Interview: Chef David Laris On Fine Dining In Shanghai (Part One)
As part of our "Eye on Shanghai" series, Jing Daily editor Avery Booker recently sat down with David Laris to discuss Shanghai's evolution as a fine dining destination, the changing tastes of local diners, and the age-old question, "Beijing or Shanghai?"
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- "Competition Has Gone From Almost Nothing To Very Serious"
- Jing Daily (JD): Can you say a little about how you ended up in Shanghai?
- David Laris (DL)
- JD: Talking about gaps in the market, your restaurants here are pretty diverse in terms of focus. Are you just following your muse, or what is it that makes you say, I want to open this kind of restaurant or that kind of restaurant?
- DL
- JD: Like “Western” food.
- DL
- JD: I’m curious about that evolution of the actual market, because your main focus has been in Shanghai, so being so close on the ground here, what would you say has been the biggest change here in terms of diners, also in terms of competition?
- DL
- JD: How about on the Westerner side?
- DL
- JD: I don’t think that’s unique to food and beverage at all, I think you see that in the luxury business as well.
- DL
- JD: So I’m a bit curious how that analogy works for your restaurants, because they do range in size, from larger to smaller. Now that you do have a personal brand here, what tends to be the ‘entry-level’ restaurant here that locals head to first?
- DL
- JD: Do you try to communicate to customers that there are other restaurants and suggest they try them?
- DL
- Come back tomorrow
- for the second part of our exclusive interview
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