The fruit of his labors

In 1971, Wang was appointed to make pastry for a state banquet commemorating an international table tennis competition, and he designed the cake to look like a pingpong paddle and used Chinese yam to make the ball.

A year later, during former US president Richard Nixon's visit to China, Wang designed a dish that resembled a panda playing with bamboo for the state banquet.

In 1992, he traveled to Japan to make pastry for his restaurant's Tokyo branch.

Wang has given hundreds of lessons around China since he started to teach Chinese pastry. He has also passed on his skills to more than 30 apprentices.

Zhang Hu started to learn from Wang in 2010. After more than a decade's pastry work under his belt, he is now a professional pastry teacher at a vocational school in Beijing.

"Wang always tells us, to be a good pastry chef, one must be a good person before mastering all the skills," Zhang says.

"He is humble and kind, but if we don't fulfill his request or our work doesn't meet his standards, he gets angry," Zhang says. "He is very strict with us, but he is willing to learn from anyone."

Wang treats his apprentices as if they were his own children, offering his help in every aspect of their lives. Zhang says when one of Wang's apprentices was competing in a competition, Wang gave up his sleep to help figure out how to make the entry work.

"He doesn't want us to make unrealistic pastry or impress the judges, but to make really good pastry that will be appreciated by society, and to improve our skills," Zhang says.

Currently, Wang and his team are working on designing a Chinese pastry set that replicates more than 20 classic traditional Chinese pastries but presents them in a smaller and more modern way.

"The set goes from sweet to savory and each dish is served in small portions so that the next generation can taste traditional Chinese pastry and learn about it," Wang says.