In recent years, with the hot development of "house economy" and "one person eating", prefabricated dishes have gradually become popular in the catering market. Some consumers who call themselves "cooking Xiaobai" can also make a delicious dish with it. Will the hotness of pre cooked food cause a career crisis for chefs? How should the chef group face the opportunities and challenges it brings? The reporter conducted an interview on this. Prefabricated dishes are no stranger to chefs Pour the ingredients in the vacuum package into the pot, heat it over high heat until the soup boils, turn it to medium heat, and it only takes 2~3 minutes. A pot of steaming delicious crayfish comes out fresh. There is no need to buy, wash or prepare dishes. Some dishes do not even need to calculate the seasoning ratio. Prefabricated bags allow consumers to make a delicious dish in a short time. According to the Research Report on China's Prefabricated food industry from 2021 to 2022, prefabricated food is a convenient food that can be eaten directly by means of modern standardized flow operations, preliminary preparation of food raw materials, simplified production steps, hygienic and scientific packaging, heating or steaming. According to the degree of deep processing and the convenience of eating, prefabricated dishes can also be divided into ready to eat food, instant hot food, instant cooked food, instant prepared food and other types. Zhangdahai, Executive Deputy Secretary General of China Cuisine Association, introduced to the reporter that prefabricated dishes require professionals to conduct professional analysis on various dish raw materials through food industry practices, use different production methods for targeted research and development according to different characteristics of food materials, strictly control the content and proportion of oil, salt, sugar and various nutrients, and produce them centrally through factories or central kitchens, Scientifically pack and maintain the commercial sterile environment of dishes. Maishenghong, a senior chef who has been engaged in Cantonese cuisine for 30 years and has served as chef of famous restaurants and head of catering enterprises, told reporters that for the chef group, prefabricated dishes are not new. He said: "the fish skin dumplings that Cantonese usually eat and the large pot dishes that they eat during the New Year holidays all meet the definition of prefabricated dishes. However, the concept of prefabricated dishes is becoming clearer, the classification is more accurate, the production process is more perfect, and the standardization and standardization level are also rising. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for the chef group." Prefabricated dishes and traditional cooking also put forward different operating requirements for chefs. Mai Shenghong explained to the reporter with the "barrel fried chicken" as an example: in the past, the kitchen was responsible for the whole process of purchasing, washing, cooking and placing dishes. The prefabricated dish team not only needs the chef to control the taste, but also needs the support of talents with a knowledge base of chemistry, nutrition and so on. Prefabricated dishes are also a new track for the chef industry According to the 2022 instant food consumption trend report based on JD's consumption situation, consumers' demand for "efficient kitchens" and the impact of the epidemic have significantly increased the consumption demand for prefabricated vegetables. In 2021, the turnover of prefabricated vegetables increased by 156% year-on-year. Compared with 2019, in 2021, the number of pre prepared vegetable brands increased by 1.5 times, and the number of pre prepared vegetable commodities increased by 2.5 times. With the rapid development of the prefabricated vegetable market, many places in the country have successively issued relevant policies for the development of the prefabricated vegetable industry. In late March this year, China's first provincial-level prefabricated vegetable industry policy, ten measures to accelerate the high-quality development of Guangdong's Prefabricated vegetable industry, was issued in Guangdong. Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, has released a three-year action plan for the development of the central kitchen (prefabricated dishes) industry. In the next three to five years, it will cultivate 100 prefabricated dish demonstration enterprises, and the output value of the whole industrial chain will reach 100billion yuan. Shandong proposed to arrange a special fund of 5million yuan to hold a special week of prefabricated dishes and delicious food. When the prefabricated food industry was widely favored and various regions began to step up the formulation of relevant policies, there were also some voices worried that the prefabricated food market would squeeze the employment space of some chefs, thus causing a professional crisis for the chef group. "In fact, the development of prefabricated vegetables has a limited impact on the employment of the catering industry, and to a certain extent, it can drive the development of employment." Zhangdahai said that not all catering businesses need chefs, and prefabricated dishes can help improve enterprise operation efficiency and revenue. Secondly, the catering standardization brought about by prefabricated dishes requires enterprises to increase R & D investment and establish a professional team of chefs, technicians, food processing and production personnel. Fengcaimin, Dean of the culinary college of Shunde Vocational and technical college, one of the training bases for prefabricated dishes in Shunde, Guangdong, said that the chef industry is popular with migrant workers, and its entry threshold is not high, but it has high requirements for hard-working spiritual quality. "The traditional chef training mainly includes 7 posts, i.e. water table, lotus beating, cutting board, stove head, serving, dim sum and roast wax, which are basically concentrated in the space of the kitchen." he mentioned that the talents needed by the prefabricated food industry extend from the 7 posts to the whole chain of the industry, including food R & D, production, processing, quality supervision, warehousing, cold chain, logistics, marketing and other links. Fengcaimin believes that prefabricated dishes are a new track for chefs, and can promote local food to all over China and even the world. The hot new market for prefabricated vegetables can also provide more employment opportunities for migrant workers. Whether it is dish research and development or live marketing, job seekers can find suitable jobs according to their own advantages and characteristics. The cultivation of pre cooking talents is to change the chef's skills from experience to science, and change the chef's "invisibility" into "manifestness" through quantitative, systematic and standardized operation methods. Chef is an important factor in dish research and development In February this year, the survey report on the consumption of prefabricated vegetables issued by Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission pointed out that consumers have some problems when purchasing prefabricated vegetables. At present, there are also problems in the prefabricated vegetable market, such as uneven dish quality, dish taste to be improved, and unclear dish identification. In this regard, maishenghong believes that chefs play an important role in the research and development of dishes. "The high-quality development of the prefabricated dishes industry cannot be separated from chefs, especially the prefabricated dishes with local characteristics and famous dishes as their selling points. Once the taste of the prefabricated dishes fails to reach the due level, it will directly affect the signboard of local food". He further analyzed and pointed out that the apprenticeship system of traditional cooking depends on the hands-on teaching of the master and the learning of the apprentice, while the future chef talent training in the prefabricated vegetable industry focuses on scientization and standardization. Therefore, it is necessary to speed up the exploration and establishment of the talent training system in the prefabricated vegetable industry. "The development of prefabricated dishes requires that chefs not only master traditional cooking skills, but also pay more attention to their study of professional basic theories such as nutrition and food hygiene." Maishenghong said. At present, Guangdong Province is exploring to include the cultivation of talents in the prefabricated vegetable industry into the "Guangdong cuisine master" project, rely on the "Guangdong cuisine master" project to cultivate talents in the prefabricated vegetable industry, highlight the characteristics of Guangdong cuisine, and cultivate and develop the prefabricated vegetable industry. Star level chefs of "Guangdong cuisine masters" are encouraged to participate in the development and promotion of prefabricated dishes, and the Guangdong prefabricated dish seller training project is implemented. Explore the transformation of "Craftsmanship" of Guangdong cuisine masters into "Craftsmanship", so that Guangdong prefabricated dishes can enter thousands of households. "In recent years, 23 students who have graduated from the culinary technology and nutrition major have worked in the positions of product R & D, production management, business service, etc. of prefabricated vegetable enterprises." According to fengcaimin, Dean of the culinary college of Shunde Vocational and technical college, the college has established a normalized cooperation mechanism with prefabricated vegetable enterprises. Relying on the needs of the industry and enterprises, the college has cultivated corresponding talents in the prefabricated vegetable industry, integrated dish research and development, production management and marketing into teaching, and used advanced flavor evaluation technologies such as electronic tongue and electronic nose adopted by enterprises in teaching to help the cultivation of prefabricated vegetable talents and the construction of training bases. (Xinhua News Agency)