Hubei cuisine comes into its own as author and cook captures its essence with photographs.

The steamed dragon roll was invented in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It's said that at that time chefs were ordered to create a dish that was made of meat but didn't look like meat－they solved that challenge by using pork fat, fish meat and lean pork to mix with eggs and flour to make rolls to steam.

The dish is one of the signature dishes of Zhongxiang in Central China's Hubei province, which is 33-year-old freelance photographer Cao Shuai's hometown.

The dragon roll's story is told in Cao's newest e-book, Food Memories.

To celebrate the Year of the Ox, Cao took Spring Festival holiday to create the e-book which recorded 11 signature dishes from his hometown－including such delights as steamed Chinese sausage, cured pork belly, cured fish and pearl meatballs with sticky rice to deep fried stuffed lotus root and stewed pickled chicken. He replicated all the dishes in his apartment in Beijing and wrote down his childhood memories of the delicacies.

"Food can move from place to place. You can put anything in a box and send it, but it loses its context, emotional meaning and significance when it's taken away from its origin," Cao explains.

In 2012, when Cao started his career as a fashion reporter after graduating from the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, he had no interest in cooking or photographing.

"I thought spending time in the kitchen was a waste of time a decade ago, and when I went out on a trip with others, they wouldn't let me take photos for them because I was terrible with cameras then,"Cao recalls.

His interest in cooking started in 2014. As he started to record the food he cooked or ate, his photo skills started to increase as well.

"I was amazed by the lamb my friend cooked for me and realized that homemade dishes can be as good as the ones in restaurants which inspired me to study cooking," he says, adding that he spent most of his income at that time on buying recipe books and ingredients.

"As a fashion reporter, at first my dishes are more focused on presentation than flavor, but gradually I found both aspects are equally important," Cao says.

Cao's friend, Lin Yiying, a professional photographer, enjoys Cao's cooking and always encourages him to take more photos of his dishes.

"He has a good taste in food, and he is quite observant, which makes his photos of food come across in his own style, not commercialized, but with a feeling of warmth," Lin says.

According to Lin, Cao has taken many online and offline photographing courses to improve his photos.

Cao thinks the fashion shows he watched and magazines he read also helped him in improving his appreciation of beauty which was reflected in his food photos.

From 2016 to 2019, Cao was responsible for the marketing operation of a restaurant in Beijing, during which he spent a lot of time in the kitchen to observe how the chef works.

At the end of 2019, Cao decided to quit and become a freelance photographer, focusing on food and still life.

"Running a restaurant was quite exhausting, because you are always busy and have only a little time for yourself, especially on weekends and holidays," Cao recalls. "I like cooking, but during the years operating the restaurant, I had no time for cooking. Usually, the chefs will only need the photo of a complete finished dish to put on the menu, but I like to know the whole process of making the dish," Cao says.

He is now working closely with Zhao Lei, executive chef of the French cuisine restaurant Fudao in Beijing.

"Cao's photos are clean and pure and show the original look of each dish or ingredient, which is also what I pursue in my cooking so that the dish should highlight the original flavor of each ingredient,"Zhao says.

According to Zhao, when he prepares a new menu, he would invite Cao to join all his meetings and discussions.

"Unlike some commercial photos that may lack soul, in Cao's photos, even though it's a still image, you can feel that it records the flow of time on that dish, which I think is quite amazing," Zhao says.

Zhao and Cao are also collaborating to create new ideas on recording food－from the fermenting process of pickled food to the pairing of raw ingredients and accessories.

They recently recorded the growing process of tea fungus as Zhao would like his diners to understand how his dishes are processed before they take a bite.

Zhao thinks it's a new pattern and trend that chefs would have their own long-term regular photographer to work together.

"In this way we spend more time together and we understand each other's ideas. I hope to accumulate more material to let the public know more about chef's work and ideas," Zhao says.

Hometown flavor

Cao thinks food is one important element to enhance one's identity, so he wants to promote Hebei traditional foods.

He stayed in Beijing for Spring Festival but his mother sent him local delicacies to celebrate the holiday.

"From local sausages to rice noodles, both my elder sister in Shenzhen and myself in Beijing received our hometown food from our mom before the Spring Festival. Even though we stay in three places on the Chinese New Year's Eve, we feel like we were together when we are eating the same food," he says.

Cao invited several friends and cooked a 10-course Hubei Spring Festival dinner.

He likes to cook Hubei dishes for his friends or bring them to Hubei-cuisine restaurants.

"People may hear about reganmian (hot noodles with sesame paste) or steamed pearl meat balls, but they don't have a clear vision of Hubei cuisine unlike Hunan cuisine or Sichuan cuisine," Cao says.

"I hope my e-book can show them more about Hubei cuisine and some may even want to try some Hubei food," he says.

"Each city in Hubei province has its own signature food, and I want to visit each place to record them," he says."This work needs someone to do, as a freelance photographer and a former reporter and editor, I feel like I have the duty to do it for my hometown."