A new restaurant in the capital's central business district that specializes in fare from northern China seeks to slow down mealtimes in the fast-paced city.

In the cold of winter, a pot of stewed food is a family favorite in northern China, as it's warm and flavorful with multiple ingredients and a thick, hearty soup.

Stewing is also one of the most-traditional Chinese cooking methods－after hours of slowly simmering away, the ingredients become easier to digest and absorb, and their rich flavors are released.

Chef Zhao Guangyou spent 500 days visiting almost all of China to find the best ingredients to create a menu for One Meal restaurant, which specializes in stews and traditional Beijing flavors.

The eatery in Beijing's central business district aims to slow down mealtimes in the fast-paced city.

"It's a place for family and friends to sit down together and enjoy one meal as if they are at home, so that the diners can feel relaxed," says Zhao.

Zhao was born in 1974 in Xianyang, Shaanxi province. He graduated from a culinary school in Xi'an in 1993.

"When I was in culinary school, my teacher told me that cooking is actually a comprehensive subject and is more than merely making dishes," says Zhao.

"To cut a fish, you need to learn about anatomy and biology, while the cooking methods actually involve a knowledge of physics and chemistry," he recalls. "It makes me feel proud to be a chef."

After graduation, he served as a personal chef and, later, as an executive chef for a private club.

In 2008, he was named as executive chef of JE Mansion Beijing and, at the same time, he started to learn from Wang Xifu, who is a descendant of an imperial-cuisine family.

"Wang is not only a master chef of imperial cuisine, but also studies the folk customs linked to the food," Zhao says. "Most traditional Beijing snacks are said to originate from empress Dowager Cixi or emperor Qianlong during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), but that's not entirely true."

Wang believes many imperial dishes and traditional Beijing snacks have lost their original flavors, as younger generations of chefs have not really tasted the authentic delicacies. So, he decided to replicate the classic dishes, and find their traditional flavors and cooking methods.

Zhao is learning with Wang and helping him to find the lost flavors, dish by delicious dish.

Deep-fried meatballs are one of the Beijing dishes that Zhao has learned from Wang. Each meatball is made with 30 percent fatty meat and 70 percent lean meat, and the key to cooking them correctly is to control the heat.

"The dish almost vanished in recent years, just because chefs didn't know the right way to make it. Wang, however, saved the dish by finding the authentic method, and now it's on the menus of many Beijing-cuisine restaurants," says Zhao.

Chinese writer Liang Shiqiu (1902-87) once wrote of the dish: "The meat was finely chopped before being fried until its tender inside was coated with a crispy crust. When you take a bite, it will melt in your mouth. There's nobody who won't love it with a bit of pepper and salt."

Tangyoubing (crisp fried dough with brown sugar) is a traditional Beijing snack often seen at breakfast booths on the street. But it's getting harder to find as street food fades away.

Zhao brought the snack to One Meal after learning the cooking method from Wang. "The key is to use flours with low gluten," says Zhao. "He told me the standard of a tangyoubing is that it has to stay crispy even when it's getting cold."

It's his apprentice, Ju Zelin, the executive chef of One Meal, who controls the dishes' quality, and ensures they are served the same way each day.

Bread soaked in fish-head soup is a highlight of the menu. Fish are delivered alive from Qiandao Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, each day. The soup has to be stewed for hours before serving. Each fish head weighs between 1 and 3 kilograms－ideal for a main course at a family gathering.

Stewed abalone and chicken claws is another of the eatery's signature stewed dishes, as both ingredients are abundant with collagen and their flavors infuse each other. Unlike the southern way of stewing, which uses more sugar, Zhao's northern style employs more soy sauce.

Of course, Peking duck is a classic menu item, and Zhao chooses to use 45-day-old Beijing ducks roasted in an oven with jujube wood. Honorable mentions must also go to the stewed chicken and pig's large intestines, pastries and traditional Chinese cheese with raspberry smoothies.

The background music at One Meal is unique－it combines elements of Peking Opera and modern hip-hop. All 47 songs are specially composed for the restaurant by Kunqu Opera performer Chen Jun and HitFM host and DJ Guo Peng.

The open kitchen is another slick addition that adds a sense of interaction between chefs and diners－walking past it is like wandering in a food fair, allowing you to choose your favorite snacks, whether it's tanghulu (sugar-coated hawthorn berries on a stick) or tangyoubing.