The Northern Stories of Chef Lao Tan

Chapter 38 Preparations
In the blink of an eye, it's August, and Lao Tan has been in Ganqika for a month and a half.

The decoration of the hotel rooms on the third floor is nearing completion, and now there is only the small work of installing furniture and some details, as well as cleaning.The equipment for the linen room is in place and is being installed and debugged in the past two days.The original plan was to pack the guest rooms to Qitian for management, but Qitian Group didn't look down on this small place and refused to cooperate.I have no choice but to take care of it myself.

The supermarket was finished ten days ago, all kinds of products have been put on the shelves, a salesperson has been recruited, and the trial operation has been carried out for two days.The effect of selling is as expected, not good at all.Only the security guards, workers, and office personnel inside the park came to buy a few packs of cigarettes, drinks, mineral water, milk, and bread, but no outside customers.

Sister Yuan said it was fine, the main purpose was to create momentum, to show outsiders that this is a market.There will be no benefit or even loss of money within two years, mainly to lay the foundation for the future, and now it belongs to the pioneering period.

She did have a pioneering spirit, and rented out all the shops on the first floor in more than a month.There are those who sell agricultural machinery, seeds and fertilizers, hardware, two agricultural vehicle repairs, a building materials store and so on.The reason why these merchants came to open stores is mainly because they have spotted the business opportunities in the future, and they don't have to pay taxes within half a year of opening their stores here, and they are exempt from water and electricity for three months, and the rent is one-third of that in the street.

On the whole, this is a place with a good location. It is in the early stage and has not yet developed.The front guards the national highway, and the transportation is convenient.There is a large industrial park in the back. Ganqika Town has shifted its development focus to the northern half in the past two years. Many small township enterprises have also moved to the south of the National Highway and the area next to the copper factory. Now it has become an industrial area.

It is also planned to move the morning market and night market here. It has been planned to build a farmers' market on the west side of the industrial park during the Chinese New Year, and a vegetable planting base to the west of the farmers' market.If everything goes according to the plan, within two years, this place will be a bustling place with potential for development.

The decoration of the hotel is relatively slow, the kitchen has just been installed, and there is no progress in the lobby and private rooms.The main reason is that the engineering team in the factory is not professional in this kind of meticulous and technical decoration, and dare not do it lightly.

Sister Yuan didn't say anything, just waited for them to pretend.

The day before yesterday, Captain Wang of the engineering team really had no choice. He found Director Gao and said that the hotel could not be installed, so he had to find a professional decoration company.

Director Gao approached Sister Yuan to discuss the matter, and Sister Yuan said unhurriedly that it would be fine to find a decoration company, but the price was expensive, which would exceed the budget, and it might not be enough time.Sister Yuan initially proposed at the meeting that the hotel should find a decoration company to install, but was stopped by Director Gao, who said that the engineering team in the factory could do it.

Sister Yuan didn't say anything, she knew it was not a good thing, but she was the factory director, so if she didn't give it a try, she would just say it was not good, as if she insisted on finding an outside decoration company to do it, and she wanted to get a kickback from it.Now that the engineering team can't do it themselves, it's justifiable to find a decoration company.

Director Gao said that the budget can be increased, as long as the construction is completed by the end of September and the business can be opened normally.So Sister Yuan began to contact the decoration company in the provincial capital, which had to be professional. After they came, they took out the renderings three days later. Sister Yuan and Director Gao expressed their satisfaction after reading it, and then started to decorate.

Sister Yuan was rarely around, so Lao Tan was responsible for the entire decoration.In her words, I don’t participate if I don’t understand, and I don’t point fingers, just look at the results in the end.Her task is to spend money, communicate with leaders, build relationships with merchants, and build good relationships with competent departments and leaders at all levels in the town, banner, and city through social means to pave the way for the development of the industrial park.

Lao Tan was in charge of the scene, and he worked with Captain Wang of the engineering team. They got on well with each other. They had a few drinks together every now and then, and ate at several famous restaurants in the street. They had a good understanding of the local eating habits and culture. With a general understanding.

The Kameng and Han people in Ganqi are half and half, and they have integrated into each other in terms of diet without distinguishing each other.Mongolians can eat pork stewed vermicelli, and Han people can also eat mutton and drink milk tea, and it has become a habit.Mongolian-Han intermarriage is a normal phenomenon, often the man is Han and the woman is Mongolian. There are sauerkraut and white meat on the table at home, as well as milk tea and milk skin.

When eating in restaurants, people often order a catty of hand-picked meat, and then order a few home-cooked stir-fries, half a catty of dumplings or a few bowls of buckwheat noodles.The wine I drank was Zhalantun Erguotou, as well as Mongolian King and Grassland White, most of which were produced by Tongliao Winery. The alcohol content was between 38 and 45 degrees, and the alcohol was not strong.The Mongolian people love to drink, but the high-alcohol wine like Beijing Red Star Erguotou is not good to drink. They like to drink pure grains made by small local wineries.

To the south of the National Highway is the Jinxing Copper Factory, and to the north is the Industrial Park.The main person in charge of the factory area and the industrial park is Director Gao. Under Director Gao, there is Director Fang who is in charge of production and Director Zhang who is in charge of the industrial park.

The copper factory was built in [-] and has been in normal production for three years now.The industrial park was established in [-], broke ground in [-], and was completed in January this year.When the industrial park was being built, the main factory was going to ask Sister Yuan to be in charge. Sister Yuan was not in good health. She had a car accident and her waist was injured. In addition, she felt that she was getting old. She didn’t want to worry about getting involved anymore. She was planning to retire early and rest at home, so she turned it down.

Director Zhang was a publicity officer in the head office before, and he has some relatives with the vice president.The vice president saw that there was a lack of a person in charge in the industrial park, so he recommended him.

The external investment promotion of the industrial park, the decoration of hotels and hotels, and the preparations for opening operations, as well as the external rental of storefronts are all under the management of Director Zhang. There was no progress for a long time, so the group called Sister Yuan over.

After Sister Yuan came over, she took over the preparation and operation of the hotel, as well as the rental of storerooms. Director Zhang felt a little embarrassed and was naturally unhappy.He is directly in charge of the industrial park and has power in his hands. He is a little passive in cooperating with the large-scale construction of hotels and hotels, and always pushes and blocks for various reasons.

Sister Yuan didn't want to have conflicts with him. After all, I came here to help, and I belonged to Pioneer. After straightening everything out, I have to go back to the group. I can't even stay here for a year, and I can't offend anyone. Everything is called Lao Tan come forward.

Old Tan didn't care about those things, he wasn't used to problems, once he got into a fight with Director Zhang because of the water issue, and then there was a physical conflict.

Afterwards, Lao Tan went directly to Director Gao without going through Sister Yuan, and Director Gao mediated through it and it was over.After that, Director Zhang became more polite to Lao Tan—mainly because the two security guards and he had never beaten Lao Tan that day.

Afterwards, Sister Yuan found out, and told Lao Tan that this was the only way to do things outside, as long as nothing happened, she would cover everything.Having said that, it's best not to fight. If you miss and break someone, no one will be able to get the bottom of it, and you will be the one who goes to jail.

In addition to getting along well with a few leaders, I also got along very well with the merchants who rented out.Taking care of water and electricity, especially when the merchants are decorating their facades, he always asks the engineering team to help and take care of water and electricity.

Among these merchants, they have a close relationship with Bart, the boss who sells seeds and fertilizers, and the two always drink together.

The Batemeng people are generous and generous, a typical Mongolian man.Old Tan is slightly fat and burly, with a big bald head and a bloodshot face unique to the Mongolian people. He is generous and neat in his work.Bart initially believed that he was a Mongolian, and he had similar personalities and dispositions, both of whom loved to drink, and soon became friends.

Bart's daughter-in-law is also a Mongolian, and runs a former seed and fertilizer shop in the street.I will come here to have a look every now and then, and sometimes I will make hand-picked meat in the store.Whenever Bart's daughter-in-law was cooking meat, Bart would call Lao Tan over, and the two had a lively drink.

After the hotel started to be renovated, Lao Tan began to recruit troops.Room attendants, room maids, cashiers, cloth liners, hotel waiters, foremen, managers, food delivery students, kitchen staff, etc.

He thought it was a good job to recruit in this place, but after he put up the job advertisement, he found out that it was not the case. There was no one here to see it, so where would he go to recruit people?
Bart looked at the big advertisement he put up and said: "Brother, you can't recruit people like this, who will come here."

Old Tan asked in embarrassment: "Then what?"

"Take off the advertisement and give it to me. I'll take it to the door of the store in my street and hang it up. There are so many people watching it. No one will come if you hang it up."

So Lao Tan took off the advertising cloth and handed it to Bart, and Bart took it to the shop door in the street and hung it up, and then people came to apply for the job one after another.

Considering that there will not be too many guests after the opening here, it is mainly for internal entertainment, and not too many people are recruited.The hotel is recruiting two housekeepers, a waiter, a cashier, and a liner.The hotel is going to recruit two chefs for home cooking, one chef for Mongolian cuisine, one for cold dishes, one for pasta, plus a total of fifteen people for cutting boards, picking lotus, washing dishes, and picking vegetables.There is one manager at the front desk, one bar counter, one foreman, five waiters, two passers-by plus one cleaning and one washing small items.

Sister Yuan said that the leaders of the group, the town, the banner, and the city will all come over when it opens, and the first month of opening must be done properly, and the leaders cannot be asked to find faults.

Lao Tan knew what Sister Yuan meant when she said that she had to eat well, drink well, and live well.As for playing well, it doesn't count, no leader will need to play well here, and their playing well is done quietly.

Needless to say, the place to live is such an environment, the room conditions have been finalized, more than the above and less than the below, the leader will not pick anything, the rest is to eat and drink well.

Sister Yuan said that the big boss of the group likes to eat seafood, especially naked.This needs to be studied carefully.There are no seafood sellers in Ganqika, only crucian carp, carp, grass carp raised in reservoirs and fish ponds, and some loach in the wild.The fish in the sea are all chilled, hairtail is the majority, followed by small yellow croaker, kingfish and mirror fish.

Seafood is the two sellers of frozen goods in the farmer's market, all of which are chilled.There are sea prawns, sliced ​​crabs, squid, ink fountain, ice shrimp, scallop meat, clam meat and the like, and there are no fresh ones at all.

There are no restaurants on the street that sell fresh seafood, not even the largest Haoxiang Hotel. The fish tanks in front are filled with crucian carp, carp, grass carp, and river crabs.The seafood dishes on the menu are all made of chilled seafood, such as "spicy shrimp", "squid on iron plate", "three delicacies on iron plate", "soft fried shrimp", etc. There is no live seafood at all.

Lao Tan set his sights on the big passengers who ran twice a day from the provincial capital to Tongliao on the national highway, and first negotiated with them to bring seafood from the provincial capital, and pay the normal shipping fee.The driver of the bus readily agreed, because the bus is all privately contracted, and who would not want to do it if they can earn freight without pulling people.

Then get in touch with the boss of the seafood shop in the provincial capital, ask them to prepare the seafood you want in advance, and send it to the long-distance bus station the next day to the driver of the bus, who will bring it back directly when they return.A total of three hours' journey, fresh seafood can live for eight hours after being filled with oxygen, no problem at all.

After the supply problem is solved, start to solve the problem of in-store breeding.Two sets of seafood tanks were added to the fish tanks in front of the hotel, specially for raising seafood.A shellfish pond was also designed to raise some small seafood: flower clams, cockles, meretrix meretrix, scallops, red shells, etc. This is also the first in Ganqika.

When Lao Tan was decorating the hall on the first floor, he asked to add a stage. Sister Yuan didn't understand what it meant at first, but she suddenly realized it after Lao Tan finished speaking.

The hall is not big, it can accommodate 200 tables, and it is no problem to accommodate 400 people for dinner at the same time. If it is used as a venue, it can accommodate [-] people.Lao Tan sees the future commercial value of the hall from the perspective of a catering professional.

This is a multi-functional banquet hall. During normal business hours, the screens are used to separate the dining seats, and when there are banquets, the screens can be removed to accommodate receptions.

The stage design has more functions. It can not only preside over weddings, but also be used as a platform for training, and can also be used as a rostrum during meetings.In this way, different banquets can be received and money can be made.

He inspected several big restaurants in the street, all of which have banquet halls.But the decoration design of each banquet hall is very simple. Although there is also a stage, there is no LD large screen, and the audio equipment is not perfect. There is only a microphone that can speak. The background is often a piece of red silk cloth with colorful balloons hanging on it. .Then pull up a red banner and write the theme of the banquet.

The decoration style is still in the mid-90s.

The lobby here is designed to be modern and practical, giving people a refreshing feeling. It is far more than the restaurants on the street, and it will increase a lot of income-individual tourists may not want to come here, but they want to find one when they book a banquet. For a decent restaurant, whether it is the grounds or the food, I hope to be well-organized, so as not to lose face, and I don't care about walking two miles, and the parking lot here is big and spacious enough to park wherever I want.

There is a decent hall that can accommodate many wedding banquets, conferences, and birthday banquets.

And above the hotel is the guest room, where the bride's family can live in the guest room directly, which is not only convenient, but also convenient.In addition, it is quiet here, no one disturbs, suitable for meetings.Come here for a meeting and leave if you can't finish the meeting. You have to eat a meal after all.If there is still a place to stay if you can't finish the day, you can stay here and continue driving the next day without delay.

Since loose sales can't break the situation, you can make a fuss about banquets and group meals, which is also a way to make money.

Sister Yuan happily accepted Lao Tan's suggestion, and said with emotion that Lao Tan was her lucky star, and everything would get twice the result with half the effort with him.

Here we briefly introduce Sister Yuan.

Sister Yuan, Yuan Guifang, is a child of an ordinary worker's family in the provincial capital.Smart since childhood, loves to talk and dance, and has a good voice.After growing up, she was admitted to the art school in the provincial capital. After graduation, she stayed at home for two years and found a man who worked as a salesman in a non-ferrous metal factory to marry and start a family. The man's father was the director of the non-ferrous metal factory, and she also successfully entered the factory to promote department work.

Later, Metal Works and Gold Star Copper merged.At that time, her father-in-law had already retired, and her husband, who had a wide range of people outside because of his sales, opened a small company by himself and raised a woman, so the two divorced.

Because of her outstanding looks, she can speak well, sing and dance well, she was soon transferred from the publicity department to work in the marketing department of the new company, and was responsible for development and external cooperation.She gave full play to her strengths and achieved remarkable results.Of course, she has also been criticized, after all, she is a beautiful woman.

The 40 years old went on a field trip with the group leader that year, and accidentally got into a car accident, his waist was damaged, and he was paralyzed in bed for half a year.People thought that she would never stand up again, but she gradually recovered and returned to her previous appearance.

After the divorce, the child was brought up by her. It was not easy for a woman to bring up a child. Fortunately, she made it through. The child was very up-to-date, admitted to a good university, and graduated in a year.

Now she can be considered retired, no worries.Taking over the industrial park this time is a kind of feedback to the unit. After all, the group has treated her well. She has worked hard for more than [-] years, has a house, a car and deposits, has no worries about food and clothing, and has excellent children. What more can a woman ask for.

(End of this chapter)