TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The founder of global Taiwan restaurant chain Din Tai Fung, Yang Bing-yi (楊秉彜), passed away at the age of 96, reports said Saturday (March 25).

The restaurant became synonymous with dumplings and small steamed buns with 18 folds or xiaolongbao, opening outlets in 11 countries ranging from Japan and the United States to Indonesia and the United Kingdom. Hollywood star Tom Cruise was invited to its Taipei 101 restaurant to learn how to make the xiaolongbao during a visit to Taiwan to promote a movie in 2013.

Yang was born in the Chinese province of Shanxi in 1927, and made his way on a ship from Shanghai to Taiwan during the civil war in 1948, UDN reported. He founded a cooking oil business 10 years later, but the advent of salad oil in metal tins in 1972 forced him into a radical change of course.

Yang and his wife followed the advice of a businessman and devoted half of their cooking oil store on Xinyi Road to selling steamed buns. The food was so successful that they decided to abandon the cooking oil business for good.

His relatives did not mention the date and cause of death, but said the funeral arrangements would be low key.