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Photo: Terra Madre, Shang Garden & Mesa
Ten years ago, Shenzhen was the place in the southern part of Mainland China for counterfeit luxury goods and cheap houseware. No one, particularly Hong Kong residents and tourists, would travel to the city specifically for food, let alone fine-dining. Fast forward to today, and the city has become one of the “hottest” destinations in China for high gastronomy. And its reputation is growing apace.
This “Shenzhen boom” saw a slew of international hotel chains and local entrepreneurs opening F&B establishments over the past seven years, capitalising on the accelerated economic growth to meet ever-increasing consumer demand. Places like The Shenzhen Kitchen by JW Marriott Hotel, The Drawing Room by St. Regis and Sushi Shari are, today, hotspots for drawing the well-heeled, the socially visible, and the gastronomically savvy.
With the worst of the pandemic behind us and China’s re-opening at the start of this year, Shenzhen is embracing a new wave of fine-dining adventures. Spearheading the charge are chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants in Hong Kong, which is a 14-minute high-speed train ride away, and a crop of local chefs.
Shenzhen’s culinary beginnings
Ensue restaurant. (Photo: Ensue)
Shenzhen’s gastronomy journey can be said to have begun with Ensue by Christopher Kostow in 2019. Ensue was the first fine-dining restaurant to open its doors in the city, on the 40th floor of Shangri-La Futian. Most observers at the time were sceptical about its chances — after all, Chef Kostow was not exactly a household name in China. The James Beard Award Best Chef 2013 winner also runs a group of restaurants, including Meadowood and Ciccio, both in Napa Valley, California.
Adward He, the project director of Savor Group, which owns Ensue and several other restaurants, explained, “One of the challenges was creating awareness of the restaurant’s existence”. He felt that diners struggled to understand and appreciate the culinary style of Ensue in the early stages because “it had a strong Napa Valley influence and used mainly local ingredients, which was not too common for Western cuisine at the time”.
Ensue’s sourdough chicken with water bamboo. (Photo: Ensue)
Indeed, Ensue’s menu is inspired by Californian farm-to-table culture, and it uses only locally produced foodstuffs such as avocados from Yunnan province and chilli oil from Chengdu. Being located on the mainland makes it only sensible and practical to draw from China’s unrivalled bounty of natural resources — an edge that Ensue holds over its counterparts in cities like Hong Kong. And for its efforts, the locavore champion was the only Shenzhen restaurant to break into Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants rankings. But the city had seen its ups and downs.
Sandwiched between Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and with limitations imposed by its geography and relatively undeveloped economy, Shenzhen was regarded as the poorer cousin. Things took a drastic upturn, however, when the city was declared a special economic zone in 1980. Factories sprouted overnight, and a huge influx of workers from across China flooded in seeking job opportunities and their fortunes. The economy received a tremendous kickstart, and so did the food scene.
At first, the most ubiquitous foods in Shenzhen were street fare and “one-dish meals” that catered to the low-earning migrant workers. The only inkling of “Western” flavours the locals had was when McDonald’s opened at Dongmen, Shenzhen, in 1990 — its first foray into the Chinese market. The outlet still operates today.
Rising affluence led to the emergence of a middle class in Shenzhen and greater demands on dining. More mid- to high-end restaurants began to occupy shopping malls and luxurious residential districts. Then COVID-19 hit, and the hospitality industry went into hibernation.
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But there were those who soldiered on. One of these was the refined French bistro L’Avenue, headed by chef Arran McCredie, which opened in 2021 in the midst of the pandemic. McCredie was no stranger to this part of the world, being the former sous chef of Belon, the one-Michelin-starred restaurant in Hong Kong fronted by chef Daniel Calvert.
It was challenging at first, as the showcase of progressive Parisian cooking also offered very traditional French classics such as Pomme Boulangere Sauce Bordelaise and Clam Mariniere Whole Flounder Meuniere. The chef found himself adjusting to the local palate by, for instance, reducing the sugar in the dishes. He remains stoic, however, and holds to the positive notion that as more Western restaurants open and diners “acclimatise” to the flavours, they will become fervent appreciators of his efforts.
Shenzhen will continue to evolve as a major migrant city. With young consumers, fine-dining will become accepted as part of a lifestyle. – Vincent Tian, Shangri-la Group’s Senior Vice President, Operations in Southern China.
The Hong Kong wave
Mesa’s chef Ricardo Chaneton. (Photo: Mesa)
Over the past 1.5 years, chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants in Hong Kong have been making inroads in Shenzhen. Last June, chef Ricardo Chaneton, chef-owner of one-Michelin-starred Mono, opened Mesa in partnership with the Savor Group, offering Spanish cuisine with a South American twist. Chaneton, who is of Italian-Venezuelan heritage, sees it slightly differently; he is taken by the openness and curiosity of local diners towards new experiences.
He thinks the reason might lie in proximity to the global city of Hong Kong, such that the residents of Shenzhen are exposed to foreign cuisines and levels of quality more so than people living in other cities on the mainland. The chef finds this encouraging and sees great potential for growth in gastronomic development in Shenzhen.
Seafood paella. (Photo: Mesa)
But while its trajectory is clear, fine-dining in Shenzhen, especially for Western cuisine, seems more like a slow burn than a rocket-propelled phenomenon. This is because while a hunger to savour new cuisines exists, there isn’t a concomitant impulse to pay for them. As a result, Mesa is presenting a more casual experience than its sister restaurant Mono in Hong Kong, consisting of tapas and Cuban-style staples, with beef tripe and Iberico suckling pig being the most accessibly priced best-sellers.
Adward He offers his assessment: “There is a huge market for restaurants targeting the mid-income group. The dining scene now is also more diverse, with a greater variety of restaurants and new concepts emerging.” He is heartened to note that diners have become more knowledgeable about food quality, being adept at comparing restaurants and distinguishing the good and bad. “However, it still falls short when compared to the dining scenes in Hong Kong or Singapore.”
Terra Madre’s Chef Antimo and Oscar. (Photo: Terra Madre)
Another entrant is Terra Madre, the brainchild of Antimo Maria Merone, the chef behind one-Michelin-starred Estro. Merone trained under chef Gualtiero Marchesi, known as the founder of new Italian cuisine, and later worked as the executive chef of 81/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana, the restaurant that brought authentic Italian cuisine to Shenzhen.
Gragnano Linguine. (Photo: Terra Madre)
At Terre Madre, which opened November 2022, Merone pays homage to the 19th-century Gran Caffe Gambrinus, an institution among Italian coffeehouses renowned all over Europe for its confections, ice cream, and coffee. However, the chef puts his own personal stamp on the restaurant, offering not coffee but divine Italian comfort food such as homemade pappardelle with ragout and wagyu beef cheek.
Chinese gastronomy shines
Meat Dumpling in Superior Broth. (Photo: Shang Garden)
While Western restaurants are making waves in Shenzhen, they have not completely overshadowed the more familiar Asian cuisines. A number of Japanese restaurants have opened, but the recent controversies over the release of radioactive water in Fukushima have made the future of the cuisine in the city unpredictable. The fates of Tian Fu Luo Qian Ping, owned by one-Michelin-starred Tempura Maehira, and Komuro, the high-end sushi restaurant of chef Yuichi Arai, who was behind famed Sushi Arai in Ginza district, Tokyo, remain to be seen.
Chinese restaurants, with their “hometown advantage”, are making serious headway. While its Western cousin can be considered in its infancy, still finding its feet in Shenzhen, Chinese gastronomy, on the other hand, is a mature adult in the city. Following a major renovation, the Shang Garden at Futian Shangri-La hotel has raised its game and gone epicurean high-end, presenting refined Huaiyang cuisine by executive Chinese chef Anthony Dong.
Photo: Shang Garden
Vincent Tian, Shangri-La Group’s senior vice president, operations in Southern China, lays out his vision: “Shenzhen will continue to evolve as a major migrant city, and this will never change for the next 10 years or more. Therefore, with young consumers, fine-dining will become accepted as part of a lifestyle.” As one of the four major cuisines of China, renowned for its intricate plating and virtuosic knife skills, Huaiyang cuisine has the makings of the next big thing. In fact, Tian is banking on that. “The room for future growth is promising,” he adds.
The Shenzhen city skyline. (Photo: 123RF)
Savour Group’s Adward He voices his take on the dining situation in Shenzhen, pointing out that once the frenzy of new restaurant openings has stabilised, “The challenge lies in enticing people to revisit the restaurant. Many guests tend to dine at fine-dining establishments only once, so the focus is on encouraging repeat visits.”
He thinks that the culture of fine-dining is still not deeply ingrained among the city’s residents and that people typically reserve such experiences for special occasions. He ends on a cautionary note, “This year has seen a noticeable downward trend in China’s economy, and this, coupled with the collapse of the real estate sector, has significantly impacted Shenzhen, resulting in reduced spending power among the population.”
On the other hand, many chefs and restaurateurs in Shenzhen remain positive about the city’s prospects, pointing to the continuing increase in visitor numbers, both foreign and domestic. As one of them candidly put it, “No matter what, people will want to eat, and when they are in a holiday mood, they want to eat well.”
