Talking about the moderate manual catering

Will moderate manual catering be a trend? Zege had some thoughts on this.

Moderate handcraft is the first stage of "redevelopment"

In the era of food industrialization and insufficient industrial division of labor, a restaurant may be a complete chain integrating production, rough processing, fine processing, production and sales.

Most couples' shops, restaurants and restaurants exist in the form of "front shop+back factory". We can understand that the front hall entertains diners, and the back kitchen is a miniature central kitchen without distribution function. Now you can still see many such restaurants, such as Lanzhou beef noodle restaurant, handmade dumpling shop and so on.

in the second stage, machines replaced labor, and after breaking through the bottleneck of efficiency, with the chain development of catering, the restaurant was liberated from the manual process of processing and production, and efficiency was the first.

Some restaurants even only keep sales, using cooking packages, instant food and various functional terminals (such as Lamian Noodles Machine). Greatly improve the convenience of consumers' dining, reduce the cost of dining, and meet the new demand.

At present, it is like coming to the third stage. Facing the wave of consumption upgrading in China, the rise of the middle class and the change of overall consumption will and ability, restaurants begin to re-examine the value of dining for consumers.

One of the changes is the moderate manual catering. That is to say, some production and processing links will be taken back to the store, and human participation will be added to many links, and they will be displayed in public. Does it look like a "retrogression" behavior? It seems that what has been simple has become complicated.

But Zege feels that this is a kind of "redevelopment", which is brought about by external market demand and catering characteristics. In the value composition of catering, handwork is a module that cannot be eliminated and has a large proportion of weight, because it is an industry that cannot be completely replaced by machines.

what is "manual"?

there are two main aspects of handwork, namely, the existing system and the existing work, both of which are related to timeliness.

the current system is mainly reflected in the processing of raw materials and also completed in stores, rather than the unified distribution of finished products. Typically, many flour/noodle shops move their machines to stores and manually complete the procedures of grinding, steaming and cutting.

it depends on the final production process, whether it is done on the same day or just now. At the moment of making transparency, it seems that everyone is making it now, but in fact there are still differences-for example, the bone soup in the visible cauldron, for example, the Chinese hamburger cake made on the spot.

then, why do you need to increase the cost of these processes that could have been completed manually?

what's the reason behind moderate handwork?

Zege thinks that there are several factors worthy of attention:

1. Difference in quality

Zege mentioned in the previous article the relationship between catering and time and space. The longer the time and the longer the distance, the greater the quality attenuation of the finished product. And moderate handcraft can make up for the lack of quality to a certain extent. For many categories, whether it is Chinese food or western food, this difference is obvious: for a simple example, the prepared bayberry juice is very different from the boiled bayberry juice, frozen meat hamburger and handmade hamburger. Quality, more worth buying.

2. Different sense of value

Catering not only satisfies physical satiety, but also reflects on psychological level. At the moment when all kinds of industrialized and convenient products are flooding our lives, handmade products have become scarce resources, and handcrafted products have begun to be linked with value. This is a bit like the fact that in some foodies' hearts, chain brands have no food, but the street is old and small but there are many shops. Because it is less, it is good.

valuable, more willing to buy.

3, the ability of premium

Products that can accumulate more value can enjoy a certain degree of premium, which is more prominent in the format of simple and fast food, and products with high degree of craftsmanship can sell at a higher price. Because both labor and time need to be spent, and these costs are transformed into delicious food, which naturally has its own premium ability.

a premium is acceptable.

4, manufacturing process

For some categories or products, the machine still can't complete a specific processing link, because the operation can't be standardized and quantified, and there are differences in the final presentation. For example, the noodles are pulled and pulled, and the heat is big or small.

hand-made, it feels better than the machine.

which is better, industrialization or handwork?

Industrialization can effectively solve the problem of efficiency and stability, and manual production can better reflect the value and difference of products. Some old catering people will criticize how things from the factory can be eaten, and the taste of the products is lost too much; At the same time, some new catering people will question the development potential of handmade stores, and even the standards of the two stores may not be the same.