Where we cook in Shanghai
Shanghai is many cities at once and the kitchens differ accordingly. We cook in the lane houses and apartments of the former French Concession, in Jing an and along the Bund, in the towers of Lujiazui across the river in Pudong, and in the family houses out towards Hongqiao, Minhang and Qingpu, where the compounds have gardens and full-size kitchens.
A Chinese kitchen is designed around the wok and is usually a separate room behind a door, not an open space facing the guests. That is the opposite of how we work in the Mediterranean, and it is not a problem: it means the cooking stays out of the way and the table stays the table. Your chef will ask about extraction and burner power before proposing anything, because in this city those two things decide the menu.
