China's uncrowned hotpot queen has spiced up the lives of her
compatriots for 25 years and now she wants to take the strong
flavours of her native cuisine to the rest of the world.
China's uncrowned hotpot
queen, He Yongzhi, 54, with her pot of sizzling, bubbling specialty
that has put her home -- the mega-city of Chongqing in the
southwest -- on the culinary map of China, in the municipality of
Chongqing, 16 June 2007.
He Yongzhi, 54, is convinced there is a global market for the
sizzling, bubbling specialty that has put her home -- the mega-city
of Chongqing in the southwest -- on the culinary map of China.
"Beginning from the second half of this year, we want to start
expanding abroad in a bigger way," she said. "We hope that in 10
years, we will have restaurants in 15 major cities across the
world."
A global hotpot empire would be a worthy culmination of a career
that has the rags-to-riches qualities that aboud in China's vibrant
developing economy.
She opened her first restaurant in 1982, while she was working
as a designer at a local factory, investing a modest 3,000 yuan
(US$390) she raised by selling the family's home.
Twenty-five years and many tonnes of chili and peppercorns
later, her "Cygnet" hotpot chain spans 300 restaurants in all
corners of China, and she has attained celebrity status in
business-crazy Chongqing.
He's personal wealth amounts to 900 million yuan, and while she
likes taking the wheel of her roaring 700,000-yuan Jaguar, she also
savors the quieter joys of giving.
A glossy introduction to her company, Chongqing Cygnet Group,
shows her next to a hospitalized victim of an abusive husband, a
wad of 100-yuan bills piled on top of the bed-ridden woman.
In a nation where meat was once considered a luxury, growing
numbers of people can afford to eat out, and hotpot, which combines
dining with socializing, has long been a popular choice.
"I'm where I am due to a combination of chance, cleverness and
hard work," she said, adding, without any pretense of false
modesty: "I've made so many innovations."
One of the inventions she lays claim to is "yuan yang," a type
of hotpot that is separated down the middle, with one half white
and not-so-spicy, and the other half red and mind-blowingly
spicy.
"Because of 'yuan yang,' Chongqing hotpot has risen to the
status it has now," she said. "It's enabled what is after all an
extremely simple kind of food to carve a position in the national
marketplace."
Ambition feeds on success, and the next step for He is to expand
what is now a limited overseas presence.
She opened her first restaurant in the United States in 1995,
and since then three more American outlets have been added. Within
just a few months, she hopes to open a restaurant in Sydney. Europe
could come next.
Seventy percent of her customers in the United States are
Chinese, meaning there has been little need to bow to foreign
tastes, but that may change as the global reach extends.
One major concession is a departure from the classical hotpot
style, with diners seated around one big pot in the middle of the
table and everyone digging in with their chopsticks.
Westerners may prefer a more hygeinic approach and so she has
developed individual hotpots -- incidentally also a hit in
Chongqing.
"We want to become a global brand, but to be honest it will be
hard for us to be as widespread as McDonald's or Kentucky Fried
Chicken. After all, hotpot is not exactly fast food," she said.
(China Daily via Agencies June 22, 2007)
