In p>1925, Mr. Lu Xun concluded: China is just a huge kitchen. Today, I think the kitchen is a condensed China. Since food culture became a prominent school, there have been two schools of research on it: one is to focus on cooking and focus on the cooking production stage, which is called cooking culture school; First, focus on eating vegetables and revel in the stage of food consumption, which is called the food culture school. Their common feature is to sort out the national heritage and carry forward the "national quintessence". The two factions have different directions, but the research results are the same. I think that studying China's cooking is not only about cooking and eating vegetables, but also about the people who cook and eat vegetables, and the relationship between them.
It should be said that I know very little about the "cooking altar" today, and it is only because I am disgusted with some phenomena in the cooking field that I dare to summarize and list the strange phenomena that have harmed China's cooking in recent years.
1
Our motherland has a vast territory and a large population, which naturally forms a rich and colorful food culture. For the convenience of research or appellation, we can use different expression systems for the ethnic diversity and regional diversity of food culture. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, it was roughly called "Bangkou", which meant different cooking characteristics of different gangs. In order to survive, a group of chefs spontaneously organized themselves according to the flavor genre, inheriting and practicing their skills, opening up development space, and at the same time, they also had a strong feudal color. Since the 1981s, "Cuisine Theory" has been widely spread. First, Sichuanese, Jiangsu people, Shandong people and Guangdong people came out to preach the "four major cuisines" of Sichuan, Jiangsu, Shandong and Guangdong; Then, Hunan people, Fujian people, Zhejiang people and Anhui people came out to complain, so the four major cuisines turned into eight major cuisines; Seeing that everyone else has become a climate, of course, Beijingers and Shanghainese can't sit still. As a result, the eight cuisines have been added to the top ten cuisines. In 1992, China Cooking Dictionary published by China Commercial Publishing House actually wrote the "theory of cuisine" which is still in dispute as an academic achievement, and since then, it has laid the groundwork for the dispute of cuisine.
Shandong people want to cover the flavor of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River with Shandong cuisine. How can Henan people sit still? Only a little investigation is needed. Not only did Jiang Taigong, the ancestor of Shandong people, settle in Henan to slaughter dogs and sell meat for a long time before he made his fortune, but even Confucius, who was "insatiable for food", was a descendant of Shangqiu people in Henan. Jiangsu cuisine, one of the "four major cuisines", is deeply influenced by Henan; Zhejiang cuisine, the "eight major cuisines", is a descendant of Kaifeng cuisine in the Northern Song Dynasty. Is there a truth that "descendants" are in front and "ancestors" are behind? As a result, Henan people refused to buy it before the list of cuisines. Next, Shaanxi people came out and said that the Han and Tang Dynasties were the only prosperous times in China, and there were still three unique cooking places in Xi 'an: beef and mutton steamed buns, dumpling banquets and imitation Tang cuisine, while "Qin cuisine" was not among the eight top ten "cuisines", which was puzzling! Soon, Guizhou people stood up and spoke. The food in Guizhou is several times hotter than that in Sichuan and Hunan. Shanxi people say that Shanxi cuisine is the sourest in the world; Xinjiang people say that the root of the national mutton string is in Xinjiang; Northeasters say they invented pork stewed vermicelli. When there is trouble, someone will stand up and muddle along-since everyone is reasonable, there is no need to be limited by the number of the top ten and eight, and all provinces and regions can form a system. As a result, before the list of cuisines, the famous ones in the top four, eight and ten are desperately defending their existing positions, while those provinces and regions that are unknown on the list are sharpening their heads and squeezing in. At that time, more than 31 provinces and regions all over the country proposed to establish their own "cuisines". As for Chongqing, where Lian Gang was separated from Sichuan, some people came out to advocate "Chongqing Cuisine Theory". As a result, the academic bubble of the cuisine theory has evolved into a farce of the Great Leap Forward.
As a cultural phenomenon, it is normal for diet to show certain regional differences and ethnic differences. However, there is no clear and specific space and time limit for this difference, let alone quantification. For example, we often eat braised pork, which is cooked by housewives in the north and south, but their respective flavors are not the same. Of course, there is no difference between good and bad. Some people insist that it belongs to "Hunan cuisine", which is almost nonsense. Practice has proved that it is quite foolish to mechanically divide the theory of "Cuisine" by administrative divisions. This is a tailored expression system, which will only lead to "feudal separatism" in culture and endless debates. The people who advocated this "theory" at the beginning may only be for standardizing academic terms and facilitating research. However, this "academic achievement" has been used by relevant provinces and regions, and eventually alienated into a tool for ranking and competing for scope among the catering strengths of provinces and regions. Those weak provinces and regions that came later are also competing to establish their own "cuisines" and highlight their regional cultural characteristics in addition to fighting.
If the "Cuisine Theory" continues, it will definitely hinder the development of China cuisine.
2
Although China has a long history of cooking, it is a new thing to hold a cooking contest. Before 1981, skills competitions such as plucking live chickens and cutting meat quickly were held in various places, but the impact was limited. In October, 1983, the national technical performance appraisal meeting of famous chefs was held in Beijing, which was also the earliest large-scale industry competition with national influence. As a product of the socialization of cooking, the competition is undoubtedly a good platform for exchanging skills, improving the level and displaying the image in the industry, and it has undoubtedly promoted the cooking industry in China.
However, since the 1991s, cooking competitions have been excessively pursuing the external beauty of dishes and blindly advocating the carving of dishes, thus falling into the quagmire of formalism. From the cultural origin, China's food culture is the product of fuzzy philosophy, and the innate deficiency of rationalism leads to China's cooking becoming perceptual cooking, which in turn leads to the tradition of taking sensory stimulation such as mouth and eyes as its aesthetic value orientation. On the producer side, due to historical reasons, the cultural quality of practitioners is relatively low, and they are unable to transform old traditions by scientific means and lack sufficient rationality to establish a correct aesthetic ideology. In this case, the correct guidance of relevant industry organizations is particularly important. However, in recent ten years, although people of insight have shouted their voices out for this, the formalism of various cooking competitions has intensified. Some chefs are mystifying and grandstanding in order to get good results in the competition. Foam carving dragons, human milk into the dish; The top of the head is cut, and the human back is used as an anvil; There are so many different forms.
in the 21 years since p>1983, thousands of gold dishes, silver dishes and bronze dishes have been produced in national competitions, and tens of thousands of prize-winning dishes have been produced in various provincial and municipal competitions. As a result, I am afraid that the menus in restaurants all over the country will not be filled, but the fact is just the opposite. Nowadays, this kind of award-winning dishes can't be seen in the menus of restaurants all over the country, and the operators have always stayed away from this kind of flowery and embroidered dishes. Since the market refuses to buy it, what good is it to hold such a formalistic contest? So many industry elites gather in one place, piling up mountains and seas, and spending huge sums of money, is it just for the judges of Bo Sanwu to smile? The society under the market economy is a cost society, and any kind of social behavior should pursue a reasonable input-output ratio in order to reduce the invalid cost as much as possible. Every time the cooking competition "successfully closes", the organizer always talks about how this competition has surpassed the last one in scale and grade, how many winners have increased, etc. However, few people mention the social cost of the cooking competition.
3
At present, mankind has entered the fourth year of the 21th century, and many handicraft industries are advancing with the times. Strangely, there are still a few "cookers" dominating the kitchens of star-rated hotels in metropolis. The apprentice should kowtow to the master, bow and wash the tooling, and the "kitchen stove" can beat and scold the apprentice at will. When such a thing happens, the giver doesn't have to blame himself, and the receiver doesn't have to feel ashamed. It seems that this is still a trivial matter, and the most deadly thing lies in the kitchen-keeping system and industry monopoly. I don't know when the kitchen system originated, but one thing is certain, that is, it is full of parasitic remnants of the feudal industry system. It is common to see such a phenomenon: in a hotel kitchen, 31,111 yuan is given to the "stove", and he can take 21,111 yuan with peace of mind, and the remaining 11,111 is divided by his more than 31 apprentices. More than 31 people will be divided into 11,111 yuan, and everyone will never be rich or poor. The second stove will take 3,111 yuan, and the third stove and the fourth stove will take 2,111 yuan each, and the rest will be divided up layer by layer. Pity those novice apprentices, who have worked hard for years, but can't get much money in the end. On holidays, they have to squeeze gift money out of their teeth to please the master.
The kitchen-contracting system makes a few "kitchen stoves" amass a lot of wealth in a short time, which lays an economic foundation for them to implement industry monopoly. Therefore, with the strong economic strength as the backing, these "stoves" can easily get through the joints, lubricate the relationship and control the next kitchen they like. While expanding their control of the kitchen, they also got their hands on industry organizations, controlled important industry competitions, used cooking contests, apprentices and other means to fight against differences, cultivated their own forces, and eventually became kitchen tyrants.
It's not hard to see that the unreasonable kitchen-contracting system is the soil that produces kitchen tyrants, and it is also the root of the poverty of lower-level kitchen workers. The kitchen hierarchy is the product of the feudal mode of production in the old days, and it is the root of industrial inequality. Therefore, if we let it develop, it will only lead China cooking astray.
Fourth,
Retroism is an old problem. It seems that all industries known as "national quintessence" have never been spared, and today's China cooking is no exception. Retro scholars opened the menu of the barbecue banquet and found that there was a "milk-brewed fish", which could not help but shine with their eyes and exclaim, "Look, Europeans are still eating blood, and our ancestors will use milk products to make fish!" When I opened the Dream of Red Mansions again, I was intoxicated when I saw "eggplant". "When we cooked eggplant with chicken, Americans were still eating raw steak!" Being able to rescue some national pride from ancient recipes is also the reason why these scholars who sort out the national heritage are popular and spicy. Thanks to their tireless efforts, our generation can eat "Confucius Cuisine" in Qufu, "Honglou Cuisine" in Beijing, "Pengzu Cuisine" in Xuzhou, and "Xishi Cuisine" in Zhejiang ...
There are two ways to restore the ancient cooking culture in China. One is "focusing on old paper", such as the so-called "red chamber dish". Its developers claim that every dish in this red chamber banquet can find its source in A Dream of Red Mansions, and every dish is well-selected, beautiful in appearance, compatible with the north and the south, nutritious and nourishing. In fact, it is not difficult to copy this table. The problem is that I don't know what the people in suits and ties around the table want to eat from it. Form and content are always contradictory, and emphasizing form will inevitably damage content. I'm afraid it's too late for nutrition and health to put this dish together because of its origin, shape and North-South flavor. Another kind of retro is not even old paper, it is completely invented by scholars and created by chefs out of thin air, such as Pengzu cuisine and Xishi cuisine. This kind of food is ridiculous and simply can't stand scrutiny. Cooking retro, whether it is "old paper school" or "invented school", is just the sensation of scholars and the gimmick of stores, and we must not take it seriously.
antiquity is not a problem, but we still eat good ancient prescriptions, watch good costume dramas and sometimes eat good ancient meals. We are here to discuss the motives of retro cooking-scholars for the name and shopkeepers for profit, which are actually quite simple. If someone wants to relive the old dreams of noble lords and arouse the lofty sentiments of emperors and princes, then he (she) will go astray. In reality, there are many such people.
it's not a day or two that the virtual fire of the banquet of the rich and powerful families rose. The banquet frenzy of the rich and powerful families with swallow wings and abalone that came from the developed coastal areas in the south has now rapidly infected the catering market in the mainland, especially the central city of the inland provincial capital. In 2112, I wrote an article entitled "Swallow-winged abalone is an evil way", which paid attention to the phenomenon of the evil wind blowing in Zhengzhou catering market. Another year has passed, and abalone with swallowwings has no intention of convergence. According to the current situation, abalone with swallowwings not only spreads all over large and medium-sized hotels and restaurants in Zhengzhou, but also spreads from provincial capital to county seat, and develops at such a speed. I'm afraid it will spread to villages and towns soon.
Banquets such as Yan Chi Bao have formed a climate in the national catering market in a short time, which to some extent reflects the general trend that the catering market is moving towards specialization. Behind this consumption phenomenon, what is hidden is the social reality that the income gap between different social strata has widened and the rich and the poor have been seriously stratified in recent years.
Marx criticized that the prosperity of Asian cities is completely related to government consumption, which still sounds meaningful now, because the prosperity of rich banquets in real society is completely applicable to this law. If the grand banquet is just a few rich people fighting for wealth, it is harmful, but limited; The terrible thing is that its prosperity has some connection with government consumption. Under the current system, it is not allowed for a director to put a dime of public funds into his pocket, but he will not have an accident if he eats 1 million yuan a year. In this way, he is likely to turn the power in his hand into the capital for personal enjoyment of life, and one of the important things is to eat at the banquet of the rich and powerful. As a result, the grand banquet began to be alienated into a tool for corrupt elements to squander their enjoyment, and countless people's cream was also in the prosperity of the grand banquet and flowed away with the sewer.
VI
I often marvel at the speed of the catering market "keeping pace with the times", and here I still take the city where I live as an example. Yesterday, there was a hot pot competition between "Little Tail Sheep" and "Little Fat Sheep", and overnight, the hot pot of "Little Donkey" became popular everywhere in the streets. For food lovers, this is really the golden age of appetite. Since 1995, braised mutton has swept Zhengzhou, followed by soft-shelled turtle with steamed buns, spicy fish, Han Palace ginger duck, fans' dishes, abalone with swallows' wings, and northeast dishes, which have appeared in BLACKPINK successively, and the flowers are becoming more and more attractive, and the flag of the king is changing in the city. Zhengzhou's geographical location and transportation hub characteristics determine that it can be regarded as a barometer of the national catering market to a certain extent. Therefore, the phenomenon of blindly following the trend in Zhengzhou catering market is not an isolated case, but a representative one. A dish became popular, a brand became famous, and everyone followed suit, making likui jy not like likui jy and Gui Li not like Gui Li, then dispersed in a hubbub and turned to find new targets. This time and again, the Great Leap Forward-style cloning movement has tainted likui jy and crossed Gui Li, and enterprises have been repeatedly built and then destroyed, making the development of the whole industry tend to bubble.
The fundamental reason why all kinds of blindly following the trend often appear is that the whole industry lacks a set of rules of the game based on modern consciousness and scientific spirit. In the market tide, many catering owners are not inclined to strive for the openness, fairness and justice of the industry game rules, but superstitious about the speculative rules based on personal experience. Although individual catering owners may sometimes become beneficiaries of speculative rules, on the whole, when general industry rules cannot be clearly established, anyone in the industry may become a victim.
Seven
Associations are numerous, with multiple leaders and unhealthy competition. This was an impossible problem 21 years ago, because many trade organizations had not been established at that time, and of course there would be no contradictions and disputes. After 1987, with the establishment of more and more trade organizations, the contradiction has become increasingly prominent in the fields where their businesses intersect. As far as "national" trade organizations are concerned, there are several trade organizations related to catering and cooking, such as cooking association, hotel association, tourist hotel association, cooking culture research association, food culture research association, etc. Every family claims to be authoritative and "authentic", and every family can issue documents, engage in activities and influence.