Huayu Chef

078 Homemade Butter Hot Pot Base

Naza has taken leave yet again.

Her assistant, Jingjing, helped her hire them; she was worried about Nazha, so she took a taxi to come and take care of her.

Zhang Jinxuan saw that she was quite embarrassed and prepared several excuses to exonerate himself, but Jingjing didn't dare to ask or say anything.

Zhang Jinxuan left Nazha enough money for living expenses in April, and reminded her to eat three meals a day on time before going out to work.

He went to Wild Kitchen first. Jingjing had arrived long ago. After having breakfast, she leisurely played on her phone, living a very comfortable life.

"Boss."

Xiao Song, the finance manager, approached Zhang Jinxuan with a stack of documents. "These are the official employment documents and formal labor contracts for the seven employees in the store. Everything that is required to be signed in the employee handbook is here."

Zhang Jinxuan took the document and said thank you, "Give it to me, thank you for your hard work."

Xiao Song smiled and asked, "Boss, I've finished the attendance sheet and payroll for March. When do you need them?"

"Send me the electronic file first, I'll review it, and if there are no problems, print it out and get my signature. I'll pay your salary on the morning of the 10th."

Xiao Song hesitated and asked, "Send it in the morning?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Hmm, I think I've heard that you don't make money in the morning..."

Zhang Jinxuan found it both amusing and speechless. "That's other people's business. We don't do that at Wild Kitchen. The payroll is submitted for review before the 10th of each month, and we pay wages on the morning of the 10th. If it's a holiday or weekend, we submit it in advance and pay wages in advance."

"Okay, boss."

"Is there anything else?"

That's all for now.

"Then go ahead and get busy."

After Xiao Song left, Tang Qiwen quickly came over to report: "Boss, this morning Boss Chen delivered the ingredients, saying that pork prices have risen too sharply and he can't hold on any longer, so he's going to raise our prices."

"How much will it increase?"

"The price has increased by two mao per jin."

Zhang Jinxuan did the math: Wild Kitchen consumes more than 300 jin of pork every day, and an increase of 2 mao per jin would amount to more than 60 yuan.

Currently, pork costs around 15.5 yuan per jin (500g). Wild Kitchen gets its ingredients from suppliers for a slightly lower price, but not by much. A serving of braised pork rice costs 12 yuan, which already doesn't generate much profit, and the rising cost of ingredients has further eroded that profit margin.

There's nothing we can do; prices keep rising.

"A 20-cent increase is acceptable. We'll settle accounts with Mr. Chen based on the new price from now on."

"Boss, are prices going up in the store too?"

Zhang Jinxuan pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "We won't raise prices now, but the braised pork rice will go up by one dollar and fifty cents for the new store opening."

The new 230-square-meter store is large and has high rent, so a price increase is reasonable. If pork prices rise by 0.2 yuan per jin (500g), then a serving of braised pork rice should also increase by 1.5 yuan, right?

A serving of braised pork rice costs 13.5 yuan, which is really not expensive.

The rock-bottom prices advertised on those flyers are gone forever and will never appear again.

These are the tears of a bygone era.

Be grateful.

After arranging things at the shop, Zhang Jinxuan waved, "Jingjing, let's go."

"Okay."

Jingjing turned off her phone screen, quickly stood up, smoothed out her skirt, slung her bag over her shoulder, and followed Zhang Jinxuan out of Wild Kitchen.

"Xiao Zhang, are you going out?"

"Yes, I'm going out to run some errands. Auntie, are you buying some braised food?"

"I'll buy some chicken feet; my kids love them."

"Brother Xuan, you're not at the shop again today?"

"I'm busy, but I'll definitely be there another day."

"Brother Xuan, will Wild Kitchen be open during the Qingming Festival?"

"Open the door..."

Upon arriving at the parking spot, Zhang Jinxuan unlocked the car door with his car key, casually tossed it to Jingjing, and got into the passenger seat.

With his assistant, he drives less and less.

I had a scheduled appointment to make this morning; Guangyuan Foods had arranged to film GG today.

The brand has already arranged the filming team and location. Zhang Jinxuan just needs to change clothes and do his makeup on set, communicate with the director, and then filming will begin.

"Guangyuan Crispy Biscuits, so thin and crispy."

A single "GG" phrase, a bite of a crispy biscuit, a look of enjoyment on the face, and the "GG" video is over in about ten seconds.

The whole process took about an hour, and the 50 yuan endorsement fee was in hand.

It's not that simple in reality. There's still a new movie to shoot, an online promotion or an offline brand event to follow up. Only when the 1+1 fulfillment terms are met will it be considered complete.

The director of this film, GG, wasn't a well-known figure. Zhang Jinxuan remained polite and courteous throughout the entire process, saying goodbye and leaving after filming, without any intention of socializing.

Around noon, Zhang Jinxuan and Jingjing drove to the new store on Jian'an West Road to meet with the design company staff who had been waiting for them.

"Director Liu, I'm so sorry, something came up and I kept you waiting." Zhang Jinxuan shook hands with Director Liu apologetically.

"Mr. Zhang, we just arrived recently."

"Let's go into the store first and take a look. We can have lunch together and talk more at the table."

"Either is fine, we'll follow Mr. Zhang's arrangements."

Zhang Jinxuan opened the store door, led everyone inside for a tour, and then, releasing his authority as the client, presented his demands to Director Liu.

"The kitchen needs to be large, around 80 square meters. The zoning and workflow design should be as scientific and reasonable as possible. I suggest separating the food storage area, vegetable washing area, processing area, hot food area, pastry area, roast meat and braised food area, dishwashing area, etc."

The 230-square-meter shop is too big; using it for braised dishes would be too extravagant and wasteful. Zhang Jinxuan plans to add stir-fried dishes and pastries.

Wild kitchens serve a social function. Currently, a large amount of resources in the entertainment industry are concentrated in the hands of older people. Traditional Chinese stir-fry dishes are suitable for a wider range of people and are easier to use for building interpersonal relationships.

Making pastries is about getting money from students, fans, and young people. KFC sells an egg tart for five yuan, while Wild Kitchen sells it for three yuan and fifty cents. Based on Wild Kitchen's quality control, price advantage, popularity, and celebrity aura, it's bound to sell like hotcakes, and its sales won't be much worse than the best-selling item, tiger skin chicken feet.

During the filming of the second episode of "Wild Kitchen," Zhang Jinxuan connected with Lu Daming and Xie Baoxin, a couple who own a pastry shop. With this connection, they had many advantages in terms of talent recruitment and ingredient supply, so there was no reason not to do it.

Braised dishes are the core business and cannot be shaken. We will only expand the scale and increase the variety of braised dishes to increase non-dine-in revenue.

In terms of pricing, the newly launched stir-fries and noodles will not be high-end; the gross profit margin of each item should be controlled above 67%, rather than focusing on sales volume and reputation.

Zhang Jinxuan designed two projects: one for making big money and the other for exploiting investors.

One type is customized dishes.

Customized dishes are not included in the regular menu. Customers who want to eat them need to make a reservation in advance and pay a deposit. The price is similar to, or even higher than, similar dishes in large hotels and restaurants.

For example, the famous Buddha Jumps Over the Wall dish is renowned both at home and abroad. Zhang Jinxuan can make it, but don't expect him to do it for less than five figures.

It's not really worth it to say that you're harvesting chives. The ingredients for Buddha Jumps Over the Wall are very expensive, time-consuming, laborious, and complicated to make. It's really not worth spending so much time making a dish.

The second item is a customized dish containing the ingredient "轩".

Customized dishes are more high-end and require strict culinary skills. Zhang Jinxuan's personal cooking, combined with the celebrity buff, means that even if the dishes don't shine, they are not much different.

The price is based on Zhang Jinxuan's level of involvement, which makes it high, starting at twice the price of a regular customized dish.

Will anyone order this at such a high price?

If you remove the question mark and the interrogative tone, people will definitely click on it, and there will be quite a few people following the trend or just curious. It's possible that wealthy female fans will book out the entire venue for several days in a row just to eat the dishes made by Gege.

The fans are very rich. They spend tens of millions on a single issue of a magazine, hundreds of millions on a single album, and even if they don't go to see their idol's movie, they'll book out entire theaters to keep it running.

"This area is designed with three private rooms, each equipped with a 40mm wide sideboard. One room can hold a 1800mm round table for ten people, one can hold a 1500mm round table for eight people, and one can hold a 1200mm round table for six people..."

Many celebrities dine at the restaurant, so setting up several private rooms is essential to protect their privacy and ensure a quiet and comfortable dining environment.

"I want to set up two or three round tables for six or eight people in the main hall, plus seats in the casual seating area, so the whole restaurant should have around 100 seats..."

After listening to all of Zhang Jinxuan's requirements, Director Liu silently calculated for a moment, then smiled tactfully and said, "Mr. Zhang is truly an expert in the catering industry. The space utilization rate of the store is very high, which is a relatively compact and ideal store layout."

Zhang Jinxuan understood, grinned, and displayed the high level of professionalism expected of a client: "Director Liu, please design it first and see how it looks. If it's too cramped, we can cancel some of the seating. I'm not one to be blindly confident."

Blindly confident people won't hire design firms.

Director Liu nodded with a smile. He would do whatever the client said, since he was already mentally prepared to be rejected several times.

So what if someone's a celebrity? Their education and character aren't necessarily better than his. Clients are all pretty much the same.

After lunch, Director Liu and his team went back to the store to retrieve the data and drawings before leaving.

With business done, it's time to attend to personal matters.

Zhang Jinxuan took Jingjing to the market to buy vegetables and spices, planning to make his own beef tallow hot pot base so he could treat Huang Mengying to an authentic Sichuan hot pot meal.

This hot pot base can be sold to the public; there are a lot of shops in Sichuan and Chongqing that specialize in making and selling hot pot base fresh on the spot.

Not only hot pot base, but also sauces and seasonings made by Wild Kitchen can be sold in the future. Relying on the popularity and fame of Wild Kitchen and Chang Chin-Hsuan, it is definitely a very profitable road.

However, it is not realistic at present. Neither the "Wild Kitchen" video series nor Zhang Jinxuan can support a large-scale peripheral market. Rashly investing money to expand would be an act of "Wu Zetian losing her husband and losing her mind".