News of his visit spread rapidly online and internet users were quick to dub his food selection the “Chairman’s Combo” and suggested Qingfeng offer it as an option.

While the special never reached the menus, Xi’s visit proved very good for business. In the two years that followed, the company increased its number of outlets by more than 70 per cent to 314 at the end of 2015. In August last year, it signed an agreement to open its first overseas store in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan.

Similarly, between 2014 and 2016, the company’s net profit rose almost sixfold to 30.75 million yuan, according to publicly disclosed figures. In the first 11 months of 2017, it booked about 400 million yuan in revenue and 30.84 million yuan in net profit.

Founded in 1948, Qingfeng is one of several state-owned companies that the Beijing government is seeking to reform through private investment. To be considered, would-be investors should be from outside the restaurant sector and have a registered capital of at least 200 million yuan.

Despite its presidential patronage, Qingfeng has not been exempt from controversy over the years.

In October 2015, two of its outlets were ordered to close temporarily after customers found dead insects in their food. A month later, another outlet found itself at the centre of a food safety scandal, though was not forced to close, after customers found small pieces of metal – later found to have been from the stainless steel scrubbers used to clean dishes – in their porridge.

Ironically, Xi told the manager of the shop he visited to always “put food safety first”, according to a report by state-run news website Youth.cn at the time.