Business Guide: Rong Paradise, the "originator of Sichuan cuisine" that has been operating for nearly a hundred years, adhering to the legacy of being a full Han, once received heavy guests such as Teresa Teng and the US Secretary of State. And now, its name, is fading in our memory, fading and aging.
Wen 丨 Yang Daxia
In old Beijing, there is such a mantra: ma juyuan on the head, inline with his feet, wearing eight big xiang, and wrapping his waist around the four hengs.
These are all symbols of the identity of old Beijingers, and they are also century-old shops that once dominated for a while. Now, most of these old shops have disappeared into the ashes of history and are living in the memory of a generation.
Among these disappearing old brands, the catering and food industry can be described as the hardest hit area. According to statistics, 40% of the disappeared long-established brands are from the catering and food industry, and among them, there is the "originator of Sichuan cuisine" that was once famous in the world - RongYuan.
This brand is extremely strange in the concept of modern people. But in the memories of the older generation, it is the successor of the "Manchu Han Full Seat", the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the Sichuan cuisine industry, and the "Sichuan cuisine business card" in New York. It has hosted heavyweights such as Captain Chennault of the U.S. Flying Tigers, Teresa Teresa Teresa, and U.S. Secretary of State Schultz. 33 years ago (1982), the fee of RongYuan Park reached a sky-high price of 1,000 yuan per table.
In 2009, the last news about Rongyuan was released on the Internet, and since then, this century-old brand has completely disappeared from the historical stage; The reason for this has always been an unsolved mystery.
Since 1911, from taking root in China to crossing the ocean and exotic fragrance, what is the winning secret of Rong Paradise? And from hosting the most luxurious feast to the decline of the extinct rivers and lakes, what happened to Rong Paradise?
"Full table of Manchu" with Sichuan cuisine
At the end of 1911, in Chengdu Huguangguan Street (now Dongfeng Road), the first Rongyuan Park officially opened for business, and on the opening day, it ushered in a crowd of people. This is a result that is in line with expectations, because there are two labels that fuel the wave: Kwan Zheng Xing and Blu-ray Jian.
In Fu Chongyu's "General Survey of Chengdu" at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there is such a record: those who pay attention to the table are only in the Xingyuan Garden. Zhengxing Garden is Guan Zhengxing's family business; Guan Zhengxing was the only top chef in Chengdu at that time who would do "full table of Manhan".
Guan Zhengxing was a Manchurian immigrant, and in Sichuan, he saw many different dishes from Manchuria, and since then he has developed a strong interest in the study of Sichuan's local cuisine. In addition, he travels to various parts of China and absorbs the cooking techniques of local dishes for his own use – including Manchu and Han Chinese cuisine. He combined the essence of Sichuan local cuisine, Su cuisine and Beijing cuisine into one furnace, and finally created a systematic local cuisine - Sichuan cuisine.
In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out. Affected by the war, Zhengxingyuan – a 50-year-old official official brand of high-end feasts – disappeared from the war and was replaced by the inheritance and rise of Rongyuan at the end of that year.
RongYuan Park was founded by Qi Lezhai and Blu-ray Jian's uncle and nephew, and then Blu-ray Jian's younger brothers Lan Guangrong and Blu-ray Bi joined the company. The business model and dishes of RongYuan Park are inherited from Zhengxing Garden, that is, taking the high-end positioning route. Such a business philosophy is related to Blu-ray Jian himself.
Blu-ray Jian stepped into the Sichuan cuisine industry at the age of 13, and because of his super talent for cooking, he was favored and supported by Guan Zhengxing, who even taught the Manchu Han full table practice.
Qualified chefs, generally 5 years of teachers; When Blu-ray Jian was 16 years old, he went on the stove to make three tables full of Han and full seats, sensationalizing the whole of Chengdu.
At the same time, Blu-ray Jian's enthusiasm for Sichuan cuisine is no less than that of Guan Zhengxing. According to statistics, there are more than 300 Sichuan dishes developed by Blu-ray Jian in his lifetime, and it can be said that all his life's energy has been spent on the research and development of Sichuan cuisine.
It is the peak of the two people's culinary skills and the high degree of unity with their passion for Sichuan cuisine, which determines the prosperity of RongYuan from the first day of operation of Rongyuan.
Thousand yuan sky-high price and "Whampoa Military Academy"
In 1982, when China was in a period of revitalization after internal and external troubles, Chengdu was rarely visited by foreigners.
On this day, a group of foreigners came to Rongyuan, and the number reached more than 20. It was a grand feast: all the elite generals gathered to cook: clear soup pigeon eggs and swallow dishes, roasted bell peppers, roasted deer tendons, cordyceps duck... Each dish is full of the top dishes of Rong Paradise. These dishes won the praise of foreigners, and also set a sky-high price of 1,000 yuan a table banquet that year.
The reason why it can attract foreigners and make them happily pay is not unrelated to Blu-ray Jian's own philosophy: if Guan Zhengxing is the originator of Sichuan cuisine, then Blu-ray Jian is the originator of Sichuan cuisine.
We divide the two into positions in business: Guan Zhengxing is a master of making products, and Blu-ray Jian is a master of operation, and their relationship is like Apple's Woz to Jobs.
Guan Zhengxing is an official, very rich in life and materials, and the guests received by the "Zhengxing Garden" are also officials who "come and go without white ding". A man who has no worries about food and clothing, he can settle down to do what interests him. He defined the great term "Sichuan cuisine", but unfortunately, he did not package the various dishes in Sichuan cuisine into a system and promote them to the whole country.
And Blu-ray Jian did what Guan Zhengxing did not do. During the operation of Rongyuan, he pioneered more than 30 kinds of banquet formats and created the first restaurant with modern significance in Sichuan cuisine, Rongyuan with private rooms and halls. It's not hard to understand the difference in ideas between the two, because the latter is a businessman. The businessman's idea eventually packaged Sichuan cuisine into a signboard with chinese and foreign reputations.
Not only that, Blu-ray Jian had the concept of diy for the operation of RongYuan at that time, as well as the service concept of the first home delivery. Under the support of this idea, "accompanying the hall side dishes, delivering dishes to the door, and making a package banquet" has become the main competitiveness of RongYuan.
It is precisely because of the superb achievement of cooking and the outstanding understanding of business that Rongyuan Stood out among dozens of long-established brands in Chengdu at that time, and became famous throughout Chengdu: in 1933, a new store in Buhou Street of Rongyuan Park was opened, and hundreds of tables could be seated on the first floor and at the bottom; In 1970, the top decoration store was built in Luoma City, and the "old Chengdu" was known to everyone; In 1980, RongYuan Park took a seat across the street from the United Nations Building in New York, and it was a hit; In the same year, Teresa Visited Rong Paradise, was amazed by the outstanding taste of Sichuan cuisine, and took the initiative to meet with the chef for advice...
In addition to the peak of business, Rongyuan has never slackened in the cultivation of talents - they are the backbone of supporting Rongyuan to go global.
Zhang Limin, a first-class chef who used to work as a chef at the Lian gui Road store in Rongyuan, studied under Zeng Guohua and is a second-generation disciple of Blu-ray Jian who retired to jianghu a few years ago. "In 1971, Rongyuan became the technical training base of Chengdu Catering Company, and it is not an exaggeration to say that this is the 'Whampoa Military Academy' in sichuan cuisine," Zhang Limin said.
Since this year, Rongyuan has to cultivate a group of culinary technicians every year, Kong Daosheng, Zeng Guohua, Liu Jiancheng, Wu Wanli... These older generation of famous chefs who can be called famous are all from Rong Paradise. Some of them jumped out of the division and created their own catering enterprises; Some stay and stick to the obsession in their hearts.
It is precisely because of the outstanding dishes, talents and business operations that Rongyuan was identified as a "Chinese time-honored brand" enterprise in 1995.
But this is also its last prosperity.
The decline of the originator
The decline of RongYuan Park has actually begun to appear after hosting a thousand-yuan sky-high feast.
At that time, although there were few foreigners in Chengdu, after the implementation of the "reform and opening up" strategy, the proportion of foreigners actually increased year by year. The location of Rongyuan Is basically a place with a strong traditional Chinese culture, because the people here are accustomed to the taste here: the taste of the combination of outstanding dishes and historical atmosphere.
The success of the thousand-yuan feast made the person in charge of Rong Park realize that relocating Rong Park to a prosperous area with a strong modern atmosphere will attract more foreigners and will have more lucrative returns.
In addition to the subjective judgment of RongYuan, the external force is also on the one hand: the old city streets need to be renovated and rebuilt, which forces the old stores to move out.
Under the dual role of internal and external, RongYuan park has carried out a series of relocations, but the results after the relocation are not as good as imagined.
The first is the issue of internal funding. Every relocation requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and the rental fee of the bustling areas of modern cities is much higher than that of old streets and alleys, which will undoubtedly put pressure on capital turnover.
The second is environmental impact. In the bustling area of the modern atmosphere, there are more special catering in line with modern people: fast food, hot pot (especially in Chengdu, a hot pot city, the competition is even more invincible), as well as imported barbecue, steak and so on. In this environment, RongYuanyuan is tantamount to surviving in the cracks.
Again, there are the limitations of the dishes. Constantly innovating is the basic ability of catering enterprises to survive, and since the death of Blu-ray Jian, it is difficult for Rongyuan's Sichuan cuisine to have a breakthrough, and the taste has gradually deteriorated with the death of the previous generation.
Moreover, it is the long-established brands that have gradually lost their appeal in the commercial market. In the past, people had a kind of reverence for the old brand, but the old brand was the head of the horse; Now it's different, everyone wants to do subversion, to be the king of an industry. When the behavior and practices are in the opposite direction of the past, Rong Paradise has become a bustling city of yesterday that has been neglected and abandoned.
Based on various problems, Rongyuan Park is facing profit pressure, constantly closing stores, demolishing and reopening... The vicious cycle repeats itself. In 2009, the internal funds were finally dragged out, and this "old horse" that had been galloping for nearly a hundred years finally unloaded all the prosperity of the past and died of exhaustion on the road.
Epilogue: "It remains in the memory to tell the story of old Chengdu"
Zhou Shizhong is a disciple of the "Exodus Sect" of RongYuan and is currently the head of the Culinary Department of Sichuan Provincial Culinary College.
When he was fine, he would often visit Mule Old Street. "Luomashi Old Street is narrow, from the alley into the 5 meters, you will see the Rongyuan Restaurant similar to the courtyard. Two floors, black lacquered tables are antique..." Recalling Rong Paradise, the grand scenery of Rongcheng is like a landscape painting, stretching and lingering in the memory of Zhou Shizhong.
"Rongyuan Park has not disappeared, it remains in the memory to tell the story of old Chengdu", Zhou Shizhong said firmly, in the dream, there is often such a scene: the sun shines through The Luoma City, sprinkled on the three big characters of "Rongyuan" in heavy color vermilion paint. The guests in the shop pushed the cups and changed the cups, which was very lively. At the door, Tang Qian (welcome) threw the sweat towel over his shoulder, smiled and said aloud: A few distinguished guests, upstairs please!
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