SmartShanghai | Wire: Laris, Friends: Presenting Max Levy

Laris, Friends: Presenting Max Levy

By Christopher St Cavish, Oct 19th, 2009 | In Nightlife

David Laris kicks off a new chef collaboration series, titled "Laris & Friends", by bringing down Max Levy from Beijing. Levy is the chef at Bei, in the Opposite House (at which Laris consulted, hence the connection), and has worked in well-respected Japanese kitchens in New York (Megu, Sushi Yasuda), an eel farm in Japan, and a bunch of Asian restaurants, including a stint in Shanghai with the dearly departed Sugar. He is accomplished and it was Shanghai's loss when he left for Beijing.

Levy cooks with a Japanese perspective and cherry-picks local ingredients. A tasting menu of his will be available at Laris until November 8. Levy will be at Laris from October 22-24 to kick it off before heading back up north. Cost? If you have to ask...

I've got a rough draft of the menu in front of me. Here's the dishes (subject to change):

oysters

with seaweed, kanpachi bacon, and seawater foam

grilled salmon sashimi

australian king salmon with egg, broccoli rabe and sausage

miso bacon

with nian gao and shredded cabbage

salted cherry sorbet

with xinlinmei foam

x.o. scallop

seared with dried shrimp and jinhua ham on bed of you mai cai

wagyu rib cap

with cumber, salted plum mustard, morels, and kombu jelly

miso dungeness crab soup

shiso and plum consommé

with golden bird cage

Here's all the info. And here's a pretty picture.