Wang Ruofei, a chef at the Xibei restaurant chain, demonstrates on a livestreaming show on the app Douguo. CHINA DAILY
Ye Yili, head chef of Meizhou Dongpo restaurant chain's Fanhai branch in Beijing, now spends his days preparing food for online viewers rather than for dine-in customers.
"First, let's fry the pickled agaric before adding shredded pork. Then, mix the sauce with the ingredients," he says in a video on how to make sliced pork with garlic sauce on the livestreaming service of major e-commerce platform Taobao.
Only a fifth of Meizhou Dongpo's income has come from walk-in diners since the COVID-19 outbreak.
The rest comes from takeaway orders or selling raw ingredients and semifinished products.
In addition to making food for delivery orders, Ye has started livestreaming cooking shows.
His first livestream showed how to make yuanxiao, sweet dumplings that are traditionally eaten during Lantern Festival.
Sales of Meizhou's homemade luncheon meat, one of the main ingredients featured in Ye's livestream about Chongqing-style boiled blood curd, have increased 22-fold over last year.
"Usually, I only need five minutes to cook boiled blood curd because all the ingredients are already prepared. But in the livestream, I took 30 minutes to demonstrate how to prepare each ingredient separately and how to make the seasoning," Ye says.
A host stands next to Ye, interacting with viewers and relaying their questions to the chef. Ye isn't used to looking at the camera and mostly focuses on the food.
"The livestream room's confines are limiting so that I can only use a narrow range of cooking implements," he says.
"I could show more if we streamed from my kitchen in the restaurant."
Ye is one of Meizhou Dongpo's 3,000 chefs.
That suggests great potential for more livestreams to promote the brand's products to reduce losses incurred during the epidemic in China.
One Quarter Coffee in Beijing has started takeaway services and turned to livestreaming to promote its specialty. CHINA DAILY
Digital dinners
On Feb 14, a livestream on the app Douguo by Wang Ruofei, a chef at the Xibei restaurant chain, showing him making a beef dish attracted over 50,000 viewers. The chain sold 533 beef dishes and 684 portions of semifinished lamb-spine hotpot following the streaming.
Douguo co-founder Zhong Feng says the company created a group for restaurant chains' chefs to livestream after Spring Festival.
"Our users are all interested in cooking, so the chefs' livestreams quickly became popular on our app," he says.
Although Douguo staffers help chefs prepare, most are nervous and don't know how to interact with audiences, Zhong says.
"But viewers can tell the chefs are professional by their knife work or their body language when they talk about food," he says.
He says this is a win-win cooperation because chefs are like "shared staff" for both their platform and the restaurants.
"Currently, we only have chefs in Beijing to host the shows. In the future, even when the epidemic is over, we plan to continue this program and invite chefs from all over the world to join," Zhong says.
A barista livestreaming how to make coffee receives applause from online viewers. CHINA DAILY
Recipe for success
Many cooking apps and livestreaming platforms are cooperating with restaurants during the epidemic.
Xiaolongkan sold 200,000 yuan ($28,650) worth of food in 20 minutes on Feb 17 through a livestreaming show on Taobao.
Liu Qiang, a chef of Shandong cuisine, started to livestream on the app Xiachufang last year and later filmed some pay-to-view cooking courses. The courses have become popular during the epidemic.
Each video about how to make one dish costs 9.9 yuan or 19.9 yuan. Most of his courses have each been purchased by about 2,000 people.
Liu points out that the production expenses are low. He just needs an assistant and a cameraperson.
The app Kugou Livestream has invited nine catering brands to join its platform. Each uses different approaches to attract viewers.
Dalongyi's hotpot chef teaches how to fry hotpot seasonings, and Yoshinoya's chef shows how to make five salmon dishes.
The videos decrease distance between chefs and viewers, and build trust. The rapport and visual imagery of the food entices viewers to place orders from the restaurants.
Foodies can learn to cook popular dishes such as chicken soup with mushroom through livestreaming shows. CHINA DAILY
Innovation in coffeehouse
Zhang Yan, founder of One Quarter Coffee in Beijing, organized the brand's first livestream with her baristas on March 1.
"We lead the audience to visit our cafe and the hutong (traditional alley) where we're located. Also, our baristas show how to make our specialty coffees," Zhang says.
She opted against streaming on an open platform. The platform she used requires a QR code, which employees sent to family and friends.
"We may get fewer viewers than on an open platform. But we can ensure every single viewer is really interested in coffee," she explains.
"Coffee has a more specific consumer interest than restaurant food, which can be more indiscriminate."
Zhang and her team reviewed their performance after the first video to see what they could do to improve. They realized the camera shook during close-ups and they should prepare music.
Zhang hadn't watched many livestreams before the epidemic. She plans to watch more by the most popular hosts.
One Quarter Coffee opened last year, focusing on specialty coffee. The cafe suggests customers take their first sip within 30 seconds and finish their cup in three minutes.
"It's not the kind of coffee that you can enjoy for a whole morning," she explains.
"The baristas make coffee on our first floor. We don't even suggest our clients drink the white coffee on the second floor, because that several seconds of time spent walking to the table will diminish the coffee's best flavor," Zhang says.
The epidemic has stopped people from coming in to drink.
"We found that people still need good-quality coffee. So, we've started takeaway services and selling drip coffee," she says.
The livestreaming not only brought Zhang dozens of orders but also helped her to gather two WeChat groups each with around 200 people interested in coffee.
"For the past half year, we have run a group with 700 coffee lovers. But we added 400 more in two hours with the livestream. It's amazing," Zhang says.
The livestreamed shows have inspired the 40-year-old to embrace new media and has also pushed her to do more online sales.
"Offline sales growth is slow. The epidemic has shown me that online promotion can make growth exponential."
