Siheyuan: Starting as a Chef Apprentice

After listening to this, the marketing manager cleared his throat, sat up straight and said, "Boss Wang, I think we can also launch some preferential activities to compete with them on price. For example, we can give special small gifts to customers who spend a certain amount of money. While enjoying the food, customers can also get a small gift with Chinese characteristics, which will be very interesting. Or we can set up discount days exclusively for members, so that members can feel special treatment and increase customer stickiness. In this way, they will feel that spending here is more valuable and they will be more willing to choose our restaurant."

As the marketing manager spoke, he gestured with his hands, as if he had already seen the scene of satisfied customers after the implementation of the promotion.

The head of the service department spoke next. She bowed slightly and said in a serious tone, "I think in addition to the promotional activities, we should continue to work on the service. Nowadays, when customers come to eat, they not only care about the dishes, but also the dining experience. We can provide customers with free appetizers, and change the types according to different seasons. For example, we can prepare some fresh fruit salads in spring, cool and refreshing mung bean cakes in summer, sweet osmanthus cakes in autumn, and hot roasted sweet potatoes in winter. In addition, for customers with children, we can prepare some cute toys, such as cartoon puzzles, plush dolls, etc., so that children can have fun while waiting for their meals. These details will set us apart from other restaurants and let customers feel our dedication and thoughtfulness."

The service manager had a confident look on her face when she spoke. She was well aware of the importance of high-quality service in retaining customers. These suggestions were also the result of her daily observations and thinking at work.

Wang Jianye listened carefully to everyone's speeches, crossed his hands in front of his chest, nodded from time to time, and his eyes revealed a thoughtful light. After everyone finished speaking, he thought for a moment, and then said calmly: "Everyone's suggestions are very good and comprehensive. In this competition, we must not only keep up with the preferential activities, but also ensure that the quality of service continues to improve. However, we can't just rely on price and service to attract customers. Our core competitiveness is still the dishes, which is our foundation. Therefore, we must continue to ensure the innovation and quality of the dishes, so that customers feel that every dish they eat here is unique and worth the money, so that we can truly retain the hearts of customers."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and then began to prepare for the implementation of various response measures according to the results of the discussion.

Not long after, Wang's entire hotel chain launched the "Free exquisite Chinese folding fans for every 100 francs spent" campaign. The hotel specially customized a batch of folding fans with the charm of traditional Chinese culture, with exquisite landscapes, flowers and birds painted on the fan surfaces, or ancient Chinese poems written on them, which looked very exquisite and elegant.

At the same time, the hotel has also set up a membership day every Tuesday, on which member customers can enjoy a 20% discount when dining. In order to attract more customers to become members, the hotel has placed membership promotion boards at prominent locations such as the entrance and cashier counter, and the waiters will also take the initiative to introduce the rights and benefits of members to customers and encourage them to apply for membership cards.

In terms of service, the service staff also strictly follows the requirements. Every day when customers come in, a waiter will greet them with a smile and say in a friendly tone: "Welcome to Wang's All-Season Hotel, this is a delicate Chinese dim sum we prepared for you, please enjoy it." Then, he will hand over a small and cute Chinese dim sum with an attractive aroma to the customer. The dim sum may be soft and glutinous donkey rolls, crispy lotus crisps, or sweet jujube paste cakes. It varies according to the preparation of the day, but each one makes people salivate.

For families with children, the waiters are especially attentive. When they see a child walking into the restaurant, the waiter will immediately pick out a few small toys suitable for the child's age from the specially prepared toy box, walk to the child with a smile, squat down, and say softly: "Little friend, welcome to our restaurant, these small toys are for you to play with, and I hope you can enjoy your meal here." When children see the cute toys, they often happily take them, and when parents see this, they will also be satisfied with the hotel's thoughtful service.

After these measures were implemented, results were soon seen.

During a normal dinner time, the Wang's All-inclusive Restaurant was brightly lit and bustling. The restaurant was almost full, with families sitting together and laughing, couples enjoying a romantic time together, or friends gathering together to eat and chat, the atmosphere was very harmonious.

At the door, there were still many customers queuing up for seats. They looked at the lively scene inside the restaurant while patiently waiting for the waiter's arrangements. Their faces did not show impatience due to the waiting, but were full of anticipation.

A French man who was waiting in line said to his companion, "Although I have to wait for a while, I think it's worth it. This restaurant not only has delicious food, but also has so many discounts. You can get such a beautiful Chinese folding fan if you spend more than 100 francs. How interesting. And there are free snacks when you enter the door. The service is really considerate."

My companion smiled and responded, "Yeah, I think so too. I was worried that the low-priced set meals at the old French restaurant would affect the business here, but now it seems there is no need to worry at all. The price-performance ratio here is still very high. I prefer to eat here anyway."

At a table in the restaurant, a woman with a child was watching her child happily playing with the toys provided by the restaurant. She said to her friends at the same table, "This restaurant is really thoughtful. Every time I bring my child here, I don't have to worry about him getting bored. The dishes are always satisfying. It is indeed a good place to eat."

In this way, Wang's All-inclusive Restaurant not only retained its original customer base through these measures, but also attracted many new customers. Those customers who were originally attracted by the low-priced set meals of the old French restaurant and hesitated whether to try it, after comparison, still felt that Wang's All-inclusive Restaurant was more attractive and finally chose to continue dining here. Wang's All-inclusive Restaurant successfully resisted the price war offensive of the old French restaurant and stabilized its position in this fierce competition.

However, the pressure of competition did not stop there. Seeing how popular Wang's full-line restaurant was and how its business was booming, the new Asian fusion restaurant began to plan to imitate its innovative model and get a piece of the pie.

The owner of this new restaurant gathered a team of chefs and sat in the kitchen. Pointing at the menu and some food information collected from Wang's All-Inclusive Restaurant on the table, he said to the chefs, "Look at Wang's All-Inclusive Restaurant. It became popular with these fusion dishes. We have to keep up. You should quickly develop some new dishes that are said to be a fusion of Chinese and French flavors, and try to attract more customers and increase the popularity of our restaurant."

After hearing this, the chefs were a little unsure, but they had no choice but to take on the task and began to try to develop new dishes. They imitated the practices of Wang's full-line restaurants and added French ingredients or seasonings to some Asian dishes, trying to create a sense of Chinese-French fusion. For example, in an original Thai curry chicken, French cream and cheese were added, and in a Japanese sushi, French smoked ham was sandwiched. Then, these dishes were given some seemingly creative names and hastily put on the menu.

However, due to a lack of in-depth understanding of Chinese food culture, they simply put different ingredients together without truly grasping the essence of fusion, and the resulting dishes tasted really weird.

One day, several customers came to this new restaurant to try their newly launched Chinese-French fusion dishes. When the dishes were served, the customers looked at the dishes in front of them with anticipation on their faces, after all, the promotion said it was quite attractive.

However, after they tasted it, they all frowned.

After tasting the Thai curry chicken with cream and cheese, a customer couldn't help but complain: "This taste is too weird. The original taste of the curry is covered by the cream and cheese. It tastes greasy and weird. It doesn't have the spicy and delicious taste of authentic Thai curry chicken at all. This is not a fusion dish at all, it's just a random patchwork."

Another customer also shook his head after eating Japanese sushi with French smoked ham and said, "This sushi is even worse. The taste of smoked ham doesn't go well with the sushi at all, destroying the original refreshing taste of the sushi. It doesn't blend into a good taste at all. The fusion dishes at Wang's Restaurant are still authentic and delicious."

Other customers echoed this, and everyone was very dissatisfied with the dining experience, and their original expectations were dashed.

This is not an isolated case. More and more customers have given similar negative reviews after trying the so-called Chinese-French fusion dishes of this emerging restaurant. The restaurant originally hoped to increase its popularity through imitation, but the result was counterproductive. Not only did it fail to attract more customers, but the poor quality of these dishes affected the restaurant's reputation and business became increasingly deserted.

In sharp contrast, Wang's full-line restaurant has always maintained its advantage in the competition with its solid food research and development and high-quality service. The restaurant is still crowded with customers every day, and it is very lively. Customers are full of praise for the dishes and services here. The reputation is getting better and better through word of mouth. It has become a model of the integration of Chinese and French food culture in the Paris catering industry, attracting more and more people to taste the unique and authentic fusion flavor.

……

As the hotel business continues to expand, the unique Chinese-French fusion dishes have attracted more and more customers, the scale of the hotel is also gradually expanding, and the number of employees has naturally increased. Behind this prosperous scene, Wang Jianye has a longer-term consideration. He knows that in order to make the hotel take root in France for a long time and firmly, cultivating local talents is a crucial link. Moreover, this is not only about the operation of the hotel itself, but also an excellent opportunity to spread Chinese catering culture, allowing more French people to deeply appreciate the profound cultural heritage behind Chinese cuisine.

After careful preparation, Wang Jianye decided to open a cooking training course in the hotel. In order to ensure the quality and professionalism of the training, he specially invited several experienced Chinese chefs to serve as instructors. These Chinese chefs have many years of working experience in China and are proficient in making all kinds of Chinese dishes. With the passion to spread Chinese food culture, they crossed the ocean and came to Paris, a city full of romance and food, ready to teach their skills.

Once the news of the training course was released, it caused quite a stir in the local area, attracting many French local employees who were interested in Chinese cooking and some food lovers in the society to sign up. Everyone was curious and looking forward to gaining a deeper understanding of the mysterious and fascinating field of Chinese cuisine.

Finally, the opening ceremony of the first training course was held. On that day, a conference room in the hotel was temporarily transformed into a training classroom, which was equipped with a brand new cooking table, complete kitchen utensils and all kinds of fresh ingredients. On the wall were some pictures showing Chinese catering culture, from ancient traditional stoves to exquisite Chinese tableware, from pictures of local specialties to the lively scenes of the Chinese Food Festival, creating a strong learning atmosphere.

Students walked into the classroom one after another. Some of them were young hotel employees, with a keen desire to improve their skills, while others were food lovers from all walks of life, with their eyes full of curiosity and yearning for Chinese cooking. Everyone greeted each other and talked quietly, and the whole classroom was filled with a lively and slightly tense atmosphere.

Wang Jianye also came to the classroom early. He was wearing a neat and decent suit and stood on the podium in front of the classroom, smiling and looking at every student who came in with a gentle look. After the students were seated, the classroom gradually became quiet, and everyone's eyes were focused on him.

Wang Jianye cleared his throat slightly, and then said in fluent French: "Welcome everyone to participate in our hotel's cooking training course. Chinese food culture has a long history and unique charm. It carries thousands of years of historical heritage and embodies the Chinese people's unique understanding and deep emotions towards food and life. I hope that through this training, everyone can have a deeper understanding of Chinese cooking techniques and the cultural connotations behind them. I also hope that you can spread the charm of Chinese food more widely in the future, so that more people can feel this unique beauty." (End of this chapter)