摘要
FOREIGNERS who have been to Beijing are probably familiar with the Beijing International Hotel near the main railway station. It’s the four-star hotel where I work as a chief cook. My job is to manage nine kitchens—both Chinese and Western. I have been a chef for 34 years. After graduated from school in 1964, I studied Chinese cuisine for three years. I believed that it was a job worth doing. In the past, people looked down on this occupation; they thought it was a low-class job because cooks were always serving other people. I, however, found the job very interesting. After all, I reasoned, everyone needs to eat. If we could make eating into a kind of art or a science, eating could become an act of culture. People engaged in the food industry treat the act of eating with a respect that most people cooking at home do not feel. But for those of us who work in prestigious hotels whose guests come from all over the world and have different customs and tastes, it is our job to put the Chinese cooking
