Chapter 30 "Diligence" in Peking

The term "diligence" has not been heard of for many years.Recently, I read an article by Ms. Hou Rongsheng on her visit to the Mainland, which mentioned Qinxing, and then I remembered it again.Nowadays, when you say "diligence" to young people who grew up in Taiwan, I am afraid that nine times out of ten they will "don't slaughter sheep". In the past, restaurants in Peking, apart from the high craftsmanship on the stove and the variety and exquisiteness of the white cases, also paid attention to the attentive service at the entrance.The so-called "tangkou" refers to the waiter who greets the guests, which is the above-mentioned Qinxing.Once upon a time in Beiping, there was Zhao Guishan, a master of diligence, who was called "Touer Zhao" by the people who were diligent, and later even the diners called him Touer Zhao.All the real apprentices who have kowtowed to him, the teaching is the real teaching, the management is the real management, and all the apprentices trained by his men can add honor to the teacher and attract customers.Zhao Touer moved from Huixian Hall to Chunhua Building. Even the old king Sun Puru, who didn't pay much attention to trivial matters, knew that Zhao Touer moved to Chunhua Building. We should support him.You can imagine Zhao's supernatural powers.

No matter whether he is in a restaurant or at a restaurant, Mr. Zhao is always shaven and shiny. In winter and summer, he always wears a blue cloth coat, white cloth socks, green soap shoes, and a black market for three or nine days. Large waistcoat in old sheepskin with a cloth cover.Not only did he dress like this, but the apprentices he taught also dressed like him.Qin Xing pays the most attention to the training of speaking, the tone should be neither arrogant nor humble, and naturally follow the guest's words. Some things cannot be done, and those that should be refuted must be rejected, but there must be a sense of proportion so that the guest will not be unhappy; at the same time, he refuted the guest , but also to make the guests happy.

Mr. Zhang Cixi, a Beiping folklore artist, has a book called "Talk of Passers-by", which is a collection of hand-copied excerpts of the conversations that passers-by have made over the years. There are more than 300 paragraphs and 40,000 words in total.Journalist Wu Zonghu once borrowed it and planned to publish it in the magazine "369" edited by him, but dropped out after only ten paragraphs.Later in Taiwan, I occasionally sat with Qi Rulao in a restaurant, and saw a waiter in the restaurant who was smug and self-righteous, and regarded the guests as foreign dishes. We looked at each other and shook our heads, and we remembered Zhang Cixi's booklet.Qi Rulao said that he copied a copy, but unfortunately he didn't bring it out. I didn't copy it because Wu Zonghu said that he would send me another copy when the full manuscript was published.

Once when I was having dinner in the Zhuangyuan Building, the restaurant next door and the waiter first had a dispute with each other, and then the quarrel turned into a fight.Chen Xianyuan from the medical office was present in our room, and it was fine after he went to persuade and mediate.The reason was that the child with the dining seat accidentally broke two spoons, and he asked the customer to compensate according to the price.This is in the mainland, the restaurant accidentally dropped the porcelain guy, even the whole hall of fine porcelain, and the waiter was not allowed to say anything. Practice the rules left behind.

It is said that in the early years, a high-ranking official took his grandson to a small restaurant, and the little guy broke a fine porcelain spoon, and the spoon was listed on the bill.Once the old gentleman got angry, he calmly asked the waiter to bring another twelve spoons, broke them one by one, and asked the waiter to take another.The waiter saw that something was wrong, so he had to ask the shopkeeper to come out to smooth things over.It was absolutely, absolutely not because of good words, that this matter was settled.Since then, there has been a tacit agreement among restaurants and restaurants that any customer who accidentally damages a spoon or dish cannot be compensated. It seems that restaurants in Taiwan still follow this practice!

Some impatient customers rush to order food as soon as they sit down. This kind of customers are laymen who don’t know how to eat, and they are the most difficult to serve. It depends on the waiter who can talk.With a few words, he can calm down the guest's anger.He said: "The fire is not ready, so I can't serve it to you. I'd rather come late, and instead of scolding you, I can't serve bad food to make you angry. Just wait for a while and this one will come." Listen to this How soft and decent. Some restaurants like to pick faults when they eat food, and criticize the poor craftsmanship on the stove. They also have a set of arguments, he said: "The master chef in your house has eaten and seen it before, and there is no way to say what is on the stove here." Compared with you, but among the big and small restaurants in this area, our master chef can be regarded as one of the best." I don't know how they came up with this kind of flattery.

Some guests like to say: "Your current dishes are not as good as before. The more you cook, the more you go back." Their answers are even better: "Men, the taste is getting better and better. If you come here often and give more advice, you will not It looks like this. If you don’t come to take care of it, you will really have to go back.” Sometimes the guests think the taste is too heavy, and the waiter will immediately take it over and say, "One person has a different taste. This one has a heavy taste, and maybe the other thinks it is too light! This dish is salty, so I will immediately ask the stove to bring a lighter taste." Some unrepentant guests even asked: "Does it count as money?" The waiter hurriedly replied: "It's a respect from the counter, so it can't be counted as money, but the food is salty and light, so it counts as money, aren't you happy?" ?” Sometimes customers think that the fish is not fresh or the shrimp is bad, and they will ask the waiter, how do you prepare the food?The waiter replied that although there were some fresh fish and shrimps left today, they couldn't grab them.The guest must ask: "Why is that?" The waiter said: "One is that the goods are too scarce, and the other is that the master chef in your house is quick to buy them first." Although the guest has a bright face in front of other guests, the waiter This compliment also prevaricates the matter!

When the guests invited by the master praised the restaurant’s excellent dishes and everything was to their liking, the waiter replied, “You are not complimenting us, you are complimenting the host. Our dishes here, if It is not to your taste, and I will not invite you to come here to enjoy it." You can see what they said, both reserved and polite, and light-hearted and humorous. The rebuttals are correct, but not annoying.Their set of diplomatic rhetoric is not much worse than that of experienced diplomats. In recent years, restaurants of all sizes have sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain in Taiwan, and they have emerged as the times require. Diligent staff seem to be insufficient.Some restaurants only pay attention to decoration, not cooking; they only pay attention to publicity, not reality.The waiters are replaced by female waiters, who only want to be beautiful and well-dressed. It is not a good place to serve wine and food, and it is also awkward to deal with advances and retreats.

Once, two friends and I went to a medium-sized restaurant for a light meal. The waiter was a man, and the name of the dish was tomato prawns.I knew he wanted to catch us, so I said: "I don't eat tomatoes, since there are prawns, you can bring us some fried peas with shrimp chips!" He said: "There are no peas today." I said: "Come on three Shrimp fried rice for one serving!" He knew that he had run into Gu Ding, and the shopkeeper came out to say hello, and he rounded up the place. Nowadays, in some restaurants that talk about ostentation, when the guests are seated, there will be a full-time waiter serving them beside the laezi.If it's beer, if you don't have two sips, she will fill up the cup, and it is true that the green sleeves are courteous and the jade bell is held, and everyone's cup is full of wine.The service is thoughtful, but the guests always drink a full glass of bitter wine that is neither cold nor foamy.Mr. Yang Yundi, the former director of the Tobacco and Liquor Bureau, once said that the best alcohol salesmen in the bureau are the waitresses in the restaurants, and the bureau should formulate a way to reward them.It's a pity that it couldn't be implemented, and the old man was promoted.I think that if the Public Sale Bureau really formulates a feasible reward method, the income from alcoholic beverages will surely rise day by day, and the financial resources will flow in, so there is no need to worry about the payment to the treasury not meeting the budget.The conversation is getting further and further away, so stop here.

In short, the current restaurant can spend some of the decoration and advertising costs, and train the modern male and female waiters. Compared with any publicity, the benefits can be seen immediately!Do not believe you try it.