Would-be chef starts with offerings in private kitchen

Cheng Gong serves a dish at his private kitchen, where he cooks for two to six people at prearranged dinner parties on weekends. [Photo by Mike Peters/China Daily]

When Beijing resident Cheng Gong saw a dark-blue tablecloth with a pattern of white fish in Wuzhen, an ancient town and tourism destination in East China's Zhejiang province, he bought it without a second thought.

That was in early 2013, and now it is a favorite backdrop for serving fish in his part-time private kitchen, where he serves two to six people at prearranged dinner parties on weekends. The 27-year-old works in a news website, and started his weekend service last May, encouraged by friends he had entertained at home.

Born in Southwest China's Sichuan province, he didn't discover his passion and talent for cooking until 2009, after he had graduated from college and began to eat meals off campus.

"I was fed up with the food that I could afford at small restaurants every day," Cheng says.

"It was oily and tasteless, and I was always concerned with the freshness of the ingredients."

He began cooking for himself - first following his memory of how his mother had cooked huiguorou, or "twice-cooked pork".

To his surprise, he succeeded at his first try.

"I was happy and decided to cook food by myself from then on," Cheng says. "I just wanted to eat healthy, and didn't realize cooking would become increasingly important to me."