Special Thanks to Lee Kum Lee’s sponsorship to Chinese Restaurant Industry Forums and Seminars

What’s Hot, What’s Not:
Culinary Development of Chinese Cuisine in the U.S.

Cooking skills are the basis for survival and development of Chinese cuisine. As various new culinary theories from different nations come into being, as well as the increasing communication between Chinese cuisine and others, there are more opportunities for Chinese culinary to learn constantly from others, which leads to continuous innovation, development, and promotion of American Chinese gastronomy. The coming training course will discuss some Chinese food-related hot issues with their recent development, and we will also figure out the future trends of Chinese culinary arts in the United States.

Celebrity Chefs:
PR Marketing and Chinese Cuisine Branding

Making chefs celebrities has been one of the most efficient marketing solutions for wes tern chefs ; however, Chinese restaurateurs haven’t paid enough attention to it. Chef Martin Yan and Chef Lawrence Chu are both good example of celebrity chefs, who make good use of innovative PR marketing solutions to get their restaurants and themselves promoted well. This panel will explore how to promote a restaurant through the local media, and offer some PR tips like writing and submitting recipes for local media.

The Art of Design:
Budget Conscious Make-over for Your Restaurant

Decoration is an art - an elegant decor can reflect the extraordinary taste, quality and style of a restaurant and meanwhile help create a cozy and exquisite dining environment, which makes customers frequently patronize the restaurant. Usually, a number of considerations are to be taken into account, including the restaurant's ent rance des ign, spatial separat ion, light control, color arrangement, airconditioning, sound equipment, standards for dining tables and chairs, and the mobility line design for customers and staff. Consequently, the high cost of decoration often prevents restaurant owners from going far. The coming lecture will focus on how to plan carefully, so as to save money and obtain the most satisfactory decoration effect.

Look Good and Taste Good:
The Arts of Plating and Food Presentation

Professional plating and food presentation need special skills involved in gastronomy and art. When all the dishes are presented beautifully on the table, it can create a celebrating atmosphere, luring the guests' taste buds and pleasing their eyes. This art has a long history in China, embodying the superb skills and ingenuity of Chinese gastronomy. Professional plating and food presentation can unforgettably impress the guests and attract new customers. The coming lecture will deal with the arts of plating and food presentation, teaching you all the dazzling skills.

Improving Your Restaurants, One Table at a Time:
Learn from Experts in the fields in Running a Successful Business

A successful restaurant owner is usually good at learning from different cuisines and constantly improves his own competitive advantages. Therefore, their success is far from being a coincidence; it is a result of perseverence and persistence. However, Chinese chefs are normally very indifferent to what they have achieved but being determined to explore in the catering industry in the USA. Through participating in the seminar and exchanging ideas with many outstanding restaurant proprietors, you can learn from each other and contribute to the promotion of Chinese cuisine in the USA.

You are What You Eat:
Menu Nutrition Labeling & Healthy Dining

National Restaurant Association research has shown that Americans are seeking to eat healthfully when they dine out. While many restaurant chains have responded to this trend by offering nutrition information, state and local policymakers have reacted by passing menu labeling laws. Federal government has also started the process of setting single national standard for nutritioninformation disclosure for chain foodservice companies. This panel will explore what benefits can Menu Nutrition Labeling bring to both the industry and consumers.

Recipes for Success:
Create Signature Menu With Market Fresh Ingredients, Herbs & Spices

The dishes served in a restaurant need to be frequently innovated so as to be in line with the consuming trends of diners. The homes of many types of Chinese cuisines are good examples of innovation. Take the prestigious Chiu Chow cooking for example, its cooking ingredients and cooking techniques are kept exquisite and consistent, and the ingredients, herbs, and spices are always per fectly applied according to the characteristics of different ingredients, so that all the dishes taste fresh, delicate, and authentic. It is a big challenge for chefs to frequently change the menu and make smart use of different ingredients together to create new dishes. To reach this goal, there are a lot of principles and tips to master, which is going to be revealed and presented soon in our coming seminar on popular Chinese dishes.

Chef Swap:
International Chinese Culinary Student Chefs and Chinese Culinary Chefs Exchange

As chefs in China are valued much higher than before, and visas to the United States are difficult to obtain, the Chinese restaurants in the States are now facing a shortage of chefs. With China's economy booming, there are fewer and fewer Chinese chefs willing to come and work here, so new Chinese immigrants without much cooking experience are being trained as chefs, some of which are sent to China for further training, with a view to allow Americans to taste genuine Chinese food. For this reason, we are going to hold an international Chinese culinary student chefs and Chinese culinary chefs exchange, aiming to provide a good talent pool for restaurant owners. We also hope that all Chinese chefs with different culinary excellences can communicate with and learn from one another.

All You Can Eat Without Breaking the Bank:
How to Run a Profitable Chinese Buffet Business

With the buffet's popularity increasing, there are more and more high-class Chinese buffet restaurants appearing in New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to cater to dietary trend: all you can eat, which means people can simultaneously enjoy a variety of popular Chinese dishes, including seafood, fish, seasonal vegetables, steak, and even Beijing roast duck. Long ago, all buffet restaurants were family operated, so that they inevitably tended to be marginalized in the market. Star ting from the new century, all the large buffet restaurants are trying hard to overcome marginalization by employing outstanding managers and adopting some advanced Western restaurant managing appcoaches, aiming to enter the American mainstream market. But what are the tips to run a Chinese buffet restaurant successfully? The coming lecture is going to supply with detailed answers.

Green Is In:
Energy Cost Saving Tips for Chinese Restaurants

There are almost one million restaurants coast to coast. Each one generates 50,000 pounds of waste, and uses an average of 300,000 gallons of water annually. Americans consume 70 million restaurant meals a day. With a quarter of restaurants planning to go green currently, ecofriendly restaurants are becoming more available to the environmentally conscious diner. This seminar will offer energy cost saving tips for Chinese restaurants. Our distinguished panelists will also help find out why it's important for Chinese restaurants to create a sustainable business that is good for the environment, energy conservation, employees, diners, and for your neighborhood while saving energy, improving profits, and attracting media attention.

A Toast to Profit:
Increase Your Margin by Beverage Solutions

Beverage serving is naturally indispensable and plays an important role in various banquets or dinners. Generally beverage sales in Western restaurants account for 15-30% of the turnover, while the sales in Chinese restaurants only 5-15%, so in order to increase gross margin, Chinese restaurants should pay attention to the sales of beverages. Beverage consumption is actually considered "extra spending," and when serving them there needs to be a comparatively lower cost than food, so a high profit rise is expected. Therefore, it has been crucial to increase margins by beverage solutions, including cost considerations, wine pricing, wine matching, as well as wine list making, which will be discussed in the coming lecture.

Beer Pairing for a Tasteful Menu

As is well-known, beverageis an indispensable part and plays an important role in gastronomy. Beer, the so-called "liquid bread," is worldwidely populated. Wine or beer to food is like musical notes to a sweet melodious song—with proper pairing, it can really enhance the dining experience. The coming lecture will show how to do beverage marketing, and how to pair beer with food to lure the taste buds.

Roadmap to Getting an “A” Grade:
Sanitation & Food Safety Education

Sanitation and food safety have always been concerned and stressed in restaurant operation. If a restaurant longs for success fame to establish a prestigious brand in the industry, food hygiene and safety are essential in addition to delicious food and exquisite decor. The coming lecture will especially focus on sanitation and food safety in Chinese restaurants, which is expected to inspire more people in the industry to pay attention to and study this issue, so that we can together help more Chinese restaurants achieve a conspicuous success.

Tech Works:
Foodservice Technology Innovation & Trends

Science and technology can improve productivity, output value, and profits. Technology can bring limitless possibilities if used in catering business, which may produce an infinite value. New things like internet reservation, wireless ordering, and technology marketing management have injected new impetus for catering industry to start a new round of competition. In the coming lecture, we will deal with the never-ending changes and improvement of technology, predicting new trends of catering technical equipments, and sing technology to improve restaurant operation, service and profits.