Known to the restaurant world as the Demon Chef, Alvin Leung has made a name for himself with his Hong Kong three Michelin star restaurant Bo Innovation and his innovative ‘X-treme Chinese’ cuisine, where Leung interprets traditional dishes through the use of molecular gastronomy to push the boundaries on one’s perception of what food should be.
The Hong Kong-based chef who was born in London and raised in Toronto recently announced two restaurant concepts in Shanghai – Bo Shanghai (open since September 1) and Daimon Bistro (to be unveiled at a later date). One Saturday afternoon in September, Leung we sat down in the dining room to speak about the idea behind the two concepts.
“Shanghai is a major destination for international chefs. [Opening a restaurant here] is something that I’ve been thinking about many moons ago,” says Leung. “I got to know the owners of the building and they wanted to rebrand the complex with predominantly Asian concepts, which is unique from all the other buildings along the Bund.”
But unlike many of his fellow international chefs who came before him, the Demon Chef is gracing Shanghai with two restaurant concepts all at once in the same space – both of which feature nearly entirely brand new dishes that aren’t served in his famed Hong Kong restaurant. At the front of the space is Daimon Bistro – serving a casual, more price-friendly menu of pan-Asian dishes with innovative twists and a Kowloon Walled City-inspired décor.
Hidden behind a wall at the back of the space is Bo Shanghai, which offers a multi-course tasting menu (RMB1,500 per person), created by Leung by pairing the eight Chinese regional cuisines with a foreign cuisine, with French being featured on the inaugural menu.
“To be able to do two separate concepts in one go is something special. Also, the layout of the space allows us to have a ‘hidden gem,’” Leung explains.
On its opening menu, Bo Shanghai takes you on a voyage that starts and ends with dishes inspired by Hunan cuisine and stops in Sichuan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Fujian and Guangdong along the way, while French elements are infused in each in a seamless manner. At one point, foie gras terrine is spiced with Sichuan pepper and garnished with pickled duck tongue and duck kidney confit. A slow-cooked egg is served with longjing tea-infused crustacean veloute and caviar.
Cantonese-style zongzi is stuffed with salted duck egg yolk and Sarrade ham (instead of your usual Jinhua ham) and topped with heaps of shaved black truffle.
“Bo Shanghai is very different from Bo Innovation in Hong Kong; Bo Shanghai is about all of China,” Leung says of the reason behind using the eight Chinese regional cuisines as the backbone of the inspiration of his ‘hidden’ restaurant. “But there are always similar characteristics or DNA that can be found in the creations by the same chef.”
Leung plans to update the menu every eight months with a different foreign cuisine, and believes that there are many distinct elements (culture, ingredients and techniques) to play with in each of the eight Chinese regional cuisines for the subsequent menus to come that the theme can continue on for a while.
He adds, “There’s always challenges when you open something new, such as creating a menu based on the ingredients available and local preferences, but these challenges are no different than opening a restaurant anywhere else in the world. We have very good partners here: VOL Group is an asset with their experience in operating many distinguished restaurants and bars in Shanghai. It made the process a lot easier.”
“I want to do something that makes China proud,” the Demon Chef tells us. “It goes back to the reason for why I want to create a menu based on the eight Chinese regional cuisines, which are still relatively unknown to most of the world. I want to showcase that Chinese food has much more variety and culture than the takeaway dishes you have in the West. “In Hong Kong, I was able to do it in a way. But in Shanghai, I’m able to do it on a much grander scale.”
See a listing for Bo Shanghai
See a listing for Daimon Bistro
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