Up ahead: food feasts

Quanjude Group has launched set menus for Spring Festival celebration, featuring its time-honored and award-winning delicacies.[Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

For instance, they could not get conches big enough to cook a cold dish, but managed to create alluring taste and texture with the local produce thanks to their skill, Zhu Ruibo, the general manager of the Quanjude Wangfujing branch says.

The eight dishes that the Quanjude chefs cooked were the company's time-honored dishes with a bit of innovation in presentation and taste to appeal to modern palates.

The "peony duck", or Peking roast duck that resembles a fully opened peony blossom, was the star of the competition.

It debuted as the main course at a state banquet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing in 2014, and since then has become the company's most renowned creation.

The "petals" of the peony duck are made up with tender, savory duck meat delicately sliced and arranged, each with a sliver of roast duck skin that is very crispy and delicious.

Popular as the peony duck is, the chefs gave it a twist - for the Spring Festival dinner, the duck is to be served with handmade pancakes.

The diced scallop salad served with dried potato is an innovation based on the company's traditional signature dish - sauteed duck with shredded fried potato.