Editor's note: North of Beijing, south of Xiaoxiang, a trace of taste buds, thousands of miles of Xiang. In the imperial capital of Beijing, Hunan cuisine has become a favorite new trend of diners. In the ever-changing catering market, the Hunan cuisine brand is far-reaching with ingenuity and ignites the capital. In the turbulent history of prosperity, every Hunan cuisine person in Beijing is the creator, participant and witness of this history. A Hunan cuisine Jingyanlu, there are their stories.
Text/He Ting Photo/Huang Chao
Why climb? Because the mountains are there! Thousands of mountains and rivers are the splendid medals of climbers, challenging new heights, and the persistent pursuit of Hunan people. To ask where the "peak" of Beijing Hunan cuisine is, the people of Beijing Hunan cuisine said in unison that not interviewing Hu Ping is not enough to reflect the current situation and future of Beijing Hunan cuisine. For more than 20 years, Hu Ping has led its brands Xiaoxiangfu and Millennium Guoxiang, creating one benchmark after another, climbing one peak after another, and dominating all parties in Beijing with more than 20 "big" stores, laying the foundation for its status in Beijing's high-end Hunan cuisine.
The hidden "master" of the world, win yourself!
If there are rivers and lakes in the catering industry, then Hu Ping is like a "hidden master". He rarely gives interviews and rarely attends peer gatherings. However, in sharp contrast, the brands founded and operated by Hu Ping, Xiaoxiangfu and Millennium Guoxiang, have always been "held high" in terms of positioning and quality, and are synonymous with "mid-to-high-end Hunan cuisine" in the eyes of peers and consumers.
Under the mysterious filter, Hu Ping looks particularly low-key. He said: "I only did one thing - open a small Hunan restaurant. Hu Ping was born in rural Yuanjiang, went to Beijing to join the army at the age of 18, and eight years later retired from the army to start a business, until the millennium when he partnered with his fellow villagers to open a Hunan restaurant. The momentum of rapid development of the industry led him deeper. In 2003, Hu Ping founded Xiaoxiang Fu, and now 15 Xiaoxiang Fu have accompanied countless diners for 20 years, shaping brand strength and building a team that can "fight tough battles".
"Entering international trade was an idea that was developed ten years ago." In 2022, Millennium Guoxiang will debut in the international trade area where every inch of land is expensive, positioning it as a high-end Hunan flavor banquet restaurant that inherits and carries forward the traditional culture of Hunan, from product presentation to scene construction, raising the Hunan cuisine experience scene to another level. "Every time the Millennium Guoxiang new store appears, it is a benchmark." Hu Ping positioned them as one, two and three generations, saying that one generation is more brilliant than another, and one generation surpasses one generation.
Today, in the minds of many consumers, Hunan cuisine is still not linked to the high-end. "Hunan cuisine should be pulled up, and the quality should be improved." With 20 years of accumulation, Hu Ping is full of confidence: "The height is infinite, and we have the strength to sprint upward." "It turns out that people with strength but low profile have a deep inner charm, know how to hide the front and defend the clumsy, and can win with one move when it is critical.
"Scholars" who never stop, without limits!
Successful people have one thing in common – never stop learning. Hu Ping did not have a high education at first, but he entered Peking University and Tsinghua University four times, and is currently a student of Peking University's "scholar class". He joked that it might be the last time: "I'm too old, and the teacher is much younger than me." ”
Persistent learning has brought him great gains, colliding with elite classmates, consulting with top professors, and then grafting enterprises. He also encouraged the team to learn, in order to create the Millennium Guoxiang, the team spent 5 million yuan to learn how to create world-class cuisine from the world's best ingredients through the cooking techniques of Hunan cuisine. "In order to study and find ingredients, there are no places in the country that we have not been to, and there are many places abroad."
Linking Hunan culture and the world with food, allowing diners to achieve a journey to Hunan on the tip of their tongues. For a signature dish, Hu Ping personally went to Hanshou, the origin of the turtle, and selected 3.8-4 jin, ecologically farmed purebred Chinese turtles. With the blessing of good ingredients, a red simmered turtle, served with sticky rice and sauce, even the Michelin judges were conquered and shouted "delicious". In addition to inheriting the authentic taste of the Xiang school, it also learns from other cuisines to create the best-selling myth of the Hunan stinky mandarin fish. Stinky mandarin fish is a well-known Hui dish, but how well does stinky mandarin fish sell in Xiaoxiang Province? "Put up the sales of a year, you can go around the five rings and more, there are hundreds of thousands."
The rise of Hunan cuisine hides every Hunan cuisine person's study of skills, the refinement of management, and the integration and upgrading of quality, with no upper limit and no end.
"Northerners" from Hunan, there is a pattern!
Many times, Hu Ping walked into the restaurant and would unexpectedly receive a "welcome". He will smile, don't blame new employees for not knowing him, now he does not tour the store, does not give meetings to employees, and is happy to be a "just care about the system" dispenser.
The so-called corporate culture is closely related to the style of the boss, and how far the enterprise can go depends on how big the boss's pattern is. Hu Ping lived in the north as an adult, and his personality naturally flowed with the characteristics of northerners who do not detour and do not take small measures. He led the team to deeply implement the style of "letting go, rest assured, and deaf" and "pretending to be stupid, pretending to be blind, and pretending to be deaf", so that there is no doubt about the use of people, and doubts are not used.
Hu Ping admits that he is a Hunan native who does not look like a Hunan person, and he has been in Beijing for thirty or forty years, although he still returns every year, and his impression of Hunan may have been blurred. But he firmly believes that his roots are still in Hunan, and he loves his hometown. Build roads for hometowns, install street lights, subsidize needy households... He always gave generously to things in the village.
"When you have a good career, the people around you, the people who grew up with you, the people who drink the same pond water as you, do you manage the difficulties?" Hu Ping, a "homesick man" who is good at himself, good at the world, and has great love, an authentic Hunan plastic pu, a Hunan cuisine business full of hometown feelings, is his eternal connection with his hometown.
Mountaineering is the self-encouragement of the benevolent, the challenge of the wise, and the transcendence of the brave. Today, Hu Ping and his classmates from Peking University Tsinghua University go to climb the mountain once a week, and in the climbing again and again, I don't know what kind of ideological spark will arise between them. The "peaks" of cross-industry, the "hills" of development, and the "dangers" of upgrading, the pace of development of Hunan cuisine has come to a new foothill. Hu Ping said: The height is endless, and the more beautiful scenery is at a higher peak.