Alan Wong brings menu, and aloha, to Shanghai

The aloha spirit is alive and well — in Shanghai.

That’s thanks to chef Alan Wong, who returned to Hawaii a couple of weeks ago from that city, where he was in town to ready the crew of Alan Wong’s Shanghai for their soft opening on Christmas Eve. The restaurant, set to open officially after the Chinese New Year on Feb. 8, is located in the upscale Portman Ritz-Carlton, a five-star hotel in the Puxi district.

“I told them that the aloha spirit begins with a thought, and when this thought turns into an act, it means sharing, showing kindness, caring. You give without expecting anything in return,” said Wong. “For the first few days, I asked them, ‘What did you do to make someone’s day? What gift or act of kindness did you give? How were you nice to someone?’

“Then, the night before we left, one guy came out and said, ‘I’ve been searching for something all my life, and you gave it to me.’ Another guy said he never imagined this existed in another part of the world.

“One of our goals was to leave an imprint, to be able to say the aloha spirit lives in Shanghai, and they received it extremely well.”

For Wong and his company, this stuff isn’t fluff. It’s a tenet of their core values that affects everything from operations to what shows up on the plate.

The chef himself opened the door for such exchanges when he announced to the Shanghai crew that he wanted to learn from them. It was a shock to workers, who weren’t accustomed to hearing such an appeal from someone of Wong’s stature.

Nonetheless, “the next day, (a staffer named) Emma brought me a Tupperware filled with her mother’s shoyu duck — a leg and a thigh and a couple of side dishes. I ate it, and the salt and sugar levels were spot-on with the shoyu chicken in Hawaii,” said Wong. Other workers brought in dumplings, snacks and teas for him to try. In another instance, a sous chef actually told him a dish was too salty.

“It reminds me of Japan, when I wanted to put udon on a dinner item, and the chef said it wasn’t a good idea,” recalled Wong of his former restaurant at Tokyo Disneyland. “‘No udon noodles at night,’ he said. ‘It’s a breakfast food, it’s too common.’

“The local people need to tell you. We let them know we were open to receiving, and they trusted us with their opinion.”

Wong said the local dishes he ate informed him of key essentials necessary to cooking anywhere: the levels of sugar and salt, and the spices that local diners are accustomed to. “Like any place else, some folks like sweet, some folks like sour. But if they like spicy, it’s spicy to another degree,” he said of the Shanghai palate.

Slated for the Shanghai menu are classics from the King Street restaurant’s menu, including the Ginger-Crusted Onaga and Twice-Cooked Short Rib. In fact, the chef says two-thirds of the menu would be recognizable to isle diners.

The restaurant, a partnership between Wong and Japanese company Tama Food International, features design elements taken from the Alan Wong’s pineapple logo, as well as ceilings with beams inspired by surfboards, counter tops with koa inlay and a “living wall” of greenery. The restaurant was slated to open earlier this year but encountered construction delays.

THE LONG process of opening the venue entailed much travel. The Chinese chefs came to Hawaii to learn Wong’s menu and about the culture and food of Hawaii, and the chef and his team made numerous trips to Shanghai. On the last one, Wong personally demonstrated 35 items on the menu, and tweaked and re-tweaked dishes executed by the Shanghai chefs.

While much of his visits were spent tasting — not just his own dishes, but the ingredients and dishes of the region, and the food of competitors — a lot of time was devoted to sourcing ingredients.

“If somebody asks me if I’m serving Hawaii Regional Cuisine in Shanghai, I’d say no. Much of what we do in Hawaii is feature local farmers and ranchers, and we strive for that in Shanghai.

“It’s who we are and what we do,” said the chef.

At the same time, he said, “that has been one of the most difficult things.”

Wong explained that in China,“truth in menu” is a big deal simply because it does not always occur. Foods are tampered with to give the illusion of freshness, for instance. Learning to assess products and finding trustworthy vendors takes time, and key to navigating these tasks are his local staff. “We set a quality standard and they do a good job.”

Until all arrangements are set, meat is being sourced from Australia and most of the fish comes out of Japan.

Wong said all the collective efforts are “bridging two cultures.”

“It’s not just about us downloading our agenda over there. We’re meeting in the middle. They’re learning, but we’re learning too.”

A parting lesson in aloha for the Shanghai crew was hula instruction — delivered personally by the chef himself. But don’t ask him to repeat it.

“What happens in Shanghai stays in Shanghai,” he said.