Vegetable pasta [Photo by Ye Jun/China Daily]

Founder Minoie opened his first restaurant in Shanghai in July 2002. Frank Rasche joined Element Fresh in 2004. Before that he worked for 18 years with Coca-Cola, ultimately as operation director for the Chinese mainland, and general manager for the group's Taiwan company.

He says that after he talked with Minoie for two evenings, they decided "we can make something very special", not just in terms of food, but also in terms of the feeling for the brand.

"My friends said: 'You are crazy. You can never get Chinese people to eat raw vegetables in a restaurant,'" he recalls.

Now 60-70 percent of customers in the restaurant are Chinese. The company now employs a staff of 2,000 nationwide.

In the early days of development, the founders of the restaurant asked people how they could pursue a healthy, active life. Foreigners said "exercise", while Chinese people said "eating healthy". But when they asked Chinese and foreigners how to choose a restaurant, nobody put choosing healthy food first.

To many people, "healthy food" sounds boring, with no spice in it.

"When you want to make people eat healthy," Rache says, "the secret is to make the dishes fun and tasty."

Rasche says if your kids try a juice of carrots, ginger and vitamins, when they come back, they will choose it.

"It is interesting to see the response from female customers because they do not want to eat carbonhydrates," he says. "Our salads are designed to be mains."

The concept of the restaurant has always been "healthy food with great taste and variety", with influences from the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.