Hot and Healthy
Hot and Healthy
In August of 2006, Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot, one of the leading Chinese consumer names, staged its grand opening with the presence of Union City’s Mayor Mark Green and dozens of Chinese celebrities in the San Francisco Bay area. Though the foodservice giant is the largest restaurant chain in China, with 718 outlets, its debut in America, a completely different market, means a great challenge for Little Sheep. Asian Restaurant News spoke with vice general manager in charge of operation Michael Luk and Little Sheep’s Union City restaurant manager Daniel Huang in order to understand how its first restaurant location in America has succeeded in winning the appetite of local dinners, and how the gourmet reputation has spread so quickly without hectic media promotions.
Reliably fresh food is becoming a luxury for many health-conscious people. “Eat fresh, think healthy” is what Little Sheep always insists no matter if it is in China or America, said assistant general manager Michael Luk. People living in Inner Mongolia invented the archetype of hot pot, which includes an important source of joy at the time of gathering and the innovation of a perfect gastronomical way to preserve nutrition and taste of pollution-free food endowed by the pristine Xiligele prairie. The Mongolians inherit the centuries-old way of keeping sheep, which guarantees a stable source of healthy and fresh lamb for over 700 outlets of Little Sheep.
Currently, Americans can’t purchase lamb from China due to import limitation. “Little Sheep has spent years in locating the best pasture in New Zealand and bring in thoroughbred Xiligele sheep and traditional Mongolian way of feeding to establish an alternative supplier of high quality lamb. And it turns out that such effort is rewarding, because we have lots of customers expressing their joy of biting the juicy sliced lamb,” said Luk.
Vegetables are a must for hot pots. Although Little Sheep’s diners may lose the chance of tasting exotic greens from China, they purchase all of their vegetables locally in order to secure the freshness of greens. “Whenever the seasonal vegetables are available, we present them as soon as possible on our table. When purchasing, we usually have several suppliers for comparison. Whatever we choose, we choose the freshest one,” Luk revealed.
With beef as the staple meat on many dining tables, many Americans, especially females, are put off by the smell of mutton, said Huang. And it is reasonable for the restaurant manager to be proud of the persuasive powers of his hot pot. “In the past three months, at least 500 female customers tasted mutton for the first time and loved it since then” said Huang. “Every hot pot restaurant puts dangshen, goji, cardamom, longan and edible materials like that in the soup base, and Little Sheep does the same. However, we have more than that. Every outlet receives soup base from headquarters. Of course the recipe of the soup is confidential.”
The versatile mutton from the designated supplier and the magical soup base accomplish the tender and juicy bite. At Little Sheep, detail is never ignored, mastering the time control of the slicing. “We slice one plate of mutton if the diners order one. We never do slicing in advance. If the sliced mutton is iced for the second time, the restaurant will save time when the customers order it, but the taste is ruined,” said Daniel. ”All they need to do is simmer it in the boiling broth for 5 seconds.”
Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain
34396 Alvarado Niles Road
Union City, CA 94587
Tel: (510) 675-9919
http://www.xfy.cn/en
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