The owner of Knight's Cuisine is called Knight Shanlin. His business card reads in traditional Chinese characters, "Founder of Knight's Cuisine, consultant and professor of applied mathematics." The old man said he didn't want people to think he was "just a chef" because of his "professor" status.
Leigh family recipes of the "shark's fin seat"
Leigh family dishes only sets of meals, *** dozen sets, each set from 18 to 22 kinds of dishes ranging. For example, the imitation of Cixi daily consumption of "shark's fin seat": the first for the small dishes, counting fried salted shi, soy sauce cucumber, shrimp celery heart, mustard mustard dun, Beijing bacon, phoenix dry chicken, amber peach kernel, osmanthus sugar lotus root, rose jujubes, fried red fruits, etc.; the second for the cooked dishes, counting simmered shark's fin, white steak abalone, soft fried fresh shellfish, pouring juice live fish, roast duck and clear soup, etc.; the third for the cooked dishes, counting stewed shark's fin, white steak abalone, soft fried fresh shellfish, pouring juice live fish, roast duck and The third course is soups and sweets, including chicken soup with bird's-fish and egg, scrambled egg custard, and sweet cheese with walnuts.
"Palace-style food" is not ordinary
One of the characteristics of the Knight family's cuisine is that it does not use chemical ingredients such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), and relies on natural methods of flavoring. The restaurant also does not have any modern kitchen utensils, the use of fire stoves. As a "palace-style dish," it requires a fine selection of ingredients and meticulous workmanship.
Li Jia Cai only does dinner every day, and only sets up a table every day. If you want to eat, you have to book a table a few days in advance, and the price is between 200 and 2,000 yuan. For this table, the family has to prepare from the morning until the evening guests come. Here is another difference from other restaurants is that, here is not allowed to order, the host does what you eat. Even so, people still come here.
The Lijia cuisine is also very particular about the side dishes. For example, making sweet and sour dishes. This time to buy back this set of sugar, a set of vinegar, how much sugar with how much vinegar should be appropriate ah? After doing this, the next time to do according to this ratio, quasi-disturbance can not, because the brewing of things, one batch and another batch will always have a certain degree of error, so each time you have to go to taste, to find the ratio of acid and alkali, if you do not have some knowledge of chemistry and knowledge of metrology, can it?
And cooking. Let's say that the fried salty, the ingredients are carrots, yucca, mustard, cilantro, ginger, several colors. More carrots, a red, more cilantro, and a green, the proportion of several dishes with a good, color coordination and distribution should also pay attention to, so that the dishes up, on the colorful, presenting a shape of the beauty, which, on the old Knight years in the Department of Architecture to learn the knowledge.
Dish done, on the table there is also learning. Can not dish up on the code up, who is next to who? How to match the good-looking? How to code the big and small plates? Fried, boiled, steamed, simmered, fried, the color can not be too close, the color difference can not be too big, these aesthetic knowledge, but also the old Knight in the Department of Architecture to learn. These side dishes to do the work, are other dishes can not be compared.
Fame
In 1984, Li Shanlin's second daughter, Li Li, signed up for the National Day Banquet Invitational. In two hours, Li Li made 14 dishes and won the championship.
The Li family's phone rang non-stop, and they received several letters every day, all encouraging Li Li to open a restaurant. 1985 April, the Li family restaurant opened in their own homes, Pu Jie's "Li family dishes" three words were inscribed at that time.
After the opening of the Li family restaurant, only one table for dinner every day, but also have to book three or four days in advance. In addition, because each dish has to be prepared after a long time, in order to do a table, the family often from the morning preparation to the evening guests to finish, so the restaurant also has a different rule, is not allowed to order - the kitchen to do what you eat. Even so, there are still people who come to the restaurant. 1986, the president of Merck Oil Company came to China to talk about a project, and ate Lijia's food. He was the first foreigner to eat Knight's food.
Lijia cuisine really spread among foreigners, thanks to the then British Ambassador to China, Mr. Evans. Evans came to Knight's house for a meal, and what he said after the meal is still fresh in Knight Shanlin's mind: "You don't need to advertise your restaurant, as soon as I say it in the embassy district, they will all come." After that, foreigners did come in droves. The Swiss ambassador to China, Mr. Shu Aiwen, praised Li's cuisine as the best in the world! Hewlett-Packard's chief representative in China, James Le, said: I have two unforgettable one is acupuncture and massage; the other is Lijia cuisine.
Cooking also needs cultural heritage
Li family restaurant owner Li Shanlin is the authentic eight banners - the White Banner, his grandfather was the late Qing Dynasty Cixi period of the Interior Ministry, the official second grade.
Li Shanlin studied several majors in college, and his favorite course was a non-major in mathematics. Before retiring, Li Shanlin was a professor in the math department of the Capital University of Economics and Business. In addition to teaching mathematical mechanics, he also taught basic chemistry and analytical chemistry. But what really made him famous in the world was for his hobby - cooking.
Li Shanlin was an only child, and his parents doted on him as a child. As a "young master", he often ran to the kitchen to learn to cook with the chef, the chef is not willing to teach, Li Shanlin in the home to entertain guests in the kitchen, when the chef is too busy to do it, will often let him help, so, Li Shanlin learned some real skills. In cooking, "learn to enjoy life" is Li Shanlin's own experience. So when he cooks, he will often call the children to help in the kitchen. Under his influence, his three daughters and one son have all become heirs to the Knight family's cuisine.
Communicating with foreign diners in English is a great hobby of the old man. Li Shanlin said that when Bill Gates came in a tricycle, he talked to himself in English, "You are a math professor, I didn't even graduate from the second year of college." The old man humbly said, "You're better than me, you have practical experience." Bill Gates returned to the U.S. and sent a special CD-ROM, "Computing in the 21st Century," as a souvenir.
Mentioning his English, the old man said: "It was practiced in Fu Jen". 1939, Li Shanlin was admitted to Fu Jen University, which was run by foreigners in Beijing. Because of the "delicious", want to understand some of the raw materials for cooking, the essence of the seasoning is what things, so chose to major in chemistry. At that time, Fu Jen Catholic University was mostly taught by foreign teachers, and classes were conducted in English.
Li Shanlin recalled that he learned to speak English well there. Later, he was admitted to the aeronautical engineering department of Beiyang University, and after liberation, he studied Chinese architecture under Liang Sicheng at Tsinghua University in response to the country's call.
"There are all kinds of people who come to eat Li's food." Li Shanlin said. But because of the rich experience and deep cultural heritage, Li Shanlin can discuss with them. Some foreigners often conclude in surprise, "You're not a chef by any means." "To put it more broadly, this is also for the country's honor." The old man laughed, "in front of foreigners can not fall Chinese price."