A taste of Italy in Shanghai

Shanghai's vibrant gastronomy is reclaiming its dynamism as the COVID-19 outbreak has largely been brought under control in the city, following months of inactivity.

Time-honored local restaurants have reopened one by one in the Yu Garden old town since late March. Korean food carts on Hongquan Street resumed operations on weekends from April. And fast-food fans lined up on the commercial boulevard, Huaihai Road, to eat at the first Popeyes fried-chicken store on the Chinese mainland in May.

And the Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai's Acqua Italian Restaurant reopened on May 18 after being shut down in February.

The restaurant used the time to enhance its look and feel to become more welcoming and casual. It added a Negroni-cocktail bar, upgraded its dinner menu and started to provide a quick weekday set lunch and weekend brunch all day, says hotel manager Gregor Raible.

"Business has been good. We're growing, gradually," he says, praising the government's decisive action in controlling the spread of COVID-19 so that the hotel industry can thrive again after the pause.

Marco Erba, head chef of the restaurant in the city's financial heart, Lujiazui, is happy to be busy serving customers once again.

The Milan native started working at Acqua two years ago.

Erba says his family really worried about him being in China when the coronavirus broke out.

"China did an amazing job in such a short time," says Erba. "Everybody was just amazed by how China handled the situation."

The new bar offers the signature Italian cocktail, the Negroni. The original is based on gin, but at the "Negroni University" bar, guests can sample a variety of twists on Italy's oldest and most popular cocktail. They can, for instance, swap gin for tequila or whiskey, or Campari for Aperol or Jaegermeister.

The dining area is located by the window facing the city's famous Huangpu River.

Erba took his passion for cooking from his father and turned it into a career after attending the Alma－the celebrated International School of Italian Cuisine, which is the brainchild of renowned Milanese chef Gualtiero Marchesi.

He then spent years honing his skills in the Michelin-starred restaurant, La Madia, in Sicily and Milan's historical landmark hotel, Principe di Savoia, before working in Australia.

The opportunity to work as a head chef in an Asian city lured him to Shanghai.

His first impressions were exciting, he recalls.

"I love just everything about the city, the people, the food, the opportunities, the cultural melting pot and the strategic position of Shanghai in Asia," he says.

Erba brought traditional dishes from his hometown to Acqua－yellow risotto with roasted bone marrow and gremolata, a green sauce made of chopped parsley, lemon zest and garlic.

Erba's other favorite Milanese dish is "chicken and grapes", which features red-wine stewed chicken thigh with grapes, herbs and roasted potatoes.

The restaurant also offers burrata-and-tomato salad on its new menu. Burrata is a fresh Italian cow-milk cheese with cream inside and mozzarella as its outer shell.

It looks like mochi, and the cheese tastes like refreshing milky ice cream－an ideal starter for an authentic Italian dinner on a summer night.

The Italian pasta is a perennial must-have.

For diners who can't differentiate among the different types of pasta, the servers will pull out a trolley displaying the seven varieties the restaurant serves－spaghetti, linguine, tagliatelle, macaroni, fusilli, penne and caserecce－for guests to choose from and to learn about Italian gastronomy.

Diners can also pick their favorite sauces, from the famous meat-based Bolognese to creamy garlic-and-herb pesto.

For those who can't decide, Erba is happy to help them choose the best pairings.