Suwen Xu, a second-year student at St. Thomas University, used to be the manager of The SG home-made bakery, which opened one year ago. In the beginning, she just enjoyed making desserts for herself and to share with others. People praised her desserts and suggested she open a restaurant. However, she didn’t realize she needed a business licence.
“I never thought about a licence or dispute. The reason for my bakery is many customers love my dessert,” Xu said.
While over 500 Chinese students are studying at STU and the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton’s numerous Chinese restaraunts are having trouble with the demand. That has led to at least three unlicensed Chinese “home-made” restaurants existing in Fredericton to satisfy the increasing demand.
Almost all homemade restaurants are located near school residences and use Chinese social media to advertise and take orders.
The restaurant managers have put their menu, photos of meals and contact information on WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging app for smartphones, to attract potential customers.
“Word of mouth is the main way to attract customers and maintain customers. Most of my customers are my schoolmates and their friends,” Xu said
Linda Jiang is a second-year student at STU and customer of the Rujia home-cooked restaurant. She said that, due to the Chinese one-child policy, many Chinese students don’t know how to cook, so most home-cooked restaurants provide delivery and monthly meal plans.
“It’s hard for me to adapt to Western food, like cheese and salad. I’d rather pay for a meal plan on home-cooked restaurant. There are lots of students have the same situation as me,” Jiang said.
Some homemade restaurant even provided end-of-term meal plans for students who need to spend more time on reviewing for final exam and don’t have time to cook. This study meal plan costs $7 per day.
“Personally, that really saves time for me to study. Most of my friends try this meal plan during this final,” Jiang said.
Because of the rent and taxes, the meals from regular Chinese restaurants can cost twice as much as from a home-made restaurant. For many Chinese students, convenience and price is more important than legality.
Gina Zhu, the manager of Thai Manao restaurant, thinks students need to be more careful about food security.
“I don’t want to judge them. Every industry has their own codes and standards. Especially for food industry, it is very strict and have lots of examinations. So if you choose the homemade restaurant, you need to consider about any possible safety concerns,” Zhu said.
Scott MacLean, regional director of the health protection branch of the Department of Health, said if the operator of the homemade restaurant wishes to operate a food premise legally, they would have to apply for a licence, submit documentation, and have an approved food premise under the food-premise regulations before they could operate in New Brunswick.
“If a food premise continued to operate without a license, we would take further enforcement measures, and the operator could be charged with operating a food premise without a licence,” Maclean said.
Xu has already closed her SG home-made bakery.
“There are some customers threatening me that they are going to report me. Although, no inspector actually come and take further enforcement measures for me. I still really worry about that. Because I couldn’t get the licence because I’m still a student,” Xu said.
Also some customers are worried that if some Chinese home-made restaurants are closed, they will not be able to afford Chinese food.
For those concerns, Zhu said Thai Manao restaurant might provide a special lunch meal plan to students. They will deliver the meal to school at a set time. Due to the tax, their meal will be around $10.
“As a company, we already prepare to compete with others in this industry. So, I willing to make some change and let more student consume safe food,” Zhu said.
