Making Local Guangdong Dishes Enjoying Good Fame in Vancouver through Dedicated Work and Sincere Service

- Entrepreneurial history of Mr. Su Hailiang, the owner of Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House, a Chinese restaurant in Vancouver

Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House (广州粥面小厨)
Tel:(604) 876-8520
Fax：604-879-0378
Add：3163 Main St Vancouver, BC V5T 3G8
www.kwongchowrestaurant.com

Speaking about local Chinese dishes in Vancouver, many Chinese people will turn up their thumbs and compliment on Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House, a Chinese restaurant located in 3163 MainSt., showing their respect to the entrepreneurial history of Mr. Su Hailiang, the Chinese owner of the Restaurant.

Coming from Guangdong Province, China, Mr. Su Hailiang looks stocky, simple and honest, impressing people as a chef at first sight. As a child, he was very interested in the catering industry. He has begun to engage in the food and beverage industry since graduation from middle school in the early 80s of last century. At the very beginning, he worked in the food stall of a relative and done what he could, such as clearing the table, washing and sorting vegetables etc. Looking at the cooks in the stall and customers going in and out, Mr. Su gradually developed his own idea, which would be the earliest epitome for his future chef career. Working in the food stall was a bitter but happy experience for Mr. Su, since it was there that he found his life goal.

In order to improve his cooking skill, in 1982, the then 18 years old Su, full of ambition, resolved to participate the cooking training of Guangdong and Hong Kong Chef Training Center. After months of learning, he successfully completed the training and was granted with the National Vocational Qualification Certificate for Chef Level Three, laying solid foundation for his future catering business.

His inexperience when learning to be a chef was still vivid in his mind. However, he remembered what his teacher taught him: as long as you are dedicated, you will succeed, which was practiced by Mr. Su wherever he went. He said it was the productivity and his motto in operating the catering business for years.

Where there is a will, there is a way. With the Certificate for Chef Level Three and after careful consideration, in 1983, Mr. Su opened a restaurant in his hometown, Guangzhou City, and employed over 160 staff. Several years later, he earned his first fortune when the restaurant got profit under the joint effort of him and his employees. In 2001, by chance, Mr. Su came to Vancouver, Canada and opened a restaurant named Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House. Why would he open this restaurant in a foreign country? According to Su, the primary reason is that there are a large number of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver, Canada who have lived abroad for a long time and like eating local Chinese dishes, especially local Guangdong dishes. At the same time, Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House offers a nostalgic environment where customers can easily find the feeling of being home.

Due to Mr. Su’s well operation, good service, tidy environment and the most important – the principle of “making customers feeling at home” advocated by him, every happily coming customer is provided with supreme service and leaves with satisfaction. For 13 years, all of the 100 seats of Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House have been reserved every day, and take-out has always been popular. Except the main course named Guangdong Congee, many customers are attracted by the famous wonton noodles, tummy-warming congee and various characteristic desserts enjoying good public praise. In order to cater to the taste of customers, each time of backing to mainland China, Mr. Su and his team would introduce new dishes to refresh the dining experience of customers. Although the commodity price is growing continuously in recent years, the prices of dishes in Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House remain unchanged, making the brand increasingly popular among Chinese and foreign people in Canada.

Every entrepreneur attaches great importance to staff management, Mr. Su is of no exception, however, he advocates a humanized management. All the waiters in the restaurant were carefully selected by him from the labor market. Senior executives have shares in the restaurant. Su only establishes the simplest rules, leaving all the details to the management. He considers his understanding of management unreachable for others: “I’ve been the waiter, chef and boss, so to speak, I’ve done every job in a restaurant, and I know their hardships of their jobs. So, my management is the most simple, flexible and humanized.” As a result, employees in Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House have a strong sense of belonging and seldom quit except some choosing to starting businesses.

The road ahead now is strewn with difficulties; we should recollect our wits and overcome them triumphantly! As Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House is getting more and more popular, Mr. Su plans to train some excellent employees in the future to open branches in selected areas in various business centers of Vancouver, making Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House fully entering into Vancouver thus to realize his long-cherished wish of developing the catering industry in Canada.