If you happen to’re the sort of traveler who craves a hands-on expertise — one you’ll be able to actually style — the Shangri-La Paris has simply the eating journey for you.

Within the former dwelling of Prince Roland Bonaparte, the five-star lodge overlooks the Eiffel Tower and River Seine within the sixteenth arrondissement. On prime of offering its company a glimpse into royal historical past and unparalleled metropolis views, the Shangri-La Paris presents a top-notch meals expertise at Shang Palace, the one Michelin-starred Chinese language restaurant in France.

Since its opening in 2011, Shang Palace has been serving company of the Shangri-La Paris, and locals alike, with revolutionary and reimagined takes on conventional Chinese language dishes with nods to French gastronomy. Government Chef Tony Xu brings over 20 years of expertise working in mainland China to the Parisian lodge, working alongside a crew of culinary consultants from Hong Kong who specialise in Chinese language delicacies and collectively have perfected the artwork of dim sum.

The Artwork of Dim Sum expertise invitations company into the kitchen at Shang Palace for a personal, hands-on dim sum-making workshop led by the restaurant’s culinary crew. For €550 (about $638) per individual, the expertise features a guided tour of the kitchen, a cocktail on the lodge’s Bar Botaniste, together with a five-course dinner with a wine pairing.

Throughout my keep on the Shangri-La Paris, I had the chance to partake on this expertise. Upon arrival at Shang Palace, we got aprons and escorted into the kitchen the place chef Xu greeted us with an enthusiastic smile earlier than setting us up with our personal slicing boards, bamboo steamer baskets, and portioned-out components. After studying concerning the approach and watching chef Xu’s demonstration, we began making the dough for the Pink Dumplings by mixing beetroot juice with water, salt, potato starch, and flour.

We cut up up our dough into equal items and rolled it out to only the suitable stage of thickness — which was a lot tougher to do than chef Xu made it look — then we stuffed every dumpling with a mix of floor hen, mushrooms, soy sauce, sesame oil, herbs, and spices. My group struggled a bit when it got here to folding the dumplings, with virtually none of ours trying remotely much like the instance, however chef Tony was greater than prepared to supply steering, crack a joke about our makes an attempt, and subject hands-on corrections. After one other spherical of dumpling making — this time with a shrimp and pork filling — our bamboo steamers had been filled with our creations — with minimal filling leakage!

The workshop is adopted by dinner in the principle eating room. The menu is filled with revolutionary and reimagined takes on conventional Chinese language dishes, beginning with an ice plant salad with sesame sauce adopted by the dim sum we made, served to us in our particular person bamboo steamer baskets. We loved the fruits of our labor, and the dinner continued with sweet-and-sour foie gras, an surprising and fantastic collaboration of Chinese language and French gastronomy. 

Then got here a blue lobster Gong Bao with macadamia nuts that we tried to not replenish on earlier than the principle occasion: the roasted entire Peking duck, which was sliced tableside and served in two sequences: the primary as sliced crispy duck pores and skin with crêpes and the second as wok-fried minced duck breast served with lettuce wraps. The golden, glistening duck turned heads, and its wealthy, candy, and savory flavors stole the present. Each chew of the superbly roasted chook outdid the final.

Every course was spectacular in its personal proper, and the dim sum was particularly memorable — a dish I helped craft that discovered its approach onto the desk of a Michelin-starred restaurant. How many individuals can say that?