The Northern Stories of Chef Lao Tan

Chapter 5 Conversation
When Lao Tan and Zhang Li met again after five years of separation, they were both very emotional.

Whether it is long or short, five years is just a fragment in a person's life.We lament the passing of time and the ruthlessness of the years, but at the same time we cannot break free from the shackles of the years.

Living in the long river of time, I just want to live my life with gusto.

The ups and downs in life are seasoned with the joys and sorrows in life to have a taste.

"When did you arrive?" Zhang Li asked kindly.

"It's been half a day, and I've turned around inside and out." Old Tan said with a smile.

"how do you feel?"

"Very good, not bad."

"Haven't you gone to the second floor?"

"No, just going up."

"Let's go, I'll show you around."

Zhang Li led Lao Tan up to the second floor, pointed to the hall and said: "The layout is different from that of Laogen Villa. It is now a farmyard, the largest in our provincial capital. The hall accepts individual guests and wedding seats, and can accommodate five people. Ten tables."

The hall is divided into east and west areas, the east side is a square table for four to six people, and the west is a round table for ten people.Before the meal time, the waiter had just finished cleaning and was setting up the table.

Zhang Li led Old Tan into a private room.

The private room is very distinctive, just like a rural home, with a heated kang, a square table in the middle of the kang, and a large red tea tray on the square table. The teacups in the tea tray are glass cups with red happy characters when the 70-year-old generation got married.There are six red silk cotton cushions around the square table, presumably to prevent customers from getting their buttocks.

On the top of the kang is a kangqin quilt pavilion, on which is a symbolic set of quilts.This kind of old kangqin is rarely seen in the countryside. I don’t know where Tao Deng came from. It’s very substituting.

There is a round table for ten people in the middle of the room. On the coffee table behind the table is a dry tobacco basket, which contains rubbed tobacco leaves and rolling papers, and old-fashioned matches are placed beside it.

A wooden clothes hanger was fixed on the wall, and beside the clothes hanger were several bunches of hot peppers and corn cobs, chili peppers, and a pair of old pliers were also hung on the wall.

Against the wall are a pair of old-fashioned boxes, on top of which is a modern household appliance - a radio.A flashlight stood next to the radio.

The entire private room gives people the feeling of returning to their hometown in the countryside, with a strong rural atmosphere.

"The utilization rate of private rooms is quite high, right?" Old Tan asked.

"Well, it's quite high, and you have to book in advance every day," Zhang Li said.

"How many private rooms are there?"

"Eight."

The two of them came out of the private room and went up to the third floor. The layout of the third floor was the same as before, nothing changed.

What is attractive is the old photos in the corridor, all of which are from the 30nd and [-]th years.There are barbers walking around the streets, jugglers at temple fairs, prostitutes standing on the street, laborers carrying backpacks in the downtown area, and rickshaw pullers——
These old photos from the Republic of China tell people the past history of the old provincial capital.

I didn't stay too much on the third floor and went up to the fourth floor.The fourth floor is also two areas, the north is the banquet hall, and the south is the office area.

Zhang Li led Lao Tan to the chairman's office, and went out to work after introducing Mr. Xu.

Mr. Xu looks younger than him, gentle and gentle, with a warm smile on his face.

He beckoned Old Tan to sit down, poured a glass of water and handed it over, then sat back on the chair behind the desk, and asked with a smile, "Where did Master Tan do it before?"

"I used to work in Linjiangxuan, and I have been out of town for the past few years. I came back from Binhai years ago." Old Tan said.

Mr. Xu said: "Linjiangxuan is an old dumpling restaurant in our provincial capital. It does a very good job. You were the head chef when you were there?"

Old Tan nodded, and said truthfully: "At first, I was a chef, and later I became the head chef."

Mr. Xu then asked: "Which one in Binhai did it?"

"Blue and White Pavilion."

"Blue and White Pavilion?" Mr. Xu thought for a while and said, "The Blue and White Pavilion is doing very well. I remember that Dongfang Cuisine made a special report on the Blue and White Pavilion last year."

After speaking, he looked at Lao Tan. The restaurants that serve oriental cuisine are the best in the national catering industry. He also wanted to make the Kanto restaurant like that, and asked his colleagues from all over the country to visit and study, so he looked at Lao Tan differently.

Old Tan said, "Well, it was reported."

"Why didn't you do it in the Blue and White Pavilion?" Mr. Xu asked.

"The man at the helm has changed, and he has been laid off."

"Oh——" Mr. Xu thought for a while, and asked, "Master Tan's family is in the provincial capital?"

"No, people from other places live on Songshan Road." Old Tan replied.

"That's pretty close."

Mr. Xu asked a few more questions, and Lao Tan answered them one by one.

These are the questions that bosses often ask before hiring people, that is, preliminary understanding.After all, I have never cooperated before, and I don’t even know each other. This understanding is very necessary.

After the questioning, I got a preliminary understanding. Mr. Xu felt that Lao Tan was quite affordable and stable. He had worked in Qinghua Pavilion and had management experience. He should be no problem as a chef.The image is almost, bald, like a bandit, a bit like the underworld.

These are not the main problems, as long as you have the ability.

The current head chef, Wang Gang, has been working with him for ten years. He is not much to say.It used to be a small restaurant with more than a dozen people in the kitchen. He managed it without any problems, listening to all the howling and howling voices.Now that the store is big, with more than [-] people in the kitchen, it is a bit difficult to manage.

The main reason is that I have never been in charge of a large kitchen before, and I have no experience. The kitchen has not been straightened out since it opened, and the dishes are always complained, which hurt many customers.

One month after the opening, Wang Gang talked to him and said that he was really not capable enough to manage such a large kitchen.A buddy is a buddy, and the business cannot be delayed because of a buddy.Tell him to find a capable head chef to manage it, and learn by himself, and he can take care of it when he is almost as good as others.

Mr. Xu thought about the same thing, so he found two of them.

The first one is the head chef of Hans Beer City.

Hans Beer City is famous in the provincial capital and is doing well.I felt that the head chef must be capable, so I hired him through my relationship.

The head chef asked for a very high salary, twice that of Wang Gang, and Mr. Xu agreed.However, Hans Beer City mainly focuses on Cantonese and Sichuan cuisine. no.

The second head chef cooks home-cooked food and manages a large kitchen.But people are very proud. On the first day of work, they criticize the whole kitchen work, saying that this is not good, that is not good, this is unqualified, that is unqualified, this needs to be replaced and that needs to be improved.Mr. Xu said that this is the condition for the time being, and if the business reaches 500,000, he will rectify according to his wishes.

As a result, after working for five days, he said that he was not used to it and left, and Mr. Xu was very depressed.

After that, I didn't find the head chef again, and told Wang Gang that the two of them were working on it, as long as they didn't lose money, they would be able to straighten things out by summing up their experiences little by little.

He personally stayed in the kitchen for three days, directly commanding, but the more he commanded, the more chaotic he became. Wang Gang kicked him out, saying that you should go to the office and be the boss, and the kitchen is not where you come from.

During the Spring Festival, there are New Year’s Eve dinners and the business is very good. In addition, there are 66 and 88 birthday celebrations for the elderly on the sixth and eighth day of the Lunar New Year. There have been a few days of high turnover, and the month has reached the best result since its opening - 170,000 One [-].But after the Spring Festival, it returned to its original state.

In the last two days, Wang Gang told him that this is not going to work. Now that the front desk job has gone up, the kitchen is still the same, and there is no progress.The main reason is that he has such great ability, and he can only manage it like this.I still have to find a capable person to come over, who can do it for three months, learn from others, see how they manage, and then continue to do it by myself.This kind of behind-the-scenes designation is not acceptable, and the hotel can be killed if it is not done well.

Mr. Xu accepted Wang Gang's suggestion, and only then did Lao Tan apply for the job.

"Master Tan, now our family's problems are mainly concentrated in the kitchen. The quality of the dishes is unstable, good and bad, slow serving, and customers always complain. You have been working for these years, do you have any good solutions?" Mr. Xu asked .

Lao Tan said: "The quality of the dishes is unstable and the serving speed is slow. On the surface, it seems that the cutting board is slow to serve dishes and the chef's cooking skills are not good. Although there are also reasons for this, it is not the main reason. The main reason is that the structure of the dishes is not well designed. , the workflow is not smooth, and the product has no standard. "

"Master Tan, can you explain in more detail?" Mr. Xu seemed to catch something and asked quickly.

Lao Tan said: "The quality of the dishes is not stable, and the slow serving is a common problem, not only in our family, but also in other families. If you want to improve the quality of the dishes, you need to have a smooth operation process and strict production standards. One must. If you want to increase the speed of serving food, what needs to be solved is not the problem of people, but the structure of dishes. A good dish structure is not only profitable, but also serves faster."

Mr. Xu wrote down the process, standards and dish structure on the paper, took a pen to click on the eight characters, thought for a while and said to Lao Tan: "I'll make a call."

After calling, he said, "Come up here."

Then I asked Old Tan: "Have Master Tan ever listened to lectures on procedures and standards?"

Old Tan said: "No, there is no such condition."

"Don't you have a computer at home?"

"No."

"Oh." Mr. Xu nodded, and then asked, "Can you elaborate on the structure of the dishes you mentioned just now?"

Lao Tan organized his language and said: "The structure of the dishes refers to the composition of the dishes we operate. It is more accurate to say the recipes. Our understanding of the recipes is to write the dishes that the chef can make on it, especially the special ones, as special features." Dishes are the focus of display. When formulating a recipe, the first thing to consider is whether each dish can be cooked well and whether it tastes good, and the recipe is formed after confirmation.

To put it simply, the menu is determined by the chef, and most of the dishes in it reflect the chef's specialties, rather than the restaurant's specialties.It is uncertain whether you will make money or not, as long as you do not lose money. "

Lao Tan would go on to say that the door of the office was pushed open, and a man of 36 or 1.7 years old came in, with a dark face, about [-] meters tall, well-proportioned, with piercing eyes, and a simple and honest face. .

With a helpless expression on Mr. Xu's face, he said to the visitor, "I'm not knocking."

The visitor smiled, nodded friendlyly at Old Tan, and said to Mr. Xu: "Forgot, pay attention next time, why did you ask me to come up?"

Mr. Xu pointed to Lao Tan and said to the visitor: "This is Master Tan, here to apply for the head chef." Then he introduced to Lao Tan: "This is Wang Gang, who has been working with me for ten years, our head chef."

Old Tan stood up and shook hands with Wang Gang. Wang Gang said enthusiastically, "Hello, Master Tan!"

Old Tan smiled friendly.

Mr. Xu said to Lao Tan: "Master Tan, what did you say just now, let's continue."

It is very difficult to continue speaking after being interrupted in the middle of a sentence, Lao Tan had to reorganize the language.

He coughed and cleared his throat first, and said: "The structure of dishes is the embodiment of the characteristics of the restaurant, and it is also the guarantee of whether it is profitable or not. A good structure of dishes is a profit model, and at the same time it can create a corresponding marketing model. If the dishes The unreasonable structural design not only makes it difficult to guarantee the quality of the dishes, but also affects the speed of serving.

To put it simply, the thinner the recipe, the higher the profit, and the thicker the recipe, the thinner the profit. "

"The thinner the recipe, the higher the profit, and the thicker the recipe, the thinner the profit." Mr. Xu murmured in a low voice, then wrote down this sentence, and bowed his head to meditate.It didn't take long, and after 2 minutes, he raised his head and asked Wang Gang: "Wang Gang, do you think our family has a lot of food?"

"Who knows, it's all up to you." Wang Gang complained a little, and then added, "I think Master Tan is right. I know what it means, but I just can't say it."

Mr. Xu didn't care much about Wang Gang's attitude. The old subordinates, the two of them are always like this, and they are used to it.But Wang Gang did tell him about the large number of dishes. He thought that such a big store should have more dishes and less shabby ones.

Listening to what Lao Tan said now, it feels like that is the case.

　Regardless of the size of the shop, don’t design too many dishes. Only one or two dishes can eat the guests, and the rest are all green leaves.

　　Green leaves can only be paired with safflowers, without safflowers, no matter how many green leaves there are, it’s useless.

　　Of course, I still ask for your attention.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)