A Drink With: Beijing's Newest Michelin Star Corrado Michelazzo

Tracy Wang, Senior Editor | Jul 7, 2016 12:30 pm | Add a comment | 2411 reads

After serving at four Michelin-starred restaurants and being the executive chef at 10 Corso Como in Shanghai, Corrado Michelazzo recently took a supervising role at newly-opened Mediterranean restaurant Casa Talia by Tiago. He designed the menu, which includes popular tapas, Australia grain-fed steaks, seafood, paella and risotto, tasty pastas, magical signature nitrogen tiramisu and traditional panna cotta, as well as Italian specialty coffee.

Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
I was born in a mountainous region of Italy: Val d’Aosta. First I worked at the three-Michelin starred La Ferme de Mom Pere and George Blanc restaurants in the 1990s, and after that I earned my Michelin star in 2003 from Hotel Bellevue’s modern Italian eatery Relais-Chateaux. Since 2013 I have been the executive chef at 10 Corso Como in Shanghai.

You said that you decided you were going to be a chef at 9 years old, could you tell us what made you want to be a chef?
When I was younger, my parents had to work every day, and the person looking after me in their absence was a chef. It was then that I started to learn how to cook. When I was fourteen, I first started to work in a restaurant.

Could you tell us your experience of earning the Michelin star?
It was very, very stressful; we worked from 7am to 1am every day, and I lost 25kg during that period. It is also really important to be creative, which I realized when I was working in a Michelin star restaurant in France. The experience blew my mind.

So you’ve worked at top restaurants and earned your own Michelin star, but what brought you to China?
A friend brought me to Shanghai. At the time I didn’t speak any Chinese, but I wanted to learn, because I knew it was a golden opportunity to share my creativity and passion for Mediterranean flavors.

Are Chinese customers hard to please? Do you adjust the taste for Chinese customers?
I don’t think they are hard to please. I always just ask them what they like to eat, or whether they have any allergies. One thing I do adjust in China: if they prefer softer pastas, I’ll add two minutes to the pasta cooking time.

What is your favorite Chinese food, and what would you pair with it?
I love Chinese food, not the overly spicy food though. I like gongbao jiding, and I like Peking duck a lot, of course. Peking duck goes especially well with Amarone Italian wine.

This article first appeared in our magazine. Read the rest of the Beijinger July/August issue here.