Ten years ago, Cui Di, who scored 651 in the college entrance examination and aspired to become a scientist, would not have thought that he would choose to be a chef after graduating from college.
At that time, the architecture major had not yet been called the "sinkhole" major, and Cui Di didn't dislike it. But this love is not enough for her to sit in front of the computer all day and invest endless time. Of course,
's decision to become a chef was opposed by her family. Although both parties compromised in the end, she also lost the right to complain. When she was interning at a two-Michelin-starred restaurant, the intensity of work from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. made her miserable, but "the path is your own choice," and she had to grit her teeth to finish it.
Today, Cui Di is the chef of two restaurants in Shanghai. "Waste of academic qualifications" and "career downgrade" were all labels she had, but these noises could not enter her mind. She said, "The only thing I care about is what the guests think of my dishes. I have never made a dish that I am satisfied with."
Dialogue with Cui Di
There is no standard answer to the design. I hate working on the computer every day
What were your college entrance examination scores that year? Why choose the landscape major at Tongji University School of Architecture?
Cui Di: I scored 651 in the college entrance examination that year, which was an extraordinary performance. The questions that year were relatively simple, and the overall score line was higher than in previous years. After the scores came out, I thought I could go to Tsinghua University and Peking University, so I applied to Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Tongji University, and finally Tongji University.
applied for a major based on my personal preference. I have been studying biology competitions in high school, and I am more interested in animals and plants. This is consistent with the landscape architecture major introduced in the encyclopedia entry. I thought it was about planting flowers, trimming grass, and planting trees, so I chose it.
Why didn’t you do construction-related work later?
Cui Di: There are three aspects. On the one hand, there are some obstacles in learning. In middle school, the answers to all questions are unique and you can study along a certain route. But there is no standard answer in the design field, which made me very confused when I just entered school. I didn’t know which direction to work on.
Secondly, I am a person who needs a sense of meaning very much. If I don’t feel any meaning or value in doing something, I will have no motivation to do it. When I was in college, I liked design, but I felt that engineering and pure science courses were not important to me, because they were not helpful in designing or in my life. They were just for graduation. Therefore, I often failed the two courses of Advanced Mathematics and Architectural Mechanics, and took the Advanced Mathematics exam 7 times.
The third aspect is that I really don’t like working in front of the computer all day long. I actually like landscape architecture and I still go to Suzhou to visit gardens.
Nowadays, the architecture major is often ridiculed as the "sinkhole" major. Looking back on the past, will you be glad that you jumped out of this industry?
Cui Di: Back then, the architecture major had not yet shown its decline, but when I entered school, my teacher said that this industry would only prosper for another ten years at most, and now it has come true. This is actually an inevitable trend. The construction industry has just returned to a normal stage from dividends. I only think about the future, and I don’t tend to look back on the path I have not taken before, because no matter how many opportunities there are, people will choose the same path when I return to the context at that time.
Cui Di is cooking in the kitchen. Picture/Interviewee provided
Tired of high-pressure, low-paying job, but no regrets
Why did you choose to be a chef?
Cui Di: I had three paths I was considering at the same time: football coach, drummer and chef. These three paths are also practiced. I started learning drums in my freshman year and formed many bands. I participated in the top ten singers competition in school and won the championship. I also worked as a drum training teacher for children.
In my sophomore year, I joined the women's football team and have been the captain. I also participated in a national football D-level coaching class, obtained a D-level coaching certificate, and tried to work as an assistant to a physical education teacher in an elementary school.
My university also participated in four culinary competitions and won the championship twice. During the summer vacation, I would also work part-time as a chef in a restaurant near the university.
I found that although these three directions are "manual labor", drummers and football coaches are hard-earned over time. They rely very much on muscle memory and are very childish. It is difficult to overtake in corners. And I am in these two He is not particularly talented in the direction, and it is difficult to become successful. The industry threshold for chefs is actually not high. In the restaurant where I worked during the summer, one of my chefs was a 16-year-old child.
When did you come up with the idea of becoming a chef?
Cui Di: I started cooking in the dormitory during my freshman year, but I didn’t have the idea at that time. When I was a sophomore in college, I couldn't continue my major, so I signed up for an intensive German class and got straight A's without doing any extracurricular exercises. This experience made me discover that people have things they are good at and things they are not good at. Doing what you are good at can get twice the result with half the effort. I decided to give up designing and find something I was good at.
What do your family think of your decision to become a chef?
Cui Di: After I graduate from my undergraduate degree, I want to go to France to study French cuisine, but my dad doesn’t agree because French cuisine schools in France are similar to junior colleges. My father believes that academic qualifications are very important, and you should study for a graduate degree after completing your undergraduate degree. Later, I gave in and studied hotel management in Switzerland. I thought that on the one hand, this industry was indeed related to catering, and on the other hand, it could also be a stepping stone for me to enter the kitchen of some better restaurants. I can make up for the basic skills and theoretical learning in French cuisine school through self-study. In the future, I will open my own store and manage it myself, and a hotel management major will also be helpful.
My mother used to be a chef, so she didn’t think it was a bad job. She believed that “with a career of 360, you will be the best at it”, so she would help me persuade my dad.
What preparations and efforts did you make to become a chef in Switzerland?
Cui Di: When I studied hotel management in Switzerland, we had two practical classes, one was the banquet class and the other was the catering management class. The banquet class requires students to host a large banquet for 160 people. Everyone applies for positions. I applied for the job of chef. I prepared my speech in advance and was very passionate about cooking. In the end, I successfully passed the other candidates and got the job of chef. We ended up running a Chinese restaurant in Switzerland for two weeks.
Our major requires half a year of internship experience. I was an intern at a Michelin two-star restaurant in Belgium. The standards of Michelin restaurants are relatively high, and the work intensity is also very high. We work from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. every day without any breaks, and we have been working in a relatively high-pressure environment. That was the only time in my entire career as a chef that I complained about why work was so tiring. But then I thought about it, I chose this path myself, and I am the least qualified person to complain.
How was your first official job as a chef?
Cui Di: After returning to China, I found a restaurant in Shanghai to cook. The salary was 5,500 yuan per month. I have never regretted it. The salary in this industry is very low, especially before becoming a chef. All work experience is a kind of learning. I think people with ambitions must ultimately want to open their own store and make money with products instead of working for others.
I don’t care about the reviews on the Internet. I want to create a Chinese version of Le Cordon Bleu in the future.
Is the process of returning to China to find a job smooth? Does being a woman affect your work in the kitchen?
Cui Di: Every time I submit my resume, only one company responds to me in the end, so I don’t really have many choices. At my first job after returning to China, the French chef said to me: "Don't give birth in my kitchen. If you give birth in my kitchen, the child will call my name." I listened to this. It was like eating a fly. It was a very rude joke and he was also putting pressure on me not to get pregnant.
But in the kitchen, both men and women have advantages and disadvantages. Girls may have less strength, but they have better endurance and can handle some details more carefully. Boys move faster and have stronger explosive power. The kitchen itself requires good teamwork, and everyone should draw on their strengths.
Can you tell me about the dish you are most satisfied with?
Tweety: Not yet. This is determined by the nature of the restaurant. The operating costs must be considered when cooking in a restaurant, which is different from what I want to cook, so I need to open my own restaurant.
Many people question you for wasting your academic qualifications. How do you respond?
Cui Di: This statement is quite unreasonable from various aspects. Many netizens also replied for me. I think everyone can think whatever they like. I am a person who doesn't really care about external opinions. The only thing I care about is the person who eats my food and how he feels about it. The comments of people who have nothing to do with me don't enter my mind at all.
What is your career plan?
Cui Di: My career plan has always been very clear. If I want to do new Chinese catering, I need to learn both Western and Chinese methods, and eventually find my own way.
I started working as a regular cook in a French restaurant, and later I learned how to cook creative dishes from a chef whom I recognized quite a bit. After studying for three months, I felt that what I could learn was relatively limited, so I found a high-end restaurant to cook Chinese-French fusion cuisine. After that, I also worked as a food editor for a while. I also wanted to find a Chinese restaurant to start as an apprentice, but many of the restaurants I wanted to go to rejected me. They think I'm just here to steal my skills and won't be able to do it for long.
I am currently working as a chef in a fusion restaurant. There are also Chinese food forts and chefs here, so I am learning and cooking at the same time. I am currently preparing to start a business and open my own restaurant. Later, the restaurant here may become a consultant.
Do you have any imagination and plans for the future?
Cui Di: My current plan is to open my own store before I am 30 years old. The scene I imagined was like a drummer or a bird roasting master, cooking for everyone in a glass dome. There is a lot of fumes in the cooking process of Chinese food, so it is usually in the kitchen. However, the fume problem can be solved in the future. For example, Japanese and Western food will even be presented in the form of a band, so that everyone can see the best things.
When I am 40 years old, I plan to open a new Chinese food chef school. This is based on the fact that I can make certain achievements in this industry before I am 40 years old and have enough resources. I have always had the goal of improving vocational education. Nowadays, many children go to vocational schools not to learn skills, but to mess around. I want to create a Chinese version of Le Cordon Bleu so that all children who love cooking can truly learn.
After I turn 60, I want to write a novel. I’ve wanted to write novels since I was a kid, but I didn’t experience it enough. After retirement, I still want to learn guqin and write calligraphy. I have many plans for the future, and retirement is still a state worth looking forward to.
Source: Jiupai News
