Benefits of cheap dishes, easy to choose

A delivery man for Ele.me in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. [Photo/China Daily]

Take-out services provided by service apps such as Ele.me and Baidu Inc's Waimai have become popular among Chinese citizens especially youngsters. Beijing Youth Daily says this shows there is demand for streamlined, simple catering services:

The complicated cooking procedures and techniques required of gourmet Chinese cooking have left more than enough room for online catering businesses to flourish. Cheap, fast, and easy to choose, take-out food is feeding an increasing number of Chinese who naturally have lower expectations of what they order online.

Running Chinese catering services is not easy because people often have high, sometimes unrealistic, expectations. When sitting down in a restaurant, many customers want to be presented with a menu offering a wide variety of dishes rather than a limited set of choices.

However, such expectations mean higher cooking and food storage costs for restaurants, as they need chefs who can cook different cuisines and use many different ingredients. As a result some struggle to strike a balance between quality and quantity. That explains why some "versatile" food courts in Beijing that offer hundreds of dishes have failed to attract a matching number of diners.

In stark contrast, those serving only a limited number of dishes, mostly inexpensive Chinese fast food, have managed to not just survive but prosper across the country. Their success is hardly a result of outstanding cooking skills or special ingredients, rather it is the result of a focused menu and efficient operations.

The demand for authentic Chinese cuisine remains huge so most restaurants are still trying their best to provide as many dishes as they can. But there is no guarantee that every dish will be as good as hoped for, because most dishes are cooked by apprentices, not professional chefs. Hiring the best in the business is expensive and most restaurants can only afford a few experienced chefs.

Foreign food chains in China, particularly those offering fast food such as fried chicken and pizzas, share similar managerial ideas with the country's burgeoning food delivery services. For Chinese food chains to be globally successful, they also need to offer clear and simple menus, universally available ingredients, and uniform management. Such a pragmatic, quality-first approach should be learned by the traditional Chinese catering services.