THE FRUIT OF HIS LABORS

After five decades, Wang Zhiqiang continues to push the boundaries of traditional Chinese pastry making, Li Yingxue reports.

You could be fooled into thinking you were looking at a plate of fresh fruit. A strawberry, apple, pear, persimmon and carambola, each one invites you to bite into their juicy flesh. However, all the fruits on this plate have one thing in common - they are not what they seem and they all share one ingredient: flour. They are called mianguo, or "flour-based fruits".

Dubbed the "king of pastry", 70-year-old Wang Zhiqiang - who became a pastry chef for Chinese state banquets in his 20s - created mianguo with his apprentices.