Benlai Cookhouse has access to the freshest meats and products sourced at home and abroad. (Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily)
The Beijing native has been cooking in famous Italian restaurants, such as Armani, Pastarito and Nobu, since the late 1990s, before returning to his hometown in 2005. He has catered for foreign embassies in Beijing, and once cooked for a Greek president and also for a mayor of Milan.
Today, after more than two decades in professional kitchens, Guo Qiang cooks for the online universe.
As chief chef and co-founder of Benlai Cook-house, a restaurant affiliated to China's leading online shopping platform for fresh food and ingredients, Guo says he has an advantage over running a conventional restaurant.
As an offline showcase of Benlai.com, Guo says, "Here my priority is to create delicious food based on the various ingredients I have."
The chef, 44, frequently used the word "works" to describe dishes the restaurant serves. Guo's confidence lies in his proficiency in using different cooking methods to bring out the best flavors of ingredients.
The restaurant has access to the freshest meats and products that the website has searched out from around the country and even overseas, as it is designated to offer an "off-line experience" created with ingredients sold on Benlai.com.
He says potatoes are just one example of how he makes the most out of his ingredients. Big or small, stored or fresh, different potatoes should be cooked in different ways to keep and enhance their particular flavors. They can be baked, boiled, fried, mashed, or scalloped－and the possibilities and combinations mean he can create a different array of flavors, even with the same potatoes.
The Ritan-area restaurant opened in late 2013, in about 170 square meters that were carefully designed to his requirements. It looks cozy with homelike furnishings and decoration.
