Despite being one of the most varied, intricate and oldest cuisines in the world, Chinese food in the UK has always suffered a reputation for being a cheap, greasy indulgence. For the majority of people growing up in the UK, the only experience of Chinese food we had was from takeaways on the high street, cooking the same repertoire of heavily Anglicised Cantonese dishes that strayed ever further from the food actually eaten and cooked in China.

Thankfully, that’s beginning to change. Food is now something we want to talk and learn about, and when it comes to international cuisines, catchall terms such as ‘Chinese’ are slowly becoming broken down into more specific regions and cooking styles. But along with this increased interest in authenticity and looking to the traditions of the past, there’s also a new wave of chefs innovating and taking Chinese food forward. Larkin Cen is one of them.

Growing up in a Chinese takeaway in Cardiff meant Larkin was always surrounded by food, and both his grandad and mother were chefs. ‘I guess by being in that environment all the time I absorbed something, although I was never taught how to cook,’ he says. ‘I was always pushed down the academic route, and I qualified as a lawyer and did that for six years, but I’d always wanted to set up a restaurant business even before that. I felt Chinese food was underrepresented, with lots of negative connotations and a complete lack of understanding when it comes to the skill involved. Even a basic Chinese takeaway takes a tremendous amount of skill to operate, but no one saw the value in it and wrote it off as a cheap cuisine.’

Whilst working as a lawyer Larkin entered Masterchef in 2012, in the hope it would open doors into the restaurant world. He got through to the finals, and shortly afterwards launched Hokkei, a premium, delivery-only Chinese takeaway business. ‘It was too much too soon – I didn’t really have the experience to make it work properly from a business point of view, so it closed within the year,’ he explains. ‘After that I ran a restaurant at The Celtic Manor, but I really wanted to set up something of my own in Bristol. I actually emailed Josh Eggleton and he helped me out with the location for Woky Ko Cargo – it was still expensive to set up but the benefit was a short lease, which made total sense for what I wanted to do.

‘It took a while to get Cargo launched because we barely had enough money at the beginning to stay afloat,’ adds Larkin. ‘Luckily I had two classically trained Chinese chefs helping me, which meant we could really focus on and celebrate wok-based cooking at the restaurant. Woky Ko Cargo’s success spawned our other places in Bristol, so we were able to open a market stall at St Nicks, a second fast-casual site at Cargo 2 and a Cantonese rotisserie restaurant called Jìng Xū on Queen’s Road in Clifton. A lot of the Chinese students at Bristol Uni come from mainland China and I was told Cantonese rotisserie would be too bland for them, but it’s been a real success so far.’