Author: Xiaoshidai
After three years of the epidemic, the catering industry has entered a new era, and some new opportunities are emerging.
Xiaoshidai paid attention to the fact that recently, Kraft Heinz and Chenzhi Big Data jointly released the "2024 Chinese Cantonese Cuisine White Paper" to share the latest trend insights with industry players and provide valuable suggestions and ideas for the development of Cantonese cuisine. Let's find out.
No "sauce" is not happy
According to the "2024 White Paper on Chinese Cantonese Cuisine", after entering 2023, consumer confidence first rose and then fell in the first half of the year, but gradually recovered in the fourth quarter, exceeding the level of the same period last year as a whole. In 2023, the catering revenue will finally exceed 5.3 trillion yuan, an increase of more than 20% over the same period last year.
Despite the recovery in catering revenue, the number of Chinese catering outlets has dropped significantly. By the end of 2023, the number of F&B outlets had dropped to 7.7 million from more than 8.1 million at the end of 2022. In this context, it is worth noting that the number of Cantonese restaurants in Liangguang still achieved a slight increase of 4.1%.
Cantonese cuisine has a long history of development and is one of the eight major cuisines in China. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese dim sum, tea and other Cantonese diets were developed, and the saying "food in Guangzhou" gradually appeared. Up to now, Cantonese cuisine includes Cantonese cuisine, tea restaurant, Chaozhou cuisine, Hakka cuisine, etc., and is loved by consumers because of its emphasis on the quality of ingredients, high-end and exquisite characteristics.
On the other hand, in addition to high-end positioning, Cantonese cuisine brands have begun to try to lower their pricing, take the route of popularization or set up sub-brands to position themselves in mass catering. With the rapid development of affordable Cantonese cuisine and the increasing demand for healthy eating, Cantonese cuisine has gradually entered the menus of more and more young people outside Guangdong Province.
This trend is also confirmed in the 2024 White Paper on Chinese Cantonese Cuisine. The white paper shows that the popularity of Cantonese cuisine has risen, and the categories have been further subdivided, gradually forming a new Cantonese catering matrix. At the same time, the growth momentum of the sinking market of Cantonese catering is good, and all sub-categories are growing rapidly, and the sinking market has increased by 24% year-on-year.
In terms of taste experience, unlike Sichuan cuisine and Hunan cuisine, which are heavy oil and spicy, Cantonese cuisine has a light taste and pays attention to the delicious flavor of the ingredients. In Guangdong, there is a saying that "soy sauce rolls, the gods are not stable", and the "soy sauce" here is soy sauce.
Soy sauce is the soul of Cantonese cuisine. Foodie Cai Lan once said that he must bring a bottle of private soy sauce when he goes out, which can make bad food delicious. Among the soy sauce brands loved by Cantonese people, Xiaoshidai found that Weijixian, a subsidiary of Kraft Heinz Group's Weishida, has a history of more than 40 years and has become the main representative of umami soy sauce in Guangdong and Fujian with its advanced brewing technology.
Grow with you
In 1984, Heinz entered the Chinese market from Guangzhou and began an indissoluble bond with Guangzhou. In 2010, through the acquisition of Fuda China, Heinz incorporated Fuda's two local Guangdong brands, "Weishida" and "Guanghe", and established a strong emotional connection with Cantonese people, and also began to help and accompany Cantonese cuisine for a long time.
In 2020, Kraft Heinz's soy sauce production base in Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province was officially put into operation, mainly producing Kraft Heinz's star product in the Chinese market - a series of soy sauces under the Weishida brand. With a total investment of about 700 million yuan, the plant is one of the largest single projects in the world in recent years.
In the Yangxi soy sauce production base, Kraft Heinz is deeply engaged in the "Laoguang taste". Weishida Soy Sauce uses the professional extraction technology of "one-time extraction" to extract the amino acids and other umami components in the original soy sauce juice at one time. The factory carries out high-temperature cooking of raw materials in a fully automatic and intelligent way, 90 days of advanced constant temperature closed fermentation, etc., and fully presses more than 600 layers of sauce mash for more than 54 hours through an automatic press, which fully retains the essence of the original solution.
Finally, it also needs to be cooked at high temperature to fully react more than 10 kinds of amino acids and sugars in the stock solution. These processes have become the secret of each bottle of Weishida Extremely Fresh Soy Sauce, which contains "3 times the umami"*.
Through these processes and meticulous processes, the flavor of the soy sauce is more fragrant and the texture is thinner, making it ideal for eating directly with ingredients.
Perhaps because of this, Wei Shi Da Wei Ji Xian often appears in claypot rice, rice rolls, roasted loe, Cantonese hot pot and dipping sauces in the side stove. Huang Jinghui, a two-star chef in the Michelin Guide and one of China's Top 50 Chefs of the Year, once commented: "Wei Shi Da Wei Ji Xian has an excellent performance in the application of dipping and dipping. At the same time, he also believes that in boiled dishes, "boiling for a long time will not produce a sour taste, which brings a delicious taste to the dishes." Cai Zhenrong, president of Shantou Catering Industry Association and chairman of Rongxuan Restaurant, in the production of Chaoshan raw pickles, "only put the flavor to achieve the taste of the extremely fresh, without adding other seasonings and water." ”
It is not difficult to find that Kraft Heinz has used products such as Weishida Wei Jixian Soy Sauce to help Cantonese cuisine continue to improve its taste, and has played its own role in the process of diversification and innovation of Cantonese cuisine, becoming an indispensable flavor embellishment in a variety of dishes.
Kraft Heinz's accompaniment to Cantonese cuisine is not only reflected in the product side, but also actively assumes the responsibility of an industry leader to promote the further development of the industry.
After years of deep cultivation, this year, Kraft Heinz and Chenzhi Big Data jointly released the "2024 China Cantonese Cuisine White Paper" with Chenzhi Big Data, listing the survey summary of the catering industry in 2023, especially the subdivision of Cantonese cuisine, and at the same time putting forward insights into the development trend of Cantonese cuisine in Guangzhou.
One of the more significant characteristics of the catering industry is that there are many individual players, and it is difficult to accumulate or carry out forward-looking market insights. This white paper by Kraft Heinz can help catering practitioners grasp the development of the industry and the future trend and trend of Cantonese cuisine, avoid risks, make timely layouts, provide valuable reference and suggestions for the development of Cantonese catering, and also contribute to the prosperity of the Cantonese cuisine industry.
Insight into
It is worth noting that the "2024 White Paper on Cantonese Cuisine in China" lists in detail the insights of various sub-categories of Cantonese cuisine, bringing innovative ideas for dishes and inspiration for future development for catering practitioners in various fields.
According to the white paper, Cantonese cuisine and Chaozhou cuisine have great growth potential, with significant growth in the number of stores, expansion in the sinking market, and unit value. This positive news is believed to bring more confidence to relevant practitioners.
In terms of classic dishes, roast goose and white-cut chicken in Cantonese cuisine are popular, brine platters and raw pickled series in Chaozhou cuisine are more popular, and innovative dishes have begun to add elements such as spicy, tea aroma and Internet celebrities.
Among Cantonese fast food and Cantonese hot pot, the growth rate of rice rolls, Longjiang pork knuckle rice and beef hot pot is far ahead. In addition to the freshness of the ingredients, the sauce in the rice rolls, the brine in the Longjiang pork knuckles, and the dipping sauce in the beef hot pot have become the key to the taste of the dishes.
It can be seen that for Cantonese cuisine, sauce is one of the key factors that determine the success or failure of a dish. Therefore, to make a good dish, you must not only have good cooking skills and ingredients, but also choose the right sauce to complete the finishing touch.
In terms of taste, the "2024 White Paper on Chinese Cantonese Cuisine" shows that the taste of fermented bean curd is being accepted by more and more people. The click-through rate of shredded pepper bean curd, jelly bean curd tang lettuce, and bean curd mutton pot continues to increase.
Kraft Heinz's "Guanghe" bean curd is widely used in stew, stew, dipping and mixing dishes because of its mellow and fragrant flavor, long-lasting flavor and strong wrapping. This also means that "Guanghe" bean curd may become one of the important seasonings in Cantonese cuisine, helping Cantonese cuisine to innovate more flavors, and may also be expected to become another iconic flavor of Cantonese cuisine.
In addition, from the general direction, the fusion of cuisines and flavors is becoming a trend. Hunan Province is closely adjacent to Guangdong Province, and Guangdong is the preferred city for many Hunan people to go out for employment, so the integration of Hunan cuisine and Cantonese cuisine has become particularly natural under the trend of population mobility. Huaiyang cuisine, which is also located in the coastal area, is similar to Cantonese cuisine, with a light taste and an emphasis on the original taste of the ingredients, so the integration of the two complements each other.
This also poses new challenges to talents in the Cantonese cuisine industry, and also requires Cantonese cuisine seasonings to be more inclusive and more integrated.
In the face of these broad prospects and challenges, in addition to the support of the government, more Cantonese catering-related industries are needed to help, whether it is product innovation and research and development, or process quality control and exploration, or forward-looking insight into industry trends, just as Kraft Heinz has been deeply cultivating and accompanying Cantonese cuisine for many years, in order to help this industry always be full of innovative vitality.
As one of the first foreign companies to enter China, Kraft Heinz has always been based on its first stop in China, based on Guangzhou, and gradually entering more cities through Weishida and Guanghe. In this process, the company has always been committed to providing high-quality products and professional services to catering partners to meet the dietary needs of Chinese consumers, and actively exerting more value of catering service providers in addition to products, so as to help the long-term development of Cantonese cuisine.
In the future, we will continue to pay attention to Kraft Heinz's performance and innovation in China, an important market in its global development strategy.
Click at the end of the article to read the original article to learn more details about the "2024 White Paper on Chinese Cantonese Cuisine".
* Compared to Weishida Grade 3 Soy Sauce Gold Label Light Soy Sauce, Weishida Weijixian contains 3 times the amino acid nitrogen content.