Food for thought

"It makes the food expensive because the charge includes the presentation," she says.

Leung says restaurants also should bear in mind the emotional health of chefs. "Otherwise, eating would become a suffering" for the customers, especially if they realize that the staff isn't happy. In such a case, cooking could become a way of social alienation even for professionals, the three speakers agree.

In the kitchens of some star-rated Western and Asian restaurants, chefs work like they're in an army, highly cooperative and efficient, but each person performs a single task, say, cutting fish, boiling rice or chopping onions, Chuang says.

In some restaurants, the employees are not allowed to talk to each other or listen to music, making the work environment unhappy, she adds.

That's not to mention, many cooks have to go to the gym to keep in shape, Shu says.

But professionalism in Western cooking has gradually influenced Chinese restaurants and cookery schools. Some cooks who graduate from professional schools still seem to add too many processed condiments in dishes, making them "strong in flavor, oily and often unhealthy", according to Chuang.

"It seems that in the last 30 years, Chinese people in general have started to like food with strong flavors－salty, oily and spicy, like Sichuan and Hunan cuisines, both of which are famous for being spicy," Leung says, adding that even Sichuan cuisine itself has grown stronger in flavor.