Chinese family wins culinary fame and online fans with thriving sliced noodles business in Paris
Guo Zhanglong and his mother-in-law, Sun Shenglin, have used their sliced noodle business in Paris to create a window for French and
Chinese people to get a glimpse of each other’s cultures.
More than 10 years ago, Guo arrived in Paris for the first time as an exchange student for his fourth year of college. After graduation, he decided to stay there and look for what he could do to earn a living, as he saw the city as a place “full of opportunities”.
From foreign trade and food service to social media and tourism, he tried to work in a variety of sectors.
At one point, Guo ran a restaurant with a business partner but he said the business failed as his partner cheated him.
After that, he swore he would never work in the food service industry again unless “I’m starving to death”.
Guo then found success as an overseas purchasing agent for Chinese e-commerce platforms but the COVID-19 pandemic put him out of a job again.
His vow to forever avoid the food service industry was broken in 2022, when short videos he made of his mother-in-law cooking noodles at their stall in a Parisian market went viral on Chinese social media. He now has more than 13 million followers across various platforms, including Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.
In his video series titled “A French Market Adventure”, Sun can be seen using a sharp knife to slice off pieces of dough in her palm into a pot of boiling water, while passersby watch with great curiosity. Her movements led some to exclaim that it looked like she was performing kung fu.
Onlookers seemed interested, but unsure, Guo said.
“People in Paris are very open to Asian cuisines, and many know how to use chopsticks, but they would hesitate to try something that they have never seen or heard of before,” he said.
So he brought a television to the stall each day that showed customers videos explaining the history of the traditional dish. Originating in Shanxi province, sliced noodles date back more than 800 years.
As Guo’s social media posts continued to gain popularity for introducing the French market to his online audience, the sliced noodles also began winning over the palates of more and more Parisians.
One 96-year-old French woman became a regular customer of the stall after trying the noodles for the first time, saying the hot dish helped her regain her appetite, which had been down for years.
“She instructed her children who visit her every weekend to bring her noodles from our stall because she had difficulties walking too much,” Guo said.
With their business growing, Guo eventually opened a restaurant again. He now owns two in Paris, and a third is currently in development.
He said he cannot believe that he went from running a stall to opening two restaurants in just one-and-a-half years.
“Normally, I think it might take 10 years to open a noodle restaurant in Paris. But if I had started doing this 10 years ago, it wouldn’t be the same as it is today,” Guo said, adding that his success is largely due to the support he has received from his social media followers.
Guo decided to pivot from his job as a purchasing agent when it was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Drawing inspiration from his mother-in-law, he decided to make videos of her cooking and uploaded them onto his social media accounts.
Guo’s wife, Wang Xuejun, who has a knack for sensing business opportunities quickly, also played a key role in starting up the sliced noodle business.
Sun, now 62, used to work at a canteen — where the cooks made sliced noodles for 200 people at a time — and run a restaurant in Datong, Shanxi province.
Before the pandemic, Sun would visit Paris every three months to assist Guo and her daughter with their child. The couple’s friends and neighbors all knew the cheerful woman, who excels at cooking Chinese cuisine and enjoys having a few drinks.
“My happiest moment every day is to see the satisfied faces of the foreign diners who love our noodles. I feel so proud for being able to bring them authentic Chinese cuisine,” said Sun, who always greets the guests with a beaming face and simple French words such as “bonjour” and “merci”.
Sun understands how her noodles have become so popular. After all, everyone loves delicious food, no matter what country they come from, she said.
“People cannot fool their taste buds,” she said, adding that she was surprised to see that sometimes visitors come to the restaurant four or five times a week for the noodles.
Though the pair has been successful, things were not quite as smooth as Guo’s videos might suggest.
When people watch his videos, they see the great interest French people have in Chinese food, the sharing of memories by some customers who have visited China, and the bridges of kindness between Guo’s family and the locals. But they do not see the challenges his family faces.
“As foreigners, we usually have to spend twice as much time as the locals do to do anything, because we are not native French speakers and are unfamiliar with local rules and regulations pertaining to the restaurant business,” Guo said. “But we don’t really want to share that part with others.”
Amid the difficulties, Guo acknowledged the help and support he has received from French people.
For example, he said he was deeply touched by the actions of the market’s manager, a French man in his 60s who voluntarily offered all kinds of help when the family first came to the market, from finding a good place for them to set up their stall to persuading people to try their noodles.
“This is not his job at all but he still did it. I think that’s because he really appreciated our noodles and also felt that we were sincere about our business,” Guo said, adding that the family used to treat the manager to bowls of wonton or potato noodles.
Guo said that sometimes his social media followers ask him if Paris is an unsafe place as some online videos or other published material seem to suggest, or whether anti-Asian racism is everywhere in the city.
“I always tell them that we are ordinary people here and we communicate with ordinary people every day. And according to my experience, most of them are kind people who are willing to offer us a helping hand,” he said.
Whenever Chinese people who plan to travel in Europe tell him they are considering removing Paris from their itinerary, Guo said he strongly recommends they visit and see the city for themselves before making any conclusions.
“Paris is a good place with a rich culture and educated residents. Of course, there are still some areas that need further development, but I believe this also creates more opportunities,” he added.
