The World Under the Stove: Mrs. Qin's Food Notes

A stove fire illuminates all kinds of flavors in the world; a pair of bare hands brings out the warmth and coldness of spring and autumn. When his father died of illness and his creditors came to visit, 22-year-old Qin Zhenyue held a torn copy of "Notes from a Chef" and set up his first stall at the end of the Fireworks Alley in Qingshui County. The sweet smell of plum blossom stuffed cake was her first question to her fate to get her life back. From a corner on the street to the "Moon Pillow House", from the four o'clock morning meals to the twenty-four solar terms banquet, she uses her hands to restore ancient methods and harmonize the five flavors. Jiang Hansong, the county classics teacher, saw the landscape in her heart through the cakes, and used pen and ink to add fuel to her fire. Suppressed by her peers, cut off from merchants, and worldly prejudices are as cold as a knife - she walked into the fields and mountains to build her own granary; she founded a school to pass on her skills to more helpless women; she carved beautiful things with tofu, and used ordinary ingredients to explain that "the best taste in the world does not lie in delicacies, but in the heart." For ten years there has been smoke and fire in the kitchen. From the streets to the state capital, from banquets to writing books, Qin Zhenyue finally walked out of her own "human world" with a bowl and chopsticks. When the engraving of "Pillow Moon Food Notes" was circulated, and when "Mrs. Qin" became a name passed down by word of mouth among diners in Jiangnan, she looked back at where she came from. The flames dancing in the furnace illuminated not only a kitchen, but also a future where countless women could make a living based on their craftsmanship. This is a long food scroll with no time travel and no golden fingers. There is only the warmth of food, the dignity of craftsmanship, the tenacity of women, and the extraordinary life that an ordinary person lives with his heart in the fireworks of the times.