Spanning 30 years, TV show cooks up a feeling of nostalgia

In order to master these culinary practices, Huang traveled to South China's Guangdong province several weeks before the start of the shooting, spending most of his time learning cooking skills from a local veteran. For him, the biggest challenge was to conquer his psychological uneasiness, training his hands to adeptly handle the raw meat and innards.

A native of Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, where locals also speak Cantonese as a major dialect, Huang says he was invited by director Ng Gam-yuen, who had cooperated with him in the past, partly because of his innate linguistic advantage.

"I haven't spoken my hometown's dialect for many years, making me feel a bit stressed when working with a group of veteran Hong Kong actors," recalls Huang.

About to turn 48 years old in August, Huang, who started his career as a dancer for a performance troupe in Guangxi, went to Beijing to pursue his artistic dream in 1993. With his acting debut Baobei in Love, a 2004 romantic thriller also starring A-list actress Zhou Xun, Huang shot to fame and has accumulated greater popularity with blockbusters, such as Letter From an Unknown Woman (2005) and Falling Flowers (2011).