500 diners, 3500 ducks and lotsa fish. The biggest Chinese restuarant in the world (bbc4) based in West Lake (Hunan). Employees of 1000!
Work as a team. Do our best.
And they sing their motto.
They have a huge kitchens.... 1000's KG of meat and veg and 5 kitchens!
And they are fully booked!
The surrounding grounds of the restaurant and the premises itself is ultra chinese kitsch. They even have a stage with 800 seating spaces! An entertainment hall!
The employees are dressed up in tradional gard, guests are treated like they are emperors for one of their most expensive meals (the imperial meal). There's performers, even announcements and wishes for guests to enjoy their meals, just like royalty back in the days. Each dish has its own story.
They have a snack avenue, on the street. Same chef to cook the same meal everyday to maintain quality. They explain the process of how it's cooked.
The restaurant is always looking for new dishes, as their patrons are so demanding of wanting something new each day (from what the owner says)
They make sure the chef refresh their skills often.
Man, they get alot of ducks, 150-200 a day! All from one farm, they are all wild ducks. Owner goes and check the local food and how's it's cooked and adapt it for the resturant. A clip that was unnerving was the killing of a duck where they pierced the duck's chest to find its heart and pull it out!
They have competitions for the chefs. (it's like iron chef or the anime)
It's amazing how they kill, skin and chop the snake so quickly! And the snake is still moving even though it is in pieces! Eew. They scale and clean the fish and are ready for frying, the chef was holding onto the fish with his hans and hand was protected by a towel and he dunked the fish in the hot oil! The fish was still moving when he took it out and placed it on the plate! It just seems so cruel!
They make so much money that they have machines to count the them! They have meetings every morning to talk about problems from the previous days, and how to correct them. They check for cleaniness everywhere.
With the intent of being the best, the owners know that all locals know how to make tofu but the owner thinks that the chefs need to do better as their tofus are not as good. So the owner takes the chefs out to learn how to make tofu, incls. trekking up hills to get the spring water. From 10 dishes of tofu a day to over 100 a day. because of the quality of water used.
So, it has been interesting documentary of an owner, who's venture from the support of friends and family has cumulated in one of the largest and most successful restaurant in China and perhaps the world.
Sorry for the bad quality shots, took them with my mobile, did not have the D80 with me today.
There's a discussion at the IBC forum on various charities that are happening around Dublin. If there are other fund-raisings happening around the country, post it there. Of course, people can just donate to the Chinese Red Cross via redcross.ie.
Via Fusion View, I read about One Inch Punch's new site called Visible Chinese - A Guide to Achievers in UK's Chinese Culture.
Visible Chinese aims to become an Authoritative Independent Listing of Achievers within the UK's Chinese Culture with the following mission statement:1. To Be Comprehensive
Through all walks of life and subjects2. To Operate with Integrity
3. To Provide Recognition
Candidates are carefully screened and selected
Profiles will inform, celebrate and inspire
This would be very interesting indeed. For example, my mother normally flies to Hong Kong via London Heathrow from Shannon Airport. Handy for her, as she is only 20 minutes drive from Shannon Airport. Now, Aer Lingus pulled out from flying to Heathrow, plus they are not part of One World, therefore no direct transfer of luggage to HK anymore, so much for ease of travelling. And normally it's the flight prices were the best flying this route, it's all changed now. If these talks work out, this means flying via Dublin, but if it flies direct to the Far East, it'll be much handier. So fingers crossed (it'll be handier for me, for sure!).
