[Photo provided to China Daily]

Immune to advertising and new food trends, his customers are as fussy about the integrity of what's on their plate as its taste. They are also quite knowledgeable about such pricy ingredients as abalone, sea cucumber and truffles.

"The picture for bao shen chi du (shorthand for the four most precious ingredients of Cantonese cuisine－abalone, sea cucumber, shark fins and fish maw) is very different from what it was 10 or 20 years ago," Bao says.

"Today people, or at least my people, order them because they actually enjoy them," he says. "In the past, when I was treating my business partners, I ordered them simply to make my dinner look expensive."

Sales of the four seafoods, which he personally sources from Hong Kong every month, represented 30 percent of the bottom line at his restaurants last year.