Frenchman spends Chinese new year in Kunming
Editor's note: When working in America, Frenchman Vincent met a girl from Yunnan. They dated each other, fell in love and tied the knot. Later, they came to Kunming, the wife's hometown. Together, they settled in an old yard and opened a bakery. Over the years, Vincent has tried to integrate western cooking styles with Chinese food culture. They made full use of Yunnan's rich products and rolled out distinct dishes with multinational elements.
Frenchman spends Chinese new year in Kunming
In traditional Chinese calendar, the Spring Festival features a custom of "welcoming in the God of Wealth", so that one can be promoted in career and enjoy working in the Chinese new year. On the day for the God of Wealth, Vincent, a French businessman in central Yunnan’s Kunming city, came to his restaurant early in the morning, presenting workers the red envelopes that had been prepared and hoping everyone would work together for shared prosperity in the year of tiger.
These days, they need to make bread and desserts, while completing the ordered king cakes, their special for the Spring Festival. In the warm kitchen light, the restaurant owner Vincent enjoys his life a lot, busy working in the front hall or the kitchen.
Vincent's hometown is located in Lorraine in northeast France, where forests combine valleys to form a lush environment. The Vincent family engaged in catering services, and his parents taught him how to make bread and cook French meals. Later, Vincent came to the U.S. for further study and worked there.
"When in America, I was introduced by a friend to a Chinese girl, who always asked me to practice French with her. Later, we fell in love each other and she became my wife." In 2016, Vincent followed his wife Zhang Haiya and settled in her hometown Kunming, Yunnan province. Having travelled around the world, they opened their own bakery in an old courtyard in the Spring City, where they jointly run a "sweet" business and love.
The rich produces in Yunnan, the mild climate in Kunming and the support of his wife and family have made Vincent's business flourish outside France. "Yunnan is rich in high-quality ingredients, of which the distinct ones are wild mushrooms, organic ham, and others,” said Vincent. “They’re essential to cooking tasty dishes."
Running his restaurant with care, Vincent fused French and American cooking methods into Chinese food culture, and he created quite a few dishes that are internationally accepted. Meanwhile, the business mode of Vincent's shop has been reformed from a bakery at the beginning to a restaurant bakery frequented by diners all day long.
Whenever a festival came, the French restaurant would roll out specials for his customers. During the Spring Festival this year, Vincent put French food culture into the Chinese new year, creating a red red king cake that signals a promising future. The special cake made a hit and was sold out soon. "In France, the king cake or la galette des rois is eaten in January. The French specialty is a multiple-layer cake filled with almond and ice cream, with a feve in the core. The one who gets the cake will be as lucky as a king.
In the eyes of Vincent, the king-cake custom is similar to the Chinese practice of eating the dumpling with a coin in it, both symbolizing good luck and best wishes. For the Spring Festival, Vincent has placed a lot of red decorations in his restaurant and handwritten a pair of Chinese couplets in French. The rough Chinese meaning is: Good year, good times and good luck; More wealth, more happiness and more grace.
Having been in China for years, Vincent has formed his own understanding to Chinese culture, with Chinese new years leaving special memories in his life. "In China, the significance of festivals is to reunite with families. People would go back to their hometown for the Spring Festival even if they had to travel long distances." Vincent likes the Chinese new year and other festivals, when his wife, children and senior family members get together. At for the new year’s reunion dinner, Vincent contributed the Chinese dishes of shredded pork with garlic sauce and squirrel-shaped mandarin fish, both praised by the Kunming family.
When it comes to family reunion, Vincent can't help thinking of his relatives in France. "My parents used to visit Kunming during holidays, and they enjoyed the weather and food here.” But the on-going Covid-19 has made it difficult now, and he hasn’t seen his parents in France for more than two years. "I hope the epidemic will end soon, so that all families and friends could get together for fun and happiness," said Vincent.
Reporting by Xiong Jiaxin; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue