[Photo provided to China Daily]

"The picture for bao shen chi du (shorthand for the four most precious ingredients of Cantonese cuisine－abalone, sea cucumber, shark fins and fish maw) is very different from what it was 10 or 20 years ago," Bao says.

"Today people, or at least my people, order them because they actually enjoy them," he says. "In the past, when I was treating my business partners, I ordered them simply to make my dinner look expensive."

Sales of the four seafoods, which he personally sources from Hong Kong every month, represented 30 percent of the bottom line at his restaurants last year.