by Hui Zhang
After tasting chef Hongwei Wu’s Chinese cuisine while he was working in England, Queen Elizabeth herself arranged to have fresh vegetables from her personal garden sent to him as an expression of gratitude.
Now, 10 years later, Wu works at JD’s SEVEN FRESH in China as a food research and development manager mainly responsible for creation of new recipes in order to bring delicious cuisines to customers shopping at the supermarket chain—but his former experiences continue to inspire him every day.
Before joining SEVEN FRESH, Wu had worked abroad for seven years, gaining world-class experience serving not only the UK’s royal family but also world leaders in various countries including former American president George W. Bush.
Even though Wu cooked Chinese food while working abroad, he dedicated himself to fully learning the essence of Western cuisine. Today, as he creates new recipes for SEVEN FRESH customers, he feels empowered to make cuisine that blends Chinese and Western characteristics.
For example, the dish that inspired Queen Elizabeth’s gratitude is beef with dried orange peel (陈皮牛肉), which is created with world-class quality beef and tangerine peels that have been stored for years in preparation for cooking. Wu primarily uses traditional cooking ingredients, but has also introduced a twist on the recipe—using high-end Brandy, an effective innovation that makes this dish tastier, and the beef incredibly tender and delicious.
“In my thinking, the chef profession is defined by a spirit of craftsmanship,” Wu said. “I have a dream to apply my knowledge and experience accumulated over many years around the world to my cooking, in order to make it possible for ordinary people to not only easily have a taste of Michelin-level cuisine, but to also eat healthy.”
Royal experience
Wu has long been devoted to the mission of spreading Chinese tradition and culture through Chinese cuisine.
In the earlier years of his career, he dedicated himself to studying the authentic Chinese regional cuisines, visiting many famous Chinese restaurants to learn various styles of cooking, including Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine and more.
In 2006 he went to the UK to study nutrition at University of West London, which provided the western nutrition concept and philosophy for his later food research and development. He also studied medicinal diet with Tongrentang, a long-established time-honored brand of Chinese medicine with a history of over 300 years, and learned how to integrate traditional Chinese medicine recipes into dishes to make the food both tasty and healthy.
Hongwei Wu
Later Wu was authorized by the Chinese government to travel across the world as a cultural exchange ambassador, a role that took him to Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and other places where he cooked for the dignitaries of these countries. As part of this program, he followed the Foreign Ministry to the UK to serve the royal family for more than a year.
“When I arrived at the UK, I found that most dignitaries and royals did not have a chance to try authentic Chinese food. The reason is that in addition to security concerns, the upper-class people generally do not go to small restaurants, and most Chinese restaurants at London’s Chinatown are small and inauthentic,” said Wu. It was during this time that he had the opportunity to serve Queen Elizabeth and the royal family.
When Wu was in Sweden in 2008, his craftsmanship with cooking was praised by Princess Madeleine of Sweden, who is the second daughter and youngest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. Princess Madeleine extended invitation to him to cook for her birthday party, with a Chinese dish as the centerpiece of the meal, which was the first time a Chinese dish had occupied this position of an official banquet in Sweden.
Hongwei Wu and President and Chief Executive Officer for Hilton Christopher J. Nassetta in 2007
He recalled another memory with UAE’s Abu Dhabi royal family, who loved his food so much that they tried to convince him to stay in the country to continue serving the royal family. Wu was dedicated to his journey as a Chinese cultural ambassador, so he politely declined the offer, but his cuisine clearly made an impact on the royal family. After his departure, the royal family looked for Chinese chefs for years, eventually finding a chef from Hakkasan, the world’s famous Chinese restaurant.
SEVEN FRESH: A New Stage
In 2018, Wu joined SEVEN FRESH, beginning a new chapter of his life that he believed could help him realize his dream of bringing high-level cuisine to all the people. As many people chose to stay where they work to celebrate the Chinese New Year (CNY) this year due to COVID-19, Wu and his team developed four different CNY meal packages which can cover families of 2, 3-4, 5-6 and even 10.
“The quantity and variety of dishes vary according to the number of diners. This year, we newly created a CNY meal package for families of only two, because there are a large number of such families. Our meal packages will not only provide cuisine for them, but also save their time,” said Wu.
Hongwei Wu
The meal packages, ranging from 5 to 12 dishes, debuted in SEVEN FRESH for the first time this year. Among the options are different dishes such as Boston lobsters, steamed fish, as well as cooked king crabs from Chile. According to JD’s data, sales volume of CNY meal packages increased by 237% YoY during the CNY period. The top 3 dishes are steamed perch, Boston lobster cooked by various methods, steamed Turbot. Males for two and three-to-four are popular.
There is a saying that it is always better to teach a person who is hungry to fish than to give him some fish—which coincides with Wu’s belief. As the executive chef of SEVEN FRESH, he believes that he can bring more than just food to consumers. He and his team have recorded videos before the CNY holiday teaching consumers how to cook complicated dishes such as lobsters, crabs and others.
Hongwei Wu
“The lobster needs to marinate before cooking, and the king crabs need to be chilled after steaming so as to keep the fresh taste. If you skip these steps during cooking, then the taste will definitely be decreased,” said Wu.
Starting from selecting fresh lobster to finally presenting the dish at the dinning table, Wu has found a new way to bring cuisine to consumers.
In addition to developing new meal packages during CNY, wu has also created several new dishes such as bullfrog pot and warm salad, both of which were widely welcomed by consumers. The idea of creating warm salad came from his years of experience in Italy where salad tastes both warm and healthy. He noticed that quite a few female consumers, tend to give up cold salads during the winter time. Wu said Chinese people might have misunderstandings towards salad, believing that it needs to be cold all the time. Wu and his team did a survey around his working place, a SEVEN FRESH store in Beijing Yizhuang Economic Zone in southern Beijing, finding many female white-collars are the major consumption group for salads. However, cold weather has kept them away from salads during the winter.
Warm Salad
Upon realizing this, Wu and his team selected the best quality of vegetables and meat together with his unique sauce made of avocado and basil leaves to bring consumers different flavors of warm salads, which have been a hit since launching. According to SEVEN FRESH, sales of the whole salad category in the SEVEN FRESH store in Yizhuang increased by 45% so far since its debut in November 2020.
Wu is dedicated to craftsmanship, and inspired by the task of making things with great care. This is Wu’s guiding principle, whether he is serving the royal families, or creating recipes for SEVEN FRESH customers. Recently he has begun studying combine ancient Chinese recipes into people’s daily meals.
Wu is just one of the experienced chefs hired by SEVEN FRESH. Different chefs have played different roles to bring authentic on-site cooked delicacies. One of these chefs is Wang Feng, who is mainly responsible for the research and development of stewed dishes. Wang comes from a family of gourmet chefs and his grandfather used to cook for the ex-royal family of the Qing Dynasty. Wang has learned not only the special cooking methods of various dishes from his grandfather and father, but also their persistence in creating excellent food.
The secrets behind SEVEN FRESH success in presenting delicious cuisine to consumers are chefs hired to ensure premium flavors and also its self-developed supply chain to provide high-quality ingredients. SEVEN FRESH is gradually distinguishing itself from traditional supermarkets by constantly bringing consumers the high and best-quality food which well suits their tastes.
