Tastes of West Lake

Steamed shrimp with soy sauce is the most popular dish with visitors. Photos by Yang Feiyue/China Daily

Hangzhou chef shops near and far to serve good food at resort hotel, Yang Feiyue reports.

Chef Hu Chuanqing brings external and local culinary elements together at Hangzhou's Xanadu Resort.

"I believe in serving good food to my guests, whether it's local or not," says the 47-year-old, who's been in the catering business for 25 years. He's now running the kitchen in the Crowne Plaza's Taoyuan Chinese restaurant.

Born in Xiaoshan, an underdeveloped district then in Zhejiang province's Hangzhou, Hu's grasp of catering was deepened when he got a chance to work in Shanghai from 1992 to 1994.

"At that time, Shanghai people loved our local dish Dongpo pork, and I was good at cooking it, so I got the slot," Hu says. Made from a slab of pork belly, the lengthy "red cooking" time of more than three hours results in fat without much of its greasiness.

Working in the big city for two years, Hu returned to Xiaoshan and worked his way up as head chef in various well-known restaurants.

Since 2000, Hu has visited places with well-developed catering industries, including Guangdong province's Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Hong Kong and the Sichuan provincial capital, Chengdu.