CHINA:The Chinese palate is changing, with cheese, chocolate and wine making their way on to the menu – Irish food producers, take note, writes CLIFFORD COONANin Beijing
IU YANG, A SOFT-SPOKEN young man from Heilongjiang province, became a cheese connoisseur when he was studying international relations in Clermont-Ferrand, in France.
His passion for cheese was so intense that he is now one of the foremost evangelists for fromage artisanale in a country where cheese is generally considered a bit odd, and where dairy is not really considered appropriate food for adults.
China is a country obsessed with food, and the primary social activity is a noisy, chatty feed with friends. Chinese food is terrifically varied, sophisticated, occasionally challenging and generally incredibly delicious.
A common greeting in this country is “have you eaten?” But some international staples don’t even figure. Dessert is not a feature of Chinese cuisine and, because of the number of courses, wine has tended to be nudged out by beer or fiery baijiu liquor, especially at banquets.
But while they were sceptical initially, Chinese people are coming around to the idea of eating cheese. And chocolate. And breakfast cereal. Even to the idea of drinking wine. Growing wealth has translated into an expanding middle class, and this new bourgeoisie wants European cheeses and New and Old World wines.
This is not something you see in every corner noodle shop, but it is beginning to take hold.
Known widely as “Le Fromager de Pékin”, Liu studied the craft in Corsica in 2006, and opened his shop in 2009.
“I love cheese but couldn’t find it in China. I thought it could be a niche to make something original. Most Chinese people have no idea what is real cheese. If told them they have no idea. They think cheese is for pizza. I let them try and they have a different idea,” says Liu. “They think it is very special.” His parents initially thought he was crazy and urged him to get a proper job, but they came around to the idea and helped him start the shop. Now they even like some cheese.
“Chinese people are very adaptable. People like to try foods,” he says, speaking outside his Beijing shop, on the outskirts of the city.
“At the beginning it was only foreigners, now I have 50 per cent foreigners and 50 per cent local people. Some Chinese people have experienced cheese abroad or they care about food,” he said.
Among his highlights is a “Gris de Pékin”, similar to a Camembert and a St Marcellin. He uses milk from Beijing’s two best-known high-quality dairies, although he bemoans the difficulty he has getting the same milk as in France.
His cheeses are sold in shops primarily aimed at expatriates, such as Le Boucherie Gerard, April Gourmet, Schindler’s German Food Centre and the Central Park Deli, but increasingly these venues are seeing a lot of Chinese custom. There is a chain of supermarkets called Jenny Lou’s which started life as a fruit stall and morphed into a number of outlets providing the foodstuffs that foreigners hold dear, such as corn flakes, baguettes and chocolate. Nowadays about half the clientele is Chinese.
The changing middle-class palate offers great opportunities for Irish companies – it’s one of the few examples where Ireland’s small size relative to China is a bonus.
Ireland is always going to be too small to meet the mass demands of 1.3 billion people, but it is well placed to provide quality, specialised products at the higher end of the market.
During a recent agribusiness delegation to China, led by Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, the delegates were taking a very close look at these niches. Irish seafood, for example, is flown several times a week into China’s cities and the seafood producers were obviously keen to up their presence on Chinese tables.
Aidan Cotter, chief executive of Bord Bia, pointed out how our natural grasslands and rich fishing grounds were a great selling point for Irish companies in China.
“It is a good starting point in building Ireland’s reputation as an exporter of safe and sustainable food, and we realise how important safety and sustainability is for consumers’ health and consumers’ confidence, and for our reputation. And we go to extra lengths to prove it,” he said.
The visit of future president Xi Jinping earlier this year means that people in China now know where Ireland is, and photos of him with a new-born calf have boosted Ireland’s reputation as a food producer.
This makes it a lot easier for a small company coming to China to sell chocolates, whiskey, or cheese.
The Irish Dairy Board has launched Kerrygold UHT Milk in China and is selling Irish butter and cheese in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hangzhou, which have a combined population of more than 150 million.
One product they also sell in China is Weetabix, which has just been sold to the Chinese food company Bright Foods. Expect two Weetabix and milk to start working its way on to Chinese breakfast tables soon.
Food safety is a key reason people have embraced overseas bands. After a series of food safety scares in recent years, including the death of a number of infants from tainted infant formula in 2008, there is strong demand for quality food products in China. There are also regular reports of recycled cooking oil being used.
A growing concern about quality assurance has also given greater appetite among the burgeoning middle classes for imported foods.
The US Association of Food Industries believes China will become the largest consumer of imported foods by 2018, with a market worth €60 billion.
“I like western food,” says Gao Qian, a sales executive from Hebei province. “I have it once every couple of days when I’m working but I can’t have it every day. It’s hard to say you don’t like western food, everyone likes delicious food. Western food is welcomed by food lovers everywhere.”
She likes the way Italian food uses olive oil and fries less, and loves pasta in particular, but also French and Spanish food.
“Western food is fashionable. People think it’s romantic to date in a western restaurant and they often have a better environment and better service by comparison, although it is more expensive than your usual Chinese restaurant,” Gao says.
Of her clients, she says, 85 per cent are Chinese who regularly eat international food. She also thinks that more international cuisine has food safety ramifications, as it is easier to taste in the food if inferior or bad oil has been used in the preparation.
It’s not all high-end food. US chains are also making headway. Kentucky Fried Chicken is wildly popular in China – there were more than 3,700 KFC outlets at the end of last year, while McDonald’s had nearly 1,500.
There are fears that growing fondness for fast food – the western version, not the healthy, Chinese version – will lead to obesity issues and adult-onset diabetes.
But people enjoy the sophistication associated with Western food.
Hu Yujiang, 43, a film director from Chongqing, likes the whole western food vibe, the atmosphere, but he is less interested in the actual food itself.
“I’m not crazy about it, it is more serious and there is more focus on etiquette, it’s not that easy to simply enjoy it. But western food can be romantic because of the focus on the overall atmosphere rather then the food. Nice background music, quieter,” he said.
Time was when grapes were for grape juice in China and some decidedly dodgy local tipples, but these days Chinese wine is taking on the world. China is slowly gaining attention as a viticultural player. The country is already the world’s fifth biggest market, and it has quite a heritage in wine – archaeological digs have uncovered evidence the Chinese were making wine in 212 BC.
In December, in a blind tasting in Beijing, Chinese reds, mostly Bordeaux-style Cabernet Sauvignon-based blends, took the top four places in a China vs Bordeaux blind tasting competition. Although the testing was not considered massively representative, it was seen as symbolic that Chinese wines are indeed coming into their own these days.
You hear fewer jokes these days about the New Rich putting ice in their Lafite, or pouring bottles of Petrus into a punch at a family dinner.
These days the hills of Shandong, Shanxi and Ningxia are home to vineyards growing Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling and Chardonnay grapes.
Among the top Chinese wines are the 2009 Chairman’s Reserve from China’s Grace Vineyards in Ningxia province, Silver Heights’ “The Summit”, also from Ningxia, a small, sparsely populated region in north-central China.
In September last year, He Lan Qing Xue’s 2009 Cabernet blend, also from Ningxia, won at the Decanter World Wine Awards. This must have been as big a shock as when the Californians started winning gongs for Napa Valley’s finest.
While Chinese wine is coming on strongly, and quickly, New Zealand and South Africa don’t need to worry about being overtaken just yet – there are probably less than a dozen good wineries in China, with Grace Vineyard, in central China’s Shanxi Province, and Silver Heights, in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the standouts.
France is aggressively marketing its wines to take advantage of the growing sophistication of Chinese tastes.
The agriculture ministry has promised 400 types of wine from 12 regions all over France will land in China in batches over the next three years, and it is also keen to help educate people about wine with a campaign to include tastings for importers, distributors, cellar owners and chefs.
Chateau Lafite, Pernod Ricard SA and Moët-Chandon have invested in planting vineyards in China, aiming to produce quality wines and develop their brands in what is expected to become the world’s largest wine-consuming market.
The campaign includes France’s 12 wine regions and China is the fifth biggest importer of French wine both in terms of volume and value. The value of wine France exported to the mainland increased by 75.5 per cent last year.
With so much conspicuous consumption going on in China, there is an understandable preference for the most expensive wines such as Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Petrus and Domaine Romanee-Conti among the favourites, but mid-range wines are finding a market with the middle classes in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
All that China needs now is a revival of the wine and cheese party circuit.
