Who is Chairman Mao's "full-time chef"? He is Cheng Ruming, a national treasure chef. When he was born, the country was in a turbulent period and family life was very difficult. Even the most basic food and clothing is difficult to solve, and he often does not have enough to eat. This is a few years later. As the saying goes, the children of the poor have long been in charge. In order to feed and warm his family, at the age of 13, he followed a fellow villager who worked in Tianjin Yong 'an Hotel as an apprentice in this metropolis. Although the work in the kitchen is hard and tiring, Cheng Ruming. Years of work accumulated experience, so that his cooking is far better than the local old chef, and soon won the respect and recognition of the culinary community.
In the second year of the founding of New China, Cheng Ruming was transferred to the railway department to take charge of railway catering. 1952, the Asia-Pacific Peace Conference was held in Beijing. Cheng Ruming is in charge of entertaining foreign guests on the train. His western food has been well received by foreign friends. Cheng Ruming's outstanding performance was highly praised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Cheng Ruming naturally received the attention of the leaders. Because of Cheng Ruming's exquisite cooking skills and serious working attitude, two years later, Cheng Ruming was selected as a chef in Chairman Mao's special train. At that time, Chairman Mao often went out to inspect, and sometimes he was not in Beijing for three to five months. Chairman Mao often uses the special train as a meeting room for talks with local leaders according to the principle of simplifying the complex. After the talks, Chairman Mao will stay for dinner. Li Xiwu was the only chef at that time. Often busy, this is Cheng Ruming's transfer.
Cheng Ruming cooked for the chairman for the first time. He doesn't know what the chairman usually likes to eat. He is worried that his cooking is not to the chairman's taste. He repeatedly asked Li Xiwu some of the usual preferences and tastes of the chairman. Because Cheng Ruming doesn't know much about Chairman Mao's diet, he mainly cooks some side dishes. Secondly, he cooks some staple foods. As a southerner, Chairman Mao likes pasta very much. When Chairman Mao first ate Cheng Ruming's pasta, he repeatedly said, "It tastes good." This can prove that his cooking is superb, and the braised pork he cooked for Chairman Mao for the first time won the chairman's love. Braised pork is a favorite food. At first, Chairman Mao didn't like it, not because he didn't like it, but because he didn't want to eat it. This makes Cheng Ruming puzzled. Later, he learned that Chairman Mao didn't like soy sauce.
When Chairman Mao was young, his family was in the soy sauce business. In the process of brewing soy sauce, soybeans are fermented and the surface of oil tanks is covered with maggots. This left a shadow in the heart of young Chairman Mao, who no longer likes to eat soy sauce. This quirk of Chairman Mao really stumped Cheng Ruming. Cooking braised pork is a process that every chef knows, which he learned when he was studying Chinese food. How to color this braised pork without soy sauce? He didn't do it at this time, and Cheng Ruming began to study how to make braised pork with good color and flavor without soy sauce. Through continuous research and trial, Cheng Ruming found that putting the right amount of sugar into the pot to melt can also play the same role as soy sauce, so that the braised pork is bright in color and looks more appetizing. Don't lose the traditional practice at all.
After the braised pork was served, the chairman was still surprised. Everyone knows that he doesn't eat braised pork, so he asked Cheng Ruming. Cheng Ruming replied that this dish was replaced with sugar instead of soy sauce. Chairman Mao couldn't help eating a piece at once when he heard this answer, and the taste was hard to say. After eating, he repeatedly praised Cheng Ruming's cooking skills and made progress. From then on, as long as the braised pork cooked by Cheng Ruming was served, President Mao Zedong never let it go.
1June, 956, an unforgettable thing happened on the train. When Chairman Mao visited Wuhan, Cheng Ruming specially made Wuchang fish for Chairman Mao. After Chairman Mao tasted it, he found the fish delicious and admired Cheng Ruming's cooking skills. Improvise "only drink Changsha water and eat Wuchang fish". This refers to Wuchang fish cooked by Cheng Ruming. This shows how much Chairman Mao loves his cooking. Whenever Cheng Ruming mentioned this to people around him, he always proudly said, "I made the Wuchang fish that Chairman Mao ate that time." When Cheng Ruming was cooking for Chairman Mao, he found that Chairman Mao had some special habits of eating fish, that is, Chairman Mao liked eat small fish and seldom ate big fish, and the meat on the belly of the fish was the cleanest and the meat on the back of the fish was less. However, Chairman Mao likes to eat fish heads best, and he doesn't avoid eating big fish and small fish. When he discovered this habit, Cheng Ruming would make a casserole fish head or fish brain for Chairman Mao, and Chairman Mao could eat it clean every time.
Chairman Mao's health is getting worse and worse because of high-intensity work all the year round, and then he rarely carries out inspection work. 196 1 year, for the safety of the chairman, the guards, secretaries and chefs around him were changed, and Li Xiwu, who cooked for the chairman with Cheng Ruming, was also transferred, leaving only Cheng Ruming to continue cooking for the chairman. Cheng Ruming cherishes the rest of the time more. He decided to record all the chairman's food preferences. Every time the chairman finishes eating, he always asks softly, "Is the food cooked today delicious?" After a long time, I gradually learned all the chairman's eating habits and improved them.
Cheng Ruming works very hard. Cooking for Chairman Mao these years, his recipes must be kept secret, and the dishes must be destroyed immediately when they are ready. At first, he did not know why. Later, he learned by asking that the enemy can analyze a person's diet and health by looking at the menu. In order to prevent the enemy from stealing Chairman Mao's diet, the menu should be destroyed after every meal. Moreover, for the sake of confidentiality, Cheng Ruming didn't even tell his family where he worked, leaving only a mysterious mailing address. Later, Chairman Mao's physical condition became worse and worse, and dental diseases seriously affected his life. He stopped drinking on special occasions. In the late 1970s, Chairman Mao coughed badly again. Not only did he give up smoking, but he didn't eat his favorite Hunan pepper. Later, in order to prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, he stopped eating his favorite braised pork. It is precisely because the menu must be destroyed after dinner that Cheng Ruming doesn't know what dishes he has cooked for Chairman Mao in recent years. He only remembers the most common dishes in his mind. Because of the particularity of being around Chairman Mao, Cheng Ruming's family only knows that he works in Zhongnanhai, and every time he writes to him, he sends it to Zhongnanhai mailbox 10 1. Later, it was not until Chairman Mao's death that Cheng Ruming's family knew that he had been cooking for Chairman Mao in Zhongnanhai for many years.
Cheng Ruming's life is ordinary and extraordinary. When he was young, he left his hometown and went to Tianjin to work alone, and later became Chairman Mao's "full-time chef". His life witnessed the great changes in China's history and truly reflected the glorious course of working people in the new era. Unfortunately, on March 4, 20 12, 86-year-old Cheng Ruming died in Beijing. During the 22 years of cooking for Chairman Mao, Cheng Ruming kept improving. He not only cared for Chairman Mao, but also saw the unique qualities of our new China people's leaders from Chairman Mao.