Bearing a long history, catering is one of Hong Kong’s key industries. The local food culture has retained Chinese culinary characteristics while creatively adapting to contemporary trends prevailing in the city. A distinct, local type of Chinese restaurants emerged on the scene, flourished and took the largest share of the local catering industry. Chinese restaurants have to that extent played a dominating part in the industry.

As a result of continuous socio-economic development and changes in lifestyle trends, Western fast-food and hotel restaurants burgeoned in the city, thus posing a challenge to the Chinese catering industry, which was at that time largely dominated by Hong Kong-styled restaurants. The 1980s saw the beginning of the gradual decline of large-sized Chinese restaurants. Operational changes have been introduced since then to maintain the market share of Chinese restaurants, with the result that more and more small and medium-sized restaurants emerge in the market. In recent years, the Chinese catering industry has become increasingly variegated as a result of the proliferation of restaurants featuring a spectrum of culinary traditions from all over China; in tandem with the famous Eight Culinary Traditions, the cuisines of Beijing, Shanghai, Henan and Hubei also enjoy a high reputation on the gastronomic scene.

The catering industries in Hong Kong bear an inseparable relation to its economic development. As Hong Kong’s economy is gradually back on the track, the catering industries experience a gradual recovery, and the number of restaurants is rising steadily. Yet, local restaurants are under considerable pressures from factors such as surging rents and non-staple food prices, as well as insufficient manpower and labour wastage. With a view to promoting development and raising the quality and professional status of catering practitioners, it is imperative for the catering industries to introduce a comprehensive training system.

Most traditional Chinese restaurants have not had their operations and management practice underpinned by a set of comprehensive principles. Moreover, since most of their employees have not received any formal catering training, there is a considerable proportion of staff falling short of professional standards. As a result, the well-being of the Chinese catering industry is especially vulnerable to the effects of external factors. Thus, in order to enhance its future prospects, the industry must substantially raise the quality of its practitioners and introduce up-to-date techniques and strategies in such areas as catering management and marketing.

A limited number of courses are offered by local training providers and trade unions for Chinese catering practitioners. In addition, there are individual employers offering some on-the-job training for their own employees, with a view to enriching their industry knowledge and skills as well as enhancing their service quality.

Nevertheless, most practitioners in the industry have not been provided with comprehensive pre-employment training. For example, the waiting staff and those in the production and sales sections are normally apprenticed to experienced colleagues or mentors from the beginning of their employment, but the training they receive in this way is usually confined to knowledge and skills needed for performing routine duties. This mode of training falls short of enabling employees to acquire comprehensive professional knowledge and industry skills, and may thus inhibit industry growth.