Tom Tong

Tom Tong
Tom Tong making traditional Chinese Baozi
Born	Wenling, Zhejiang, China
Nationality	Chinese
Education	Tongji University

Tom Tong is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Ganqishi (甘其食) and its American counterpart Tom’s BaoBao. Tong currently resides in Shanghai and Hangzhou, and makes frequent trips to southern New England to oversee the buildup to the grand opening of the first two Tom’s BaoBao locations, slated for late Spring 2016. Over the past decade, Tong has created the Ganqishi brand in China, and has expanded to roughly 200 locations in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou, China.

Early life

Childhood

Tong came from a small seaside town called Wenling (温岭), Zhejiang Province, China. This town and the surrounding region is rich in culinary and artisanal traditions that persist into the 21st century. Tong’s family moved to Shanghai when he was nine. As a child Tong was often given bao as a treat from his grandfather as a reward for good behavior on trips to the market. Tong’s obsession with Baozi as a culinary art form was fomented during this early stage of his life, and would become a recurring theme in his professional pursuits.

Tongji University

Tom attended Tongji University in Shanghai, one of the world’s leading scientific universities. He studied locomotive engineering, but where he really found his strength and passion was outside the classroom. Tom opened and managed no less than five companies while at Tongji, including a hair salon, shoe store and an Internet café.

Research in Hangzhou

Tong spent four years in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China doing market research by analyzing eating habits of the local population and studying the successes and failures of other restaurants. Tong focused on finding out what the local population desired in their food and how he could bring it to them consistently and on a large scale, pursuing a reversal of the trend of cheap, unhealthy street food. Tong’s goal was to engineer a successful bao making system that would include a privately owned commissary, vertical integration of ingredients, and a dedicated training center for his staff. This plan eventually included large installations in Shanghai and Hangzhou, as well as the assumption by Ganqishi ( 甘其食)

Ganqishi

Tom Tong founded Ganqishi ^[1] at the conclusion of his initial research in Hangzhou. Tong’s founding of Ganqishi was in opposition to what he believed bao had become in modern China: cheap street food, made by machine and frozen before being served. Tong saw an opportunity to elevate the status of a food that was close to his heart, and revive the art of bao making on a larger scale than it had ever been done before. The first ‘Ganqishi’ bao restaurant was opened in 2009 in Hangzhou, and today there are around 200 in Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Suzhou. Tom has expanded into Shanghai, reinvented the layouts of his stores twice, and has gained the attention of countless food journals as well as a huge crowd of loyal customers. In all, Ganqishi customers in China eat over a quarter million bao a day.

First Generation

The first series of Ganqishi stores. This generation focused on sidewalk service from within small store spaces. As of 2015, these stores were all updated to Second Generation standards or shuttered to avoid dilution of the brand.

Second Generations

The updated stores and production model saw a re-imagining of many classic recipes, and continued use of the orange-red motif as in the original design. Currently this model of restaurant embodies the majority of Ganqishi’s 200+ locations. As of Summer of 2015, no new second generation stores are being built, as the company shifts toward creating a greener, healthier brand with their Third Generation restaurants.

Third Generations

• Going Green - In an attempt to decrease the environmental impact of Ganqishi’s operations, biodegradable cups and other items were added to third generation stores. Additionally, any remaining unnatural chemicals were removed from recipes, and the design of the store was updated to a “greenhouse” motif to emphasize the focus on reverence and respect for nature.
• Shanghai Expansion - Tong began his expansion of Ganqishi into Hangzhou by feeding 10,000 people, mostly students, at his Alma Mater, Tongji University at the beginning of the school year over two days. Since then, Ganqishi has expanded to numerous locations across the metropolis, including the historic French Concession neighborhood.
• Alibaba - in 2015, only two days before Alibaba’s record breaking 11/11 sale, Ganqishi opened one of its third generation stores in the Alibaba Campus in Hangzhou. This opening was spurred by the interest of Jack Ma (Alibaba CEO) in promoting better food and innovative businesses to his employees in collaboration with Tong’s continued expansion of Ganqishi.

Tom’s BaoBao

Expanding to the US

Tom began exploring Rhode Island and Massachusetts on vacation, and decided it was the perfect place to begin a new venture in the US under the name Tom’s BaoBao. The first store is slated to open in June, 2016 in Cambridge Massachusetts’ historic Harvard Square neighborhood. Tom’s BaoBao will also open a second location in Providence, RI in August, 2016.^[2] Tong has stated that the food market in southern New England is perfectly positioned for disruption from an authentic Chinese food concept and that he also thinks the opportunity for cultural exchange between China and the US will be strengthened by his company’s introduction to the area. Tong’s business strategy is to train his store-level employees to a higher level than competing fast-casual restaurant concepts in order to allow them to deliver service at fast food speeds while still practicing a traditional culinary art in an artisan style.

Training Americans

In order to translate authentic Bao to America, Tong decided that it was necessary to train American employees in the same conditions as his Chinese employees. He accomplished this by sending several waves of staff to China for extensive training. After several months of additional practice at dedicated facilities in the US, the staff was expanded and opening of the first Tom’s BaoBao location in Harvard Square was slated for early Summer, 2016.

References

External links

• Tomsbaobao.com
• Ganqishi.com
• Tom Tong’s ‘A Baozi Maker’ Yixi Talk
• A Taste of Ganqishi Video