Chapter 11 — Tomorrow's Kitchen

Vy printed three options on A4 paper and pasted them on the warehouse door with clear tape.

OPTION ONE: SELL THE BRAND.

OPTION TWO: CLOSE THE STORE AFTER PAYING POSSIBLE ACCOUNTS.

OPTION THREE: KEEP THE SHOP, CHANGE THE MODEL.

Lan's mother stood in front of the paper for so long that the glue in the top corner began to peel off. Khoi wanted to ask her which option to choose, but Vy placed a small table below: "Don't choose based on emotion. Write down the survival conditions of each option."

“Did you turn the storage room into a meeting room?” Khoi asked.

"The meeting room has chairs. This room only has cooking oil barrels."

Ha brought in four plastic chairs. Binh arrived later, his shirt still stained with road dust. Mr. Sau sat next to the door and said he only waited for an hour because he had to repair a customer's car. Lan's mother made tea, but no one drank.

Vy turned on the computer. "The original loan still has three hundred and ninety million left. Interest and processing fees have not yet been finalized. Current cash is eleven million four. If sold according to Man's proposal, the debt can be paid and there is still capital to repair the kitchen, but the trademark rights will transfer for fifteen years."

“Two years holding the location,” Khoi said.

"Two years on the contract. After that they can change locations or transfer rights."

“If closed?”

"Selling equipment at liquidation price is not enough to pay off. Mom may have to sell the house."

Lan's mother put down the tea cup. “The house is not for sale.”

Vy looked at her. “If the shop closes, the bank still has the right to handle the collateral.”

"The house is in my mother's name, not in the contract."

“But I may have to use it to pay the balance.”

Khoi looked at his mother. The word "house" was just said to make the room smaller. Nha Kitchen Restaurant is located on the ground floor of that house. If the shop is separated from the house, there is only one iron door, one kitchen and one person with no place to sleep.

Lan's mother said: "Option two is not available."

Vy replied: "So it's written that you don't choose, but you have to know the price."

Ha pointed to option three. “What is changing the model?”

Khoi said: "Open menu, community kitchen, each group of guests has the right to suggest dishes. The kitchen provides equipment and processes, and contributors are named."

“Sounds like a group.”

“There has to be revenue.”

“Who pays for the group?”

Vy opened the board. “If there are three parts of revenue: fixed items, seasonal items and meal fund. It may be enough to cover operating costs, but not enough to repay the debt in thirty days.”

Khoi said: “Need transition money.”

Vy laughed. “From where?”

Khoi had no answer. Min is the most obvious transition, but option three using the money from option one no longer makes sense.

Binh asked: "Can I borrow small amounts from many people?"

Vi shook her head. "Who can I borrow from? If the shop fails, everyone loses a part. I already have too many people waiting for money."

Mr. Sau said: "Open a capital contribution book at the market."

"Contributing capital means having rights, obligations, and documents," Vy replied.

“So make paper.”

“Not easy.”

"Just because it's not easy doesn't mean you can't do it."

Lan's mother looked at him. “How much can you contribute?”

Mr. Sau laughed. “I helped repair the fan.”

“Work also has a price.”

“I don't want to trade credit for power.”

“But if you don't write it down, your descendants won't know it in the future.”

Mr. Sau shut up. Perhaps this is the first time Lan's mother told him about labeling the things he makes for the shop.

Khoi took a piece of paper and wrote three columns: money, work, and decision-making power. He said everyone can contribute in one way, but must know what they are contributing and what rights they have. Not everyone who works a lot has the right to decide on dishes; Not everyone who contributes money can force the kitchen to sell the food they like.

Vy asked: “Who determines public prices?”

“Based on working hours and shift rates.”

“So we are building a cooperative?”

“It could be a cooperative group.”

“Legal?”

“Ask a lawyer.”

Vy looked at him. “Lawyer money?”

Khoi shut up.

Lan's mother stood up, opened the cabinet and took out the recording box. She placed it in the middle of the table. "Home Kitchen has had a kind of cooperation for a long time. It's just that no one called names and the one who ultimately took the risk was the mother."

Ha took the green notebook. “If we keep the old model, the one who bears the risk is still the mother.”

Lan's mother nodded. “That is something that must be changed first.”

The meeting turned to specific matters. Ha wants to have the right to stop the order, but does not want to be solely responsible when the wrong ingredients are delivered. Binh wants the payment schedule to be public, but does not want the money to be used to repair the kitchen. Vy wants to have a minimum level of funds before lending to customers. Mr. Sau wants to reserve seats on the porch for the elderly.

Khoi wrote down each thing.

Lan's mother did not give her conditions. Khoi asked.

She said: "I want the restaurant to still be called Bep Nha Kitchen."

"Why?"

“Because that name is a place many people know to look for.”

“Isn't it because mom wants to keep it?”

“I want to keep it, but I don't want to keep it alone.”

The words made Khoi think of Man's contract. Man wants to buy the name because it is likely to be known by more people. Lan's mother wants to keep the name because it is the address of those who have come. The two desires are not the same, even though they use the same word.

In the afternoon, Vy made an appointment with a lawyer familiar with the small business association. A woman named Hanh agreed to meet them for half an hour for free. She looked at the contract, asked who was the head of the household, whose name was on the labor book, who owned the recipe and whether the restaurant had a registered trademark.

“The trademark is registered,” Hanh said. "But the transfer of use rights needs to be read carefully. The current contract does not just mortgage the name. It binds the right of disposal."

“What if I don't sell?” Khoi asked.

"You still have to process the loan. But you can propose a structure, propose a revenue plan and create an internal agreement."

Vy asked: "Does internal agreement help the bank slow down?"

"Not directly. But it helps you prove that the shop is not dependent on one person, has clear cash flow and responsibilities."

Hanh pointed to Lan's mother's signature. “Who signed the debt for raw materials?”

“Khoi, Vy, Ha and others work in shifts,” Vy replied.

"So when there is an incident, you may be held responsible for the operation. Procedures are needed."

Ha asked: "If I stop selling a product and sales decrease, will I be responsible?"

“If the recording process stops because of safety and the person who stops clearly states the reason, it cannot be considered an arbitrary loss of revenue.”

Khoi looked at Ha. The right to stop may eventually be written into a legal sentence, but for someone to use it while the kitchen is running late still requires trust.

Hanh added: "Don't call this model a community if the community does not know the amount of money, debt and withdrawal conditions."

Vy wrote that sentence in capital letters.

After the meeting, they walked back through the market. Man called Khoi, saying there was an investor willing to raise the price if Khoi signed within two days. Man did not consult Ha or Vy.

“I don't decide alone,” Khoi said.

“You are the one with the right to sign.”

“The right to sign is not the only right to decide.”

“You're making a small thing too complicated.”

Khoi looked at the stalls with their doors open. “The House Kitchen was complicated before you arrived.”

Man was silent for a moment. "I will send the final version. If you don't sign, I will withdraw."

Evening, family The family eats a pot of boiled vegetables with eggs. No one wants to cook elaborate dishes. Khoi couldn't taste it, but knew the vegetables were just cooked because Ha had timed them. Lan's mother dipped eggs in soy sauce, Vy held the phone without looking at the messages.

Khoi asked Vy: "What plan do you want?"

“I want my mother to rest.”

“If I sell, I can still quit.”

“But the shop follows other people.”

“If I keep it, mom may still have to stand at the counter.”

"So the third option is to have money to pay mom's shifts."

Khoi nodded. “Write it down.”

Lan's mother said: "I don't need a high salary."

Vy turned. "Mom needs a salary. Not because she hasn't sacrificed enough, but because the shop can't take her sacrifice as a zero cost."

Lan's mother did not respond. She picked up vegetables for Vy.

After dinner, Khoi went to the backyard. Ha is drying tangerine peels, light orange peels arranged on a tray.

“Do you want to sign a contract with Man?” Khoi asked.

“If the salary is good, I will consider it.”

Khoi was surprised. “I thought you didn't want it.”

"I don't want my name to be used without my rights. But I also need money to support my children."

Khoi shut up.

Ha picked up a piece of shell and held it up to the light. "Don't make me a symbol of not selling. I have the right to choose what works for me."

“If you leave, the Home Kitchen still has to keep the process.”

"Then write it down. Don't expect me to remember to change the restaurant."

Khoi nodded. He asked her what she wanted if she stayed.

"A fixed day off. Name in the recipe. Permission to stop orders. And no one can call me assistant cook when I'm in charge of an entire shift."

“What title do you want?”

“The person in charge of the kitchen.”

Khoi said: “Okay.”

“I haven't asked mom yet.”

“I'm asking the worker.”

Ha looked at him, for the first time without looking on guard. “Then write it down.”

Khoi wrote down four things in the notebook. Then he returned to the storeroom and pulled down plan three. Below, he added:

“Not saving the shop is as good as one person standing still without receiving a salary.”

Vy read and said that sentence was a bit long. Khoi Bao is long but true.

As the night drew to a close, the whole family made a test cash flow table. If the kitchen opens for six days, reduces dishes, accepts small trial orders, has meal funds, and collects part of the old debt, they can pay off about twenty million in thirty days. Still missing a lot. Need the bank to agree to reschedule the debt and need a bridge capital.

Mr. Sau suggested calling regular customers. Binh said not to call them investors. Lan's mother said she was called a contributor.

Khoi opened the list of phone numbers in the recording file. He didn't call anyone right away. Phone numbers are private information and cannot be taken from the tape to ask for money.

Vy said: "Tomorrow the public announcement will be posted. Anyone who wants to contribute can come."

“What if no one comes?”

“I know that option three is not enough.”

Khoi looked at the three pieces of paper on the warehouse door. Selling a brand is a numerical choice. Closing the shop is a choice that comes with fear. Keeping a shop is an option that doesn't have enough money, but it forces them to learn how to share power.

Lan's mother passed by and stopped at plan three. She took it down, turned it over and wrote:

"This restaurant is not my mother's kitchen. It is the table of those who sit down."

She glued it back together.

At that moment, Vy's phone reported an email from the bank. They agreed to meet tomorrow, but asked the Kitchen to submit a plan signed by all involved.

All involved.

Khoi looked at Ha, Binh, Mr. Sau, Vy and Lan's mother. For the first time, a restaurant meeting could not end with his mother's signature.

Tomorrow they will have to sit at the same table, but no one yet knows whether it will be first Coming out will be Ha, Vy or Khoi himself.