Hetian Tianshi breaks away from conventional entrepreneurship to make food it truly believes in

The two are not idle on their days off either, and almost always go to farming-method classes or visit small farmers. Song Wanrou is currently studying in the Xiuming Natural Farming practice class at Tunghai University's Extension Division, while Cai Youchen is waiting for other teachers to start classes. "We are not limited to one farming method, because every farming method has its own advantages and places where it can be better." Song Wanrou said.

In addition to visiting farming friends' production areas, they also learn from farming friends how to make good use of ingredients to vary their cooking. The two very much like Sister Jingjing and Teacher Liao, the owners of the Xiuming farming friend "Youcai Tea," and they often discuss cooking skills with each other.

Song Wanrou gave local corn as an example. Besides common cooking methods such as boiling it or making soup, Sister Jingjing sun-dries the corn, grinds it into small grains, and then cooks it together with rice, so purple glutinous corn instantly becomes like five-grain rice, or the corn can be ground into a finer powder to replace gelatin, making a rice pudding with the aroma of corn.

"It is like a culinary research laboratory. We use ingredients to create different dishes and get to know corn as an ingredient anew," Song Wanrou said. Deconstructing the ways ingredients are used frees them from the constraints of past experience. "After escaping the framework, you can learn unexpected things from it."

The point of a green restaurant is not certification, but putting ideals into practice

Recently many counties and cities have been promoting green and environmentally friendly restaurant certification, and restaurants with similar ideals have sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain. But Cai Youchen said that Hefeng Tianshi is not trying to chase this trend, nor does it particularly emphasize certification and publicity. Rather, it hopes to use good ingredients to make healthy dishes and increase trust between people. "People who like our ideals will naturally find us."

Song Wanrou also said: "What we want is actually very simple: using local ingredients from land-friendly farming can reduce the carbon footprint, and we use fewer disposable items." Hefeng Tianshi normally does not do takeout, but if customers bring their own lunch boxes they can still take food away. If a drink cannot be finished, the shop also provides glass bottles that have been washed after holding honey.

In addition, although Hefeng Tianshi has a second floor, they try as much as possible to concentrate the customer dining area to save energy. The tableware also emphasizes environmental protection, using bamboo and non-plastic utensils, and giving priority to dandelion toilet paper, biodegradable garbage bags, and environmentally friendly dishwashing liquid, among others.

In an era that stresses speed, in order to maintain the quality of the food served and let customers enjoy "slow food," Cai Youchen insists on accepting only customers by reservation. "Although we started very slowly, we cannot want everything, otherwise what we make will have no sense of value."

Although starting a business is hard, Cai Youchen and Song Wanrou learn with an open mind, hoping the restaurant can grow together with small farmers and customers. Later they are also considering letting the restaurant play more roles, including promoting food and agriculture education and holding small food safety lectures or cooking classes, so that more consumers can appreciate the beauty of small farmers' ingredients.