Maxim's restaurant has introduced many in the capital to French cuisine since opening in 1983, Liu Xin of China Features reports.

For the past 30 years, selecting ingredients, cutting beef shank and mixing the sauce for French-style steak has been among Shan Chunwei's most important tasks.

"We serve more than 10 kinds of steak, including filet mignon and sirloin. They are normally served with a baked potato and sliced tomatoes in traditional French cuisine," the 56-year-old head chef at China's first Maxim's says.

Situated next to a noisy mobile phone store and a budget clothing shop on the bustling Chongwenmen West Street, Maxim's, 5 kilometers south of Tian'anmen Square, the capital's most famous landmark, is where many Beijingers get their first taste of French food, long before setting foot in Paris.

"My first experience of France came from my first dinner at Maxim's with my girlfriend in 1984. I can still remember the rich flavor of the snail broth and the buttery texture of the foie gras," Peter Zhang, an art critic in his early 60s, recalls.

"It may sound a little exaggerated, but that's how I felt at that moment. The French cuisine piqued my curiosity and encouraged me to further explore French culture. Two years later, I found myself enjoying French food at Maxim's in Paris."

In 1983, Maxim's owner, the fashion designer Pierre Cardin, decided to open his first outlet in Beijing. The restaurant was decorated exactly like its headquarters in Paris, near the Place de la Concorde, with murals, enamel glass and crystal ceiling lamps.

A culinary breakthrough

As one of the first batch of 13 chefs sent to study French cuisine in Paris after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), Shan spent three months in the French capital in 1982. Before that, his specialty was Chinese cuisine, and he knew nothing about Western food.

None of the first batch of Chinese culinary students spoke a word of French, so Shan learned the secrets with the help of a translator dispatched by the Chinese government, and by observing the body language of the French chefs.

He studied with the French chefs in the kitchen 14 hours a day and spent his evenings back at his lodging, making notes.

"At that time, we had to pass a political examination and sign a confidentiality agreement before going abroad," Shan says.

"According to the agreement, we were required to line up even when going into the street from the kitchen." The Chinese students seldom had any leisure time during their three months in France. "The rooftop was our only refuge when we were exhausted," he says, adding that it may seem unbelievable to young people nowadays.

In one of the most impressive moments during their stay, the 13 Chinese apprentices were invited by Francois Mitterrand, France's president at the time, to join him on his reviewing stand for the Bastille Day parade on July 14, 1983.

When Shan returned from France, Maxim's Beijing opened. Under a bilateral agreement, the Chinese hold a 51 percent stake in the business with the French holding the remaining 49 percent.

"At the beginning of the 1980s, Beijing didn't have as many restaurants serving different kinds of food as now," He Guangyin, manager of Maxim's De Paris in Beijing, says. "Foreigners couldn't find home cooking."

In those days, 70 to 80 percent of the customers were foreigners, and entertainers were also frequent guests.

The restaurant established a formal dress code for its customers. "If they forgot, we would rent potential customers the appropriate clothing. "The average bill in our restaurant was around 200 yuan ($33), but the average monthly salary was about 40 yuan," He says, adding that at the time, dinner at the restaurant was an expensive treat for ordinary residents.

'Commercial suicide'

Initially the French press criticized Cardin's decision to open a restaurant in the Chinese capital, calling it "commercial suicide", but Maxim's survived as China's reform and opening-up policy was implemented more widely.

The policy changes also provided more opportunities for the Chinese to experience foreign culture, and now the Beijing Maxim's is a top choice for a romantic meal.

China has been experiencing inflation since the early 1990s, but the prices of the dishes at Maxim's have not climbed remarkably. Medium-priced dishes are about 400 yuan, far lower than the cost at many of the newer high-end restaurants in the capital.

When the restaurant first opened, Manager He noticed that domestic food suppliers were unable to meet the needs of Maxim's menu, so produce had to be imported.

Now however, Chinese suppliers are usually able to fulfill the restaurant's requirements, and the imported goods are mostly authentic seasonings.

According to He, Maxim's Beijing has seen continuous sales growth in recent years, but he declines to provide details.

Shan says Chinese people have gradually gotten to know the culture of, and eating habits surrounding, Western food: "In the past 30 years, people have learned to eat steaks cooked 'medium rare', to deal with table settings that include knives and forks, the flavors of various dishes, and the service standards in foreign restaurants."

That readiness to learn indicated to the French restaurant that it should not change its strategy.

"Beijing is a cosmopolitan city, and people from all over the world live here," He says. "We can't change the flavor of the dishes to suit every customer, so we chose to maintain the most traditional and authentic French cuisine in Beijing."

Maxim's now trains chefs for the Great Hall of the People and even Zhongnanhai, the home of China's leaders, and will also cater for the 2014 APEC summit in October.

A new challenge

Despite its success, the restaurant is facing a challenge - a dearth of young chefs. "The monthly salary we pay is only around 3,000 yuan, and people can't afford to live in Beijing on that," Shan says.

"The reason I still work here stems from the deep emotional ties I have with Maxim's. I have been here through the triumphs and the problems since the restaurant opened. Young chefs won't stay here for such insignificant pay," Shan notes.

Shan is the oldest of the restaurant's 30 Chinese chefs, the youngest of whom is 21. However, the veteran doesn't plan to work for any other restaurant in Beijing, even though he has been promised a higher salary elsewhere.

"I've known every goblet and every fork here since it opened," Shan says. "Together, Maxim's and I have witnessed the growth of the appreciation of Western food in China."

 

(China Daily 10/04/2014 page5)