Shanghai stars

The Michelin Guide published its first edition on the Chinese mainland for 2017. China Daily's Xu Junqian asked the chefs of several starred restaurants in Shanghai to pick a dish they think helped them win their awards.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Restaurant: Kanpai Classic (one star)

Dish: Wagyu beef and sea urchin sushi roll

Kanpai Classic is the only yakiniku (Japanese grilled meat) restaurant to have won a star in the inaugural Michelin Guide Shanghai.

Chef Ryo Ishihara believes that the dish that helped his restaurant stand out among the hundreds of others in the city is the Wagyu beef and sea urchin sushi roll. While marbled beef has long been a favorite on the grill because of its fat content, chef Ishihara believes that it is the leaner part of the meat that has been underrated. He says that he decided to pair the meat with sea urchin, a coveted seafood in Shanghai, because it added a different flavor dimension and visual appeal to the dish.

"Cooking is like math. Mediocre cooking is doing addition. Good cooking is about multiplication," says Ishihara.