Care is the most important ingredient a meal can have, Astephen believes, and the folks at the Hutong know that foreign dishes can use this secret sauce too. Rare is the person who did not come abroad to expand their tastes, so people shouldn't be intimidated by exotic dishes; "do try this at home" is The Hutong's motto.

The Hutong is the brainchild of Mark Thirlwall and Stacey Shine who met while working for Australia's Intrepid Travel. The Hutong is not a cooking school, although it runs 10 classes a week in its Global Kitchen and Chinese Kitchen series; it is not a health clinic although one division of it called the Straight Bamboo counsels and educates in Traditional Chinese Medicine; it is not an art studio or a gym but offers painting and taichi classes; it is not a tearoom although its Tea Journeys tastings are very popular; it is not a travel service, but organizes trips; it is not an organizational consulting service but corporations are trying out their cooking competitions as team-building exercises; it is not a fund-raising entity but hosts one charity event a month and has so far helped raise over RMB 100,000 for good causes in China. You'd think these people didn't have a grip on their identity, but that's not the case. The threads that run through this shape-shifting business are Chinese-ness and cultural bridges… and perhaps there is this core instinct that the way to a culture's heart is through its stomach.

This learning base also evolved carefully into the shoes it fills now. The word hutong is actually two words with different accents and different meanings in Chinese: one refers to "connecting cultures," the other is a traditional Beijing alleyway. The Hutong derives its name from the first, but everyone associates it automatically with the second, because of its location in one of Beijing's ancient residential pockets. The Hutong started as a Hong Kong registered company offering intercultural training to people in the Tourism Industry in China's mainland. As its reputation and network of contacts grew, it proceeded to offer a wider range of services, including educational tours and the organization of Chinese cultural programs and events. As tour leaders, Thirlwall and Shine were able to take a long drink of what China had to offer travelers, but also got extensive experience working with people and understanding their needs and expectations. The partners sought staff who reflected their own values: passionate and experienced chefs who would make the best teachers – meaning sensitive to what different people wanted to get out of a class, and able to adapt their teaching style accordingly instead of just following a recipe.

Adjusting to the customer is critical, as Hutong clients may be experienced cooks seeking to expand their culinary knowledge, newcomers seeking a structured social activity, or transplants trying to access Chinese culture through something more complicated than souvenir buying. A typical apron-bedecked class of strangers assembled from open ads in the local rags might have local Chinese, foreigners on a short trip, mothers and daughters, recently arrived singles, and people who have lived in the capital for months or years. A few minutes into perennially popular classes like noodle or dumpling-making, they are chatting like old friends around The Hutong's long table. Sometimes whole parties of people will book a private class in Malasian, Chinese, Thai or subset cuisines like Sichuan. The chefs teach here but have "day jobs" in the business, and enjoy excellent reputations in their specialties. The Hutong is going corporate as well, with cooking competitions that are being used as team-building exercises that initially drew the attention of big international organizations but seem to be getting a reputation with Chinese firms as well. Conducting school excursions are yet another line of business, one that organizes cultural appreciation as early in an expat's life as possible.

Like American Steak and Eggs, there is not even a whiff of desperation for profits in the air at The Hutong; it is clearly a labor of love for all involved. The axis it spins on is the promise the friends and owners made to each other at the outset – that they were friends first, business partners second. Shine teaches in an international school; Thirlwall has embarked on an "Old World" venture – taking his Tea Journey products to Europe. He still gives the tea workshops famous for his yarn-spinning, that lead you, by the ear and the palate, all across China's vast territory; he added real trips too, on bicycles, through Yunnan's tea plantations. Their manager Morgan O'Hara likely embodies the whole operation in that he walks an interesting tightrope lightly but steadily between the laid-back style people seem to prefer for their recreational activities, and the attentive professionalism that services like this must maintain to be competitive.

The setting provides much of The Hutong's cache. There are only 500 hutongs, or Beijing alleyway neighborhoods left in Beijing, so this authentic kind of real estate is highly desirable for a cultural education venture. The premises are estimated to be many 100's of years old, but due to certain revolutions, official records are a bit patchy. It's long rooms around the central courtyard, and its charming roof garden, are busy hosting cultural appreciation activities every day of the week. And whether teacher or student, the hands-on approach is what characterizes their form of education. Tea tasting for example is not just about tasting and appreciating, but brewing the tea and absorbing the history entailed in every cup. Chefs have stories about the dishes, work with local and seasonal foods, and try hard to find substitute ingredients that make the feasts movable. People leave not just sated, but informed and motivated as well. But even The Hutong has one eye on the future and a determination to keep up the momentum; "We are beginning to realize how we are limited by our space," O'Hara confesses, alluding to that endless stretch of opportunities offered in today's China.