Cooking healthy Chinese food, while advocating Chinese General Tao's Chicken culture

——The entrepreneurship of Ms. Shen, owner of “General Tao Restaurant” in Quebec, Canada

 

 

In an old, uncrowded street in Quebec, there is a Chinese restaurant named “General Tao Restaurant”. Ever since it opened, the restaurant has always gotten thumbs up from its customers.

 

The owner of this Chinese restaurant is Ms. Shen from China. When asked about the reason why she started General Tao Restaurant, she smiled and mentioned it was a coincidence. She studied agricultural economics at a Chinese University. But because of a sudden opportunity she ended up in Canada where she worked as a waitress. She found out a lot of customers like General Tao's Chicken. So, out of curiosity, she bought books related to this dish and studied them. At the same time chef Ma Dong from Beijing came to Canada, but he didn’t speak decent English back then. The two of them just clicked and started General Tao Restaurant in 1997. Specializing in General Tao's Chicken and some other Chinese dishes. They wanted to build a characteristic Chinese restaurant, while also informing people of the history of General Tao's Chicken. Making sure that more people know about this dish and through that understand Chinese food culture.

 

 

Since we keep mentioning “General Tao's Chicken”, we want to explain the background of this dish. The inventor of this dish is Mr. Peng Chang Gui, a restaurant holder from Taiwan. He learnt to cook from a very famous chef named Mr. Cao Jin Chen. The ingredients they use to cook seemingly belong in Hunan dishes, but actually deep down they are ingredients used for Huaiyang dishes. However the cooking method used by Mr. Peng is the same as you would normally use for cooking Lingnan dishes mixed in with some of his own ideas. One day in the 1970s, Mr. Jiang Jing Guo, who was the president of “ The Republic Of China Administrative Academy”, worked quite late. After work he took his attendants to eat in Mr. Peng Chang Gui’s restaurant. Since it was around closing time, all the high level ingredients had run out. The only ingredient that was left was chicken legs. So Peng Chang Gui made a dish on the spot. At first he cut the meat from the Chicken bones, then he cleaned some peppers and cut them into pieces. After that he fried the chicken and dried it. He then mixed the chicken, with some pepper, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and ginger. To finish it off he sprinkled it with some sesame oil and thus created a new dish. After tasting it, Mr. Jiang Jing Guo thought it was really delicious, so he asked about the dishes name. Peng Chang Gui quickly made up a name and mentioned it is General Tao's Chicken. Afterwards this dish became the signature dish of Peng’s restaurant.

 

 

In 1973, Peng Chang Gui went to work in America. He opened Peng’s Restaurant on 44 street in Manhattan, New York. One day the famous architect, Leoh Ming Pei invited the  former secretary of the United States to eat in Peng’s Restaurant. Kissinger liked the food a lot and so he became a loyal customer. After that General Tao's Chicken became really famous. Many Chinese restaurants copied it and it became one of the most famous Chinese dishes in America.

 

Even though General Tao's Chicken is quite famous in America, in Canada General Tao Restaurant owned by Ms. Shen is the pioneer of advocating this dish. General Tao's Chicken is situated in the house of an ex mayor, as such it is one of the must go places for tourists. From the outside it has a nice European styled look, which attracts a lot of people. Inside the restaurant is tidy and clean. The Decoration is a mix of Chinese and foreign culture, which gives General Tao's Chicken a distinguished atmosphere. This really attracts a lot of customers who feel they can relax and eat there. The owner, Ms. Shen believes that even though most of the Chinese dishes “look greasy, they are healthy”. She pays a lot of attention to the dishes’ health and nutrition. In June, 2015, General Tao Restaurant got the healthy dishes certificate from National authorized healthy dishes testifying authority “Healthy Dining”. The restaurant has 10 signature dishes awarded the title of healthy dish. Especially General Tao's Chicken, the ingredients get picked carefully and it is cooked with care. They only use free range chicken that haven’t laid eggs yet, they make sure that they get rid of all the bones, they cure the chicken meat, then fry it and mix all the flavors. Afterwards the dish will look golden and crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. A lot of flavors are combined. General Tao's Chicken is sour, sweet, crispy, spicy, fresh and it smells good. It became General Tao Restaurant’s most signature dish.

 

 

 

Life is a long winding road, full of obstacles to conquer. Every entrepreneur has to pay a lot of attention to staff management. Ms. Shen advocates a “people first” management style. Emphasizing on group work, to make sure all the things go decently. “General Tao Restaurant” has been up and running for 18 years now. Its business has always been good, not only because of the cooperation from all the staff, but also because it owns a precious chef. This Chef’s name is Ma Dong. Before coming to Canada, he worked in big scale restaurants and government restaurants in Beijing. He has gotten National cooking certificate. He specializes in all kinds of dishes and has numerous kinds of cooking skills. As such he is highly praised by his customers.

 

 

Because of its good service and nice environment, plus having an owner like Ms. Shen who is really good at managing the restaurant and always advocates healthy and environment friendly ideas, the reputation of General Tao Restaurant is very good. It has become the Chinese food brand recommended by local Chinese and foreigners alike. In 2014, the restaurant entered the big scale good food selection program called “the Best Asian Food in Canada”, and won Top 1.

 

Besides General Tao Restaurant, Ms. Shen also owns two other Chinese restaurants. A restaurant called Soyate and a restaurant focused on healthy dishes. Both restaurants have a lot of loyal customers.

Since the business is getting better and better. Ms. Shen plans to pick a good location in the business center of Quebec to open new chain restaurants. In doing so she hopes that Chinese food will fully enter into Canada, that the Chinese food industry will enter into Canadian main stream society and that she can realize her long cherished wish of developing and expanding Chinese food culture.