Shanghai ChefsAbout the Culinary World of Shanghai

Various rumors have been passing around concerning the closure of M1NT, the scams involved and the Australian guy behind the concept being captured. M1NT in Shanghai had a lot of expected promises offering the ‘exclusive members-only club’ scene. Whilst nobody knows the true story exactly (yet), the place is still definitely open, and we wish them all the best as we do really enjoy having Dan’s input in the Shanghai food scene.

The offer of a members-only place caters to a very select minority group in Shanghai. A bit like the Polo…which I had the painful pleasure of being present at as part of a Hen’s Day outing. Us chefs being mostly socially inept and awkward; particularly when it comes to being in the company of polite and cultured people, I was a little nervous, especially with the free-flow offer of champagne and wine throughout the day. However, the free-flow ran out only about three hours into the event, with several more  hours to go. Having paid almost an obscene amount for the VIP tickets, we were needless to say quite disappointed.

Firstly, the white wine and champagne was served at room-temperature (and the sun was out in full-force that day with the tent acting more like a heated yoga room than a shade from the heat). The line-up for the buffet was disappointing, luke-warm and flies were buzzing around the hot dogs. Need I say more? With this exclusive bunch of people paying for their tickets and taking an interest in the event, you’d think that they could have spent a bit more on the food budget, serve wine at the right temperature, and at least have enough wine to support the ‘free-flow’ theme as advertised. Luckily for me, the company I had was enough to keep me entertained for the whole day. That, and coincidentally meeting the operations manager from LAN.

Having attended the City Weekend Awards night last week, I had the chance for the first time to visit the place. While I won’t mention anything concerning the awards (as it has been covered by our other writer), I will say however that LAN does not serve glasses of ice water. At least that is what the bar tender told me that night. Instead, I was offered Sprite filled up to 1/4 of the glass when the bottle was finished. He didn’t bother to open another bottle and just continued to stare at me. Now, come on…

We were informed by the operations manager that a new concept was being designed for a place…something that involved two tapas menus – one Western style and the other “Chinese style” (dim sums) on the same floor. There was also going to be a sushi bar, rooftop bar and another restaurant? Sounded like a whole lot of confusion to us…but let’s hope they’ll serve ice water in all areas.

On another note, Factory will be hosting another ‘Too Many Chefs’ event. The ten chefs involved will be judged by customers who attend on the night and the winner gets…to keep their ego intact. We hear that even the media has to pay for their seats so this one will definitely be a paying-only customers’ choice awards….

I have been living in Shanghai for quite some time now. I’ve seen many restaurants open, and even more close.  I have read countless reviews on Shanghai Expat, Smartshanghai and of course in City Weekend. While I can see the benefits of a ‘Reader-Powered Magazine’, I often wonder over the editor choices. It seems to me like they follow the ‘tattler magazine system’ ( i.e. you buy ads for your establishment and you are granted a best restaurant award in the mag). But this year’s  City Weekend Awards was just,…well, was just very strange – to be polite.

Granted, with the many different expats in the city chances are that there will always be a difference in opinion about places with best value, best wi-fi or whatever. And rightfully so.  I mean after all, it is a reader powered magazine.  And while most of us Chef’s not always agree with the reviews we get on the web or magazine by users – it is their right to voice their opinions.

What really got me going though was some of the editor choices. There where 4 people named as writers on this article so I guess it came down to a vote. But honestly, the picks for Best Indian? Best French? And most notably Newcomer of the Year????.

I am usually not one for writing bad about fellow chefs or restaurants. Our industry is already difficult enough without us gunning for each other. But honestly, those editor choices really make me wonder if these Editors have any clue about what they write or if they even bothered to visit the places they chose more than one time; or was is just the one lunch they got invited to by the owners in order to review the place?  As I mentioned, I won’t go on bashing fellow industry co-workers or dare to offer my choice of what should have won.

It is not really about whether I disagree with it or not. I just find that after having followed City Weekend over the past few years that the food columns have turned more and more into advertising columns than anything else.  I mean even good old Aubrey Buckingham at the Shanghai Daily finally seemed to have woken up and grown some balls.  For the longest times his reviews where just pathetically boring without any bite. And now even he seemed to have waken up.  So I guess what I am trying to say is that :

• Either leave the voting to the readers and skip the Editors Choice
• If you keep the Editors choice please let us know the criteria involved
• Stop trying to please all the restaurants you go to

Shanghai has plenty of good restaurants and plenty of bad ones. So I’d say, stop constantly reviewing the obvious choices that seem to go from magazine to magazine.  Venture out there and look at different things – Shanghai has so much to offer and most readers never even get a glimpse of it since there are always the same restaurants and bars featured.   And please, start to get a bit more critical. Just because a Chef has a restaurant does not mean he is always right. It would be really refreshing to read a restaurant review which is a bit more critical and does not always feel like the Editor has fallen absolutely in love with the chef.

Alfred B. (a wisely chosen pseudonym) is an executive sous chef that has been residing in Shanghai for the past several years. He is our up-to-date person on current events taking place in the food scene. For legal purposes, we cannot reveal his true identity but you can be sure there will be no candy-coated articles from him