Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

"So, you can select some talented chefs from the grassroots level, and we can organize a field trip like those writers did. One is to broaden everyone's horizons, and the other is to let everyone experience the food culture."

Du Shaojie thought of an idea and decided to personally take the core chefs of Xiangweiju to various places in Hunan Province.

He is quite familiar with this route and knows that there are many delicious snacks among the people.

Don't you want to increase the number of varieties in the [dish library]? Then go to the field to study and learn. As long as you are attentive, you will definitely have a constant source of inspiration.

It is called a "field trip", but in fact it is just an alternative training activity.

He has recently come to feel that the "spirituality" of cooking is very important. Spirituality comes from life and practice, and it won't work if you do it in isolation.

Therefore, he did not take over the responsibility and casually bring out a batch of new dishes as he did in the past.

Instead, I want to let the backbone members of [Xiangweiju] experience it themselves, perhaps this will have a better effect.

All the staff gathered in Xingcheng, rented a bus, and started the [Hunan cuisine roots search] journey. With a [Hunan cuisine master] like Du Shaojie leading the team, on-site guidance may bring surprises.

"Although your dish Tiger Skin Pork Knuckle is not as good as Sauce Pork Knuckle in terms of technique, it also has its own characteristics. Remember, our restaurant is positioned in the middle and low end, and some of the expensive dishes can be replaced by slightly cheaper ones."

During these two days, the group stayed in a small county town.

Due to their tight schedule, they basically have no time to travel in each place they visit, and their focus is on the local specialties.

This time, I mainly came to investigate the special stir-fried dishes and snacks from various places. These delicacies are not widely spread, but there are many things worth learning from them.

"Also, this dish [Stir-fried Porcini Mushrooms] is very interesting and delicious. Can we improve it?"

Even though these people are Hunan chefs, they have never seen many local specialties.

This trip was really eye-opening, and the key is that it opened up my mind. I believe that I will not be troubled by the lack of [dish library] in the future.

【Xiangweiju】is a low-end restaurant, and unlike some high-end restaurants, it does not have high requirements for dishes. Stir-fried dishes can also be served, as long as they are popular.

"Do you understand everything?"

"Understood!"

"Well, let's set off early tomorrow morning."

The bus carrying the company's core Hunan cuisine chefs rushed across Hunan Province.

Du Shaojie and his team visited one county after another, and found that the specialties of each place were different. Even for a dish with the same name, there were often several versions of its cooking method, and the tastes varied greatly.

Everyone is constantly absorbing nutrition from these special foods. It may not be obvious in the short term, but after a while they will find that this journey of [Exploring the Roots of Hunan Cuisine] is crucial to improving their future cooking skills.

This time, Du Shaojie visited some places he had been to before, and some places were also his first time.

Like everyone else, he also gained a lot and learned a lot of local specialties. He asked someone to record them and share them with everyone.

Du Shaojie seemed to have returned to the past, and every night he would go into the simulated scene to replicate the new dishes he had learned.

After everyone returned to Xingcheng, they took the train to Yangcheng. They will receive a new round of training at the training center to turn their insights from this trip into real strength.

During this period, some [Xiangweiju] stores have been affected to a certain extent. After all, the departure of key chefs will bring some side effects.

But with the return of these backbones, this problem will no longer exist.

Du Shaojie teamed up with several Hunan cuisine masters to select a batch of new Hunan cuisine, and then distributed the menu, process specifications and requirements to each store.

While organizing staff to learn, each store also changed its menu, with new dishes accounting for as much as 50%.

The effect of the new change was very good. Customers returned, and revenue and profits stopped falling and rebounded. Dong Jun finally breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, if Du Shaojie hadn't stepped in, he really couldn't have done it himself.

The business of [Xiangwei Ju] quickly returned to normal levels, but this was not the peak. After a period of fermentation, various financial indicators reached a new level.

After the business conditions of each store became stable, Du Shaojie no longer cared about things here.

Although Dong Jun is not a pioneering talent, it is not a problem to let him maintain the status quo. The upper limit of [Xiangweiju] is not high, and the lower limit is not low. As long as the operation is stable, the characteristics of the dishes are highlighted and the cost-effectiveness is high, it can continue to operate.

Meng Gang once suggested to Du Shaojie that he wanted to turn "Xiangweiju" into a franchise chain.

If authorized franchising is opened, [Xiangweiju] can open stores all over the country in a very short period of time, which will be several times more than the current number of stores.

Apart from retaining a few directly-owned stores, the company collects franchise fees from other stores. This is a way of pretending to make money without doing anything.

Du Shaojie rejected Meng Gang's suggestion. The biggest disadvantage of joining a chain store is that it is difficult to ensure the consistency of food quality in each store, which might ruin their reputation.

Moreover, the current logistics and relevant laws have not kept up, and there will be many difficult problems in joining the chain.

"Every time a crisis is resolved, it is actually a huge step forward."

Du Shaojie is very happy about the changes in [Xiangwei Ju]. Even a century-old store will not have smooth sailing and will always encounter various problems on the road ahead.

Every time a problem is solved, the company is sublimated. Perhaps, every century-old store is built in this way.

Du Shaojie rested for a few days and then went to the capital.

After a while, Pang Weidong also came back from Shenzhen, so the two of them made an appointment to go fishing at the reservoir.

"Ajie, the tech and internet stocks have fallen a lot recently. Once our restricted shares are released, it will be good to get $3 per share."

Although they said they were out fishing, neither of them was paying attention to the fishing rods.

Pang Weidong talked about the recent stock price trend of NTSE and couldn't help shaking his head. In fact, it was not just this stock that was weak, the stocks of the other two portal websites they had sold before were also falling.

"It doesn't matter. I plan to hold on to NTSE's stock. It will eventually go up. Anyway, we have made a lot of money on the stocks of the other two portal websites. The income has already covered the cost of the three stocks."

With the bursting of the Internet bubble, it was not uncommon for NTSEDE's stock price to fall to $3, or even below $1.

Anyway, Du Shaojie intends to fight a protracted war, and it is no problem to make a few hundred million dollars in the end. This is a typical tactic of using time to exchange for space. As long as you don't care about the time cost, you will always see the day when gold shines.

The premise is that you are holding a piece of gold, not a piece of dog shit.

Pang Weidong did not ask the other party about the specific operation plan in the future. The first time Du Shaojie worked as a nanny for him and Xu Bo, she helped them earn a lot of money. He couldn't always be a nanny, right?
Du Shaojie didn't say anything. He said the same thing. Anyway, he had already made back his investment, so he could play however he wanted in the future. He didn't have the problem of being a know-it-all.

"Lao Cai, bring the fishing net over here and help us catch some fish for lunch."

The two sat by the reservoir for a whole morning but didn't catch a single fish.

However, Pang Weidong had a solution. He called the reservoir manager and asked him to help catch a few fish.

Afterwards, the two of them drove to a farm, and Du Shaojie personally cooked a dish of [Spicy Fish], a dish of [Dry-fried Fish], a dish of [Chopped Pepper Fish Head], and a dish of [Lotus Sauce Fish Slices].

The farm added a few more dishes and everyone started to eat lunch.

Ever since Pang Weidong made money from Internet stocks, he and Xu Bo have plunged into the gaming industry.

The South Korean online games that the company represented were very profitable, and the initial investment had already paid off. The two guys got a little carried away, and invested in no less than 10 Internet companies in their own names.

It is called bottom fishing.

"Dongzi, the two of you should stop investing blindly. Although the amount of money invested is not a lot, it is also earned through hard work. Why waste it?"

Du Shaojie and Pang Weidong drank Erguotou at noon. As they drank, Pang Weidong talked more and more.

He talked about some investments he and Xu Bo had made together. In total, they invested more than 10 million yuan, but in the end, they didn't even make a splash.

After listening to this, Du Shaojie couldn't help but give some advice.

"Yeah, don't make blind investments, just do your job well."

Pang Weidong wondered if his and Xu Bo's luck had run out. After learning from their mistakes, they decided not to take any more risks.

Venture capital is not the two's forte, but fortunately the losses are controllable and it doesn't matter if they stop in time.

After eating and drinking, Du Shaojie and Pang Weidong went back to their respective homes.

After returning home, Du Shaojie felt a little sleepy, so he decided to lie down for a while, but he fell asleep immediately.

When I was half asleep, I heard Luo Qin shouting, "Boss Du, Boss Yu called and said he wants to talk to you."

Du Shaojie opened his eyes and subconsciously reached out to take the phone.

"Ajie, when can you come back? There is a problem in our factory in Bangkok, and I need to go and solve it myself, but my loan has not been approved yet."

Yu Mo mainly wanted to talk about the loan issue.

The company is currently building a new production line in Dongguan, a city near Shenzhen. Due to the large investment and the shortage of its own funds, it plans to borrow 2 million yuan from the bank.

We had good talks with the bank before, but now it's stuck again.

Yu Mo wanted to ask him to coordinate with the bank, which meant asking him to go find Jiang Dongyuan.

"Then I'll go back as soon as possible. This kind of thing can't be explained over the phone. I need to talk to President Jiang in person."

Du Shaojie agreed without hesitation.

He is the major shareholder of Dongsheng Electronics. Although he usually doesn't take care of things, he will not refuse to help when the company is in trouble.

"Okay, Ajie, I'll treat you to a drink when I get back from Bangkok."

Yu Mo immediately hung up the phone. She couldn't wait for Du Shaojie and needed to rush to Bangkok as soon as possible. (End of this chapter)