Siheyuan: Starting as a Chef Apprentice

When tasting the "Chinese, French and Russian dessert platter", a tourist from Russia picked up a macaron, dipped it in a little mixed jam and put it in her mouth. She closed her eyes and savored it for a while, then said: "This dessert platter is very creative. The crispness of the macarons and the sweetness of the jam go well together. There are also Chinese and Russian desserts. The taste is very rich. I like it very much."

The surrounding tourists heard their comments and tried the food one after another. From time to time, the store could be filled with tourists’ exclamations of admiration for the food.

With the continuous increase in the number of tourists, the hotel's passenger flow has shown a significant upward trend, and business is booming. In order to cope with this situation, the hotel management quickly made a decision to further optimize the service process.

They reorganized every service link from the time the customer enters the store to the time the customer checks out, simplified unnecessary procedures, and improved service efficiency. For example, in the ordering process, an electronic ordering system was introduced, where customers can quickly browse the menu and place an order through a tablet computer, and the system automatically transmits the order information to the kitchen, reducing the time wasted in the process of manual ordering and food delivery.

At the same time, the number of service staff was increased, and a group of new waiters were recruited and trained to ensure that every table could receive timely service during peak hours. The newly recruited waiters have undergone rigorous training and are familiar with the hotel's dishes, cultural characteristics and service standards.

During the training process, they carefully learned how to communicate effectively with tourists from different countries and regions, and mastered basic foreign language oral expression skills and cultural etiquette knowledge in order to better serve customers.

The hotel has also strengthened staff training and regularly organizes employees to participate in various training courses and seminars. The training content includes improving service skills, updating food knowledge, and cultivating cross-cultural communication skills.

In the service skills training course, trainers simulate various service scenarios, such as handling customer complaints and meeting special needs, so that employees can continuously improve their response capabilities and service levels in practice.

Employees actively participated in the simulation drills. They listened carefully to customers' demands, responded and handled them in a polite and patient manner, and constantly summed up experience and lessons to improve their service quality.

During the food knowledge training, the chefs will introduce to the waiters in detail the production process, ingredient characteristics and flavor combinations of each new dish, so that the waiters can better recommend dishes to customers.

In the cross-cultural communication skills training, we invite professional cultural scholars or people with rich international communication experience to explain to employees the cultural customs, eating habits and social etiquette of different countries and regions, to help employees better understand and serve tourists from all over the world, and ensure that every customer can enjoy high-quality and efficient services in the hotel, thereby further enhancing the hotel’s brand image and market competitiveness, consolidating its position in the St. Petersburg catering market, and laying a more solid foundation for future development.

At the same time, the hotel also continuously adjusts and optimizes its menu based on customer feedback, launching more new dishes that meet customer taste needs in order to maintain customer freshness and loyalty.

……

With the orderly operation of the Moscow and St. Petersburg branches, Wang's entire hotel chain has gradually taken root in the Russian market. Wang Jianye judged the situation and established a regional management center in Moscow. This decision has built a solid central bridge for the hotel's business operations in Russia. The center is fully responsible for coordinating a series of key tasks such as procurement, personnel deployment, and market promotion, aiming to promote a more stable and efficient development of the hotel in this vast land.

In the procurement process, the regional management center has carefully crafted a comprehensive and refined procurement system. The professional procurement team has worked tirelessly to travel to every corner of Russia, trying their best to find high-quality food supply sources. Their footprints are all over the agricultural product trading markets in major cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, professional food supplier distribution centers, and special food production areas in remote areas.

In Moscow's large and bustling agricultural product trading market, buyers are like experienced treasure hunters, carefully identifying the quality of each ingredient with extreme rigor.

When faced with a dazzling array of tomatoes, they will use a professional eye to examine whether their color is uniform and bright, press them gently with their fingers, and accurately judge their maturity and freshness by touch.

When it comes to meat ingredients, they dare not slack off at all. Not only do they strictly examine the suppliers' relevant qualification certificates and detailed inspection reports, they also personally check whether the meat's texture is clear and regular, the color is natural and pure, and the elasticity is just right. Only when every indicator meets the hotel's extremely strict quality standards will it be included in the purchase list.

After a long and arduous screening and negotiation process, the procurement team successfully signed long-term cooperation agreements with many suppliers. With the significant advantages brought by large-scale procurement, it successfully ensured the quality of ingredients while effectively reducing procurement costs. Taking the cooperation with a well-known local bread supplier as an example, the procurement team conducted in-depth and detailed market research and multiple rounds of arduous negotiations in the early stage.

They analyzed the supplier's production scale, product quality stability, delivery capabilities, market reputation and other factors in detail, and conducted a comprehensive comparative evaluation with other potential suppliers. At the negotiation table, the procurement team discussed key issues such as price terms, supply quantity, delivery time and frequency with the supplier based on detailed market data and the hotel's actual needs.

After several rounds of negotiations, we finally secured a very favorable price and stable and reliable supply terms. According to the agreement, the supplier can provide the restaurant with freshly baked French baguettes, Russian bread, Chinese steamed buns and other bread products on time every day, and always maintain high standards in quality, thus fully meeting the diverse needs of different customers for staple foods.

In terms of personnel deployment, the regional management center is like a dispatching master with excellent command ability. It can allocate human resources very accurately according to the operating conditions and business needs of each branch in different periods, ensuring that every employee can perform at their best in the most suitable position.

During the peak tourist season, when St. Petersburg, a charming tourist destination, welcomes a flood of tourists, the St. Petersburg branch often faces the severe challenge of severe staff shortage. At this time, the regional management center will quickly activate the emergency deployment mechanism and draw a group of experienced and skilled waiters and chefs from the Moscow branch, which has relatively abundant staff, to provide support. After receiving the deployment notice, these selected employees will immediately pack their bags in an orderly manner and then take a convenient and efficient means of transportation to St. Petersburg.

As soon as they arrive at the branch, they will immediately get into the busy work. With their solid professional skills and good team spirit, they quickly adapt to the new working environment and job requirements, and work closely with local employees to ensure that the branch's various businesses can operate normally and orderly during peak periods, and provide high-quality and efficient services to every customer who comes to dine.

During the off-season, when the number of customers at the branch stores decreases, the regional management center will arrange for employees to take various training courses, take vacations, or participate in the internal maintenance and organization of the branch stores.

For example, we organize employees to participate in training on improving cooking skills, service etiquette and cross-cultural communication skills, etc., aiming to comprehensively improve the comprehensive quality and business capabilities of employees; we arrange for employees to take turns to take vacations, so that they can get enough rest and relaxation after busy work, and return to work in a better mental state;
At the same time, employees are organized to conduct comprehensive inspection, maintenance and organization of the branch's internal facilities and equipment, including inspection and maintenance of kitchen equipment, cleaning and repair of restaurant tables and chairs, inventory and replenishment of tableware, etc., to ensure that the branch's hardware facilities always maintain a good operating state and be fully prepared for the arrival of the next peak season.

Through this scientific and reasonable personnel deployment and management model, the hotel has achieved maximum utilization of human resources and effectively improved overall operational efficiency.

As a key engine to enhance brand awareness and influence, the regional management center has carefully planned and formulated a set of diversified and creative marketing strategies.

In addition to making full use of traditional advertising methods, such as publishing beautifully designed advertising pages in influential local newspapers and magazines, and broadcasting attractive promotional videos on radio and television stations, the hotel is also ingeniously and proactively involved in local community activities and colorful cultural exchange activities, striving to deeply integrate into all aspects of Russian society, so as to minimize the psychological distance between itself and the people.

Among them, sponsoring local schools to hold International Cultural Exchange Day activities has undoubtedly become a highlight of the hotel's marketing strategy. On the campus of a well-known school in Moscow, the sun is shining, colorful flags are flying, and a grand and warm International Cultural Exchange Day event is in full swing.

The staff of Wang's All-Series Hotel arrived at the event site early. They had a clear division of labor and performed their duties, busy and orderly arranging the food display area. They skillfully set up a professional cooking demonstration table and neatly placed all kinds of fresh ingredients, cooking utensils and exquisite tableware.

In a prominent position on the display stand, there was a carefully crafted and colorful fruit platter featuring specialties from China, France and Russia. The French grapes on the plate were plump and round, exuding an enticing fruity aroma; the Chinese lychees were fresh and juicy, with white and red flesh that was mouth-watering; the Russian apples were crispy and delicious, and their bright red color was particularly eye-catching. This fruit platter instantly attracted the curious eyes of many students.

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After the event officially kicked off, the hotel's chefs, dressed in neat and uniform chef uniforms, stood in front of the demonstration table in high spirits, ready to demonstrate the unique production process of Chinese, French and Russian cuisine to the students on site.

The first person to appear was a senior chef from France. With a confident smile on his face and his eyes revealing his love and persistence for the art of cooking, he introduced in detail to the students gathered around him: "Today, I will personally make a classic French dessert for you - crepe."

After that, he skillfully poured the flour, eggs, milk and other ingredients prepared in advance into a clean large bowl, then picked up the mixer and stirred them quickly and smoothly. Under the high-speed rotation of the mixer, the various ingredients quickly blended together, and soon a bowl of fine and even batter was prepared.

Next, he placed the pan steadily on the fire, and after the bottom of the pan was slightly heated, he gently poured in a spoonful of batter. Then, with skillful technique, he quickly turned the pan so that the batter was evenly spread on the bottom of the pan, instantly forming a pancake crust as thin as a cicada's wing.

The students stared at the chef's every move with wide eyes, showing curiosity and amazement on their faces, and occasionally uttered exclamations of admiration. The chef spread a layer of sweet and rich chocolate sauce evenly on the prepared crust, carefully placed fresh fruit slices and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and then carefully rolled up the crust, and a delicious crepe was ready.

He cut the crepes into evenly sized pieces, picked them up with toothpicks, and handed them to the impatient students around him one by one. The students carefully took the crepes, put them in their mouths and chewed them gently. The sweet taste instantly spread in their mouths, and their faces instantly bloomed with happy and satisfied smiles. They said excitedly: "It's so delicious, this is the authentic French taste!"

After the wonderful demonstration by the French chef, the Chinese chef took steady steps to the stage. With a focused and solemn expression, he skillfully began to make Chinese dumplings, a representative traditional delicacy.

He first poured an appropriate amount of flour into a basin, slowly added water, and then kneaded it with both hands. After a while, the loose flour gradually turned into a smooth and elastic dough in his hands. He put the kneaded dough on the chopping board, rolled it into long and thin strips with his hands, and then cut it into small pieces of uniform size with a knife. He picked up the rolling pin and rolled each small piece into a round dumpling skin.

Then, he picked up a piece of dumpling skin, put the pork and cabbage filling that he had carefully prepared in advance on it, and pinched the edges of the dumpling skin with his fingers flexibly. After a while, an exquisite and plump dumpling appeared in front of everyone.

As the Chinese chef skillfully made dumplings, he patiently explained to the students around him the important meaning of dumplings in Chinese culture: "Dumplings are a treasure in traditional Chinese cuisine. During important festivals such as the Spring Festival, every family will get together to make dumplings, which symbolizes reunion, happiness and good wishes." (End of this chapter)