[ Catering Industry ]

Dining comfort circle

The Internet has been teaching you to escape your comfort zone for N years.

But I'm only good at comfort.

Ray, Taiwan founder of Manchuniu, comforted him,

Persisting in staying in your comfort zone is also an ability!

If you fall into the water,

It is good to learn the synchronized butterfly stroke if you are not proficient in skills,

Or did you learn how to scrape dogs when you were young?

The first time I saw Ray was in the office. He had a beautiful face and sometimes smiled humbly. When he spoke, he would nod gently, revealing his white teeth, and he looked like a dandy man. "Probably a rich second generation in Taiwan." I thought silently.

Just as Haidilao's year-on-year profit dropped by 90%, and he began to do milk tea and noodle shop sideline businesses, Japan's Sukiki pot and barbecue are in the ascendant and have become popular investments with great profits, he was at the forefront of the conversation with me on how to get customers to eat the bowl of traditional charred beef dondollies in his hand. There is a sense of happiness. This matter is essentially similar to the fact that most successful chain owners talk about winning awards, expanding stores, and getting venture capital... These "internal scrolls" have nothing to do with it. Of course, he would never lie flat. After a deep chat, I realized that he was the founder of a beef rice shop into a small chain empire. I was impressed by the fact that his original intention had not changed.

Most guests, like me, spend half an hour eating a full meal during busy work breaks. They feel the simple word "Man" in their hearts, satisfied, satisfied, and full of energy... Then, they return to their original rhythm with joy. Ray often stayed in the store, gazing at these expressions that made him feel happy, just like seeing himself at the beginning of his business.

Do what you love and are good at

Ray used to be a professional handball player. In Asia, almost only South Korea and Japan have hit ball, which is a very small minority. A short sports career accidentally cultivated Ray'sEat meat cells and become a famous charcoal steak expert in the sports team. Recalling that when he was on the school team, Taipei roast bird and roast meat shops were already popular."I fell in love with eating Cheers in high school."

At that time, he retired mostly because Ray found himself fascinated by charcoal-fired pork dishes and decided to go to Taipei's one-Michelin star "Taipei Big Bowl of Roast Pork" for an interview. The boss there came from his love of "Cheers". But Ray had never been able to apply for a job at that time, and he couldn't even apply for the simplest salad position."I became in awe of this industry. In 11 years, I had enough food to eat equivalent to RMB 1200, and I ordered the bar individually. It turns out that Shalagang has to stay for more than a year before being promoted, which is very demanding."

He retreated to another meat shop and secretly began to do market research to learn his solid ability to fly at low altitudes in this industry. "In Taiwan, there are not so many marketing and marketing, focusing on cooking food and not having to make anything other than eating. Everyone comes for the taste they like, regardless of the price or the environment. After work, we go to the Taipei Snack Noodle Restaurant. It costs about RMB 20-30. I don't like that thing because of the price. It's very simple and has no packaging."

Ray's daily work starts at 3 o'clock in the afternoon in Taipei, which is the bustling time. Getting off work is the completely opposite scene. Ray rides his motorcycle out of the store and comes home. It is usually one or two o'clock in the evening, and the streets are empty. When he occupied several lanes and stepped on the accelerator recklessly, he couldn't hear the roar in his brain, only the clear thinking of the clear wind and the bright moon. One day, he suddenly realized that it was time to change. When he started his business in 15 years ago, he was only 27 years old and felt that he should do something meaningful in life before the age of 30. He also brought in the leader he met when working in a meat shop as a partner. "His name is Paul. We are about the same age. I was in 86 and he was in 85. We like this thing. Charcoal fire is very charming."

Ray was a newborn calf who was not afraid of tigers at that time. From December 1914 to January 1915, he frantically wrote catering plans and decided to make a ritualistic and affordable charcoal steak. The positioning was to make the night market food texture and heat it on-site. Six ounces, sold for nearly 40 to 50 RMB at that time. "Meat in Taiwan is cheap, and we believe this can be done well."

Ray was confident, but after opening the business, he didn't consider many things he discovered and paid a lot of tuition. "I don't know whether the building has the conditions for catering and whether it complies with regulations. It's all over the budget." He borrowed 500,000 yuan from his parents and hastily opened a shop in the new district of Taipei on the most dilapidated street corner near 101. "On our right hand is South China Wenxiu, with many artists. Across the street, that area is a high-end residential area worth 10 billion yuan. Our place is a slum, next to the tire repair man on the left and the pharmacy on the right. The gap is too big."

The place where the store was first opened was a place that Ray thought was very useless and didn't think it would become popular. The two young people only saw that the road leading to the "rich area" next to the place was very large, four-lane, and a beautiful row of trees came from the sun. "I have no concept, I just want to start a business."

There have been more flies than people in the store for several months. Many unexpected things have happened and there are not enough manpower. Ray spends 20 hours a day in the store and buys goods himself. "In order to make a living, we started selling rice and bento at noon. It was simpler than at night. There were no salads, fruits, or side dishes. A bowl of rice with steak, fat beef or fish, business is good at noon in that place, but cheap charge-grilled steaks cannot be run at night. Business has been bad for a few months. At night, we ride out to see other people's product structure and traffic."

After maintaining it for 6 months, Ray suggested to several partners that we should actually specialize in rice. "My personality is more direct and I don't want to make cheap charcoal-roasted beef. Customers don't want to, why should they insist?The market has given you a voice. I say we will change the meal. If it doesn't work, we will cancel it and stop playing."

The entire team supported Ray's decisive decision. Ins was popular at that time. Ray found a college student and started queuing within a few days after writing the book. He didn't spend any money. Unexpectedly, he launched a blogger very accurately, and business began to explode. "We are not like big companies that don't have a complete talent department, and we don't feel that we have to have human and financial resources in place to do what I want to do. We found many employees but couldn't do it, so we asked our parents to help with the dishes. At that time, we had friends who even invited Guo Ximing to dinner, and many celebrities came to the store. I welcome them, not that I don't know, but it's an illusion. They're not my guests. My guests are 2-3 times a week. If I want to do it for a long time, I need guests who come frequently."

Ray said that they were very lucky, and some elders among them told them what to pay attention to. "We don't understand. At that time, the rice business was very good, and we didn't have time to prepare. Many of them had to do it ourselves, and we had to do it ourselves to serve and wash the dishes. It would be around 11 p.m. every day. There were too many disputes and many unpleasantness in the middle, but now I think back on it is an experience. Although I am very grumpy, I will turn around and care about the team. I just do it for the good of the company and our career. It's about things and not about people. We later found a partner in. He is a partner in Wang Pin, older than us, and learned a lot from him. I didn't understand his ideas at first, but I figured it out a lot last year and felt that I still had to learn."

Good business was unstoppable. At that time, Ray already had two small stores. He asked Wang Pin if he wanted to accept it, but they said no. Ray came to Hangzhou for inspection in 16 years. He valued his feelings and wanted to develop his career in Hangzhou because his other half was here. As a result, he broke up halfway through the shop opening plan. Partner had a wife at that time, and it was impossible for him to come, so Ray's fate with Hangzhou felt a little stubborn, and it later proved that this was a blessed land in his life.

But it didn't go so well at first. Ray entered the Hangzhou market alone in 17 years, full of confidence, but it backfired. It landed in Hangzhou on May 14 and started operating on June 27. It began to lose money. "Our costs are clearly well controlled. I looked for the reasons carefully and found that many of them really didn't work, the taste was not good, and the ingredients were not good. The same level of ingredients used in Taiwan need to find another supply chain here. I have suffered losses for four consecutive months. I returned to Taiwan alone, held a shareholders meeting to apologize, and shed tears. After I came back, I lost money for three consecutive months. I wrote a daily newspaper every week, and sometimes I paid for it myself. For example, if we did a task for 1000 yuan, we actually did 800 yuan, and I posted 200 yuan myself. Three months were very painful. I went to various aspects of cooking meat to find problems and make adjustments, including sauces, and made adjustments myself. It was a difficult time."

Most merchants will work hard on marketing at this time, but Ray has been holding back for 4 months and hasn't done anything in reviews or banking channels."I know I'm not ready yet. When we were in Taiwan, we didn't do discounts, and people would misunderstand if you were going to lose money. We also did marketing, with different methods. I watch while studying."

I asked Ray how he made the sauce himself. He said that he went to a local butcher shop and saw a detail. Most Taiwanese butcher shops eat the original flavor, with most salt and black pepper. But there will be sauce here, and the sauce will be thick and thick. In order to find the right taste, he ate a work-related injury when he first came to Hangzhou. He went from a bodybuilder to a "restaurant owner who loves food".

"Because our sauces follow the natural route in Taiwan, I changed them while I was here, but I was also unwilling to use additives. We use more fruits and the cooking time is longer, which suits Hangzhou's taste and is different from Taiwan. In Taiwan, I use sugar cane, and here I use apples. Be more natural, vegetarian food can also be eaten. I didn't use chicken bones. We also redesigned the table for Hangzhou. Everything was disassembled, salad, fruit, and soup. It sounded like a fixed meal, a cold square box, but I made it as sumptuous as a banquet. I like to do research and development with employees. They have different perspectives and inspire me."

He went to many well-known roast meats in Hangzhou to try dishes, flip through materials, and mix sauces in the kitchen, with little rest time. "You have to adjust before you can find a way. In the end, you still insist on it. You don't know if it will be like giving up. It's not yet the last moment. Shareholders also supported it, but we still insisted on the word. We had a judgment on the matter. We started this marketing. At that stage, Hangzhou was the same as us as us, but they were sashimi rice. We only cook beef, and we classified it as Japanese food. The customer asked why there were no salmon, but I couldn't cook it. It didn't have that advantage. Food safety issues, and in case the customer would have diarrhea after eating it."

Treat guests as friends

I asked Ray how much time he spent getting to know his guests and what unforgettable efforts he had made. "Actually, what saddened me most was that in the third month, a couple came in. The boy loved this girl very much, but now all the restaurants next door were full, so they had no choice but to choose our house. At that time, I was running both infield and outfield. The female guest said what it was and fell into the bowl. This man was very wronged. I feel guilty when I treat guests as my friends. I have made coffee, and coffee beans will be affected by the weather. The water temperature, 1+2+3, are the final factors. If you give the customer a sip, you will lose them. The mood is the same as that bowl of rice. So at that time, I tried things every day, observed the guests eating, and adjusted and tried eating. Our food is the same."

The friends around Ray share my sentiments, and his business sensitivity has proven genius. Ask him about his skills and say that the guests 'feelings are intuitive based on their feelings alone. He doesn't like to talk very much. He only looks at other people's faces and cares about their actions and feedback. "Like the sauce, I make it myself. I don't hand it over to others. No matter how late I make it myself. Everyone has different experiences. The feedback messages you see on the table are also different."

However, regarding the Hangzhou market, Ray said frankly that it is difficult to fight,"Hangzhou's dining habits are used to eating cheap but hearty food. It is very difficult to do now. The population base is not so large, and tourist cities are relatively mobile. No matter which city you want to persist in, you can't say that you have to cut corners and treat your customers honestly just because you made a profit today."

However, Hangzhou has become more and more tolerant in the past two years. In 17th year, when he asked employees to ask customers for feedback, he basically received cold eyes. But Ray has always told employees to treat guests as friends. Now the guests are more generous than before, especially old customers, and will sincerely give valuable suggestions for the restaurant.

Ray has stayed in Hangzhou for 4 years and found that many young people in Hangzhou have strong tastes. "You want to know what they want. I was like this when I was young and when I was 20 years old. I ate a little better than the younger ones. I eat hot pot with clear water. Now I don't eat it in Shouxi pot. I think it's too strong. I take it out of the pot and eat it directly. It's very light. I want to ensure that my taste buds are young and I won't like it and miss it if I keep eating light."

I talked about going to Taipei to eat RAW. Their shop assistants go to various markets at noon every day and cook them together when they buy things, discussing how to cook new dishes and how to do serial innovative research and development. Ray said that he was not picky about the food in Hangzhou and could eat it all. The first meal he had when he came to Hangzhou seemed to be stewed duck. The old man fried shrimp with oil. After eating the shrimp, he began to grab his sauce. "That's very good for rice. I've been thinking about it. It's like the hometown flavor in Taipei. It's not too salty or too sweet. It's a very comfortable taste and has a deep memory. Next is Malatang, like Taiwan's stewed meat. The base is traditional Chinese medicine and there is no oil. It depends on what ingredients you choose. Blanch it, add pickled cabbage and pepper, and mix it yourself. It is very refreshing. This will give you a lot of inspiration. I have always wanted to eat Malatang, and I want to become the same taste as young people in Hangzhou."

A good friend, you will want to know how he feels.

Find comfort zones again in new markets

Ray said that he didn't touch things he didn't know how to do, such as making meat, doing what he had to do, and choosing to persist. His own personality is a single strand.

"When making products in Hangzhou, Manchuniu was a niche at that time, and it is still a niche until now. It has always been making niche things. It's inevitable that some customers don't understand. After all, what I do is a niche in a big market." I said that this itself is something that is uniquely positioned in the big market, and it is very accurate. This creativity is unmatched in the Hangzhou market. No wonder Manchu Niu Guoda Store and Huanglong Store both won the must-eat list!

Recently, Ray has been digging deep and looking at his products. He personally likes things like taverns, so he built the "Xiaoman Canteen". He is happy to create a sense of atmosphere and hopes that young people will not eat so greasy.“Products still need to be made under big meals, above fast food, our own things. People keep seeing our food, and many people should not know our insistence.We use charcoal to make this. Machine-made charcoal. Beef is too expensive. We insist on the temperature of the charcoal fire. We can't burn it with electricity. We don't cut corners and calculate when we go out. Customers are very smart. If we do things normally like this, we will not give the amount that should be given because of the current epidemic and the changes in the price increase of ingredients. Keep iterating and adding more seasonal ingredients to customers, based on the original pricing."

Ray has been digging deep into this bowl of rice to be among the top three in the country."Why does Yoshinoya only do this? The price and crowd issues, and the mid-price products are beautifully made. I hope that the first beef will be served on top of the table. For example, the bowl of soup that the guests like has stipulated that it cannot be less than three pieces of beef."

At that time, when the epidemic was serious, there was only takeout. Customers packed it and asked if borscht was okay. Ray said it was okay. They packed the 1000cc bowl for customers for free. "It's not bad for the money for these bowls. The guests are your loyal fans. We are careful about the soup. Borscht is a favorite thing people in Hangzhou. I think in this rice, you should make something that relieves the boredom and clears the mouth, because it is all meat. I thought about what I couldn't touch and how to match the ending. Instead of serving it out like a swarm, this is my understanding of rice. There is also a vegetable tempura in our rice, and the rice we make is a rice merged between China and Japan."

I think this bowl of rice should really be given to the Japanese. They will be surprised because pure Japanese donutsu is very simple. "Their shop is meat, either medium, large, or extra large. It won't put seafood. It's sashimi with beef, or it's beef. But this is not in line with the Chinese market. Taiwan is a mature market built with a desktop structure. Then adjust it according to Hangzhou's taste space." Ray's last bowl of rice was also jointly developed by chefs. The rich seasoning and pleasant taste make Hangzhou people generally feel that it is very cost-effective.

When I am hungry, I need a full bowl of "thick-cut steak rice".

I looked at the bowl full of first-grained cattle in front of me, layers of rich seasonings, charred beef, apricot mushroom, vegetable tempura, okra, hot spring eggs, crispy seaweed slices, special sauce, and seven-flavor powder, so that any complacent "no" will have a chance. I am willing to open this video except late at night.

Ray's thoughts are still on the four-lane road where Taipei drives cars. He said that he still wants to grow bigger, but there is more to this in life, and he wants to overthrow it. "I want to make a brand with the food theater style, which is very novel in China. To eat teppanyaki in Taipei, I have to change rooms, and there is also tea before me. For the time being, I can't cook it in the mainland, so I can't smoke too much. Start with the starter and end up eating at the main restaurant. There are many details in the middle, like Japanese food, and then go to another box to have dessert. I want to break it down and make it more detailed."

I thought to myself, this brain works so fast, no wonder I am not fat at all! This is the secret of comfort zones!

The goddess asked

What should I eat for dinner?

Benefits:

It coincides with the 4th anniversary of Manchu Niu,

Whether you order it a order or a set meal,

As long as it contains "thick cut steak bowl",

Practice the "CD" and show off the hidden smiling face at the bottom of the bowl.

You will receive a lovely little gift.

"Living comfortably is too important,

An excessively harsh life will break the soul."

--Yishu

Food Bless You!

Consultant for China International Food Expo

Producer of "God's Table"