Familiar with the 24 flavors used in traditional Sichuan cookery, Xie is also developing new flavors for modern Sichuan cuisine, together with master chef Xu Fan, founder of Xu's Creative Dishes, in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Xie began learning how to cook in 1995, and he became Xu's apprentice in 2001. "I remember Xu always had a cookery magazine stuffed in the back pocket of his trousers, which he would read when he had some spare time," Xie recalls.

Together with Xu, Xie created several new Sichuan dishes in the first few years after the turn of the millennium.

For the past six years, Xie has been working in a hotel in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, as an executive chef. In March, he was invited by Xu to manage the kitchen at the new Beijing branch of Xu's Creative Dishes.