Catering in Nanjing
Chef Ah-Chi is a hit outside of Taiwan as well. In October 2010, he introduced Taiwanese-style catering to mainland China when he brought a group of 19 well known chefs there to prepare a banquet.
The event was hosted by a major Taiwanese corporation opening the Nan-jing Taiwan Trade Mart, a store that deals exclusively in Taiwanese products, including foods, computers and bicycles. The company arranged a 120-table opening-day banquet for 1,200 guests in the store's open-air plaza. No mainland chefs dared take on the challenge of such a large banquet, so Chef Ah-Chi recruited help from Taiwan.
He began his preparations a month and a half in advance by shipping in Taiwanese tableware, sauces and pickles, partially prepared items, and SGS-inspected ingredients. All told, he imported one and a half cargo containers worth of stuff that had to be carefully transported from Taiwan to Nanjing.
Concerned about cleanliness, a worried Chef Ah-Chi paced the entire venue before the banquet's start, wiping dust out of bowls and glasses. "I was the most nervous person there," he recalls. He says he was less worried about whether attendees would like the food-few people in Nan-jing are familiar with Taiwanese food-than he was that everything be clean and that the service be five star.
On the day of the event, he joked with the invited Nan-jing VIPs, telling them: "There's nothing good to eat in Taiwan today because all of our best chefs are here!"
Hundreds of members of the mainland media and workers in the hospitality industry were in attendance as well, one of them even wondering aloud how something outdoors could be high class.
"Taiwanese outdoor banqueting culture seems very modest and unassuming," explains Chef Ah-Chi, "but it's actually a very high-end affair." He observes that Taiwan's country folk are exceptionally amiable, and feel obliged to lay on a good spread for their guests, especially since they are feeding them right by the side of the road.
For the Nan-jing banquet, Chef Ah-Chi had to serve all the courses within 80 minutes. Organizational skills are as crucial as culinary skills when feeding 1,200 guests at 120 tables. "You have to be on your game when catering," says Ah-Chi. He explains that you need to have a plan, and you need to be adept at everything from stocking your kitchen to getting the dishes to the tables.
Ah-Chi and the 19 other chefs certainly impressed their guests with the wonders of Taiwanese cuisine. They also managed to engage with local chefs while there. Ah-Chi came home astounded by the meticulousness of the Nanjing chefs he met.
He observes that one of their strengths is raw manpower. In the case of one appetizer, they place rehydrated dried shrimp in small clamps for four hours, then arrange them in the shape of a Chinese crabapple blossom. For another dish, they spend an hour or two carving tofu into the shape of a chrysanthemum blossom before deep frying it. Such laborious, time-consuming processes just aren't feasible in Taiwan.
Chef Ah-Chi teaches simple ways to make first-class food.