When Yang first arrived in Beijing, he sold chickens and ducks in the meat market street outside Qianmen. After buying and selling, he likes to figure out how to sell ducks, so his business is booming.
Yang scrimped and saved, and saved some money.
At that time, there was a dried fruit shop called "Dejuquan". Although the signboard is eye-catching, the business is deserted. After three years of Tongzhi (1864), he was on the verge of bankruptcy. Smart Yang seized this opportunity and opened a "Dejuquan" store with his own accumulation.
In order to give his shop a good name, Yang invited a Feng Shui gentleman to discuss it. Mr. Feng Shui suggested that he change the name of the store upside down to "Quanjude", which is exactly what he wanted. So he named the shop "Quanjude" to flaunt his determination to operate in good faith and his good wish to gather virtue for himself. Then ask Qian Zilong, a scholar who is proficient in calligraphy, to write a gold plaque of "Quanjude" and hang it on the lintel to attract customers.
Quanjude's business is booming, thanks to Yang's meticulous management and shrewdness. In order to prosper his business, he often goes to various roast duck restaurants to explore the secrets of roast duck and visit the roast duck master.
There is an old chef named Sun in Jinhua Pavilion, who specializes in making royal roast duck for the court. Roast duck is very skilled. Yang tried his best to get close to him and often invited him to drink and play chess together. Finally, Master Sun was hired by Yang to Quanjude.
After Master Sun came to Quanjude, he changed the original oven into a hanging oven. The oven is high and the stove is wide. One oven can roast more than a dozen ducks, so that the ducks can be roasted at the same time. Quanjude's roast duck is beautiful in appearance, full of fat, bright in color, purplish red in color, crispy in skin and tender in meat, crispy and delicious, fat but not greasy, thin but not firewood, which made it famous in Beijing for a time.
Quanjude's roast duck, from duck selection, breeding, slaughter to barbecue, is very particular. A series of fine dishes represented by whole duck seats, special dishes, innovative dishes and celebrity banquets have formed their own unique cuisine culture.
While making roast duck, the chefs of Quanjude have carefully prepared various delicious hot and cold dishes, including mustard duck feet, roast duck heart, four treasures of stewed duck, hibiscus plum duck tongue, duck wrapped in shark's fin and so on.