One of Shanghai’s most famous chefs is this 54-year-old former bus conductor who has no formal culinary training

There was still more than one month to go before the Chinese New Year, but Wang Ying was already scrambling to prepare food in a small kitchen that was filled with the tantalizing aroma of pork lard.

A vital ingredient in the eight treasure rice cake, a quintessential Chinese New Year dessert, the smell of the fragrant lard was so strong that even those walking past the four-room apartment that Wang rents as her speakeasy restaurant could catch a whiff of it.

“It’s the fragrance of the New Year,” said Wang, a 54-year-old Shanghai native who modestly calls herself a “cooking mum who happens to be famous” instead of a chef.