The Peng’s Gourmet and Banquet – the defender of traditional Hunan cuisine
The Peng’s Gourmet and Banquet is a restaurant chain that provides authentic Hunan cuisine. It has branches in cities of Taiwan. Currently, it is probably the largest traditional Chinese cuisine provider. However, the success of the Peng’s is not overnight. It has a long history and challenges to survive. Facing the challenges from the invasion of foreign, exotic dining culture, the Peng’s is no doubt the defender of traditional Chinese “Hunan” cuisine.
Hunan, a province of China located near the Yangtze River, is also named Xiang by having the Xiang River running through the place. Thus, Hunan cuisine is referred as Xiang cuisine.
However, this type of cuisine was considered as “local food” or even “home food” that it was not supposed to be on the tables of restaurants and hotels. It was because genuine Hunan (Xiang) cuisine is very spicy and salty, perhaps even hotter than Sichuang cuisine. Thus, the mainstream consumers could not accept such strong taste.
The person who established the first Peng’s Gourmet and Banquet (back then, it was just a restaurant) and made Hunan cuisine famous worldwide is Peng Chang Kuei – the father of Chuck T.W. Peng, who is currently the General Manager of the Peng’s Gourmet and Banquet as well as Peng’s Agora Garden. He created some of Hunan cuisine dishes/courses on his own that represent the mainstream Chinese food, such as “General Zuo Chicken”.
Peng Chang-kuei began his restaurant career when the KMT (Kuomingtang) fled to Taiwan in 1949. He had served as private chef for many high-ranked officials before the KMT settled in Taiwan. When he set his roots in Taiwan, he had worked in some high-class dining places to gain experience and opened a couple of restaurants with some associates. In 1973, he went to United States to build up a new restaurant for Hunan cuisine but encountered with numerous challenges. Most Chinese restaurants in United States (in the Chinatowns), they disgraced Hunan cuisine and thought it was a house dining food, not a restaurant food. Peng made some changes to his dishes in order to adapt into the business environment and even created some of his own “Hunan” gourmet that it can not even be found in Hunan, China. Amazingly, changes he made along with his own creations earned him countless recognition and praises in U.S.A, from celebrities in various fields. Since then, the Peng’s restaurant symbolizes Chinese food and is acknowledged as the top Chinese cuisine provider. He returned to Taiwan in 1983 and established the first of the Peng’s restaurant chain in Taipei.
The Peng’s Gourmet and Banquet has always been focusing on providing authentic, classic Hunan gourmet to its customers, thanks to Peng Chang-kuei so that the restaurant can have such an achievement today, with branches established in urban areas of Taiwan as well as in Keelung City and Hsinchu City. Indeed, Peng Chang-kuei has demonstrated strong dedication to his cooking.
However, foreign, exotic dining cultures have come to challenge the Peng’s – the defender of traditional cuisine.
“Taiwan has a problem of passing on the culture, especially the food culture. Today, many traditional Chinese restaurants died out. A restaurant is not only a dining place, but also a space to pass on the culture and cooking skill. Many authentic Chinese restaurants had settled in Taiwan from the 1950’s to 1970’s, but most of them had gone of business since the 1990’s, which was the beginning of the invasion of exotic foreign dining cultures, notably the very pioneer invader was McDonald’s”, said Chuck T.W. Peng, General Manager of the Peng’s restaurant chain.
“In fact, our lifestyle change our culture”, he went on, “today’s information society causes people to always want new things. Our habits have changed. For instance, young people today do not go to traditional Chinese restaurants for their gathering party. They would go for the ones with themes like a Thai food restaurant, a Japanese Kaiski or all you can eat BBQ, a Korean hot pot, or Western ones. In such a competitive moment, every decision made is critical to survival. Indeed, survival is the most important thing. There is nothing can be done if not survived”.
Nowadays, people can see a huge variety of gourmet and cuisine in Taiwan because this island is a good market for food diversity. There are Indian, Italian, French, North American, Japanese, Thai, Southeast Asian, and Korean cuisines available. However, a diversified market also means a highly competitive market, where it’s an extreme buyers’ market that all the sellers have to find ways to satisfy the consumers, and not the other way around. Severe challenges from foreign cuisines have driven many traditional Chinese restaurants in Taiwan out of business. To survive, one must have a defined and workable marketing strategy.
“The Peng’s focuses on banquets as its main business. We offer the perfect banquet experience with classic, authentic Hunan dishes. We don’t offer fancy plates and spices. We have principles. In fact, we insist in providing the best banquet space and interior and that is why we renovate our settings from time to time. However, banquet is a competitive market in the present. My advantage is that I have this nice and spectacular space and décor for banquet as well as the authentic, traditional, and delicious courses. Of course, I must evolve to meet the market demand. Currently, I am managing to organize a banquet planning department, hoping to provide the best consulting and facilities. On the other hand, I am offering more choices in courses and dishes, so that I can meet the demand of different consumers”, said Chuck Peng.
Traditional Chinese restaurants are facing critical challenges in Taiwan as they are competing with tough competitors who are featured with themes, exotic attractions, and atmosphere. Therefore, the Peng’s has evolved in order to survive because without survival, tradition can not be defended.
However, what Chuck Peng is doing is more likely to defend what his father has established.
“The Hunan cuisine was known to be spicy and salty. Many people may not like it. Today, the cuisine can have such a reputation because my father created the dishes that are famous worldwide. The tradition is created by my father, in other words. Since my father has an origin in Hunan, it is called Hunan cuisine. If my father was born and grew up in Taiwan, it would be called an all-new Taiwanese cuisine. Thus, I will do my best to survive in the business so that I can protect the Peng’s tradition”, concluded Peng.
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