Baked baozi with braised pork.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Yang's operating plan also includes opening his restaurants－formerly known as Beijing Yan－next to local restaurant titan Dadong, offering a contrast of simply prepared foods to his neighbor's famously elegant plates.

"Everything we do is designed to emphasize the natural flavors of the ingredients," he says of the cooking style, popularly known as Lu cuisine.

The tofu his kitchens use in soups is crafted in Zhejiang province－also daily and shipped in with the waxberries. The broth is dense and rich, a combination of North and South China styles, Yang says.

Another dish, meanwhile, looks west. Roasted Xinjiang pumpkin is twice-cooked, at different temperatures, to produce rectangles of sweet flesh, which arrive at table like a row of caramelized burritos. As other courses arrived, everyone's chopsticks seemed to drift back to this platter for one more nibble.

Then there is Australian wagyu beef, which is infused with ancient Chinese character by being cooked ever so slowly in old Shanxi vinegar, resulting in a surprisingly sweet taste. This may be the restaurant's most over-the-top presentation－on the plate, the beef arrives nested in cotton candy. Nobody's mama serves beef that way, but in most cases, Yang says, meals at his restaurants are like a Chinese mother's cooking.

"Your mother doesn't serve you anything that's not fresh," he says.