Shanghainese Cuisine: Where in the World is it?
With contributions from Alice Huang.
The much-looked forward release of the third edition of the MICHELIN Guide Shanghai is upon us. FOOD+ journal reflects on the launch of the first edition of this Guide and the fortune of Shanghainese cuisine three years on.
It was a Wednesday afternoon two years ago. My phone was buzzing non-stop. Puzzled friends, some upset, but many were sad, rang to ask: how come the MICHELIN Guide had not acknowledged the Shanghainese cuisine? It was the day of the inaugural launch of the MICHELIN Guide for Shanghai, the first of such guide ever to be published in mainland China.
I was Director of the MICHELIN Maps and Guides for China at the time, and it had taken me three years to convince colleagues that extending the footprint of the world-famous guide in China (eight years after its entry into Hong Kong and Macau) would help propel Chinese cuisines onto the international map of fine dining. Importantly, I managed to convince colleagues that Shanghai is ready for the guide. In the 10 years that I was working in the city, I saw for myself the flourishing dining scene, the elevation of standards in the hospitality industry, the congregation of internationally renowned chefs, the changes in people’s mindset and eating habits, the sophistication of their choices and their readiness to spend more money to experience crafted and elaborated food.
When the selection was finally published on 21 September, 2016, the first and only 3-star restaurant in the Shanghai guide was Tang Court in Langham Hotel in Xintiandi, a Cantonese cuisine restaurant. And although the selection had quite a few Shanghainese restaurants in the 2-star, 1-star and Bib Gourmand (good food at moderate prices) categories, my friends were discontented, many did not even notice, and they were dismayed.
I had to explain to my disappointed friends that the MICHELIN Guide reflects the dining scene of a city at one given moment and it has no bias towards any cuisine. The Chinese and international inspectors are full-time employees of the company who visit restaurants anonymously and always pay their bills. I also reminded my Shanghainese friends that on all the different occasions we were going out for dinner, they barely suggested or requested to go to Shanghainese restaurants. And when I asked them which restaurant in their view was the best Shanghainese food in town that’s “exceptional and worth a special journey” (as per the definition of a Michelin 3-star), they found it hard to answer, and most said the best Shanghainese cuisine is “my mother’s cooking”. The MICHELIN Guide does not rate mothers’ cooking.
In truth, I am intrigued by the situation myself.
Shanghai cuisine has a history of more than 400 years, traditionally called Benbang cuisine (本帮菜) which means local cuisine, it originated in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Some of my favourite dishes are Tofu with Crab Meat (蟹粉豆腐) and Lion’s Heads (紅燒獅子頭). Last year, there were two 3-star restaurants in the MICHELIN Guide for Shanghai, but neither were from the Shanghainese cuisine. So three years on since my friends’ deeply despondent reaction, I’m still wondering why Shanghainese cuisine has not seemed to score well on the fine dining scale.
I tried to picture the menu at family dinners when the Soong sisters gathered together with H. H. Kung (孔祥熙) and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) at one of their mansions in the then French Concession. I fantasised what the chef of someone famous like the mob boss, Du Yuesheng (杜月笙), would concoct as a meal for Du and his four wives. Might these meals be exceptional and worth a special journey to attend?
Perhaps the reason for not reaching the top table has something to do with the cuisine being traditionally a home-cooked cuisine. Or maybe it is because it has an origin in giving hard-working labourers energy to do heavy jobs, and the dishes tend to have a lot of soy sauce and sugar, hence, it is not considered refined. Or maybe something got lost in the generations of transmission, evolution and innovation.
Well, it turns out that the reason would be quite different from my expectation. In the next piece, I will be sharing the thoughts of Professor Eddie Zhou, Associate Professor and Doctor of History at Zhejiang Gongshang University who I was fortunate to have to help enlighten me. But if you can’t wait till the next article, here’s a clue: it seems that after all, neither General Chiang nor mob boss Du were having top-notch dinners with Shanghainese cuisine — more likely, they were enjoying Zhejiang or Huaiyang cuisine, or Cantonese cuisine, for that matter.
People’s Vote: FOOD+ journal invites you to be your own judge and submit names of Shanghainese cuisine restaurants in Shanghai to which you would award 3 stars. Please send your submission here along with the address of the restaurant and a brief explanation of your choice by 25 September. We will publish all submissions received.
If you are curious about the future of restaurant guides, read the latest from the Book of the Future of Restaurant Guides and Rankings:
