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Chef, a very ordinary job.

However, if we add a series of adjectives to this person"Students from 985 prestigious universities", "Career change from architecture major", "Study abroad", "Girls born after 1995"…it’s hard for this story to not be eye-catching.

Cui Di is the protagonist of this story. She is from Xinjiang and is the chef of two fusion restaurants in Shanghai.

Cui Di's career experience is a bit tortuous. After studying landscape design at Tongji University in Shanghai, she went to Europe to study for a master's degree in hotel management and finally became a chef.

When she started learning cooking at the age of 24, the person in charge of the restaurant stall was only 21 years old.A high level of education doesn't seem to help in learning cooking.

In her first internship as a chef, Cui Di worked in the kitchen of a Belgian restaurant for 14 hours a day and could only eat one meal a day. After graduating and returning to China, she found a job as a chef in Shanghai.The monthly salary is only 5,500 yuan.

Tweety is cooking

For a time,"Waste of education", "professional downgrade"These were all labels on her. She spent a lot of time studying abroad.300000,After returning to China, the starting salary is only5500 NTD...Many netizens expressed their incomprehension.

Cui Di took a photo with celery

Graduated from the Department of Architecture of a 985 prestigious university,Why did you change your career to become a chef?The reporter chatted with her.

Question: When you were filling out your college entrance examination application, why did you choose to apply for the landscape architecture major at the School of Architecture of Tongji University?

answer:When I applied for college, I saw on Baidu Encyclopedia that landscape architecture is a major that uses knowledge of biology, geography, history, sociology, etc. to help people live in harmony with nature. I was quite interested in this concept at the time. In addition, I had been studying biology competitions in high school and was particularly interested in the physiology and anatomy of plants and animals. I thought the two were related, so I applied for landscape architecture. In fact, I thought this major was about trimming flowers, cutting grass, and planting trees, but later I found that it was quite different.

Q: After graduating from Tongji University, why did you want to study hotel management in Switzerland? Because you wanted to continue your childhood dream?

answer:Studying hotel management was actually a helpless move. I wanted to study French cuisine in France, but my parents wanted me to study a major with a master's degree, so I took a detour and went to Switzerland to study hotel management. At the same time, this major allows you to work in the kitchen and have a master's degree at the same time.

Q: You said that being a chef makes you happier. When was your happiest moment as a chef?

answer:There are two moments that make me happiest as a chef: one is when I make a creative dish that has never existed before and it is "both delicious and beautiful", which makes me quite satisfied. The other moment is when the guests like the dishes I cook and feel very satisfied after tasting them, which is also the moment when I feel happy.

In August 2023, Cui Di participated in the chef competition reality show

Q: Seeing you working as an apprentice in a restaurant abroad, working 14 hours a day, it seems very hard. What enables you to persevere?

answer:Working 14 hours a day is really hard. I felt like complaining at the time, but then I thought, this is the path I chose, and I have no reason to complain about my current life, so I let it go. This may also be related to the education my parents gave me since I was a child. They made me realize that "I am the first person responsible for my future path."

I recently read a book, which is a life design course at Stanford University. The book said that "passion is designed". If the path you choose is what you design to do, then you will become more and more passionate about it. Maybe this explains why I felt relieved at the time.

After working in the kitchen for a day, the color on my clothes

Q: After returning to China to work, why did you choose Shanghai as your base? What impression does Shanghai give you?

answer:I think Shanghai is the place where Western food is most developed and creative food is most tolerated. The spending power of this place is very high. I like Shanghai very much because it is very inclusive and all kinds of people can live here.

Q: From your circle of friends, you often travel to different places to learn how to cook delicious food. Why do you have such a continuous learning ability?

answer:Maybe it’s because of my personality, I particularly enjoy learning new things and then showing them. This process itself makes me feel satisfied. Maybe it establishes positive feedback in learning.

Chinese culture is very profound and extensive. Since I have decided to pass on Chinese food culture to the world, learning about the food culture of the whole country is my mission. So I will be passionate about this matter, because my goal is very ambitious, so I must fill in the gaps in the middle.

Spring dishes made by Cui Di

Q: I see that you not only learn how to cook delicious food, but also often integrate local characteristics and create new dishes. What have you gained from this process?

answer:I think fusion cuisine must have a base, something with local characteristics, and be made more delicious than the original, only then it has the meaning of fusion. I think the so-called fusion and innovative cuisine is actually breaking the boundaries of food and trying to create new classics. Because when dishes like fish-flavored pork shreds and braised pork were first introduced, they were also new dishes.

Classics don't always exist, they are created. I want to make innovative fusion dishes, hoping to promote the development of the catering industry. As a chef, your ability will become stronger as you get older. Your innovative dishes will become classics as you keep repeating them.

Cui Di gave a speech at Shanghai University

Q: Your group of foodie friends is full of positive energy. They not only exchange food, but also life insights, family education, and outlook on life and values. Why did you want to create a "foodie friend group" in the first place?

answer:The reason I created a foodie friend group is that many people want to add me on WeChat and get to know me, but I don’t have much time to chat with them one by one, so I wanted to create a group so that people with common interests can get together to share. I can also easily share with everyone in the group what I have seen and heard, including some things I want to recommend that I think are useful.

Q: Some people say that a 985 top student who switched to become a chef is over-consuming his or her education. Others think that a major is not necessarily the career you will pursue in the future, but the learning and critical thinking abilities acquired in college determine a person's life. What do you think about this?

answer:In fact, I chose the path I want to take the most and the kind of life I want to live the most. I don’t care too much about what others think. Whether it’s wasteful or brave, I think it’s not that important to me. If you are too cautious, you will just follow the established track of society and be a worker. I believe that all entrepreneurs are people who break the rules.

I don't think the books I read before were a waste. The education I received before and the advanced international education concepts I saw all helped me in my desire to start a cooking school. I think China's catering industry needs constant vitality to move forward.

Cui Di playing drums

Q: At Tongji University, you served as the captain of the women's football team for three years. How did this experience affect you in the future?

answer:Women's football is one of my hobbies. In fact, I have always loved sports since I was a child. When I was young, my father taught me three-step layups, taught me to swim, and let me ride a bicycle to and from school. I also learned roller skating and taekwondo. I have actually done a lot of sports. In college, I participated in the basketball team and the softball team. In the end, I chose to join the football team because the football team had just been established and I wanted to be a veteran. So this is why I can become the captain even though I don't have much athletic talent.

Secondly, I like teamwork very much. I have always played as a defensive midfielder or a full-back in the team. I have only scored one goal in an official match in my entire football career. In fact, my number of goals is very small, but in a team, not everyone has to score goals. I like this state of teamwork.

Football has a more persistent passion for me. Because when I am training, I don’t particularly enjoy winning, but I enjoy the process of training and improving my abilities every day. I think sports are a great thing.

Q: Will you continue to be a chef in the future? Will you start your own business?

answer:I may always be in the catering industry, but I may not always be a chef. Because when I am 40-45 years old, I want to open a cooking school, and I want to make it a cooking school with quality education. Because now the social status of chefs is not high, which is related to their education level and social concepts. At the same time, quality education itself will help chefs better understand the ingredients; at the same time, they will also realize what kind of creativity is a serious and responsible innovation.

Cui Di winter photo shoot

985 top student becomes a chefIs this considered over-consumption of education? Is this a downgrade in career?

Expert interpretation

"Seeing the smile on Cui Di's face, I am happy from the bottom of my heart." Fan Xiudie, director of the Education Evaluation Center of Tongji University, said that when people focus on the contrasts such as "a top student from a 985 university switched to a chef" and "spending 300,000 yuan to study abroad and the first salary is only 5,500 yuan", her inner confidence is actually her more shining point.

In fact, looking back at the university graduates in the 1980s and 1990s, many of them did not work in jobs related to their majors. However, they did quite well. This shows that there is a certain correlation between majors and careers, but there is not necessarily a necessary connection. The improvement of comprehensive quality in the process of education is a more lasting source of motivation for a person.

Nowadays, university education, especially undergraduate education, is broad-based and not limited to professional knowledge. Moreover, the career choices are much greater than before, and more thinking about life is required. The height of thinking and values ​​determine the path of life.Everything is an individual's own choice, and one is the first person responsible for the future path., outsiders don’t need to comment too much.

This case also tells us a truth: with the development of society and the improvement of living standards, the whole society can provide individuals with greater possibilities to pursue their inner pursuits. When we talk about our ideals when we are young, they are actually very broad. But as we grow up, we have more experience and our horizons are broadened, and we can know what our interests and hobbies are. In the process of continuous progress, we will find the combination and balance of our careers that can both give full play to our strengths and contribute to society.

In society, the level of education and diploma, the level of salary and the type of work are linked, and even used as a value judgment on whether an individual has a promising future. This is actually unscientific and even biased. Education, type of work and salary are related to a certain extent, but not necessarily.

Some people questioned that Cui Di's education was a waste and his career was downgraded, but this is not true. Education and major only represent what knowledge has been absorbed, which is a kind of self-investment to meet one's own development; while the type of work is a person's contribution to serving the society. You will find that the two are not necessarily related. Architects are not necessarily better than chefs, and university professors are not necessarily better than nannies. A career is a career,Equal treatment of various occupations is a manifestation of social civilization and progress.

In any case, meeting people's needs for good development is a manifestation of social progress. This example further shows that people can have more diversified development and should not be too entangled in whether the major will affect their personal future. Take a long-term view and don't just focus on the present. Believe that every effort will be rewarded. If this concept becomes a social trend, then "Zhang Xuefeng's high price to fill in the application form" will definitely have no market.

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This article is from Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News. Any reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited.

Author: Li Lei