The branch in the commercial center adopts a more modern and fashionable decoration style.

These branches are located in the bustling core of the city, and most of their customers are urban white-collar workers and business people who pursue fashion and high quality of life.

The team made extensive use of modern and simple design concepts in the decoration, with simple and smooth lines and bright and atmospheric colors.

At the same time, some art installations, such as modern sculptures and abstract paintings, are added to create a high-end and tasteful dining environment.

The metal lamps cast soft and bright light, reflecting on the smooth marble floor and textured leather seats, making the entire space full of modern urban fashion.

In terms of menu innovation, although certain adjustments have been made based on local tastes, as the wheel of time rolls forward, customer tastes are becoming more diverse and international, just like the changeable weather.

The food cultures from all over the world are blending and penetrating each other. Simply relying on the improvement of traditional dishes is no longer able to meet the ever-growing demands of customers, like a sponge absorbing water.

Chen Xiaoyang and Ma Hua began to explore introducing internationally popular cooking concepts into their dishes.

They greedily learn foreign cooking techniques, food combinations and plating arts like a sponge absorbs water.

In the demonstration by the French chef, they learned the exquisite use of truffles, a precious ingredient, in French cuisine.

The unique and rich aroma of truffles can add an unparalleled sense of luxury to dishes.

So they tried to use truffles in some special dishes.

In a stew that is already very popular with customers, an appropriate amount of truffle slices are added. The aroma of the truffle slowly permeates into every ingredient during the stewing process. When the dish is served, the rich and unique aroma instantly spreads, making the customers' eyes light up.

They also borrowed the fine art of plating from Japanese cuisine.

Japanese cuisine is like an exquisite work of art. The presentation of each dish pays attention to color matching, shape symmetry and spatial layout.

Chen Xiaoyang and Ma Hua brought this concept back to all Wang's restaurants and made innovations in the presentation of some dishes.

For example, for a dish with seafood as the main ingredient, they cut the fresh fish into thin slices and arrange them on the plate in an orderly manner like petals, surrounding them with colorful vegetables and exquisite sauces. The whole dish looks like a beautiful painting, which attracts customers by the visual effects of the dish before tasting it.

However, launching new dishes is like throwing a stone into a calm lake. Although it causes ripples, it also brings some risks.

Some old customers have deep feelings for traditional dishes. This feeling is like a big tree rooted in their hearts and is difficult to shake.

They are not very receptive to new dishes. In their hearts, the taste of traditional dishes is the soul of all Wang's restaurants.

When seeing these dishes with new elements on the menu, some of them would frown, and some would even directly ask the chef to prepare the dishes according to traditional methods.

Although new customers are interested in new dishes, just like children are curious about new toys, they may have difficulty making choices because they are not familiar with traditional dishes.

Faced with a wide variety of menus, they often hesitate between traditional and innovative dishes, not knowing how to choose to satisfy their taste buds.

In order to solve this problem, the restaurant, like a wise elder, introduced a dual menu model.

One is a menu of traditional classic dishes. This menu is like an old friend, filled with classic dishes that are loved by old customers. Each dish carries the history and tradition of all Wang's restaurants.

The other is the innovative dishes menu, a world full of novelty and exploration, showcasing the chefs’ innovative achievements in combining popular international cooking concepts with local cuisine.

At the same time, the waiters are like attentive tour guides and will provide detailed introductions and recommendations when customers order.

They will first ask customers about their taste preferences, whether it is their first time dining in the restaurant, and other information, and then make targeted introductions based on the customers' answers.

If the customer is an old customer, the waiter will focus on introducing the innovation of the new dishes and how they have been improved while retaining the traditional flavor;

If the customer is a new customer, the waiter will first briefly introduce the restaurant's classic dishes, and then describe in detail the characteristics and taste of the innovative dishes to help customers make wise choices based on their tastes and needs.

In terms of employee management, as the scale of Wang's hotels continues to expand like a balloon, the promotion space and career development path of employees have become unclear, like a trail hidden in a dense forest. This has become a new focus.

Some capable employees are like birds trapped in a cage and are considering leaving because they see no future development prospects in the Wang's Hotel Group.

These employees perform well in their daily work. They have proficient business skills and a positive work attitude. However, in this huge corporate system, they feel like a tiny screw. Although they play a role in their positions, they see no hope of advancement.

Wang Jianye was keenly aware that this problem was like a reef posing a threat to ships and must be resolved in a timely manner.

He established a more complete employee career development system.

This system clearly defines the promotion standards and processes from grassroots employees to management levels.

Each position is like a step on a ladder, with clear job requirements and ability standards.

For example, for a waiter position, promotion to foreman requires not only excellent service skills, such as being able to skillfully respond to various customer needs, mastering dish knowledge and being able to make accurate recommendations, but also certain team management capabilities, such as being able to organize and coordinate the daily work of the waiter team.

In order to provide employees with more growth opportunities, just like watering and fertilizing saplings, the hotel also provides more training and learning opportunities.

Internal cooking competitions and service skills competitions are organized regularly. These competitions serve as a stage for employees to showcase their talents.

In the cooking competition, the chefs compete like martial arts masters, demonstrating their unique cooking techniques and innovative dish ideas. The judges judge the dishes based on many aspects, including the color, aroma, taste, creativity, and compatibility with the restaurant's cuisine style.

The service skills competition was also exciting. The waiters demonstrated their service etiquette, adaptability and customer communication skills by simulating various dining scenarios.

The winner not only gets a bonus, which is like the fruit of hard work, but also has the opportunity to be promoted or go to the headquarters to learn advanced management experience.

Employees who study at the headquarters can be exposed to the hotel's core management concepts and learn advanced business knowledge. After returning, they can apply these valuable experiences to their work, which not only improves their own abilities but also injects new vitality into the development of the hotel. With the gradual implementation of these reform measures, Wang's full-line hotels have gradually gained a foothold in the catering market, but new challenges are still waiting for them.

As market competition intensifies further, raw material prices begin to fluctuate.

As market competition intensifies, raw material prices begin to fluctuate, just like the sea before a storm, seemingly calm but with undercurrents.

This fluctuation is not a small ups and downs, but the prices of some key ingredients fluctuate like a roller coaster, which brings huge pressure on the restaurant's cost control.

These key ingredients, like the cornerstones of a building, are an indispensable part of the dishes of all Wang's restaurants.

The instability of their prices makes every purchase like a risky gamble. Take seafood as an example. The prices of some precious marine fish were still in a relatively reasonable range in the previous month, allowing restaurants to maintain a certain profit margin while ensuring the quality of the dishes.

However, in the blink of an eye, prices can skyrocket due to seasonal changes in marine fishery resources, reduced catches, or sudden changes in international market demand.

Similarly, some special meat ingredients, such as high-quality beef from specific origins, are also affected by a combination of factors such as the climate of the origin, breeding costs, and transportation costs, and their prices fluctuate.

Wang Jianye was fully aware of the seriousness of the problem and once again convened his team, including financial staff, purchasing staff, Chen Xiaoyang and others, to discuss countermeasures.

The financial staff analyzed the cost structure in detail. They broke down each cost item. Among the many ingredient costs, they found that the price fluctuations of some ingredients had the greatest impact on profits.

Although these ingredients may not account for the absolute majority of the dishes, due to their high unit prices, even a slight change in price can trigger a huge chain reaction in the entire cost system like a butterfly effect.

For example, a 10% increase in the price of a rare spice used in a signature dish could result in a 20% increase in the cost of the dish, and since the price of the dish on the menu is relatively fixed, the profit margin is greatly compressed.

The purchasing staff reported in detail the supply situation in the market.

They explore news in every corner of the market, communicate with suppliers, pay attention to industry trends, and study production information.

They found that the supply of some ingredients was affected by factors such as season and origin, resulting in unstable prices.

In certain seasons, the production of some vegetables decreases seasonally. For example, in winter, the local production of fresh green leafy vegetables drops sharply due to the cold weather and shorter daylight hours, and they can only rely on transportation from other places, which greatly increases the procurement cost.

For some meat ingredients, the particularity of their origin determines the limited supply.

For example, a type of local pork from a specific mountainous area is loved by customers for its unique flavor, but the scale of breeding in that mountainous area is limited. Once market demand increases, the shortage of supply will quickly push up prices.

Chen Xiaoyang and others suggested finding some alternative ingredients with relatively stable prices without affecting the quality of the dishes.

They know that the quality of food is the lifeline of the restaurant, but in the face of cost pressure, they must find a balance.

Relying on years of cooking experience and in-depth understanding of the characteristics of ingredients, Chen Xiaoyang and others began to think about various possible alternatives.

After an in-depth discussion, like an intense brainstorming session, they decided on a multi-pronged strategy.

On the one hand, renegotiate contract terms with suppliers to obtain more favorable purchase prices and stable supply guarantees.

They conducted a comprehensive survey of market prices and collected a large amount of data, including quotations from different suppliers, historical price trends, and purchasing prices of peers.

At the negotiation table, they explained in detail to the suppliers the hotel's needs and the difficulties it faced, and emphasized the importance of long-term cooperation between the two parties.

For some ingredients whose prices fluctuate greatly but are crucial to the characteristics of the dishes, they sign long-term cooperation agreements with suppliers and agree on a price adjustment mechanism to balance the interests of both parties.

For example, for high-quality beef whose price fluctuates, they reach an agreement with suppliers to negotiate price adjustments every quarter based on market price indices and cost changes.

This can not only ensure that suppliers have a reasonable profit margin when costs rise, but also allow restaurants to have a certain buffer period when prices fluctuate.

On the other hand, Chen Xiaoyang and others have increased their research and development efforts on alternative ingredients.

For example, when the price of a certain expensive seafood increases significantly, they try to replace it with a more affordable fish with a similar taste, and use unique cooking methods to make up for the subtle differences in taste.

The chefs conducted detailed research on various types of fish, from meat texture, fat content to flavor characteristics. They found that a common local freshwater fish, although its meat is slightly inferior to that of expensive seafood, can be made firmer through special marinating and cooking techniques, such as marinating with a special sauce for a period of time and then slow cooking at low temperature. The taste can also simulate the freshness of expensive seafood.

At the same time, in terms of seasoning, they added some unique spice combinations to further enhance the overall flavor of the dish, making it difficult for customers to detect that this is a substitute ingredient when tasting it.

However, replacing ingredients is not always smooth sailing.

Although new ingredients have cost advantages, they also bring some new challenges.

The first is the issue of customer acceptance. Some old customers have fixed impressions and taste preferences of the dishes, and they may have doubts about changes in the dishes.

Secondly, the supply stability of alternative ingredients also needs further examination.

Although the prices of these alternative ingredients are relatively stable and the supply is sufficient at the current stage, the market situation is changing rapidly. Once there is a supply shortage or a sudden price increase, restaurants will face a new crisis.

To address the issue of customer acceptance, the hotel adopted a step-by-step strategy.

They gave gentle reminders of the changes in dishes on the menu, explaining to customers that the reason for using alternative ingredients is to better respond to market changes while maintaining the quality of the dishes and providing customers with more stable prices.

At the same time, when customers order, the waiters will introduce the characteristics of new dishes in detail and guide customers to try them.

For some old customers who are more sensitive to changes in dishes, the restaurant also launched limited edition traditional dishes, made with original ingredients, but the price will be adjusted appropriately according to the cost to meet the needs of these customers. (End of this chapter)