'Transparent kitchens' win diners' trust via openness

During peak lunch hour at a busy restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan province, four chefs work in perfect unison, deftly churning out multiple dishes as flames leap from the woks. However, their expertise and execution are not only of interest to the customers waiting for the food, but also to over 50,000 viewers watching them live at work on Douyin, China's short-video platform.

Luoxiaoyang Home-Style Cuisine, which opened its doors in June, has attracted more than 1.7 million followers on Douyin by livestreaming what goes on in its kitchen.

Responding to increasing public concern about food safety, a number of restaurants nationwide have begun livestreaming their kitchen operations — a strategy aimed at both winning diners' trust and boosting visibility through online engagement. The cameras are pointed at the counters where food is prepared, capturing everything from raw ingredients to freshly prepared meals. This move toward greater transparency has garnered considerable praise and positive engagement from online viewers.

The growing interest in "transparent kitchen" livestreams follows a heated online debate sparked by celebrity entrepreneur Luo Yonghao. Last week, Luo criticized domestic restaurant chain Xibei on China's popular social media platform Sina Weibo, alleging that many dishes were premade. His post went viral, prompting public discussion about food safety and kitchen transparency.

Now kitchen livestreams are becoming popular, with viewers on social media platforms posting comments like: "This is how Chinese cooking should be done", and "This is what we call true wok hei (the distinct smoky flavor of stir-fried dishes)". The livestreams also appear to be influencing consumer habits.

For example, Han Wen, a university student in Beijing, said the recent online debate has made him more cautious when ordering food online.

"I only recently started noticing the 'transparent kitchen' feature on apps," he said. "I now look to see if the kitchen is neat and clean before placing an order."

Kitchen livestreams are not exactly new. In March, the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a guideline strengthening food safety supervision, urging platforms and merchants to implement "internet plus transparent kitchen "initiatives and enhance oversight on delivery-only restaurants through public monitoring.

Sun Juanjuan, an associate professor at Hebei Agricultural University and researcher at the Center for Coordination and Innovation of Food Safety Governance, said, "Food safety regulators have actively promoted the 'transparent kitchens' policy in recent years."

"It includes both physical transparency — visible kitchen areas — and digital monitoring via livestreams. As customers have begun focusing on how the food is being prepared, restaurants have shifted focus from price wars to hygiene standards," Sun said.

In recent years, several regions have introduced rules requiring online food delivery businesses to livestream their kitchen operations.

In Zhejiang province, takeaway merchants have been legally obligated to display real-time videos of food being prepared on delivery apps since March 2022.

Shanghai introduced similar regulations in February 2024, encouraging restaurants to adopt "internet plus transparent kitchen" practices and upload footage to their third-party platforms for public oversight, while Changzhou in Jiangsu province followed suit a month later.

To create an immersive viewing experience, some chefs are strapping action cameras to their chests, livestreaming the cooking process from a first-person perspective.

"If customers want to see the kitchen, then we'll just show it," said a chef at Xiaochao Dangjia, a restaurant in Wuhan, Hubei province. The restaurant recently joined the kitchen livestreaming club, as the owners believe that this helps build consumers' trust.

However, some industry insiders worry that the livestreams could become mere "performances".

Zhong Kai, a food safety expert from the China Food Information Center, said the actual impact of livestreaming on food safety supervision might be more about deterrence than regulation.

"Issues such as pesticide residues or cross-contamination are hard to catch via livestreams. Most food safety incidents that have been exposed have been due to snapshots of chefs not wearing masks or hats, or catching glimpses of rats in kitchens," he said.

However, Sun, from Hebei Agricultural University, said: "Implementing 'transparent kitchen' measures in the mass catering sector has always been a regulatory challenge. Now, with public enthusiasm and demand, it can help accelerate implementation across various regions."