"Gourmet Wonderful".
Written by Lin Weihui.
Flower City Press.
January 2024.
Zhou Songfang. Since the launch of "Eating Jianghu" in May 2021, Lin Weihui has launched six consecutive food books, plus this "Food Wonder" and another "Flavor Lingnan" by Huacheng Publishing House, as well as more new books that have entered the editing process, Lin Weihui will basically be able to publish more than two food research and popularization books per year for a long time in the future. Whether it is traditional food literature, or current food practice, whether it is the scientific theory of food, or the results of modern cooking, his accumulation and storage is too rich.
I have commented on the modernity and tradition of food writing, as well as the breadth and height of the realm. Lin Weihui's solid literature foundation and scientific methods are presented together, and the development of the field of food writing can be said to have reached the realm, and the book "Gourmet Wonderful People", which is appreciated by literary style, elegance (scientific principles) and customs (food practice), is Lin Weihui's unique path. There has never been an author who has described a group of food practitioners so intensively, written so vividly, so vividly, and all of them can be called excellent biographical articles, some of which will definitely be passed on. This is not only an important contribution to "Food in Guangzhou", but also an important contribution to Chinese food culture.
At the beginning, he wrote about the kitchen saint Da Dong, starting from the sweet and sour pork ribs, which are the most common in Cantonese cuisine, but the name of the dish is "Fishing for the Cold River and Snow Alone", and the image and taste of the dishes are appropriate; This kind of precedent (color) and eye-catching writing is like a mountain rising from the ground in a painting, which is simply shocking. This is not yet the most signature "Da Dong roast duck"! wrote about Cai Hao, the god of cooking, but it started from the first impression of "bad", because at that time, Brother Wei Hui was cooperating with someone to open a restaurant, and asked Cai Hao to give advice through an intermediary, but he was "beaten to death with a stick" - and then the restaurant really closed down, so he was served. Friendship and forgiveness, friendship and knowledge, "typical guidance", because of this kind of straightforward understanding and understanding of the temperament and ability, it can be convincing to write it from the mortal to the saint and become the kitchen god.
Feng Yongbiao, a star in the culinary industry, also wrote about the new development and progress of Guangzhou's catering industry as a whole in the past ten years. Because Feng Yongbiao first went through the basic training of the oldest qualification and the most representative of "eating in Guangzhou", and then went through the upgrading experience of promoting the promotion of Hong Kong-style Cantonese cuisine to keep pace with the times; At this time, Feng served as the executive sous chef of the Grand Hyatt Zhujiang New Town, which in a sense also represents a new direction for the development of "food in Guangzhou".
As the saying goes, it's easy to paint immortals, but it's hard to paint people, and no one can tell what immortals are like; And people, writing flesh and blood, even prose, is not easy. Writing food characters, of course, is even more difficult, if it is a character you are very familiar with, he can also write well to make you feel good, that is the most difficult. Among these characters, Rong Tairong and Wu Huitang are relatively familiar to me, and I think Rong Tai is the best to write. In layman's terms, it is absolutely written, and elegant is beautifully written, which is most suitable for the purpose of the title of the book, "Food Wonderful People".
Yung Tai's first appearance in the book is in someone else's chapter, introduced through Chef Biao: "I met Chef Feng Yongbiao, about seven years ago, and I was introduced by Diao Zui Rongtai, when Chef Biao was still the executive sous chef at the R&F Grand Hyatt Hotel, and his boss was a foreigner. Yung Tai was as excited as he found an alien and said that he was the rising star of Guangzhou's culinary world......Master Biao used the vacation to go to other places to collect style, and Mrs. Rong said that Master Biao's problem was 'too much to see and spend too much eyes', and Master Biao just smiled after hearing it, and did not defend it. I told Chef Biao that Mrs. Rong, who is extreme, has few 'good people' in her eyes, and innovation is redundant, so it is best to make traditional dishes wholeheartedly. In this way, after reading this paragraph, you must want to know where Rong Tai is sacred, and you will "pray" that the author must write Rong Tai.
When Rong Tai is written in the main article, it is also a way to take the lead: "Before I met Rong Tai, her name was already thunderous. The reason why Mrs. Rong can win widespread respect and even respect, and has the name of "Bole in the kitchen world", is that "Mrs. Rong, who is serious in her work, is so serious that she is almost paranoid, and this ultimate pursuit has also created the famous Rong Yue, Rong Zong, and Rong La." She made moon cakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival and named them 'Rongyue';Dragon Boat Festival zongzi, named 'Rong Zong';Cantonese bacon in winter, named 'Rong La', is all handmade ......Rongtai's ultimate pursuit of ingredients and stubborn adherence to craftsmanship have created a series of Rongjia delicacies. Although he still didn't forget to be humorous in the end: "This is the real Rong Tai: fashionable and traditional, kind and venomous, serious and sloppy, one person plays two roles, and lives so real and happy." In fact, it reflects the love behind it, and there is a tendency to love and kill each other, so that the article is good-looking.
Writing about Rong Tai can best reflect one of the characteristics of Wei Hui's writing about characters in the kitchen world, and it is also a common feature of his food writing, that is, the perfect combination of literature and science (because contemporary characters cannot be combined with historical documents). The gentleman is far away from cooking. I have the impression that no one has ever written a chef like a gentleman and written a book. Indeed, the core of food culture is the chef after all. Especially in the modern society dominated by the economy, as the core figures of a very important aspect of social economy and consumer culture, it is the lack of our society and the lack of culture not to set up a monument for them. In this sense, Brother Wei Hui's kindness and contribution are great, and of course it is also a special presentation of his writing realm.
The author is a scholar and researcher of gastronomic history).