Siheyuan: Starting as a Chef Apprentice

After the hotel business gradually stabilized, Wang Jianye did not forget to give back to the local community. He knew that the development of the hotel could not be separated from the support of the community, and actively participated in various charity activities to further establish a good reputation.

In the minds of the French people, the hotel is not only a good place to dine, but also a friendly ambassador with a strong sense of social responsibility, spreading Chinese culture and delivering love.

Once, the local community organized a charity dinner to raise funds for poor children and help those children in difficult circumstances improve their living conditions and obtain better educational resources.

The community staff invited all Wang's restaurants to participate and provide catering support for the dinner. Wang Jianye accepted the invitation without hesitation. He felt that this was a good opportunity to give back to the community and show his love, and it was worth doing it with all his heart.

Afterwards, he immediately convened a meeting of the hotel's chef and service teams and said seriously: "This charity dinner is of great significance, we must prepare the dishes and services carefully and cannot be careless in the slightest.

We should take this event as an important opportunity to showcase our hotel's image and intentions, and let everyone see our support for community charity and our care for those poor children."

The chef team began to discuss the dinner menu intensively. Everyone put forward their own ideas, striving to select dishes that best represent Chinese characteristics and suit the tastes of the general public.

A senior chef said: "I think we can prepare some classic Chinese dishes, such as Kung Pao Chicken. This dish is very popular both at home and abroad. It tastes sweet and sour with a slight spiciness. The chicken is fresh and tender, and the peanuts are crispy. It has a very layered texture. Moreover, the production process is relatively not too complicated, which can ensure that it can be served in large quantities at the dinner without losing the quality."

Another chef then suggested: "Let's add Peking duck. Peking duck is a traditional Chinese dish and is very well-known. Its crispy skin and tender and juicy duck meat, paired with pancakes, scallions, cucumbers and sweet noodle sauce, taste rich and unique. It will definitely make the guests attending the dinner shine."

After some discussion, we finally decided on a dinner menu that included classic Chinese dishes while also catering to different tastes.

On the day of the banquet, the hotel chefs arrived at the back kitchen of the banquet venue early and began to get busy. They each performed their duties, some were responsible for handling the ingredients, skillfully cutting the chicken into dices and washing and cutting the vegetables; some were in charge of the stove, concentrating on controlling the heat and stir-frying the dishes in the pot, and the kitchen was filled with waves of tempting aroma.

The chef in charge of roasting Peking duck is even more focused. He first marinates the duck with a special sauce, then carefully hangs the duck in the oven, staring at the temperature gauge in the oven, adjusting the heat from time to time to ensure that the duck can be roasted with a golden and crispy skin and tender and juicy duck meat.

At the same time, the service team was also busy. The waiters, dressed in neat uniforms, arrived at the venue in advance and began to set up the table and place the tableware. They placed each set of tableware neatly, with the distance between the tableware accurate to centimeters, striving to achieve the most standard and beautiful state. There were also some decorations with Chinese elements on the table, such as small Chinese knots and exquisite folding fans, which added a bit of Chinese charm to the dinner.

After the dinner started, the guests entered one after another, and the whole place gradually became lively. The waiters of Wang's All-Series Hotel stood in their respective areas, smiling and politely guiding the guests to their seats.

When the dishes were served one by one, the guests' eyes showed curiosity and expectation. While placing the dishes, the waiters briefly introduced the names and characteristics of the dishes, so that the guests could have a preliminary understanding of Chinese cuisine.

Wang Jianye also came to the dinner. He was wearing a well-fitting suit and smiling. He walked between the tables and interacted cordially with the guests. When he walked to the main table, he bowed slightly and said to the community leaders and some important guests present: "We, Wang's All-Series Restaurant, are honored to participate in this meaningful event. We hope that our food can add warmth to this beautiful night, and we also hope that through this event, we can do our part to help those children in need."

The guests nodded one after another, expressing their appreciation and gratitude for Wang Jianye and the hotel's good deeds.

Everyone started to taste the dishes. After tasting the Kung Pao Chicken, one guest nodded slightly and said to the people around him: "This dish tastes very good. The chicken is very tender, the peanuts are crispy, and the sour, sweet and slightly spicy taste is very appetizing. I didn't expect Chinese dishes to be so unique."

Another guest praised the Peking duck after tasting it, saying: "This roast duck is so delicious, with crispy skin and tender and juicy duck meat. Paired with these side dishes and sauces, the taste is very rich. It is really a unique food experience."

During the entire dinner, while tasting the food, the guests also gained a deeper understanding of Chinese culture through the introduction of the waiters and some promotional materials about Chinese culture placed on the scene, which greatly improved their favorability towards Wang's All-Series Hotels. Everyone recognized and praised the hotel's active participation in public welfare activities and its careful preparation of dishes and services. This charity dinner also became more warm and exciting because of the participation of Wang's All-Series Hotels.

Another time, a school in the community held a cultural exchange event to let French students understand the cultural characteristics of different countries and broaden their international horizons. The teachers of the school thought of Wang's All-Inclusive Restaurant and invited the restaurant's chefs to demonstrate Chinese cooking skills to the students. The chefs of the restaurant were happy to go, as they felt this was a good opportunity to spread Chinese culture and were happy to show the charm of Chinese cuisine to these young students.

In the school's cooking classroom, there are clean and tidy cooking tables, on which all kinds of ingredients and tools needed to make "dumplings" have been prepared, including flour, pork filling, vegetables, rolling pins, chopping boards, etc. When the chefs walked into the classroom, there was a burst of warm applause in the classroom. The students' eyes were full of curiosity and excitement, and they couldn't wait to see how Chinese food is made.

An experienced Chinese chef stood at the operating table in front of the classroom. He greeted the students with a smile, then picked up a bag of flour and began to explain: "Students, today we are going to teach you how to make a traditional Chinese delicacy - dumplings. First, we need to prepare the dumpling wrappers, which requires flour. We pour an appropriate amount of flour on the chopping board, then slowly add water and start kneading the dough. When kneading the dough, pay attention to the strength and technique, and knead the flour into a smooth dough, like this."

As the chef spoke, he operated skillfully, turning and pressing the flour with his hands. After a while, the loose flour gradually turned into a smooth dough. The students watched intently, their eyes full of novelty, and some couldn't help but exclaimed. Then, the chef put the kneaded dough aside to rise, picked up a bowl of pork stuffing, and said: "Now let's prepare the dumpling stuffing. This is pork stuffing. We can add some vegetables according to our own taste, such as leeks, cabbage, etc., to make the stuffing taste richer. Then add the appropriate amount of seasoning, such as salt, light soy sauce, sesame oil, etc., stir evenly, and let the stuffing fully taste."

As the chef explained, he added various seasonings to the stuffing and then quickly stirred it with chopsticks. The meat stuffing became more and more sticky during the stirring process and the fragrance gradually emanated.

After the dough was ready, the chef began to demonstrate the steps of rolling out the dough. He picked up the rolling pin, rolled the dough into strips, cut it into small pieces, flattened the small pieces with his palms, and then picked up the rolling pin and gently rolled them. The rolling pin was flexibly turned in his hands, and the small pieces of dough gradually turned into round, evenly thick dumpling skins on the chopping board. The students were stunned and burst into applause and cheers from time to time.

"Next, it's time to make dumplings. This is a technical job." The chef said with a smile, then picked up a piece of dumpling wrapper, placed it on the palm of his hand, scooped up a spoonful of stuffing with a spoon and placed it in the middle of the wrapper, then used his fingers to flexibly pinch the dumpling wrapper, and in a blink of an eye, a beautiful dumpling was wrapped. The shape of the dumpling was like a crescent moon, and the folds on the edge were neat and beautiful.

The chef held up the wrapped dumplings and showed them to the students. He said, "Students, do you understand? Now you can try it yourself. I and other chefs will guide you."

The students could no longer hold back and gathered around their respective cooking stations to try their hand at cooking. Some students carefully added water to the flour, but because they did not know the amount well, their hands were covered with sticky batter, and they looked helpless but amused. The chef next to them saw this and hurried over to patiently instruct them: "Add the water little by little, stirring while adding, and observe the state of the flour. Try it like this again."

Some students couldn't roll the dough into a round shape, either too thick on one side or too thin on the other, or the dough stuck to the chopping board while rolling, and they were so anxious that they scratched their heads. The chef in charge of the instruction smiled and comforted them, saying, "Don't worry, it's not easy at the beginning. You see, you have to roll the dough while turning it, so that it can be rolled evenly. I'll show you how." As he spoke, the chef began to teach the students how to do it.

The classroom was even more lively during the dumpling-making session. Many students made dumplings in all kinds of shapes, some looked like deflated pockets, and some had the fillings exposed, which made the students around them laugh. But everyone's enthusiasm did not diminish at all, and they continued to try with great interest, and also joked with each other and shared their "works".

A little French boy excitedly held up the dumplings he made and said to his classmates, "Look at what I made. Although it doesn't look very good, this is my first time making Chinese dumplings. It's so fun!"

The classmate next to me responded: "Haha, mine is not that good either, but it feels better than the first one. It will definitely taste good when it is cooked later."

When the students had almost finished wrapping the dumplings, the chefs began to cook them. As the water in the pots boiled, the dumplings were put into the pots one by one, rolling in the water. After a while, the dumplings were cooked and floated to the surface of the water, and the kitchen was filled with the aroma of dumplings.

The chefs distributed the cooked dumplings to the students for tasting. The students took the steaming dumplings and couldn’t wait to take a bite. Suddenly, all kinds of exclamations rang out in the classroom.

A little girl, with sparkling eyes, chewed dumplings and said, "Wow, these dumplings are so delicious. It turns out that Chinese delicacies are made in this way. It's really interesting. I want to learn how to make more Chinese delicacies in the future."

Other students also nodded in agreement, and some said to the chefs: "Thank you for teaching us how to make dumplings. It allows us to experience such an interesting Chinese food making process. Chinese food is really great!"

The chefs looked at the students' happy and satisfied faces with pleased smiles on their faces. They responded: "You're welcome. As long as you like it, there are many more Chinese delicacies. I hope I'll have the opportunity to show them to you in the future."

Through this cultural exchange activity at the school, the chefs from all Wang's restaurants spread Chinese food culture to French children through practical actions, allowing them to personally experience the unique charm of Chinese cuisine.

Such activities have also received widespread praise in the community. People have become more and more recognized and appreciative of Wang's entire series of restaurants, feeling that it not only brings delicious food to everyone, but also actively plays the role of spreading culture and conveying love.

Since then, all Wang's hotels have participated in community charity activities with increasing frequency and in more diverse forms.

For example, we hold free Chinese health food lectures for the elderly in the community to teach them how to stay healthy through a proper diet; we set up food booths at various cultural festivals held in the community to showcase the making techniques of Chinese food and invite residents to taste it; we also regularly donate some daily necessities and food to needy families in the community to help them solve practical difficulties in life.

At a lecture on Chinese health food, the hotel invited a professional nutritionist to participate in the lecture. At the lecture site, various fresh ingredients and some samples of prepared Chinese health dishes were placed for the elderly to watch and understand.

The nutritionist stood on the podium, showing the nutritional composition of various ingredients and their benefits to the body on the big screen, and said: "For example, this dish of fried yam with black fungus, yam is rich in vitamins and dietary fiber, which has a good nourishing effect on the spleen and stomach, and black fungus can help clean the intestines and lower cholesterol. The combination of the two is not only nutritious, but also refreshing, and is very suitable for the elderly." (End of this chapter)