(AFP) – Jan 24, 2008

TAIPEI (AFP) — When Yang Chi-hua was helping out at his father's restaurant as a teenager learning to make steamed dumplings, he never imagined that the family business would one day earn worldwide fame.

Yet today throngs of locals and foreign tourists alike queue outside Din Tai Fung's three-storey flagship store in Taipei to sample its specialty steamed dumplings or "xiao long bao" -- small white buns with juicy pork filling that are cooked and served in bamboo steamers.

The restaurant has also attracted foreign dignitaries and celebrities and last month Taiwan's foreign ministry enlisted Din Tai Fung in a gourmet food tour for tourists from France and England to help promote the island's image.

Yang, 52, said the success of Din Tai Fung lies in "committing ourselves to doing everything well, from preparing the food to serving the customers and maintaining the hygiene of the restaurant".

In an interview with AFP, he said: "It is an enormous pressure to live up to the expectations. We are constantly striving to make the restaurant better and not to let our patrons down."

Yang inherited the business from his father Yang Bing-yi. Its big break in to the international gourmet scene came in 1993 when the New York Times listed it among its "top ten" restaurants in the world -- the first and so far only Taiwanese restaurant to receive such an accolade.

In Taiwan, the restaurant rolls out some 15 million steamed dumplings annually and in 2007 reported revenue of 700 million Taiwan dollars (21.63 million US). Last year it opened its third branch on the island, in Fuhsing.

Din Tai Fung opened its first restaurant abroad in 1996 in Tokyo and in 2001 expanded to Shanghai -- considered the birthplace of xiao long bao -- and later to other Chinese cities including Beijing, Shenzhen and Dongguan.

Currently it has 38 franchised restaurants overseas and is planning to open in Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand this year.

The first thing customers to the Taipei flagship see when they enter is a framed plaque reading "Din Tai Fung Oil Shop" -- a relic of its humble start when the elder Yang opened his first small eatery three decades ago out of dire financial necessity.

Yang had moved to Taiwan from China's Shanxi province in 1948, a year before the nationalist Kuomintang lost the civil war to the communists and fled to the island.

He found his first job here as a delivery man for a cooking oil shop, and within a decade, in 1958, had opened his own store, called Din Tai Fung, selling peanut oil.

Business soured in the early 1970s thanks to the mass production of soybean cooking oil and so, following the advice of friends, Yang decided to convert half the store into a restaurant.

As the elder Yang did not know how to make steamed dumplings, he hired a cook -- who later passed on the craft to his son, the current Yang -- and the small family business gradually took off. It now employs more than 500 staff.

The younger Yang helped out at the family store for two years, until at age 17 his culinary passion was kindled when he beat an experienced cook to get his first paid job as a steamed bun maker for another restaurant.

"My father didn't want me to follow in his footsteps because of the hardship involved in running a restaurant," he said, adding: "Today he is still telling me to slow down a little and try not to be a perfectionist."

Yang's cooking skills earned him an appearance in Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee's 1994 hit movie "Eat Drink Man Woman" as a double for the male lead Lung Sihung's character, a retired chef in a bun making scene.

For an acclaimed restaurant, Ding Tai Fung's menu is simple with steamed dumplings, sweet buns, chicken soup, chicken marinated in Chinese wine, fried rice and vegetables.

A standard portion of 10 steamed dumplings costs 180 dollars (6 US dollars).

"The taste is basically the same as the early days, only slightly lighter to meet customers' needs," said Yang.

He has introduced a computer to ensure the dumplings are steamed to perfection, and to minimise serving errors, he said.

But one thing remains unchanged -- Din Tai Fung never advertises.

"We have relied on word of mouth to bring in customers and we plan to stick to that," Yang said.

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