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Expats add to city cuisine culture
By Xu Wenwen |
March 15, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
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THE dining culture of Hangzhou has a wide range of Chinese cuisines but its international profile has lured a number of foreigners to open restaurants, Xu Wenwen reports.
Restaurants opened by expats are not rare in Hangzhou, regarded as "the city of life quality." Official statistics show that last year more than 2,400 foreigners lived in the scenic city and many of them chose to open restaurants and clubs along West Lake or on the food streets around the city.
These outlets attract lots of other foreigners as well as local diners. Nowadays, quite a few foreigners decide to live and run businesses in Hangzhou because of its delightful scenery, leisurely lifestyle and market potential.
The restaurants, bars and cafes are mostly grouped around West Lake, in streets like Nanshan and Shuguang roads, and cater high-end exotic or Chinese food, coffee or wine to enrich the local food culture.
A tall blonde talks on her cell phone in fluent and rapid Mandarin with a strong southern Chinese accent. It's Maria Chen, a 35-year-old Slovak woman who married a Chinese man and adopted his surname and runs two Sichuan cuisine restaurants in Hangzhou.
The Chens came to Hangzhou in 2004 and took over the restaurant - Town of Boiled Fish (Fei Teng Yu Xiang) - on Yan'an Road S. three years ago.
The business was running at a loss because of bad management when they took over it, but the Slovak woman systematically turned it around.
It soon became so successful that she spent 7 million yuan (US$1.02 million) to open a new branch last August.
As the restaurant is totally in Chinese style, from food to decor, many customers don't expect it to be run by a foreigner. Maria handles almost every aspect of the business, including contact with local government and training staff in Chinese.
She has a varied approach to management, for instance being firm with middle-level managers about the company's rules, and being kind to junior employees to encourage their on-the-job enthusiasm.
From the staff's perspective, Maria is a foreign boss butlike a Chinese.
She not only speaks Chinese but understands China's customs, such as Chinese-style toasts during business functions.
And when a waitress became ill, she reminded the manager to visit her and send some money.
"She's capable, she's got charisma, and she's full of Chinese-style ren qing wei (friendly and hospitable)," says the restaurant's manager Xu Ruidong. "And that's why we admire her."
The Chens have made Hangzhou their home and are rearing three cute children of school age.
"I've been to many places but I love Hangzhou the best," Maria says.
"No matter where I go, I come back and feel it's my home."
Angelo Restaurant opened last week on Shuguang Road and sells slap-up Italian and American cuisine from its exotically decorated premises.
The boss, Angelo Favaro, is of German and Italian heritage. He was born in a chef's family and is an experienced chef and manager as a result of postings in top-level hotels and restaurants in many parts of the world.
Having lived in China for four years and been a resident of Hangzhou for 18 months, Favaro had planned to run his own restaurant for a long time.
He finally chose Hangzhou because of the city's strong market potential and the network of contacts he had built up.
The new restaurant's business is developing well. Nearly all tables were filled on the opening day, and Favaro has adopted a set approach to doing business with Chinese clientele.
"Chinese people are smart and have their own ways of doing businesses. Learning from them and adapting to their style can only profit me," he says.
Provence Restaurant on Shuguang Road opened in 2007 and has established an enviable reputation. Its business is always booming, such that it has only had one bad month in the past 36 months, according to the boss Eric Mommessin from Provence, France.
The Frenchman came to China in 2003 and discovered that Hangzhou's simple and comfortable lifestyle was the same as his hometown, though the culture was very different. So he decided to cater authentic French food and wine to local people.
Though holding a master's degree in hotel management and with experience managing many high-level hotels and restaurants, he had to put in a lot of effort to get the business established.
He wore many hats as general manager, chef and marketer and slept few hours in the first three months. Now the restaurant is up and running well, he is looking to start another outlet if the opportunity arises.
Mommessin remains focused on presenting authentic French cuisine at the expense of trying any Chinese-Western mix. He chooses local ingredients that his Chinese customers are familiar with.
"The style can't be too diverse or you risk losing one set of customers by trying to hold onto the other," he says.
His method has worked well so far with 70 percent of his clientele Chinese, a number that lifted to 80 percent when the financial crisis sent many foreigners back to their home countries.
"Hangzhou people are curious about fresh things and theyare open minded on food,"says Mommessin.
Restaurants opened by expats are not rare in Hangzhou, regarded as "the city of life quality." Official statistics show that last year more than 2,400 foreigners lived in the scenic city and many of them chose to open restaurants and clubs along West Lake or on the food streets around the city.
These outlets attract lots of other foreigners as well as local diners. Nowadays, quite a few foreigners decide to live and run businesses in Hangzhou because of its delightful scenery, leisurely lifestyle and market potential.
The restaurants, bars and cafes are mostly grouped around West Lake, in streets like Nanshan and Shuguang roads, and cater high-end exotic or Chinese food, coffee or wine to enrich the local food culture.
A tall blonde talks on her cell phone in fluent and rapid Mandarin with a strong southern Chinese accent. It's Maria Chen, a 35-year-old Slovak woman who married a Chinese man and adopted his surname and runs two Sichuan cuisine restaurants in Hangzhou.
The Chens came to Hangzhou in 2004 and took over the restaurant - Town of Boiled Fish (Fei Teng Yu Xiang) - on Yan'an Road S. three years ago.
The business was running at a loss because of bad management when they took over it, but the Slovak woman systematically turned it around.
It soon became so successful that she spent 7 million yuan (US$1.02 million) to open a new branch last August.
As the restaurant is totally in Chinese style, from food to decor, many customers don't expect it to be run by a foreigner. Maria handles almost every aspect of the business, including contact with local government and training staff in Chinese.
She has a varied approach to management, for instance being firm with middle-level managers about the company's rules, and being kind to junior employees to encourage their on-the-job enthusiasm.
From the staff's perspective, Maria is a foreign boss butlike a Chinese.
She not only speaks Chinese but understands China's customs, such as Chinese-style toasts during business functions.
And when a waitress became ill, she reminded the manager to visit her and send some money.
"She's capable, she's got charisma, and she's full of Chinese-style ren qing wei (friendly and hospitable)," says the restaurant's manager Xu Ruidong. "And that's why we admire her."
The Chens have made Hangzhou their home and are rearing three cute children of school age.
"I've been to many places but I love Hangzhou the best," Maria says.
"No matter where I go, I come back and feel it's my home."
Angelo Restaurant opened last week on Shuguang Road and sells slap-up Italian and American cuisine from its exotically decorated premises.
The boss, Angelo Favaro, is of German and Italian heritage. He was born in a chef's family and is an experienced chef and manager as a result of postings in top-level hotels and restaurants in many parts of the world.
Having lived in China for four years and been a resident of Hangzhou for 18 months, Favaro had planned to run his own restaurant for a long time.
He finally chose Hangzhou because of the city's strong market potential and the network of contacts he had built up.
The new restaurant's business is developing well. Nearly all tables were filled on the opening day, and Favaro has adopted a set approach to doing business with Chinese clientele.
"Chinese people are smart and have their own ways of doing businesses. Learning from them and adapting to their style can only profit me," he says.
Provence Restaurant on Shuguang Road opened in 2007 and has established an enviable reputation. Its business is always booming, such that it has only had one bad month in the past 36 months, according to the boss Eric Mommessin from Provence, France.
The Frenchman came to China in 2003 and discovered that Hangzhou's simple and comfortable lifestyle was the same as his hometown, though the culture was very different. So he decided to cater authentic French food and wine to local people.
Though holding a master's degree in hotel management and with experience managing many high-level hotels and restaurants, he had to put in a lot of effort to get the business established.
He wore many hats as general manager, chef and marketer and slept few hours in the first three months. Now the restaurant is up and running well, he is looking to start another outlet if the opportunity arises.
Mommessin remains focused on presenting authentic French cuisine at the expense of trying any Chinese-Western mix. He chooses local ingredients that his Chinese customers are familiar with.
"The style can't be too diverse or you risk losing one set of customers by trying to hold onto the other," he says.
His method has worked well so far with 70 percent of his clientele Chinese, a number that lifted to 80 percent when the financial crisis sent many foreigners back to their home countries.
"Hangzhou people are curious about fresh things and theyare open minded on food,"says Mommessin.
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