It sounds a bit like Lijia cuisine: in the Yangfang Hutong in Houhai, Beijing, there is an "advanced" restaurant called Lijia Cuisine Hall. In a small courtyard with no sign except the house number, the signboard of "Lijiacai" is hung on the wall, and the inscription is made by Pu Jie, the younger brother of the last emperor Puyi. Former US President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister John Major have all visited here, and domestic celebrities such as Mei Baojiu, Jackie Chan and Jin Yong have also been guests of Lijiacai.

The owner of Lijia Restaurant is Li Shanlin. His business card is printed in traditional Chinese characters: "Li Jiacai founder, consultant and professor of applied mathematics." The reason why he wrote the identity of "professor" was that the old man said he didn't want others to think that he was "just a chef."

the "swallow's wing mat" in the menu of Lijia cuisine

Lijia cuisine has only a set meal, * * * more than a dozen sets, each set ranging from 18 to 22 dishes. For example, imitate the "swallow wing mat" that Cixi eats every day: the first course is small dishes, including fried salted vegetables, pickled cucumbers, shrimps and celery hearts, mustard tuber, Beijing bacon, dried chicken, amber peach kernel, sweet-scented osmanthus sugar lotus root, rose dates, fried red fruits, etc. The second course is cooked vegetables, including braised fish wings, braised abalone, soft-fried fresh shellfish, live fish in sauce, roasted duck and clear soup swallowtail. The third way is soup and sweets, including bird, fish, egg and chicken soup, scrambled egg soup, walnut sweet cheese and so on.

"Palace Style Cuisine" is unusual

One of the characteristics of Lijia cuisine is that it doesn't use chemical raw materials such as monosodium glutamate, and the seasoning depends on natural methods. There are no modern kitchen utensils in the restaurant, and all of them are stoves. As a kind of "court flavor dish", it requires fine selection of materials and fine workmanship.

Lijia cuisine only cooks dinner every day, and only sets a table every day. If you want to eat it, you have to make a reservation a few days in advance, and the price is between 211 and 2,111 yuan. For this table, the whole family has to prepare from morning till evening when guests come. Another difference here from other restaurants is that you are not allowed to order here, and you can eat whatever the host does. Even so, there are still people coming here.

For side dishes, Lijia cuisine is also very particular. For example, cooking sweet and sour dishes. How much sugar and vinegar should I buy back this time? When finished, do it according to this ratio next time, and something will go wrong, because there will always be some errors between one batch and another, so you have to taste it every time to find the acid-base ratio, if you don't have some knowledge of chemistry and metrology, ok?

and cooking. For example, stir-fry salted vegetables. The ingredients are carrots, magnolia slices, mustard heads, coriander and shredded ginger in several colors. If there are more carrots, there will be more red, more parsley and more green. The proportion of several dishes should be better, and the coordination and distribution of colors should also be paid attention to. In this way, when the dishes are served, they will be colorful and present a beautiful shape. Among them, there is the knowledge that Lao Li learned in the Department of Architecture.

after the dishes are finished, you are also learned to serve. You can't just stack the dishes when they come up. Who is next to whom? How to match it well? How to size a large market and a small one? When frying, boiling, steaming, frying and frying, the colors should not be too close and the color difference should not be too big. These aesthetic knowledge were also learned by Lao Li in the Department of Architecture. The cooking skills of these side dishes are incomparable to those of other dishes.

Famous

On the National Day of p>1984, Li Shanlin's second daughter, Li Li, signed up for the National Day Banquet Invitational Tournament. In two hours, Lily cooked 14 dishes by herself and won the championship. Since then, Li's phone has been ringing off the hook, and she receives several letters every day, all of which encourage Li Li to open a restaurant. In April, 1985, Lijia Cuisine Hall opened in his own home, and Pu Jie's "Lijia Cuisine" was inscribed at that time.

After the opening of Lijia Cuisine Restaurant, only one table of dinner will be set every day, and reservations must be made three or four days in advance. In addition, because every dish has to be prepared for a long time, in order to make a table, the family often prepares it in the morning until the guests come in the evening, so the restaurant also has a unique rule, that is, you are not allowed to order-you can eat whatever the kitchen does. Even so, there are still people coming here. In 1986, the president of Merck Oil Company of the United States went to China to talk about the project and had a special meal of Lijia cuisine. He is the first foreigner to eat Lijia cuisine.

Lijia cuisine really spread among foreigners, thanks to Evans, the British ambassador to China at that time. Evans went to Li's home for a meal. Li Shanlin still remembers what he said after dinner: "Your restaurant doesn't need to advertise. I came as soon as I said it in the embassy district." Since then, foreigners have come in droves. Swiss Ambassador to China Shu Aiwen praised Lijia cuisine as the best in the world! Le Junjie, chief representative of Hewlett-Packard Company in China, said: I have two unforgettable memories of China: acupuncture and massage; The other is Lijia cuisine.

Cooking also needs cultural background

Li Shanlin, the owner of Lijia Cuisine Hall, is an authentic child of the Eight Banners-Zhengbaiqi, and his grandfather was the head of the internal affairs department during the Cixi period in the late Qing Dynasty.

Li Shanlin studied several majors in college, and his favorite course was non-professional mathematics. Before retiring, Li Shanlin was a professor in the Department of Mathematics of Capital University of Economics and Business. Besides teaching mathematical mechanics, he also taught basic chemistry and analytical chemistry. But what really made him famous in the world was his hobby-cooking.

Li Shanlin is an only child, and his parents loved him very much when he was a child. As a "young master", he often went to the kitchen to learn cooking from the chef, who refused to teach. Li Shanlin went to the kitchen when he was entertaining guests at home. At that time, the chef was too busy and often asked him to help. In this way, Li Shanlin learned some real kung fu. Learning to enjoy life in cooking is Li Shanlin's own experience. So when he cooks, he often calls the children to the kitchen to help. Influenced by him, three daughters and one son all became the descendants of Lijia cuisine.

communicating with foreign diners in English is a great hobby of the elderly. Li Shanlin said that when Bill Gates came by tricycle, he talked to himself in English: "You are a professor of mathematics, and I didn't graduate in my sophomore year." The old man said modestly, "You are better than me, and you have practical experience." After Bill Gates returned to the United States, he specially sent a CD "Computing in the 21th Century" as a souvenir.

Speaking of his English, the old man said: It was practiced in Fu Jen. In 1939, Li Shanlin was admitted to Fu Jen Catholic University run by foreigners in Beijing. Because "delicious", I want to know what the essence of some raw materials and seasonings for cooking is, so I chose chemistry as my major. At that time, Fu Jen Catholic University was mostly foreign teachers, and all the classes were in English.

Li Shanlin recalled that he learned to use spoken English skillfully there. Later, Li Shanlin was admitted to the Department of Aviation Engineering of Beiyang University. After liberation, he responded to the call of the state and worshipped under Liang Sicheng in Tsinghua University to study China architecture.

"Everyone comes to eat Lijia food." Li Shanlin said. But because of his rich experience and profound cultural background, Li Shanlin can discuss a thing or two with him. Some foreigners often conclude in surprise, "You are by no means a chef." "To put it bluntly, this is also a glory for the country." The old man said with a smile, "You can't lose the price of China people in front of foreigners."