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Mixing regional Italian flavors and textures
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LA Scala is not a typical hotel dining room yet its urban sophistication lures both hotel guests and city diners alike.
It is a multisensory experience in every way, from the ultra chic interior designed by award-winning design firm Neri & Hu, the open kitchen showcasing the chefs’ performance and flair to its seasonal creations.
The 88-seat restaurant is decked out with hand-glazed ceramic tiles, teakwood parquet flooring and hanging lights framed by gridded wood columns, with Christian de Laubadere’s Renaissance-inspired painting “Seduction in Venice” as the focal point.
Opened in May inside The Sukhothai Shanghai, La Scala is a pleasant new addition to the city’s Mediterranean food scene. It’s led by Michelin-starred guest chef Theodor Falser and Chef de Cuisine Stefano Sanna, who put emphasis on crafting creative Italian dishes that prize authenticity, refined quality and sustainability.
“We believe in sustainability and that’s what this restaurant’s all about. We are different basically from the ingredients; we respect and use every part of the product and we don’t waste anything,” Sanna said.
Aside from the creative use of ingredients, Sanna said with the essence of Italian cuisine as the base, the kitchen has applied a slightly different cooking method to risotto and pasta as most locals prefer softer textures.
Haling from Vogogna in Piedmont with a mom from Calabria and father from Sardinia, Sanna brings different regional tastes, such as handmade cappellacci pasta filled with calamari, eggplant, buffalo ricotta, tomato broth from his grandmother and handmade black tagliolini and Canadian lobster (208 yuan), a typical southern Sardinian dish.
He also recommends the signature fermented potato “foam,” smoked salmon, salmon roe, pork skin popcorn and red onion powder (118 yuan) where a mixture of cooking styles and textures is presented.
The smoothness of the foam, the creamy texture of the salmon, the crunchiness of the pork and the powder to give a bit of acidity that leads to the ultimate balance of texture and taste.
Grilled arctic char, salmon caviar, candied watermelon rind and watercress juice (268 yuan) is another perfect example of balancing tastes and the creative usage of unexpected parts of ingredients.
All the salads ingredients and vegetables are grown in their certified organic farm.
The a-la-carte menu is going to be updated this month as the season changes and guests will see more mushrooms and root vegetables.
“We can’t talk about food sustainability without seasonality,” Sanna said.
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