Relocating from China to France was a big leap for Tony Xu, now the executive chef of Shang Palace in the Shangri-La Paris. Xu, who grew up in Chengdu, had never been to Paris before he accepted the job earlier this year, and at first, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go. But the draw of a new city was too good to pass up, and Xu made the journey overseas in May.
“I wanted to try it,” the chef tells Observer, speaking inside Shang Palace before the lunch service on a recent autumn day. “It’s a different environment, a different market. It was really about good timing. I came and jumped right in. I really like it here; there is so much to try and discover.”
Joining a well-established restaurant like Shang Palace, which already has one Michelin star, wasn’t simple. The refined Chinese eatery has a collection of regular guests, both locals and visitors from out of town, and it was important that certain beloved dishes, like the Peking duck, remained intact. Xu quickly noticed that French customers have a specific idea of Chinese cuisine, and expect large, shared portions of food to accumulate on the table. They want their assumption of what Chinese food involves, not necessarily what Xu wants to showcase.
“It’s a very different market,” says Xu, who speaks almost no French. “I respect what [the restaurant] has because my customers have been coming here for many years, and they’re used to it. I can’t make big changes, so I’m slowly introducing new dishes and new versions. It’s like the house is already built, very tall, and I’m not here to build a new one. I am here to deliver decorations and make small tweaks to make it more beautiful. I’m doing it step by step.”
Initially, Xu made adaptations to the existing recipes based on his 20 years as a chef in China, as well as his experiences eating the country’s broad-ranging cuisine. He wanted to ensure that all of the flavors in Shang Palace were “100 percent authentic.” Then, he began introducing his own creations, which he feels is important because returning customers will always have something new to try.
The first item he added was sweet and sour foie gras, an innovative take on a dish that is typically made with chicken or pork. The crispy, indulgent plate, a must-try on the menu, tastes both nostalgic and surprising.
The sweet and sour is “a very traditional Chinese flavor,” Xu explains. “In China, foie gras is [considered] very high-end. We have it on good menus, but in a Chinese way, which is marinated and cooked and sliced to eat. It’s very different than here. If I did that here, I don’t think people would enjoy it. This is a local ingredient with an authentic Chinese flavor.”
Most diners opt for the à la carte menu, although Shang Palace presents a memorable tasting menu that better displays the range of Xu’s skill and flavors. He refers to it as “the whole appearance,” because it allows the chef to perfectly balance all of the dishes that arrive at the table, from the amuse-bouche to the dessert. He currently begins the tasting menu with a refined version of tomato egg drop soup, a classic dish in Chinese households and restaurants alike. The delicate bowl of soup is served with a lobster broth, which immediately elevates the flavor while retaining its memory-jogging umami.
“If you go into a restaurant in China, they can do this soup without fail, even if they don’t have it on the menu,” Xu says. “It’s very popular. It’s not high-end, expensive stuff. At home, my grandma cooked it for me, and her recipe was great. Here, what I do is basically this authentic recipe, but I added lobster soup instead of just egg tomato soup. So it’s more interesting, and I’ve used local ingredients. They have a very good blue lobster [in France] with a good flavor; very sweet and fresh. I want to share what I grew up eating. And hopefully, when you hear about this history, it makes it even better.”
Much of what Xu does now stems from his childhood. He always liked being in the kitchen; he was inspired by his grandmother and mom. He was so adept at cooking that his family suggested he pursue culinary school, which led to a prolific career in China in restaurants and hotels. He spent several years with the Swire Hotels group as executive chef of Mi Xun Teahouse, where Xu earned a Michelin star and a Michelin green star for sustainability.
“I’ve never stopped [cooking],” he says. “I’ve never changed my job. I’ve always found it very interesting. And I always want to keep having new dishes coming out.”
One of those new offerings is Shang Palace’s salad, a deceptively simple dish that also draws its origins from Chinese culinary history. A typical version uses cabbage and sesame dressing, but Xu has swapped the common cabbage for something called an ice plant, with crisp green leaves that have the appearance of being frozen (although they are not). The plants were eaten in Mongolia generations ago, and Xu now sources them from western France.
“The recipe is more than 5,000 years old,” he says. “China has a very old history, but I’ve done it my way to present the traditional combination. There are some pickles and a very traditional sesame sauce with the ice plants. And it’s vegan-friendly. On our current menu, you can have a lot of good meat and good seafood, but you also have [a lot of options] if you’re vegan. I have a special stock for the amuse-bouche if you’re vegan that is very tasty.”
For Xu, the flavor is the most crucial part of any dish. “It’s important that the food is very tasty,” he says. “It doesn’t matter how fancy the presentation is.” He says he doesn’t just want to present dishes that people come in to photograph, because visuals won’t be the thing that brings diners back. “The flavor is important,” he says. “It makes you feel confident and feel warm. Anytime I add something to the menu, I want it to be 100 percent correct. If not, maybe we need to change the presentation or reduce the flavors. There needs to be a real balance.”
Although Xu appreciates the advent of social media and presents his food in compelling, beautiful ways, he underscores the idea that taste will outlast anything posted in an image. He prefers to seek out well-established restaurants when he travels, because he knows that people wouldn’t keep returning if something was bad.
“This restaurant has been open for 10 years, and in Paris, many restaurants have been open for 100 years,” the chef says. “And why do people go back? I don’t think it’s because it’s very fancy or beautiful. They go back because the flavor is good. Every time, you remember the flavors. And if we have good flavors, then of course we can also do a good presentation.”
Xu is taking the slow and steady approach to Shang Palace, although he admits he has to hold himself back from going all in and changing the menu too quickly. Stability, however, doesn’t mean refusing to evolve. Over the years, the chef has learned that if you stay in the same job for several years, you will become comfortable enough in the kitchen to be even more innovative.
“Each year, you can try something new,” he says. “If you are constantly changing [restaurants] and quitting, you spend your energy making yourself confident in your environment and keeping the operation going. You don’t have the energy to create anything. I’m more stable and more focused on doing something creative and reaching new opportunities. And you need to spend time with your team.”
For now, Xu is rolling out his new ideas at a considered pace. He has a lot of them ready to go, but being a chef means pleasing guests as well as his own artistic sensibility. “The chef and the guests have to be together on everything,” Xu says. “If I only do what I enjoy, then we’re separate. We need to be balanced. Of course, I always want to try some new, crazy idea, but sometimes I have to control myself a little bit.”
