"I ate (beef noodle soup) with my heart full of pain, yet with my mouth full of wonderful taste." That's what the author of a newly published Hong Kong tourist guide book My Style Guide wrote to describe her first experience of having a bowl of noodles that cost her HK$250 (NT$1,000). Tony Wang's (王聰源) art of cooking indeed has a magic power to lure gourmet lovers into paying what many think is an outrageously high price for a bowl of seemingly simple beef noodle soup that Tony prepares.
What the author failed to mention, however, is that Tony's restaurant, 688 Beef Bowl (牛
Tony didn't say how many people have tried his Head of State's Beef Noodle Soup so far. But he did confide the average price most diners are willing to pay is between NT$5,000 and NT$8,000 and one very satisfied business tycoon not long ago paid Tony NT$30,000, the highest bill so far. How has Tony won over his patrons' favor and got them to pay these shockingly expensive prices?
When serving the three-course set meal, Tony presents his soy-sauce-braised beef noodle soup as the first course. The second is a bowl of noodle without soup and the last is beef noodle in clear broth. Naturally, each course is served in smaller portions than usual, and the quality of every dish is assured by Tony's personal care.
Tony's secret to winning over customers' satisfaction lies in the fact that he spends time patiently talking to diners to find out their favorite taste thoroughly and accurately before preparing the meal.
"A great chef is the one who can prepare the food in the exact taste and fashion a diner is longing for," he said.
Later on, he writes down detailed notes of each of his patrons' tastes and attaches their name cards to his notebook for future reference.
Meanwhile, Tony's magic also derives from the fact that he uses 7.8kg of stir-fried beef tendons to extract 3 servings of beef essence. The stir-fried beef tendons, which are very tender in texture and finely chopped to fit two to three bites per piece, are then stewed in the extract shortly before being served with noodles. Gastronomes, who care for the quality of food more than anything else, do not mind the price so much. It is like a test of confidence between the chef and the diner when the price is not listed on the menu. Mutual appreciation and respect are the name of the game.
As for the standard NT$3,000 price for a bowl of beef noodle soup, the idea was pushed by a Hong Kong DJ who visited his restaurant 10 years ago. After enjoying his meal there, he challenged Tony by suggesting that what the restaurant really needed was a course of beef noodle soup which was worthy the price of NT$3,000. Without it, Tony's restaurant wouldn't be memorable or unique in the gourmet circle of Taiwan.
Those words stuck in Tony's mind for three full weeks until he and his wife agreed to give it a try. The couple spent two years doing research and completely overhauled their kitchen. The total cost amounted to more than NT$27 million. Luckily, they found the way to make really good soup in the end. Tony's golden rule when preparing his broth is "to blend one part one-day-old beef broth with two parts freshly made broth in order to bring out the best taste of the soup."
At the beginning, Tony and Jan tapped the market by pricing the Top-Grade Beef Noodle Soup (精
Such a keen response gave the couple tremendous confidence. Accordingly, they decided to take steps to adjust the price of soup in accordance with their sales volume.
Once the volume reached 30 servings, the price went up to NT$1,000. When it reached 50, the price jacked up to NT$1,500. As soon as the volume broke over 50, the price again was lifted to NT$2,000. It was right after the volume surpassed 104, the price was adjusted to reach their final goal, NT$3,000 per serving, in 1999. At that time the portion size also increased.
It was at this point that Tony's restaurant caught the media's attention in October of that year and was widely reported for charging such a lavish price compared with other highly rated beef noodle houses that sell the dish at around NT$120 per serving. These days, the sale figure has shot up to nearly 4,000 servings, though the price remains the same.
The soup brought fame to Tony's restaurant and inadvertently opened the door for him to get acquainted with patrons from the highest social stratum of Taiwan. This plain-looking, clean and low-key restaurant, which is hidden in a quiet street in the busy easter district of Taipei, has somehow turned into a favorite venue for a number of business and political heavy-weights to get together and to enjoy a delicious meal without attracting public attention.
Tony was born in Tachia (大甲), Taichung County in 1950 and worked as an architect. He moved to Vancouver in the 1970s but he and his family moved back to Taiwan in 1990 to set up the beef noodle shop, 688 Beef Bowl, at its present address in Taipei.
One day, four or five diners from different tables in the restaurant almost simultaneously went up to Tony to criticize his noodle soup. Tony at first could not accept the criticism and was shocked to find out later the beef broth on the day tasted different from usual. That day Tony almost decided to close down his business. He felt bad about it for an entire month.
Tony took action for the sake of his honor and reputation. He started to sample food in every restaurant within a 2km radius of his neighborhood and took notes on them. Through such thorough research and comparison, he came to better understand his neighbors' general preferences on food. He would then use these criteria to inform his restaurant patrons about other good restaurants in the area. In addition to a loyal clientele, Tony gradually developed a friendly rapport with his habitue by finding common interests to talk about in his restaurant. Thus Tony's interaction with his patrons became a very important factor for maintaining clientele loyalty.
Through all these years of experience, Tony maintains that a good restaurant should not have more than 10 courses of genuine excellence but no less than 4. Emphasis on stable and top-grade quality of food, regardless of cost, holds the key to building patrons' trust. As long as a chef is capable of providing the best quality of food and lets his patrons recognize this, price is no longer an issue.
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