Jean-Georges Shanghai restaurant is known for its light and Asian-influenced style of French cuisine. [Photo by Hu Weiwei/China Daily]

By "fresh", the acclaimed chefs means "a restaurant of today", both for what diners put in their mouths and what they feast on with their eyes.

"The lifestyle has completely changed. People are less patient and like surprises. We are living in a new era of food," he says, admitting he has now also become used to "feeding the camera first"－a pre-meal ritual that's gone global but may be most popular in China, the Land of WeChat Moments.

Lighter tastes are preferred today, especially as people now dine out more often than before－sometimes six to eight times a week. But when people come back more often, he notes, there is more incentive to awaken their palates with new spices and flavors.

Vongerichten has always been known for his rather light and strongly Asian-influenced style of French cuisine, a result of his early professional experience in Thailand. Now, however, he says he is trying to make everything that comes with his name even lighter by using more vegetables, vegetable juice and vegetable broth. "I visit dairy stores less often", he jokes.

The recipe he's tailor-made for Shanghai is the madai, or red sea bream, freshly flown in from Tokyo markets just a two-hour flight away.