According to China's Global Times, France's AFP news agency recently published an article titled 'Future Chefs Start New Careers at China's Barbecue Academy'. The article reported that 34-year-old Zhang Tengfei, who enrolled in the Yueyang Barbecue Academy in southern China to start a new career after working in the automotive industry for 10 years, is planning to open a food stall in his home province of Henan to support his wife and three children. It also introduced that regarding the Yueyang Barbecue Academy, the tuition fee for the one-month course is 5,800 yuan (approximately 138,000 yen), and students attend six days a week, learning how to cook various ingredients such as eggplant and pork belly, as well as kitchen management, product promotion, and know-how for increasing profits.

According to the article, Jiang Zunfu, one of the academy's founders, aims to train 10,000 'grill masters' in the next five years. For the second term, which started in June, over 4,000 applications were received for a limited enrollment of just 45 students. Graduates from the first term have already opened food stalls in various parts of China or opened restaurants in Vietnam. 24-year-old Xu Shuai, who quit his social media marketing job to enroll in the course, plans to use short video platforms to promote his own restaurant after graduation.
According to the article, after the morning's classroom lessons, practical instruction by professional chefs takes place in the afternoon. Instructor Luo Duochong, who demonstrated cutting blocks of beef, marinating them, and skewering them in front of the students, said, 'Barbecue is not something anyone can do just by watching it once. Everything from how to flip the ingredients, the uniformity of taste, and aesthetic appeal is important.' To graduate, students must pass a cooking test in front of professional judges. However, even with a certificate of completion, success is not guaranteed. Because the barrier to entry is very low, fierce competition awaits. The article reported Zhu Zhilong, a restaurant owner and instructor at the academy, as saying, 'In the past, simply choosing a good location was enough. But now, you also need to understand marketing, management, and attracting customers online.' According to the article, despite these challenges, Zhang Tengfei remains positive, saying, 'No matter what, food is a basic necessity of life, so I feel there's plenty of potential for the future'.

【その他の写真】