Veteran kebab-maker still full of passion

Although Hu Yunwu had a surgery done a few months ago and is still recovering from it, he arrives at his kebab store, located in Pozi Street in Changsha, the capital of Central China's Hunan province, at about 4 pm every day.

Then he begins to use his sauces and seasonings to marinate his meats to prepare them for barbecuing.

Before Hu arrives at his kebab shop called The Hu' s Barbeque Shop, he usually visits major meat and vegetable bazaars in Changsha to purchase fresh and high-quality ingredients.

"If you refuse work hard, then you will never be able to earn a big profit," says Hu.

"In addition to my sauces and seasonings, fresh and quality ingredients are key to my brisk business," Hu adds.

Hu, born in 1960, has made and sold kebabs off and on for more than 38 years, and is called "the king" by locals in the central Chinese metropolis after his story was broadcast by CCTV's program of "A Bite of China" a few years ago.

With Hu's sauces and seasonings and good barbecue skills, his kebabs are well received by local residents and tourists.

Speaking about his food, a Changsha resident says: "Hu's yakitori is really delicious, and I buy it almost every week."

The business at Hu's shops is brisk, although his prices are usually a little bit higher than other kebab stores in the city.

And his cumin beef and cumin mutton are particularly favorites with local diners.

Many of his customers are from other parts of the country.

"So, if I stop my business a day, many of my clients, particularly those who have come from far away to enjoy my kebabs, will feel disappointed, and I really don't want to disappoint them," says Hu.

Hu started his kebab business at the end of 1970s when he failed to find a job with the local government or State-owned units that used to be regarded as "iron rice bowls", indicating a secure and lifetime job.

Hu says he then took to barbecuing and selling kebabs after learning the technique from vendors who came from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

At first, he used to barbecue and sell his kebabs along local streets, despite objections from his parents.

But as his barbecuing skills improved, and thanks his fresh and high-quality ingredients, sales of his kebabs kept increasing.

Later, in 1983, Hu rented a stall at 200 yuan a month in Changsha's Dongtang Square, a busy part of the city, to sell his kebabs. And his business has not looked back since.

"My stall, that is usually open from 3pm to 10pm, can sell between 600 and 700 yuan worth of kebabs a day and can yield a net profit of more than 10,000 yuan a month," says Hu.

Thanks to his hard work and attitude, Hu was a millionaire in 1980s, becoming a model to emulate for his friends and relatives.

After Hu opened his first kebab store in the heart of the city's in 1990, he quickly opened three branches in Changsha in the following years.

All the four stores do brisk business, with one of them even selling more than 17,000 kebabs a day, earning 40,000 yuan daily, according to Hu.

Meanwhile, Hu is also a wholesaler of food ingredients for major hotels and restaurants in Changsha, and teaches local chefs how to make cumin beef and mutton.

After Hu became successful, he bought three motorcycles and an imported Volkswagen sedan.

But after a few years, Hu's business began to decline after he lost interest, and the business was handed over to his younger brother to operate.

Hu's stores then began to close one after another due to the lack of professional staff.

Worse was when Hu got addicted to gambling.

"I lost more than 400,000 yuan a night in a casino in Macao in 1990s," he says.

But redemption was at hand when Hu opened a new kebab store in Pozi Street, a famous local snack site in Changsha in 2007 to restart his business.

Now Hu's kebab store can earn anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 yuan a month.

Although Hu is growing old now he is still full of passion for his kebab business. And he recently became a web celebrity after he created the first skewer bullfrog in Changsha.

Hu now has a shareholding system for his staff. And 16 of them have been given from 0.5 to 5 percent of his company's shares.

Separately, Hu's son Liu Zhijie, born in 1995, has returned to Changsha to help Hu run the kebab store.

Speaking about his role, Liu, who studied in a university in Thailand, says: "It is my family business and I hope I can continue to run it in the years ahead."