The story of a cook

Chapter 600 Fuzhou Inspection
On Monday, Mr. Wang, Yan Li and I came to Fuzhou.

The boss is very nice and welcomed us warmly.

The name of the hot pot restaurant is very bourgeois, "Shuyuan Hot Pot", which sounds like a lady who went out of the show building, made hot pot with her hands, and attracted a group of literati and rich sons to taste it.The decoration is very Republic of China, with a hint of fashion in the simplicity.The costumes of the waiters are mainly cheongsam and gauze skirts, giving the guests entering the store a feeling of coming to the 30s and [-]s.The tables, chairs and benches are also the same as that period, and the fence of the deck is made of old Shanghai iron art, which seems to tell the fashion and modernity of an era.

What I want to inspect is the kitchen, and the person who receives me is the head chef, Master Wang.

There are sixteen people in the kitchen.There are four meat cutters, four vegetable washers, two dish washers, one soup master, one stir-fry master, two cold dish masters, one snack master, and one younger brother.

The hand-cut fresh meat is made of local yellow beef, which is bright red and tender.Beef itself can supplement the body's nutrition and has anti-cancer effects. It is a tonic for nourishing the stomach and Qi, and a tonic for strengthening the body.Small yellow beef is not only tender, but also nourishes the spleen and stomach, nourishes qi and blood, strengthens tendons and bones, promotes water and reduces swelling.

The benefits of beef are obvious and have high nutritional value, but it must be cooked before eating. Bloody beef contains parasites, which can affect human health.

The yellow beef they choose is all young yellow cattle that were born that year. They are fresh and tender. They are cut into large pieces with a thickness of two millimeters. They are cooked in a hot hot pot as soon as they are rolled.This kind of small yellow beef is not available in the north. The beef in the north is relatively hard, and the meat quality of calf in those days could not reach this level of tenderness.The breed of this cow is related to the feeding method, as well as the local climate and water source.

The meat cutter puts the cut beef half a catty on a plate, wraps it with plastic wrap, and puts it in the display cabinet in front of the open stall, where guests can see it directly.In addition to beef, there are also all kinds of vegetables and mushrooms, all stacked up in the display cabinet.There are not many varieties of seafood, only four, shrimp slippery, crab roe, oyster locust, and scallop.

Next to the display cabinet is the hot pot sauce platform, including seafood sauce, sand tea sauce, mushroom sauce, beef sauce, garlic sauce, Bazhen sauce, sesame sauce, peanut sauce, seafood sauce, chive flower, southern milk, oil consumption, etc. Small ingredients include chopped green onion, minced coriander, spicy millet, wild pepper, minced green garlic and so on.The variety is very rich, and guests can choose by themselves, and each person will be charged five yuan for seasoning.

The kitchen is a fully transparent open kitchen, divided into five parts, cold dishes and pastries are in the front, and the dishwashing room, operation room and meat cutting room are in the back.The costumes of the pastry and cold dish chefs are very special. During the Republic of China period, the clothes of the restaurants are harmonious and unified with the clothes of the front desk staff, which has a different charm.

The operation room is the place where the ingredients are fried and the bottom soup of the hot pot is made. The bottom soup is boiled with beef bones and oxtail. , became milk soup.

The cutting room is mainly responsible for the on-site cutting of yellow beef, making shrimp slips, picking and washing vegetables.Guests can directly see the whole production process through the large open glass, giving people a feeling of cleanliness, sanitation, peace of mind and safety.

Chat with the head chef.

I asked Master Wang: "The oxtail and beef bones we make old soup are also from yellow cattle?"

"Yes, scalpers," he said.

"There is a dish in Hunan called small fried yellow beef, which is very tender and uses local yellow beef. What is the difference between our yellow beef and theirs?
"There is no difference. Sometimes the yellow beef here is not enough, so we use Hunan."

"How much does this meat cost per catty?"

"28."

"Can it be shipped?"

"Yes, this meat is not afraid of freezing. There are cold and fresh meats on the market, which are specially supplied to other places."

"How much do we sell for a plate?" I asked.

"88 a catty, two plates." He said.

I did the math, and the yield rate of the meat I bought was 35 taels per catty, which is 88 per catty, sold for 60.00, and the gross profit rate was 50.00%.If it is shipped to Binhai, the cost of a catty of meat will increase by two yuan, so the gross profit rate is [-]%.This is the ideal result, and if the chilled meat loses water during thawing, it will drop by a percentage point.

Generally speaking, it is more profitable than stir-frying and less profitable than dumplings. The gross profit of dumplings has always been 70.00%.

I consulted with Master Wang about the raw material market here, and I plan to take a look at it when I have time.I didn't see how their stir-fry masters stir-fried the ingredients, and I didn't ask how their dipping ingredients were made. This is a core technology, and it is generally not spread to outsiders, and I don't ask for that trouble.

I did a meal in the kitchen and experienced the working process of the hot pot kitchen for myself.Write down the important points, humbly ask Master Wang for advice if you don’t understand, and learn a lot, and some Chinese dishes can also be used.

Since it was already three o'clock in the afternoon when I arrived, I didn't see what the lunch was like.The dinner is okay at night, the upstairs and downstairs are full, the per capita consumption is more than 1 yuan, and it can sell for [-] yuan a night, which is indeed better than Chinese food.

In the evening, the boss entertains and tastes the hand-cut fresh meat hot pot.I feel that hand-cut meat is affordable, has a beef flavor, is tender, has a good taste, tastes delicious, and has no beef smell.What I appreciate the most is the base soup. It’s really time to hang up. Pure oxtail soup is rich in nutrition and I drank a lot.

The hot pot dipping sauce is generally okay and quite satisfactory.The highlight is the beef sauce, which is different from other people's. It is spicy in the fragrance, fragrant in the spicy, the beef is full, and there is a rounding aroma in the fine product.Do some research, the beef cubes used to make beef sauce are yellow beef, and Korean beef powder and beef floss are added to it. It is very creative and worth learning.

Sitting in the booth in the lobby to eat hot pot, accompanied by the environment of petty bourgeoisie, listening to the melodious Guzheng music, watching the waiters in cheongsams and gauze skirts is another kind of enjoyment, worthy of "Shuyuan" Two words.

When we were about to finish eating, Yan Li asked Mr. Wang and me.

"How? How do you feel?"

"I feel very good, novel and fashionable, especially the meat is hand-cut, which gives people a fresh feeling, much better than eating beef rolls, and it has a feeling." Mr. Wang said.

I said: "His specialty is hand-cut fresh meat. This is very good. It subverts people's concept of shabu-shabu. This is the biggest highlight."

After Yan Li got the approval from Mr. Wang and me, her confidence increased greatly, and she asked, "How about opening a restaurant in our Binhai?"

"Okay, I guarantee it." Mr. Wang said.

"I think it's okay. Binhai people like trends, pursue fashion, and are willing to rush to implement. We can open it as long as we solve the beef problem. His family uses yellow beef, but we don't have it." I said.

Yan Li said, "We deliver the goods here."

"I'll go to the market tomorrow and ask about the price." I said, and then continued: "Also, if I'm sure I'm going to do it, I'm going to visit a few hot pot restaurants to see more and learn. The kitchen is not like the front desk. The services are almost the same, there are many things in the kitchen, and there are also many conversations, and the money is all made by production, so you have to be careful."

"That is, we can't just visit this store, but go to several more." Yan Li said.

"My research focus is different from yours. I focus on raw materials, seasonings, and various dipping sauces, while your research focuses on decoration and service. We cannot go together." I said.

Mr. Wang said with a smile: "Old Tan wants to act alone."

I said, "It's fine if you two are willing to follow. I'll go to the market tomorrow, and it will probably take me all morning."

Mr. Wang said: "I want to see what his lunch is like." That means he doesn't want to come with me.

Yan Li said: "That's it. Tomorrow Lao Tan will go to inspect the market. Mr. Wang, come here and see how the lunch is. I'll go out for a stroll."

It was just past eight o'clock when I got back to the hotel. I didn't drink or eat much when eating hot pot. I just tasted it. I felt a little hungry and couldn't sleep so early, so I asked Mr. Wang to go out for a drink.He is also a good drinker, and the two hit it off immediately, put on their clothes and were ready to go out.

I first came to the lobby of the hotel and saw Yan Li was on the phone. She didn't see me and was throwing a temper tantrum on the phone.

"Didn't I tell you, inspect and prepare to make hot pot." Yan Li said loudly into the phone.After a while, he said again: "With whom? Old Tan, Mr. Wang, why don't you come and check!"

Hearing these two sentences, he knew who she was calling.

"Do you know about the investigation? What do you mean by investigation?"

"I can't go back tomorrow, and I'm planning to go to BJ."

"What are you doing? Look at the tableware."

"You're bragging, I can do what I want."

"Okay, stop moaning, and talk about it when you go back."

"Whatever you want."

She hung up the phone, opened the elevator door and went upstairs angrily.

Hey, let out a long sigh, thinking that being a boss is also living an ordinary life, and you can't do without oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, and quarreling will lead to heaven.

Yan Li is a career-oriented woman, capable and courageous, she can do whatever she wants, and she is an entrepreneur.Willing to work with such a boss, challenging and energetic.I just don't know what it will be like if her husband participates in the future, and will it be the same as now.I just heard that she is pregnant. It is estimated that after the new year, she will focus on raising the baby, and her husband will take care of the restaurant more.

After a while, Mr. Wang came down, and we went out to find a small restaurant, sat down and chatted while drinking.

I haven't had a drink with him for a long time. I used to always drink with him when we were in the old store. Now he is busy with his work and I am busy with mine, and we rarely get together.

After drinking a glass of wine, Mr. Wang asked: "How do you feel about this hot pot?"

"Good." I said.

"I think Mr. Yan is quite confident."

"Then do it, whatever is done."

"It's all up to you to make hot pot, I'm a layman."

I said, "Let's try it. I haven't done it yet. I'll do more research. If I have time, I won't be able to do it until after the new year."

"Well, after the Chinese New Year, we should first find the shop and then decorate it." When he said this, he looked at me and said in a friendly, caring and understanding tone: "Old Tan, you are busy after the Chinese New Year. Let me see you alone. People are too busy, so we need an assistant."

"Assistant?" I smiled and said, "How many officials have an assistant? My four assistants are all very good."

"When Li Xingtang was here, he still had an assistant. You have to have one too. If there is something that can help you, it will be too tiring."

"It's not much, just sort it out."

"It's still your dedication, but I can't."

"It has nothing to do with dedication, it's just willingness to do it. Let's assign you an assistant. It's best to be able to train and understand marketing. Our marketing is poor." I said.

"Our family doesn't have marketing now, just a few orderers. If it wasn't for the good production, our family would have finished." He said.

"Mr. Wang, you really have to focus on marketing. Now marketing is very important. In the future, whoever does a good job in marketing will occupy the market. The era when the wine is not afraid of deep alleys has passed. Now everything pays attention to packaging and publicity. The same goes for restaurants, no matter how well you do it, it will be in vain if no one knows about it.”

"Who do you think is the salesman in our family?"

In his questioning, he heard other meanings, and without thinking too much, he said directly: "We are the two who are good at marketing in our family, but we have too many things to do, and we don't have time to tidy up, so we need a special person to take care of it."

"See if Manager Meng can do it."

I understood what he meant by giving me an assistant, and said directly: "Choose someone else, she can't do it, she's not thinking about marketing, she's okay marketing herself."

Mr. Wang smiled awkwardly: "Old Tan, I admire you for this, it depends on the person."

"Let's don't hold each other. You know what Manager Meng is like. It's okay to have sex with her. Don't talk to her about work. She's too scheming. You'd better get yourself together when you're with her." Be stupid and don't know anything is the best choice."

I told him that because I thought we were good, and I didn't want to make him fall too deep.This is the case among buddies, persuading gambling but not whoring.Some things cannot be said too clearly, especially when it comes to women. If you say too clearly, it will hurt your friend. We are kind, but the other party may not be kind.

His idea is good. We are both directors. If I am assigned an assistant, he will also be assigned to him. The candidate for his assistant should be Manager Meng.His wishful thinking is impossible to realize. Even if I assign Yan Li as an assistant, I will not assign him an assistant. At most, I will add a marketing department.If I were the boss, I would do the same.

(End of this chapter)