Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 206 Han San's Advice

Xiao Wei pointed to a 2700 yuan frying pan next to him and said, "This needs to be used with that. When you fry an egg, you can taste the fennel flavor." Foreigners don't stir-fry; in fact, they don't have ladles, only spatulas. What he calls a ladle is a soup ladle, which is not suitable for Chinese chefs. Western cuisine emphasizes drinking soup, with sweet soup, thick soup, pre-meal soup, and post-meal soup. The soups are all cooked in large barrels, and the ladles have particularly large openings.

Chen Hui looked it over from all sides and said, "I don't know if this will taste good when used for stir-frying, but it will definitely be salty."

Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng both looked at him and asked, "Why?"

Chen Hui pointed to the price tag and said, "Thinking about the combined price of the pot and spoon, wouldn't your hand tremble? The salt just splashed down in one go."

"Haha," Han San laughed as he walked over from behind, saying, "I must say, it's quite a sight. Most people would tremble if they used these to cook; the whole table of dishes wouldn't even be worth as much as the spoons."

Xia Maosheng asked, "Will anyone buy this?" He was still holding the spoon, reluctant to put it down.

Han San shook his head and said, "Ordinary people can't afford this, and big restaurants can't afford it either. It's specifically for foreigners. There are quite a few restaurants in Fengtian run by foreigners, and those big hotels all have Western food sections, but they don't sell well at all. It's just for show. Have the goods arrived?"

Xiao Wei said, "Not yet. I just asked over there if they were loading the truck, and I told him to bring it directly to the front gate."

Han San gestured for the group to sit down, took out cigarettes, and told everyone to disperse. He said, "I called you over to discuss something with you. I was thinking, why don't you just open a shop over there? Is that feasible? Your place is so big."

Xiao Wei thought for a moment and said, "I do have that idea, but isn't this too hasty? I was thinking of waiting until a batch of students come out before doing it, but right now no one knows how to do it."

Han San waved his hand and said, "This is also for the sake of running the classes. Having a shop there means we can have real equipment and practice. Don't worry about the instructor. We can hire someone from there to stay for a few months and pay them a salary. Once the students have settled in, we can find a suitable replacement."

Xiao Wei looked at Xia Maosheng, who said, "You make the decision, I don't care."

Xiao Wei hesitated for a moment and then said, "Then, shall we give it a try?"

Han San nodded, pointed at Xiao Wei, and said, "Okay, then let's open it. You'll need to set up your food factory over there. Don't go all out. You need to be able to bake cakes, cookies, bread, and things like that. Otherwise, what will you sell in your shop? You can't just focus on birthday cakes. You need to have everything. You need to cultivate the market. Once you have your stuff on the shelves, people will naturally buy it. And it's better to have it from the start than to start slowly. No matter how many shops there are later, when people see this stuff, they'll think, 'Hey, so-and-so's family was the first to make this.' Think about it, isn't that right? And you also need to bake the base for your birthday cakes, process the butter, process the fruit sauce, you need space for everything."

Xiao Wei asked, "Isn't butter just bought and used directly? How is it processed?"

Han San laughed and said, "Cream is just defatted and deodorized beef and mutton fat. How can you use it directly? You have to add sugar and puff it up, which is troublesome and takes up space. Fruit paste is made by boiling agar, boiling the gel, adding sugar, and filtering. That's a bit more troublesome. When you make mooncakes in the future, that will be even more troublesome. Nothing in food making is simple."

Xiao Wei said, "Then where are we going to find workers? We can't just wait for classes to start and trainees to come, can we?"

Han San said, "It's easy. It won't take many people. Let me do the math: cakes, bread, biscuits, and some snacks—five or six people are enough to set it up. This stuff mainly relies on machines. Xia, didn't Longcheng have any food factories before? I remember back then, every city had food factories and canning factories that produced things like cakes, biscuits, and hawthorn preserves for sale. There must be some. Go back and ask around. The old workers there are all skilled, and they have good work attitudes and are responsible. Just find five or six."

Xia Maosheng nodded and said, "Yes, there are several factories. When I was a kid, I was so craving some that my buddy and I climbed over the wall to try and steal some, but we didn't find anything. The old gatekeeper kicked us a few times. There were food factories, canning factories, and popsicle factories."

Everyone was surprised to learn that Xia Maosheng had this dark past, and they burst into laughter.

Han San said, "When I was a kid, there was nothing I was afraid to do. I never stole from a food factory because the walls were too high to get over. We stole from a brewery, but one time, one of my buddies got drunk and started acting crazy. There were seven or eight of us who didn't dare to run away, so we stayed inside with him. We were all caught. When my dad went to get him, he almost beat me to death."

Xiao Wei laughed for a while and then asked, "Third Brother, according to what you're saying, how big can a food factory be? How many machines would it need?"

Han San smoothed his thinning hair, crossed his legs, and pondered for a moment before saying, "We need at least two three-tiered ovens, three or four large proofing cabinets, two large dough mixers, one medium-sized one, one large, one medium, and one small egg beater of each size, two sets of cookie cutters, several sets of molds and nozzles, bread molds, cake molds, several movable racks, and you can just weld the workbenches. You can get galvanized steel sheets, right? You can lay the whole sheet on top, or steel plates will do."

He lowered his head, pressed his fist against his forehead, and after a long while said, "That's about it. I can do this much. Just fill in the gaps if needed. I can't remember anything else."

Chen Hui said to Xiao Wei, "Actually, you can discuss this with Sister Shang. I think she knows more about this than we do. She'll definitely be able to find the person."

Xiao Wei clenched his fist, nodded, and gave Chen Hui a thumbs-up.

Han San glanced at Chen Hui and continued, "For this scale, a factory of five or six hundred square meters is enough. We can expand it gradually as it gets bigger. I'll also help you with some of the products; we still have some resources on hand."

Xiao Wei asked, "Which way out?"

Han San said, "I'll set up a stall for you in the market behind Guanyuan. You can get some wholesale there. I'll also help you find shopping malls and stuff. For example, I'll help you find a way to sell your cookies in Korea. Cookies sell well there, and you don't need to make them well. Just the most common kind sells the most. The good ones don't sell well there because it's a poor area."

Xiao Wei said to Xia Maosheng, "How about we open two shops downstairs? One shop can specialize in cookies, both the good and the average ones, and the other can be a bakery and cake shop. We can leave the other two shops empty for now and sell instant noodles later, okay?"

Chen Hui said, "What do you think? Would it be alright to ask Old Chen from Donglaishun to help us promote their products? Their products are sold in many shopping malls, so they should be quite well-known in this area, right?"

Han San said, "If you have resources in shopping malls, I suggest you set up a counter. Our products are all about freshness. Except for cookies, nothing can be displayed for ten days or half a month. A counter is the best. You can set up and sell them on the same day. If you don't sell them, you can take them back and dispose of them."

Xiao Wei thought for a moment, then smiled and shook his head, saying, "We haven't even gotten this up and running yet. We're thinking too far ahead. Let's get the factory up and running first."

Han San said, "This isn't just wishful thinking. You can talk about this on GG (a Chinese social networking platform). Arrange jobs for the trainees. Think about it, why are the trainees learning this? How many of them can actually open a shop? The investment isn't huge, but it's not small either. But once you arrange jobs, it's all settled. When you have enough people, they can start working. Arrange three or four people in a shopping mall, open a few more shops, five or six people in each shop, and business will pick up, and your reputation will spread."

(End of this chapter)