reviewers really go to a restaurant like ordinary people?

Yes.

Brooke is in Xiaguo. He is an artist himself. He held an art exhibition in Shanghai before, invited various celebrities, and even appeared in magazines.

Brooke, who was born in France, showed amazing artistic talent since he was a child. When he grew up, he came to the Xia Kingdom. He liked the Xia Kingdom culture very much. At that time, he jointly launched the 'Shangjing Silver Mine' project with his colleague Su Wen who lived in Shangjing. .

They collected 85 negatives, from 85 to 05, folk images of the Xia Kingdom, and classified them according to different themes or visual experiences.

Bit by bit of the past life is gradually pieced together in this set of film projects.

Time never turns back, and the images of the past have become clues to go back to the past.

This project caused a huge sensation in Xia State at that time.

Of course, the so-called hugeness is only aimed at the hugeness of the "art world", and almost no one outside knows it.

But this cannot shake the authority of Brooke and Su Wen in the art world.

Later, Suvin returned to France, while Brooke stayed here.

He spends time every year visiting restaurants and hotels around the world, completing various inspections and scoring high-quality local reviews.

Eat out at least nine times a week and travel a lot.

He will use passerby mode throughout the whole process, and in order to go to some romantic restaurants, he will even hire a temporary lover to eliminate any possible sense of disobedience.

When eating, I keep my face down, and I have to go to the bathroom to write down any records secretly in the notebook, or type into my mobile phone.

These things make Brook enjoy it.

So, he became a Michelin food reviewer.

He will look at whether the individual ingredients of a dish are fresh and properly processed, whether the cooking technique is correct, whether the whole dish is creative, whether the various ingredients are coordinated with each other, whether the presentation of texture and taste is unified or faulty, and whether there are A certain ingredient preempts the taste of other ingredients too much. Is there any mismatch between all the ingredients...

This is a standard tasting process.

He is never ostentatious.

His performance at work seems to be completely amateur, sometimes he looks like an inconspicuous old man, sometimes he looks like a passing local tourist, and sometimes, Brook even brings friends along.

Someone told him that Chu Shi cooks the traditional dishes of Xia Kingdom. The chef of the restaurant, Chu Hao, is also the owner of Chu Shi. He started as a barbecue stall, and later opened a restaurant, which is completely famous in the mountain city.

He even appeared in Li Xiaoqing's documentary. The name of Uncle Shancheng is catchy and easy to be remembered.

Traditional dishes are actually not included in Michelin's judging criteria.

Innovation is a link that cannot be ignored.

So Brooke is not here for formal evaluation today.

He is a bit like the "stepping point" of ancient chivalrous men or thieves, and there are several such inspections every week, which are valued by Brook.

But recently he came to the mountain city to gather with some friends from the art world and had nothing to do. He heard that there was a famous Chu food restaurant in the mountain city, so he came to take a look.

As a result, I waited a week just waiting for an appointment online.

He finished his work in the mountain city, and even had a party with friends, and he could go back now, but Brooke still stayed in the hotel for a few more days.

Waiting for an appointment is boring.

But this does not dispel the determination and confidence of a professional food critic.

Brooke is well versed in the food culture of Xia Kingdom. He has lived in Xia Kingdom for a long time and has eaten in many famous restaurants. If a very famous restaurant with many praises appears in the circle, Brooke will not give up. On the contrary, he is very curious about Chu food. .

Food is an important part of Brooke's life, and it can also be said to be a ceremony.

As a qualified foodie, after visiting Chushi's environment and service standards, Brooke focused on the menu.

He went to the dining room on the first floor. The reason was not that Brooke had no money, but that the reservation for the dining room on the second floor was scheduled for a month later. There were too many people. In terms of time, there was also Brooke who had his own job. Can't wait that long.

He is not a full-time Michelin reviewer.

There are nearly seventy dishes on the menu.

I heard that Chushi has an advantage, that is, the dishes on their menu are all signatures.

The so-called green leaves and red flowers.

Chu Shi has no green leaves, and every dish in their family is taken out independently, and it has the potential and quality to compete in the ring.

You know, in some restaurants, among dozens of dishes, there may be only three or five signatures and specialties.

As for Chu Shi, this situation does not exist.

This chef named Chu Hao, this is how he promotes Chu Food Restaurant. Of course, hot dishes and cold dishes cannot be scored based on standard judgments alone. For example, a hot dish and a cold dish are incomparable.

Brook didn't hesitate. Before coming, he checked the menu of Chushi·Jianle on the Internet.

To the waiter, speaking proficient Chinese, he ordered a few dishes that he had always wanted to taste, Dongpo elbow, steamed eight-treasure pot, home-made sea cucumber, pocket tofu, fried duck tongue with green pepper sauce, and sliced ​​crispy pork.

I ordered another cold dish, and when I was about to order soup, the beautiful waiter with a smile on the side reminded me: "Guest, we have a lot of dishes, are you sure you can finish these dishes by yourself?"

Brooke was taken aback.

large?

By the way, I read the guide on the Internet before I came here. Chushi's dishes are indeed large and satisfying. At most two or three dishes are enough for one person, but he ordered seven or eight dishes.

"Can it be packed?" Brooke asked.

"Yes, but if you take it home and eat it, the texture and taste will be reduced. It is best to eat ready-made ones in the store."

Brooke smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. If I can't finish eating, I can just pack it up and go home. Or you can ask the chef to make me a small amount. I want to try it."

The waiter smiled.

It was not the first time she had encountered such a request.

Some customers will specifically ask the kitchen to make smaller portions. There is no "small portion" label on the menu, but the kitchen can make smaller portions for only one-third of the original price.

Their purpose is to try more dishes.

But in principle, this will be more difficult to make, so the "small portion" is not marked on the menu, but the privilege of becoming a regular customer. After ordering once like this, come for the second time, or a few more times in the future , with a high probability, they will still choose a small portion.

When the standard dishes are served, they are just like Michelin, a few pieces of meat, and a few slices of vegetables, but they are not served in large bowls or plates, and there are few decorations.

Chu Hao always felt that he was a cook, not a painter.

He will not paint the sauce on the plate like a painting, but actually mix it with the ingredients.

It's not bad, on the contrary, cooks who can paint will have a stronger visual sense of the dishes than others, and they look beautiful. When Chu Hao is himself, he is dismissive.

He has the ability to defeat all external factors by taste alone.

This is hard power.

If he also followed the trend of painting, using a big plate to hold a little side dish, and then painted the hype, then Chu Shi would not be called Chu Shi.

In other words.

It's tasteless.

With small portions of dishes, one person can perfectly eat more than seven or eight dishes, because the amount is really not big, and they are still served in small bowls.

Brooke waited about 20 minutes.

The exquisite small bowls were brought up one by one.

This will indeed increase the difficulty of operating the kitchen.

But for Chu Hao, the problem was not that big.

His cooking is still done as it is, and before being served out, he puts it into small bowls according to the standard of small portions. The remaining dishes, which are not eaten, will not be served to the guests, but will be passed through secretly [Followers of the God of Cookery] ], randomly transmitted to a corner of the world.

Relying on this ability, Chu Hao used the same method to handle the 'small' big dishes many times.

The reason is easy to find.

Anyway, he is the head chef and he can do whatever he wants.

Even if you don't need [the believer of the God of Cookery], just put it on the kitchen stove, and it will all be stolen and eaten in less than ten or ten minutes.

……

At this moment.

Seven or eight dishes were placed in front of Brooke.

He didn't serve the rice, he used his chopsticks to pick up the vegetables, and focused on the gourmet chessboard on the table, feeling and chewing slowly.

Dongpo elbow can be summed up in eight words, it really is 'fat but not greasy, raked but not rotten'.

The locals call elbows 'hooves', and it is said that there is no feast without hairs. For weddings and funerals of the common people, when the nine big bowls are placed, there must be hoofs.

According to legend, when Su Dongpo was an official, hoofs were very cheap at that time. The rich would not eat them, and the poor would not cook them.

The elbows are washed cleanly, there is little water, and the firewood can't afford smoke.

Don't urge it when it is mature, it will be beautiful when the fire is over.

This is how the Dongpo elbow dish came about.

elbow,

Although this dish is very famous, there are different recipes in different parts of the country. Zhong Chenglin told Chu Hao that the most authentic dish comes from Meishan, Su Dongpo's home.

Two and a half to three pounds of front and rear hooves is best. Rinse it with water for an hour to drain out the blood. Carefully remove the pig hair. Boil it in a pot under cold water. Add only ginger, pepper, and green onions to remove greasiness. No need to add salt or other seasonings, just simmer slowly for more than three hours.

Sichuan people are very spicy, and the ancient recipes use ginger. It was not until the Ming Dynasty, when peppers came, that there were watercress and pickled peppers. As the raw materials of Dongpo elbow, they were quickly popularized.

Clear oil, homemade watercress, stir-fried oil is red and bright, add minced ginger, soaked ginger, soaked pepper.

Zhong Chenglin once said: "Dongpo Elbow, the final upper limit of the finished product, the key point lies in whether the kimchi of each family is well done."

There are more than a dozen jars of kimchi in Chushi·Jianle in the warehouse. Qin Jiangyi begged for it from Yu Yizhou, but the old man didn’t give the secret recipe. You can only get its taste, but don't understand its prescription.

It didn't matter to Chu Hao, because after getting these dozens of jars of pickled peppers and kimchi, he worked out a secret recipe unique to Chu Shi by himself and combined with the family system.

Put appropriate amount of salt, sugar, vinegar, pepper noodles and green onions in the pot.

In this way, sprinkle the sauce on the elbow.

When it is served, the soup is bright red, fat but not greasy, and the flavor is a typical ginger juice. After the mouth, there will be a faint umami taste of ginger and pickled peppers, which is long and lingering.

Brook has eaten a lot of Dongpo elbows, and based on his research on Xia Guo cuisine, he naturally knows the key to this dish.

This juice is the finishing touch.

The chef's seasoning ratio, as well as his homemade Doubaner pickled peppers, are really rare.

This is not the kind of factory product bought in the supermarket. You can feel the sincerity when you eat it.

But in fact, this dish of Dongpo elbow is not a traditional recipe, and the ancient recipe can be used. If it only uses the spicy ginger, it is impossible for many modern people to get used to it.

……

Homemade sea cucumber.

In terms of material selection, it should be Shuifa. After all, the mountain city is inland. It is impossible to eat fresh sea cucumbers when making Sichuan cuisine.

Water-fed sea cucumbers are also particular. Generally speaking, boiling water, refrigeration, steaming, etc. are used for three to four days, and the water is changed continuously, once in the morning and in the evening, so that it can continue to grow and expand.

Although Chu Hao has a black shop mod, the black shop has random products and it is impossible to provide him with such ingredients forever.

Cut open with a knife and remove the internal organs.

Avoid touching the oil during the hair-making process, otherwise the sea cucumber will rot when it encounters the oil.

Cut with a diagonal knife, thick at the top and thin at the bottom.

Minced green onion and ginger, stir-fried the green bean sprouts, before cooking, the sea cucumber needs to be simmered in broth and fired over medium heat.

(End of this chapter)