Sushi Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The origin of Gongdelin vegetarian cuisine making lies in temples. During the Tongzhi reign of the Qing dynasty, temple vegetarian food gradually flowed into society. In 1922, disciples of Weijun, a Dharma master who lectured on scriptures at Changji Temple on Chenghuang Hill in Hangzhou, with the aim of "propagating Buddhism, promoting vegetarianism, and releasing living beings from slaughter," opened the Gongdelin Vegetable Food Place at the intersection of Beijing Road and Guizhou Road in Shanghai. When first founded, the entire Gongdelin shop covered only 300 square meters; in 1927 it moved to No. 43 Huanghe Road, expanding to 1,000 square meters and dividing into three floors—the first floor a snack restaurant, the second floor private rooms, and the third floor a Buddhist hall. In 1997, owing to Shanghai's urban redevelopment, Gongdelin moved to West Nanjing Road, where its vegetarian cuisine making continued to develop and innovate, still attracting many consumers with its distinctive character.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Using tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables as raw materials, it makes vegetarian dishes in the manner of meat—that is, hand-cooks "fish," "meat," and other dishes of lifelike form. Because the making is excellent and the taste unique, customers filled the door and business flourished. At this time Gongdelin began recruiting vegetarian chefs from temples across the country, and the business thrived, winning the praise of the broad Shanghai public with its unique vegetarian manual craft and cooking methods. Gongdelin has famous vegetarian dishes such as buttered crab roe, sizzling eel threads, wine-braised fish slices, sweet-and-sour yellow croaker, fragrant braised tender chicken, and crucian carp with winter bamboo shoots. These vegetarian dishes use refined ingredients and meticulous workmanship; their forms are lifelike, their varieties many, their flavors imitate meat, and their cooking methods diverse. Each dish is finely crafted, combining the dual functions of dining and artistic appreciation, so that customers can view and taste at the same time.
Vegetarian dishes cooked to look like meat and fish
Tofu, mushrooms and vegetables are cooked by hand into dishes that convincingly resemble fish and meat.
Choosing, carving and plating
Every dish is made to be looked at as much as eaten, so carving and arrangement form half of the craft.
Vegetarian dishes under seafood and meat names
Its famous dishes include crab roe, eel strips, fish slices and sweet-and-sour yellow croaker, all made without meat or fish.
Hiring vegetarian cooks from temples
Hiring vegetarian cooks from temples across the country brought many regional styles together in one Shanghai kitchen.
Zhao Youming's selection and knife work
Inheritor Zhao Youming joined in 1979, learned from Luo Laiyao and became head chef, mastering selection, cutting, carving and cooking.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Gongdelin's vegetarian food flowed from temples into the marketplace; in 1922 disciples of Weijun, the scripture-lecturing Dharma master of Changji Temple, opened the Vegetable Food Place at the intersection of Beijing Road and Guizhou Road, later moving several times and now located on West Nanjing Road. Its style has never left the single line of Shanghai vegetarianism: using tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables as materials, hand-cooking fish, meat, and other dishes of lifelike form, it is the settled form of Jiangnan vegetarianism within the shikumen lanes and the treaty-port city. Its form also changed with the city's tastes. The temple vegetarian food of the late Qing and early Republic was on the plain side; after Gongdelin entered Shanghai, to please the local diners' heavier palate it produced meat-named vegetarian dishes with stronger flavors such as buttered crab roe, sizzling eel threads, wine-braised fish slices, and sweet-and-sour yellow croaker. In other words, though Gongdelin is vegetarian, what it makes is the Shanghai palate—this is its greatest divergence from the rural vegetarian fasting cuisine of Jiangnan.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sushi Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Zhao Youming (per records of the associated officially documented inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1954, from Shanghai. Representative inheritor of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage item, vegetarian cuisine making craft (Gongdelin vegetarian cuisine making craft). Senior technician. Since entering Gongdelin to learn the craft in 1979, under the careful instruction of several predecessors including the second-generation master Luo Laiyao, he mastered a series of skills of vegetarian ingredient selection, making, cutting and matching, carving, and cooking, became the head chef of Gongdelin, and was awarded the title of Famous Chinese Cuisine Master. He selects ingredients finely, wields the knife skillfully, emphasizes form, is rich in artistic sense, uses diverse cooking methods, and seasons in a style of his own; seeking novelty and change, he devotes himself to continuously promoting vegetarian culture. In 1997 he participated in the first "China Famous Snacks" recognition activity held by the China Cuisine Association, and the vegetarian ham he made received an honorary title.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhao Youming 03-1427
- Zhang Zhijun
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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