Catering sector business bounces back

Precooked dishes

Precooked dishes were also popular during Spring Festival. By Jan 26, nationwide sales of such dishes reached 130.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 43.6 percent, according to market observer iiMedia Research.

The main reasons customers buy precooked dishes are for the good taste, the variety of cuisines, as well as convenient storage and packaging, the research company said.

Gift boxes of precooked dishes were listed among the 10 most sought-after items for Spring Festival this year, along with nuts, tea, pastry, and baijiu liquor, according to iiMedia Ranking.

The Spring Festival consumption trend forecast from e-commerce platform JD stated that the business volume for precooked dishes rose sixfold year-on-year.

Fish maw, chicken soup and pickled fish are among the most popular precooked dishes, which are complicated to make and include many expensive ingredients.

Online grocery platform Dingdong Maicai launched several precooked seafood dishes, including king crab, cheese-baked Boston lobster and deep-fried brown crab.

Ou Houxi, in charge of premade dishes at Dingdong Maicai, said the platform prepared seafood dishes because it had noticed people placing more emphasis on nutrition, and fresh and healthy ingredients.

A crab dish that received more than 5,000 orders in a single day was fried in oil at 150 C for two minutes before being fast-frozen at-195 C in liquid nitrogen to retain the original flavor.

Ou said all customers needed to do was heat the dish in a microwave for two minutes and add seasoning.

Dingdong Maicai also collaborated with popular local restaurants to launch a precooked dinner for delivery on Lunar New Year's Eve. More than 8,000 orders were placed for the meals.