Dinner beijingcookingschool

Hutong Cuisine Cooking School was renamed

The Beijing Cooking School

About Chaf and he's family

		Welcome to our school. My name is Zhou Chao. I grew up in Cantong (Guangdong province) and come from a long line of chefs. My grandfather was a chef and used to have a restaurant in Guangzhou. Unfortunately because of the war, he had to close the restaurant and return to his hometown. My father is also a good dim sum chef and has his own dim sum restaurant. He gets up at 3 o'clock every day to make dim sum for the restaurant. My love of cooking comes from my family. My father began to teach me to cook when I was 13 years old and after that I often helped him after school. When I was 17 years old I cooked for my cousin’s wedding and this is where I think I really began my career as a chef. I went on to study in a culinary school in Chengdu and cooking became a natural part of my own life. I believe that a good life can't be had without good cooking. Cooking is not only my profession, it’s also my passion. However, I don’t really enjoy cooking in restaurants, preparing the same food day in day out.

I love my father because he truly understood me. He told me to do what I loved to do. Outside of cooking I also like sports. I’m good at judo and even took second place in a judo competition in Guangdong province when I was in high school. I got a job in a school teaching teenagers how to exercise. I really enjoyed this because teenagers are always so happy. Another wonderful part of this experience was that on weekends my colleagues would bring food to my house and I would cook up a feast for them. For years my sister Chunyi had been running a cooking school in Beijing, but in 2010 she told me that it was getting too busy for her to handle alone, and asked me if I’d like to help her run it. I jumped at the chance. Nowadays, working at the cooking school, I feel really lucky. I have the best life. I love to teach and I love to cook - and now I can do both. Every time I see a smile on a guest's face when they eat what they have cooked, I feel extremely happy. It's the best gift I could receive. If you’re interested in what I do, please follow me on Facebook and come in for a cooking class!