First of all, the old-fashioned craft has a high threshold.
In the kitchen of Hong Changxing, a time-honored restaurant, Li Shifu, who has been in the business for 30 years, is performing a unique stunt: rolling dough and wrapping meat stuffing, with the thumb as the fulcrum and the forefinger and middle finger tacitly cooperating to wrap it into a circle. However, within three seconds, a prototype of beef fried bun is completely in the palm of his hand.
Li Shifu said that he had been an apprentice since he was 65,438+05 years old. He pays attention to water temperature, ingredients and dough. Take dough mixing as an example. You need to alternately pour hot and cold water into a large basin, and then test the water temperature with your fingers. "There is no specific standard for temperature. You have to control the water temperature according to the temperature. Like the current weather, about 50 C is enough. "
In the Butterfly Crisp Skills Competition, pastry chefs from Shanghai time-honored catering enterprises such as Xinghualou are also showing their unique skills. Zhou Zhigang, a senior technician at Shanghai West Point, said that as a typical representative of Shanghai West Point, butterfly cakes have high requirements on technology: "Even experienced masters can't guarantee the clarity of the texture level of the final product before baking."
Second, many young apprentices give up halfway.
Working environment is one of the difficulties in the inheritance of time-honored brands. Many masters lamented: "Few people are willing to do this business now, it's too hard.
Hong Changxing's staff said that the chefs start work every morning 10 and finish work at 2 pm. After a two-hour break, they continued to work from 5 pm to 8 pm. Many young apprentices are willing to enter the time-honored brand when they have no foundation. "But after a long time, they can't eat hard, and many people have left."
Master Miao, a pastry chef in the old factory, said that he would stay in the kitchen for seven or eight hours every day. Once he was so busy that he didn't even have time to look at his mobile phone. The monthly income brought by such working hours and workload was only 4,000 yuan. "In Shanghai, I think the income is a bit low." Master Miao said.
Third, learning skills will never happen overnight.
A small fried bun, a butterfly crisp, which may condense the valuable experience left by generations of craftsmen. Want to touch the essence of these time-honored snacks is not a one-off event.
Zhou Zhigang said that it takes at least eight years to master the skills of making butterfly cakes: "New apprentices must wash dishes for three years."
Li Shifu of Hong Changxing said that according to industry regulations, it takes three years for an old master to take an apprentice, from inheritance, assistance and teaching to teaching, to make the craft basically mature, and this "maturity" only means that the apprentice can operate some basic things independently. For an apprentice, what he learned in three years is the basic skills, not the essence of time-honored restaurants.
Fourth, some teachers are unwilling to give everything for each other.
Shao Yuling, vice president of Shanghai China Time-honored Enterprises Association, said that there are currently 80 "China Time-honored Brands"/KLOC-0 in the city, including 42 "Shanghai Time-honored Brands", but dozens of time-honored enterprises face a common problem: some old masters are unwilling to pass on their skills, which makes it more and more difficult to pass them on.