Pop-up restaurant marks 60 years' culinary friendship between China and France
Century-old culinary and hospitality school Le Cordon Bleu is opening up a pop-up restaurant to "time travel" to 1960s.
Chinese and French cuisines have similarities, in both the preparation and the importance of technique of the two globally popular arts of cuisines.
A new pop-up restaurant organized by France-based international culinary school Le Cordon Bleu has opened at Moller Villa in Jing'an District through April 2. Titled "Rediscovered Heritage," the restaurant is expected to take customers back to 1960s to taste the "golden-era" French cuisine that was popular around the world when the country first established diplomatic relations with China.
The pop-up restaurant offers an afternoon tea set and a dinner.
Designed by Philippe Groult, culinary arts director of Le Cordon Bleu Shanghai, the six-course dinner includes seafood, beef and desserts that represent the finest of French culinary art.
"Of course we modified the traditions a bit to fit modern people's taste," Groult told Shanghai Daily. "We use less and lighter-flavored sauce to highlight the original flavor of the food. After all, back in the 1960s, meat practically swam in sauce."
Philippe Groult (right) and Weimar Gomez, head chef of the pop-up restaurant
Founded in 1895, Le Cordon Bleu now operates more than 30 schools around the world. Every year, more than 20,000 students sign up for its courses on cuisine, dessert making, baking and hospitality management. Since its Shanghai school went into operation in 2015, with the cooperation of the Shanghai Business and Tourism School, it has sent graduates to many high-end hotels and restaurants not only in Shanghai but around the world.
As well as classes, Le Cordon Bleu has long been organizing and attending events that enhance the culinary communication between China and France.
Last year, Le Cordon Bleu cooperated with the Shanghai Museum in an event that blended cuisine, art and music. With the accompaniment of erhu (a Chinese two-stringed instrument) and Kunqu Opera, chefs from both countries used Chinese seasonal ingredients to create a banquet that displayed the treasured tastes of both Chinese and French Cuisine. This year, it will hold a series of events to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
"China and France share the same value in terms of the food, in terms of how to treat foods and health," Andre Cointreau, president and chief executive of Le Cordon Bleu International, told Shanghai Daily. "In China, different regions have different cuisines, and that's exactly the same in France, which is at the crossroad of Europe. We have a little part of so many countries inside France. We have Dutch, Belgium, Brittany, Italian, and even Vikings, and different regional cuisines fuse in Paris, just like they do in Shanghai and Beijing."
Andre Cointreau, president and CEO of Le Cordon Bleu.
Cointreau said he came to Shanghai for the first time in 1994, when the then city government signed an agreement with the school to send a group of Chinese chefs to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Now, 30 years later, Cointreau is happy to see that the school is working with Shanghai more closely than ever before.
"The success of Le Cordon Bleu is the success of the students," he said. "It's not easy, actually very demanding, to train them, but it is true that when they then go into any type of cuisine – not only French cuisine but all – they are very passionate and confident."
