Spice and Fire Through a Michelin Lens: What’s the Real Difference Between a 120-Kuai Hole-in-the-Wall and a 2,000-Kuai Star Restaurant?
[ The Other Eye ]
I like to step out of my comfort zone and look at things.
I’ve been writing food reviews all along,
so I couldn’t afford a fear of spicy food.
I spent half a month learning to appreciate heat.
Privately, I think the unprecedented speed of Chinese cuisine’s development in recent years
is also tied to chefs and restaurant investors ‘going out’.
After looking beyond and coming back,
if it’s only about learning,
modern kitchen technology and talent aren’t hard.
Making original flavors and culture evolve further—
that’s what I think is the real challenge.
The Shanghai list is pretty much unchanged from last year.
But I think it could be a bit more Chinese!
Honestly, when it comes to the high stars, there’s not much surprise in today’s list.
UV’s three Michelin stars are rock solid.
Two restaurants were promoted: DA VITTORIO SHANGHAI is the Asian outpost of a veteran Italian national treasure, and Bao Li Xuan is refined Cantonese cuisine bathed in Bulgari’s glow. These two moving up again is only to be expected, and they completely fit Western aesthetics.
If I have to pick highlights, the one-star list welcomes four new little kings: Meet The Bund, Tea Culture, Canton Table, and Ren He Guan.
Meet The Bund serves Fujian cuisine; owner Wu Rong is a restaurant business prodigy, with both creativity and guts in equal measure. Head chef Chen Zhiping is a post-90, and this time he also received the ‘Young Chef Award’—one of two new awards Michelin introduced. The other, the ‘Michelin Service Award,’ went to Wang Zhenxiang, head chef at Ji Pin Court.
It’s worth noting Tea Culture’s boss Tian Ke has been pouring his heart into it. This year’s dishes have taken a leap in both flavor and presentation, a success inseparable from his mentor, Huaiyang cuisine master Hou Xinqing.
2021 Shanghai Michelin Full List
Three Michelin Stars
Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet
Two Michelin Stars
Canton 8 (Runan Street)
Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine (Huangpu)
Ji Pin Court
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana
8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana Executive Chef Riccardo La Perna
Taian Table
Taian Table Executive Chef Stefan Stiller
Xin Rong Ji (Nanyang Road)
YongFoo Élite
Bao Li Xuan
Da Vittorio
One Michelin Star
Amazing Chinese Cuisine (Changning)
Amazing Chinese Cuisine Executive Chef Du Jianqing
Cheng Long Hang (Huangpu)
Da Dong (Xuhui)
Da Dong Sea Cucumber (Jingan)
Fu He Hui
Il Ristorante - Niko Romito
Jade Mansion
Jean Georges
Jin Xuan
Lao Zheng Xing (Huangpu)
Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire
Le Patio & La Famille (Huangpu)
Lei Garden (Pudong)
Lei Garden (Xuhui)
Maison Lameloise
Ming Court
Moose (Changning)
Moose (Pudong)
Phénix
Seventh Son (Jingan)
Shang-High Cuisine
Sir Elly’s
T’ang Court
Xin Rong Ji (West Nanjing Road)
Yi Long Court
Yong Fu
Yong Yi Ting
Yu Zhi Lan
Canton Table
Meet The Bund
Ren He Guan (Zhaojiabang Road)
Tea Culture (East Beijing Road)
Bib Gourmand
A Niang Mian
Da Hu Chun (Middle Sichuan Road)
Four Seasons
Gong De Lin (Jingan)
Hai Jin Zi (Jinxian Road)
Hao Sheng
Jesse
Lan Ting
Lan Xin (Jinxian Road)
Lu Bo Lang
Mao Long
Mi Thai (Anfu Road)
Nanxiang Steamed Bun (City God Temple)
Rong Cuisine (Huangpu)
Rongshu Noodle Soup with Yellow Croaker
Tandoor (already closed)
Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop (Pudong)
Yangzhou Fan Dian (Huangpu)
Ye Olde Station (Xuhui)
Yong Fu Mini
When it comes to the overall Michelin landscape for Chinese cuisine, Xin Rong Ji’s Taizhou fare and Da Dong’s innovative Yijingwei cuisine are still the big winners. After them come Huaiyang, Chaozhou, Sichuan, Shanghai local, Ningbo, and high-end vegetarian—but look closely, they’re all lumped together as ‘one star’ in a blanket sweep.
Of course, quite a few famous chefs in the business feel the 2020 achievements of Yong Fu, Amazing Chinese Cuisine, and Fu He Hui were hard done by. Famous chef Shuai Xiaojian says, it’s like how Chinese people look at Black people—they all look the same.
Thankfully, we have plenty of Chinese restaurants around us doing something different, persisting with the Chinese idea of ‘harmony without uniformity’.
Making Chinese food expensive is a case of wolves before and tigers behind.
Let’s start with spice!
Most Sichuanese would agree, the best food in Chengdu is found in hole-in-the-wall joints. So making a 2,000 RMB per head menu is something Chengdu people naturally reject, and for the Michelin guide, appreciating ‘authentic Chinese flavors’ also takes a process.
Just like me: before eating Sichuan food extensively, I didn’t realize I knew nothing about spicy flavor.
I’m sure it was meant to be. Last month, the ‘Table Like God’ team and I, together with the crew from Hong Gong Guan, went to Sichuan and Chongqing. It was in that half month that I forced my palate to make a U-turn, and I could finally appreciate it from a place of understanding!
I went to Yu Zhi Lan in Chengdu, the only Sichuan restaurant to make the Michelin list, and Yu Zhi Lan in Shanghai also held its one star this year. The Chengdu shop is run by founder Lan Guijun. He says, ‘Cooking with soup, the more you use it, the more expensive it gets.’
Chinese people say that opera depends on the tune, a chef depends on the stock, every restaurant and everyone says this. ‘Remember to turn off the music; very few can sing well.’ Master Lan says.
Yu Zhi Lan’s helmsman, Chef Lan Guijun (left)
Yu Zhi Lan was our first stop in Chengdu, a pilgrimage to the very source of Chengdu flavor. Chef Lan, with his long career, believes the core of Chengdu cuisine is inclusiveness. Outsiders usually think it’s just ‘spicy’, but at Yu Zhi Lan you can taste the shifts of high mountains and flowing streams.
‘The best and most complete Sichuan cuisine is one-third spicy and two-thirds not. Spice is for pleasure, spiciness is art, numbingness is sensation. Overturn what’s before, understand with feeling, the true essence of food comes first. Cooking with soup, expressing national thought, the local people’s favorite flavors come last, unfolding one by one.’ I came from a non-spicy region to spicy land, and not only did my tongue suffer food shock, but my mind as well. I was born south of the Yangtze, where seafood and mild meat tastes dominate, the real taste is pure lightness. Arriving in Shu, the anticipation of heat put me off, but Yu Zhi Lan’s structure and blending methods showed me a completely different ‘spice universe’.
Homemade fruit sauce and ice jelly · Sweet potato cake
The pre-dessert at the start acts as a cushion; eat the peanuts first, pair with sweet potato cakes. The strawberry sauce and chili powder are all Chef Lan’s own making.
Chef Lan is also resigned to Sichuan food’s ‘national psychological price point’: ‘We all go abroad to eat Michelin too; if you find you can’t eat it, you just change friends and keep eating, still paying the bill. When you have good credit buying ingredients, suppliers give you good stuff. The best goes to you, that’s your credit. No bargaining, if you can afford the price, they give you the best.’
The sublime beauty of two pieces of eel requires the essence of the original juices of two eels here at Chef Lan’s. I share Chef Lan’s sentiment that many cooks today are not real culinary masters, because so much of Chinese cuisine involves skills the diner doesn’t see, yet the Dao of flavor is unmistakably tasted. I secretly felt blessed that my first bowl of hot-and-sour rice noodles in Chengdu was a top-tier, authentic path.
Chef Lan personally explains every dish: ‘The earlier cold dishes play three roles: go with wine, whet the appetite, and bridge courses. Appetizing flavors are richer; bridging is like the clown after the circus ends.’
Chef Lan is used to explaining cooking through the philosophy of music.
In Chinese cooking, making soup is the hardest part. Fixing a dish based on ingredient hierarchy is how every culture grades food as noble or humble. The master said, ‘Japanese cuisine uses a few fish and some beef; Europeans focus on three main ingredients. Chinese are the most complex—mountain treasures, sea treasures, and so on, with differences between north and south. It’s just a culture’s reverence for them, representing local flavor. It’s a chef’s balanced application of life’s savors, making dishes according to concept. Adding one flavor to another, harmonizing one with another, steaming one with another, subtracting one from another—returning to nature.’
‘During the cold dishes’ appetizing and wine-pairing process, there are three flavors in the world: the flavor of nature, the flavor of fermentation (cheese, red wine, white wine, ham, sausage, etc.), and the flavor of harmony. The three flavors are expressed through the food. Cold dishes are the flavor of harmony, harmony > fermentation > nature. Step by step, after the cold comes hot. Cold dishes are the prelude to a symphony, adding flavor upon flavor, climbing step by step, then descending step by step, returning to nature.’
Appetizers: (Fish Every Year)
Original Pickled Pepper Chicken Feet, Burnt Green Pepper with Century Egg, Taste of Nature, Sauced Crispy Cashews, Red-braised Beef Shank
In 1983, Chef Lan learned traditional Sichuan cuisine at a cooking technical school, and he was the top student in both theory and practice. At school, he learned tradition. By age 27, he had his own thinking and worldly ways. ‘At 40, I realized it was wrong. Sichuan cuisine is an art, numbness is a sensation, spiciness has many forms. I improve every day, invisible to others, only you know it in your heart. After four years at Yu Zhi Lan, I overturned everything. Our dishes are based on understanding of food, understanding of one’s own time during the day, and changing understanding of taste. You can’t handle mala tang in the morning, but it’s different at noon—cook according to feeling, that is the soul.’
Chef Lan’s cold dishes differ from the European style; he says we can’t change our national habits. A good cold dish, an even better one that harmonizes all five tastes—that is Sichuan’s true flavor. ‘What I’m researching now is the true taste of food. Romance of the Three Kingdoms tells of human nature, Journey to the West tells of team management. Tang Seng represents patience and wisdom. In cooking, we must learn patience, understanding, calmness, and sincerity. First you need wisdom, then understanding. What is understanding? Getting things aligned is understanding. Then you must be sincere, and during sincerity you must not be disturbed by outside interference—that is calmness. What matters most is the person doing the work, just like when you make a film, the soul is crucial.’
Red Oil Water Bamboo Shoots, Rice Pepper Wood Ear, Tea Tree Mushroom and Dried Asparagus
Chef Lan told me to eat a little cold food, starting from the lightest. ‘Century egg is an intangible cultural heritage of Sichuan; after cleansing the palate, eating it is great. The three small dishes in the middle go together; they’re called ‘Step by Step Rise’—you need two people to rise together.’
NOMA’s head chef (number one in the world) has also come to Yu Zhi Lan. Chef Lan says you need to speak a universal culinary language, explaining Chinese flavor in global terms, using life philosophy, in order to be understood. ‘The richest flavors in the world are in Sichuan. Sichuan is a city of immigrants, it includes, it accepts, it has its own style. Spicy, numbing, sour, sweet—that’s an idiom, colorful, describing your life.’
Lobster with Five-Color Noodles (Strange-Flavor Sauce)
‘The lobster dish cannot be spicy; earlier you had cold dishes. If you taste numbing, your mouth won’t recover for half an hour. For this dish, toss it well. The five-color noodles are all made from fruit and vegetables, no essences or colorings. Only toss with the strange-flavor sauce to eat; it’s the flavor of harmony.’ The lobster on the side is sour, sweet, salty, and mildly spicy, made with lobster broth, very rich; the vinegar is Zhenjiang aromatic vinegar. I tasted fruit notes, very fragrant.
‘85% of the guests who come here are influential people. They ask me to make things as simple as possible, no additives, naturally plated. We are gentle rain and soft wind. No need for gaudy decoration. They don’t like that. They like nature because they’ve seen everything; their car trunks are full of world-famous brands. They only know good or bad when they taste it. This is table marketing, not hard selling. Build the inner quality; when they have important guests, they’ll come.’
Intermezzo: A Western Sichuan Specialty—Truffle and Cordyceps Golden-Thread Noodles (Premium Clear Broth, Pure Handmade Noodles)
‘After the cold dishes, we go to hot dishes. The cold is the symphony’s prelude; the intermezzo can feature the golden-thread noodles.’ Chef Lan said the palate cleanse needs to happen twice, because the preceding flavors of harmony completely coat the mouth. What we eat first is the soup’s natural flavor of ingredients. The arriving dish is Sichuan’s famous kaishui baicai clear soup, with truffles from Panzhihua, cordyceps from Nagqu in Tibet, and cabbage from the snowy mountains. ‘Chengdu cabbage won’t work; Sichuan is a high mountain basin, too hot.’ Chef Lan added.
You must cleanse the palate and smell the fragrance; use clear tea to cleanse. Eating noodles also has rules: you can’t drink alcohol first then eat noodles, and only when your mouth has no residual flavors can the soup give its infinite nuance. Chef Lan taught me to first inhale the aroma and sip a little soup, exhaling through the nose. The stock is infused with conpoy to rinse the mouth, very umami; the most traditional method leaves a slight sour finish.
The kaishui baicai clear soup is Sichuan’s best soup. In drinking it, there’s a weighty texture. ‘Food’s true essence is the priority. If you stew chicken soup with too much salt, it’s not good. I use very little salt; between 0.1 and 0.2 is the optimal salinity.’
Dujiangyan Sturgeon Caviar (Large Portion) and Shrimp Jelly (Original Creation)
The next dish is shrimp jelly. Caviar is the taste of fermentation; the shrimp jelly is the taste of nature. This dish comes from Huaiyang cuisine. Sichuan is a land of migrants, so it integrated. ‘In Huaiyang cuisine it’s called shrimp spicy soup, set with pig’s trotter aspic, hence this form. Making this shrimp jelly takes five hours. Prepared the day before, kept in a 0-4°C fridge, slowly. If the temperature is too low and it turns to ice, it’s no good. So as you eat, you get the flavor of sea urchin. Eat the shrimp jelly first, then add the caviar. The caviar is from Dujiangyan; if it were Iranian or Russian, it would be unbearably salty. There’s an order: start with the sweet peas and caviar section.’
At Yu Zhi Lan, nothing with essences or colorings is used. The cake underneath is a famous Sichuan hollow pastry. Traditionally made with lard, but many now don’t like it, so Chef Lan uses olive oil. You’ll sense the natural sweetness of the peas and the delicate fragrance of the caviar.
‘Sweet and salty means finding saltiness within sweetness, not sweetness within saltiness.’ I agree with Chef Lan that deliciousness comes from sweetness. This season’s shrimp jelly is the best, sweet with a hint of salty, not salty with sweet. But Chef Lan said not to use sweet shrimp because they’re too sweet. The vegetables at the end are to cleanse the palate.
The tableware was designed by Chef Lan in Jingdezhen based on his dishes. In 2007, he quit his director of F&B job, closed his hotel, and went to Jingdezhen to study ceramics. This plate resembles a traditional Chinese desk painting, entirely handmade in-glaze color. In-glaze color means glazing first, then painting, then firing under high pressure.
When the next course of stewed wild fish maw arrived, I let out a ‘Wow—’ first for the vessel. I asked Chef Lan why he designed it this way. He said, ‘The best marketing draws the eye. You’ve already made a sound, so marketing has succeeded. This is for keeping warm, a Ming-dynasty insulated vessel, not a foreign one. Because here in winter it’s hard to keep food warm, there’s no underfloor heating, your feet get cold. This is Chinese, once exported to Japan. Originally, homes used earthenware or iron. Why a screen on the table? To smooth everything over. Nobility and high officials must maintain proper dining deportment. In my restaurant, the seats are a little higher, so you slightly bow your head when eating—good dining manners.’
Fresh Matsutake Stewed with Wild Fish Maw
Chef Lan said fish maw needs original flavor, so double-steam it; direct fire burns it easily. This is wild fish maw stewed with matsutake, using good chicken broth. But the broth mustn’t overpower the matsutake. Drink the soup first, then eat the fish maw and broth together.
The ‘hat’ on the vessel was added by Chef Lan, fully glazed. He said the Shanghai Yu Zhi Lan spent 1.3 million RMB on tableware for just 20 seats. In 2007, he spent over 600,000 on it—enough to buy an apartment in downtown Chengdu back then. But the tableware is still in style after ten years; the only hassle is storage.
Pan-Fried Morels with Wagyu
‘The world’s best morels are at the Sichuan-Gansu border, sterilized with ozone then high-temperature.’ Scattered on the plate is green Sichuan pepper powder. I smelled the morels, beef, and pepper, a fragrance that soothes the heart. The flavors don’t suppress each other but achieve balance. On the other side is soybean flour with peanut powder. Chef Lan said not to add chili at first; once chili is added, the aroma and sweetness change.
‘I put a lot of thought into seasoning this. The morels must not be overpowered by wagyu, and wagyu mustn’t crush the morels. If you use porcini or shiitake, it’s fake—those flavors dominate everything. Finally, a hint of Sichuan pepper—that’s Sichuan cuisine. The beef can’t be Chinese beef, which has a strong gamey taste; you can only use ribeye or sirloin. Here, the most authentic part is the pepper. Real Sichuan food isn’t really chili, it’s Sichuan peppercorn. Chili originated from Mexico. Chew slowly to taste the layers, get the mushroom fragrance, give it a try.’
Sun-Dried Original Flavor Premium Yoshihama Abalone (No Flavor Enhancers, 20-Head Dried Abalone)
I was about to talk about abalone with a molten center, but Chef Lan said you could talk about that in the 1930s and 40s, not now. With modern technology, abalone can grow to one and a half jin in five years. You want it soft, tender, silky. ‘Like the difference between wild and farmed fish, it matters whether the abalone ate seaweed or feed in the ocean, and whether it was raised in a cage or free in the sea. After that comes processing. The old molten center came from boiling in 90°C water until the center reached 60°C, then removing it to sit. That’s how a soft center formed. Not anymore. Times change, some people won’t accept it. Now, a bit of softness in the center is enough.’
Chef Lan’s creation is ‘original flavor premium abalone.’ He explains it this way: there are three tastes in cooked abalone—sashimi abalone should taste naturally sweet; stewed, it should have a meaty aroma; dried abalone is like chicken meat—raw, it smells bloody, cooked, it’s meaty fragrance. Air-dried chicken loses its meaty scent and becomes a fermented flavor. Whatever flavor you taste, you can trace it back to the ingredient.
For truly original-flavor abalone, Europeans use red wine, Japanese use sake, China’s coastal regions use jiufan wine, carrying a lip-smacking, wine-and-fat aroma faintly like foie gras. ‘Abalone is the richest umami-salty flavor. Chinese value having a beginning and an end, so it’s placed in the middle. In traditional Sichuan, abalone would go first, but it’s too heavy. Abalone is a fermented flavor, achieved with ham; dried abalone has its own special fragrance.’ Chef Lan said.
Cutting abalone has meaning: one cut is ‘splitting colors evenly’, two cuts ‘prosperity in all seasons’, one more and it’s ‘smooth sailing’. When cut, the center is darker, the edges lighter, with a soft, glutinous, springy bite. Chef Lan uses a broth made from ducks raised over two years. He says Japan does abalone best—small abalone, at most 16 heads—with a fermented black bean aroma. He borrowed the Cantonese method and the Huaiyang method, then expressed it with a Sichuanese mindset to form Yu Zhi Lan’s approach. I sighed from the heart: Chinese cuisine is art!
Original Sour-Spicy Wild-Caught Sea Cucumber (might have coral)
In Sichuan, two dishes whet the appetite: pickles, and sour-spicy. For this sour-spicy wild sea cucumber, Chef Lan said the central tendon is good and mustn’t be removed. The noodle soup base uses chicken broth and Zhenjiang vinegar.
‘Remember Sichuan’s true flavor: sour-spicy noodles. Sea cucumber should feel like pig’s trotter. I can tell its cooking time just by grasping it; I know its firmness and character, its weight alive and cooked. Among northern China’s eight sea treasures, sea cucumber ranks first. In China, old hen and sea cucumber are highly nourishing. You can eat sea cucumber daily; eating lobster every day will put you in hospital. The same with crab. There’s a reason Chinese place sea cucumber at the top. A CD can hold a lot; Chinese thoughts on health preservation are my thoughts too, descending step by step. In cooking, the mindset is a Chinese wellness habit; you have to manifest the inner meaning.’
After the sour-spicy sea cucumber came a tiny piece of hawthorn jelly. Chef Lan said hawthorn helps digest meat dishes. The mint leaf on top was the tenderest one, handpicked from his own garden where he grows mint.
On the plate for the broad bean paste eel, Chef Lan carved his own fish, called Dragon’s Nine Sons—Fish Dragon. ‘It won’t go out of style for 100 years; it’s Chinese tradition. Europeans get excited seeing it; there are Chinese cultural elements within.’
‘Eat the fish first. Its rich umami comes out, completely harking back to the feeling of the 1920s and 30s. Eel actually has scales; it’s a long-life fish. The fermented bean paste flavor leaves a slightly astringent finish. Eat the sauce with rice; the rice and sauce together, the rice carries the natural taste of the fish. Eel skin is crispy if cooked briefly, soft if cooked longer, depending on the situation. Chef Lan said making the fish soup takes three hours, so he deliberately placed this bean paste eel in the middle of the menu, afraid that good things at the end would be left uneaten. ‘If you put the fish directly at the end, the flavors can’t match. After sour-spicy comes sweetness; if you don’t eat the hawthorn jelly, you can’t proceed. Why is it hard during the flavor reduction phase? It has to connect with what came before.’
Wild Cave Swiftlet Nest with Peach Gum Steamed in Snow Pear
Again, the vessel for the wild cave swiftlet nest with peach gum steamed in snow pear was designed by Chef Lan himself. I recognized the wisteria flowers painted on it. On Chinese culture, he noted that abstract art is better represented in Europe, but Chinese abstract art is about expressive brushwork. ‘This vase is one of China’s classic four great vases, called the plum vase. But on a dining table, the name doesn’t sound auspicious; plum blossoms before they open are called shinü vases, so I painted wisteria—full of youthful spirit.’
Snow pear stewed with wild bird’s nest; the world’s best pears are in Jingchuan, and Sichuan fritillary bulb with snow pear is a classic. Wild cave swiftlet nest is different from regular bird’s nest—when you uncover it, the color is different, the biggest difference being it’s much finer. The wild cave swiftlet nest is from Malaysia; depending on the growth environment and harvest time, the fiber strands are very long. Stewed for two hours, the snow pear water isn’t sour. Inside is a peach gum, which is tree collagen.
The following dish had the feel of a staple: a lone Sichuan red-oil wonton served in a slightly tall bowl. Chef Lan explained why the bowl is tall: ‘The collar is a bit higher; a person’s pride lies in the neck. A slightly longer neck gives an air of nobility and haughtiness. In the Song dynasty, fine porcelain of wealthy households was tall, expressing noble pride.’ Painted on it were calamus, horseshoe flowers, and leading flowers—again, abstract art. ‘The most popular style combines expressive brushwork with abstraction, courtly with folk. When China did embroidery, ink-wash painting dye effects were embroidered, with meticulous brushstrokes for fur. Paint plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum with expressive and fine-brush techniques, abstract art and line art. When lines are done to ultimate perfection, it’s Chinese; after thousands of years, it won’t go out of style.’ Chef Lan said, pointing at the decoration.
Yu Zhi Lan’s soy sauce is brewed by Chef Lan himself, a ‘master’s soy sauce’, simmered with spices and brown sugar. ‘The green soybean crepe is just egg, flour, and green soybeans, plus water; pan-fried without oil because locals here don’t like too much oil. The plate is shaped like a bamboo leaf; the medium is food.’
‘Nordic people like primitive ecology, wooden things, add an iron frame and it’s Chinese food Western-style. It wasn’t until the Qing dynasty that Manchu and Han became one family. The restaurant Yu Zhi Lan’s style feels like the early Republic era, with Western thought and Chinese expression. Individual serving actually originated in China’s Song dynasty. Why do other countries warm their cups? The root is here.’
‘Learn, borrow, embrace others, and in the process of understanding, change your mindset. After opening up to the outside world, you come back preferring even more to have your own ideas within. You can change yourself, but you can’t change the habits of a people.’
Oil and salt both exceed, so the finish must return to nature—a bowl of plain boiled vegetables. Eat the green beans first, very sweet, then the pumpkin, and sweetness builds. ‘Pumpkin isn’t from Sichuan; here it’s overcast and rainy every day, you can’t get good pumpkins.’
Much of Yu Zhi Lan’s tableware is handmade bowls. Chef Lan says all the habits of Chinese people are in the tableware. As soon as I sat down, I noticed the chopstick rests; Chef Lan carved them himself as cartoon fish—an exaggerated art form. The red color endures time, never annoying. The tables and chairs are African padauk and hedgehog rosewood. Chef Lan said after the first renovation, the smell was strong; don’t renovate again, just one good renovation ten years ago.
Chef Lan says there are four standards in the process of savoring food: first, it comes from life; second, it’s collected from the people (that’s a restaurant); third, hotels and clubs that flaunt fine food. ‘France, Japan, Guangdong, Hong Kong—society needs themes, needs to flaunt; they are the forefront. Flaunting fine food is the benchmark for a city accepting new things, or else there’s no vitality.’ Fourth, going further down: understand yourself, understand the ingredients, understand what the people facing you need, what you can do. Express your artistic insights through dishes. This is the highest level of cuisine seen and then refined and interpreted.
Fine food needs to be flaunted, to exchange and learn, to feel, and then calm down again to express thoughts. To reach the best, you must harness the ingredient. ‘For instance, whether a honey peach or flat peach is better is a personal view. There’s no standard in food; if you like it, it’s good. During Dragon Boat Festival, I used to make bird’s nest with peaches. You have to understand each peach’s character; choose well. After understanding the ingredient, bring out its inherent nature, present it in the best way. To make a peach into a dish, feel what natural ripeness tastes like—that’s being a chef. Chinese champion cooking culture, while abroad they champion cuisine culture. What is cooking? In my understanding, it’s nature. Chinese also need to bring out the other side of the ingredient; after stewing, bring out the meaty flavor—that requires slow cooking, how much water, how much time, to meet the requirement.’
I tasted the evolution of historical flavors and profound cultural heritage. Time and place change, borders shift, but principles remain.
Chef Lan said: Surface in European cooking is natural and straightforward; Chinese emphasize the inner, penetratingly deep—originating from nature, beginning under the knife, living in the mouth. ‘What is cuisine? Sorted ingredients. Cooking uses the culture of fire. Western chili needs a pass through fire and water, but making red oil chili with a fragrance like peanuts is very hard. More and more people are learning to be cooks; if they understand thoroughly first, then learning is easy.’
Chef Lan said for Chinese culture to connect with the world, you need to know the common standards. Foreigners have beef, fish, chicken, now truffles, oysters, ham—others made those, you’re just a porter. A lot of Japanese cuisine is just a porter of nature, emphasizing the beauty of natural fermentation.
‘Chinese, in addition to being porters, emphasize balance. Chinese culture is unique; Han culture is exaggerated, a kind of self-entertainment. Many dynasties saw outsiders come in, and they feared being assimilated by us. Chinese call it overcoming hardness with softness, and that decides eating habits. Guangdong, the north, Shanghai, the northwest—cultural differences are huge. National beliefs and social development need time to settle. Huaiyang cuisine emphasizes Chinese tradition; northern cuisine is courtly culture; Sichuan cuisine is inclusive; pungency and spiciness are both addictive.’
After the whole meal, every plate I touched, I felt the warmth. In China, warming dishes dates back to the Ming dynasty.
The world’s energy flows. We see the table made visible, expressed in visual language, understanding the ‘show’ and the ‘inner wisdom’ that already exists. Western flavor masters are learning from Chinese cuisine, starting to make steamed dishes—that’s where our confidence lies. ‘Research true essence, then cook. Many Michelin restaurants worldwide, no matter what, bring out the truth. Steaming preserves the food’s nutrition intact. The earliest clear soup was Huaiyang chicken broth, using the steam drippings to make dishes. If the chicken is bad, it smells; you’ll taste a fishy note, no natural chicken aroma. If the chef blanches it in water, a third of the nutrition is gone, it won’t taste good, no weighty mouthfeel. You must find the flavor between the chicken and the broth. Today’s steamed chicken is no good by afternoon—it’s too fragile because the molecular structure hasn’t been processed. Add a bit of wine and salt, and the flavor is different.’
‘An 18-kuai stewed chicken noodle soup cannot be the same as a 180-kuai one. The 18-kuai version meets safety standards, it’s a worker’s meal. For 180, you need to know if the chicken is over a year old, whether the chef chose well, whether the stewing was good, if the noodles are handmade or bought—that’s called fine dining. 18 kuai is a worker’s meal, you can’t review it. In the process of making fine cuisine, the key is understanding. First understand your staff, then understand the ingredients, finally understand your guests. Once you understand all three, open a restaurant and cook; usually nothing goes wrong. The manager is the general dispatcher.’
Chef Lan’s chili for red oil is sweet first: ‘Singaporean ones are nice and sweet, Indian ones are all red but taste salty once eaten.’ He said making red oil requires understanding the temperature of sugar: at 155°C it starts to sour, at 190°C it starts to burn, at 210°C it turns bitter. Spiciness and sweetness determine the chili’s temperature. ‘Once you understand that temperature, you can make it. I only heat one-third of the oil. You have to refine the oil; oil heated above 185°C produces trans fatty acids, which are harmful. So by using only one-third, I minimize the harm. I am responsible to my guests. The distance between kitchen and dining room must not exceed 30 meters to keep the temperature. In cooking, mindset is crucial; mindset decides direction. A glance at the menu, and the head chef can tell.’
When it comes to Sichuan’s spiciness, I now taste sweetness, a sublime elevation. In a good restaurant, the rhythm of each course is very important—comfortable and relaxing, so the last dish still carries flavor. Chef Lan once had a guest who had eaten at many Michelin places, who said his food lacked Sichuan’s wild, unrestrained spirit.
‘When I cook abroad, when I prepare an appetizer, I must consider what comes after. An old Chinese saying: you can lead by three steps, but five steps ahead and you’ll have to run. 500 meters ahead and people can’t keep up; the flavors can’t bridge the gap. Explosive, pungent flavors become street food. If you eat numbing-spicy outside beforehand, they’ll absolutely say our food is awful; you need to wait at least two hours before eating here. If after cold dishes you don’t rest and go straight to hot dishes, it won’t work either. Fermented flavor overpowers natural taste, it won’t be good; you have to settle your mind to eat.’
Let’s first be inclusive, then talk.
Recommend a restaurant you like?
‘I will seize fate by the throat;
it shall never make me bend.’
— Beethoven, Letter to Wegeler
Food Bless You!
Consultant, China International Gastronomy Expo
Producer, ‘Table Like God’
