Interface News Reporter | Wu Rong
Interface News Editor | Ya Hanxiang
On March 25, the chain catering brand Din Tai Fung announced that Yang Bingyi, the founder of Din Tai Feng, passed away at the age of 96. The statement said, "Our beloved founder, Mr. Yang Bingyi, passed away peacefully a few days ago, and the family looks forward to handling the funeral affairs in a low-key manner, thank all walks of life for their concern." ”
The company he founded is one of the few Chinese food chains to enter the global market, and the recognition it has received in overseas markets has broadened people's understanding of Chinese catering. In 1993, Din Tai Fung was selected as "one of the world's top ten gourmet restaurants" by the New York Times, and in 2014, it was listed as one of the "world's best travel franchises" by CNN Travel List, that is, "restaurants worth visiting" level. The Wall Street Journal also commented on Zeng : "Taste it, the answer is all in it." ”
The significance of Yang Bingyi and Din Taifeng is not only external business cards. Yang Bingyi's entrepreneurial journey and innovation in the scale of Chinese food chains still influence and inspire China's catering industry and the entrepreneurs who continue to enter.
Yang Bingyi was born in Yuanping City, Shanxi Province in 1927, and at the age of 21, he went to Taiwan, China, to work as a buddy in an oil bank called Hengtaifeng, and then due to the boss's investment mistake, the oil bank was forced to disband.
In 1958, 31-year-old Yang Bingyi decided to start his own business. Because the supplier's name was "Dingmei" and he was born in Hengtaifeng, Yang Bingyi named his oil company "Din Tai Feng" to thank the boss of Hengtai Fung for his kindness.
This oil bank also became the prototype of Din Tai Fung. But some time after opening, his oil business took a hit with the advent of canned salad oil. In 1972, Yang Bingyi began to sell xiaolongbao in a small shop on Xinyi Road in Taipei. With Yang Bingyi and his wife's insistence on materials and craftsmanship, it didn't take long for this Din Taifeng Xiaolongbao shop to gain a good reputation.
Din Tai Fung really went international in the 1990s.
In 1995, Din Tai Fung was mainly managed by Yang Bingyi's son Yang Jihua during this phase. With the cooperation of his father, Yang Jihua transformed the original business model of snack bar into enterprise management and expanded the scale of operation. In 1996, Din Taifeng opened a store in Shinjuku, Japan, and started its overseas business. Up to now, Din Tai Fung has more than 160 stores worldwide.
Although he started a chain expansion, Yang Bingyi still has his own insistence on dishes.
For example, the signature "Golden 18-fold Xiaolongbao" that Din Taifeng must order was developed and researched by Yang Bingyi, Yang Jihua and Din Tai Fung's ace master Cai Shuixin and others. At that time, after repeated trials, they found that too many folds of xiaolongbao would lead to poor dough stacking and taste, while too few folds were not delicate in workmanship and poor sales, and finally set the tone "18 folds are gold folds".
In addition to xiaolongbao, Din Taifeng has also developed many new dishes, such as pork ribs and egg fried rice, red oil shosho, Shaoxing wine fried spinach and wine-stuffed tangyuan, etc., all of which have their own advocates.
Under the leadership of Yang Bingyi, Din Taifeng has also been practicing the standardized and refined operation and management mode of catering.
For example, if you want Xiaolongbao to break through geographical restrictions and bring it to the world, Din Taifeng thought of standardizing Xiaolongbao. In the past, China's traditional catering industry relied on mentor-apprentice teaching and word of mouth, and the standardization of Chinese food was a difficult matter. To address this, Din Tai Fung has taken a digital approach that translates experience into numbers, including developing processes and steps to facilitate quantification.
For example, each xiaolongbao workbench includes four processes: preparation, rolling skin, digging and wrapping. He set the standard of 5 grams of potion, 6.5 cm diameter of rolling skin, 16 grams of filling and 18 pleats of the golden ratio, and improved the efficiency of handmade crafts with a team of 4-6 people. During the production process, the next process is the check of the previous process, and the team members can also rotate the work to avoid repeating the same action for a long time - and these processes can also be observed through the transparent glass kitchen of the Din Tai Fung store.
Not only xiaolongbao, but also the pursuit of standardization in other dishes. For example, before each dish is delivered to the guests' table, the field personnel must also take out a pen-type thermometer to confirm that the optimal temperature for Yuanyuan chicken soup and hot and sour soup is 85 degrees Celsius so as not to burn the mouth.
On the fried rice, Din Tai Fung said that it had held a competition, asking each of the six stores in Taipei to select a fried rice expert to compete in the central kitchen for fried rice. From the pot to stir-fry, the six chefs not only have the same time and movement, but the taste of the finished product is not much different. Among the popular keywords about "Din Tai Fung fried rice", there is also a high evaluation of "fried restaurant delayed by Xiaolongbao".
The importance attached to personnel is also regarded by Din Taifeng as one of its own competitive advantages.
At the end of 2013, Din Taifeng said that senior employees above the store manager level could receive a maximum of 20 months of year-end bonus. If the store manager's salary is 100,000, it means that the year-end bonus is as high as two million. In addition, in many interviews, Din Taifeng also mentioned that the reason why the company did not go public was that "after listing, it is responsible to shareholders, and is required to control labor costs, and cannot take good care of employees like this." In addition, Din Tai Fung welcomes employees to bring their families and families, believing that this "will be a high centripetal force".
With a series of operations, Din Taifeng has obtained excellent operational data. Public data shows that at its peak, Din Taifeng had the highest table turning rate in one day 19 times, and at most 100 groups of guests stood outside the door waiting for their seats; In 2021, Din Taifeng achieved revenue of about US$150 million.
The scale of 160 stores may not be a huge size in China's catering industry today, but Din Tai Fung's reputation in the global market and its gradual formation of Chinese food icons are still industry benchmarks.
In addition, with the construction of central kitchens, the prevalence of semi-finished dishes and the maturity of catering industrialization, how to balance traditional handicrafts and standardized expansion is still a topic worth exploring in China's catering industry, such as xiaolongbao, shrimp dumplings and other sub-categories with Chinese catering cultural characteristics.
Mr. Yan Changshou, former president of the Taiwan Tourism Association of China and president of Yadu Hotel, said in the preface to "Model Din Tai Fung", "Whenever international friends come to Taiwan, the first person to ask me is not the Taipei National Palace or Alishan, but the famous 'Din Tai Fung' known for its xiaolongbao. Din Tai Fung has the ability to carry the meals originating from the Central Plains of China to the world and even back to the Chinese mainland through modern management and exquisite packaging, and is a model of Chinese cultural entrepreneurship industry. ”