Vocational training serves up success for aspiring chefs

YINCHUAN — As noon approaches, Ma Fang, the owner of a wedding banquet hall in Tongxin county in the city of Wuzhong, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, is busy preparing a bowl of the local traditional soup, adding sliced green radish, tofu, wood ear mushrooms and rice noodles.

After seasoning it with soy sauce and salt, she allows the mixture to simmer briefly. Once the ingredients are perfectly cooked, she serves the soup in a bowl, crowning it with steamed meatballs and thinly sliced beef. With a sprinkle of green onions and cilantro, and a final drizzle of broth, Ma presents a steaming, aromatic bowl of Tongxin soup.

"We usually start our preparations around 5 am, and on our busiest days we can dish out over 2,000 bowls by noon," Ma said.

She and her husband, Ma Yulu, launched the Chengbei Home Banquet Hall in August, and the orders have been piling up, with reservations already booked two months in advance.

Nestled along the banks of the Yellow River, Wuzhong has cultivated a unique culinary culture through centuries of trade and cultural exchange.

In recent years, the city has bolstered its support for private vocational training institutions, offering cooking courses in Chinese cuisine, pastries and snacks, thereby nurturing a batch of "Wuzhong chefs". With the magic of modern cooking techniques, the trainees have helped enhance the flavor of their local delicacies, satisfying customers across the country.

Zhao Liang, general manager of Suzi Morning Tea, has witnessed this transformation firsthand. "On weekends and holidays, our restaurant is almost always full of customers, and private rooms require reservations," he said.

Established in 1992, Suzi Morning Tea has grown from a humble noodle shop to a chain of four locations. Wuzhong's morning tea restaurants typically offer beef noodles, dim sum and side dishes. "It's not just locals enjoying morning tea, as many tourists from other regions also come to experience it," Zhao added.

The restaurant's thriving business is partly attributed to the improved skills of its chefs. "In the past, chefs mainly learned through apprenticeships, but now we have formal vocational training, making our chefs more professional and standardized," Zhao said.

He highlighted events hosted by the city, including morning tea festivals and culinary competitions, which have provided an important platform for local chefs to exchange ideas and refine their craft.

Many of the chefs in Wuzhong's flourishing food scene were once young women without stable employment. Li Pingping, a cook at Ma Fang's banquet hall, used to work on construction sites, which was both physically demanding and unstable. Vocational training has since transformed her life.

"Here, I earn around 5,000 yuan ($700) a month and haven't looked for work elsewhere," Li said. Becoming a chef has significantly improved her family's life, enabling her to buy a new car and even build a new house in her hometown.

Wang Jingwen, principal of a local vocational training school, said: "Our residents are more aware of the benefits of vocational training, and the demand for courses has risen substantially. Many restaurant workers even sign up on their own initiative."

Ma Yulu sends his staff for training each year. Previously, he and his wife ran a small restaurant without any formal culinary knowledge, managing their operations in a haphazard manner. However, after undergoing training, the more than 10 chefs in their kitchen have become more professional.

"After the training, their knife skills, heat control and cooking processes have all become more professional, making their dishes taste better. Consequently, our revenue has increased," Ma Yulu said.

With the business flourishing, the couple were able to build the Chengbei Home Banquet Hall, significantly expanding their operations.

Leveraging the targeted vocational training, the catering industry in Wuzhong has embarked on a path toward standardized industrial development. Capitalizing on the unique tourism development advantages of Ningxia, the city is also striving to develop its characteristic catering sector into its signature industry, while retaining more tourists that are attracted to the region, local officials said.