'UNEXPECT the expected,' says the cute, if grammatically-challenged, marketing blurb about Jade on 36, the fine dining restaurant on the 36th floor of the Pudong Shangri-La in Shanghai. Under normal circumstances, this would be a sure sign of an establishment where hype exceeds quality, but by pairing slick, dramatic interiors with avant garde cuisine that works very well, Jade on 36 easily beats the odds.
This two-year-old restaurant is an appropriate venue for the highly accomplished French chef Paul Pairet to showcase his extensive repertoire of creative cuisine - the sort that elicits comments about advanced cooking techniques, molecular gastronomy and imagination working overtime. That he is able to do so without any apparent difficulty in Shanghai makes the achievement all the more impressive.
Like star restaurant designer Adam Tihany, who has a knack for extravagant, statement-making interiors such as The Line at the Shangri-La in Singapore and Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York, this category of cuisine can sometimes be over the top. But in a modern metropolis like Shanghai - where excess is always best, it seems - there's little chance of this happening.
The cuisine at Jade on 36 is offered as a selection of four degustation menus in three sizes each, based on diner preference and price, which ranges between 450 yuan (S$87) and 1088 yuan. There are four to eight courses per menu.
As befits someone who has worked at the Hotel Costes in Paris, Pairet knows how to turn on the culinary style. More importantly, he also understands food and cooking technique, and so he is able to push the culinary envelope by delving into, yes, unexpected expressions of cuisine.
Pairet also has a playful sense of humour. At a recent dinner tasting, we sampled foie gras 'can't quit' - foie gras rolled in a crystal lollipop the shape of a cigarette, blue cabbage 'ash' and served in what looks like an ashtray. This was followed by a succession of unconventional dishes such as a consomme of peach 'noodles' in a tomato essence, a cuttlefish noodle made from blending cuttlefish and coconut, 'Breakfast' or duck a l'orange with the orange being a faux egg yolk with orange flavour, and Jumbo Shrimp steamed in a Mason jar and served with citrus peel and vanilla bean so that the flavours are nicely infused.
Next, a single beef short rib - a large bone with a square of meat, marinated with teriyaki sauce, left in the middle of the bone. There were also a variety of small dishes, including a frozen cucumber 'satay' stick and a light-as-air sardine mousse served in a sardine can.
Desserts included watermelon soaked in dessert wine and frozen, then served on a stick, and a lemon tart in the shape of a whole lemon, with the whole fruit hollowed out and cooked a few times so that the skin is like a confit and the entire thing can be eaten.
Pairet's precision cuisine will be available later this month at Blu in the Shangri-La here, as part of his participation in the World Gourmet Summit. He says he will offer 'the most classical presentations of what we do, the most popular dishes on our menu'.
Jade on 36
Pudong Shangri-La
33 Fu Cheng Lu
Pudong, Shanghai.
Tel: +86 21 68823636.
Paul Pairet dinner at Blu, Shangri-La Singapore, from April 21 to 25. Priced at $188 per person
