China News Agency, Chaozhou, July 8th: How does Chaozhou cuisine continue to exist in the exchange of food culture between China and foreign countries?
——Interview with Fang Shuguang, inheritor of intangible cultural heritage Teochew cuisine
China News Agency reporter Fang Weibin
Where there is tide water, there are tide people, and where there are tide people, there is Chaozhou cuisine.
Renowned at home and abroad, Chaozhou cuisine is the backbone and representative of Cantonese cuisine of the four major cuisines in China.
In recent years, Chaozhou City has actively promoted the work of the Chaozhou cuisine central kitchen industry and established the Chaozhou cuisine central kitchen (pre-made vegetables) market system, which has ushered in a new wave of development of Chaozhou cuisine.
How does Chaozhou cuisine continue to exist in the exchange of food culture between China and foreign countries?
Fang Shuguang, the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Chaozhou cuisine, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "Dongxiwen" to interpret it.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: Please introduce the historical context of the development of Chaozhou cuisine. Compared with other Chinese cuisines, what are the characteristics of Teochew cuisine?
Fang Shuguang:
According to literature records and descriptions of some ancient poems, at present, Chaozhou cuisine can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty at the earliest, and it has a thousand-year history of development. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chaozhou cuisine matured and entered its heyday.
In modern times, especially after the reform and opening up, with the rapid improvement of China's economic level and the convenience of transportation, ingredients from east, west, north and south can quickly flow into the Chaozhou area, creating a great development space for Chaozhou cuisine.
Compared with other Chinese cuisines, Teochew cuisine is characterized by its freshness, lightness and original taste, and seafood is used more in the cooking process.
There are several major features. First, there are many sauce dishes. Different dishes will be matched with different sauce dishes. It can be described as a hundred dishes and a hundred flavors.
Secondly, "vegetarian dishes are cooked with meat" is also a major feature. When cooking vegetarian dishes, meat materials, such as fish and meat, will be added, and then the meat materials will be removed after cooking, so that diners can taste the meat when they taste the vegetarian dishes. smell.
Third, Chaozhou cuisine has many handmade dishes, which reflects the characteristics of Chaozhou cuisine.
For example, the well-known dish in Chaozhou cuisine, "Huguo Cuisine", is a soup made from sweet potato leaves. After cooking, the chef needs to pour the white and green soup into the food bowl through a spoon, and It requires the chef to form the shape of a Tai Chi diagram when pouring two colors of soup, which not only tests the chef's cooking skills, but also tests the chef's skill in holding a spoon.
In general, Chaozhou cuisine is high-end, refined, and elegant, and is loved by diners at home and abroad.
National Cuisine.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Chen Chuhong
China News Service reporter: What is the reason why Chaozhou cuisine occupies an important position in the culinary culture of China and the world? What do Chaozhou cuisine have in common with Chaozhou and Chaoshan cultural characteristics?
Fang Shuguang:
The reason why Chaozhou cuisine has become a famous dish at home and abroad is that it integrates the culture of the Central Plains, southern Fujian and the local culture, forming a self-contained body.
On this basis, boldly innovate, absorb the advantages of foreign cuisine, and continue to enrich and develop.
When it comes to "humanization", let's take the sauce dish of Chaozhou cuisine as an example: Chaozhou cuisine itself is fresh and tasteless. On this basis, some friends from other places feel that Chaozhou cuisine is light in taste, but the rich sauce dishes allow diners to combine and match at will. Different flavors, sweet, sour and salty.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
Chaozhou people are ingenious and meticulous in their work, which can be reflected in Chaozhou cuisine, and there are more handmade dishes in Chaozhou cuisine.
Even the snacks on the streets and alleys have to be well-made. The common people often make rat shell cakes, carrot cakes, bamboo shoots cakes, duck mother noodles, etc., which are very particular about the appearance and taste.
China News Service reporter: Chaoshan people "come between the East and the West, and operate north-south trips". Where there are Chaozhou people, there is Chaozhou cuisine. With the footprints of Chaozhou people all over the world, what is the interaction between Chaoshan food culture and Western food culture? How is the inheritance and development of Chaozhou cuisine overseas?
Fang Shuguang: Before the COVID-19
outbreak, I often went abroad for exchanges and visits, and found that Chaozhou cuisine was developing well overseas, especially in Southeast Asia.
In the early days, Chaoshan people took red-headed boats to travel to Nanyang. After gaining a foothold, they missed the taste of their hometown as they grew older. They not only brought the cooking skills of Chaozhou cuisine to the local area, but also innovated with the local customs.
This has played a great role in the inheritance and development of Chaozhou cuisine.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
In Thailand and Singapore, the poached chicken and dry-fried pulp in Teochew cuisine have been preserved to this day, and even some innovations have been made.
Lemon is an important ingredient in the Thai diet. The descendants of Chaoshan in Thailand added lemon to Chaozhou cuisine to enrich the variety. The taste is slightly different from traditional Chaozhou cuisine, but the cooking skills are still the same.
In terms of ingredients, like cod, which was not available in Chaozhou before, the vast majority of cod is imported from France.
This kind of western ingredients, when met with eastern cooking skills, soon became a popular food in Chaozhou cuisine.
China News Service reporter: In recent years, you have gradually shifted from a front-line position to Chaozhou cuisine research and cooking skills teaching. What is the current situation of Chaozhou cuisine in terms of talent training? What measures are currently being taken to promote the inheritance and innovation of Teochew cuisine overseas?
Fang Shuguang:
In the past ten years, the Chaozhou Municipal Government has attached great importance to the cultivation of Chaozhou cuisine talents.
Chaozhou Advanced Technical School and Hanshan Teachers College have all set up majors related to Chaozhou cuisine, and have also built a number of training bases.
At the same time, there are also educational institutions in the society that provide training.
I believe that there is a steady stream of talents in Chaozhou cuisine, and there will be a lot of room for development in the future.
In recent years, the Guangdong Provincial Government has launched the Cantonese Cuisine Master Project to vigorously develop the central kitchen (pre-cooked dishes), which is a good thing for the development of Chaozhou cuisine.
Now that the economy is developing rapidly and technology is changing with each passing day, Chaozhou cuisine is gradually industrializing from a hotel.
The central kitchen can standardize Chaozhou cuisine to a certain extent. According to the standard, a dish can be produced in large quantities and sent to home and abroad through the cold chain. On the one hand, it can meet the market demand, and on the other hand, it can also expand the influence of Chaozhou cuisine.
Especially the pre-made dishes produced by the central kitchen, if they can be quickly delivered to the tables of overseas diners, it is a good way for foreigners to learn about Chaozhou cuisine and Chaozhou culture.
Of course, after a pre-cooked dish is made, the taste will change slightly, even if it is transported through the cold chain.
We hope to expand the influence of Teochew cuisine through pre-made dishes, meet the fast-paced lifestyle of today's young people, and allow them to cook Teochew cuisine easily.
After the pre-made dishes go abroad, we hope to evoke the good memories of overseas Chaozhou people to their hometowns, so that they can return to their hometowns to taste the fresh and warm Chaozhou dishes and see the changes in their hometowns after the epidemic is over in the future.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Photo by China News Agency reporter Chen Chuhong
Fang Shuguang, the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Chaozhou cuisine, the vice president of Chaozhou Cuisine Association, and the national examiner of Chaozhou cuisine.
He was born in a family of chefs in Chaozhou, and began to learn from his father at the age of 15. His father, Fang Dashun, was a famous chef in Chaozhou, known as "a knife in Chaozhou".
He actively promotes the promotion and promotion of Teochew cuisine cooking skills, and has been invited by TV stations in Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and other places to teach and demonstrate Teochew cuisine cooking skills.