Despite China having a rich diversity of cuisine, it hasn't stopped chefs coming from further afield to offer their native specialties to the locals. Xu Wenwen meets three foreign chefs doing just that.

What do most expats do for a living in China? The answers typically are foreign language teachers, engineers and, of course, chefs and cooks.

To be a cook in a country known for its delicious variety of foods sounds challenging, but is also interesting as the country has a long tradition of cuisine, and Chinese people are always comfortable with foreign cultures.

Cooks from other countries come to China, adding their own particular flavor to Chinese cuisine, some of them choosing to settle and work in Hangzhou, a scenic city with less foreigners than bustling metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai.

So how is it going for them? Do they adhere to making authentic food from their native countries or do they localize their cuisine? Do they have difficulties in communicating with co-workers and customers? Shanghai Daily asks three experienced chefs from abroad.

American food critic

Specialties: Rueben sandwich, Philly cheese steak, dessert

Chef and food critic Rueben Marley is a man enthusiastic about cookery. "I'll be mad at myself if I don't make food nice," he says.

His affection for cooking has made him what he is today.

More than 10 years ago, his strong interest in cooking drove him to quit his office job and study at the American Culinary Federation, the premier professional chefs' organization in the United States. There he completed a three-year apprenticeship program and was one of the few successful graduates - in his class, only nine of the total 30 students graduated.

During his apprenticeship, he worked 14 hours a day in a Japanese sushi restaurant, taking him from a very low level to the chef.

At Vineyard Café at 173 Yugu Road where he serves now, he asks the manager and waiters to observe people's responses after they have tasted his food, so he can learn and improve.

But as their observations reveal, local people older than 35 are usually conservative toward food they have seldom tried, while people under 25 are curious about foreign cuisine.

Marley says he understands why some are conservative to Western food, which is similar to how foreigners in China treat stinky tofu and chicken feet. Therefore, Marley prepares some fusion dishes to cater for his main customers who are about 30 to 35 years old.

For example, he puts vegetables that Chinese mostly use for cooking, such as amaranth, into salad and sprinkles slices of Jinhua Ham, a dry-cured ham named after Jinhua City in Zhejiang Province, on salad.

He braises lotus root, a Hangzhou specialty, with red wine, and with perfect timing, the lotus root becomes crunchy inside but tender outside.

"My priority is to make food nice," he says, "and taking something ordinary and making it memorable is cool."

Besides his work, Marley loves to tell people more about food, so he shares videos of his cooking, comments on food and introductions to restaurants on his blog [blog.sina.com.cn/ruebenmarley].

The French baker

Specialties: Croissants, baguette, chocolate

Chef Louis Ravaud from France can not only make nice French bakery items and cuisine but also Chinese dishes, since he served as a chef for five years for a female Chinese writer living in France.

Six years ago, Ravaud, with the daughter of the writer as his partner, came to Hangzhou to develop a business. They run two cafes in the city, one at 80 Wen'er Road W, and the other in the Alliance Francaise at 198 Jiaogong Road.

In these eateries, coffee, chocolate, bakery items, French cuisine and even some Chinese fast food are all available.

"I need to make my food half local, otherwise local customers won't come next time," he says.

Besides offering some Chinese fast food, he uses local food ingredients in his traditional French cuisine and baking.

For example, he adds osmanthus sugar, a sweet-scented Hangzhou specialty usually used in desserts, to chocolates, leading to a fragrant and sweet "osmanthus chocolate."

He has also made an effort to fit in with locals by learning the Chinese language - and even the Hangzhou dialect.

"Learning the local language helps me know customers' demands, instruct my cook and staff, and makes my business partner trust me more," Ravaud says.

His attempts to become localized and sophisticated cooking have won him fans. When he was running a cafe in Xiasha District on the outskirts of Hangzhou, people drove from the urban area to buy from his bakery, and when the store closed in 2008 because of financial crisis, customers followed him to his new store in the Alliance Francaise.

The Thai chef

Specialties: Grilled fish with tamarind; forest salad; stir-fried noodles

Although the taste of local cuisine is mild and light, Adin Sisun, chef at Mango Thai Restaurant at 18 Baishaquan, Shuguang Road persists to make authentic Thai food, which is spicy, sour, sweet and salty.

Sisun's dishes incorporate much stronger flavors than average Thai cuisine because they are the specialty of his hometown in northeast Thailand.

On many occasions the chef has to refuse the requests of customers asking for their dishes to be "not that hot" or "not hot at all."

"You choose Thai food, you need to know it is hot," he insists.

Sisun used to be a chef in a five-star hotel in Shanghai for around four years, but he enjoys greater freedom in Mango Thai, as in the small restaurant, his plenitude of ideas about cooking can be exerted.

"I make my own dishes," he says, explaining he has created some new Thai-style dishes, such as barbecue vegetables (Thai cuisine is mostly barbecue meat) and mushroom salad, which is rare in Thai cuisine.

Sisun has a lot of fans in real life and on weibo (Chinese equivalent of Twitter), because of his excellent cooking skills coupled with his good-looking appearance.

Many women visit the restaurant especially to see the handsome chef and have food cooked by him, and he even sometimes receives anonymous flowers.

To add to his talents, Sisun speaks four languages - English, Chinese, French and his mother tongue - as he studied language in Jiao Tong University in Shanghai for four years.

He could have been a journalist or a translator after graduation, but eventually he went for chef training and became a chef.

"I found I might be exhausted in other things, but am always happy when cooking," he explains. "I believe a good mood helps me make nice dishes, and a good mood can be passed on to customers."