Chinanews client, Beijing, October 5th (Reporter Song Yusheng) "Are you cooking well?"
In recent days, Li Jiacai has been on the hot search.
The reason is that some food bloggers on Weibo ate 298 yuan a Lijia food, but felt that "no matter the environment or the color and smell of the dishes" are "very bad", they think "such expensive and ordinary restaurants really can't It represents Beijing’s cuisine", so there are such doubts.
On a review website, some netizens also felt that the price/performance ratio here is not high.
Weibo screenshot
But at the same time, the reporter also saw some positive comments on the Internet. There have been many reports on the story of "Li Jia Cai". Even the gourmet Chua Lam left Li Jia Cai "whatever they do. "Good reviews.
Weibo screenshot
Which one is the real Lijia food?
A few days ago, Li Xiaolin, the second-generation descendant of Li Jiacai, accepted an interview with reporters and responded to some previous queries.
The name of the dish is not true?
——The doubters jump to conclusions, different tastes have different opinions
These days, because the dishes are being questioned, many netizens "coming to curse" appeared on Li Jiacai's Weibo.
Although Li Xiaolin said that he hadn't managed the specific affairs of that restaurant since 2009, his Weibo account still flooded with comments from netizens.
"It's not how arrogant we are, but you have to talk to reasonable people." In Li Xiaolin's view, many of these netizens are venting and do not want to discuss cooking.
At the same time, he also paid attention to some doubtful voices posted by several food bloggers on Weibo.
For example, Li Xiaolin said that some people questioned on Weibo how the elbow is a piece of pork belly and it is so fat. The "roast duck" seems to be different from what he imagined.
He explained to reporters: "The original name of this dish was'tiger skin knuckles.' Because the Qing Palace used to use 50 catties of pigs, it was cooked with meat from the hips, so the thickness is appropriate. But now the ingredients are hundreds of catties of pigs. The elbow is thick and woody, so I changed to pork belly, which is just right for the original elbow meat."
The Li family dishes shown in a show.
Video screenshot
In addition, the "roast duck" being questioned is not actually Peking duck.
"Our recipe is roast duck, pot roast duck, not roast duck. He may not know that duck has other ways of doing it."
Li Xiaolin said, "If the customer asks, the waiter will answer it." He felt that those food bloggers were a bit "jumping conclusions", and taste is a matter of "the benevolent sees benevolence, the wise sees wisdom".
The Li family dishes shown in a show.
Video screenshot
Is Li Jiacai an "Old Brand"?
-Only opened in 1985
In addition to the dishes, on the Internet, many people refer to Li Jiacai as an "old brand".
The reporter learned that this statement is actually not accurate.
"Our family is from old Beijing and Manchu. The elders in the family are in the palace, and they have something to do with catering." Speaking of the origins of the Li family's cuisine, Li Xiaolin just mentioned this lightly.
In fact, Li Jiacai has only 35 years of history this year.
The Li family dishes shown in a show.
Video screenshot
Its official website and previous related reports have confirmed this statement.
A widely adopted story goes like this-
Li Zijia, the grandfather of Li Shanlin, the founder of Li Jiacai, served as Minister of the Interior in the late Qing Dynasty and was in charge of palace meals.
After resigning, Li Zijia left a recipe from the palace at that time based on his memory.
Later, this recipe went missing, but its content was remembered by Li Shanlin, who loves cooking.
Li Jiacai really became famous in 1984.
That year, the Li family won the championship in a cooking competition jointly organized by CCTV and "China Food" magazine.
It wasn't until 1985 that Li Shanlin officially opened Lijia cuisine specializing in court and Beijing flavors in Beijing.
Li Shanlin’s Li family dishes on a show.
Video screenshot
Palace cuisine or Beijing cuisine?
——Not court food, but court flavor
Therefore, the palace flavor + Beijing flavor have become the two labels in people's impression of Lijia cuisine in these years.
However, Li Xiaolin told reporters that although it has a palace flavor, it must not be called "court cuisine."
"Because my father feels that what I eat now is different from before."
The reporter checked previous reports and found that many years ago, Li Xiaolin's father Li Shanlin also mentioned this in a talk show.
"The dishes we cook are made according to the banquets of one table and one table, and different banquets constitute different sets of meals. In different sets of meals, there are more than 60% of the palace flavor. We are not called palace dishes. Specifically, it is modeled after Cixi Made with the dishes the Queen Mother ate."
The Li family dishes shown in a show.
Video screenshot
As for why it was not called palace cuisine, Li Shanlin gave the reason at the time—"Because none of the dishes I cooked was eaten by the Empress Dowager Cixi. This is because the ingredients that Empress Dowager Cixi can eat now? For example, the carrots I eat now are orange, but the Empress Dowager Cixi ate'whipstick red', which is different from now."
The Li family dishes shown in a show.
Video screenshot
Li Xiaolin said that the "tiger skin elbow" questioned by food bloggers before actually has similar problems.
"Very traditional things may die out over time. This is the case throughout history," he said.
Dishes with stories, or satisfying taste buds?
In fact, in several previous responses, Li Jiacai has expressed a similar view: Li Jiacai adheres to traditional practices and maintains traditional tastes, which has not changed over the years.
The staff of "Lijiacai" also told the media: "They (food bloggers) say it's not worth it, and we can't do anything about it. We just need to do our own thing."
In the Li family's view, old taste is the foundation of Li's cooking, especially the traditional dishes are connected with historical stories.
The Li family dishes shown in a show.
Video screenshot
But on the other hand, those diners who express dissatisfaction on social media may think very simple: just want to eat good food that suits the tastes of today's people and high-quality service, and Li Jiacai did not satisfy their desire. .
In the final analysis, this is a problem of mismatch between supply and demand: restaurants sell dishes with stories and local characteristics, while diners want to buy taste buds.
The reporter also noticed that in the comments on this matter in recent days, people have repeatedly mentioned the classic line in Zhao Lirong’s sketch "Working Adventures" many years ago: "The palace jade liquor, one hundred and eighty cups." But at the same time, it is undeniable. The thing is, a restaurant that is good at telling stories will also be attractive to specific groups of people.
As for the situation of Lijiacai, different diners may give different answers.
Whether it can survive in today's market environment is the criterion for judging this restaurant.
(Finish)