Recently, @ People’s Daily published a message saying that the People’s Social Welfare Department of Sichuan Province has published 294 professional competence assessments, one of which is Sichuan cuisine. In this regard, some netizens said: "For foodies, ordering food can be verified. Isn’t this card a piece of cake?"
In modern society, the banquet is no longer a simple meal, there are a lot of knowledge and attention. A proper menu can increase communication between people in private and promote negotiation and cooperation between business partners in public. However, nowadays, most people don’t like to order food. At the dinner table where people gather, who will order food has become a headache.
Near the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, family dinners, friends’ gatherings and business receptions will inevitably go to restaurants to order food. Zijinshan reporter interviewed the heads of some old restaurants in Nanjing to tell you about the "art of ordering food" in old Nanjing.
Why is ordering important? Yuan Mei told the truth more than two hundred years ago.
Why do Sichuan food orderers need to set up special professional ability assessment? According to relevant media reports, an excellent Sichuan dish ordering staff should not only simply write down the dishes ordered by the guests, but also put forward optimization suggestions for the dishes ordered according to the requirements of different types of guests.
Zhang Zhijun, deputy general manager of Gunudu Group, told Zijinshan that taste is the core of the banquet, and if it is not properly matched, it will give people a monotonous feeling. If the table is full of salty dishes, it will make people feel dull. However, if a banquet is dominated by five or six spicy dishes, it will be too exciting and even uncomfortable. Therefore, a banquet must have ups and downs, and the flavor configuration should be reasonable.
In fact, Yuan Mei, a "foodie" in Nanjing, summed up how to order food and how to serve it long ago. Yuan Mei wrote in "Menu with the Garden" (published in 1792): "In the method of serving food, salt should be given first, and light should be given later; The rich should be the first, and the thin should be the last; Those who have no soup should be the first, and those who have soup should be the last. Besides, there are five flavors in the world, so we can’t generalize them blindly. When the guest is full, the spleen is sleepy, so it must be vibrated with spicy; If you worry about drinking too much wine, your stomach will be exhausted, so you must use sour and sweet to remind you. "
Gourmet Xiong Sizhi explained the scientific principle behind this in "The Mystery of Chinese’s Diet": "People’s stomach capacity is limited, and if there is too much food, the hypothalamus will reflect stomach fullness. A variety of foods with strong flavors continue to stimulate the taste buds, and people’s taste will feel tired, and some dishes are very hot. If the tongue temperature is above 60 C or below 0 C, there will be no taste. "
Paying attention to skills and choosing a good restaurant is the first step.
There is an old saying in China: everything is established in advance, and it is abolished if it is not planned. A successful banquet needs careful planning. For example, different nationalities have different eating habits and customs, and different regions have different diets. Even different genders and ages will lead to different eating habits. Therefore, it is particularly important to choose a suitable dining place.
There are eight major cuisines in China, and many people struggle over where to eat every time. Chen Xiaoqing, the general director of the first and second seasons of China on the Tip of the Tongue, said on the program Round Table School: "It seems that people, this is the most important."
Nanjing White-collar Small House has been docking with major customers all the year round. She summed up a set of reception standards: ordinary customers go to eat Hunan and Sichuan cuisine, important customers go to eat Cantonese and Shanghai cuisine, and especially important customers eat private cuisine.
"Some customers haven’t become acquaintances. Take them to eat Sichuan food. You can let down your guard and speak freely under the stimulation of hemp and spicy food. Taking important customers to eat Cantonese cuisine and Shanghai cuisine is to discuss cooperation at dinner. These restaurants are generally suitable for business negotiations. Needless to say, especially important customers, taking them to eat private cuisine means that the relationship is intimate to a certain extent. " Xiaoju explained.
Yan Zhengyu, general manager of Nanjing Anleyuan Restaurant, believes that Nanjing people choose old-fashioned restaurants for family dinners. Old-fashioned restaurants have memories shared by generations at home, which is convenient for emotional exchange.
In fact, it is not difficult to order food. Just grasp four principles.
It is not so easy to become a "master of ordering". Zhang Zhijun, who has worked in Nanjing catering industry for decades, knows the way to order food. He said, "It is not difficult to order food. Knowing yourself and knowing yourself can lead to an invincible battle."
Whether it’s a business banquet or a gathering of friends, for a more formal banquet, as long as the host has time, he might as well go to the restaurant to book the menu first. This is more polite, saves time, and avoids some embarrassment. After ordering, you can also calculate the cost first, so as to know fairly well. If the total price is found to be too high or too low, it can also be adjusted immediately.
Zhang Zhijun summarized the following four principles of ordering food:
Look at the theme. According to the theme, click on the "calculating dishes" with rich meanings. General dinners include family dinners, school banquets and birthday banquets. For example, at the school banquet, you can order a dish called "Carp Jumping at the Dragon Gate".
Second, look at the composition of personnel. If it is a dinner party for several generations, we should give consideration to the age level and order some dishes that are easy to chew and digest for the elderly and children.
Third, look at seasonal dishes and seasonal dishes. Nanjing people pay attention to not eating from time to time, eating "seven heads and one brain" in spring, crayfish in summer and eight immortals in autumn; From the festival point of view, Nanjing people will eat five reds on the Dragon Boat Festival, and one of them is roast duck. Eight laurel flowers, you can order salted duck at the dinner before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival. On the New Year’s Eve, Nanjing people must order a whole fish and assorted vegetables, which means that there is more than enough and perfection every year.
Fourth, look at the signature dishes. Time-honored restaurants in Nanjing all have their own specialty dishes, and many specialty dishes also have celebrity stories. If you serve one or two specialty dishes, you can show the host’s care and respect for the invitees.
There is another way to save trouble. Zhang Zhijun said, "If time permits, you can wait for most of the guests to arrive and circulate the menu in turn, so that everyone can order one dish or several dishes, which will meet everyone’s needs and will not cause waste." (Zijinshan/Jinling Evening News reporter Yu Yu)
