From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Chapter 1098 Feng Zhengming's Scheme
In Shanghai, an international metropolis, you can see many foreign faces on a regular basis.

But as the annual awards ceremony for the world's top ten restaurants approaches, many people have noticed that they seem to see more foreign faces on the streets of Shanghai.

As early as when the representatives of the International Gastronomy Association came and agreed to hold the awards ceremony in Shanghai.

Feng Zhengming then gave suggestions to the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Catering, the Chefs Association, and the Catering Association.

Restaurants in Shanghai were notified in advance to bring out all their best dishes in preparation for welcoming foreigners.

The city of Shanghai has also made plans and provided support to some food streets.

They even have people specifically assigned to clean the food street every day.

Nowadays, foodies from all over the world are drawn to the awards ceremony, bringing a surge of customers to various snack shops and restaurants in Shanghai.

Feng Zhengming's restaurant in Shanghai is one that many people are willing to queue up for.

Fortunately, Feng Zhengming has enough shops, including restaurants at all levels, in addition to the old-style house restaurant.

It can basically satisfy all consumer groups.

This has made other restaurant owners and chefs in Shanghai both envious and jealous.

Moreover, as everyone can see, the Old House Restaurant has been named one of the world's top ten restaurants of the year.

Next, it will also boost the business of Feng Zhengming's other stores.

In the past, in Shanghai, other restaurants and eateries almost all had to defer to Feng Zhengming.

Many people now feel that they will likely continue to be suppressed by Feng Zhengming in the future.

Kong Xingli sat in the back kitchen of the restaurant, reading the newspaper and sighing repeatedly.

"Feng Zhuangyuan is indeed Feng Zhuangyuan. Because of him, people moved the award ceremony to Shanghai. Because of him, the entire city of Shanghai was preparing for the award ceremony. Because of him, Shanghai suddenly became a world-renowned food capital."

In the kitchen, the apprentices worked while their master sat there reading from the newspaper.

The apprentices looked at each other, feeling that their master seemed to have suffered some kind of blow.

After a moment of reflection, Kong Xingli put down the newspaper and stood up.

"Keep your spirits up these days. We're a Shandong cuisine restaurant, and we need to take this opportunity to let more people see the strength of our Shandong cuisine, do you hear me?"

The apprentices in the kitchen immediately perked up and answered almost in unison.

"Yes, I see."

Kong Xingli smiled and said, "Our top scorer has paved the way for us. Who can ride the wave next depends on their individual abilities."

Like Kong Xingli, many restaurants and eateries in Shanghai also took this opportunity to try to attract customers.

Many restaurants and eateries have launched special offers and even put up a lot of advertisements.

Just so I can take this opportunity to promote myself.

Of course, besides special offers and advertisements, some restaurant and hotel owners also attract customers by inviting celebrities to endorse their establishments.

For example, some well-known restaurants have invited very famous Hong Kong celebrities to help promote their establishments.

Some private restaurants invited several Hong Kong tycoons and celebrities to visit their establishments.

Restaurants and eateries are trying all sorts of methods.

In these restaurants and eateries that are trying to attract customers in various ways.

Another, and most direct, approach was to contact Feng Zhengming.

The ways to get Feng Zhengming to lend his support will vary from person to person.

For example, some people went directly to Feng Zhengming's door, openly saying they wanted to pay him to come to the store to take a look.

They even went to Feng Zhengming's house, hoping he could come over and give the kitchen some pointers.

The most direct part was that they hoped to spend money to get Feng Zhengming to register his name on their restaurants and hotels.

Feng Zhengming generally rejected these offers very frankly.

He simply told everyone that the only way to attract customers was to cook good food.

Actually, this is a truism. Everyone knows that if you make the food delicious, you can attract customers.

How can I make the food taste better?

In particular, how can you make dishes that most people like?

This is not something that can be solved simply by hiring a top chef.

Moreover, some restaurants and eateries believe they have already hired good enough chefs.

However, their business still didn't improve much.

The restaurant and hotel owners were also helpless about this.

So there were still some very sincere people who came to Feng Zhengming to ask for advice.

Feng Zhengming would also offer targeted advice to these bosses who sincerely sought his advice.

“When I first came to Shanghai, my shop was not recognized by everyone. You might think I'm being dramatic, but I still have to say that my shop was indeed not recognized at one time.”

Later, I conducted some research in Shanghai and discovered that Shanghai is a place where people from all over the country gather.

On the streets of Shanghai, you can actually meet people from all over the country, and now you can even meet people from all over the world.

No matter how skilled a chef is, it's impossible to make a dish that everyone will like.

Therefore, when running a restaurant or eatery, we must identify our target customer group.

When faced with people who sincerely come to seek advice, Feng Zhengming doesn't put on airs and will invite them to sit in his restaurant.

"Take my old villa restaurant as an example. It's impossible for my restaurant to attract all diners, even though many people may come because of my reputation and the fact that I'm about to be named one of the world's top ten restaurants."

But they might only come once and never come a second time, so they might not be my loyal customers.

So should I treat them differently?
I think you are all smart people, and you all understand that whether a customer comes once and never comes back, or a customer who comes frequently, we need to treat them with utmost care.

Then, among the many customers, we need to select those who are willing to come frequently.

Those customers are the ones we need to retain, to become the most important customers in each of your respective stores.

Upon hearing this, the owners and chefs who had come specifically to seek advice nodded repeatedly, agreeing with what Feng Zhengming said.

Feng Zhengming: "So everyone needs to figure out your store's positioning first. For example, if you're near the Bund, your positioning should be to cater to tourists, so you need to make it more unique."

If the restaurant is primarily a commercial establishment, then it should place greater emphasis on privacy, ensuring that those entertaining business guests feel both prestigious and comfortable.

If the focus is on home-style cooking, then more effort needs to be put into making the dishes appetizing and suitable for family gatherings.

After Feng Zhengming's analysis, everyone felt that they had benefited greatly.

With just a few words, he directly addressed the confusion that was lingering in everyone's minds.

At this moment, a local Shanghainese chef who came to ask for advice spoke up.

"Master Feng, we have indeed benefited greatly from your words. I wonder if you could teach a course later to share some tips on running a business with us?" This suggestion immediately won the unanimous approval of the chefs and owners present today.

"Yes, yes, we really need someone to guide us."

“Scholar Feng, please don’t be so polite. We sincerely want to learn from you.”

"Even if you charge tuition, we are willing to learn from you."

"Yes, yes, it's okay to charge tuition, we're all willing to come and learn."

Seeing that everyone was sincere and genuinely wanted to learn some business skills, Feng Zhengming realized that everyone was truly interested.

He thought for a moment and said, "How about this, I'll talk to the chefs of the top ten restaurants of the year and see if we can start a course together, a course specifically on restaurant and restaurant operations."

That way, everyone can learn and exchange ideas together, which will help improve the overall catering industry in Shanghai.

So that our city of Shanghai can truly deserve the title of a culinary capital.

Feng Zhengming's words excited the owners and chefs present.

They all felt that they should seize this training opportunity to improve their store's standards and attract more customers.

"Okay, I knew that Scholar Feng was the most generous and would never abandon us."

"That's right, Feng Zhuangyuan is indeed Feng Zhuangyuan, he has a sense of responsibility."

"We will definitely study hard and strive to improve the standards of each of our stores."

"Yes, yes, it's our responsibility to make Shanghai a true food capital."

Feng Zhengming: "I hope everyone can remember the responsibility you bear, and sincerely do your best to make the dishes so that Shanghai can truly become a food capital. Let's work hard."

Upon hearing Feng Zhengming's words, one of the business owners present stood up.

"Don't worry, Mr. Feng. We wouldn't be here if we weren't sincere. We genuinely want to improve the quality of our restaurant so that more diners can be satisfied."

Another owner was even more direct: "Only by satisfying our customers can we attract more customers and make more money."

The words were blunt, but everyone present laughed, agreeing that while the language was rough, the reasoning was sound.

After this exchange, Feng Zhengming also contacted Kaufman.

I shared some of my thoughts with Kaufman.

After listening, Kaufman thought about it carefully and said, "Feng, your idea is very good. I understand that you sincerely want to help those restaurants. Don't worry, I will help you with this. I believe that the chefs of those top ten restaurants of the year will also be willing to help."

Feng Zhengming: "I will personally negotiate with the people in Shanghai and Beijing to allow you to open your store in Shanghai."

Kaufman: "Haha, it seems you were indeed prepared, Feng."

Feng Zhengming: "This is not a bargaining chip. I think that since Shanghai is to become an international food capital, it should have a variety of different cuisines. It should not only have Chinese food, but also foreign restaurants."

Kaufman strongly agreed with Feng Zhengming's statement.

"Yes, Shanghai is a great city. If it could bring together global cuisines, it would be even better."

After communicating with Koffman, Feng Zhengming and Koffman specifically sought out nine chefs from the top ten restaurants.

When Feng Zhengming shared some of his ideas with them and invited them to help teach the catering industry in Shanghai, he asked them to share their respective philosophies on running restaurants and cooking.

Nine chefs from the world’s top ten restaurants of the year, just like Koffman, immediately agreed.

"This is a great exchange, and we need this kind of exchange."

"Yes, I would love to participate in such an event."

“Very good, that’s exactly what we came here hoping to exchange ideas.”

"Haha, Feng, you're a real champion. You even want to help your fellow champions."

"Yeah, aren't you worried that if they study hard, they'll compete with you?"

"However, with your abilities, Feng, I really don't need to worry about being competed with by them."

"Feng, would you also like to share some of your ideas?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, I will share all my ideas with everyone. I hope that everyone can improve their abilities through communication. After all, chefs all over the world are one family."

The saying "All chefs are one family" resonated with the nine chefs of the top ten restaurants and Koffman.

In the following period, Feng Zhengming continued to communicate with Koffman and the nine head chefs.

They are also discussing many specific details.

It's clear that both Koffman and the nine chefs are happy to share their experiences.

Another important point is that they do hope to have the opportunity to open their respective restaurants in Shanghai.

After touring Shanghai these past few days, the nine chefs were also drawn to this city.

They felt that Shanghai was a city where many different styles from all over the world could be seen.

Moreover, the people here are very tolerant of different tastes.

What surprised the nine chefs the most was that some Western restaurants, which were clearly not authentic, were able to do quite well in Shanghai.

This gave the nine chefs a great deal of confidence.

If those kinds of stores can attract so many customers in Shanghai, how can my store be any worse than theirs?
Therefore, the nine head chefs were willing to communicate with Feng Zhengming in the hope that this communication opportunity would give them the chance to open a store in Shanghai.

No one dislikes making more money, and in the eyes of the nine chefs, Shanghai is a great place to make money.

Of course, the nine chefs were unaware that Feng Zhengming was already plotting how to exploit them.

Let them open shops in Shanghai, and use their shops to improve the overall level of catering in Shanghai.

In the future, Feng Zhengming plans to improve the domestic catering standards before supervising these renowned foreign chefs.

This will encourage them to put in more effort to successfully operate their respective branches in Shanghai.

Feng Zhengming knew that China would join the WTO at the end of this year, and would face even greater competition in the future.

Therefore, they invited the chefs of nine of the top ten restaurants to open their shops ahead of time, putting pressure on the catering industry in Shanghai.

It's better than them not being able to withstand the pressure in the future.

After the discussion was completed, Feng Zhengming and Kaufman took their leave.

These days, while waiting for the awards ceremony, Kaufman has been in the kitchen of Feng Zhengming's restaurant.

The two of them are working together more and more smoothly.

Feng Zhengming was still very grateful to Kaufman. In the kitchen, Kaufman not only worked with him to cook, but also helped Feng Zhengming guide everyone in the kitchen.

Fu Jun and Cai Tao have shown significant improvement these days.

Hou Dong, Gao Yongfu, and Lu Haisheng also learned a lot from it.

In addition, the large number of customers attracted by the annual top ten restaurant awards in recent days has given Feng Zhengming an excellent opportunity to try and fail.

(End of this chapter)