Kitchen master flirts with bold new approach
Print Edition
IT’S hard for a chef, no matter how many Michelin stars he or she owns, to surpass home cooking. David Du, chef de cuisine at Xindalu China Kitchen may be one of the exceptions.
His restaurant on the first floor of Hyatt on the Bund features a fine expression of authentic Shanghainese cuisine and it has been one of the hottest dining destinations in town for years. Xindalu is also the only five-star hotel restaurant in Shanghai with people queuing for a table even though its average price is around 500 yuan (US$80) per person. Du has worked there for five years.
“It’s a challenging, yet seductive experiment,” Du says. “Customers are familiar with the dishes they order and expect a certain flavor, creating a picky and hard to please palate. However, if my dishes exceed their expectations, they will remember and this develops a lifelong commitment to my cooking.”
Malantou (马兰头) is a good example. This dried tofu dish combined with a wild green herb is usually blanched, finely sliced and topped with sesame oil. Du’s version uses layers of thin tofu skin steamed in chicken broth in advance.
It’s then rolled with the greens and served with a vinegar-based dipping sauce.
“This gives layers of flavor. It starts with the soybean taste, leads to a sweet and sour flavor in the middle and ends with a wonderful herbal fragrance,” says the 40-year-old chef. “I changed the presentation and serving way to make it more elegant, but didn’t blur the classic taste.”
Stinky tofu in Shanghai is simply deep-fried to make the outside crispy and the inside tender. Du, however, mashes the stinky tofu while mixing in some seasoning before wrapping it in a special tofu skin as thin as a butterfly’s wing. He then deep fries it. The result is a thinner, fluffier and crispier outside while the inside oozes with an amazing silkiness.
Du’s version of xunyu (熏鱼), smoked carp fillet in soybean sauce, has a more sophisticated taste than the traditional dish since it has a subtle, lingering floral aroma due to the addition of jasmine tea into the sauce.
While Du is not shy about trying new techniques, he also likes using expensive ingredients in dishes which often go unmentioned on the menu. For example, he uses Wuliangye, or high-end Chinese baijiu, to stir fry with pea sprouts and uses black truffles to season his fish soup.
Some of his dishes can be considered fusion, and repeat customers return regularly for his drunken goose liver, which is simmered in Shaoxing wine and topped with wolfberries.
Du says foie gras is too fatty, which is why he uses Shaoxing wine to cut through it. The wolfberries add a hint of sweetness.
“Most Chinese, including me, try and experience Western food but don’t enjoy it,” he says. “Only a Chinese chef can truly integrate Western ingredients for the Chinese palate.”
Another favorite is his jasmine flower tiramisu, which is nothing like the popular Italian dessert. Du’s concoction features jiuniang 酒酿, fermented rice) sorbet, and aged Chinese vinegar ice cream. He says “the collision of ingredients creates beautiful sparks.
“When the powerful and aggressive Chinese vinegar meets milky cream at a low temperature, it turns gentle, mild and implicit.”
His signature dish, youbao xia (油爆虾), or deep-fried shrimp in sauce, is an example of how great chefs make a difference when preparing the same recipe as others.
Although the recipe notes the precise time for frying, he says it rarely is ever the same.
“The size of each shrimp is different plus their freshness and firmness can also be different,” Du says. “So I ‘talk’ to the shrimp, asking ‘them’ to tell me the right time. When shrimps are deep fried, they make a sound like firecrackers. When the pitch turns from high to low, that’s it, they are ready!”
Within the industry, many wonder whether Xindalu will remain successful when Du decides to leave. At this point, the chef says he has no plans to depart.
“I am still looking for a new breakthrough in life,” he says. “Once I find one I will leave, just like I left A Mao (a famous local restaurant chain) and joined Hyatt five years ago.”
Before working for Hyatt, Du was the executive chef and vice general manager of A Mao, overseeing four outlets and managing 300 employees.
Peter Zhou, food and beverage director at Hyatt on the Bund at the time and now the general manager at Park Hyatt Ningbo, offered him the job.
“I had a meal at A Mao and was deeply impressed by the food. I knew clearly that the chef in the kitchen is whom I needed,” Zhou recalls.
Du says he accepted the offer because he and Zhou have the same dining philosophy that emphasizes the food over fancy plating and decorations. He adds that he was intrigued by the challenge of working at a five-star hotel.
He says the biggest difference between working at an independent restaurant and in a luxury hotel is the work process. At A Mao, Du says he could fire any cook or waiter at any moment if they were not performing to satisfaction while there is a procedure that needs to be followed at the Hyatt.
Outside of work, Du says he rarely cooks.
“I really only cook at home for my daughter. She says, ‘dad is a hero and his food is always the best’,” he says, proudly.
Chicken soup, sweet and sour pork chops, and pork braised in soybean sauce are his daughter’s favorites.
“It’s only at home that I can fully practice my personal food thinking, creating the best flavor in an extremely simple way. Sometimes salt is my only seasoning, which helps me create the flavor closest to the nature of each ingredient,” Du says.
In his free time, Du enjoys dining out, especially along Jingxian Road, which features a bunch of small restaurants. “I take off my chef hat and eat, just eat, without judging and any expectation,” he says. “If you don’t think much about food, it unexpectedly surprises you.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
