Chef Talib Hudda's creative plates include beef carpaccio, chicken globe with falafel and a strawberry semifreddo with chocolate cake. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Fans of Chinese cold noodles may be intrigued to find frozen rice-thread noodles in their dessert. One of several cleverly constructed sweets, Hudda's exquisite combination of rice, mandarin sorbet, dried lavender and rose petals is inspired by faloodeh, an ancient Persian treat. (Iran may not be precisely on the Mediterranean, but close enough.)

While his muse may be on the other side of the world, the chef is on the lookout to source many key ingredients locally, including fresh seasonal produce from Beijing and organically raised salmon from Sichuan province.

Hudda says he has been at home in the kitchen since early childhood－he started cooking with his grandmother at the age of 6. He enrolled in culinary school when he was just 16. Later, he worked in acclaimed restaurants around the world, from The Pear Tree in Vancouver to Marchal in Copenhagen, where he helped that kitchen team earn the restaurant's first Michelin star. To broaden his culinary horizons, he also ventured to New York for short stints at two of the city's top dining rooms, Cafe Boulud and Eleven Madison Park.

Earlier, he got the chance to represent his home country of Canada at the prestigious Bocuse d'Or in 2011.

"Nine months into culinary school, I met some chefs who were training for the competition," he told Time Out magazine last year. "I wasn't sure whether I wanted to stay in school and this was a rare and great opportunity to work with the country's best chefs in the world's most prestigious cooking competition. It was especially an honor to represent Canada, which is not exactly known for its culinary heritage, in a competition at this level."

His culinary training in Canada, his cross-cultural heritage and his experience in some top Copenhagen kitchens have been a winning combination so far in China. Hudda's unassuming manner and luminous smile when he makes a tableside visit are so casual that diners may be unprepared for the heights he aspires to with his food.

"Beijing is an exciting city to express my culinary creativity," he says, "because it has a deep respect for culinary traditions yet is hungry for innovations.

Contact the writer at michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

LG/F, The Opposite House, 11 Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-6410-5240.