In 1988 Zhao took up duties in a Shanghai cuisine restaurant in a hotel in Beijing, the Kunlun, and his dishes became so popular that within a few years of his beginning to work there the restaurant's daily takings had risen from 10,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan, he says.

Zhao says one of his rules is that when creating new dishes you cannot be dogmatic about the flavor you end up with; rather, whatever flavor the diners like is the correct one.

From pairing the ingredients of each dish to planning the arrangement of each meal, Zhao pays attention to every step and every detail. He even shops around to find the best ingredients to use in the restaurant.

He also pays a lot of attention to training young chefs, he says.

The Chinese master chef Su Dexing started working at the Peace Hotel in 1972 when he was 19 and decided to try to emulate Zhao's cooking even though Zhao was only five years older.