Secret behind Yuan's great-tasting Peking roast ducks (3)

His ducks are available only if you call ahead.

Yuan uses the traditional Beijing jujube wood for his oven, a dense wood that keeps the fire burning long and steadily.


Yuan believes you should not meddle with the traditional recipe too much because "there is a reason why it has been preserved and passed down hundreds of years".

Yuan, 54, walks around his restaurant every day to greet customers, and says a chef's biggest asset, apart from his cooking talent and skill, is connections he accumulates.

Many of his celebrity customers come especially for him and if he is not in that day, they would come back again.

There have been invitations to work overseas, but Yuan had declined all.

"Roast duck is a Beijing thing, my root is here. If it leaves Beijing the taste will change. Here I can keep it traditional and unchanged," he says.

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