China's catering enterprises start standardized cooking amid shortage of chefs

Catering enterprises in China are turning to standardized cooking as they are facing a decline in qualified chefs who are in need of much training.

Although the willingness of young people to become chefs is declining, China's catering industry has been developing in recent years. Data shows that the total annual registered volume of catering related enterprises in China rose steadily from 2012 to 2019. As of Thursday, more than 260,000 catering enterprises have been registered in 2022.

"After more than a year of adjusting, we have developed five major categories featuring smelly mandarin fish and more than 50 SKUS (stock keeping units) are sold online and offline. At present, a management team headed by the general manager has been set up, and then we will focus on developing pre-made food market," said Liu Haisong, chief chef of a catering group in east China's Anhui Province.

In addition, in recent years, hot pot, which is popular in the catering market, is also the perfect embodiment of standardized production of catering. Data shows that there are currently more than 420,000 hotpot related enterprises in China, and nearly 70 percent of them were established within five years.

Industry insiders believe that even if all catering enterprises choose standardized production, excellent chefs will always be scarce resources. Not only can chefs play an important role in the research and development of dishes, but when most catering enterprises standardize their production, some private and personalized catering with differentiated competition will also put forward higher requirements for chefs.

"From the perspective of chefs' development, we need to inherit and innovate. We need to apply reasonable nutrition management to the whole industry. We also need reform, innovation and development in education and teaching," said Pan Yaocai, principal of a culinary school in Beijing.