Recently, Jeff Liu, the White House chef, Xiamen JieJie Catering Management Company Ltd, accepted the invitation of International College to deliver a lecture for the students in 2008 and 2009 Hospitality Management.

Jeff introduced his wonderful personal working experience all over the world. He went to America 30 years ago, as one of the excellent Chinese, he was invited to White House to cook for several American presidents and their wives. He was complimented by four American presidents and praised as the ‘White House Chef’.

 Jeff is a four-star chef. In the U.S.A, a great number of restaurants are run by Chinese, but most of them are family-style restaurants offering Chinese food. As Jeff said, due to the cultural difference, few Chinese are good at tasting American red wine, therefore, not many four-star chefs in America are Chinese. Jeff has been the four-star chef for ten years and often receives the invitation to teaching cooking in the local media and some public places.     

“I brought Chinese food to America 30 years ago, and 30 years later, I bring American food back to China. Although my wife and children still live in America and I still run my restaurant there, I love flying between Xia and U.S.A, because Xiamen is really so beautiful.” Jeff said, he would teach people in Xiamen how to cook the authentic American food to thank them for building Xiamen into such a pretty city.  

In addition, Jeff also communicated with the students about his opinions on catering industry. He thought that, the governors in catering industry should pay attention to the details, meanwhile, personal taste, temperament, languages, creativity, and attitudes towards life are also of great significance. The governors and operators of restaurants have opportunities to meet people from different background and with different personalities, which is very interesting. As far as he is concerned, respect is the priority when dealing with the consumer issues. People working in the hospitality industry can receive respect only if they respect themselves. In the Q&A, students posed many questions to Jeff and had a pleasant discussion with him.