The international Chinese restaurant market is expected to reach 3 trillion yuan by 2027. The picture shows roasted dishes in a UK Chinese restaurant. Visual China / Photo

When people accustomed to seeking certainty finally realize that change is the greatest certainty in this world, food industry practitioners have long been aware of this.

For the same dish, customers’ tastes are constantly changing. Dining environment, store color schemes, even lighting intensity, all influence a restaurant’s ability to attract customers.

Especially when they step outside the country, carrying a locally characteristic chicken, goose, or fish to explore the world, the choice between change and consistency is highly challenging.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, by 2025, the total catering revenue in China will reach 5.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%. The market size is huge, and competition is fierce.

The China Catering Brand Going Global Development Report 2026, released by the China Food Industry Research Institute in March, shows that the overseas expansion of catering brands has entered phase 4.0, moving from product exploration to systematic expansion. The international Chinese restaurant market is projected to reach $449.9 billion by 2027, approximately 3 trillion yuan, which is half of the domestic scale.

One of the earliest cuisines to go abroad is Cantonese cuisine. According to “21st Century Business Herald,” in 2023, Guangdong pre-made dishes accounted for 18.3% of the country’s total export value, with footprints across six continents except Antarctica.

Over the past month, Southern Weekend reporters interviewed founders, senior executives, and top chefs of several Guangdong catering brands and food processing companies to explore their choices after going abroad.

“Great rivers produce big fish”

Focusing on salt-baked chicken as a signature dish, Guangdong catering brand “Kexu” has over 80 stores within the province. Around 2025, they gradually expanded to Beijing and Singapore.

On February 6, it was the second day of trial operation at Kexu’s Guangzhou Dongfang Baotai store. At 2:30 p.m., a few tables still had customers. Behind the transparent kitchen glass, a chef was preparing to make the afternoon’s salt-baked chicken.

Huang Jinsong, General Manager of Guangzhou region, told Southern Weekend that salt-baked chicken is made twice daily at 10:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m., until sold out. They do not have a central kitchen; the breeding base is located in Huizhou. Chickens are transported to slaughterhouses at dawn, then delivered to stores around 6 or 7 a.m.

When opening a store in Beijing, they changed the name, replacing the original “Hakka Cuisine” label on the signboard with “Guangdong Intangible Cultural Heritage Salt-Baked Chicken.”

Founder Xu Keping explained to Southern Weekend that Cantonese cuisine, one of the eight major culinary schools, includes Chaoshan, Guangzhou, and Hakka cuisines. As a company deeply rooted in Guangdong, Kexu emphasizes the Hakka label, but when going abroad, it is considered Cantonese cuisine.

“Foreigners may not know what Hakka cuisine is, but they definitely know Guangdong cuisine,” Xu Keping said. “Great rivers produce big fish; big categories produce big brands.”

The craft of salt-baked chicken was listed as a representative project of Guangdong intangible cultural heritage in 2013. Their store’s salt-baked chicken pots and store design highlight this heritage.

However, at their first overseas stop in Singapore, they reverted to the original “Hakka Cuisine” label.

Xu Keping explained that this is because Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the previous two premiers are all Hakka. Among Singapore’s 3.92 million Chinese, 270k are Hakka.

In December 2024, Kexu opened its first store at Changi Airport in Singapore, with queues lasting two hours. To date, Kexu has opened four stores in Singapore.

Kexu’s store at Changi Airport, Singapore. Photo from Dianping

Expanding into larger categories seems to be a consensus among Cantonese food enterprises.

Guangzhou-based Wuzhi Lu Goose, which makes Chaoshan-style marinated goose and Cantonese roasted meats, has been in business for ten years. Co-founder Yao Kailing told Southern Weekend that by 2025, they plan to upgrade their marinated goose stalls into casual dining restaurants and also launch a snack brand.

Currently, besides Guangdong, they have opened several stores in East China. In 2021, their products began exporting to Thailand, and by 2024, they expanded to Malaysia, the UK, and other countries.

“Going abroad, we found that people in other places hear ‘beef balls’ or ‘beef’ and automatically think of Cantonese cuisine, not Chaoshan. Instead of trying to educate consumers about what Chaoshan is, it’s easier to start from what they already know—Guangdong flavors,” Yao Kailing said.

Ingredients raised in Malaysia

“Our vision is to become a representative of Chinese cuisine, and going abroad is inevitable. But it wasn’t supposed to happen so quickly in Singapore,” Xu Keping told Southern Weekend.

Since its founding in 2013, Kexu had been expanding within Guangdong until 2024. The biggest challenge for Cantonese cuisine is ingredients and talent. Ingredients require freshness and high supply chain standards. Chefs must be recruited from Guangdong, with salaries at least 1/3 higher; otherwise, they won’t come.

The essence of a chain is standardized replication. Before the standard system and talent training are fully established, expansion should not go too far.

During a store visit, Huang Jinsong said that salt-baked chicken chefs cannot be developed without three to five years of training.

The process involves washing and drying the chicken, repeatedly applying seasonings, then baking it in salt. Each step has standardized seasoning ratios and cooking times. But individual techniques—seasoning application, heat control—vary among chefs. The weight of chickens also differs. Small differences accumulate, increasing the variables for each chicken.

Xu Keping said that rushing would compromise quality and cause the entire brand to suffer. He prefers to master one place thoroughly—“attack when you can, retreat when you must.”

He said that in Singapore, there was only one Hakka cuisine brand before, and it was not very successful. The various barriers in Singapore’s catering industry make going abroad difficult.

First, ingredient restrictions. Salt-baked chicken uses free-range chickens, which are not recognized as imported products in Singapore, lacking compliant import channels. So, live chickens entering Singapore can only be raised in Malaysia, with slaughtering limited to under 80 days.

Cantonese claypot rice is also hard to operate compliantly because it requires open flame or charcoal fire, which Singapore only permits with

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