As each new restaurant has opened, Zhou has had to delegate more tasks to his employees and grow his team.
“You have to let go and trust people, although my responsibilities have remained the same, you have to delegate tasks,” he says.
“Micromanagement is another thing. I find people who micromanage really end up under-managing, but the best people still need a good structure to work with.”
To find the best employees for the job, Zhou favours “the recruit”.
“If someone in the business recruits someone, the person will be of a similar character,” he says.
“I’ve used this method with David’s with a very good response. I let the person with the character I like recruit others like them. Regardless of a person’s skill, if you have two people and one is outgoing and one is an introvert, they often won’t work well together.”
In the past this method has also proven a quick way for Zhou to shake-up his whole team and start fresh.
The restaurant industry is renowned for being stressful. Television shows like MasterChef and My Kitchen Rules have shown Australians the likelihood of temper tantrums when it comes to tempering chocolate or creating the perfect pastry.
But Zhou believes a “healthy dose of stress” is good for you.
“I guarantee things will go wrong, but you really need to look at the big picture. Things can really impact upon your confidence when they happen back-to-back.”
Zhou explains a situation where in one day he had a big banner and a pole fall down from one of the restaurant doors and then was informed by the chef the kitchen had flooded.
“But remember that you’re just as clever as everyone else and you can handle it. You need to remember that it’s life,” he says.
Zhou attributes his success to a mixture of common sense, knowledge and luck.
“We had a lot of good reviews around the time David’s opened. We were very lucky,” he says.
“One day the manager of [nearby] Globe Café came into the restaurant. Globe was very aspirational for me and the manager looked outside the restaurant and then he came in, looked around and then walked away. He turned to me and said ‘you should be scared’, he paused and then said ‘you’ll have too many people coming in the door’.”
When asked about his proudest moment so far, Zhou says he’s yet to have it.
“All of our achievements I celebrate with my team. They’re all worthwhile and we can be proud of them, but one day it won’t just be about Melbourne and Sydney. We’ll present our concept to the world,” he says.
“At the moment you can’t define Aussie cuisine, but I think we can. You go to a restaurant and you’ll see chefs from every background, it’s impossible to tell here if it’s a Western or Asian restaurant. We need to work out the best parts of these cultures and combine them, that’s what we’ll do while creating the best Asian food experience.”
If Zhou wasn’t a restaurateur, he’d be a boxer.
“I’d like to fight in the ring when I’m retired. Of course, I’d have to have no teeth first, otherwise mum wouldn’t let me.
“I like to read, but only ever two pages at a time because it’s more appetising that way. I find you need other subjects to stimulate your mind.”
Every night Zhou tries to sleep before 12pm, but working seven days a week means he never really has a break.
“Because I have five restaurants, I need quality time to spend with each department. I liken things in business to boxing, you have to have a strong stance or else you’ll move and you’ll trip yourself,” he says.
“After so many years I’m still so excited to do what I’m doing because there are still so many opportunities.”
Zhou wants the government to alter business policies to encourage more people to do business.
“If the policy climate gets better, then we’ll be able to achieve more. You need to have the hunger to reach something and be like an Apple,” he says.
Personally, Zhou intends to continue innovating and expanding his own restaurants and products.
“At the Chapel Street Oriental Teahouse, it’s going to be treated more like a bar. People will have dumplings and tea, but upstairs I’m turning it into a drinking place to expand our offering.
“While our core offering will remain dumplings, I’m also using fresh ingredients like avocado, banana and honey.”
Zhou is also adding a retail element to the stores where people will be able to take home frozen goods and make them at their own convenience.
“We’re trying to really refresh our offer, but keep the brand authenticity. No matter what I do it will always be quality at a reasonable price, and I’ll continue to give people information about the teas,” he says.
“We have the Fitzroy Street opening too, and we have many smaller concepts we want to scale up. There are so many things which can be done.”
