Guardian of kitchen arts(1)
He is old school, a chef who started from the bottom rung as the lowliest kitchen apprentice. But look at him now.
He is 60 years old, but chef Yin Zhenjiang remembers exactly when he started to work in a restaurant. It was August 9, 1971 and his master was Wang Yijun, then executive chef of Fengze Yuan, the first Shandong cuisine restaurant set up in Beijing in 1930.
Yin was 19, and he began his apprenticeship lighting the coal fires in the kitchen. His mentor Wang guided him on every detail, from how to make a good mop, to filtering usable lumps of coal from the ashes of the fire.
He went through all the stages of apprenticeship, including plucking the fowls, cleaning the fish to cutting meat and the preparation of vegetables.
It was two years before he was allowed to serve up his first stir-fry, although it would normally take an apprentice three years.
"The Chinese cutting board is divided into a 'red chopping board', and 'a white chopping board'," he says. "The red chopping board refers to hot and cold fried dishes, while the white one refers to pastries such as steamed breads."
Dishes must be prepared and served in rigid order. For example, fried chestnut with cabbage should always go before oil-braised prawn.
"Cold dishes are served first, and hot dishes later. Expensive dishes come out first, and then the ordinary ones.
"Light dishes are made first, and stronger tasting dishes later," he says.
