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China's uncrowned hotpot queen has spiced up the lives of her compatriots for 25 years and now she wants to take the strong flavours of her native cuisine to the rest of the world.

 

China's uncrowned hotpot queen, He Yongzhi, 54, with her pot of sizzling, bubbling specialty that has put her home -- the mega-city of Chongqing in the southwest -- on the culinary map of China, in the municipality of Chongqing, 16 June 2007.

 

He Yongzhi, 54, is convinced there is a global market for the sizzling, bubbling specialty that has put her home -- the mega-city of Chongqing in the southwest -- on the culinary map of China.

 

"Beginning from the second half of this year, we want to start expanding abroad in a bigger way," she said. "We hope that in 10 years, we will have restaurants in 15 major cities across the world."

 

A global hotpot empire would be a worthy culmination of a career that has the rags-to-riches qualities that aboud in China's vibrant developing economy.

 

She opened her first restaurant in 1982, while she was working as a designer at a local factory, investing a modest 3,000 yuan (US$390) she raised by selling the family's home.

 

Twenty-five years and many tonnes of chili and peppercorns later, her "Cygnet" hotpot chain spans 300 restaurants in all corners of China, and she has attained celebrity status in business-crazy Chongqing.

 

He's personal wealth amounts to 900 million yuan, and while she likes taking the wheel of her roaring 700,000-yuan Jaguar, she also savors the quieter joys of giving.

 

A glossy introduction to her company, Chongqing Cygnet Group, shows her next to a hospitalized victim of an abusive husband, a wad of 100-yuan bills piled on top of the bed-ridden woman.

 

In a nation where meat was once considered a luxury, growing numbers of people can afford to eat out, and hotpot, which combines dining with socializing, has long been a popular choice.

 

"I'm where I am due to a combination of chance, cleverness and hard work," she said, adding, without any pretense of false modesty: "I've made so many innovations."

 

One of the inventions she lays claim to is "yuan yang," a type of hotpot that is separated down the middle, with one half white and not-so-spicy, and the other half red and mind-blowingly spicy.

 

"Because of 'yuan yang,' Chongqing hotpot has risen to the status it has now," she said. "It's enabled what is after all an extremely simple kind of food to carve a position in the national marketplace."

 

Ambition feeds on success, and the next step for He is to expand what is now a limited overseas presence.

 

She opened her first restaurant in the United States in 1995, and since then three more American outlets have been added. Within just a few months, she hopes to open a restaurant in Sydney. Europe could come next.

 

Seventy percent of her customers in the United States are Chinese, meaning there has been little need to bow to foreign tastes, but that may change as the global reach extends.

 

One major concession is a departure from the classical hotpot style, with diners seated around one big pot in the middle of the table and everyone digging in with their chopsticks.

 

Westerners may prefer a more hygeinic approach and so she has developed individual hotpots -- incidentally also a hit in Chongqing.

 

"We want to become a global brand, but to be honest it will be hard for us to be as widespread as McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken. After all, hotpot is not exactly fast food," she said.

 

(China Daily via Agencies June 22, 2007)