RENOWNED French culinary innovator Jean-George Vongerichten recently raised eyebrows by veering into Italian cooking and opening Mercato, a family-style Italian restaurant in Shanghai.

It's his second restaurant in China, after famed Jean Georges serving French cuisine with an Asian twist.

Both are located in Three on the Bund; Mercato opened last week on the sixth floor. Jean Georges is on the fourth floor.

Mercato, which means "market" in Italian, reflects changes in the famed restaurateur's thinking about food.

"Italian cuisine - from pizza, pasta to seafood - expresses a sense of relaxation, simple and easy. And this echoes my present food philosophy, less is more, which means turning food back to its nature, the ingredients," Vongerichten tells Shanghai Daily in a wide-ranging interview at Mercato, covering his philosophy, plans and management style.

Mercato's concept is everyday food for everyone served in family style. It's inspired by the Chinese style of dining, everyone sitting at one table and sharing, as well as his childhood memories of his mother cooking a big pot of food shared by the entire family.

Vongerichten operates many award-winning restaurants worldwide, notably Jean Georges New York, which has three Michelin stars and is inspired by integrating Asian approaches into classical French cooking. He has traveled widely in Asia and worked in Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong.

His signature cuisine abandons the traditional French use of meat stocks and creams and instead features intense flavors and textures from vegetable juices, fruit essences, light broths, herbal vinaigrettes and Asian seasonings.

Close the distance

In one corner of Mercato, a counter displays natural and colorful ingredients used, such as red finger chilies, rosemary, cherry tomatoes and other food. The chef says he aims to close the distance between food and diners and evoke the feeling of a European food market.

At Mercato, one can still find evidence of his Asian approach.

"From my first visit to Asia in 1980, taking my first bite of chili - for me it was like a flavor bomb - until today, my passion for chili never stops," the chef enthuses. He takes samples of chilies from his kitchen, some mild, some a little spicy, some very spicy. At Mercato chili is a key seasoning in almost every dish.

"Chili makes food sing," Vongerichten says.

The chef is not only a chef but also a best-selling food writer and, TV celebrity, appearing on various programs and also co-hosting "Kimchi Chronicles" with his wife Marja on American Public Broadcast System.

As an entrepreneur, Vongerichten manages 32 restaurants worldwide, 16 of which are joint ventures with the Starwood Hotels and Resorts. He is involved in every aspect of the restaurants, even architectural design.

"The identity I enjoy the most is still and will be the chef. No matter how busy I am, I spend 50 percent of the time in the kitchen creating or improving recipes," he says. "Then comes the designer. If I were not a chef, I would have been a designer."

For the interview with Shanghai Daily, Vongerichten arrived early in the morning.

"It's because natural light is better for displaying the whole design of the restaurant so that I can see whether everything is right, from the color decoration to the arrangement of dining tables and chairs," he says.

A successful restaurant is not just about delicious food, it's about everything, all the details, from architectural design to menu design. Music and service are also part of any success formula, he says.

But he also enjoys being an entrepreneur.

"It's totally different from being a chef," he says, noting that the entrepreneur sees the total dining experience and sees food more from the view of customers.

Every day at his New York headquarters, Vongerichten reads big restaurant review websites, checking the positive and negative comments of diners.

He pays a lot of attention to the comments of Shanghai customers posted on Dianping.com, China's largest restaurant review website. He gets an English translation from Lam Ming Kin, executive chef at Jean Georges Shanghai.

Some of his business decisions are not based on marketing figures and business reports, but on a purely personal feeling and intuition.

For example, he chose to open his second restaurant in Shanghai not Beijing, though the Shanghai market is close to saturation and Beijing is a relatively easier dining market with seemingly more potential.

"I know Beijing is a good choice. But, I naturally love Shanghai. It's a subtle but deep emotional connection. Probably, it's because Shanghai, especially the Bund and former French concession is more similar to my hometown in (Alsace) France," he says.

The man of many identities plans to add yet another in the near future, a cooking and restaurant management school, probably in Asia. It won't be a traditional culinary school.

"Besides basic cooking techniques, I will teach how to manage the kitchen and run a restaurant. The school will help ordinary cooks become a chef," he explains.

He also plans to open his own brand boutique hotel, giving him more creative space to interpret his concepts of hospitality.

"When coming to a restaurant, you spend at most four to five hours knowing Jean-Georges. But in a hotel, you have plenty of time to experience Jean-Georges completely from every aspect," he says.

In Jean Georges Shanghai's first four years from 2004 to 2008, it received overwhelmingly positive food reviews and considerable praise in general. In recent years, however, there's been some criticism.

Two chefs who once worked there tell Shanghai Daily they have seen a decline in food quality and service. They decline to be quoted by name.

"Compared with their new menus, I prefer the classical menu," says Daisy Ding, who represents many loyal customers.

"Customers' experience of food and service are subjective. What I can say is the restaurant's business report tells another story," Vongerichten says.

Last year's revenue was the highest ever and 2012's first half-year report set a record, he says.

He says he understands why some diners prefer the classical menu. "That's why I provide two menus, new and classical, in every one of my restaurants." The classics were created over 17 years and earned the Michelin stars.

"It's the DNA of the restaurant, the reasons my customers come back. It's just like women's fashion. Now matter how frequently they change their style or color of clothes, there's always a classical black or white one-piece dress in their wardrobe," he says.

More confidence

But he admits that running restaurants in Shanghai is much more difficult and demanding than when he started out because the competition is fierce. "I have more confidence than anxiety," he says. "Competition comes with an increasingly mature market."

Most vegetables in Mercato and Jean George are from local organic farms. Even the mozzarella and burrata cheese can be made locally using imported cow's milk.

Today Shanghai can compete with world dining capitals such as New York and Paris, he says.

What makes a great chef?

Vongerichten says he did not have natural cooking talent or an unusual palate. Before 16, he had never considered being a chef.

"However, I found myself with a natural ability of pleasing people at the age of six," he says. His parents and siblings often asked him to arrange birthday parties since he was good at combining food, music and decor to entertain guests.

"From age 13 to 15, my job was both DJ and entertainer of all my family parties held in our basement," he adds.

That's the talent that enabled him to rise to the top.

"I enjoy seeing customers eating my food with a smile," he says.

Last week, Vongerichten was standing in his new restaurant, Mercato, carefully observing the expressions on diners' faces.

When he hires staff, he looks for stable personality.

"When I interview an applicant, I observe whether he's placid with stable emotions, which is a basic presumption for pleasing others. For a cook, mood changes will undoubtedly be finally reflected through the dish, and this breaks the consistency that is key to a restaurant's reputation," he says.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Owner of Jean-Georges and Mercato, from France
Q: What was the key cooking moment?
A: In 1980, I tasted ginger and chili for the first time. It was a flavor explosion, totally reversing my imagination of food. It's the turning point that has formed my own culinary style.

Q: The most embarrassing kitchen moment?
A: The most embarrassing moment accidentally turned into success. It's the story behind Jean Georges chocolate cake. I was doing a banquet for 500 people, and 500 pieces of hot chocolate brownies were pulled out from the oven too soon. Presto, the liquid chocolate center oozed across the plate. The failed cake tasted incredibly nice. Therefore, I created JG chocolate.

Q: What do you usually cook for yourself?
A: Instant noodles, my favorite food on the plane.

Ingredients:
4 slices of sourdough bread; 3 tablespoons of Sriracha (type of Thai hot sauce) mayonnaise (recipe follows); 8 ounces of picked lump crab meat (preferably peekytoe, picked over for bits of shell); crushed red chili flakes (optional); 1 lemon (cut into wedges)

Sriracha mayonnaise
1 large egg yolk; 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 3/4 cup grape-seed or other neutral oil; 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice; 2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce

Steps:

For mayonnaise:
1. Whisk together the yolk, mustard and salt until well blended.
2. Continue whisking while adding the oil in a slow, steady stream to emulsify the mixture.
3. Whisk in the lemon juice and Sriracha until well blended. The mayonnaise can be refrigerated for up to two days.

For crab toast:
1. Toast the bread until golden brown. Cut each slice into 2-inch pieces.
2. Gently fold the mayonnaise into the crab meat until well mixed.
3. Spoon the crab mixture into a serving bowl and set inside a larger bowl filled with ice to keep cold if desired.
4. Garnish with chili flakes if desired.
5. Serve with the lemon wedges and toast.