Let me start with a question: Why is it so challenging for Chinese cuisine to scale into a large-scale international chain? You might think it’s either due to insufficient consumer demand or a lack of sufficient funding.
Actually, none of that is true. The biggest challenge arises when Chinese food chains expand—once there are more restaurants, each chef starts preparing dishes with slightly different techniques and cooking temperatures. As a result, every single restaurant ends up serving a unique flavor, making it impossible to maintain consistency across the board. This issue can rightly be described as a major hurdle plaguing the entire Chinese culinary industry.
However, a Chinese restaurant chain—Tan Yu—has successfully tackled this issue. Tan Yu has over 200 locations in more than 50 cities, and all its dishes taste exactly the same.
The most important thing is standardization.
In my view, consistent taste is ultimately just a result—but behind it lies a challenge that every ambitious chain restaurant, and indeed the entire Chinese food industry, must confront: standardization.
If this issue remains unresolved, consumers will end up bearing the risks stemming from the uncertainties in Chinese cuisine preparation—something that could prove fatal for the brand.
Core product standardization
To ensure consistent flavor in Chinese cuisine, the key lies in standardized seasoning packets—prepared in advance at a central kitchen, so restaurants can simply serve them portion by portion.
But for the grilled fish category, achieving this is already challenging. For decades, grilled fish has traditionally been sold by weight, resulting in inconsistent fish sizes—and that makes it impossible to standardize the seasoning packets.
So, in 2013 we made a bold decision:
Fish are no longer sold by the kilogram—we sell them by the piece instead.
We require that the fish provided by our supplier weigh exactly 2 jin each, with a tolerance of no more than 2 liang.
This way, our core ingredients have been standardized.
Ingredient standardization
Once the fish size is set, the basic sauces, seasonings, and powders needed for grilled fish can be produced in standardized seasoning packets at the factory.
That’s still not enough—so we even customized spoons with fixed volumes and precise markings, turning cooking tools directly into measuring devices.
Chefs no longer have to rely on feel to measure ingredients, nor do they need to taste to gauge the right level of saltiness.
Done.
Just
Thus,
The issue of ingredient standardization
It's also resolved.
Equipment standardization
In addition to standardizing ingredients, reducing reliance on chefs' skills even further will also require establishing a "foolproof" operational process.
I ditched the traditional gas stove and switched entirely to an induction cooktop. Now, I’ve set specific guidelines for every dish—whether it’s which burner setting to use, how long to heat, and exactly how much time is needed.
In addition, we’ve added an infrared temperature-sensing display to each wok, clearly indicating exactly which ingredients go in at what temperature.
This way, even an inexperienced chef can prepare equally delicious grilled fish, ensuring that the taste remains consistent across every location in the chain.
Selling fish by the piece not only ensures consistent taste but also helps us achieve standardization in our services.
Thanks to the standardization of the production process, much of the work can now be completed in the central kitchen, eliminating the time customers would otherwise spend picking through options. This directly helps us cut down the traditional preparation time for grilled fish—from 30 to 40 minutes—significantly.
Now, over 200 Tan Yu restaurants in more than 50 cities have all pledged to deliver the full meal within 18 minutes—and if they miss the mark, customers will receive all delayed dishes absolutely free, directly boosting both service efficiency and customer satisfaction.
What do customers worry about most when eating grilled fish? It’s that different fish varieties come with varying prices—and even for the same variety, fish of different weights carry different price tags. Not only do customers have to carefully pick their fish, but they also end up secretly competing with the vendor, questioning whether the portion you’ve served is actually generous enough.
But selling fish by the piece solves this dilemma. Each variety of fish is priced uniformly, ensuring customers get exactly what they pay for—full weight and measure. As a result, price standardization not only dispels customer skepticism and builds trust but also reduces the cost of decision-making for shoppers.
